Lemon Yogurt Cake

Luscious Lemon Cake...

From deep in the Gluten-Free Goddess archives, a lemon cake you may have missed... Ever since I saw Ilva's sumptuous Almond and Ricotta Cake I've been jonesing for something with lemon. The odd thing is- her cake doesn't even have lemon (strange the way our mind works and sweeps us away along memory traceries of scent and flavor) but I started craving a cake laced with citrus- not too sweet and not too light. A cake with character and heft.

The day I decided to bake, of course, I had no ricotta, but I did have organic plain yogurt and plenty of blanched almond flour. Inspired by Ilva's recipe, I tweaked her ingredients with those I had on hand and baked up a lovely simple cake that reminds me of a coffee cake I remember liking as a child, a bakery cake called Louisiana Ring made by Freihofer's- yet in truth, that cake featured a hint of orange rather than lemon.

There's that memory glitch again.

Some intuitive leap from taste to taste. An image, a smell can trigger a remembrance as vivid as the day you experienced it, enhanced, I imagine, by hindsight. This ability sharpens as you get older.

Time seems to condense into the senses (invoking forgotten details). You start believing the Buddha's theory about ten dimensions. You start savoring the smallest moments. Your husband hands you a mug of green tea, the steam rising in the late afternoon sun slatted through the bamboo window shade, and a loss from the past heals for a moment.

Next time I make this recipe I think I'll use oranges.

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Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

Fresh baked lemon-blueberry muffins, Darling.

Sunshine + Lemon

With all the snow the Winter of 2015 has wrought (wreaked?), I thought I'd reprise this sunny lemon recipe for storm-weary spirits.

From the archives: Caught in the clutches of an Arctic Vortex, what's a Gluten-Free Goddess to do? Why, bake, of course. (The calorie-stingy- but oh-so-delicious!- detox soup recipe will still be there tomorrow, in all it's green and virtuous glory. Don't you worry.) When the icy winds howl like Banshees on the headlands and the snow flies sideways in stinging barbs as sharp as an art/music/film/literary critic's those-who-can't-do-criticize sarcasm, I lock the windows and doors, Darling, and hunker down in our humble winter rental, praying to the Power Gods that the electricity will hold (our sole source of warmth and comfort- how I miss a fireplace! And a wood stove- so much more soulful and dependable, in a self reliant sort of way). I pull on layers of L. L. Bean waffle cotton and plaid and crank up the oven.

Baking lemon-blueberry muffins, then, accomplishes two things.

It warms us twice.

Body and soul.


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Snowy Lemon Cookies

Light and lemony gluten-free wheat-free cookies.

My Luscious Lemon Cookies Recipe...

It is a vaguely unnerving thing to look back and see the past curving away behind you, blurring into a soft and distant memory. So often we food bloggers write about the future, imagining holidays- like Christmas (and lemon cookies)- perched in a hot, noisy apartment on a bright September afternoon, conjuring the stillness of snow and December candlelight.

Such is the blogging life- often a life lived forward, imagining the new.

I am in a Terence Malick sort of mood. Wanting to escape with my iPad and watch To the Wonder- for the third time this week.

And wishing I had some of these Snowy Lemon Cookies.


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Multigrain Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Multigrain gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffins.

I usually don't bake in the summer. I mean. Do you? Who in their right mind likes to crank up the oven when it's hot and steamy outside? At my age darling, I'm sticky enough as it is. Hot flashing and fanning myself with the latest issue of AARP as I bounce and waggle on one of those bubblegum hued balance balls, lurching at my desk like a pear-bottomed yoga reject seeking not enlightenment, I am sorry to tell you, but the promise of burning three hundred extra calories as I sit and write. Apparently using one's sacred core (or is it sacroiliac?) to perch atop a ridiculously big ball with a penchant for rolling sideways requires fuel.

More fuel than say, slumping.

Or lying on the sofa reading a book. With the oscillating fan on high.

Which is what I'd rather be doing.

Preferably with a bar of organic dark chocolate.

I would rather keep the kitchen cool. By not cooking (that's why the Goddess- in her infinite wisdom- invented tomato sandwiches).

But a certain husband had a craving. For a lemon poppy seed muffin. Our son planted this idea in his head last week, during an impromptu visit. Said son was blithely munching on a lovely looking gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffin. Freshly baked. Adapted from one of my muffin recipes. He mentioned, in passing, it was fabulous.

His secret?

I used a little cornmeal, he told us.

And thus the muffin craving was born.

And who am I to deny my husband.

He buys me dark chocolate after all.

And turns on the fan. So that I don't have to get up from the sofa.

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Lemon-Iced Ginger Thins

A holiday cookie for grown-ups. Ginger thins with lemon icing.

Thin and Sweet Winter Treat

Indulge me a little, won't you? I promise it won't hurt a bit. This week I'm sharing a wonderful gluten-free wheat-free Christmas cookie recipe I created for Allergic Living magazine last year. A recipe too good not to post here on the blog and share online. Some of you Allergic Living readers may remember it. It is a lovely, crispy-chewy ginger cookie with lemon icing. There is a slight change in the recipe. I've switched out the brown rice flour for sorghum flour- a gluten-free wheat-free flour I much prefer.

We are still settling in to our Connecticut abode. Gearing up for our first winter in three years- since Northern New Mexico. Unpacking books. And art supplies. Installing a wall easel in the studio. Hanging a pine wreath. Watching for chickadees. Anticipating the coming Winter Solstice.

Moving into Winter- and the darkest weeks of the year- from sun abundant Los Angeles is both surreal and invigorating. Embracing change. Welcoming the new. Dreaming of what the New Year will bring us.

It's all good.


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