Best Ever Kale Chips? Is This Possible?!

     I'll admit, it took me a long time to like homemade kale chips. But like so many healthy things, once I got the taste for them, I couldn't stop! It's a good thing kale and so many other awesome cool-weather-growing greens are easy to find locally grown in greenhouses all over the northeast. It makes these chips healthy not only for me, but for the environment, too! 

     If you've never liked or tried kale chips, I'll confess that the first time I tasted kale it was what I imagined a horse eating. It was a tough, stringy, unappetizing green thing that I could not possibly imagine myself being able to digest before asking for more. Good thing I am often wrong!

     I once had a very smart person admit to me that though she has a low-sugar family, it's always how she manipulates her child's taste-buds to change. "Start by putting a bit of honey, maple, or sugar with something unpalatable, and ease out of the sweetness a little each time your kid tastes the food again. Slowly they get a great association with something they would have otherwise hated outright." Add in some locally-sourced maple sugar from a nearby sugar-house, and never was this smart piece of advice more helpful than with bringing me to a full-out kale addiction. Do try this sweet treat; you'll think a bunch of local kale is one of the tastiest things ever!

Ingredients

• 1 large bundle curly green or purple kale
• 1-2 Tbsp (15-30 ml) melted coconut or avocado oil
• Seasonings of choice (i.e. pinch sea salt, 2 tsp of sugar or maple sugar) 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (107 C). Use convection bake if you have it to speed cooking time and help chips crisp up even more.
2. Rinse and thoroughly dry kale, then tear into small pieces and discard any large stems.
3. Add to a large mixing bowl and drizzle with oil and seasonings of choice. Toss thoroughly to combine, using hands to distribute the oil and salt and sugar evenly.
4. Spread the kale over 2 large baking sheets, ensuring the kale touches as little as possible to help them crisp while baking.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the pans around and lightly toss/stir kale to ensure even baking. Bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until kale is crispy and very slight golden brown. Watch closely as it can burn easily.
6. Remove from oven and let cool slightly - chips will crisp up even more once out of the oven.
7. Enjoy immediately! Best when fresh. Store leftovers covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.

The Cookies of New England

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2014/10/share-your-cookie-tips-and-tricks/

It may be after the holidays, but baking season is still in full force as I look out my icy winter windows. Now that so many of us have relaxed on our New Years resolutions a teensy bit, let's talk baking. There is almost nothing better than standing by a warm oven on a cold January Day, and doing so in a cloud of sweet-smells wafting from anticipated warm cookies, to boot! 

Taken from a recent Bobs Red Mill blog, here are some incredible New England cookie recipes, by the state. Though my family's goal has been getting to all six New England states this year, I think I may just have to add trying a cookie from each!

Connecticut: Nutmeg Log Cookies

Maine: Lemon Blueberry Cream Cookies

Massachusetts: Boston Cream Pie Cookies

New Hampshire: Molasses Cookies

Rhode Island: Cranberry-Walnut Stuffed Shortbread

New-York-the-Adopted-New-England-State: Apple-Pie-Stuffed Snickerdoodles

Vermont: Maple Frosted Sugar Cookies

Baking Fall in New England

My middle name is pretty much "Hides-Veggies-In-Everything." It's true. I never make a baked-good without a fruit or veggie hiding inside. But as my child will attest, it's not as painful as you'd think.

As we celebrate our local fall products and produce, I have a great recipe to share with all you baked-goods lovers out there who think it's impossible to make a healthy donut. In New England, not an apple orchard or grocery is without apple-cider donuts come October. And though I love them, my family has recently found a recipe we've latched onto that is by far the healthier (dare I say tastier?!) fall equivalent. These donuts, in which I use roasted mashed butternut/pumpkin from my backyard New England garden, are chocked full of healthy hidden veggies and nostalgia-inducing fall flavors.  Whether you find some apple cider donuts or try making these healthy Baked Fall Donuts yourself, it's a great time of year to live in New England! Happy Fall!

 Baked Fall Donuts

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C

Donuts:

1 and 3/4 cups of flour (we use gluten free, which works very well in this recipe!)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/3 cup high heat oil (coconut, sunflower, and safflower all work well)

1/2 cup brown sugar or raw sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup roasted and mashed or canned pumpkin or butternut (butternut is naturally a little sweeter, so I healthily lower the amount of sugar slightly when using it!)

