Raspberry Cheese Pie

Hmmm .... how time flies!  The last year has been filled with a lot of changes - all good and all adding to my full days.  We bought some land in Northwest Oregon a couple of years ago that we are working at turning into a farm and this last year I've been spending more and more of my time living there and working.  Our first grandson was born in October!  He's a darling, calm baby - who happens to live on the East Coast, so I've been traveling, which I love to do.

Some of you found this blog while searching for help when newly diagnosed with large numbers of food allergies, histamine intolerance, or IBS.  The good news for me is that my gut seems to be completely healed and I am having very few problems with histamines.  I'm almost five years into my massive allergy diagnosis and cooking/eating is a lot, lot easier!  Also, I had my DNA run through 23 and Me and with the help of Genetic Genie found I have several methylation defects that predispose me to histamine problems, gut problems, and more but are easily treatable with non-synthetic vitamins.  I highly recommend Dr. Ben Lynch's website here if you're wondering if this might also help you.

What does all this mean for this blog?  I'm ready to post more regularly - spending so much time in the Northwest with all the wonderful, healthy choices for food, I find I have more to share and say.  As has been happening for awhile, not all recipes will be low histamine - they'll be marked if they're not.  However, we do still tend to eat fairly low histamine.  One of the benefits of my cooking low histamine was discovering histamines were causing my husband several problems.  The recipes will continue to be as free of my allergens as I know how to be.  Some allergies, such as corn, seem to be tricky - derivatives or levels of contamination that work for some, won't for others.  I tend to cook completely from scratch without derivatives, but occasionally they do sneak in, so use your best judgment on what will work for you!

This week in my corner of Oregon, the raspberries are ripening!  We have a small area of the canes - we're planning on adding more, but I wonder if there will ever be enough?  They're one of my favorite fruits and one that is so hard to find corn free in stores, between the soaker pads, packaging, and possible sprays for fresh and packaging, cross contamination, and citric acid with frozen.  So I gorge on them in July and ration out my jam and syrup the rest of the year!  I picked our first larger amount yesterday and made this delicious, easy pie - the only hard part is not eating the whole thing!

Raspberry Cheese Pie

Crust:
2 1/4 cups coarsely ground toasted almonds
2/3 cup palm shortening, melted
6T organic cane sugar

Mix all together and spread into a pie pan.  You can use as is or bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes for a harder crust.

Pie:
6 oz. goat chevre
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup organic cane sugar
1T lemon juice
1T homemade vanilla
2t gelatin
About 1 pint of raspberries

Add sugar and gelatin to food processor and give a couple of whirls to mix.  Heat coconut milk to warm and add, along with the cheese, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Process until well mixed and pour into the crust.  Refrigerate for a few hours.  Before serving, spread the berries over the top.

Herb Pestos

In the summer, we enjoy lots of fresh herb pestos!  And then I freeze quite a few to continue enjoying all winter.


Basically, a pesto is just fresh herb leaves processed with oil.  To make pesto from mint, that's all I do - process mint leaves with enough olive oil to make a paste, add salt and pepper, and serve.  For basil pesto, I add a few more ingredients.

So what do you do with pesto?  Add to cooked pasta (with meat, olives, roasted red peppers, white beans, and whatever else you think sounds good), mix with mayonnaise for a sandwich spread, mix with chevre for an appetizer spread, use instead of pizza sauce on pizzas, mix with oil and lemon juice or vinegar for a salad dressing, add to ground meat for hamburgers ..... mint pesto is wonderful on lamb burgers!  Here's my recipe for basil pesto.

Basil Pesto

6 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soaked and toasted almond slivers
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

This is easier with a food processor, but a blender will also work.

Combine 3 cups of the basil leaves with the rest of the ingredients and process until well blended.  Add the remaining basil and process again. 

If you can use Parmesan, you can also add 1/2 cup finely grated (or microplaned). 

Updates

Add:
Jovial rice pasta

Sugar change:
I've changed sugars after finding out that it's a common practice to use Round Up to dessicate sugar cane before processing.  This leaves glyphosate residues and glyphosates negatively affect bacteria, including the good bacteria in our gut - and I need all the help I can get to keep my gut healthy!  Organic sugars are not processed in this way, so I've switched to C&H organic cane sugar and Trader Joe's organic cane sugar.  I'm working at changing the recipes to organic sugar.

Marinated Flank Steak

If you've been eating grass fed beef, you've probably noticed that it has a different texture from grain finished, store beef.  Marinating is one way to tenderize it - this recipe works great to get a steak ready for the grill or you can broil it in the oven.

Marinated Flank Steak

1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup coconut aminos
2T lemon juice
2T olive oil
1T honey
3 cloves garlic
1 large shallot
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

Put everything in the blender and liquify.  Put flank steak in a Ziploc bag, pour marinade over, and put in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.  Grill outside or broil in the oven to medium rare and cut into thin strips on the bias.  We serve it on rice, salad greens, or cooked greens.