Sesame Almond Crackers with Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper

  ~ Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Paleo-Friendly

I try--Lord knows I try--to eat well. I don't count calories or cut certain food groups out of my diet. But I do eat mindfully. Most of the time, I eat pretty clean, filling my plate with quality sources of protein, lots of veggies and fruits, and some dairy and grains. For me, balance is key. It has to feel like I'm in control of what I eat, not that I'm constantly having to sacrifice flavor for function. When it works that way, I never feel deprived, and I never go hungry. I also allow myself to eat food purely for enjoyment sometimes--ice cream, pizza, wine. . . . 

When I'm training, I try to eat a little more consciously, knowing that what I eat today will affect how well my efforts go on the trail or in the gym tomorrow. These crackers are one of my go-to snacks. No empty calories here, just plenty of protein and beneficial fats and loads of flavor.

I've made these lots of different ways, with various seasonings, but I think this combo of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper just might be my favorite. I hope you like it too.

Sesame Almond Crackers with Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper

• 2 cups almond flour
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• ¾ teaspoon sea salt plus additional for sprinkling
• ½ - 1 teaspoon cracked pepper (according to preference)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoons cold water
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together almond flour, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper.
3. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together egg white, water, olive oil, and sesame oil.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until fully incorporated. Divide the dough in half.
5. Place one half of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll as thin as possible (1/8” is fine).
6. Remove top sheet of parchment and transfer bottom sheet, with dough on it, to baking sheet.
7. Use a pastry wheel, pizza cutter, or paring knife to cut the dough into desired-size squares.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, until just golden. Turn off oven and let crackers remain in oven until golden brown, about 5 more minutes. Let cool completely on baking sheet and store in an air-tight container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pots de Creme ~ Dairy-Free

Need a super-fast, decadent, impressive-but-so-easy-you'll-lie-about-the-recipe dessert for a special dinner tonight? Look no further. This whips up in mere minutes and sets to semi-firm in about an hour and a half. It uses coconut milk instead of heavy cream, but trust me, you'll have a hard time convincing anyone who isn't avoiding dairy that they're being deprived of anything once they taste this. Enjoy!

• 6 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (dairy-free), chopped
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of cinnamon
• 1 (13.5-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ cup smooth peanut butter

1. Combine chocolate, vanilla extract, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of food processor, but do not process.
2. Shake the can of coconut milk well. Empty it into a small saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from stove and pour over the chocolate mixture in the food processor. Secure the lid on the processor, let stand a minute or two, and process until smooth. Add peanut butter and process again.
3. Pour chocolate mixture into serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until set, about 2-3 hours, depending on the dimensions of the dish. Garnish as desired and serve.

Hot Buttered Rum

Winter is a drag. If I had my druthers, I'd live in one of those places where it never dips below 70 degrees, "snow" refers exclusively to something squirted with blue raspberry syrup and eaten from a paper cone at the fair, and perennial humidity makes it possible for me to like my hair.

Alas, mine is no such clime. For example, this very morning, I spent an hour shoveling 6 million metric tons of frozen water off my driveway just so we could pull the car out. That is, in the event that we would want to go somewhere, which we would not, considering the fact that it was sleeting and slant-wise snowing out there.

Far better to stay home and read a book and drink a warming beverage. And so, I give you hot buttered rum, which has been a favored chill chaser since the Colonial days, and fairly effective at warming hands and bellies and even, dare I say it, making winter slightly more bearable.

Hot Buttered Rum

4 ounces butter, softened
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Zest of 1 large orange (optional)
Pinch salt
Dark rum (e.g., I used Bacardi Select)
Boiling water

In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, spices, salt, zest, and salt until combined. Use a tablespoon scoop or two tablespoons to form 12 balls of the butter mixture, placing them in a single layer in a plastic container with a tightly fitting lid. Refrigerate until firm or up to two weeks (freeze for longer storage).

To serve: For each serving, place a butter ball in a 12-ounce mug. Pour 11/2 ounces of dark rum over, and top off mug with boiling water. Stir well and serve.

Photo Credit: Top photo, Paris Smith

Savory Smoked Habanero Cheddar Shortbreads

I am a closet Cheez-It fanatic. All right, perhaps not so closeted. I can't buy them because I can't be trusted to exercise moderation when it comes to those addictively yum orange, cheesey, orange, salty, orange crackers. This is my revenge against the savage hold those crackers have over me.

These are the cheese crackers that young Cheez-Its put pictures of in their lockers and on their bedroom walls. Cheez-Its want to be these when they grow up.

If you can't find ground smoked habanero pepper, feel free to substitute cayenne and replace the sweet paprika with smoky Spanish pimenton. Use yellow cheddar if you want the cheese to show up in the cracker.

These are just perfect with a glass of wine, white or red. Enjoy!

