For Jordan.....

As I am now on a gluten free kick again, (for various health and dietary reasons, plus the sheer challenge of learning how to bake all over again), I decided to make my own coconut milk and coconut flour. Here are my food bloggy photos of the endeavor. I did this in between paint coats, going shopping at Old Navy, going out to Empire for lunch and Los Blancos, and painting chalkboard paint on my canisters (thanks for the idea Jordan- now that I have all these different flours and quinoa and amaranth, I needed a way to label things...no photos....go to http://the2seasons.com/2012/06/26/diy-chalkboard-kitchen-labels/ for the idea. I just painted right on the canisters....the labels might have been simpler). 

First, poke a hole in the coconut's eyes, drain water into your blender.

Next, get your husband's hammer from the basement, think about doing this on the kitchen counter, think twice, then head for the concrete driveway with freshly drained coconut, dish towel, and hammer. Smash coconut.

Return husband's hammer to basement so you don't leave it out like you usually do, get coconut out of husk.

Oops.....haven't taken hammer to basement yet......I will do that soon. I promise Jay!

Pour 2 cups of hot water into blender with coconut. blend.

Strain.

I got about 4 cups....I added a little more water though.

damn camera..this is blurry. 

Remaining coconut pulp.

Put coconut in oven at 350 degrees.

Bake for about 10 minutes....didn't really brown up, try it anyways.

process toasted coconut in food processor.

not as fine as I would like, but I am going to give it a shot anyways. Next up, sometime this week, gluten free carrot cake cupcakes.

maybe about 2 cups for 1 coconut