1/2 cup milk (our dairy-free household thinks coconut milk, almond milk, or rice milk work great, too!)

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup buttermilk (our dairy-free household thinks coconut milk, almond milk, or rice milk work great, too!)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients in until just combined. (Be careful not to overmix or it makes the batter more chewy than fluffy!)
2. Grease a donut or mini muffin pan very well. Divide the batter among the molds. Bake 12 – 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  (I don't own a donut pan, so I use a muffin tin, then punch out the holes after baking by using a small round lid off our jar of olive oil. It doesn't sound fancy, but I promise, it works well! See picture above.)
3. When the donuts are completely cool, dip them into the glaze, or dust them with powdered sugar, or sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. This step is up to you, depending on how much sugar you are comfortable with. Confession? The glaze has the most sugar, but is sooo tasty, you won't want it any other way!
4. Listen to your donuts... I think I can hear the pumpkin thanking you that this was its destiny.
5. Eat! They’re okay on the second day, but insanely delicious when fresh!

**Most recipes I post are ones I have altered so much they don't have an original source outside of my kitchen. But this recipe is very very similar to a recipe on texanerin.com. Do check it out if my chicken scratch above doesn't convince you quite enough of just how tasty these fall goodies truly are!

 http://www.texanerin.com/100-whole-grain-baked-pumpkin-donuts/

Harvesting in the Name of Carrot Caking

Our garden looks insane. I'll admit it.

This is thanks in part to the strange little habits my husband and I have picked up from living in Spain, Iowa, and Zimababwe. You might just say our local backyard garden is a mix of the best of three continents. But thanks to a crazy little gardening method we have adopted called "hugelkultur," we have had the most giant green mess of unwatered growth -despite being in a drought!- that any gardener could hope for.  We have pulled an insane amount of produce out of our 20 x 20 space, and fed a few good bees in the process, thanks to my science-teacher husband, some elbow grease, and the constant supervision of our six year old. This month I thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipes that highlight some of these locally grown treasures, starting with -what else?- dessert.

Because, hey, why not?

I always judge a dish by how many guests have asked for the recipe. This one takes the cake. Literally.Though I can assure you it is the best cake I have ever eaten, it will not look so pretty in my pictures. This is because this time around, I made this a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free cake (substitutions galore!) that challenged the frosting-aesthetics. Add in my child's blueberry decorations, and well, you get the picture. Literally.

Yup. No lies here. It can feel time intensive if you only have one cake pan instead of two or three (translation: the woman who moved her whole household back to the US with six suitcases may have "more cake pans" written on her Christmas list this year) but it is well worth it, I assure you. Plus, you're eating your vegetables. Literally.

    

Most Delicious Carrot Cake Ever

(Even when you use a lot of substitutions!)

Ingredients

2 cups flour (gluten free 1-1 works quite well, too!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

Narrangassett Cheese

I know, I know. I'm dairy free. But do not remind my husband.

Always happy to find a reason to sneak milk into our household, Kurt recently enjoyed this tasty treat, straight off the boat (or truck perhaps...) from Providence, Rhode Island. Though the Narragansett Creamery has oodles of local artisan products, including their you-can't-go-wrong-with-this Fresh and Feathery Mozarella (left), their best is one of their most recent product creations, Mediterranean Grilling Cheese (below).

Until moving abroad, like most Americans I was not familiar with "grilling cheese," also known as halloumi. Once I tasted it, a standard fare in a number of parts of the world, it was an immediate favorite. The cheese is squeaky clean and perfect on a number of tasty complex treats or simply a slice of local, grilled apple. Grilling cheeses have a deeply savory taste that pairs well with just about anything, standing up to heat by becoming crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. Is your mouth watering yet?! Though we may be a cheese-centric country, this is one kind of cheese Americans need to learn more about!

What's even better than good cheese? Good production practices.  At Narragansett Creamery, local milk, kind bacteria, vegetable-based rennet, and salt are used to produce a pure and responsible product. Narragansett supports fair-trade and local ingredients to the best of their ability, their farmers pledge to not use growth hormones, and they are proud to be a family-owned company providing products to their local community of New England.

Do try a slice today... just don't remind me and my dairy free tummy what I'm missing! Sigh...

