Tag Archives: holiday

Classic Ricky

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This is a super simple cocktail. With the rich orange flavor of Cointreau, balanced with tart lime or lemon juice, and topped off with some sparkling water, it’s a great holiday drink to serve!

classic ricky drink blog

Ingredients

  • 2 oz Cointreau
  • 1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
  • 4 oz Club Soda

Directions

  • Pour Cointreau and fresh lime juice into a glass and add ice.
  • Top with club soda and stir.
  • Garnish with a lime and orange zest.

Thanks Cointreau for the recipes and bartending tips!

dit-elle-Esther

Winter Squash and Apple Galette

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This week I’m featuring two recipes using winter squash and apples! Today a Galette (French for a flat round pastry or bread) and on Thursday, check back for Winter Squash and Apple Soup. These dishes are excellent served together as a meal or as separate dishes! I made these for lunch recently when we were having one of the first damp, cold and rainy days here in Seattle. It was a wonderful meal to cheer up the day. 🙂

This is a great recipe for leftover roasted squash since you do need to cook it before putting into the shell here, but it is otherwise quick and easy to assemble!

winter squash and apple pie (2) winter squash and apple pie (1)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound winter squash – peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
  • 1/2 apple – halved, cored and cut into thin wedges
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (or parmesan works great as well)
  • 1 prepared pie crust (I use a gluten free version)
  • 1 egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon water (for egg wash)

Preparation

  • Preheat oven to 400° F.
  • Toss squash with oil, salt and pepper. Roast in oven until tender, about 20 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add apples and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat; toss with squash and blue cheese.
  • Place pie crust flat on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Mound squash mixture in the middle of crust, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold border over filling, pleating the edge (the center will be open). Brush edges with egg wash.
  • Bake until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into wedges before serving.

Super Mom Tip: 1) Use leftover baked squash and save a step! 2) Don’t have time to work on the pleating and egg washing the crust? I didn’t either. I just tossed the filling and baked it in the crust and voila! I’m sure it tastes just as good!

Thanks to and inspired by the recipe on PCC Natural Markets!

dit-elle-Esther

Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese Dates

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What’s better than Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates and Bacon Wrapped Dates? Throw all those ingredients together and make Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese Dates! 🙂 These are so tasty, and a perfect dish for the upcoming holiday season! I like to serve these as an appetizer, or together with a light soup like a squash, mushroom or other mild soup!

bacon wrapped dates with goat cheese (1)

Ingredients

  • 12 dates, pitted
  • 6 strips of bacon, cut in half
  • small block of goat cheese
  • Fresh thyme as garnish (optional)

Directions

  • Stuff dates with goat cheese
  • Wrap one 1/2 slice of bacon around tightly
  • Bake for ~20 minutes at 400 degrees or until bacon is crispy and starting to turn brown

Enjoy!

dit-elle-Esther

Dark Chocolate Covered Figs with Sea Salt

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I recently posted about my fig tree. I finally had a chance to dip some of the figs in chocolate. Something about the combination of juicy ripe figs, dark sweet chocolate and sea salt.. amazing! These were SO yummy!

chocolate covered fig

This fig had just been dipped. As soon as you set these in the fridge to cool the chocolate will harden and set with a matte finish. 🙂

Ingredients

  • 12 figs, rinsed and dry
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (I used 1/2 and 1/2 dark and sem-sweet chunks)
  • Sea salt for garnish

Directions

  • Put chocolate in a bowl and microwave for ~1 minute or until melted
  • Stir chocolate with a spoon to even out consistency
  • Dip figs in chocolate
  • Place on parchment paper covered cookie sheet and sprinkle some sea salt on
  • Set in fridge to cool
  • Enjoy! 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

Orange Cake

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This is a totally delicious cake! Eat it for breakfast or dress it up for high tea or dessert! You can enjoy this as is for paleo goodness, or add an optional sweet and citrusy glaze to make it even more amazing!

Though I haven’t tried it, Elana (from Elanaspantry.com) says there’s a Starbucks version out there that tastes just like this one.

The one tricky part of this recipe is that you have to boil oranges for 90 minutes. So plan ahead. The oranges are low maintenance while cooking, but keep an eye so you don’t run out of water. As an extra bonus, your house will be filled with a refreshing and natural citrusy aroma! 🙂

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Ingredients

  • 2 oranges
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup agave nectar or honey (original recipe says 3/4 cup)
  • 2 cups blanched almond flour
  • 1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Glaze (optional)

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
  • 1/2 orange, thinly sliced for decoration

Instructions

  • Wash the oranges and boil them whole (peel and all) for 1 ½ hours, or until soft
  • Place whole oranges (peel and all) in a food processor and blend until smooth
  • Process in eggs, agave, almond flour, salt and baking soda until well blended
  • Pour batter into a greased 9 inch cake pan
  • Bake at 375° for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean
  • Cool in the pan for 2 hours
  • Make glaze by working orange juice into powdered sugar. You can add more/less liquid to get desired consistency. Pour onto cake and even out with spatula. Decorate with optional orange slices.
  • Enjoy or refrigerate for a few days (if you can keep from eating it up)! 🙂

Thanks for the inspiration Elanaspantry.com!

