By now, if you’ve been reading CliqueClack Food for any length of time, you’ve probably figured out that in the McDuffee household, we eat slightly … how shall we say … off center. No refined sugars, no wheat, no cow dairy — that can put a damper on desserts. Somehow we do just fine, as evidenced in the above picture of a gorgeous coconut milk flan that has become one of our favorite go-tos.

We use this recipe for coconut milk flan from a blog with an awesome name: Spilt Wine and Sticky Rice. Actually, it’s mostly awesome, but the part about the wine being spilt is a little bit sad.

Regardless, this recipe is wonderful in its simple perfection. Perfect except for one little thing — the refined sugar. We went out on a limb and tried the recipe using the amazing coconut palm sugar that has completely changed desserts for us. Imagine, a truly unrefined sugar that won’t wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels, that’s full of nutrients and tastes great. Palm sugar is it and leaves Sucanat in the dust. My nutritional kinesthiologist says so, and that’s all you really have to know about it.

The caramel comes out so thick and syrupy, it’s almost as if you used molasses, yet the taste isn’t quite so overpowering. We’ve actually made this recipe with evaporated cane juice in the past (shhh … don’t tell), thinking that it wouldn’t work with palm sugar, and we were wrong: it is infinitely better with palm sugar.

I just ate the last one … no more leftovers. The sun somehow shines not quite as brightly today.

Just like last year, Keith and I celebrated New Year’s Eve at around 7:00, with a fancy dining room table meal with the now 6-year-old. We decided to fancy up last year’s rack of lamb (the pre-seasoned Trader Joe’s version) and make this recipe for roast lamb with lamb sausage crust and grape pan sauce from Epicurious instead.

Words cannot describe how worth it making this recipe was. It was a lot more work than Trader Joe’s, but every bite was heaven. Although I kept thinking that this meal probably would have killed Kona. …

We served the lamb and sauce with rice cooker drunken risotto and haricots verts with fresh sage and pancetta (which admittedly were leftovers that Bob made for our Christmas celebration the night before).

For dessert we tried La Tartine Gourmande’s baked lime custards with raspberries. The flavor combination of lime, ginger, coconut milk and raspberries is so perfect and the texture so light that I didn’t even mourn the fact that my dessert wasn’t chocolate. This will be the next dessert we serve for guests.

You may be out partying, but I’m about to go to the fridge for a second lime custard. I wouldn’t trade places with you for all of the champagne in the world. Although if you offered me lime custard, I might be in a bit of a quandary.

I give the credit to Keith for this one, because I would have just done takeout after this busy week. But seeing as he was willing to make this ribeye steak with sauteed grape tomatoes and brie, the least I could do was something beside steamed green beans.

After blanching the green beans, I sauteed them with garlic, sliced scallions, chopped Roma tomatoes and chopped Kalamata olives. When done, I sprinkled with a bit of fresh parley and some freshly grated pecorino romano cheese.

We rounded out the meal with half a butternut squash, simply baked at 400 degrees until tender, with a bit of olive oil.

Simple, but with just a few special touches to make our meal feel more like a weekend feast than a weeknight necessity eat.

Summertime is all about grilling around our house. I’ve only found a few veggies that don’t work out so well when cooked directly on an open grill and without a pan or foil. One of those veggies used to be potatoes, because they would blacken before they were cooked through enough. Then I learned all you need to do is microwave the potatoes for six or seven minutes, halve them and apply olive oil, salt and some rosemary before sticking on the grill. The grill gives the potatoes a delicious brown crust that’s almost as good as having them roasted in the oven.

Get an eyeful of the tomato harvest from this week’s CSA farm visit. Every time I walk by our kitchen island, I pause, wondering if I’ll be ruining the stunning centerpiece by stealing a tomato or two for a snack. I don’t pause long, though, because those orange cherry tomatoes are so sweet and juicy that it’s nearly impossible to pass by and not pop one into my mouth.

Incidentally, this bowl is next to the one overflowing with Roma tomatoes from our own garden … we’re swimming in tomatoes, which more than makes up for last year’s blight.

Here’s a quickie for you … a potato salad that I threw together with some goodies we got from our CSA farm this afternoon: red potatoes, green and yellow beans, herbs from our garden (basil and parsley) and radishes from the local farm stand. The dressing was simple — just cider vinegar (but I think I’d use red wine vinegar next time), olive oil and stone ground mustard. Oh, and I almost forgot the sprinkling of feta.

You could definitely add some raw garlic to the dressing or some scallions or onions to the salad, but I love that I used what was freshly picked just today.

When you’ve got a Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon waiting for you, any old meal just won’t do. Besides, on a Saturday night, we cook. On a warm Saturday night, even in February, we grill. Keith did the veal (dressed with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, rosemary and thyme) and the romaine hearts outside, I took care of the potatoes inside.

The magic of my roasted garlic mashed potatoes lies in the yogurt I add … they are creamy with just a little sourness — perfect! All of you people who actually keep milk or cream in the house are missing out, because I discovered this little trick most serrendipitously. Use about a clove of garlic per potato and roast it up good and brown and mushy before smashing in. Add some butter, salt and pepper too.

The sauce on the veal is our go-to berry balsamic reduction sauce that we use nearly every time we have veal, lamb or duck. It’s hard to branch out when you’ve found something you love and haven’t gotten sick of yet (much like our mesclun salad).

