Kitchen Chaos

This is my first "adopt A Blogger" post and I am so excited. And so full. But excited mostly. I chose to adopt Carrie at Ginger Lemon Girl because I saw the Almond Joy Pie and I had to make it. I just had to, it was calling to me. Except that pie was eaten without me taking a picture. Oops. I was going to make another but didn't have a chance due to other baking. So anyway, make it, it is wonderful and is my new favorite. So I also made her Aunt Linda's Amazing Broccoli Puff but the first one looked horribly burned (it didn't taste it though). I got a tiny bit distracted while it was under the broiler. Oops. It was so wonderful though I made it again tonight. YUM!!!! And this time, I took pictures. (yay me). I did not use Annatto because I don't have any. Also the first time I took fresh broccoli and cut it and steamed it while tonight I used frozen that I heated through - to be honest, the frozen worked just as well as the fresh and was much easier. W

Sometimes something wonderful happens when you just throw some things together. It works like magic. And even stranger is when everyone likes it. Even the picky kid who doesn't like anything. That happened to me the other night. We had a 4-H thing to go to and I knew that we probably wouldn't make it home till 8 and we would all be past ready to eat. And - as much as I love Chick-Fil-A - I would rather have chewed my arm off than have to eat another Chick-Fil-A salad. So I looked to see what all I could throw together in the crockpot and then prayed it would be good. It was. It was so good that it was gone before I thought to get a picture (bad blogger). Now you can try it. Pizza Soup As with all soups, if you don't like something, leave it out. If it is your favorite, then add some more. 1 cup of browned hamburger meat 1 onion chopped and browned 1 or 2 bell peppers chopped (and browned if you don't want them crunchy) 4 ounces Hormel peppero

Last week was Thanksgiving and to be honest, I was dreading it a bit. I can somewhat control what goes on in my kitchen and I can limit my outside exposures. But for Thanksgiving we were going to stay with family for a week. A week where I had very little control. It went well, I did end up with some cross contamination but nothing very severe. I read that it isn't uncommon for the body to react strongly to a tiny bit of gluten to remove the gluten but for the body to sort-of shutdown in response to larger doses. I don't know. I just know I reacted strongly to a Sonic Blast that I suspect either had some pie crust or sugar cookie pieces but there was a ton of cross contamination at Thanksgiving. It is things I didn't want to mention because I hated to make things more difficult than they were already; things like the cast iron shouldn't be used, foil that covered the gluten-rolls shouldn't be used to cover the gluten free cheese bread, and I didn't bring

We just participated in our county's 4-H Food and Nutrition contest. Again. This was Daisy's 4th year and Juniors 3rd and I honestly just wasn't into it this year. It just felt rushed and we weren't able to participate as well as we would have liked. Plus some things I just didn't feel like messing with or forgot to put down. Anyway, although Daisy did well (from comments made by the judges and overheard by a friend) she didn't do well enough to win. I didn't really think she would when I saw who she was competing against. Junior on the other hand TOTALLY would have won if his age group got any sort of prize that was based on performance. Seriously, at that age a kid could say "I don't know anything about it, my mother made it, I don't even like to eat it" and still win a ribbon. Junior LOVED his dish though - since it was hummus I think a lot of the people were leery of it - this is East Texas. But Junior loves it. When he was asked

Baking is fun for me. I was 13 when I made my first loaf of bread, Mom was gone and Dad had no idea how much mess it could make. I enjoyed working with the dough, stretching and activating the gluten. It is rather ironic, isn't it. I didn't mind too much the thought of gluten-free baking. I mean how different can it be? Extremely different. Then my Dad died. And then 31 days later my husband's mother passed away. And I stopped cooking and I especially stopped baking.  I had no desire to experiment in the kitchen. At this point in our gluten-free journey, almost everything is an experiment. But finally, I am wanting to play in the kitchen. I am looking for things to surprise my family with. I am having fun in the kitchen again. I made Jowar Roti just to see how it turned out. Junior was ecstatic because they made great bean burritos. I made pumpkin hummus because Hummus is yummy and so is pumpkin. Junior made it for 4-H food competition because he liked it

