Anna's homemade body butter

I started with a recipe I found on the Internet, but have tweaked it quite a bit over the years and am pretty happy with the consistency I get. This product is not heat stable; it melts in the summer. I tend to make a batch, always share a jar (for good luck!), and keep the jars I'm not using in the fridge until I need them. 

Ingredients 

1 cup shea butter

1/2 cup coconut oil 

1/2 cup almond oil

1/2 cup olive oil (or you can use 1 cup almond oil)

1 tablespoon arrowroot powder

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon essential oil or fragrance of your choice

Notes about ingredients

The original recipe called for cocoa butter or shea butter. I find cocoa butter hard to work with, and it has a very specific smell that is hard to mask -- unless you are using mint essential oil, in which case it smells like chocolate mint! I haven't used cocoa butter in a few years.

I ordered a huge hunk of shea butter off the internet. It's much easier than scooping it out of a container. Now I just carve it off the block and force it into a measuring cup to get the right proportion.

The original recipe called for 1 cup of almond oil and no olive oil. Then one time I ran out of almond oil, so I used 1/2 cup almond oil and 1/2 cup olive oil. It was my best batch ever -- and makes the recipe slightly cheaper to make as well. 

In the spring and fall, I use vanilla and sweet orange oil to scent the butter (1/4 teaspoon each). Around Thanksgiving, I use cardamom and vanilla. And Christmas body butter is always vanilla peppermint. 

Steps

1.    Prepare your surface. I throw a big towel on top of our island to soak up all the oil, because this can get messy.

2.    Chisel the shea butter and coconut oil out of their containers and put them in a glass measuring cup. Microwave in 30 second intervals until it is melted. 

3.    Put the melted shea butter and coconut oil into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the liquid oils and stir to combine.

4.    Put the bowl in the freezer for 20 or 30 minutes -- until the oils start to congeal.  The edges of the oil get kind of white. The goal isn't to solidify it -- just to chill it, so that it will become whipped. Warm fats don't whip well.

This is what the oil should look like out of the freezer.

5.    Remove from freezer and add the arrowroot powder and essential oils. 

6.    Use the whisk attachment to aerate the body butter on medium to high for 8 to 12 minutes -- until the body butter forms peaks, almost like whipped cream. You want to make sure that the butter is actually stiff because it's whipped, not just because it's cold. That's why the range. Aim for 10 minutes, with at least 5 of that being on high. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides every 2 or 3 minutes.

7.    Use a rubber spatula to spoon the butter into mason jars. 8. Refrigerate all the jars for a couple of hours (Is this step necessary? I don't know!) and then remove and use each jar as needed. Enjoy!

Wing-it pumpkin fondue

Several years ago a friend brought a delicious baked-in-a-pumpkin fondue to Thanksgiving. When I tried to make the recipe myself, I found that it was fairly complicated, very rich, and required multiple kinds of expensive cheeses. I didn’t mind making it once in a while, but it wasn’t something I could throw together for a mid-week meal or potluck.

So I started winging a similar recipe based on ingredients I almost always have on hand (even the pie pumpkins, because we grow them). Now I always get asked for my recipe, so this is it, in a nutshell:

Ingredients (in order of appearance):

• Pie pumpkin (get one on the larger end)
• Olive oil
• Garlic, 1 or 2 cloves (optional really, if your stuffing mix is yummy enough)
• Bag of dry stuffing mix (I use the Arrowhead stuff you get at PCC)
• Cheese, grated (I use white sharp cheddar, but you could use emmental and gruyere like the original recipe)
• Beans (optional and only if using as main dish – I throw in kidney beans when I want to serve this to the kids for dinner)
• Milk, 1 or 2 cups (whatever % you have on hand)
• Salt and pepper (optional really, if your stuffing mix is salty enough)
• Cranberry sauce or pomegranate seeds (optional – I usually serve the fondue with something bright and tangy)
• Crackers (only if using as appetizer)

Steps:

1. Cut off top of pumpkin (save top!) and scoop out the insides. (I save seeds for roasting.)
2. Press  garlic and rub it along the inside of the pumpkin with a little olive oil.
3. Layer inside of pumpkin with cheese, beans (if using), and dry stuffing. Fill up the pumpkin. Really smoosh in as many layers as you can. End with cheese layer.
4. Whisk salt and pepper into milk to taste.
5. Pour the milk mixture into the pumpkin until you can see the liquid at the top of the pumpkin.
6. Place pumpkin in pie pan or oven-safe dish with top on.
7. Brush or rub olive oil on outside of pumpkin.
8. Bake in oven (around 400 degrees) for a couple of hours – until the pumpkin is soft enough that you could easily eat it (stick fork in from the outside to test).
9. Remove from oven, eat warm. If using as an entree, scoop it onto plates, making sure to scoop up pumpkin in addition to the cheesy mixture. If using as an appetizer, scatter crackers and a blob of cranberry sauce around the base.

So the basic idea is: fill up a pumpkin with yummy stuff, bake it all together, eat it. Always a crowd pleaser because of the presentation and taste!

Salty Sea Captain

Eric has recreated a drink we had the other night at Terra Plata:

1.5 oz smoky mezcal

Juice of 1/2 lime

Few dashes of celery bitters

Few shakes of Cholula hot sauce

Tecate beer

Shake everything except for the beer. Pour into a glass with ice and a lightly salted rim. Top with the Tecate.

Peanut sauce

Our tried and true recipe comes from Vegetariana by Nava Atlas.

