Split Pea Soup with Bacon

This past winter I really haven't been into soup but now that we're deep in spring, all I seem to want is comforting soups. We've had two different soups on repeat in our food rotation; a dairy free tomato bisque and split pea soup. Up until recently, my attempts at split pea always turned out rather bland - but I've finally worked away at the recipe to get what I want. My theory is that I was missing a very key ingredient: bacon. And not just added bacon to the final soup, but cooking it in the same pot that you're soup will spend two hours simmering away in.

For a vegan version of this soup, you could easily skip the bacon all together and just cook the vegetables in 2 tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil. Adding some slices of cooked shiitake mushrooms would help pump up the flavor in somewhat similar way to the bacon.

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Almond Milk

As a non-dairy milk drinker, looking at the ingredients on the cartons of almond, coconut, and rice milk at the store makes me cringe (although there are some exceptions like OMilk in Brooklyn). There are just so many ingredients, many of which I can't even pronounce or spell properly. I know they're in there to preserve the milk and occasionally I find the boxes of non-dairy milks very helpful - like on road trips or for camping. However, on a typical week at home, we easily finish a full carton of non-dairy milk between coffee, tea, and baking - so we don't really need all those preservatives.

Making my own non-dairy milk has always been appealing to me, so I put it on my life list and I'm happy to say that I now regularly make my own almond milk instead of buying it. It has way fewer ingredients and tastes so much better than the stuff that comes in the carton. My version of almond milk is unsweetened, unflavored, rich, and creamy. It makes a good substitute for half and half and the almond flavor really shines.

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Meyer Lemon Curd

It's quite possible that Meyer Lemon Curd is one of my favorite things on the planet.

First of all, it's something made with Meyer Lemons - so thats a win all in itself. Second, it's creamy and tart and delicious when paired with many things. My favorite way to eat it, other than just by with a spoon, is to dip ginger cookies into it. 

Since we're just getting to that magic time of year where you'll find Meyer Lemons in stores, I thought it was high time I shared my recipe for Meyer Lemon Curd with you. I'll make oodles of this throughout winter and then stock the back of my fridge with Weck Jars filled with it to get me through the rest of they year.

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Cacao Spice Angel Food Cake

Phew! I didn't even think I'd make this Ratio Rally, I sadly had to miss the last one since I was out of town for three quarters of the month! This month's rally is being hosted by Caleigh of Gluten Free[k] - so make sure to stop over there and look at her delicious cake. I've also included a list of everyone else's at the very bottom of this post.

I've never made an Angel Food Cake before and frankly, I haven't had much luck making any kind of gluten free cake - they always seem to sink or shrivel up. So anyway, when I got back from all my travels I was craving bagels. My recipe leaves me with a whole bunch of extra egg whites - which I prefer not to waste. So I decided just to give an angel food cake recipe a try.

My first one came out pretty great, but it was way too sweet for me. On my second attempt, I went for a vanilla orange flavor with coconut palm sugar. It came out way too dense and with too much flavor for my liking. So on my third attempt, I went back to regular cane sugar but reduced it down to 8 oz and tried to replicate some of my favorite chocolate flavor. My final ratio ended up being 3 parts egg whites, 2 parts sugar, and 1 part flour. 

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Meals from the Garden: Greens & Herb Pho

Finally! I'm sharing a meal from our edible garden.  

I've been meaning to share this quick weeknight meal for quite awhile now since it's been making an appearance on our kitchen table almost twice a week! And as our gorgeous winter greens have begun to fall prey to caterpillars and bolt - I figured it was high time to share.

This post falls somewhere in between a recipe and guide for a meal. The ingredients are loose depending on what looks good in the garden that night. But the basics stay the same; noodles, broth, greens, and herbs. So here's how we made our Greens & Herb Pho in early June.

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