I wanted to love you but sorry I only like you.

When you are in love, research has shown that a large part of the cerebral cortex which is responsible for judgement and reasoning is deactivated to the point where you do stupid things. It can be argued that the same thing happens when one is inebriated. In my case it's just my innate weirdness gene and neither of the aforementioned that made me decide to grow my own mint for the sole purpose of making my own mojitos.




Years ago, my good friend D introduced me to the mojito and I fell in love. Unfortunately, it isn't very often that I find a place that serves mojitos due to the fact that fresh mint is only sporadically available here - if at all.

Finding a mint plant was easy. The garden shops have a good supply of a few varieties, spearmint, chocolate mint, ordinary mint. Growing it is not so hard. It doesn't do well in our full Caribbean sun. It seems to prefer filtered light and doesn't like it when the soil dries out. Water well. It bounces back easily from periods of drought i.e when you have forgotten to water it.






Why then is this a post about ice-cream and not a highball glass, beaded with condensation from a lovely cold mojito? In short, dear friends, I do not own a muddler. In the event that you even care about my mojito dilema let me describe one for you. As much as I am tempted to use the term to describe a particular Minister who sought to defend his Ministry's purchase of a 2 million dollar flag - a muddler is not a politician. Even if said politician attempted to clarify for the public that the flag itself only cost $18,000 and the design and engineering of the pole could not be considered to be part of the cost of the flag, but was a separate cost entirely. Mr. Minister further muddled the issue by suggesting that citizens should not protest the asstronomical cost (not a typo). Instaed we should rejoice with the national pride that this flag was meant to inspire. Befuddled are we?

Let me clarify.

This is a muddler
Yes you may consider gifting me with one. (D are you listening?)



This is NOT a muddler (though it may behave like one)


As much as one is tempted to think otherwise - a muddler is in fact a doohicky that one uses to bruise the leaves to releases the oils of the mint into your drink. In my quest to become my own mojito barrista, I discovered that processing mint leaves in a blender does not work. Also, your loved ones will not tell you that you have leaf bits stuck between your teeth, preferring instead to make jokes to get you to smile even more.


Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-cream

2 1/2 cups light cream, half-and-half or milk (whole or skim), or a combination

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

3 cups of fresh mint leaves (not stems), rinsed, drained, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 quarter cups chocolate chips

1. Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with 2 cups cream, half-and-half or milk, in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat until just steaming (do not let boil), remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Reheat the mixture until steaming add the sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 more minutes.

2. Strain the milk cream mixture into a bowl, pressing against the mint leaves with a wooden spoon to get the most liquid out of them. Return the milk cream mixture to the saucepan. In a bowl, blend cornstarch with remaining 1/2 cup cream, half-and-half or milk; there should be no lumps. Add cornstarch mixture to pot. Cook, stirring, until it starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in vanilla extract.

3. If mixture has lumps, strain it into a bowl. Chill until cool, When cooled, pour into an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add chocolate chips according to the manufacturers instructions - usually in the last 10 - 5 mins of churning.

Yield: 1 generous pint. ( A pint is only 2 cups!)

Okay so for the ice-cream I consulted with my BIFF (Best Internet Friend's for life) Mark Bittman, David Lebovitz and Elise Bauer. Awwright, Awwright so these people don't actually know that I exist but I visit their sites often enough. Funny how social networking has legitimized stalking. Anyway my BIFFS inspire me with their recipes and I am in awe of their curiosity about and skill with food. These guys have such a large following of fans, that I am a little bit afraid to be anything less than adoring. Still, friends tell friends the truth don't they? So here is how our conversation went....

Elise says, "The taste of the ice cream using fresh mint really is out of this world, so if you can get your hands on fresh mint, I highly recommend using it for this ice cream."

Wizzy: " Elise, now you know you are my girl and fresh ingredients are usually best but in this instance I prefer my home-made not gourmet so it's peppermint oil for my ice-cream the next time.

Dav-ee-d says: Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan (the milk will be a lovely shade of emerald.)

Wizzy: Dav-ee-d. Mah boy! I hope jewlery is not on your signifiant other's christmas list! No it doesn't.

David: W - ee -zy, I don't want to say that you are culinary challenged but maybe maybe your mint was just a little bit chlorophyll challenged.


