Strawberry season in Michigan is coming to a close, but it was a delicious one. I surprisingly didn't freeze any, which I'm ok with. I made pies, jam, straight up ate them, and made this amazing paleo strawberry mousse. While making this, you might be wondering how it'll ever set, but I promise, it's a winner. This would be lovely layered with paleo lemon curd. I sadly didn't have the time to make lemon curd, but it's just as good on its own.

PALEO STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
dairy free, gluten free, grain free, and soy free
*Please be sure to read the recipe carefully. Some ingredients need chilled 24 hours in advance.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled for 24 hours - I like Thai Kitchen brand
• 2 cups of washed and cored strawberries
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon organic lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon grass fed gelatin

METHOD

• Make sure the can of full fat coconut milk is completely chilled. You want the coconut cream to be completely chilled and separated from the liquid layer.
• Chill a metal (my preference) mixing bowl for a good hour.
• Clean and core strawberries, and chill in the fridge for a good hour, too.
• Remove the coconut cream and add to the chilled mixing bowl. Return to fridge.
• Take the remaining liquid at the bottom of the coconut milk can and pour it into a saucepan, and add the gelatin. Let the gelatin bloom for a few minutes and start the burner. Cook the coconut liquid and gelatin over medium heat until gelatin is fully dissolved. 
• Over low heat, add the honey, coconut sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Combine and remove from heat. Let cool to room temp, and even chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes if you have the time. 
• While the mixture is cooling, blend the chilled strawberries. Stir into the gelatin mixture.
• Remove the chilled mixing bowl and coconut cream from the fridge. Whip on medium high heat until the cream is nice and fluffy - about 2-3 minutes.
• Fold in the strawberry/gelatin mixture. Pour in serving glasses and let chill a good 3 hours before serving.
• Garnish with fresh strawberries, mint, or paleo lemon curd! Enjoy!

Strawberry jam was and still is my favorite jam. I remember slathering jam on white bread and english muffins as a kid, and even eating it by the spoonful. Not much has changed, except now I have a paleo friendly version of jam and bread. This 3 or 4 ingredient jam is simple, quick, and sure to make you and your family happy! If you are vegan, you can easily omit honey, and just use coconut sugar. 

STEPH'S PALEO STRAWBERRY JAM
dairy free, gluten free, grain free, and soy free

INGREDIENTS

• 8ish cups strawberries, washed and cored
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Pinch of sea salt

METHOD

• Wash and core your berries. 
• Fill a 3 quart pan 3/4 full of berries, about 8 cups.
• Add honey, coconut sugar, lemon juice, and salt to the berries. Stir gently.
• Let the mixture cook down, about 20 minutes. 
• Blend well with an immersion blender if you like a smooth jam. Taste the jam. If you think it needs more honey or coconut sugar, add it now. Everyone likes their jam differently! All berries are different as well, so make it to your preference. 
• Continue to cook down until the mixture pulls from the bottom of the sauce pan, and coats a spoon. Let cool.
• Add the jam to Ball jars, and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. You can also freeze the jam, and save it for later! Enjoy on top of my paleo bread!

HAPPY SUMMER! Happy strawberry season! Strawberry pie is the perfect way to welcome this long awaited season! We picked berries on the gloomiest day ever. How can it be 95 and sunny one day, and 65 and cloudy the next? I dream of going on adventures to "strawberry land" (aka Kohler Farm), as Eloise calls it, and actually enjoying it. Instead, I usually have one child who is protesting the evil act of picking "spiky" strawberries. It's more like survival mode. Pick the berries and get out of there. Atleast there's this beauty from our (my) hard work.

I've had several ask for this recipe. It's not your grandma's strawberry pie with a packet of jello, and two cups of sugar. This takes a lot of love, and requires some special ingredients like grass fed gelatin, local honey, and tapioca starch. If you follow me on Instagram, I highlighted my strawberry pie steps. I suggest you watch them to know what you really need, and what you really need to do to get a perfect paleo strawberry pie. It takes some love, but I promise it's worth it. I might make another today - it's just that good.