dit-elle-Esther

Red, White and Blueberry Popsicles

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These popsicles were inspired by our favorite summer ingredients – strawberries, blueberries, coconut milk! This is a great project for kids to help with. Getting molds ready, selecting ingredients, sampling the flavors! Have fun! 🙂

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Ingredients

Red

  • 1 cup strawberries
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • add some water if too thick

White

  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Blue

  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • add some water if too thick

Directions

  • Blend individual popsicle batches and pour into molds in layers. And yes, layers may bleed a little (but this is the quickest way to do this!) and hey, give a pretty marbled effect! 🙂

There is another version using berries/water/honey on Elana’s Pantry that is worth checking out also! http://elanaspantry.com/red-white-and-blueberry-popsicles/

dit-elle-Esther

Cranberry Jalapeno Granita

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A deliciously refreshing icy dessert for hot summer days (or Christmas holiday season). The Jalapeno adds a bit of heat (you can remove the seeds for a milder taste), so this is not really a kid dessert. Someone mentioned topping oysters on the half shell with this spicy-sweet ice, but I have not been that brave yet. 🙂

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups cranberry juice cocktail
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 4 mint sprigs
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, slices
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions

  • Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to boil
  • Cover and remove from het, let stand for 15 minutes
  • Strain cranberry mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a baking dish, discard solids
  • Cool to room temperature, stir in lime juice
  • Cover and freeze.
  • Once frozen, remove mixture from freezer and scrape with a fork until fluffy
  • Serve and enjoy with a mint sprig for garnish

dit-elle-Esther

Easter Egg Science Project

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In preparation for Easter this weekend we did an Easter Egg science project! We used bright c

olored fruits and vegetables to dye hardboiled eggs. We tried onion skins, turmeric, blueberries, red cabbage and beets. Ava and Anders dipped and turned the eggs to make sure they were covered with liquid. They also decided when to take the eggs out or keep them in the dye if we thought they needed some more time! It was an awesome DIY kid project.. just make lots of hard boiled eggs because there were definitely some smashed eggs! 🙂

Ava showed up to the party in her usual preferred attire.. swimsuit. This girl is ready for summer.

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Ingredients

  • Hardboiled eggs
  • Onion skins
  • Turmeric, you can use the fresh root or dried ground powder
  • Beets
  • Blueberries
  • Red cabbage
  • White vinegar

Directions

  • I’m sure there’s more of a science behind this and there are a ton of resources online for naturally dyed Easter eggs, but for us this was more of an art than science.. here’s what we did.
  • I boiled some beets and saved the liquid – pretty pink!
  • Microwaved frozen blueberries with some water and mashed them with a fork – gorgeous robin egg blue
  • Boiled onion skins (just peel off the outer dry golden layer of skin) – golden yellow color
  • Boiled some grated fresh turmeric root – this yielded a beautiful orange
  • Boiled some red cabbage and saved the liquid – this was the faintest color – didn’t do much for our dyeing project.
  • We put each of the dyes on bowls and stirred in a tablespoon of vinegar
  • Then we submerged boiled eggs in the liquid and let it soak for between 2-10 minutes
  • We watched the eggs turning color and made observations on what the colors were.
  • Voila! Beautiful Easter eggs

dit-elle-Esther

Raw “Tapioca” Pudding

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Blog chia tapioca pudding

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (raw) cashews
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  • pinch celtic sea salt
  • ¼ cup chia seeds
  1. Place the cashews and water in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth
  2. Blend in the agave, vanilla, almond extract and salt
  3. Place the chia seeds in a large mason jar (½ gallon size), pour the cashew mixture into the jar and shake well (very well!) – or just whisk well in a bowl.
  4. Place in the refrigerator overnight
  5. Serve

Serves 4

Thanks Elana’s Pantry!

dit-elle-Esther

Raspberry Coconut Bonbons

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Love the Dark Chocolate Covered Mint Ice Cream Hearts I posted on Tuesday? So did I! 🙂 But my kids were not too keen on the mint flavor and I don’t give them dark chocolate.. intentionally. 😉 So we made this into a fun kid project where they did the scooping and pouring and I did the blending. Both kids participated and were both very engaged in the process of measuring, stirring and “organizing” ingredients. I dipped half of the batch in chocolate for the grown-ups and left half as is for the kids. Happy kids, happy mommy! Blog paleo ice cream bon bons-5 Blog paleo ice cream bon bons-4 Blog paleo ice cream bon bons-3 Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup cashew nuts/pieces, soaked overnight in cold water
  • 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 cup raspberries
  • 1-2 Tbsp agave syrup
  • 2 tablespoons coconut milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup dark chocolate + 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted, to coat (optional)

Directions

  • Drain and rinse soaked cashews and add to a blender along with all the other ingredients, except the chocolate. Blend on high for about a minute, or until really smooth.
  • Pour into silicone muffin trays (oiled with a little coconut oil), or regular metal trays lined with paper cases. Freeze to set for at least 30 minutes.
  • Remove patties from the molds and place back into the freezer on a tray while melt the chocolate.
  • Dip patties in melted chocolate, covering thoroughly and place on a sheet of parchment paper.
  • Once they’ve all been covered, return the lot to the freezer for 5 minutes or more to set. They will keep in a covered container in the freezer for 2-3 weeks.

dit-elle-Esther