Need a few fantastic ideas of how to incorporate Narrangasett's Grilling Cheese into your next meal? The BBC may not be local, but they do know their halloumi cheese! Check it out here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/9-new-ways-serve-halloumi

Find Narrangassett Cheeses in these local markets:

Rhode Island:  A Market Natural Foods * Belmont Market * Black Pear * The Blue Kangaroo * Blue Rocks Market * Brigido’s Fresh Market * C & R Mercantile * Carpenter’s Farm * Charlestown Wine & Spirits * Clement’s Market * Dave’s Marketplace * DeCastro Farms * Dunns Corners Market * East Side Prescription Center * Eastside Marketplace * Fertile Underground * Food for Thought * The Good Earth * Goose Pond Farm * The Green Grocer * Happy Acres Market *  Hope & Sundries * McQuade’s Marketplace * Milk & Honey Bazaar * Morris Farm * Munroe Dairy * Roch’s Market * Sandy’s Fine Food Emporium * Schartner Farms * Shaw’s * Shore’s Markets * South County Food Co-op * Sweet Berry Farm * Tom’s Markets * Venda Ravioli * Whaley Farm Market * Whole Foods Markets * Wishing Stone Farm * Young Family Farm *

Massachusetts:  Allandale Farms * American Provisions * Bacco’s Wine & Cheese * Bacon Street Farm * Bartlett’s Family Garden & Market * Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm * Bee’s Knees Supply Co. * Big Y * Blue Blinds Bakery * Boston Wine Exchange* Broadway Marketplace * Brothers Marketplace * Cape Abilities * Cape Cod Package Store * Cardullo’s * C’est Cheese  (NH)* Chatham Cheese Company * Chatham Village Market * City Feed & Supply * Coastal GreenGrocer * Common Crow Natural Market * Crusty Ventures * Dave’s Fresh Pasta * Deluca’s Market * Donelan’s * Fancy’s Market * Five Seventy Market * Foodies Urban Market * Formaggio Kitchen * Fruit Center Marketplace * Guaranteed Fresh * Harvest Co-op * Holmes Farm * How on Earth * Joppa Fine Foods * Lambert’s Farm Market * Last National Wine Co. * Lees Market * The Market at Pinehills * Milk & Honey Green Grocer * Morning Glory Farms * Natural Food Exchange * Nauset Farms * Needham Center Fine Wines * Prime * Quality Fruitland* Roche Bros. * Savenor’s * Savor Wine & Cheese * Siena Farms * Spring Brook Farm Country Store * The Spirited Gourmet *  Sudbury Farms * Tangerini Farm * Tastebuds Fresh Marketplace * Tendercrop Farm * Vidalias * Ward’s Berry Farm * Water Fresh Farm * Whittier Farms * Whole Foods Markets * Windfall Market * The Wine Cask * The Wine House * The Wine Vine * Woodberry Food Market

Connecticut:  Big Y * Caseus Fromagerie & Bistro * The Common Bond Market * Fairfield Cheese Company * Jonathan Edwards Winery * McQuade’s Marketplace * P & M Orange Street Market * Whole Foods Markets

New York:  Manhattan: Barnyard Cheese Shop * Battery Place Market * Beecher’s * Cheese on 62nd * Dean & Deluca Madison * Eataly * Eli’s * Forager’s Market * Formaggio Essex * Inwood Gourmet *  Lucy’sWhey * Malt & Mold * Market Basket * Milk & Hops * Saxelby Cheesemongers * The Wine Merchant * Westside Market Chelsea * Willoughby General * Whole Foods Market, Bowery * Zabar’s  Brooklyn:  Blue Apron * Brooklyn Larder * Brooklyn Victory Garden * Court Street Grocer * DePanneur * Eastern District * Forager’s Market * Green Grape Provisions * Lucy’sWhey * Marlow & Daughters * The Meat Hook * Park Slope Co-op * The Ploughman * Stinky Bklyn  * Valley Shepherd 

Long Island & beyond:  * Ahabs Corner Shop * Beacon Pantry * Cold Spring General Store * Deciccos * Loaves & Fishes * Plum Plums * Stuarts Seafood Market * Tarry Market * Village Cheese Shop * Whole Foods Lake Grove * Whole Foods Port Chester

Maine: Joppa Fine Foods *

New Hampshire: On the Vine Marketplace *

Not-So-Local-Local African Chicken Salad

If you've never tasted Zimbabwe, here is your chance.

Wait, what?

