Usually called the doctor. Or the caretaker.

So I tried this cecina recipe I found online.

1 cup chickpea flour, 2 cups warm water, some olive oil, salt and pepper. Totally no biggie, right?

WRONG. I have no idea what kind of chickpea flour he's using, but this does not work.

I hunted around further (after adding a BUNCH more chickpea flour), and I think someone read a recipe in metric (500 mL warm water, 200 GRAMS of chickpea flour) and thought that a mL and a g were the same thing.

The first batch is currently cooking. We'll see how it does.

I made a dinner that Ranj says exuded a beatific light. :) Apparently the pasta sauce was the Best Evar.

( For posterity, then )

I also made a nice bread.

I made breakfast this morning: 3 kinds of pancakes (plain, choc chip, blueberry), bacon, and eggs. It was massively delicious.

Because I have some ricotta in the fridge that needs to be used, I put it in.

Here's the pancake recipe:
( Turn over for more )

So, because hypoglycemia makes me obsessive yet easily distracted, I went into the kitchen to make lunch and instead washed some dishes, cleaned out and reorganized two drawers, threw a bunch of pointless crap away, made a cup of tea, and assembled froot for the incipient cake.

Froot:

Sufficient frozen pie cherries to make a generous cup, partially thawed and sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dark currants
1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped coarsely¹
5/8 cup kalamata string figs, chopped coarsely²
1 orange
1 lemon

I think the rest of it is pretty self explanatory, but here's what I did with the orange and lemon.

Choose fragrant, colorful citrus fruits with plump peels. Scrub them well, and cut off any bad places on the orange's peel. Then carefully score and remove the peel in 4 petals. Cut the petals into slices about 1/4 inch wide and add to bowl. Reserve fruit. Slice lemon into thin slices, removing seeds and putting slices into bowl. Separate the orange into 3-4 large sections, eat one, and then cut the others into large chunks and add to bowl.

Now you have a medium sized Pyrex (or whatever) mixing bowl that is chock full of fruit. Drizzle over it 2 TBS of pomegranate molasses, add about 2 tsp vanilla and then fill to within 1/2 inch or so of top of fruit with hot water. Add some nutmeg, cinnamon, a little clove, and allspice. Toss. Sprinkle with 1 1/2 TBS of good quality cane sugar (something with a little molasses flavor to it still) and leave it sit for awhile.

I'll tell you the rest when I get there. :)

For lunch, I had half a pita toasted and one side of the pocket spread with hummus and the other with pesto. Then I jammed in a handful of spinach, 3 sliced mushrooms, and some gruyere and topped with more hummus and pesto.

Mmmmm.



____
1. Do not, for the love of Demeter and Persephone, buy cheapo grocery store chopped dates full of chemicals and coated with fructose powder, okay? If you do, just don't even talk to me. That's disgusting.

2. This is about one row in the little two-row tray I got. You need the extra because you will not be able to resist eating some when you see how gorgeous they look as you cut them.

( As-made )

Notes for next time:

Butter amount okay, cookies have good spread and hold together fairly well. Too many cinnamon chips; reduce by half? Walnuts okay, possibly more. Made smaller cookies (1.5-2 in across) this time. Very munchable.

The dog has been de-funked, another app has been submitted, and I'm tired and cold. I think it's bedtime.

The cheesecakes (cheesetartlets) turned out beautifully. The texture is really astonishing. I like them a lot with the rosewater but Ranj wants vanilla next time instead. The blueberry pie is delicious.

Cheesecake as-made:

2 8 oz packets cream cheese, completely soft
3/4 cup sugar
3/8 cup cream
2 eggs
1/2 c sour cream
2 tsp rosewater
1/8 c flour

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream together cream cheese and sugar, beating till fluffy. Add the cream and beat. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in. Add the sour cream and the rosewater, beat until smooth. Add the flour and beat until smooth, scraping the sides well. Divide into 12 graham cracker tart shells on cookie sheet. Bake about 30-35 minutes and then turn oven off and let them sit until they're cool, or until you can't stand it anymore and must cram one into your face. Try to keep the dog from sneaking his snout in and helping himself.

The blueberry pie was a storebought crust, about 4 cups of fresh blueberries, the juice of a lemon, 2 tbs of arrowroot starch, 1/3 cup sugar, and some quality time with a fork and a rubber spatula. I should have tasted the berries; they're a little less sweet than I'd assumed, and some more sugar might have been a good idea, but the pie is still excellent. Baked it at 450° for the first 10 minutes, covered the edges with some strips of foil, and then baked it till the crust was done at 350°, about 45 minutes total.

Next time: more sugar, more arrowroot starch.

Speaking of photos, here is the set of pear gingerbread assembly pictures, captioned by me.