STEPH'S STRAWBERRY PIE
dairy free, grain free, gluten free, and soy free
*I suggest making this pie the day before, or atleast 8 hours before you plan to eat it. This pie needs a good 6 hours to set.

INGREDIENTS
PALEO PIE CRUST - courtesy of Paleo Perfected of America's Test Kitchen

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup arrowroot flour
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup palm shortening, melted
• 1 egg white
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

FILLING

• 2 cups of strawberries, pureed (a little over a cup of puree)
• 3ish cups of washed, sliced, and dried strawberries (the amount could vary, depending on pie size - just fill your pie crust!)
• 1/2 cup local honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1 tablespoon grass fed gelatin, bloomed in 1-2 tablespoons strawberry puree
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour OR arrowroot (make a slurry 1:1)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• pinch of sea salt

METHOD
PALEO PIE CRUST

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie pan with palm shortening. Mix dry ingredients, and add wet ingredients. Form dough into a ball and pat out into pie pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until done. Let cool completely before adding filling.

FILLING

• Wash, dry, and slice strawberries for filling. And dry again! This step is super important so the pie sets properly. You don't want a watery pie! I like to wash and dry my berries. I let them dry on a baking sheet lined with paper towel. I then like to slice them in half, and let them dry on fresh paper towel. These steps are a little tedious, but essential. You can see my examples in my Instagram highlight.
• Measure 2 cups of overripe strawberries. Puree them with an immersion blender or blender. You'll have a little over 1 cup of puree.
• Reserve two tablespoons of puree to let the gelatin bloom in. Let gelatin bloom.
• Add puree to a saucepan with honey and coconut sugar. Stir well.
• Add the bloomed gelatin, tapioca flour, lemon juice, and sea salt. Let simmer until nice and bubbly, and all ingredients are combined well. The mixture will be ready when it coats a spoon nicely. I'd say about 20-30 minutes.
• Once filling is done, let it come to room temp. I also like to throw it in the fridge for a good 30 minutes so it's slightly chilled.
• Once the pie crust is cooled, and the filling is slightly chilled, add the dried, sliced strawberries to the filling. Toss gently and add to the pie crust. 
• Let set a good 6 hours, or over night.
• Top with So Delicious dairy free whipped topping, and enjoy one of my favorite pies ever!

My love for cookbooks is a tad obsessive. I love stacking them in my kitchen as decoration, and I love flipping through pages at night after the girls are in bed for inspiration. The beautiful thing about living a paleo lifestyle is that nearly (almost) everything can be "paleo-fied". And, when one of my "lifetime-ago" friends publishes a cookbook, you best believe I purchase her piece of work. 

Ali Rosen is the real deal. She's an all around gem. I can say this with confidence because I saw her nearly everyday for six months when I was an intern at NBC Nightly News in New York City. Her energy was contagious, and she always had a smile on her face. I think what I admired most about her was that she could do it all with a lot of grace. Literally. She could write a story, produce a story, and shoot a story in no time. Her drive was never ending. She also encouraged me, a lot. She lives in NYC with her husband and adorable son. She even founded and hosts Potluck with Ali Rosen, which airs on NYC Life. She was also named as one of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 for Food & Drink. You get the gist for this amazing woman!

Her book is beautiful, and the pages smell wonderful (a plus for me). I love that she appreciates using fresh ingredients like eggs, herbs, garlic, and lemons for lemon juice. While flipping through the pages of Bring It! I was drawn to several recipes that will be perfect for this summer - or anytime for that matter. I'm going to share a few recipes that will be perfect for summer gatherings with family and friends.

It's strawberry season here in Michigan, and this simple but delicious recipe caught my eye right away! I not only have strawberries to pick down the road, but my backyard is drowning in mint. The ingredients in her strawberry and mint salad are nearly paleo, minus the sugar. Instead of two tablespoons of sugar, you could simply use honey or coconut sugar!

Salmon and cucumber are a perfect duo. She adds classic ingredients like shallots, mayo, and capers, but adds a little bit of zing with Frank's RedHot. I mean, come on. Yes! These will be perfect on hot summer days!

