Under a Red Roof

Almond Pulp Recipes II: Gluten-Free Cauliflower Crust

January 24, 2025 in Cooking + Baking by Colleen | Permalink

Hello freezing January! We are in an unfortunate slump of bitter cold and very few dog walks, wah. What better means of consolation than a little pizza? As I am very much invested in using the almond pulp, I scoured books, the interwebs, and my own memory to create my take on a cauliflower crust. Ages ago, I made one with zucchini (the memory), and not gonna lie, it tasted great but required so much zucchini and sweat equity that I only did it once. This gives the same feel for a lot less effort!

Thankfully, there aren’t many ingredients, either: Cauliflower, almond pulp, parmesan cheese, and eggs (guess how many?!).

Unlike most crusts, you must parbake! This is the first crust, I let the second one brown a bit more.

The final product! It was really, really good. It definitely isn’t the same as wheat, but when you’re off gluten, it definitely makes for a best of both worlds situation.

One large head of cauliflower, in chunks (1 lb 5 oz, 600g)

3/4 cup almond pulp (3 oz, 90g)

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (3/4 ounce, 21g)

3 eggs

parchment paper

Preheat oven to 400. Whiz your cauliflower to oblivion, in batches, if need be. If it is really wet, squeeze out some of the moisture by wrapping in a clean dish towel, or, perhaps, your nut milk bag! Put in a large bowl, and add the almond pulp, parmesan,and eggs. Beat until well incorporated.

Cover a large baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper. Take half of dough mixture, and with clean hands, spread evenly over the surface. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or so, until the bottom is nicely browned.

Top however you like! Bake until the cheese is super melty. Repeat with the second half of the cauliflower mixture. Enjoy!

Almond Pulp Recipes I: Quick Almond Loaf

January 13, 2025 in Cooking + Baking by Colleen | Permalink

Hi there! Since Greg and I make almond milk on the regular and prefer not to waste anything, I have been slowly modifying recipes to use the pulp. I thought I’d share, since you may be in the same predicament. I hope you enjoy!

Quick Almond Loaf

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup almond pulp, at room temperature
4 tablespoons avocado oil (or other neutral oil)
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon almond extract
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/butter a 9×5 loaf pan. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl. In a separate, large bowl, add sugar, almond pulp, and oil. Beat at medium speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time. Add almond extract. On low speed, add half of the milk, then half of the flour mixture. Repeat, and mix only until combined.

Spoon into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan.

Mix powdered sugar and the tablespoon of milk together in a small bowl, drizzle over the top of the loaf while still warm. Slice and eat at your leisure.

Last Look at 2024

January 10, 2025 in Celebrating, Cooking + Baking by Colleen | Permalink

Hey, hi, and Happy New Year! I hope you are off to the races! Also, all kinds of hugs and prayers to anyone in peril of fire at the moment. Jeepers.

I thought I’d start with the cutest end and beginning with dear Juniper. We did some math and realized she may be a year older than previously thought, so happy, happy to your tenth year in the universe!

Despite achieving elder pooch status, she is still quite the puppy, eager to walk, spinning three times for breakfast, cuddling on the couch , bolting about the back garden, chasing wild creatures, and always, always wanting a nibble, from whomever will offer.

We got another round of vaccines (so many jabs!), Hepatitis B and Pneumonia 20, in mid-December, and the following day, I was down for the count. Tired and achy, Greg went to the store for provisions and bought me flowers! They lasted weeks, which was pure delight.

Jeff came for a visit, and we made burritos. Delicious as, usual. Since it was also Christmas treat season, I also made starlight mint sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge, walnut fudge, and Dutch letter bars, for more deliciousness. This is Jeff’s take home tin.

For Christmas dinner, I made Beef Wellington, with steaks that looked normal, but once layered with mushrooms and encased in puff pastry (store bought!) were HUGE. We ate them over a few days and weren’t in the least disappointed.

The little plate at the top was made with all of the scraps and a delicate sprinkle of sugar. The shapes on the Wellingtons are acorns, but dang, from certain angles really look like fish. Ha!

Our post-Christmas adventure was a trip to my parents’ house, and this was my Basque cheesecake contribution. It was basking in a homemade orange caramel with cute mandarin slices. The tops!

New Year’s Day homemade pizza and sparkling pear cider. We have zero complaints in the food department, my friends.

Isn’t this the ultimate 80’s look? Also, made in Colorado! The man is a dead ringer for Keith Hernandez (hello, Mets fans!) or Eric, my uncle’s kindly ex. I am going to make a propolis throat spray with the contents.

My parents’ house – the Christmas tree has been put in the same location since 1976!

Our holiday lights and a new minimalist Christmas tree. I made the wonky little trees out of stacks of buttons and find them rather adorable. My friend Mary made the tiny mitten, which I wish you could see better.

Happy 2025 to one and all! May you be safe, healthy, and happy the whole year long…

Well Jammy

November 27, 2024 in Cooking + Baking, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Hello, and Happy day before Thanksgiving for my fellow celebrants! Are you knee deep in preparations? After a bit of blog work, I am heading to the kitchen to make pie crusts, definitely pecan, maybe a wee pumpkin, too.

It is a snowy day, the fifth in the past few weeks, which is a bit excessive for November, just sayin’.

We’ve had a lot of activity, with Greg flying to Florida for a week of biz-ness ( I did miss him!), a weekend visit from Jett and his girlfriend Peyton, a sleepover at Michael and Mary’s. All very good things that have kept me occupied.

Let us begin. Firstly, with a most colorful selection of windfall apples from around the neighborhood that were turned into the equally colorful jelly above. It is quite delicious!

I am a slow adopter of technology, and since the library very frequently only has electronic copies of books in my Goodreads queue, we resorted to buying a tablet for such reading adventures. One day, while browsig the ridiculously vast collection of media on offer, I stumbled upon the Kitten and the Bear Cookbook, a diverse collection of jellies, jams, and scones. This is their apple jam, which, to my mind, is a beautiful and delectable marriage of jelly and apple butter, made extra special by the addition of apple chunks, sadly not made from windfalls, but store bought. You can’t have everything, at least not all at once, peeps.

That dog is super fly…

This was our first snow, which, like the song, went on and on til the break of dawn! Seriously, we got 24″, the icicles pictured below, and a ridiculously long melt time.

Backyard Scene

July 10, 2024 in Cooking + Baking, Drinking, Friendship, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

currants

rabbit brush

yarrow

ratibida

mallow

orange horned poppy

prickly poppy

A slice of the backyard garden scene. This year may be one of the most lush and green – plants enormous, birds plentiful, smiles abound!

We are settling into our summer routine. Greg works on the back porch, mostly with Juniper, very often with me, sipping coffee, fountain babbling and brook-like, birds chirping, until the heat becomes too much. We head in, work some more, and enjoy a meal. The afternoon is a battle against heat, of closed blinds and fans, reading and cleaning and programming and dog jaunts.

On special days, we host a visitor – Jeff! We play games and eat exceptionally well. This time was a feast of Korean style summer favorites, bulgogi burgers, homemade pickles of the cucumber, onion, and bell pepper variety, topped with a gochujang sauce that also served as salad dressing, poutine with gochujang gravy (fries courtesy of Wendy’s!). Traditional cherry pie, made with a bounty of home grown cherries. That we had enough for pie and two jars of jam was pure joy! Then there were rum and cherry cokes, with syrup made from the cherry pits (Seriously!). Exquisite and fun and the height of summer flavors.

Happy, happy…hope you are, too.