getting our camp on

Well, first a recipe, inspired by a tart I made, inspired by a lemon and

chocolate tart from the restaurant Lucques.

I followed the lemon curd recipe, replacing butter with coconut oil and

adding lemon zest, with about 2/3 the amount of sugar it called for. For

a gluten-free crust, I used a combination of sunflower seed meal, teff,

buckwheat, and sweet rice flours with cornstarch and xanthan gum, with

a touch of sugar, salt, and coconut oil, and ice water.

The tart was excellent, but I was left with a bowl of leftover lemon curd

that didn't fit. So running with the lemon chocolate idea, I now have a

mini batch of lemon curd and chocolate sandwich cookies.

the cookie:

it's basically the same as a date nut bar (which is made of dates and nuts)

but cooked.

dates

nuts

optional: sunflower/sesame/hemp/flax seeds, cacao nibs, buckwheat

crunchies, etc.

combine your choice of nuts (I used cashews walnuts and almonds) in a

blender or food processor (or coffee grinder if that's all you've got), and

chop coarsely.

pour these into a bowl, add seeds and crunchies and mix.

add dates (pitted) and mix with your fingers until the dates are well

integrated and everything sticks together.

here you can separate the mix into bowls if you want to make different

flavors. i made a chocolate, a curry and a lemon.

to the lemon ones, add lemon zest and a touch of lemon juice (to taste).

make the dough into tiny balls and flatten to discs.

bake at 325 for 15 minutes, chill.

while the cookies are chilling, melt a tiny bit of chocolate in a double

boiler (i use a frying pan on top of a saucepan). add a touch of salt.

dip the cookies pan side first in the chocolate, invert on a plate, and freeze

until the chocolate solidifies.

spread on a thin layer of lemon curd, and sandwich away!

keep cookies in fridge.

Alternatively, the cookies without any chocolate or lemon curd make really

great snacks while biking, which is what they were this weekend on our bike

trip to China Camp State Park in San Rafael.

The ride was great, it's a pretty wonderful feeling to be so independent, with

everything you need on your vehicle (maybe if I knew how to drive I would

have discovered this feeling a long time ago). With a slow-paced 35ish miles

each way, there was lots of time to think, gaze, daydream, sunbathe, etc. The

things I learned are as follows:

Always secure your bags to your bike well.

Sunscreen!

Don't put all your beers in the cooler at once; if you don't finish them, the

coons'll get the thing open and steal your food.

Raccoons like truffle cheese.

Mexican food is a bad idea mid-ride.

Radio waves travel close to the speed of light, which is why there's no doppler

effect when you are driving and listening.

If you don't have any tongs, keep a bag of cold water at hand, dip your hand in

it before going for the food on the grill and you won't burn.

Lady Gaga probably has something to do with the Singularity.

Just some snapshots from the trip: