Christmas Breakfast

Since my kids were born, my parents come over to my place for Christmas.  After we moved closer to them, we’ve split the hosting duties — morning (with the tree and presents, and breakfast) at my place, then we all go to their place for dinner.

Because we’re having a big dinner, and usually a relatively early one, we’ve found it works best to have brunch after the presents are done that will keep us satisfied until dinner.  When I was a kid this usually meant pancakes or the like, with some snacking on a cracker and cheese plate through the day.

This clearly isn’t going to work in someone aiming for a primal lifestyle, or even a low-carb diet, so in the last few years it’s shifted more to some sort of egg dish.  Omelettes are fairly straightforward, and there are a few variations that are more convenient to cook (such as Denvers — chop the other ingredients smaller and mix directly with the egg before cooking), but I wanted something different this year.

I’m not entirely sure what this is called, or what it will be called, but I think it’ll happen in my house again.  It was pretty good.

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Primal Egg Nog

Primal Egg Nog

So, I decided to take a run at primal egg nog.  It turned out to be really simple, though thanks to a verbal stumble I think it will be referred to around my house as “OG Nog” (note: guttural pronunciation is key; feel free to bellow) from now on.

Pictures to follow, after I fetch the camera from upstairs.

More than two weeks later, I finally got around to pulling the pictures off the camera.

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Primal Hot Chocolate

I have never been a huge fan of hot chocolate, but from time to time it is nice.  Many of the ingredients normally in hot chocolate are, however, not allowed.

This is my second try at primal-friendly hot chocolate.

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Salad is Boring, huh?

"Boring Salad"

So, I’ve been told that salad is a boring meal.  I don’t think so.

This is a pretty simple and straightforward salad with dressing.  The drink is a 20-ounce mug of water (yes, there’s that much salad there) with perhaps 1/2 teaspoon of lime juice.

(That handle sticking out of the bowl?  An ugly spoon from the dollar store, nobody tries to take it, even by accident.  I’ve had people return it to me when I forget it somewhere.)

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Primal Turkey Gravy

As a bit of practice before Christmas I tried to put together a primal turkey dinner.  I got fairly close with

• Roast turkey
• Coconut bread stuffing (I’ll put up a recipe for coconut bread later)
• Curried broccoli salad
• Berries and whipped coconut milk
• Gravy

The gravy was a bit interesting, but turned out well.

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Yet Another Mountain Tutorial

I’ve been using GIMP to draw maps for a while now. A little over a year ago I wrote a tutorial describing the techniques I was using to drawn mountains.  Examination of recent web searches suggests it was a popular download from this site, and it was removed during the revamping last week.

I’m uploading the document here to make it accessible again.

Yet Another Mountain Tutorial in GIMP (pdf)

More Than I’d Thought

I’ve been watching my site stats for the last few days, and it appears that it was somewhat busier than I’d previous suspected.  I’m seeing a lot of web searches directing people to my site, mostly for gaming material I may no longer have present.  I thought I’d gotten most of it, but it seems the things people are actually looking for are no longer there.

That being the case, if someone is looking for something that used to be on this site and that may have moved, please drop me a line via the contact form on this site or at my gaming site (http://www.kjd-imc.org/contact/) and I’ll see what I can do.

I have copied all RPG material from my previous site (here, before it was replaced with a WordPress site) to http://www.kjd-imc.org/oldsite/.  Over time this material will be better-integrated with the other site and removed from the /oldsite/ location, but for now it will at least be available.

Wheat Pizza Crust

At Robin’s request, here’s a recipe for wheat pizza crust.

This recipe makes enough for one thin-crust medium pizza, and was originally derived from a recipe for pita bread.

Many bread recipes call for multiple rising periods, usually to double the original volume.  My normal bread recipe, for example, calls for three such rises.  Pizza is a flatbread, though, so while you may let the dough rest for a time, it isn’t really necessary to let it rise so much.

One very happy thing about making bread, though — yeast bread is very, very forgiving.  As long as you adequately develop the gluten and don’t kill the yeast, (and don’t burn things when you cook them — there’s a reason I make the dough and shape the bread, and my wife actually bakes it) you should end up with some decent product.
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Healthy Pizza

Pizza after cooking

I decided to take a run at pizza, using the healthiest set of ingredients I could come up with.  I’m not entirely satisfied, but it was good enough I’d be willing to work on this as a start.

This recipe is adapted (more or less successfully) from one I found at http://eatthecookie.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/dear-pizza-i-missed-you-so-much/.

Crust Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (I was feeling lazy so just used olive oil)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons granulated garlic or garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground dried chilis

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Whipped Coconut Milk

This is a pretty decent replacement for whipped cream.  There is a mild coconut taste, but the way I’ve been using it so far (served with berries) that has actually been pretty nice.

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Alternate Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon stevia
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Frangelico

Directions

Put coconut milk in a 2 cup measure. Sprinkle xanthan gum on top. Beat vigorously until the coconut milk stiffens.  The air trapped in the coconut milk by this process means you will likely end up with about 1.5 cups of whipped coconut milk.

This can be used much as whipped cream is. There is a mild coconut flavor, but this doesn’t seem to cause any problems for me. Depending what I am doing, I might add some additional flavoring agents to it — a bit of stevia sweetens it, cinnamon makes it quite a nice complement to fruit, Frangelico does both (if you like hazelnut liqueur).