Goat Cheese and Red Potato Tart

The farmer's market had some beautiful and fresh red potatoes that I just could not resist! So, a few days ago I made an adaptation of this recipe at Smitten Kitchen. It looked so good, I had to give it a try. It turned out just heavenly and I've not seen this dairy substitution too often, so I'll post it for other non-dairy families out there. In fact, this was my first attempt at a savory dish of this sort since going dairy free 2.5 years ago. So, here's my recipe:

1 Savory Tart Shell in a 9-inch tart pan and ready to fill (I used a store bought pie shell, but will attempt my own next time)
1 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup full-fat coconut milk
1 large egg yolk
1/4 pound goat or sheep cheese, crumbled, similar in flavor and texture to blue cheese (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoons finely chopped herb or herbs of your choice, such as a mixture of thyme and rosemary
Fine sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium saucepan, cover potato slices with water by two inches. Simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. If the potatoes don’t seem very dry, pat them dry with towels.

Arrange potato slices, overlapping slightly, in concentric circles around the tart pan. Sprinkle goat/sheep cheese over potatoes. Whisk coconut milk, egg yolk and salt (to taste) together and pour into tart shell, then sprinkle tart with herbs of your choice. I used tarragon and it was perfect!

Bake tart on a baking sheet until bubbling and golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan on rack and serve warm or cold. With a big green salad, for balance.

Cookies

I'm going to start posting some of my recipe adaptations. We're a mostly dairy-free, gluten-free family. We've been dairy free for 2.5 years since my 3rd child was born and we soon discovered that she was VERY allergic to dairy. To the point that I could not have even a hint of hidden dairy in my diet while nursing her or she'd reward us with hours upon hours of screaming. My 2nd daughter seems to be sensitive to gluten, though not celiac. I do allow her to have gluten outside of the house ocassionally, but we control it at home because it causes her much stomach distress and dark circles under her eyes. So, I've become good at adapting recipes. Here's what we're enjoying today.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

1/2 cup oatmeal flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Smart Balance Organic (or other dairy-free margarine)

3/4 cup sucanat

1 egg

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or use parchment paper. Stir together the flour, cocoa, xanthum gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the Smart Balance and sucanat. Beat in the egg and peppermint extract. Stir in the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Flatten with a fork.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Starting again

I've started blogs a few times. This time I want to keep this as a place to track our homeschool progress. Although, admittedly, I'll end up discussing other things in the process. Like our new baby boy. I'm a mom to 4 beautiful children. Scheeli, age 6.5, Bronwynn, age 5, Piper, age 2, and Wesley, who is only 11 days old.

With the older two, we've been doing Sonlight Core P4/5, Sonlight LA K, Math-U-See and Handwriting without Tears. Scheeli just started MUS Alpha and Bronwynn just started MUS Primer. Scheeli will also be finished with LA K in another 2 weeks and move onto LA 1. And we'll also be moving on Core K in another week or two. Scheeli has decided she wants to pursue cursive instead of HWT, so we'll be moving in that direction. Bronwynn is moving onto HWT K level next week. We started most of our curriculum in the spring and did a lot of work through the summer, though not as much as during the school year. Which explains why we're having so many grade level changes in curriculum in the next few weeks.

It should be quite an adventure trying to manage it all with a new baby and a toddler and I don't expect my house will be as clean as I'd like for at least the next year. But hopefully we can make it a fun adventure.