CARROT COCONUT CURRY CRACKERS

October’s flavors for the #ImprovCookingChallenge are curry and carrots. Curry is not an ingredient our family uses much, however. I tried a batch of crackers where I toasted spices & ground our own curry powder; but alas, they taste so overwhelmingly of corriander and will probably sit on the counter until thrown on the compost heap…

For the next batch I decided to add a flavor which often is used along with curry dishes: coconut!

Coconut flour is normally difficult to work with because it soaks up whatever liquid might be in a recipe. (I so wish to forget the first coconut flour baked donuts I attempted…) This property, though, is a plus when it comes to working with raw carrots & crackers.

You might wonder at the lack of salt in my recipe. Because the hubs is supposed to be low-sodium, I decided to add just a hint of it for a topper. You certainly could add it to the dough if you desired. The smoked sesame seeds add such an interesting flavor dimension to the cracker.

I don’t believe these will make it to the compost pile…

In fact, the crumbs are being scooped into mouths right now!

Check out the following links for more carrot & curry recipes:

An InLinkz Link-up

Sriracha Almonds

Today is my Daddy’s birthday. I cooked him a gift.

I etched a jar from the HobLob to contain his gift.I made him laugh with the way I worded the etching.My job here is done!

Bacon-studded Honey Mustard Snaxx

This month’s Improv ingredients are pretzels & mustard. I love making mustard (like I did here) but one must do that not-at-the-last-minute for a challenge!

Anyhow, the wonderhubs has a life-long aversion to pretzels, & I am currently (involuntarily) participating in an aversion to gluten. My solution was to come up with a gluten-free snack mix, where he could pick around those nazzzty pretzel pieces.

I’d been seeing “Muddy Buddies” & “Chex Snack” mixes done in the crock pot on various blogs. That sounded so much more exciting to me than heating the oven/house for an hour or two while toasting the mix. (If your slow cooker, like mine, does not have a vent, you will need to use a towel to absorb the “perspiration” that comes off the mix as it cooks.)

Here’s my recipe:

¼ cup mustard powder

¼ cup water

½ cup butter

½ cup honey

3 cups Corn Bran Crunch™ cereal

3 cups Rice Chex™ cereal

3 cups Honey Nut Chex™ cereal

3 cups gluten free pretzels

2 cups gluten free rice crackers

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup bacon crumbles

Mix mustard powder with water and let sit to thicken 10-15 minutes. Melt butter and stir in honey. Add thickened mustard and whisk until smooth.

Combine remaining ingredients into crock. Pour over honey mustard mixture and stir gently.Cook on “Low” for 2 hours, carefully stirring every 30 minutes.

Pour onto parchment paper to cool.Devour!

This makes you wish for a larger crock…

…because you want to TRIPLE the recipe!

Check out what my friends did with their pretzels & mustard:

An InLinkz Link-up

“Almost Elote” Popcorn

Elote is that incredible food known also as Mexican Street Corn. Usually it is grilled, slathered with mayo & a powdered dry cheese, then sprinkled with spices and perhaps a squeeze of lime.

Since May’s Improv Challenge ingredients were cilantro & lime, I figured I’d try my hand with an elote version that wouldn’t need quite so many napkins!

First, I made the “sauce” to toss on the popped corn. I found these little cubes of goodness at the Mexican market. (I use them quite often when I’m cooking black beans or making my White Chili…)Tossed one of each into the 1/4 cup lime juice to soften

then added 1/2 cup melted butter.

 

I popped the corn in bacon grease. Yes, leftover bacon grease. I used 1 & 1/2 cups popping corn (popped in 3 batches). I dumped the hot kernels into a large lidded bowl & poured the butter/lime mixture over and shook well. Then I dumped the slightly wet corn into a pan, spread it out and stuck in a 300° oven for about 10 minutes to dry out. (Oh the smells that went wafting out the windows into my neighborhood!)

In the meantime I mixed 3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon lime zest & 1 teaspoon dried cilantro. When the hot corn came out of the oven, this was generously sprinkled over…If you can spare any, package it in a bucket to give away.

Unfortunately, mine is all gone…

 

 

 

And here’s what my friends created with their cilantro & lime “ingrediaments”:

An InLinkz Link-up