Savory Smoked Habanero Cheddar Shortbreads 

• 3 ounces butter, softened
• 4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon ground smoked habanero pepper (or cayenne)
• ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Flaked sea salt for sprinkling (optional)

1. Combine butter, Cheddar, cream cheese, salt, habanero pepper, and paprika in the bowl of a standing mixer with paddle attached. Beat at medium speed until all ingredients are combined.
2. Add flour to cheese mixture, then continue beating until flour is incorporated.
3. Separate dough into 3 portions. Roll each portion into a long, thin cylinder. Wrap all three cylinders in waxed paper and chill for 30 minutes or until set.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Use a sharp or serrated knife to cut the chilled rolls of dough into thin (about 1/6”) rounds. Place on baking sheet. These won’t spread, so you don’t need to space them out much. Sprinkle crackers with flaked sea salt.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, until tops begin to turn golden brown. Let cool on pan 1 minute, then remove to rack to cool completely. Store in an air-tight container for up to one week at room temperature, or freeze for longer storage.

Recipe Note:

If you like a thinner, crisper cracker, instead of forming the dough into logs, roll it out into thin sheets and score with a pastry wheel into the desired cracker-size squares. Bake until golden, then let sit on pan till cool.

Peppermint Patties

Gearing up for the holiday season? These simple confections are something you'll want to have on hand for hostess gifts and cookie trays. They're quick to prepare and keep for quite a while in the fridge. The fresh mint leaves really make this recipe sing. I like to use chocolate mint, mainly because that happens to be the variety overgrowing my herb bed, but regular old mint is swell too. 
 
Peppermint Patties
Yield: About 2 dozen patties

• 1 ounce unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ounce (about 2 tablespoons) heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh mint leaves
• 8 ounces good-quality dark chocolate pastilles or bar chocolate, chopped
• ½ ounce unsalted butter or cocoa butter

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper. Set aside in refrigerator to chill.

2. Using a handheld electric mixer, cream the butter, confectioner’s sugar, and extracts on low speed until well combined. Add cream and mint leaves and gradually increase speed to medium-high. Blend for another minute, scrape down the bowl, and blend again for 1 more minute. Mixture should be creamy and thick, not chalky or powdery. If it’s too powdery, at a little more cream, ½ teaspoon at a time. If it’s too loose, add a little more confectioner’s sugar, a tablespoon at a time.

3. Roll teaspoon-size scoops of the mint mixture into balls and flatten them into patties (about ¼” thick) on the prepared baking sheet. Return to the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

4. Place the chocolate and the butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds on high power. Stir. Heat again for 15 seconds. Stir. Repeat until chocolate is melted. Let chocolate cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

5. Dip the chilled patties into the cooled melted chocolate and gently tap off excess chocolate. Place them on the baking sheet and return the sheet to the refrigerator. Let chill for a couple of hours before serving. Store leftover patties in the refrigerator.

Baked Haddock with Lemon Thyme Gremolata

Deep in the belly of my drop freezer are several pounds of fish. Filets of flounder, cod, haddock, and tuna, buried beneath a foot-deep layer of frozen bananas, Popsicles, ciabatta rolls, containers of stock and stew, and ~ let’s be honest ~ jalapeno poppers.

My family just doesn’t dig fish. I know this, and yet . . . I go shopping and hope gets the better of me, and I think, Hey! Who doesn’t like broiled haddock? And there it sits, developing frostbite, in my freezer. But I just know that if I keep trying, eventually I’ll hit on the recipe that manages to overcome their culinary prejudice. (Obviously, it would be easy to resort to cheats like beer batter or cheesy crumb coating, but that kinda defeats the purpose.)

We have crossed the Rubicon of rutabagas, broached the border of brussels sprouts, and triumphed over turnips. I will beat this too. Or, I might be eating a lot of fish.

Baked Haddock with Lemon Thyme Gremolata 

Yield: 3 servings

• Zest of 1 large lemon 
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
• Freshly ground black pepper 
• Kosher salt 
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme or regular thyme 
• 1 large clove garlic, minced 
• 3 haddock filets (about 5 ounces ea) 
• 1 tablespoon butter (optional) 
• Juice of 1 large lemon (optional) 

Prep: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F; line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick spray.

1. In a small bowl, combine zest, oil, pepper, salt, thyme leaves, and garlic. Pat filets dry with paper towels. Arrange on baking sheet, brush with thyme mix. Dot with butter, if using. 
2. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork or reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees F. (May take slightly more or less time depending on thickness of filets.) Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice (if desired) and serve.

Green Smoothie ~ Peach Banana

My first green smoothie ever, and I'm hooked. Even if you hate spinach, embrace your inner Popeye and try this. . . . You'll never taste the leafies in this. If you can't get past that gorgeous good-for-you-green color (or, perhaps, you want someone else to enjoy this smoothie without asking too many questions about the contents), pop a straw into a travel mug and enjoy on the sly.

Green Smoothie ~ Peach Banana

Yield: Approx. two 16-ounce servings

•  1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened orange juice
• 1 peach, pitted but not peeled, chopped
• 1 frozen banana, broken into chunks
• 2 tablespoons flaxmeal
• 2 large handfuls baby spinach (about 2 cups), roughly chopped

Place in blender in above order; process until smooth. If you'd like, you can add a few ice cubes.

Note: If you want to save part of the batch for later, just stick it in the fridge or freezer and toss it into the blender (or a shaker cup) when you're ready to enjoy.