"Isn't this a blog about New England?!" you say.

Definitely. I love to take a recipe from a distant time or place and bring back a little nostalgia with one bite.  Food is truly a way to immediately relive a certain magical something we remember, in this case something far from the Northeastern mountains and shore sitting outside my window. Though the recipe I'd like to share today is from my honorary homeland of Africa, it can be made using entirely local New England products.  As the farmers markets of our region pop up in town greens all over the Northeast, fresh green things continue to be on the menu!

Try it right away.  For me, it's like biting into my Zimbabwean garden all over again. Mm mmm...

New-England-African Chicken Salad

1 chicken, deboned / or 2-3 cups of cooked and cubed chicken
3/4 cup dried apricots or other dried fruit, preferably diced (a great opportunity to use local, Massachusetts-grown craisins!)
1/2 cup salted pistachios, no shells
1 bunch of cilantro, washed and coarsely chopped
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, salt and pepper to taste. Easy-peasy!

My New To-Do List!

Today I came across a quick jaunt through some of America's best farm-to-table restaurants, found all over the US.  Thought I'd share some great places now on my list!

51 Best Farm to Table Restaurants in America:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/restaurantsandnews/51-best-farm-to-table-restaurants-in-america/ss-BBrx2yB

Saah-weet Sweetgreen

Fast food can be tricky.

Actually, no. I'm being too nice. 

Fast food can be disgusting. 

Sorry. I said it.  So often I have to ask where does the food come from? How removed is it from real ingredients? Should one bitty food really have over fifty ingredients? And two thousand calories?  And how is the chain sourcing enough food for the billions it's serving?

And yet, I absolutely do not judge anyone who eats fast food. In fact, I am jealous of people in my life who eat fast food.  After a little stomach ailment that left me unable to eat any processed food whatsoever for over three years, if there is one thing I know it is how LONG it can sometimes take to plan, shop for, cook, and clean up after a healthy meal at home.  My over-three-years of continuous cooking for myself, as so many people with digestive ailments, has left me exhausted and killing for a quick and easy option at the end of a long day.  Let me introduce you to a great one that is A) fast, B) healthily responsive about ingredients you cannot put in your body, and C) local, local, local!

Sweetgreen (found in a number of metropolitan areas, but specifically for this blog, in Back Bay, Chestnut Hill, Fort Point, Prudential Center, Lynnfield, Downtown Crossing, Fenway, and Harvard Square, all in the Boston area) has got the goods.

Can I just tell you?  I love to walk into a place and see a local farmer supported. Combining FAST food with truly whole, healthy -not McTwisted concepts of healthy- foods is what a quick restaurant pit-stop should be all about!  Getting a little Sweetgreen as we speak... Look at me; I'm eating fast food!

Local Recipe: Berry Cream Puffs

I pretty much hate puns. Whenever my husband pulls one out (which is way too often, and, I suspect,  for the simple enjoyment of getting under my skin) I always remind him that they are considered the lowest form of humor.  Still, between you and me, it's so hard not to do an egg pun.  After all, there are about 500 to be had. (no yoking, I'm cracking up, eggstremely, eggcetera, etc!)  So please know I am hitting the restraint hard as I share this favorite quick and local recipe with you... a recipe I love so much I don't even have it written down.  It just rolls around in my little ol' head, waiting to be made when the urge for a pretty low-sugar dessert comes a calling.

Today I am inspired by the fresh eggs on our counter and the distant hint of spring in the air.  Or maybe it's just my ridiculous Connecticut imagination and an urgent sense of longing for warmer weather.  Either way, I love an excuse to make a cream puff.  And though there are oodles of ways to take advantage of having local eggs at the ready and local berries on call in the freezer, I can't think of a better use for them together!

The first time my husband's co-worker approached my husband with a dozen of her just-collected eggs from her small family farm, she apologized, saying, "These do not come washed off, like they do in the store."  My husband had laughed, as she apparently had not seen the eggs we lived on in Africa, purchased with feathers and poo as a standard requirement.  We have done our best to assure her we never mind fresh local eggs!

Local eggs are one of the easiest foods for a person to find year round from their region.  Do a quick search wherever you are and you will surely be able to find small farms that love to get their eggs out to nearby families.  But enough about eggs.  This recipe is also about beautiful New-England-grown berries.