A bit of background: Two years ago my sister mentioned that she was cutting the gluten out of her diet and had noticed that her headaches went away. I had looked years earlier at possibly removing wheat from my diet and there was almost nothing available (I also didn't know what I was doing and didn't really know how to cook). I thought my sister was crazy. But I had chronic headaches too. So I googled gluten-free to see what would come up and the first thing was Gluten-Free Girl's blog and after reading it a bit, I decided that maybe it wouldn't be that bad. After all, there were better options and if it would get rid of my headaches . . . . That time I wasn't able to stay gluten-free. This time I will and again Shauna James Ahern has a new cookbook out (my previous gluten-free episode was about the time her first book came out). Mikki over at Not the Perfect Housewife was having a giveaway of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef and I won. Wow. I won. So I

So did you guess what this is? Well here is another hint: Did you figure it out? How about this: It is a recipe box that I worked up from a basic wooden box that I picked up at Hobby Lobby (here is a set of 3 and the one I used is the middle one ). I found a piece of wood to go in the middle and with some glue and craft sticks I fixed a divider. Sorry, no pictures of the process because I am a bad blogger. I then painted it black, but not just any black. No, I used chalk board paint (which was the most expensive part of the project). Since I used chalk board paint, I can let the kids decorate my box and then it can be wiped off later. I can also write on the inside, maybe a recipe I want to look for or try. Or something to add to the shopping list. Or the plan for a big dinner, like Thanksgiving dinner. With the extra room, I can keep the family recipes that we can't eat but have been written by family members. I have room to add other things, like a list of

Hubby thinks it is too big but I have gotten it almost halfway filled up. I wasn't planning on it being this large but I am able to do more with it. I'll explain more later but first, try to guess what it is.

I have a friend who has a new sister-in-law who is gluten-free and so Kristen was hoping to make her delicious gluten-free dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, I have no recipe to give her, I haven't been baking since February and I hadn't build up any go-to recipes prior to that. Then I started thinking how I would much rather have a sandwich bread for left overs than a dinner roll - then again dinner rolls have never really been my thing. Then I started thinking about what would make me feel really welcome at Thanksgiving and I came up with this list: a new unopened jar of peanut butter a separate stick of butter or tub of butter spread a new jar of mayo or Miracle Whip a loaf or two of sandwich bread and a plan to heat it up some gluten-free canned soup for a snack or in case I don't feel the meal is safe being included in during the cooking plans, I may be able to tell you a simple thing to do to make the dish gluten free showing a willingness

Since I grew up in West Texas and my grandparents lived in New Mexico I grew up hearing about posole. It held a fascination for me because it was said to have pigs feet in it. Not that I wanted to try it! In fact with there being a possibility that it might contain pigs feet, I had no interest in tasting it. Ever. I am not very picky but I draw the line at cole slaw and pigs feet. Ewww. Tonight I made a variation of Posole (poe-soe-lay) and my family loved it. I didn't tell them about the pigs feet though. Not that I used pigs feet. Ewww. So here is what I did: I had a rack of pork ribs that I had gotten on quick sale and then sat in the freezer for a few months because I couldn't figure out what to do with them. I took them out and put them in the crockpot and decided I would do soup. Isn't that what ribs say to you? In retrospect, I should have trimmed some of the fat off but I didn't. They cooked a few hours until the meat was falling off the bone and