Give me all of the kale salads! The dressing for this salad has so many flavors that I love. She combines the carrots, ginger, shallots, vinegar, soy sauce (you can use coconut aminos!), olive oil, and Parmesan (you can omit, although it might not be as good ha), and blends these ingredients. She tosses the kale, pecans, apple, and salt with the blended dressing. It's a recipe that's just enough different from the usual kale salad that is bound to be a hit.

I kind of have a theme going on here, but these salads are perfect for the summer! Stone fruit and cucumbers. Stop it! Let's make a batch of stone fruit sangria while we're at it! Ali's plum and cucumber salad is paleo friendly, and has ripe plums, cucumbers, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro, and just enough chili flake for a spicy salad. I'm sure you could easily omit the chili flake if you're not a fan of spice. She also notes that peaches can be subbed for plums.

Another paleo friendly recipe! I agree with Ali that using a whole chicken, and cutting it up is the best way to go. Don't be afraid of bones - it adds all that extra flavor and goodness! In this recipe, she combines scallions, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, garlic, capers, and oil. She covers the chicken and simply bakes the chicken in the oven. I've never breaded a chicken in sunflower seeds, so I'm excited to try this!

Blueberry and lemon.. a classic, and one of my favorite combos ever. Add meringues, and you pretty much have my ideal dessert. Ali gets it. Remember my paleo meringues I made a few weeks back? I'm thinking about topping them with paleo lemon curd and fresh blueberries and mint from the backyard.

Don't these recipes look amazing? Especially for summer - which is just a few days away? My garden is flooded with herbs, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, kale, and zucchini. Ali has a recipe for it all. I appreciate her thinking about the growing seasons, and using ingredients that compliment each other. I think it's so important to eat what's in season, and store what's left. Her tarts in this book are beautiful. The "real" tart crust can easily be replaced with a paleo friendly crust. Her meat dishes look amazing. Roasted watermelon pork ribs? I need to try asap. 

And most of all, I love Ali's realness. She's a fellow mom, so she gets it. I'm going to leave these words for you. 

I hope you consider purchasing this cookbook! Thanks for inspiring me, Ali. I hope to join you in the cookbook section someday! <3

This post is delayed. I AM SORRY! I finished my cooking gig, and I've been going through bins and boxes of STUFF for the past week. We finally decided to have that garage sale we've been meaning to have for two years. I tell ya... you really accumulate the stuff, especially with kids. If you're out and about tomorrow and Saturday, come fill your trunk with our junk ;) It's not junk... it's nice stuff. You know what I mean.

You all know I partner up with Greener Grass Farms once a month. They are a local farm that provides grass fed and pastured meats. I absolutely adore Dan & Deb. I try so hard to change this wrecked food system we're drowned in, so I spread the word about them, and their wonderful ways.

This month, I (basically Matt, let's be real) smoked their pork spare ribs. If you know me, smoked pork ribs are my hands down favorite. There truly is nothing better. If you want to get your Greener Grass pastured spare ribs, or any other cut of meat, click here.

GREENER GRASS PASTURED RAISED SMOKED SPARE RIBS
dairy free, grain free, gluten free, and soy free
* I am not a smoker. I leave that up to Matt :) He's the smoker master, and I give him credit for this delicious cut of meat.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 rack of Greener Grass pastured spare ribs
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

METHOD

• Get your smoker started. 
• Remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. If you need a visual, click here.
• Prepare the dry rub - ingredients above! Rub the rub on the ribs. 
• Once your smoker is ready, add the ribs. Smoke for a good 4-6 hours, or until you're happy with them. 
• If you have a lot of time, preheat your oven to 250. If not, you can bake them at 350, but be sure you don't dry them out. Bake the ribs until they reach 200 degrees. Before you place these in the oven, you can add any sort of bbq sauce if you prefer. I prefer the dry rub myself. My paleo bbq sauce recipes are coming soon! :)
• Let the ribs rest before eating. Enjoy the best meat ever!