Robin Lee : It couldn't only be for me that eating fresh mint ice cream killed the desire to eat the regular stuff that I grew up on ever again.

Wizzy: Girlfriend, I tried to go there with you and Dav-ee-d. You are my BIFF after all. Sadly it was not to be. Fresh mint tastes like grass. Fresh minty grass but there is the unmistakable grass flavour which in my very unimportant opinion ( only have 45 followers ) while you no doubt have thousands. is just so wrong in any dessert.

Wizzy: Marcos, your cornstarch recipe liberated me from the drama that was pudding. thanks but I'll not be taking you up on that offer for ice-cream at your house. Your cornstartch recipe has made me a star man but a pint cannot be descibed as generous. It's just two cups, man.


A muddler I need a mojitoegineering of the pole and twhea dohicky used to here Such was my love for the drink that I decided to for months after I ( maybe in part due to insobriety)I'll admit but I was smite to the point where. Yes I decided to ot due to insobrietyin love (n but One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.. Why do I grow my own mint?

When Bread is Not the Staff of Life

Can you imagine a life without bread ? The history of bread goes back to ancient times and anthropologists tell us that wheat has been cultivated by man since before recorded history. The ancient Greeks and Romans ate bread as a staple food. The Lord's prayer asks God to "Give us this day our daily bread" - the bread here symbolizing moral sustenance as well as satisfying physical need. If there is one food unites the world it is a love and appreciation for bread. Be it leavened or unleavened all cultures consume some version of this food; in Jamaica there is a Hard Dough bread; Barbados, has Salt Bread; Guyanese, love their tennis Rolls, British Virgin Islands has Dumb Bread while Trinidadians crave Hops bread and Roti in it's various forms. If there is one food that the world can agree upon, it is the love and appreciation of bread in all forms.

So what happens if you are allergic to wheat the fundamental ingredient in bread?

As a mom, it's my job to stay informed and make the best dietary decisions possible for my family. This is even more important when someone in your family has a food allergy.

Although he was breastfed for 10 months, we realized early on that Little Bear had problems digesting his food. I had to eliminate all peas and beans from my diet as they made him uncomfortable and gassy. Certain foods also aggravated his eczema. It was difficult to pin down exactly which foods in my diet were the culprits and for the first year we struggled to determine the likely offenders. A few thousand dollars in doctors bills and dietary adjustments later we have determined that he is sensitive to tomatoes, melongene (eggplant), ochros (okra) and gluten. Gluten causes the most severe reaction. Not only does it flare up his eczema but he also gets allergy like sniffles and painful tummy cramps. His stomach gets rock hard. He screams for hours and is inconsolable.

Celiac Disease is a digestive tract disorder. When people with celiac disease eat foods which contain gluten, it creates an adverse reaction that damages the small intestine so that nutrients from food are not properly absorbed. While his doctor hasn't diagnosed celiac disease, we have been advised to keep his diet gluten free (for now anyway). My fingers are crossed that it will be as the doctor says and he may very well outgrow this sensitivity. In the meantime I have set about learning about gluten free food so that I can feed Little Bear stuff that doesn't make him ill and cause him pain. I am trying to remain hopeful that as he grows and his digestive system matures, things will work themselves out.

It is a challenge to maintain a gluten free diet because gluten is the protein found in wheat, oatmeal*, barley and rye. Wheat is the fundamental ingredient in bread; a food so universally important in the diet of so many cultures it has been described as the staff of life? But what if you are allergic to this staple food and all the other foods made with wheat flour like , pies, pizza, pastries, cookies, cakes, roti, doubles, dumplings, pasta, macaroni pie, noodles, lasagna, fried chicken, muffins, and pancakes? And those are only the obvious gluten containing foods.

More difficult to avoid is the 'hidden' gluten that is often present in commercially prepared foods. Wheat flour is often used in processed foods as a binder, emulsifier, and a filler. Here are are some foods which may be a source of hidden gluten: sausages, luncheon meat, soy sauce, snacks, malt and malted milk, icings, baking powder, some curry powder powders, some types of cocoa, some seasonings where flour is used as a flow agent, Ovaltine, Milo, baked beans (there may be gluten in the tomato sauce), textured vegetable protein, yogurt, chewing gum, potato chips, popcorn, ice cream cones, beverage mixes some pharmaceuticals and even some toothpastes.


