Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival post!" />

Coconut Flour Brownies – Queso Fresco – Plum Sauce (Tuesday Twister 8/4/09)

August 4, 2009 By 10 Comments
Haniya's 12th birthday
plum sauce made from local and organic plums
plum sauce made from local and organic plums
plum sauce stirred into kefir
plum sauce stirred into kefir
first homemade shreddable and melty cheese - queso fresco!
first homemade shreddable and melty cheese – queso fresco!
sauteed local zucchini and onions, topped with queso fresco
sauteed local zucchini and onions, topped with queso fresco
sauteed zucchini and pastured chicken
sauteed zucchini and pastured chicken
For me this week: Haniya's 12th birthday - I made my first experimen" data-site="GNOWFGLINS">

My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to food. So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in my kitchen this week!

Starting this week, the Tuesday Twister has turned into a blog carnival – go to see the official Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival post for this week and see what is twisting in GNOWFGLINS’ readers’ kitchens!

For me this week:

  • Haniya’s 12th birthday – I made my first experiment with coconut flour, to make her cake (brownies). I followed the brownie recipe at this website. Instead of sugar, I used date sugar. We really enjoyed the brownies, but I thought they ended up more like cake – drier than brownies and springy. Not the ooey gooey I wanted, but still good! We also had chocolate ice cream. I can’t believe my sweet girl is 12! Next year she’ll be a teenager. That’s a trip!
  • Plum Sauce – It is plum season and I’m in heaven. Next to tomatoes, oranges, and apricots, plums are favorites, too. The Lighthouse Bakery orchard grows the most awesome varieties of plums. My favorites are the Santa Rosa, but they’re not quite ripe. I don’t know what variety I got last week. They made an awesome raw plum sauce.
  • Kefir with Plum Sauce – Because of the hot weather, my kefir is ending up pretty thick after 24 hours. It makes a nice yogurt consistency, I think. I stir in a bit of the plum sauce and it is just like a fruit yogurt – so yummy!
  • Queso Fresco – I was inspired to try making raw goat milk queso fresco late last week and boy, am I glad! Even though I was far too distracted during the process and was late for practically every stage, the cheese turned out. It shreds and melts well. We enjoyed it for the first time, shredded (with my fine grater) on sauteed zucchini. The cheese temperature never got higher than 95 degrees, so it still is considered raw, and it aged in 3 days. I’ll definitely be making it again!
  • Sauteed Zucchini – I’m sure there are a million ways to saute vegetables. This is one of my favorites. In virgin coconut oil over medium heat, saute until the color turns bright but the veggie is still crunchy. Salt with homemade herbed seasoning salt. Here, we topped the sauteed (local) zucchini and onions with our first queso fresco. Delicious! My kids, who are not zucchini fans, even liked it. With it, I served pastured chicken cooked long and low in the crockpot.

So, that’s it for me – what’s twisting in your kitchen? To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post. During this first official week of the carnival, I will be hosting a homemade soap giveaway/drawing. See you there!

Haniya's 12th birthday
plum sauce made from local and organic plums
plum sauce made from local and organic plums
plum sauce stirred into kefir
plum sauce stirred into kefir
first homemade shreddable and melty cheese - queso fresco!
first homemade shreddable and melty cheese – queso fresco!
sauteed local zucchini and onions, topped with queso fresco
sauteed local zucchini and onions, topped with queso fresco
sauteed zucchini and pastured chicken
sauteed zucchini and pastured chicken
For me this week: Haniya's 12th birthday - I made my first experimen" data-site="GNOWFGLINS">
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Filed Under: Kitchen Notes
About Wardeh

Wardeh ('Wardee') Harmon lives in Oregon with her husband, Jeff, and their three children, Haniya, Naomi & Mikah. They garden and raise a dairy cow, chickens and goats. Wardeh is passionate about traditional cooking. She writes books and teaches online classes in traditional cooking, sourdough, cultured dairy, cheesemaking and fermentation. Follow Wardeh on Google+.

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Comments

  1. Wardeh says:
    August 4, 2009 at 6:00 am

    Just letting you know – you don’t enter the blog carnival here. :)

    This is my contribution to this week’s Tuesday Twister blog carnival. Feel free to comment on anything you see that I made this week, but to participate in the carnival, visit this post:

    http://gnowfglins.com/2009/08/04/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2009-08-04/

    Reply
  2. Marg says:
    August 4, 2009 at 7:29 am

    The cheese looks divine! Everything does! My kids aren’t zucchini fans either but I love it! The plum sauce looks very yummy, what are ways you use it?
    .-= Marg´s last blog post… Real Food Rustling =-.

    Reply
    • Wardeh says:
      August 4, 2009 at 7:38 am

      Marg – The plum sauce – right now we’re just having it stirred into kefir. In the past, we’ve put it on ice cream, or spread on muffins or biscuits, kind of anywhere you’d use jam. It is really yummy.

      Reply
  3. Michelle says:
    August 4, 2009 at 10:15 am

    I am curious about the goat cheese. A lady in our co-op has goats. I might get some goat milk from her, but I don’t think I’ll be making cheese.

    The plum sauce looks incredibly good. :)
    .-= Michelle´s last blog post… Twisted Kitchen =-.

    Reply
    • Wardeh says:
      August 4, 2009 at 10:35 am

      Michelle – The goat cheese is really, really good. What makes you curious? I hope you can try some of your friend’s milk!

      Sarah – Well, I understand about not getting into something. It is so hard to change routine and add something else into the mix. What I found out through my cheese experiences is that even though it seems complicated and precise, cheesemaking is forgiving and I’m thankful for that! So if you ever get into it – I think you’ll be surprised how satisfying and (somewhat) simple it is! :)

      Reply
  4. Sarah Schatz - menu planners for limited diets says:
    August 4, 2009 at 10:28 am

    HI Wardeh,
    Thanks for sharing your week! I am impressed by your cheese making. I would love to get into this. My husband even bought some cheese making books last summer but we never did it.

    I love making my own kefir too – I was using raw cow’s milk but would love to find a source of raw goat’s milk.

    Your “little” girl is beautiful! I look forward to trying some of the coconut flour recipes from that site…
    Sarah
    .-= Sarah Schatz – menu planners for limited diets´s last blog post… Tuesday Twister: Our weekly gluten-free, dairy-free, legume-free menu plan and the miracles of our garden =-.

    Reply
  5. Tiffany says:
    August 4, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    Amazing looking cheese.

    Reply
  6. Darla says:
    August 7, 2009 at 8:25 am

    Hi, i just found your blog and wanted to let you know that if you want wonderful coconut flour, almond flour, or completely flour free recipes, go to Elana’sPantry.com. I never had success with coconut flour until i tried her recipes and i’ve never had a failure since i’ve tried hers.

    Reply
    • Wardeh says:
      August 7, 2009 at 8:47 am

      Hi, Darla! Thanks for suggesting that! I have browsed through Elana’s Pantry – my only hurdle is that my son has an egg allergy and all of her recipes (that I saw) rely heavily on eggs. My son did not have a reaction to the brownies I made in this post though – and they had eggs. I did it as a test. So… perhaps that is a hurdle I don’t have to overcome any more. Still, I’ll go slowly so as not to overload him, if he is/has outgrown the allergy. I appreciate your recommendation of Elana’s recipes – it is good to hear from people who have tried and had success.

      Reply

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