It's not hard to find local berries in the northeast in Spring or Summer.  From strawberry season to blueberry, black berry, and raspberry picking time, there are plenty to go around!  But come winter,when my freezer empties and the price of berries imported from places like Chili and Argentina are high, I like to mosey into the freezer aisle.  Wyman's of Maine, a local berry supplier located in Milbridge, Maine, always has the best and most affordable products I can find in almost any grocery store. I love their Website, which is less about pumping themselves up and packed more with recipes, health articles, and nutrition facts that remind me just how awesome a super food like berries can be!

Now, I am no food photog.  And while I work on that, never mind my poorly-lit cream puffs.  Just try a batch and you will not care about their hot looks (and really, they are gorgeous in person, I promise).  Taste them and you might just say they are berry egg-cellent.  (Sorry, couldn't control myself...) Enjoy!

     Berry Cream Puffs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a saucepan, heat on medium:

1 cup of water
1/2 cup of butter, or, to be dairy-free, Nutiva (a wonder product like butter but made of coconut and red palm oil)

Once all butter is melted (it may boil before this happens), add:

1 cup of flour (all-purpose gluten free flour works, too!)

Mix flour in while the pot is still on the heat. It will form into a ball in the middle of the pot when it is well mixed and heated. Once this happens, take off the heat and add:

4 eggs, added and mixed in one at a time

When the eggs are mixed in well and the batter is uniformly gooey, place piles of approx. 1/2 cup-sized worth of batter onto a baking sheet.  Bake until lightly browned on the outside, about 15 -20 minutes depending on your oven.  

Cool baked puffs. On a plate, cut open cooled puff by cutting off a lid (I liken this to carving a pumpkin- your lid should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the puff). 

Scoop out some of the interior if desired (we like the eggy inside, so usually I just move it aside with clean fingers to make space for filling) and fill with whipped cream.  My dairy-free family loves using So-Delicious Coconut whipped cream, a low-sugar alternative.  But if you use milk-based whipped cream, it's another great opportunity to use a local product!

Spoon some delicious thawed berries on top of the whipped cream (some will roll out onto the plate and that is gorgeously okay!), then replace the "lid" of the puff.  Sprinkle with a few puffs of powdered sugar for a professional look and a sweet touch.  On a paper plate or in a fancy dish, this sweet treat is great all year round!

Favorite Local Recipe: Chocolate Beet-Apple Cupcakes!

  

Yes.  This picture of my child and the beets we used to grow in Africa has pretty much nothing to do with this cupcake post.  But who can help but pull out cute beet pictures when it's the topic of the day?!  Humor me here.  I mean, how often do I get to use beet pictures?!?  

Today, middle-of-January-today, I bought local beets, grown right next door in good old -freezing cold- New Hampshire.  

Surprised?  Me, neither!

If you have ever been to a local farmer's market in mid-winter, you probably know that oodles of foods are still producible in the coldest of climates thanks to something I lust after all the time: a greenhouse.  (My latest obsession? The super affordable underground greenhouse called a walipini, which I may just have to try one day soon!  But I digress...) My point is, fresh local produce in mid-Arctic-winter is not only possible, but an awesome thing to support!  I'd like to say the local farmers benefited today, but I will save that argument. My family entirely reaped all the benefits on this one, as we enjoyed some healthy, chocolaty beet cupcakes after a long day of school-time and errands.  

A few years ago when our African beets were abundantly showing up in every foot of our garden, this awesome recipe fell into my lap.  I've never let it go since.  Look up the health benefits of beets and you will be quite proud of trying this recipe for yourself.  When these cupcakes are packed with all sorts of locally-fresh produce, it's hard to say no to seconds...

 

Chocolate Beet-Apple Cupcakes

* This recipe can be made dairy free and/or gluten free!

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups pureed beets (I usually wash, roughly chop, boil, and mash. But microwaving works, too. Make sure you save the greens for a different healthy dish!)

2 cups all purpose flour (One to one gluten-free flour works, too! Check out these local g-f flours!)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup applesauce (I just cook down some chopped, peeled apples and mash them.  This was a local element that came from our trees during our fall harvest.)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs (always available locally!)

3/4 cup chocolate chips (To make this recipe dairy-free like my family does, just use dairy-free chocolate chips. We like Chatfields!)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

-Line 24 cupcake/muffin tins with liners or an olive oil/dusted flour coating.

-Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl.