.5 c peanut butter
 3 to 4 Tbsp soy sauce, to taste
1 small onion, chopped (do not double if you double the recipe)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 Tbsp honey (or we sometimes just use sugar)
2 Tbsp rice vinegar or white wine vinegar (or more to taste)
1 tsp chili powder
cayenne pepper to taste
water to thin
clove of garlic, optional (not part of original recipe, but I often add it)

Place all the ingredients in the container of a food processor or blender, using about 0.5 cup water. Process until smooth. Taste. Adjust.

Pour the sauce into a small, heavy saucepan and heat over low heat until warm -- or simply toss with hot noodles, rice, or veggies. The sauce thickens slightly on heating. Be careful not to burn it!

Flourless chocolate cake

Best chocolate cake ever, from Sue Bell:

Melt together:
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
6 to 7 oz bittersweet chocolate

Grind together:
    1 cup of nuts (hazelnuts, pecans, almonds) with
    1 cup of sugar

Add:
    1 teaspoon vanilla   
    6 eggs (I usually separate some and whip the whites, then fold them into the batter.)

You can make the whole batter in a cuisinart.  First grinding nuts, adding sugar, then the choc mix, then vanilla and eggs. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes in a paper-lined 9" or 10" pan or a buttered flan dish.

If you want to cover it with chocolate, melt 3 to 4 oz chocolate with a tablespoon of butter and pour it on while it is still warm.

Chickpard

Another Eric and Fred recipe. They first made this for us on our Oregon Coast trip -- and now it's a staple in our house. I even cook chickpeas in large batches and freeze them in mason jars, just so I always have some on hand.

Sometimes we make this recipe with kale instead. Chickale.

• 1 can chickpeas (or one mason jar thawed frozen chickpeas, if you make and freeze them in batches like I do)
• 1 bunch chard (or kale)
• one-half onion, chopped
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• handful of raisins (or craisins!)
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Combine chickpeas, onion, 4 to 6 cloves of crushed garlic, bay leaves, and olive oil in a small baking dish or roasting pan. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring a few times. Some of the chickpeas will be a little crispy. Others will just be tender.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the chard: Wash and shake dry the chard. Trim stems off. Dice stems and set aside.Chop chard leaves.
4. Saute another couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil, then add the diced up chard stems and cook until tender (about 2 minutes). Add the rest of chard and cook until wilted. 
5. Set aside the wilted chard until the chickpeas are roasted. Then mix it all up, toss in the raisins, red pepper flakes, and salt. 
6. Eat it while it's hot!

Kale!

A couple of our favorite kale recipes...

Roasted kale, or kale chips

• 1 bunch kale
• olive oil
• salt or garlic salt

1. Prepare kale: wash, dry or shake out, de-vein, chop.
2. Place kale in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt or garlic salt. Toss.
3. Roast in oven around 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

Most of the kale should be crispy when it's done -- or at least the edges of most leaves should be crispy.
Serve immediately. Eat with fingers.


Massaged kale salad

Chris calls this "happy, relaxed kale." The recipe comes from PCC (http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/pcc/recipes/massaged-kale-and-currant-salad), but we only started making it when Kathy and Miles, then Eric, raved about it so much. Everyone seems to love this salad. I really didn't like raw kale before I tried it. Now I'm a fanatic.

• 1 bunch of kale, deveined and chopped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (If you double the recipe, do NOT double the salt.)
• 1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup diced red onion (Or any onion. Or chives.)
• 1/3 cup dried currants (I've used dried cherries, raisins, and craisins.)
• 3/4 cup diced apple (I've substituted carrot.)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (Or aged cheddar, smoked cheddar, or feta. I've also made this vegan by using nutritional yeast or just omitting the cheese.)

Put the kale in a bowl. Add the salt. Massage for two minutes. The kale gets dark and limp, as if it were cooked.

Dice the onion and apple in a food processor (or your Swiss Chop Chop!). I think the fine dice of a food processor makes this salad yummier.

Add the other ingredients.

If I'm lacking a full bunch of kale or if I'm using the wimpier kale from my garden, I sometimes bulk the salad up by adding arugula or lettuce at the end.

Toss.

So GREAT!

Smoothie!

I've decided to add some staple family recipes to the blog now and then -- so I can just point to them when I pass them on. The genesis for this particular recipe? Eric.

Who else? :)

Berry smoothie

• 1 cup frozen berries -- blueberries, straweberries, mixed berries
• 0.5 TBSP sugar or a little more, to taste
• 1 scant scoop protein powder (Use the whey! I like Whey Factors brand. Go with vanilla! If you don't have protein powder, add a little vanilla extract for the flavor.)
• 0.5 cup some kind of milk: cow milk, soy milk, almond milk, chocolate hazelnut, hazelnut...you get the idea

I like my smoothies highly drinkable as opposed to frozen, so I try to remember to throw the berries, sugar, and sometimes the milk in a mason jar the night before -- and put it in the fridge. (Othewise, I thaw the berries in the microwave for 45 seconds.) In the morning, I add the remaining ingredients and use my immersion blender to mix it all up right in the jar. I drink it straight from the jar, too.

This recipe has around 167 calories in it. I added it to calorielookup.com at one point -- though I think the recipe included more sugar and less protein powder back then.

Sometimes I add half of a frozen banana for fun.


Berry-kale smoothie

• 1 cup frozen berries -- strawberries or straight blueberries work best, in my opinion
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped kale that has been deveined
• 0.5 TBSP sugar or more, to taste
• 1 to 2 TBSP nut butter -- peanut butter, almond butter
• 0.5 cups milk -- again, any kind

See above. Blend it all up and drink. In this case, I ready it all the night before and just blend in the morning.

For both of these recipes -- resist the urge to take them to go. I have never successfully had one without getting the berry seeds in my teeth or a smoothie mustache or both. :)