Initially it was easy to avoid gluten because in the Caribbean we are blessed with a wide variety of starchy foods that can be substituted for cereal. Little Bear's first foods were primarily porridges of sweet potatoes, eddoes, tannia, dasheen, breadfruit, green figs, yams, and cassava. Many parents today start their babies on rice cereal followed by barley, oatmeal and wheat. It is easy to forget that this is a fairly new dietary change brought on by our convenience food culture. These cereals do not grow here and have only recently become staples. Many West Indians still choose to start baby on our fresh, local foods which are nutritionally superior than anything coming out of a box that was packed with preservatives and shipped halfway around the world. Listen I am not saying I don't keep a box of baby rice cereal flakes in the cupboard for emergencies but for the most part I don't find it at all difficult to boil a root vegetable and smash it with a fork with a bit of milk.

Little Bear is a 'big' boy now and the proud owner of 4 spanking new teeth. These teeth need substance. No more mushy mush for those bad boys. Biting (not always food related) is almost an obsession with him. I suppose chewing will come later. Sigh. At times it's alarming the huge chunks of food that he bites into and swallows without chewing. He bites everything. Furniture, toys, his clothes, paper, a grasshopper ( well almost - we got to poor Jiminy in the nick of time).

Time for some toast so small man can gnaw his way to biting nirvana. I used the only gluten free flour available to me, Doves Farms flour Gluten and Wheat Free Brown Bread Flour. At $7Us it's not cheap. I have made this twice and both times it produced a dense loaf with a depression in the middle. I am a bit puzzled by the picture of the well risen, loaves shown on the Doves Farm site since mine sagged in the middle. The recipe on the website mentions that the dough should be pressed inwards and upwards to form a domed top. I did not do this as it was not mentioned on recipe on the the package of flour. So maybe that's the reason. In any case the center depression in my loaf makes it look like the bread is smiling when you cut it, don't you think? It has a nice crust but the texture is rubbery. If you don't expect this to taste like bread then you won't be disappointed with the flavour, which isn't off putting. It's just very bland. Think of it as a delivery method for your sandwich fixings. If I was gluten intolerant it would be an acceptable substitute for a sandwich but I can't see myself rushing to eat a warm buttery slice of this bread straight from the oven. It's not bread; just an acceptable substitute.

Gluten Free Bread
16 oz Brown bread flour (Doves Farms)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Quick yeast
2 tbs Sugar
12 floz warm milk
1 tsp vinegar
2 eggs
6tbps oil

Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. In a large bowl beat in the milk, vinegar and eggs. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough. ( Looks wet and spongy). Continue mixing adding the oil. Place the dough in an oiled 2 lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40- 45 mins 425 degres F


*Oats on their own do not contain gluten. However, they are not gluten free because of the potential for contamination during growing and processing.





My fingers are crosseddecision possible, but it's irritating when you wonder if your server really knows if there is a dollop of cream, or butter in your dishWe dined out often when my first son was a toddler Beers brewwed the tradiyonal way contain gluten .roti! doubles, pizza, fried chicken. Great but eating out I don't Just to be sure I called up gfree


Chefs are not dieticians but ceratinly restaurants have a responsibility to be knowlegedebale about food allegies and knowlege of ingredients so as to guide inform patrons food choices. I onnec had a friend end up in the Er shelfish allery. It turns out that cross contamination occured when the cutting board used to prepare her dish had been used earlier to prep shrimp.
A call to one of the country's ptremier restaurants revealed the extent of
Good evening. Do you offer any gluten free meal options on your menu.
Uhmm gluten free. Everything in this restaurant is gluten free.
uhhh huh. Yes mam please hold while I check that wit the chef for you.
The chef assures me that he doesn't cook with gluten and everything is gluten free. . Do you serve pasta? Yes we do.

I'm already frustrated at how little servers know about the food they are serving. I haven't even dined out that often with our little boy, )

You do know that pasta contains gluten
Does it?
Thanks for your help good evening.

Tips fpr dining out. Okay then.

Clearly
my favourite restaurant

It's been a while since I penned a blog entry for this site and it's been something I've missed. I intended to post something in June, but the gluten-Gods had something else in mind for me, and on June 20th I was seriously gluten-poisoned while eating out at an Italian restaurant - and have been suffering the serious physical and mental consequences ever since.