-Mix all wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

-Combine two bowls of ingredients together, mixing out all lumps.

-Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

-Spoon batter into prepared cupcake tins.

-Bake 15-20 minutes, inserting a toothpick or fork to check for doneness.  

-Cool before frosting.  Yum!!  Enjoy!

* The FDA recommends not eating raw batter that has uncooked ingredients such as eggs or flour.

*These cupcakes can be frosted with your favorite dairy-free or cream-cheese frosting, or eaten plainly delicious!

Vermont Smoke and Cure

 Okay, okay. So the words "meat stick" can sound kind of gross, conjuring up images of strange animal parts in a blender... or maybe that's just me....  
But here's the thing. My family does the dairy-free gluten-free thing on a tight budget and since returning back to the US this year I probably don't have to explain that I am a bit shell shocked at how much some food prices have risen recently in our country.  It can be a challenge to walk into a food store with the biggest desires and best intentions to purchase organic, socially responsible goods and then realize some pricey products have to be left out of the cart to make it through the check-out line.  
Often for my family, we stretch our meat purchases or simply don't buy meat as often as we'd like.  But I find myself wanting our little guy to have it even when I can't.  When I walked into Whole Foods recently and spotted these awesome meat-stick beauties being marketed all over the store, I paused to take a look at this local product that is just the right size for a six-year old lunchbox or an afternoon snack. Getting over the word "meat stick" was all it took to enjoy the price and taste of these puppies. With very simple ingredients, these Vermont Smoke and Cure small-batch products are an affordable, tasty treat I highly recommend.  Not only are they made in a number of different flavors, but they also happen to be six-year-old approved.  

To check out more of Vermont Smoke and Cure's awesome products on a gorgeous website that brings you smack into the heart of the Green Mountains, click here: http://www.vtsmokeandcure.com/

Glee for Glee Gum

Okay, so I'll admit it.  Whenever I hear about "local" coffee I always raise my eyebrows.  "But coffee doesn't grow in New England.  Just because you roast it here, doesn't make it local... or does it?"  The answer depends a lot on who you ask.  And their definitions of local.  Oh, why has no one yet formally defined local?!

So today I have my own example of an eyebrow-raising product that sounds nothing like a local product, and yet is processed entirely right here in New England.  And the best parts?  It's a product I LOVE and the company is an excellent example of social and environmental responsibility.  It's the kind of company you want in your neighborhood.

One of my favorite things when I was a kid was a small candy-like gum.  It had a rubbery feel a lot of other gums didn't seem to have.  Do a little research and you will find that this is because most gum is now manufactured with synthetic resin (sounds healthy, doesn't it?)  But back in the early days of gum, chicle was the main product used for extra bouncy chewing.  Because chicle's harvesting is sustainable (harvesting does not kill the tree, as chicle is replenished seasonally, like maple syrup), and benefits rainforest conservation, the product is a good one that is making a comeback once again.

Glee Gum, an awesome, local gum based in Providence, Rhode Island, features nothing but chicle as its main ingredient.  Making the world's first fairtrade chewing gum, Glee's producers, a company called Verve, ensure an alternative system of global trade in which farmers and workers are paid stable and fair prices for their produce. Once the chicle makes its way to this woman-owned business found in a retro-fitted, solar-powered Rhode Island building, it is processed into the tastiest, chewiest of gum products. From its packaging to its relationship with non-profits, Verve creates products with the intention of helping students and consumers think about where goods come from, how natural resources and raw materials can be used responsibly, and how communities must cultivate in innovative ways that consider local environments and laborers.

If I haven't convinced you that this is a worthy local gum to support, pick up a pack.  The taste will win you over for sure.

Check out their website for a fun way to learn about the process Verve likes to call:

"From Tree to Glee"

Local Flour for a Local Cake!

I don't know why I feared it; I have gone through re-learning how to cook oodles of times with every move to a new country.  And yet when my family decided to go gluten and dairy-free, I was intimidated.  It is one thing to look for new ingredients that can be put in place of particular ingredients in familiar recipes. It is a whole other thing to relearn the chemistry behind baking from a new angle that requires new recipes never tried.  Then I came upon gluten free all-purpose flour.  And life has never been the same.

