When my kids were little, we lived in the Hudson Valley of New York State, in a  fixer-upper house that never quite got fixed up. When my son had an allergic reaction to cow's milk, we were advised to start him on goat's milk. Back in the day, goat's milk was not readily available at the local grocery and health food stores were few and far between. So, we schlepped each week , recyclable bottles in tow, to a local farmer for our supply. Eventually, it seemed to make sense to milk our own goats (it didn't make that much sense in mid-winter when we trudged to the barn twice a day to milk them, though). Anyway, we had LOTS of milk, so I made yogurt and cheese. It was kind of a production, with precise temperatures and timing and special equipment. The kids didn't even like it. A lot of work for very little payback.

          Fast forward thirty-some odd years, and I am once again making yogurt and cheese (well, cream cheese, anyway), but this time with coconut milk and without all the paraphernalia. It's easy, fun, and, oh yes, delicious.

Coconut Yogurt
Makes about 1 pint

           This summer, my cousin Amy came for a visit and brought a rare and coveted gift, a container of Anita's Creamline Coconut Yogurt. I practically swooned when I tasted it and made up my mind to put in a standing order. Alas, Anita's is only available in New York City and they will not ship it no matter how hard you beg or grovel. When I looked up recipes for this yogurt, they all required hacking up baby coconuts to extract the meat. Way too labor-intensive, so I reconciled myself to no yogurt. But then I wondered what would happen if I used canned coconut milk, instead. And guess what, it's really, really good--not quite the amazing, sensual taste sensation of Anita's, but perfectly wonderful if you live in rural Maine and get to New York City maybe once every couple of years.

Ingredients
-Cream from the top of one can of coconut milk, plus enough coconut water from the can to make a smooth yogurt (I use Native Forest Unsweetened Organic Classic Coconut Milk. This brand contains organic guar gum, but when I tried this with a brand without guar gum, the texture was unacceptable. In any case, do not use reduced-fat coconut milk--unless you want to make kefir) If your kitchen is very warm, you can put the can in the refrigerator overnight before you use it so cream will thicken.
-Contents of one probiotic capsule

1. Scoop the cream from the top of the can and put it in a bowl. Add as much of the liquid from the bottom of the can as you like--if you want a thick, Greek-type yogurt, just add enough so you can stir the mixture; if you like traditional yogurt, add a little more liquid. Do not use the whole can or yogurt will not thicken properly.
2. Empty the contents of probiotic capsule into the cream and stir until well-combined. An immersion blender helps if there are lumps of coconut cream in the mixture.
3. Pour into sterile glass jar, cover, and place in a turned-off oven for 24 hours.
4. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Paleo Sour Cream
Makes about 1 pint

                 When my siblings and I were very young, sour cream and bananas was a favorite dinner choice. I don't remember if this was offered as the actual dinner, or maybe the alternative when we turned our noses up at what my mother put on the table (liver and onions, perhaps?). I actually loathed bananas, and this was the only way I would eat them. It still is, but now my sour cream is made with coconut milk. The bananas, however, are still made with bananas     
​ ( just slice them into a bowl and top with sour cream--voila, instant kid dinner. Or, even better, use coconut yogurt in place of the sour cream, add a tablespoon of raw organic hemp seeds, and you have a healthy adult breakfast).

Ingredients
1 can coconut milk (see yogurt recipe for information)
1 TBS fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt to taste

1. Scoop cream from top of coconut milk into bowl
2. Add lemon juice and salt to taste and mix thoroughly
3. Use in any recipe that calls for sour cream (like my Aunt Honey's Sorrel Soup, see below)

Paleo Cream Cheese

Ingredients
Same as for Paleo Sour Cream, above

1. Follow recipe for Paleo Sour Cream, above
2. Line a strainer with an unbleached coffee filter and place strainer over bowl, then add Paleo sour cream
3. Cover with a clean dish towel and leave on counter overnight so liquid can drain
4. Remove coffee filter and transfer to a small bowl. Refrigerate and use as you would any conventional cream cheese (yes, you can still have lox and bagels on Paleo--check out Elana Amsterdam's recipe for Paleo bagels on her website www.elanaspantry.com)

Aunt Honey's Sorrel Soup (Schav)
Serves 4

                  My mother was the oldest of 6 girls, and was 20 years older than her youngest sister, so I have several aunts who are not much older than I am. The following recipe, adapted for Paleo, is from my second youngest aunt, who always signs her letters to me FYAHWLY (from your Aunt Honey what loves you). As of mid-October, I still have sorrel (a lemony-tasting green) in the garden. It's a perennial and I planted it just for this soup (it also makes a great sauce for salmon).

Ingredients
3 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic (I omit this, because garlic doesn't like me)
1/4 cup ghee
Sorrel leaves (remove stalks and large veins), coarsely shredded, approximately 8-10 cups
2 TBS vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt, pepper to taste
4 cups low sodium chicken stock (I use Imagine brand)
1 egg, beaten
Paleo sour cream (see above) to garnish

1. Sauté onion (and garlic, if using) in ghee until golden
2. Add sorrel leaves, and cook, covered, until wilted (about 5 minutes)
3. Add stock, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper and cook, covered, about 30 minutes
4. When ready to serve, beat egg in a small bowl, add a little hot soup to the bowl  and then return the mixture to the pot. Stir well. Do not allow the soup to boil or the egg to set.
5. Serve at once with a dollop of sour cream.