I was recommended these pills that give your stomach the enzymes to process the gluten so we could cheat occasionally on the gluten-free diet. They seemed miraculous, wonderful. But it is a slippery slope from occasional cheating. I noticed that if I ate gluten too often, even with the pills, I would start getting uncomfortable. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, I noticed these effects again so I completely cut out eating gluten, even with the pills. Monday before last, I started walking and other than a few blisters and a bit of soreness I felt fine. Tuesday I walked a bit farther and felt good. Wednesday I took off because I thought maybe I ought to have a rest day. Thursday I doubled how far I walked on Monday and felt great. Friday I overslept and it is just too hot here to walk later in the day. Saturday my son had a Tae Kwon Do tournament and I didn't think to pack a meal so I had a hamburger and on enzyme pill. Sunday we went out to eat with my father-in-law and I had spinac

In the car today hurrying home because we were all hungry, we got to talking about food - 'cuz that doesn't make you hungrier. Daisy started talking about one of her favorite meals that we can't eat anymore, beer can chicken (gluten in the beer ya know and all the gluten-free beer I have seen has been in bottles.) We told her that you can make it with other things such as sprite, apple juice whatever. Then Hubby said that apple juice with a cinnamon stick would be good and a very loud EWWWWWW was heard from the back seat. So tonight I proved her wrong. I didn't do it in the style of beer can chicken - mainly because we were going to church and I didn't feel it was wise to leave food on the grill like that. And we had no apple juice. Here is what I did: I put 5 frozen chicken breasts into the crockpot and then dumped an entire jar of apple sauce on top and then filled the jar 3/4 with water and poured that on top. I thinly sliced a large onion on top, added som

Last night I couldn’t figure out what to do for dinner – I really need to start planning our meals. I was still not sure what to do when I started browning the ground beef.   I thought about chicken enchilada soup but I had ground beef cooking.   I then thought about beef enchilada soup but that just didn’t sound that great.   Then I thought about cheeseburgers. Yum, I love cheeseburgers. How to carry that into a soup? I eyed the v*lveeta and that gave me the idea. I cooked some rice for the starchy bit and then began cooking a new creation.   I got some strange looks from my family when it was served and I told them what it was – especially from Hubby when he asked where I got the idea and I told him I made it up.   They loved it though. There was talk of me making it again and soon. Daisy said it wasn’t good, it was excellent.   I have to admit, it really isn’t very healthy. It could probably be made healthier – even using brown rice instead of white rice woul

I just . . . .   I don’t know what to say other than please pray for my family.  My husband’s mother unexpectedly passed away today and we are just stunned. We knew she wasn’t extremely healthy but no way did we think she was this sick.   My heart is breaking for my husband and his dad as well as my kids.   My kids have lost 2 grandparents in barely a month – my husband and I have each lost a parent.    I just don’t know.

After making 4 batches of brownies this week, you would think I would have some pictures but you would be wrong. I forgot to take any and now . . . They are all gone. Every single one. While we like them, I didn’t know that they would be such a big hit. We made 2 batches for the 4-H meeting with no leftovers. Several commented that they enjoyed them and wanted the recipe. I made 2 more batches for my Bible study class this morning and several more asked for the recipe. One of the ladies in the class was delighted that it was a snack she could enjoy (she is gluten-intolerant as well). We also had one of the preschool teachers look for us because there was a little boy who was gluten-free dairy-free and had no snack and they wanted something for him. These are unbelievably good and no weird ingredients. . . Ok, let me rephrase that, no ingredients you won’t find in a normal grocery store. But one of the ingredients is decidedly weird for brownies. Are you ready for it?

I was going to do a post on homemade instant gluten-free oatmeal individual servings because they are really easy and my kids said they were wonderful. And perfect. And yummy.   Until today when they told me that it needs a little work. Apparently some of the oatmeal doesn’t get completely soft. And they want cinnamon in it. And can we dry some fruit to put in it.   So no oatmeal post yet.   Last night I made cabbage roll soup which nearly caused my children to run away from home. Could you leave out the cabbage? Uh, no.   I had planned on it being ready before Hubby had to leave for work, but it was done 5 minutes after he left. So I was the only one who was actually wanting to try it.   Daisy however was shocked that it wasn’t as horrible as she thought it would be. We decided the recipe needs more work (different spices) but it is a good base so when we get that the way we like it, I will post that.   The end.

