Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cup butter, melted or softened

1/4 cup oil

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4-1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

2 cups zucchini, finely shredded

chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together except for chocolate chips. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. And then try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting.

Ice Cream

1. The ice cream pictured is Breyer's, not the following recipe.

2. The picture was just too good not to share.

3. Humble blueberry coffee cake...hot out of the oven.

Country Vanilla Ice Cream

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 cups milk

4 cups heavy cream

4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

Add sugar gradually to beaten eggs. Continue to beat until mixture is very stiff. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into freezer as directed. Makes 4 quarts. Unless you are lucky enough to have a big gallon freezer, you'll have to half or quarter the recipe. Always use the absolute best, freshest ingredients you can. I always make it the same day I pick up my raw milk and eggs. My dairy source doesn't sell cream so I have to purchase it from the store. Never use ultra-pasteurized cream. It's terrible for you and has no flavor. Seek out the best cream you can. I use Cedar Summit.

Wild Rice Soup

I whipped up a double batch of this for lunch today and the kids and I inhaled it. I can't stand wild rice soup recipes that call for canned condensed soups. It's not hard to make real food, people.

Wild Rice Soup

6 T butter

1/2 T dried, minced onion

1/2 cup flour

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups cooked wild rice

1/2 cup finely grated carrots

1/3 cup minced ham

3 T slivered almonds

1 cup cream or half-and-half

2 T dry sherry

dash salt

fresh ground pepper

Melt the butter, add the onion, stir in the flour, slowly add the chicken broth. Stir until thick. Add rice, carrots, ham and almonds and cook until the carrots have lost their rawness (I'm terrible with descriptions). Stir in the cream, sherry, salt and pepper and heat through. Yummy.

Comfort Food

What's lovely about raw milk is that it doesn't go bad. "Dead" milk will rot, raw milk will just turn pleasantly sour. And it makes the BEST scalloped potatoes. Absolute best. Simple, but oh-so-yummy recipe:

3 medium russets, sliced thin
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBS butter
2TBS flour
dash salt
fresh ground pepper
1 1/4 cups raw milk, slightly soured (about a week old)
3/4 cup shredded or diced sharp cheddar (or whatever you have on hand)
2 cups diced ham

Preheat oven to 350. Grease casserole. Saute onion and garlic in butter. Add flour. Add milk all at once and stir until thickened. Stir in cheese. Layer 1/2 potatoes in casserole. Top with diced ham and 1/2 the sauce. Add the rest of the potatoes and top with remaining sauce. Cover and bake 40 minutes. Remove cover and bake 30 minutes more.

Amazing Salmon Marinade

1/3 cup apple juice

1/3 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons tamari (or Bragg's Aminos)

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

salmon fillets

I baked the salmon right in the marinade. The kids both loved it. Avrie ate it like it was chocolate!

The Best Cheesecake Ever.

Marble Swirl Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I use Annie's Bunnies)

3 TBS melted butter

2 pounds cream cheese, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

7 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a 9" springform pan.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is just set and slightly firm. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Lower the oven temp to 300.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the vanilla and cream, beat well, and scrape the sides of the bowl. Remove 1 cup of the batter and set aside while you melt the chocolate.

Combine the water and chocolate and melt over low heat. Mix in the reserved batter.

Pour the vanilla batter into the pan. Pour or spoon the chocolate batter over the top of the vanilla batter in a circle. Run a small knife through the chocolate and vanilla batters to create a marbelized effect. Don't overdo it or the two will just mix together.

Put the cheesecake in a larger pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another hour (or all night if you forget)!

Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.

As American as Apple Pie

I scored two free pounds of organic, free-range lard. What could a girl do but make REAL pie? My project for this spring is going to be making my own lard...outside on the grill. The pie was wonderful hot out of the oven. It must have been wonderful cold too because there isn't any left!

Apple Pie with Gruyère

3 lbs. tart red apples

1/2 c. sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

5 tsp. cornstarch

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 Gruyère Pie Crust–recipe below

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Take dough out of fridge.

Peel, core and slice apples into quarters. Slice each quarter thinly. Mix with other ingredients.

Roll the larger piece of dough into a disk about fourteen inches in diameter. Ease dough into plate. Roll smaller piece of dough into circle twelve inches in diameter. Pile apples into pie plate, scraping any juice on top of the apples. Place smaller round of dough on top of the apples. Seal two crusts together, brush with the beaten egg, and make three parallel slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape. Wrap the edges in foil to prevent burning.

Place pie on a cookie sheet to catch any drips, put in oven, and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake 50 minutes to an hour, or until you can see the filling bubbling up between the slits in the crust. Cool on a wire rack at least 20 minutes before serving.

Gruyère Pie Crust

Makes one double-crusted 9-10 inch pie.

2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp. sugar

13 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces

7 tbsp. lard (or more butter, if you don't have access to REAL lard)

2 oz. Gruyère, grated with a microplane rasp grater

6-7 tbsp. ice water

Mix flour, salt, sugar and Gruyère in a large mixing bowl or bowl of a food processor. Using a food processor, pastry blender, or your fingers, cut in the lard until no large pieces remain. Add the butter, and cut into flour until the largest pieces of butter are the size of large peas.
Remove flour-butter mixture from food processor, if using, and place in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle ice water over flour in increments of one tablespoon, toss with fork after each addition. When dough clumps together when squeezed in your palm, gather dough together into two disks. Refrigerate until ready to use.