Honey Substitute

My husband has many allergies.  One of the most dangerous ones he has had to deal with is his allergy to honey.  In 2000, he had an anaphylactic reaction to honey and nearly died.  We never have any in the house and I try to avoid buying foods containing honey.  Many recipes, especially "healthy" ones, call for honey as a sweetener.  Molasses (fancy type) is usually my substitute for honey, but I have found sometimes molasses is too strong of a flavour.  It's usually fine in something like bread.

After some online searching, I came up with a substitute for honey.  If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of honey, I take a glass (liquid) 1 cup measure and put 1/2 cup of either brown or white sugar in it.  Then I carefully add enough water to bring the mixture up to the half cup line on the glass measure, stir, and use in the recipe.

Originally, I thought I could just replace honey with an equal amount of sugar.  This doesn't work, though.  Honey not only adds sweetness to your product but it also adds moisture, since it is a liquid.

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Homemade Tortillas

In an effort to be frugal, I tried making my own tortillas.  They were very easy to make, just a little time consuming.  I used a recipe from Cooks.com (go here to get it!).

 Yes, we like bananas (and they are $0.50/lb this week!)

They came out a little thicker and more irregularly shaped than commercially prepared tortillas, but they tasted very good.  This would be a good recipe to make in bulk someday when I have some extra time (haha).

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Feasting on Fragaria (aka strawberries)!

We have been eating LOTS of strawberries lately.  Fresh, local berries - not imported from anywhere (well, I did drive them home in my car).  The summers here are so short that I just go into a fresh fruit and veggie frenzy as soon as things start growing.  First comes the rhubarb, then wild strawberries, then cultivated strawberries.  By that point the garden is usually producing something - lettuce, spinach, green onions.  Raspberries come next and then blackberries and blueberries.  Last of all are cranberries (there's nothing quite like cranberries picked off the beach).

Back to the strawberries, though.  Of course, we've been eating them raw (Robbie has to have his cooked because of his plant enzyme allergy thing.  We pretty much have a microwave just so he can eat fruit.)  I've also made freezer jam and sorbet.  Both are super easy recipes.  For the freezer jam I just follow the recipe on the Garden Fare package.

The strawberry sorbet is pretty easy too.  Boil 1 1/4 cups water with 3/4 cup sugar for 5 minutes to make a syrup.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  Purée 3 cups strawberries (hulls and stems removed) in the blender until smooth, then add the cooled syrup and blend.  Pour into a shallow metal baking dish.  Put in the freezer and let it freeze until it's getting solid around the edges.  Stir to break up the frozen areas and return to the freezer.  keep doing this until it is slushy and can be scooped.  Serve or transfer to a tightly sealed container and keep in the freezer.  This makes about 4 cups (probably slightly more).  I got this recipe from a magazine (Today's Parent, July 2006).  The original recipe also calls for lemon juice, but I leave that out.  It might be a touch on the sweet side, but I think you could cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup.









It also makes a nice sauce for vanilla ice cream, as I found out when I couldn't get mine to freeze in time for a social.   Everybody wanted the recipe.

It's a delicious time of the year!  Thanks for visiting today.