A Good Thing. But a Bad Thing. And a Recipe.

Besides being too, too cute (note the pose she can strike with about 2 seconds notice), Elisabeth has become so, so helpful in the kitchen.

She loves working in the kitchen.  I knew it already, but it was neat to overhear her tell an adult that last week, when asked about her favorite hobbies.   It is wonderful how much quicker tasks can be accomplished when we're working together and....she is so much fun!

E is almost always smiling and in a good mood...ready to laugh at any moment.  And it is not unusual at all for Elisabeth to hum or sing as she goes about her tasks in the kitchen (and everywhere else around the house also!).

She has progressively gotten better wielding a knife, following a recipe, etc.  A few weeks ago Elisabeth cooked supper all by herself: Salmon with Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce, and roasted asparagus.  She never asked me one question and she didn't even have to follow any recipes, because we've made those dishes together so many times that she just knew it all by heart.

Saturdays are our big days to get work done here around our homestead.  And I'm not one of those mamas to stay inside all day doing tasks (not that there isn't plenty to do!) while everyone else is outside.  I want to be outside in the thick of it!  Knowing this, the past few weeks, Elisabeth has offered to make lunch for everyone, so I can stay outside longer.  Now it takes her a while to get it all done, but she does get it done and it is great.  We all file in and find pretty plates full of tuna salad, sliced apples, peeled/cut up carrots, slices of cheese, little bowls of sauerkraut,etc.  So thankful for this help!

Elisabeth has become so proficient in the kitchen that she has started wanting to make some things all by herself.  A couple days ago she whipped up a batch of homemade chocolate ice cream.  (We are loving this ice cream maker I surprised Jas with for Christmas - don't need rock salt and ice anymore when we make ice cream - woohoo!)

And on the same day she made the ice cream, she also made a batch of Blackberry Chocolate Truffles...

...and yes, they are as good as they sound.  (recipe below)

And she has gotten way too proficient at making these Chocolate Coconut Macaroons...

We just had our third batch in two weeks.  Each batch has disappeared in less than 24 hours. 

You may notice a trend in E's culinary accomplishments:  she likes to make treats.  In fact, she's not at all afraid to get her hands dirty....if she's making treats:

And therein lies the rub:  While these treats are all GAPS-friendly...they are treats.  Not something that we should be eating as often as we (ok...**I**) have been!  

Ohhhhhh....but it's all so yummy, though!

But seriously, I need to rein in my sweet tooth.

We want to record the Blackberry Chocolate Truffle recipe here, because, well, otherwise we'll forget how she did it.  This is based upon a Raspberry Chocolate Truffle recipe we made a few months ago.  But this time, we had a different berry on hand, we didn't want to mess with cooking the mixture first, and we subbed raisins for the dates (because we very jealously guard our dates...hand OFF our dates!)

Blackberry Chocolate Truffles

3/4 c. raisins

1 c. blackberries

6 tbsp water

1 c. melted coconut oil

1/2 tbsp vanilla

1/2 c. cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and whiz together.  Scoop mixture into a mini-muffin tin and either freeze or refrigerate, so they will firm up.  You can roll the resulting truffles in more cocoa powder if you'd like, but we just eat straight up like this!  Yum!