GAPS Day 16: Snow day!

Great Christmas Snowpocalypse of 2010

Winter Storm Stella hit NYC with a whimper... I'm not complaining though, having lived through Hurricane Sandy and the blizzard of '10. That one snowed me and my best friend in my apartment for a days. We dodged a bullet this time but my train isn't running so G and I stayed home yay! Which is great, because I really wanted to make some GAPS chocolate cake to make up for yesterday. Chocolate cake with FROSTING! I'm using this recipe.

We were supposed to get up to 2 feet of snow but this morning it was downgraded to a few inches. At least for NYC, go a little north or west of us and it's crazy snowy. It's snowing a bit here right now, though. Blowing like crazy - the wind is still pretty bad. Beautiful weather to be baking in the kitchen, listening to jazz and just enjoying myself. I don't think I would have been so happy a few weeks ago; the feeling of pure pleasure that I had, just messing around in the kitchen while the snow blew outside... I don't think I've had that in years. Decades even. Thanks GAPS!

There are a couple of recipes that I threw together this morning that are interesting. The first is scallion pancakes! I'm making GAPS pancakes, and decided to gussy them up a bit. I'm not enamored with acorn squash - butternut is still the best to eat straight! Although the calabasa pumpkin pie turned out delicious! (I did use half the amount of honey to keep the sweetness levels low, and therefore the addictiveness of it low... I'm still addicted, though.) I used this basic GAPS pancake recipe and added a few things: sauteed onions, fish sauce, coconut aminos, and then I tossed in some chopped scallion and a half a slice of bacon, fried very crisp. Definitely not GAPS intro... I don't even know if I should say I'm still on GAPS intro. I was planning on moving forward with the intro stages but with the snow day, and yestrday's bake off, I just wanted a little treat. My feet kind of hurt this morning so this may be a bad idea physically but my mental health is much better. I'll go back to Stage 4 tomorrow.

I had "siracha" chicken salad with the scallion pancakes: I mimicked the hot/garlicky/sweet taste of the siracha with honey, garlic, and Tabasco in my homemade mayonnaise. The mayonnaise turned out AMAZING too, really thick and rich. I used 2 egg yolks instead of one whole egg. Figured it was more nutritious, even though I hate throwing out food.  :(   Added some chopped cucumber (scallion would have been nice here, too) and it was good to go. Awesome meal! The great thing about doing the early stages of the GAPS intro is that afterwards just about everything tastes UTTERLY DELICIOUS!

GAPS Scallion Pancakes

1 cup squash
1/2 cup nut butter
4 eggs
Fish sauce
Coconut aminos
Salt (sea or Himalayan)
Chopped scallions
Crumbled bacon (optional)
Bacon fat

Put squash, nut butter, eggs, fish sauce, coconut aminos, and salt (I did it by eye but I'd say about a teaspoon of each) in a food processor or blender and mix everything together. Mix in scallions and bacon into batter and fry small pancakes in bacon fat.

Oh yeah, glue ear is back. I'm not sure if it ever really went away - maybe I just had a good day? I'll periodically feel something weird deep in my ear, as if there was some earwax or thick snot adjusting a bit. Ick.