The snow fell onto the ice rink, shadowed by pine trees. Grinning at each other, the boy and girl scraped their skates on the ice. “Go!” shouted a neutral arbiter, and the two racers shot off towards the far side of the rink. They didn’t stop there, but looped around the rink, cutting grooves around their…
Autumn Pumpkin Cheesecake (paleo, AIP, vegan)
The children were out in full force on the Heath homestead, ordered from shortest to tallest, Maisie holding a cantaloupe-sized pumpkin, James a jack-o’lantern variety, Kate a watermelon-sized one, and Gerald a 10-pound monster too big to fit a stockpot. “Over here!” yelled James, dropping his pumpkin on the ground as he stumbled upon a twisted…
Black Sesame Plum Cake with Cherry Jam (paleo, vegan)
The tart lay in pieces on the floor, its crunchy crust clove in two, sweet potato filling cloying in a gory mess to the kitchen tiles. “The Desserterer has struck again,” said the Chief of police, shaking his head morosely. The Detective scribbled something on a notepad. “You see that?” he said, pointing to where…
Purple Sweet Potato Haupia Pie (paleo, AIP, vegan)
Jake opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the hotel room balcony. The sun had just set, and purple clouds were hovering over the horizon, bordered on both sides by the bay’s looming cliffs. He leaned against the railing and looked down at the tiki-lit esplanade four stories below, at waiters in white jackets…
Chestnut Brownies (paleo, vegan)
Mr. Chipmunk shivered to himself in the brisk autumn air. The Meeting had been a harried affair, the shouts and cries of angry colony chipmunks still ringing in his ears, proclaiming doom and gloom, a never-ending battle over division of this year’s chestnut supply and the Great Human Problem. Mr. Chipmunk had had enough. He…
Rum Sunbutter Cups (paleo, vegan)
“Boom ba da boom boom!” Ernest looked up from his drum over to where the other gorillas were packing up their mallets and drumsticks. “That’s it for tonight, guys,” yelled Bert, the bandleader. “Practice tomorrow, same time.” “Hey Ernie, you joining us at the Jungle Room for drinks? It’s mojito night,” said Phil. Ernest shook his…
The Council of Gummy Bear-ond (paleo, AIP)
It was evenfall when Frodo awoke after his tumultuous adventure with all the horses and the magical river and the almost dying and all that, and he was, unsurprisingly, once again, feeling rather peckish. But as they hadn’t yet reached the part of the story where Sam supplies Frodo with alternative lembas bread, Frodo was…
Norbert’s Dragonfruit Sorbet (paleo, AIP, vegan)
Norbert was sad. The other dragons had been making fun of him again. It wasn’t his fault he was born purple, with black polka dots, instead of a deep, intimidating green, like all the other dragons in his clan. This genetic fluke, a one in a hundred thousand likelihood, should have made him feel special….
Key Lime Pie Tartlets (paleo, AIP, vegan)
All was chaos over in KeyLime-dia (yes that’s a place). Unlike Mangoland, KeyLime-dia was a disorganized mess in the run up to the annual Kingdom Bakeoff. Instead of practicing their maneuvers and organizing themselves into squeezing units, key limes were bouncing off the walls of the castle and playing squash with themselves in the castle…
Mango Tartlets (paleo, AIP, vegan)
“ATTEN-HUT!” The line of mango tarts snapped to attention, orange arms at their side, crusts newly minted from the oven, boots sticky with mango sheen. “Listen up!” shouted the sergeant, as he marched down the line of tartlets, poking his troops in the chest and engaging in one last visual inspection. “Last year was the…
Brownie-morphosis (paleo, vegan)
Herbert woke up one morning and stretched his arms above his head only to discover that his arms were tiny sticks and his body was in fact the corpuscular shell of a giant, repulsive beetle. “Oh, gross,” he said, his voice all crackly from the compression of his vocal chords and inner self-loathing. He had…
Pichi Pichi (paleo, AIP, vegan)
At night, after the girl has gone to sleep, the empty kitchen is filled with the pattering of pichi pichi, small, feathered creatures who follow a trail of cake crumbs to the counter where the girl’s messes awaits them. There they stand around with their hands on their hips (to the extent that an amorphous…
Fijian Cassava Cake (paleo, AIP, vegan)
Semi crossed and uncrossed his legs under the small desk. It was last period, which meant math class with Mr. Taliga. Semi liked geometry, but today he couldn’t focus on anything, much less trigonometric functions – today was rugby try-outs. In their backyard next to Grandma’s outdoor kitchen, he and his older brother had trained for…