About 10 years ago, we put an addition on our house. This scrawny, 3-foot-tall apple sapling was in the way, so the contractors dug it up and relegated it to the trash heap.  We rescued it and lovingly replanted it in a sunny spot in front of the house. The next year it was a little taller, and a couple of years later, it actually bore fruit (about six little apples). Fast forward to this year, and we are knee-deep in organic apples from the 9-foot tall tree we've named Frankie. I like to think she's giving back because she's so happy to have been saved.

I have 6 bushels packed away to store for the winter; I've made 10 pints of applesauce and enough filling for 5 apple pies; have given away apples to friends and the local soup kitchen; and I still have 3 or 4 bushels to do what with? Apple-ginger chutney? More pies? Apple clafoutis...definitely yes. And maybe even some apple butter.

This is so easy to make and freeze.

Apples
Water to cover
Honey, optional ( if your apples are very sweet, you may not need additional sweetener)

1. Core apples, but do not peel (you'll get a lovely pink sauce from red apples). Cut into chunks.
2. Put apples in large pot and add water to just cover the fruit.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer until apples are soft.
4. Put apples through a food mill and discard the peels.
5. Taste applesauce and add a little honey if you think it needs sweetening.
6. Pour into wide-mouthed freezer jars to fill-line and freeze. Enjoy with a roast chicken or turkey this winter.

O.K., the filling is easy, but more about that in a minute. I have been making the delicious Double Crust Apple Pie from Lisa Yockelson's book, Country Pies, since 1988, when the book was published. No, I take that back: I have been making the filling from this recipe since 1988 and then popping it between two ready-made, store-bought frozen pie crusts. They were good enough and, despite my many years in the kitchen, I was completely intimidated by pie crusts....especially since pie crusts made with lard had the reputation of being the best, and given my somewhat ambivalent relationship with pork (see Breakfast, Part 2, below)...Anyway, true confessions: Before I switched to Paleo, I don't remember ever making a pie crust. But now, if I want pie, I have to.

The pie crust recipe I like the best is the one with a lattice crust from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining, by Haley Mason and Bill Staley. I've made a couple of changes, though, substituting palm sugar for maple sugar and lard (yes, lard) for palm shortening. So, just so you should know from the get-go, this pie crust is a pain in the butt to make...and one of the most delicious pie crusts ever, Paleo or no. Probably because I used lard that was room temperature, I had to use a ton of arrowroot, a lot of which ended up on my kitchen counters and floor, and dogs do not clean up spilled arrowroot off the floor the way they clean up say, spilled turkey gravy or ice cream. The dough was not very stiff, so making a lattice top crust was out of the question. The strips I cut looked like a kindergartner had snipped them with plastic scissors. So, I abandoned the lattice and used a cookie cutter to cut out dough flowers for the top, instead. They don't exactly look like flowers, but I think the pie looks kind of rustic. The important thing, though, is that it tastes fabulous. So, come Thanksgiving, I'll roll up my sleeves, do some yoga breathing, and tackle this pie again.

Now, about that easy filling: one of the things I did with our apple bounty was to make enough filling for six pies and then freeze the filling in aluminum pie tins, and then put the filled tins in freezer bags. When it was time to bake the pie, I just popped the frozen filling into the partially-baked crust, no need to defrost it. This is a handy hint from Janet Chadwick's book, The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home. Of course, you can also make the filling fresh.

Filling (adapted from Country Pies)

1 TBS plus 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder
2/3 cup palm (coconut) sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 cups peeled, sliced apples (about 5 large apples), tossed in 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1. Combine arrowroot, palm sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add apples and toss (filling may be frozen at this point if you are not going to use it right away).

Crust (adapted from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining)

3 cups blanched almond flour
1 1/4 cup arrowroot, plus more for dusting (lots more, trust me)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup palm sugar
1 TBS vanilla extract
1/2 cup lard (I use Fatworks Pure Lard, ordered online. If you don't want to use lard, you can use the same amount of palm shortening. The recipe from Gather calls for melting the shortening, but I would use the lard at room temperature or cold)
2 eggs, whisked
1 egg white for wash on top of the pie

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine almond flour, arrowroot, salt, baking soda and palm sugar in a bowl.
3. Add vanilla and lard and mix in.
4. Add whisked eggs and combine.
5. Make a ball out of the dough and add arrowroot as needed to make it "rollable".
6. Lay out parchment paper and dust with arrowroot. Place dough on paper, dust with more arrowroot and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
7. Remove top piece of parchment paper. Place the pie pan upside down on the rolled-out dough and cut around the rim of the pan, leaving half an inch of extra dough. Remove the excess dough and use for topping.
8. Carefully turn over the pan with the dough--it will sink into the pan. If you need to make repairs, you can use some of the excess dough. Crimp the edge of the crust.
9. Prick the dough several times with a fork, and bake crust for 15 minutes.
10. While it is baking, roll out the remaining dough, using the same method as in Step 6, above. Cut shapes out with cookie cutter.
11. Remove crust from oven and fill with fresh or frozen pie filling.
12. Carefully place cut out dough on top of the filling, with pieces overlapping each other (don't worry if they break, you can always roll and cut them out again)
13. Brush top of pie with egg white, put back in the oven, and bake 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

                  Whew! It took me most of the afternoon, including washing the floor and counters. But so, so good. My husband and I ate 1/3 of the pie the first night, and finished it off the next two nights. We did not even share it with the dogs...we were so greedy!