primal Archives - Page 3 of 5 - A Calculated Whisk

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork with Peach Barbecue Sauce

April 17, 2015 By Becky 49 Comments

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Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork with Peach Barbecue Sauce | acalculatedwhisk.com

I’m not sure where to start: there are so many exciting things going on here! We’ve got a tangy, sweet, paleo peach barbecue sauce, spice-rubbed, slow-cooked pork that’s perfect on its own or drenched in the aforementioned sauce, and a pair of hard-core, handy-dandy meat claws.

Was that too many adjectives? Is it possible for a tool to be both hard core and handy dandy? I apologize–there’s just something about pulled pork that makes me a bit verbose. It’s so tender, so easy, so versatile, and so GOOD.

For this recipe, a pork shoulder is coated in a simple spicy-sweet mix and popped in the slow cooker with an onion and a bit of olive oil. While the pork is cooking, you can put your feet up and enjoy the wonderful aroma permeating your house.

Or, you can make some peach barbecue sauce to go with it.

Golden Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

April 11, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

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Golden Cake with Strawberries & Whipped Cream (Gluten free, Grain free) | acalculatedwhisk.com

How were your Easter and/or Passover celebrations? Ben and I had a few people over on Saturday and then went to another Easter dinner on Sunday. I won a pork crown roast from Snake River Farms over at Rhubarbarians, and it was pretty great. I also made this cake–we enjoyed one of the layers on Saturday, and brought the other one, pictured here, to the party on Sunday.

So, yes, I’ve been sitting on this cake recipe for an entire week. I apologize! I had one of those very busy weeks that I should have seen coming, but instead somehow managed to take me completely by surprise. Am I the only one that happens to? Between papers and evaluation reports and trying to get at least a little shuteye, it took me all week just to edit these photos.

Kale and Bacon Quiches with Hash Brown Crust

April 1, 2015 By Becky 42 Comments

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Kale and Bacon Quiches with Hash Brown Crust | acalculatedwhisk.com

It’s my second blog birthday! I feel like I’ve come a long way since my very first post, but last year’s blogiversary feels like it was just yesterday. Time flies when you’re eating well!

At the risk of sounding sappy, I want to say thank you for stopping by my site. Reading your comments and connecting with you on social media makes my day, and turns the often solitary activities of cooking, photographing, and writing into something that’s actually meaningful.

To celebrate the occasion, I made grain-free kale and bacon quiches with hash brown crust. They’re like little crispy nests of savory goodness. This was my first time making a potato crust, and I’m totally hooked. I’m even thinking it might work in some sort of a dessert pie (is that too radical?). Here, the crunchy potato tangles hold a filling of eggs, kale, shallots, crisp bacon, and crumbled goat cheese. These are perfect for Easter brunch or any weekend morning (or a blogiversary, of course).

As I embark on my third year of blogging, I’d love to hear from you. What would you like to see more of here on A Calculated Whisk? For example, are you looking for quick and easy recipes, Whole30 meals, desserts, vegetarian meals, or something else? Would you like to see more non-recipe posts (reviews, giveaways, perhaps travel stories)? Whatever it is, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Crispy Chicken with Spring Vegetables

March 13, 2015 By Becky 2 Comments

Remember when Dorothy threw a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West? And the witch screamed in agony: “I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world!”

As I walked to the train station yesterday afternoon, I could almost hear my city’s dirty snow screaming the exact same thing. Boston is not free of snow yet, but we sure have a lot less of it.

The thaw seemed like my cue to start celebrating spring in the kitchen by making a dish with bright green veggies. For the protein I went with crispy chicken thighs, because truly crispy chicken skin is the best thing ever. Ben only likes skin-on chicken when it’s as crunchy as possible and not moist at all, so I practiced and practiced and now have my routine for chicken-crisping down pat.

Here’s how you do it: sear the chicken skin side down in a very hot skillet for a little longer than it seems like you should, and then flip it over and finish it in a 450 degree oven. While the chicken roasts, you’ll have just enough time to fry some bacon and chop your veggies. Then, while the chicken rests, the vegetables cook in the fat from the chicken infused with a bit of lemon.

Orange Peach Raspberry Smoothie

March 9, 2015 By Becky 4 Comments

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Orange Peach Raspberry Smoothie (Paleo, Vegan)

This orange peach raspberry smoothie is bright, easy, tasty, and full of antioxidants. Avocado and a bit of turmeric give this smoothie great depth of flavor.

When I’m sick, I crave smoothies. Just thinking about blending together a bunch of vitamin-packed produce makes me feel a tad better, and my outlook only improves once I’m actually drinking it. Smoothies, especially ones that look like sunshine in a glass, also help me momentarily forget about winter. For me, they’re are an important aspect of self-care.

I wanted this smoothie to have plenty of Vitamin C, so I used oranges, peaches, and raspberries. Also, like I almost always do, I added an avocado. It makes the smoothie really creamy, but you won’t taste it. The healthy fat from the avocado also makes this nice and filling.

To make the smoothie pack even more of a punch, I added some turmeric and fresh ginger. In addition to providing more potential health benefits, these rhizomes add depth of flavor, and the turmeric deepens the golden color.