As much as I love home-cooking, I certainly also enjoy a nice meal out and the social life that usually accompanies dining outside the home. Since being diagnosed as a celiac disease nine years ago, I've learned to navigate through many restaurants safely and with confidence, yet on the other hand, there have also been many times when the message of cooking gluten-free was not properly transmitted from server to chef, and I've paid the serious price for their lack of awareness via a very sick body.

This past incident, however, has made me really angry and that's not like me - but when a restaurant so blatantly goes to great lengths to advertise and serve homemade gluten-free pastas on their menu, in my opinion, they are announcing that they have not only the understanding but the full awareness of exactly what gluten-free food preparation entails - this was so sadly not my experience on that lovely June evening. In fact, I went to great lengths to speak with the restaurant staff, and server five times from when the reservation was made on line, to a phone call, and throughout my meal. What more can a paying Celiac customer do to ensure their safety?

As it turns out, the special gluten-free pasta that I ordered ahead of time was then prepared with a basil cream sauce that was mixed with wheat flour, and then poured all over my delicious pasta and served to me. I instinctively asked the server as the beautiful plate of too-good-to-be-true pasta was placed in front of me, "okay so this meal is 100% gluten-free, correct?"...."Yes, enjoy!"....I was told.

It's this kind of negligence, and lack of understanding about how Celiacs and gluten-intolerant folks truly have to eat to ensure safety, that really incenses me.

I'm sure there are many of you out there who have experienced similar situations, and hopefully survived to tell about it. Our voices need to be heard and in my opinion when gluten contamination of food in a restaurant happens, it's not simply a stomach ache that ensues...there are serious symptoms involved that restaurants all across this nation need to be educated about. It's really a matter of life and death.

Malt vinegar Outcast outsider Please God don't let my baby have celiac disease. Other food allergies Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad. with themit is understandable that breakfats is a bit of a challenge. It would be nice to break up the monontony of breakfast with the occaisiona l sandwich, or pancake or muffin. i had to look for agluten free bread for sandwiches, pancakes
Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad.

At 4500 for of flour that yields two breads! Ouch it's a good thing he is the only one eating them Here is my bread lover opinion. Do not expect it to taste like bread. It has anice crust but the tecture The texture is somewhat rubbery.

This is my second attempt at this bread and bothe times the results were tthe same. NOw he eats from the family meals. I have struggled with finding a bread substiturewas especially frustrating since and we have to wait untilmost time

America has Julia we have Sylvia

Perfect crumb
not to heavy not to light.

Power to Purslane and a Profesor

You know that nasty weed that keeps popping up all over the garden? Well I ate it! Just so you know and in case you find me on the floor foaming at the mouth you'll know what to tell them in the ER.

Let me start at the beginning. I'm not much of a gardener but I do love growing things. A few months ago, I came across some packets of seeds that must have been at least 2 years old. I wasn't at all optimistic about them sprouting but on the off chance that they might, I planted them in some seed flats. After 3 weeks, I was very excited to see that my seeds had sprouted. Wow! I really did not expect it and so many of them too. Hoorah! I diligently watered my sprouts.

As time went by and the first true leaves started to form, I grew suspicious. My tomato seedlings looked the same as my eggplant, which looked a lot like my peppers and so on. Huh? Darn it! They were weeds and they were every where. They were in between my flowers, in my pots, in amongst my herbs . and even in the cracks of the garden path. Once a month I engaged in the seemingly pointless activity of pulling them out only to have them return - as weeds are want to do - winking at me with little, yellow-flower eyes.

One day I was hanging out on a recipe forum when a woman in France posted a photo of a lovely salad. I blinked twice and stared. The greens on her plate looked a lot like my weeds!

Holy Cow! I had an epiphany. I ran outside and looked at my weeds. Those yellow flowers winked at me but this time I winked back! Then I headed indoors to dream up recipes for their demise.

Three months later I still hadn't tried them. I wasn't brave enough. Two Caribbean plant books contained illustrated drawings and botanical descriptions of what looked like my weed. I read long winded descriptions of leaf shape and pattern, something about ovate, ovoid, spatulate leaves blah, blah, blah. There was a lot of 'to-ing and fro-ing' on my part, to the glossary and main text. Eventually I did what any right minded thinking person would do. I called a perfect stranger on a Sunday afternoon and asked. "There is a weed in my yard, can I eat it? "

Professor Julian Kenny is considered an authority on biodiversity in Trinidad and Tobago. He was a lecturer and Head of zoology in the faculties of Agriculture and Natural Sciences. The Professor doesn't know this but I am a huge fan of his due to all his efforts in conservation of the biodiversity in Trinidad and Tobago. No, we do know know each other unless that you count the fact that I sporadically read his articles in the newspaper.

I am sure he must have thought I was crazy, ringing him up on a Sunday afternoon to say that I was eating weeds and thinking of feeding them to my family. I was nervous and I am sure barely coherent as I rambled on about doing research for an article. Yes, somehow my lowly blog got elevated into and article. I also mentioned not wanting to kill my children with a salad that I was making for dinner. Nice, I'm sure he thought I was a lunatic as well as rude. He must have been rolling his eyes skyward on the other end as he kindly directed me to make enquiries at the Herbarium at the University of the West Indies.
A week later I had my answer, my weed had a name. It was Portulace L. better known as Purslane or Pussley. A highly nutritious vegetable that is currently being touted as a superfood due to it's high Omega 3 content- the highest of any plant.

Sadly, in the Caribbean it seems that something has gone wrong with our food and it's culture of production that we could lose sight of such a lovely vegetable  in favour of foriegn imports. In most cases imported produce is harvested well before the food has developed peak flavour and will never ripen into anything but insipid tastestless of what it should really be. Purslane is currently an 'it' ingredient with chefs in Europe while our local population has lost all knowlege of it. I wonder if it is still a commonly used ingredient in other Caribbean islands? on the Caribbean as little as 20 years ago.

Here is the salad I made or rather I co-erced Mr H. into making for me. He's so supportive isn't he? Imagine making a salad that your wife foraged from the wild bushes in the yard. Now that's trust!I'm sur ehe must have been thinkinon the urging of your wife from

In our society, foraging for food has become the most radical of acts seen as unessesary in an era of farmed and cultivated crops. The problem with this is thatIt is truly the only effective protest, one that can - and will - overturn the corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world - we change ourselves. ~ Jules Dervaes ~

Bless

Farewell My Love

The last bag of mangos arrived via my dad. I was so excited that I did not notice until the following day that he was limping. It turns out he had climbed the mango tree to get the last ones which were in the topmost branches. He quickly sought to reassure me that he hadn't fallen out of the tree but had only slipped. This was said with the cheeky grin of an impish boy. There was a twinkle in his eyes that said he enjoyed shocking me by climbing trees at his age. Uhhmmm dad you are 72 years old! Too old to be climbing trees! I scolded, I preached, I ranted at his folly.

Seriously though who can resist the lure of a mangoes intoxicating perfume, the cherub yellow cheeks with just a blush of rose....like a babies cheek just made for biting. It's coming on to the end of the mango season. I is with a heavy heart that I am readying myself to say goodbye. I have have been cutting up and freezing them so that I can have some later on in the year. While doing so it struck me that I haven't done anything with my mangoes other than make baby food purée and greedily eat them just as they are for the past several months. Everyday I have had one for breakfast and the other as a snack as soon as I get home from work.
I know, I know terribly boring but I am of the view that there is no better way to enjoy mango than the way nature intended.

In the past I have tried various mango tarts and puddings. I can honestly say that I do not like the flavour and texture of a cooked ripe mango. The natural sugars concentrate to a cloyingly sweet mush. - bleh! What I needed was something to offset the overbearing sweetness of the cooked mango. I decided on a rich chocolate. It worked.

Mango Chocolate Gâteau
Mango Topping
ingredients
3 ripe but firm mangos (sliced as you prefer)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup butter

Slice mango and sprinkle with lemon juice. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add sugar. Spread the butter sugar mixture on the bottom of a round 9" cake pan. Arrange mango slices and pour cake batter on top.

Ingredients
cocoa powder for dusting cake pan
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup shortening (melted)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg


Instructions

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add milk, cooled melted shortening and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed till combined. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg and beat 2 minutes more. Pour into a greased and floured ( use cocoa powder in place of the flour) 9" round cake pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly on a rack.



The End. There are no more mangoes.

say hello to pomme de cythere just commming into season. what can I say My love is fickle (smile0

http://carmensfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/search?q=chocolate+cake