Farmer's Market Fun

We LOVE the Farmer's Market here (we go to the Little Italy one). The farmers we frequent know us now and often treat us to extra eggs or a special item...you know like beef heart and chicken feet. We are the best egg customers at one stall and I was called "hard core" at the meat farmers, because I obviously bought enough to last the month. As she put it, most people don't buy all their meat straight from the farm and she said it with a thanks.

My helpers love to come and buy flowers and often ask for other special items like purple artichokes or fresh figs or honey sticks. It's always an adventure. I love being connected in this way to where our food comes from. Here's a feature (pg 24-26) on the folks who grow the eggs, chicken and rabbit that we get!

The double doll stroller is full of eggs and fresh herbs! See N's cute market basket?

Beautiful quail eggs...given as a gift.

Our haul that day way back in June.

Happy Birthday, Laurel!

 Our little sweetie, impetus for the GAPS Diet for our family, turned three this past week! She has such a strong and determined and sparkling personality - it is amazing and an honor to know her and to be her mother.

I love celebrating birthdays and milestones, and often celebrations involve food. That seems tricky when you are on a special diet, but does not have to be. Creativity and a celebratory spirit are what is needed!

Here is how we celebrated:

On her birthday she received three kisses from all of us in the morning. She found a special gift from her dragon friend, named Chou Chou. It was a beautiful green stone. The fairies left her a "3" that fits in wooden celebration ring on our table. She opened some gifts - a book (Goldilocks and the Three Bears), a bike bell, a ring. We had our morning juice and eggs.

At lunch we told the story of her birth. I wonder now if it was a coincidence that I went into labor with her in the produce department of the Skagit Valley Co-Op? We had homemade chicken/vegetable soup and sunflower sprout salad for dinner three hours before she was born. I  made a snack of red peppers and salami for Natalie to eat during the birth and labor was so fast I didn't even need to eat the honey sticks we had for energy.

We baked her GAPS friendly birthday cake in the afternoon. I used this recipe, for the cake and frosting. I did not use egg whites but added extra coconut milk to replace whites, used less honey for both cake and frosting and used the juice from half a beet to turn the frosting pink. Funnily enough this is her first birthday cake that looks like a birthday cake - previous years the cakes have been made with garbanzo bean flour and butternut squash "frosting." Put a candle on anything though and it is a celebration!

We went to the pool for an hour and came home to make the birthday girl's requested dinner: squash, beets, peas and eggs! While dinner cooked we made paper birthday crowns to wear, even some for the dolls.

We sang songs, opened some more gifts and took pictures. We shared the meal and the cake and L was most excited about the blueberries decorating it - sweet girl.

We continued our celebration later in the week with a simple gathering with our close friends from down the street. The children played outside, the adults talked and played and blew up balloons. We served chicken, squash, broccoli and the Vitamix made a wonderful mango coconut ice cream. Popped a candle in L's dish and sang her happy birthday. It is amazing the silence ice cream can bring on a summer night.

Happy birthday, sweet Laurel!

A French Inspired Dinner - Ratatouille and Cherry Clafoutis

Last week when I made eggplant lasagna I thought I was going to use a lot of eggplant, so I bought three.  I ended up only needing one.  That left me in the predicament of figuring out what to do with the extra eggplant.  Lying in bed the other night, it struck me - I'd make ratatouille.

Ratatouille is thick vegetable type stew that can be eaten hot or cold, as an appetizer with bread or as part of a meal with chicken or fish.  I have only made ratatouille once before and that was 12 years ago in France when my sister and I were staying for a few weeks at the home of our aunt's friends who had a daughter our age.  I vividly remember making the dish, cooking the vegetables in batches, stripping the thyme leaves from their woody stems and peeling off the skins of the fresh tomatoes, but I couldn't really remember at all what it actually tastes like. 

So with ratatouille in my mind I decided to make a whole French themed Sunday dinner out of it - with a roasted chicken and a clafouti for dessert!

Clafoutis is a french country dessert that is basically an thin pancake-type batter that is poured over fruit and baked in the oven until it is golden brown on the top.  Traditionally, it is made with cherries, but other stone fruits or even peaches/pears/apples would work well too. I went with the traditional cherry and it actually came out pretty amazing. I also used real butter in this dish - I am moving forward with introducing dairy into my diet and that is the first step.  It has been about 18 months since I last had butter and I forgot how amazing it tastes. 

First the Ratatouille -

Ratatouille
3 medium zucchini
2 small eggplant (I used the light purple Italian eggplants)
2 peppers (one red, one yellow)
2 large tomatoes
1 onion
14 oz jarred tomatoes (I use Eden Organics)
3 cloves garlic (or more if you like)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Bay leaf
Basil
Thyme

Chop eggplant and zucchini in cubes and set in a colander.  Sprinkle with salt and let stand as you chop the remaining vegetables.  Pat dry any moisture that has released from the zucchini and eggplant. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and saute just the zucchini and eggplant until tender, about 5 minutes, remove from the pan and set aside.  Add a little more oil to the pan and saute the onions and peppers for a few minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes, jarred tomatoes and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes then add the zucchini and eggplant back into the pan along with the seasoning and herbs.  Let simmer on low heat for about an hour.



Cherry Clafoutis - I based my recipe on this one attached. 

4 large eggs
1 cup coconut milk (homemade - dried, unsweetened coconut flakes, water, salt blended in Vitamix)
3 dates
1/3 cup almond flour (not homemade, I am lazy)*
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 cup frozen cherries
1 tablespoon butter*


Preheat oven to 325°F.  Put the butter in your casserole dish and place in the oven to melt while you prepare the custard.  Put the coconut milk and three dates into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the eggs, almond flour, vanilla and spices to the blender and mix until incorporated. Remove the warmed casserole dish from the oven and swirl to coat the bottom with butter.  Pour in the custard and place the cherries throughout the custard.  Bake for 40-45 minutes until the center is set and the top is brown.  Clafoutis can be served warm or chilled - it is good either way.

*This recipe could probably be made with a few tablespoons of coconut flour instead of the almond and coconut oil or ghee for the butter.