Ask Carb Diva: Questions & Answers About Foods, Recipes & Cooking, #68

Today I spotted one of the first true signs of springtime in my garden. The rhubarb is starting to bud and send up sprouts from the ground. Daffodils are pushing through the leaf mulch and the primroses are teasing us with bits of color here and there.

I'm doing my happy dance.

I'm happy that you are here today. If you're an old friend, you already know how this works. But, if this is your first visit, let me introduce you to my kitchen.

Each week I receive questions about food ingredients, cooking or baking terms or methods, requests for recipes, and queries about nutrition. Just about anything food-related has been covered here.

I'm sharing this past week's questions and my responses; it happens every Monday. Want to join in the fun? You can leave your question in the comments below, and next week the answer will be right here. It's that easy.

The first question today comes from Flourish Anyway - "Do you have a favorite coconut cake recipe?"

Oh my goodness, Flourish, that's like asking me if I have a favorite child? I love the flavor, texture, and aroma of coconut and I've never met a coconut cake that didn't make my little heart go pitter-pat. However, there is one that popped up on Pinterest a few years ago, and it is slightly different from the rest. It's a rolled cake (like a jellyroll).

If you've never made a jellyroll cake, don't be frightened. They're really quite easy (I made my first one in Junior High home-ec). This one is so pretty you could serve it for a special occasion, or just make it for your adoring family.

Savor the Best is a blog devoted to from-scratch baking and cooking, and I really admire that. However, this particular recipe, although it scores a 10 in my book, is almost lost in an article that is heavily-laced with the promotion of a new line of cleaning products. I'm providing the link to the article here. I had hoped to also provide the text below, but Hub Pages prevents me from doing so (saying that I have duplicated content).

And another baking-related question, this one from Mary:

I have a question for you. Yesterday I made a pumpkin pie. My husband asked if I couldn't have made it on the stove top. Is it possible to make a custard (such as I do for a banana cream pie) using the pumpkin mixture and then just adding it to a precooked pie crust? I don't see how it would be any different but I can't believe it isn't already done this way. It would save time and gas.

I never would have thought of making the filling for a pumpkin pie on the stovetop, but honestly, how does it differ from other custard pies (lemon meringue comes to mind). So I did a Google search and came up with this link for Mary.

OK, so this is not the most beautiful bowl of soup you will ever see, but consider that:

• it's NO-carb
• gluten-free
• high in fiber
• high in antioxidants
• excellent source of protein
• vegetarian (if you use veggie broth in place of the bone broth)
• it keeps well in the refrigerator (3 days) or freezer (1 month)

Thank you to Erin (Platings and Pairings) for this amazing meal.

Did you know that there is a Table of Contents for this series? I have created an article that provides a detailed listing of each question I've received. It's broken down by category, and within each category, the questions are listed alphabetically. Each question is actually a hotlink back to the original post.

Here's a link to that Table of Contents.

If you like this series, you'll love this! And, I have recently added to that Table of Contents an Index of all of the "Alphabet Soup" recipes. I love you guys.

I hope that we can continue share in this food journey together. If you have questions about foods, cooking techniques, or nutrition you can ask them here. If you are in search of an old recipe or need ideas on how to improve an existing one I can help you. If you want to learn more, let's do it together. Present your questions, your ideas, your comments below. Or, you can write to me personally at this email address: lindalum52@gmail.com.

And, I promise that there will always be at least one photo of a kitty in every Monday post.