The cara cara oranges I used also contributed to the hue of this drink. I bet using blood oranges would make the color pop even more!

Grain-free Coffee Cake Muffins

March 7, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

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Grain-free Coffee Cake Muffins | acalculatedwhisk.com

These grain-free coffee cake muffins make a decadent grab-and-go breakfast, complete with a cinnamon swirl inside and streusel on top.

Having a dozen freshly baked coffee cake muffins in your kitchen is like having all 12 new episodes of House of Cards waiting for you on Netflix, brand new and ready to be enjoyed. In fact, I think the muffins are even better, because I can make more of them whenever I want. Once I finish watching that last House of Cards episode, I’m out of luck for a long time.

Can you tell that I’ve already watched all of Season 3 (and eaten all of these coffee cake muffins)? What is left for me to look forward to?

Blood Orange Mascarpone Panna Cotta

March 4, 2015 By Becky 4 Comments

My winter survival strategy goes a little something like this: hibernate, obsessively check the sunrise and sunset calendar to track the slow lengthening of days, and eat all the blood oranges.

I buy blood oranges every time I see them at the store, but I love snacking on them so much that this is the first time all season that I’ve managed to use them for a blog recipe. I’m so used to having a supply of them around that when I turned to the fruit bowl the other day, ready to make this panna cotta, I was surprised to find there was only one orange left.

Luckily, that single fruit yielded just enough vibrant zest and sweet juice to lend the perfect amount of citrusy brightness to this panna cotta. If you’re not familiar with panna cotta, it’s like an eggless pudding. It couldn’t be easier to make. The name means “cooked cream”, but I’d hardly even call it cooking–the cream is warmed over low heat for less than five minutes, just long enough to dissolve the gelatin. For this recipe, the gelatin and cream are whisked with blood orange juice and mascarpone for an extra creamy, cheesecake-like finish. The panna cotta is sweetened with honey, which adds a floral note that plays nicely off the bright flavors of the orange juice and zest.

Breakfast Potatoes

February 9, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

I love breakfast potatoes (or home fries, cottage fries, or whatever you prefer to call them), but they take a while to make. It’s a rare morning when I wake up with enough time and patience to chop potatoes and wait for them to cook, in the oven or on the stovetop.

That’s why I was so excited to read about this brilliant shortcut on Blue Kitchen: microwaving the potatoes for a few minutes with a little water gives them a head start, and they then finish cooking quickly in a skillet over medium-high heat. The best part is that this technique is more than just a shortcut: the potatoes turn out BETTER than potatoes cooked only in the oven or skillet–perfectly browned and crisp on the outside, and tender but not dry on the inside.

Chewy Molasses Cookies

December 25, 2014 By Becky 5 Comments

Is it too late for a Christmas cookie?

If it is, I understand. I hope you’ll consider this as you’re choosing a Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve, or random January afternoon cookie. Chewy grain-free molasses cookies work anytime.

Normally I don’t love cookies unless there’s chocolate or caramel involved, but I’ve made an exception here. There’s something about the rich flavor of molasses in a chewy cookie with a hint of crunch from a coating of sparkling sugar that I can really get into.

Grain-free Cranberry Orange Bread

November 21, 2014 By Becky 10 Comments

My family doesn’t have a well-defined set of Thanksgiving traditions. Growing up with divorced parents, I often divided my time between two Thanksgiving dinners, having the main meal at one house and dessert at another. Things always felt briefly desolate as I was shuttled between the two under the cover of early nightfall, but a slice of pie (or three) put an end to that pretty fast. And I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on spending time with either of my families.

My mom and I usually had dinner at a friends’ house, and didn’t have to do much of the cooking. (I don’t think either of us has ever roasted a whole turkey, unless she did a bunch of turkey-roasting before I was born and neglected to tell me about it.)

Almond Butter Thumbprints with Salted Caramel

October 27, 2014 By Becky 44 Comments

My mom, my boyfriend, and I are really grateful to Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories for introducing us to these amazing cookies. I know it’s a bit hard to believe because this was a pretty big batch, but we ate them all between the three of us. I was not interested in sharing with anyone else because they were too good.

Even though they’re paleo cookies made with almond butter, they taste very similar to traditional peanut butter cookies, and the crumbly, buttery cookie and creamy salted caramel are an unbeatable team.

Maple Apple Spice Cake

October 20, 2014 By Becky 16 Comments

My boyfriend doesn’t like things made with apples, pumpkin, or squash, so fall is kind of a hard time for us. I’m all like, “It’s time to apple-pumpkin-squashify all the things!” and he’s all like, “Oh, it looks like there’s some bread over there for toast.” Literally, he had toast for lunch the other day. I could not even get him to try a bite of this butternut squash soup with fried garlic and chili oil.

I’ve been a paleo food blogger for long enough that I feel like a little bit of a failure when my boyfriend has toast for lunch.

Things are going a little bit better on the apple front, though, because Ben really liked this cake. Unless you’re the one to stir the grated apple into the batter, which would be a pretty major tipoff, you probably won’t know that there’s any apple in it. It does help make the batter extra moist, though, kind of like the zucchini in zucchini bread, and also adds a little more sweetness.