Yes, I know - Yule was last month, but trust me when I say that this recipe was so awesome that it will be a chocolate roll up with cherry sauce come Valentine's Day, probably re-appear in some form for Easter and is a strong contender for my birthday cake come June. It only has to be a log if you make it one.
So... let me back up. Remember that aborted posting series last fall about our following the Wheat Belly style of eating? (It's very similar to Paleo/Primal - but I don't know what we're calling it, exactly. Labels are hard.) Well... I bailed on posting about it, but we stuck it out for that month, saw noticeable improvements (weight loss, and a drastic reduction in acid-reflux for me), and while there are still times I gaze longingly at pastries and the like, the foods we can eat on this are so much tastier than what we were eating before, that I'm starting to wonder if grains kill your tastebuds somehow.
When it's just the two of us at home, we're happy as clams to eat this way - what's not in the house doesn't tempt us, and we have minor areas of less-than-optimal eating that's perfectly fine since the majority of what we eat is fantastic.
We do eat dairy. It doesn't bother us, it comes from a local source (not raw - in MD that is illegal, but it isn't homogenized or from factory cows), and it's tasty!
We don't eat grains - no wheat, oats, rice, etc, etc, etc, although I'd be willing to eat the rice at least, very occasionally. We eat lots of delicious veggies, moderate amounts of fruit, good quality meat, good fats, nuts and seeds.
And we're still learning how to cook this way. This is no longer an experiment... it's just what we do.
Eating in social settings is a lot harder - we've figured out a couple go-to restaurants that can accomodate us. We've learned to just pretty much avoid the coffee hour goodies at church (though I am working on figuring out what I can bring that we can eat - lots of veggie platters, so far!). And we find recipes that we can eat for potlucks.
A Yule celebration at Cedarlight Grove was our most recent potluck even, and I really, really wanted to bring something festive that we could enjoy eating along with others. As a matter of perfect timing, I saw N
ourished Kitchen's Buche de Noel recipe, and we decided to try it. Go follow here recipe - it's easy and it came out perfectly. I totally was afraid it wouldn't really roll up, but it did, and it's my new favorite dessert.
That said... don't do what WE did. Because like I say, we are still learning and still not sure how the things we think are good will be heralded by those we share them with. Plus, we had to take it on a 2 hour drive, and I was still freshly marveling that it rolled up, but not at all convinced it might not fall apart on the way.
So... we frosted it. With a quickly purchased CAN of frosting (because we were all out of time to fiddle with creating a homemade ganache).
Yep... took a lovely healthy dessert and smeared HFCS mess all over it. FAIL!!!!
It tasted good - I may even frost future versions of this, but not with that stuff. Or I might not, because that unfrosted version looks absolutely beautiful.
There was a lesson here for me in not chickening out. It's all a learning experience. This one, failed convictions and all, was that this is one delicious dessert!
