Vegan, gluten free corn muffins

Based on these:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/ideal-lunch-for-dreary-day.html?m=1

My father spent a good portion of my childhood as a diesel mechanic. A talented mechanic. When I needed a car to get to my college internship (a dream come true to intern in the PR department of Crayola), he bought me a totaled 1984 Ford Escort. In 1996.

Someone he knew had hit a deer with it. I think he paid $50 for it. For months, he pieced that car back together with junkyard parts.

It had a bad carburator. Every time it rained he had to come clear the carburator so my car would start.

And he never brought tools. Only a screwdriver. Often a hanger and some duct tape. No matter what the problem.

He prefers to fix versus replace. He's spent more than one afternoon trying to fix my 50-year-old garage door. The tracks are bent and the pulleys keep jamming.

I've begged him to take my money and go buy new parts. But no, he hammers and bangs the old ones. Once there may have been a torch involved. 

Why the resistance?

"Because any idiot can fix it with new parts," my dad says.

Well, I don't follow recipes. I rarely make the same dish twice. Any idiot can follow someone else's recipe or even their own recipe.

I prefer experimentation.

So, the coffers are low (fuel oil drop, new washing machine, extra car maintenance and I apparently ate my seven-month old implant crown), I'm using what I have.

- 1 1/2 cups corn meal

- 1/2 cup ground cashew

- 1/2 cup flax meal

- 1/4 cup sourgum flour

- 1/2 cup coconut flour

- pinch salt

- one big tablespoon baking powder (when did I run out of baking soda????)

- 1 cup soy milk

- about 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

- less than 1/4 cup canola oil

- about 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 

- 1 can cream-style corn (the dole version is cream-style-- not creamed, no dairy)

Mix quickly, portion into muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. 

Mine took forty.

I love these. They have a bit of a baking powder aftertaste, a tad of a grit to them (but much less than other coconut flour recipe I have tried). They are very moist on the inside. Very much a success.

Another cucumber salad

I'm not eating the homegrown cucumbers nearly fast enough. I'm worried I'll lose them to the ravages of time. 

But seriously, cucumbers are one of my favorite summer foods. They don't provide nearly the same feeling in winter. The cool flavor, the burst of water in each bite... They provide relief in summer.

Since a friend was kind enough to share her garden bounty, I have three large cucumbers. I've grown cucumbers, but this year my tortoise ate all the plants. She likes cucumber, too.

So to make sure we eat these beautiful vegetables, I made a cucumber salad. And it's vegan!

Ingredients:

- 3 large cucumbers, diced

- 4 slices vegetarian bacon-style strips, cut into tiny bits

- about 3/4 cup black olives, sliced (i used canned whole olives and sliced them myself but I *really* wish I had good olives on hand)

- about 1/2 cup flax seed

- garlic pepper to taste

- Annie's lemon chive dressing, to taste 

(I kept both the dressing and the garlic pepper to a minimum since I want the cucumbers to keep their clean, fresh taste.)

Mix. Chill. Serve.

Apple nut butter crêpes

Crêpes:
- 1 large tablespoon local raw honey
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 1/4 cup sourgum flour
- 2 eggs

Cooked in a cast iron skillet in coconut oil.

Filling:
- chopped gala apples, skin still on
- tablespoon of quince jam
- teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- teaspoon local raw honey
- dollop coconut oil for the bottom of the saucepan

Cook until soft but still crisp.

Spread some nut butter on each crêpe before filling with apples.

My nut butter was homemade almond-cashew butter.

Funky grain biscuits

This is a variation of my "experimental" multigrain yeast biscuits.

Yeast mix ingredients:
1.5 cups warm water
1 heaping teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon local raw honey

For the dough:
2 cups organic unbleached wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
About 1/2 cup organic sorghum flour
About 1/2 cup white corn meal
About 1/2 cup organic whole grain dark rye flour
About 1/2 cup ground flax meal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter

Combine dry ingredients (and butter). Stir. Add yeast mix. Stir. Kneed with hands.

Sprinkle corn meal in the bottom of a large cast iron skillet.

Roll out dough and use glass or biscuit cutter to cut biscuits.

Preheat oven to 400. Let biscuits rise about 15 minutes. Cook about 15 minutes.

This is my first time buying organic wheat flour (at Target. Had coupon. Normally $5/bag). Ordered coconut flour.

The sorghum flour is gluten free but not low carb. Has a little more protein than wheat.

The rye has slightly more protein and iron than the other two and it has calcium. And flax is full of good stuff and is low carb.