Dana's Recipes

This may be a Cuban drink, but we use our favourite rum, Barbados Mount Gay Eclipse when making it. You could substitute Mount Gay XO, but stay away from spiced or flavoured rum as it will throw off the flavours that this drink is known for. Ingredients: 1/2 a lime 3-5 sprigs of mint 1 tsp coconut or superfine sugar 2 oz Mount Gay Eclipse Rum Soda Water Pull the mint leaves off the sprigs and drop into the bottom of the glass. Add sugar. Use a muddler  or a close approximation to gently mash the mint leaves and the sugar together. This process should just bruise the leaves, releasing the mint oil. Squeeze the juice from a half lime into the glass. drop the shell into the glass. Crush or shave some ice (I drop about 4-5 cubes in the blender) and add to the glass. Pour your rum in and top with soda water. Add a straw and enjoy!  

Love Chicken Fingers but have been avoiding them because of the breading? So was my wife, until we came up with this recipe which uses shredded coconut and coconut flour! Serves 2. Ingredients: Two Small or One Large chicken breast. 3/4 cup coconut flour * 3/4 cup shredded coconut * 3 eggs 1/2 cup coconut oil * Salt & Pepper to taste We buy coconut flour and shredded coconut at Bulk Barn . *adjust as required. Method: Cut chicken into strips Whip the eggs and pour into a bowl, and place coconut flour and shredded coconut into separate bowls. Dip strip into egg mixture, then in the flour, coat with egg again, and then coat with the shredded coconut.  Place on a plate until all the strips are coated. If you have left overs in the bowls you can recoat the chicken pieces if you want thicker batter. Heat up a large fry pan to medium heat on your burner. Add the coconut oil. When hot, add your chicken. Cook 4 minutes per side. Place on a plate with paper towel

In October of 1999, Beth and I packed up our things and moved two Dallas, Texas. Three days earlier we had been offered positions at the worlds largest software company and that was after telephone interviews a few days earlier. That was the pace of the dot.com era. On the flight down I grabbed a couple of magazines, one on vintage aircraft, the other was the current issue of Esquire. It was their yearly "Genius" edition, Charlize Theron was on the cover, and somewhere near the back was recipe that I first made for a bunch of American co-workers with no place to go on American Thanksgiving that year. Thomas Keller is a man who needs no introduction in food circles. He is a chef, restaurateur and owner of Napa Valley's The French Laundry which has been named one of the world's top fifty restaurants. His inclusion in the Genius issue was a "duh yeah" moment in my mind. But alas, I digress. Cook this. Go on, do it. It is fan-fraking-tastic. Period. Ph

This is a dish my wife loves so much, when I tell her that I'm making them she starts to jump up and down like a little girl. What a pansy. Kidding aside, they are really easy to make. About five minutes of prep, throw them in the oven for an hour and enjoy. Ingredients (serves 4) 3 medium Sweet Potatoes 2 tbsp melted coconut oil 1 tsp paprika salt & pepper to taste Method: Warm the oven to 400F. Cut potatoes lengthwise in 1/8 strips. (Cut in half, cut the halves into quarters, and the quarters into eights) Place potato strips in a large mixing bowl. Pour oil over them and mix with your hands, ensuring that the oil covers the strips evenly. Add the paprika, salt and pepper and toss. Place the strips, skin side down, on a baking sheet. Place in oven. Pour a drink. Wait an hour. Remove from the oven and enjoy. It's that simple. 

First established in the 1700s when potatoes became a staple of the poor, this dish was typically made of leftover meat and vegetables, covered with mashed potatoes and baked. Today it is generally made from scratch and has several variations.  The meat for example can be ground beef, cuts of stewing beef, ground chicken or turkey, ground pork or lamb while the potato covering can be made with white, golden or red potatoes, sweet potatoes or entirely replaced with rice. For the vegetable mixture, almost anything goes. As always, here is how I have made it recently, and by that I mean it is rarely ever the same. Ingredients Meat Mixture: 1  to 1 ¼  lbs ground beef 2 medium onions 1 largish carrot ½ cup peas 14oz can of Diced Tomatoes Three cloves (or more) of Garlic Sprig of fresh rosemary 1 teaspoon of thyme Dash or three of Worchester Sauce or Braggs Seasoning Sauce (gluten-free option) Arrowroot powder or corn starch Salt and pepper to tast

Sometimes a recipe calls for something you just don't have in the cupboard... Herb Substitutions Basil - Oregano or thyme Chervil - Tarragon or parsley Chive - Green onion; onion; or leek Cilantro - Parsley Italian Seasoning - Blend of any of these: basil, oregano, rosemary, and ground red pepper Marjoram - Basil; thyme; or savory Mint - Basil; marjoram; or rosemary Oregano - Thyme or basil Parsley - Chervil or cilantro Poultry Seasoning - Sage plus a blend of any of these: thyme, marjoram, savory, black pepper, and rosemary Red Pepper - Dash bottled hot pepper sauce or black pepper Rosemary - Thyme; tarragon; or savory Sage - Poultry seasoning; savory; marjoram; or rosemary Savory - Thyme; marjoram; or sage Tarragon - Chervil; dash fennel seed; or dash aniseed Thyme - Basil; marjoram; oregano; or savory Spice Substitutions Allspice          Cinnamon; cassia; dash of nutmeg or mace; or dash of cloves Aniseed          Fennel seed or a few drops anise ext