Tea Scented Glazed Sponge Cake

While searching for low oxalate desserts I came across this Emeril recipe. Sponge cake is on either my good list or limit list; I can’t remember. I just know it’s low oxalate. As usual, I halved the recipe and made a few minor changes. I have never made a sponge cake before so I wasn’t sure how much it would rise while baking. Therefore, I poured it into two 4 ½“ springform pans. Turns out I probably could have gotten away with pouring it all it into one small pan; the cakes were pretty thin. But with two cakes, I decided to make two kinds of glazes. The honey cinnamon glaze was definitely our favorite. When Mr. Surly was eating it he said it “tasted like Christmas.” The other glaze I made was just a lemon, vanilla, milk and powdered sugar glaze. Not bad, but nothing to get excited about. I served it with powdered sugar and a dollop of homemade whipped cream. Yum. I can’t wait to make this again and experiment with different herbal teas.

Berries would be a great accompaniment to this. Unfortunately for me, berries are high oxalate, so I can't have them. But you should serve it with berries and think of me as you savor each berry, and I can eat vicariously through you.

Curried Lentils

I was so excited when I saw this recipe on Cooking.in.College. I love lentils and I love spices. And, lucky for me, lentils are low oxalate. I'm still strugglilng with finding appealing low oxalate recipes. This low oxalate diet is way more difficult than going gluten free. That's part of the reason my posting has slowed, I feel so uninspired in the kitchen. I'm not sure how much longer I need to follow this diet, hopefully not much longer. I went to the dr this week and discovered I've lost 5 lbs since going low oxalate. Neither my doctor, nor myself was pleased to discover this. I worked so hard to gain that weight over many months, and now I have to start again. I know people probably hate me for complaining about losing weight, but, trust me, a painful stomach disease is not an ideal way to lose weight.

Sorry about the digression, back to the lentils. I followed Meg's recipe, with a few changes. I omitted the carrots, (because they are high oxalate), and the mustard seeds (because I didn't have any). I used 7 cardamom pods, 5 whole cloves. Instead of oil, I sauted the onion in butter (because I'm trying to gain weight and I need the extra fat). I added more cumin and corriander. I also wrapped my whole spices up in cheesecloth, so they would be easily removed.