Eggs in Purgatory.

Fresh fixins were running a little slim this past weekend, and so I went after the numerous cans of tomatoes we have in the pantry. Prior to the GAPS diet, we were big chili eaters. Besides being delicious, it's super easy to make, especially in the slow cooker. Our technique was to basically add a bunch of canned (maybe frozen) veggies to the pot and let it go. After the diet switch, we went through a large purge of the kitchen cabinets when we got rid of just about all of our canned food, except for the canned tomatoes, which we had a lot of. In the end, it was probably not the cleanest, and definitely not the freshest meal we've had in a while, but dang did it turn out awesome!

Due to the anticipated chili making, most of our tomato cans contain various peppers and onions, garlic, and other seasonings. With that, the Purgatory recipe didn't require too much more seasoning, but I did take a couple recipe ideas and added just a few additional herbs and spices. The result was pretty amazing. It's super easy to make (especially with the assistance of canned goodies), and would go well with some kind of veggie hash as a side (we had some leftover roasted rutabaga and winter squash fries). If dairy is well tolerated, I'm sure this would be even more delicious with a cheesy topping. Mmmm....breakfast!

Those poor eggs cooking way in the fire and brimstone of purgatory...I mean delicious, delicious tomatoes!

Voila! Delicious, and relatively quick breakfast with example of the rutabaga prepped as fries, which are amazing as well!

The Recipe:

• 4 eggs
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes and peppers (I used fire-roasted with peppers and onions)
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 onion, chopped (I used one large yellow onion)
• Garlic powder to taste
• Coconut oil (for cooking onion)

The Process:

• In a cast-iron skillet (or regular skillet), melt coconut oil and add chopped onion. Cook until onion is soft and translucent.
• Add all the canned tomato stuffs and seasonings to the skillet and heat through.
• Once all the ingredients in the skillet are warm/hot add in the eggs. Let them cook until the bottom of the eggs are done, then (carefully) flip and turn off heat.
• Serve and enjoy some awesome brunch!

This, as with just about any recipe I post, is very fast and loose. Try playing around with the different tomato and seasoning options and see what turns out. It's tough to go astray with tomato anything!

Hasselback Rutabagas.

Is it just me that thinks of David Hasselhoff when I hear the term hasselback?

Anyway, I have been thoroughly enjoying the new diet the hubby and I started back in the early part of 2013. All the home cooked, fresh food has been amazing! We're not only learning so much about cooking and food, but about ourselves as well. One of the things I've been learning, is that I absolutely LOVE eating seasonally! With so much food on-demand at the grocery store, I've never really had an appreciation for how crops and produce changes throughout the year. There just isn't the same consideration when you can get everything and anything all year round. Now that we've been hitting up the farmer's markets (so grateful to have a winter market despite the temperatures in this area!) I have been having fun experimenting with the new produce and trying out new recipes. Today's challenge: how to prep and cook rutabaga.

I don't recall ever really eating, let alone cooking rutabaga. It's one of those odd looking root vegetables that I'm sure would have horrified me back in the day. Things have changed quite a bit since then, and today I am super excited about working with the new root. Fortunately, we live in an age of Pinterest and Google, so even if I've never seen the stuff, within seconds I have info on what it is, how to prep AND cook it, with potential for some pretty amazing results.

So for today I chose to do hasselback style rutabaga for the hubby and I, based on the recipe I found at the Florida Costal Cooking site. It turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The cook time was a little longer than I anticipated, mostly because in my attempts at healthy cooking, I tend to do more low and slow in hopes of avoiding any chemical breakdown of the oils (and the rutabagas I used were pretty huge). Perhaps that is why these actually turned out quite tender, and the robust, earthy flavor of the rutabage combined with the spiciness of the garlic and onion, all made for an amazing addition to our evening meal. It was a little difficult to get the slits cut as it's a pretty tough root, but I think it was worth the effort. Next time however, I think I'll make things slightly easier on myself and go for rutabaga fries (making things even easier with the employ of a mandolin...)! In the mean time, enjoy and let me know if there are any other good tips or tricks when working with rutabaga!

This is by far the least fun part, trying to cut into that rutabaga!

Minced garlic is definitely the way to go, though I bet a roasted garlic smeared into each slit would be even better....hmmm...next time!

Wrap it up good, though not too tight so you can check on it after 30 minutes.

And this did not last long! Got devoured pretty quickly, you've been warned!

*The Recipe:

• 2 rutabagas
• 2 cloves garlic sliced (I made things easier on myself by using minced garlic, and lots of it!)
• 2 slices red onion (or more depending on the size of the slits and rutabaga itself)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (or your oil of choice, for something really yummy maybe try bacon grease!)
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp salt (or to your taste)
• Two pieces aluminum foil for baking.

The Process:

• Preheat the oven to 425, though depending on the oil/fat being used, lowering the temperature will help keep all those yummy nutrients in tact, or so I hear. I generally cook at 350 just to be safe.
• Cut the root part of the rutabaga off so it can stand on it's own, then proceed to approximately 1/4 inch slits from the top down, being careful not to go completely through the rutabaga itself. 
• Now the fun part: start stuffing those slits with onion and garlic. If using slice garlic, alternate as you go, if using minced, I stuffed onion into each slice then added minced garlic to the top.
• Once the rutabagas are prepped, place them on the aluminum foil and pour your oil of choice over the top, making sure it seeps into each one of those crevices.
• Next wrap up the rutabagas and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, or until tender. Then remove the foil and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the outside is a nice golden brown.
• Finally: enjoy the heck out of them!

*This is a very flexible recipe, so have fun with it! My rutabagas were pretty huge compared to what I was seeing on the FCC site, so modifications were made both with ingredients and cook time. Feel free to experiment with different flavors and seasonings to suit your palate! 

Cocao butter from cacao nibs? Experiment!

For better or worse, the hubby and I go trough a lot of nut butter. What can I say, it's yummy! We've been playing with different types of nuts like pecans, walnuts, cashews, along with some various flavorings; all of which got me thinking: if we can make nut butter from grinding down the raw nuts, could we make a cacao butter or spread by grinding the cacao nibs...? My curiosity was piqued, and after weeks of this idea bouncing around in my head (and needing to buy more cacao nibs), this past weekend I finally got around to experimenting!

The results were not quite what I expected. At first glance it was working pretty well, and the smells emitting from the food processor were simply divine! The cacao nibs ground down to a fine powder, which had the most rich, chocolatey smell, and eventually turned into a very thick paste. This was exciting to me, had I really made a chocolatey spread out of the nibs? The answer: sort of. The hubby and I took a quick break for lunch and left the chocolate paste in the food processor to deal with after. What we found was a very crusty mess. The paste had hardened, and required some heavy chiseling to get the food processor blade free. A minor set back as I was once again able to grind the dried up cacao and get the paste back. With that, I decided to take the paste and flatten it out into a bar form, making our very own 100% cacao bars! That in itself, was pretty amazing, and well worth the effort!

For my taste, the broken down nibs have a slightly more mellow taste than the raw nibs, but both are equally delicious. But since they were able to grind into some sort of pasty butter like consistency, the hubby and I started thinking, what if we added some oil to it, maybe some coconut oil? Or perhaps a 50/50 mix with other nuts like cashews to make a more spreadable chocolate confection. So many possibilities! I will definitely continue the experimentation, and post the (hopefully very delicious) results!