I am pretty sure if I were trying the dairy free gluten-free thing thirty years ago, I would be pulling my hair out and running to twenty stores to find food necessities.  But one of the amazing things about living in 2015 is the easy access to alternative foods that has literally gotten ten times easier in just the last five years.  Today I am featuring two well known flour companies, both of which have alternative gluten-free options right on my average-run-of-the-mill local grocery store shelves just down the road.

Arrowhead Mills, a company manufacturing gluten-free flour in Lake Success, New York*, has been a pioneer of organic food products for over fifty years.  Started under the premise that chemicals like herbicides and pesticides pollute the food chain, Arrowhead Mills is now a passionate voice in the push for environmental commitment and an integral part of the NON-GMO project.  Though their home base is located in Texas, the company pushes local resourcing throughout the country and boasts an 80% American grown ingredients rate in their products.

Don't be fooled; the second company I am also featuring as part of this love letter to gluten free flour is just as fantastic!  King Arthur Flour, now headquartered in Norwich, Vermont after its renowned start in Boston, MA, is nothing but committed to social responsibility.  At over 220 years old, America's oldest flour company and 100% employee-owned Vermont gem knows a thing or two about environmental-footprints and local community care.  I will definitely be popping into the flagship store the next time I'm near Norwich!

SO, now that I've introduced you to two awesome companies making some great gluten-free flour, let me introduce you to one of my favorite New Englandy recipes for the fall, featuring nothing but the most local New England apples, twenty feet out my back door.  Could there possibly be anything better than New England apples in the fall?  Perhaps New England apple cake!  ...  DO try this recipe.  Gluten free or not, you will enjoy!!

This funky "Appul cace," as he spells it,
  has been decorated by my fantastic 6 year old sous chef.

New England Apple Cake

2 1/2 cups of Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

3/4 cup (organic is best!) brown sugar

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of baking powder

¼ teaspoon of salt

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (and a bit of lemon zest if you want an extra lemon punch!)

1 cup of oil, I like either EVOO or coconut oil at room temp

3 cups of grated sweet apples (I’d say about 4-5 large apples)

1 cup of chopped pecans, or raisins/craisins if preferred

Confectioner’s sugar (optionally sprinkled on top)

Bake 350 or 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. I have made this cake in all shapes and sizes; even muffins turn out well (though cook for a shorter time period).  The cake is dense, but super moist, and perfect with a bit of powdered sugar sprinkled on top! I like it better cooled, but who can wait?!

* Please note that although I do recognize New York is not actually part of New England, it IS local when food miles are concerned from geographical New England. For this reason, products made in New York are also featured on this blog.  (No corrections needed!)

Raffle: Maine Sea Vegetables

Sea seasonings? Okay, it sounded a little gross to this land lover.  I'll admit that I'm pretty particular with sea food, as the fishy smell of the ocean is a little overwhelming to this Midwestern-raised girl. So hear me out when I tell you that even I have been won over.

I went seeking a natural way to support my thyroid.  As someone who has watched a number of family members struggle with thyroid issues, as well as read about the increasing concern over American thyroid conditions, I already had it in my head that iodine was an important piece of my diet.  But when my husband and I decided to move to the landlocked country of Zimbabwe a few years ago -a country so wrought with power outages that the idea of a fish actually making it safely from the coast was beyond questionable- figuring out supplementation was important.  We packed a few of these Maine-made gems found at our local co-op into our shipment, and could not be happier we did.  Now that we're back in the US, we're still using dulse in everything!

Government surveys show a 50% reduction in adult iodine levels since 1974.* Though there are a variety of possible reasons, one theory is that a number of pesticides affect how well our bodies are able to absorb iodine. Though most people don't want their pancakes tasting like seaweed (so don't pour too much!), adding a small amount of seafood flakes into batters, doughs, eggs, or salads can be an undetectable way to add some of the health of the ocean to your food every day.

Sea Seasonings, a New England company based in Hancock, Maine, has been helping its customers connect with the health benefits of sea vegetables since 1971. They work to maintain sustainable practices in harvesting, processing, and merchandising, producing more than they consume in an effort to give back more than they take.

Check out this great Maine company for more info about its practices and products: Maine Coast Sea Vegetables

Click on the button below to ENTER a rafflecopter giveaway of two free Sea Seasonings products:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Iodine, Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, by Dr David Brownstein, MD, 2009.
**I am not sponsored by the company featured in this post.

New England, we love your oceans!

My child Jonas bakes a cake in our African kitchen-
a quarter teaspoon of dulse flakes included!