There’s not much of a recipe here, but we loosely followed some ideas from the new Food Network Magazine’s over 11,000 stir-fry combinations. We stir-fried zucchini, edamame, red pepper and onion with some wild blue shrimp and stirred in fresh basil at the end of the cooking time (notice the steam at the bottom of the picture!). It was delicious with a soy / hoisin sauce with lots of fresh garlic and ginger over Asian rice noodles.

Yes, we realize we fall back on rack of lamb entirely too often as our go-to special dinner. I’m aware that we enjoyed the same lamb and sauce on New Year’s Eve. Have you any idea how easy it is to cook rack of lamb? Seriously, 350 degrees for 20 minutes and you’ve achieved perfection.

Add in the rice cooker drunken risotto with porcini mushrooms and some steamed asparagus and you’ve got a no frills meal that screams, “I love you.” Or “I love eating,” or something like that.

The wine we had made the meal even more special  — a Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon Artemis we received as a gift for Christmas. And it also went perfectly with the molten chocolate cake we indulged in for dessert.

Did your Valentine’s Day dessert look like this? I let Keith choose the dessert we’d have and what do you know? He chose my favorite, molten chocolate cake. After deliberating over many luscious recipes, this is the molten chocolate cake we settled on. It was as perfect as it looks — moist and gooey on the inside and complemented by fresh raspberries.

What did you have for dessert on Valentine’s Day?

You can give any muffin the look of love with the right baking pan, but try one of these CliqueClack-tested recipes:

• Oatmeal strawberry muffins
• Berry muffins sweetened with agave
• Blueberry cinnamon muffins
• Peachy flax molasses muffins
• Banana coconut muffins

For the muffins pictured, I did a basic blueberry muffin recipe, replaced the sugar with agave syrup (and cut back the amount) and added some lemon juice and cinnamon sprinkled on top. I also put in a lot more blueberries than the recipe called for. If you can’t bake to excess, is it really worth baking? Take some liberties with those instructions!

Delicious and simple, fast and nutritious: salmon baked with pesto with roasted yams and broccoli. So easy, you don’t even need a recipe.

Spread some homemade pesto (or your favorite store-bought version) on your salmon and bake  at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Roast your chopped veggies at 400 degrees convection roast for 20-25 minutes (or regular 400 degrees and flip halfway through).

Salivate until you can’t take it anymore … then start eating!

Most definitely, if it’s my roasted broccoli. One of the things I like best about it are the crispy ends of the florets that get all brown and toasty. The insides are sweet and tender and it’s a perfect texture contrast, all in one little floret.

There’s something magical about the flavor of roasted broccoli. It won’t remind you of steamed or sauteed broccoli; it somehow takes on a whole different nuance of flavors and brings out the best that broccoli has to offer.

For a time commitment of about 20 minutes, you really can’t beat it. Toss the florets in olive oil, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and roast at 400 convection roast (or 425 degrees flipping halfway though) until edges are crispy. You can serve as-is, or grate some pecorino romano or parmesan over the whole deal, or roast some garlic along with it or sprinkle with crushed red pepper.

It’s a good thing to salivate over a vegetable.

OK, it’s only one strawberry, but it’s one luscious, juicy, ripe strawberry bursting with sweetness. Let me tell you, it’s tough to find those for a decent price this time of year, but if you look around New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, you’ll find some sales, because everyone — including me — likes to chocolate-dip strawberries on those holidays.

Which is the fate this pretty berry ultimately experienced. Incidentally, your eyes do not deceive you — that’s Scharffen Berger 82%, one of my favorites….

That’s a little lie … what you’re feasting your eyes on in this picture is actually sunflower seed butter, but I though peanut better would get your attention. What can I say? I actually like the taste better than almond butter, and my son is in that foggy “outgrew the peanut allergy but don’t give them to him anyway” phase … ah, kids these days.

I shot this picture before I sprinkled all of the weird stuff on my daily Ezekiel sprouted english muffin. Oh yeah, my breakfast isn’t complete without ground flax seeds, unhulled sesame seeds and currants topping my carbs. But I didn’t want you guys to think I was weird or anything….

As much as I love pesto, after the pesto pizza last night, I didn’t feel like doing our usual pesto pasta with roasted veggies. So I went back to an oldie but goodie and did a balsamic vinaigrette instead. This pasta dish has just about everything you can think of in it:

• roasted broccoli
• roasted garlic
• roasted onions
• roasted red pepper
• roasted zucchini
• roasted crimini mushrooms
• smoked turkey and chicken pesto sausage
• sun-dried tomatoes
• fresh basil leaves
• balsamic vinaigrette (pretty much equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
• crumbled feta cheese

No wonder I’m wanting to lick my lens … and I ate the stuff too!

Last night’s pesto pizza with prosciutto, red pepper, onion, halved grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives, feta, mozzarella and four-cheese blend … a visual masterpiece and taste sensation! This was a pretty easy one too.

Top our usual spelt bread machine pizza dough with our homemade pesto, the raw — yes, raw; they’ll cook when you bake the pizza — veggies and other ingredients. Bake for 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven and serve with gourmet mesclun salad.

Are you drooling as much as the six cheeses are dripping over the sides of the pizza slice?