maple syrup

Excuse My Tarty-ness

When we were looking for places to live in Berkeley, the lemon tree at our current home sold the deal for me. “Hope you like lemons,” our landlord said to us, “this house has one that is covering the yard with overripe lemons.”

“Yep, I want to live here,” I told Steve. “It has a lemon tree!”

Coming from the Midwest, where lemon trees are pretty much non-existent, I was super excited about having a fruit tree of my own. Needless to say, since moving in, my vitamin C levels have never been better.

This morning, I made lemon bars and they turned out to be more like lemon custard bars. Still delicious.

Ingredients for crust

  • 1/4 cup of honey

  • 1/3 cup of ghee

  • 1 egg

  • 2/3 cup of coconut flour

  • 1/4 cup of tapioca flour

  • Dash of salt

Ingredients for filling

  • 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons, pulp is fine)

  • Zest of one lemon

  • 3 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup

  • 4 eggs

  • 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

  2. Rub a light coat of ghee on a 8x8 baking dish.

  3. For the crust, mix together all the ingredients with a fork. The mixture should form a dough you can roll into a ball. Put the crust in the freezer.

  4. Then move on to the filling. Put all the ingredients in a blender. Mix until the liquid is light and foamy.

  5. Take the crust out of the freezer and press it into the bottom of the pan. Poke the crush with a fork.

  6. Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges.

  7. Pour the filling onto the crust and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

  8. Continue to bake for another 15-18 minutes. You’ll know the filling is set when you gently shake the pan and the filling only wiggles a tiny bit.

Kale-ifornia Salad

Kale. Stiff, bitter, dry kale. I didn’t appreciate it until I learned how to eat it.

Kale is good in soups and sautéed, but I finally figured out how to eat it in a salad. The key is to let the dressing soften the kale. Unlike spinach or lettuce, kale won’t wilt into a wet mess if it sits out in dressing.

ingredients

  • 2 bunches of kale

  • 1/2 cup of almonds

  • 3 tablespoons of tahini

  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup

  • Garlic powder

  • Salt

  • Pepper

instructions

  1. After washing the kale, pull the leaves off the stems. Chop into bite-size pieces and put them in a large mixing bowl for later.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the tahini, apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup. Add dashes of garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Adjust the measurements to taste.

  3. Pour the dressing over the kale and add the almonds.

  4. Massage the dressing into the kale. Over the course of the day, the dressing will soften the kale and make it more enjoyable to eat.

Alterations

  • I love adding a jammy egg or crispy baked chickpeas to my salad. Sometimes I’ll add dried cherries or red onions.

  • A teaspoon of dijon mustard in the dressing is a nice addition too - adds a nice tang.