We buried my dad today.   To be honest, it was both expected and unexpected. He had end stage cancer but we really thought we had a few more weeks or even months.   For his sake I am so very, very glad that he is no longer in pain and has energy again.   For his sake I am glad that he is in heaven with his precious savoir.   For our sake, I miss him. I wanted him to meet his other grandchildren who are yet to be born. I wanted him to dance with my mother at my daughter’s wedding. I wanted him to call me up a few more hundred times to just say “hi.”   But I would not have asked him to live one more hour in pain.   Posting may be somewhat sparse in the next few weeks but I will be back soon-ish.

Sometimes you start thinking about a food you enjoyed as a child and want to recreate that. Even a quick version of it, just something to give you a taste of the childhood comfort food. The other day I was in Sams and saw a 4 pack of canned salmon which led me to thinking about the salmon croquettes we ate when I was a child. I loved them, it was one of my favorite meals – not that I was a picky eater, I liked most anything my mom cooked. It wasn’t one of my dads favorites, I am not sure why. Maybe it wasn’t something he grew up eating. I am not sure why I have such a vivid memory of this,  it is strange the stuff you remember from childhood. Anyway, most of the recipes I have seen call for crackers or bread crumbs crumbled up with the canned salmon and maybe some egg as a binder. Crackers aren’t gluten free but corn chips are. Those little crumbs at the bottom of the bag (that are too small to dip in the guacamole) are perfect. Because I didn’t know how it would turn out, I

After all that whining about having to make pizza because I promised but didn't feel like it - I didn't make it that night. We had gotten some bad news about my Dad's health and I was crying to hard to focus on making pizza. So tonight I made pizza. Actually I made three. I wanted to compare two Bette Hagman recipes to see which one we like better. And it seemed to be a better taste test to have them side by side. Get it? The third? The third . . . well . . . its like this, cooking pizza on aluminum foil is just so much quicker cleanup-wise. And for one of the pizzas it worked great. Absolutely perfectly. The other pizza not so much. It might as well have been super-glued to the foil. I could not get them separated. So I quickly threw together the third where I used a wheat flour recipe and just substituted sorghum flour (instead of the wheat) and added an egg to help bind it. Honestly it was my favorite (although it does need a bit of tweaking - maybe

Last night we tried out the gluten-free offerings at Olive Garden and enjoyed it. Well, mostly. My six year old always gets cheese pizza because he loves cheese pizza. He also loves ravioli. And gnocchi. And garlic bread. But none of that is gluten-free at Olive Garden. Now he did clean his plate without any coercion on our part but that may have been because I promised, promised we would make pizza today. Ahem. I thought about it, decided that there was nothing big going on today, we could do it. Then he said "and ravioli too?" and I said we would try but I was only going to promise pizza. Then after we got home, the cold I have been fighting off won. By the time I went to bed, I couldn't breath through my nose and my chest hurt. I then apparently slept wrong because my left arm aches all the way from shoulder to fingers, my joints ache and I am running a fever. And I have to make pizza. But first I have to find a recipe. I could try to back out of

Have you tried these? Oh. My. Goodness. These are good. They taste like real, regular cookies. These are the first non-mix Pamela's product that we have tried and they are seriously good. Crispy, crunchy, full of yummy flavor. They didn't have the odd taste that so many gluten-free products have. Yum. I tried to convince my kids that they were awful so I could have them all but that didn't work. Darn it. They weren't fooled at all. They also have chocolate chip ones but I haven't tried those yet. But if they are anything like these, they are also really good. Per FTC regulations: I have no connection to Pamela's, I have never received anything from them, I bought these cookies at full price from the store.

Last night I was gonna cook but we had 2 doctor appointments that day and a 4-H meeting and I procrastinated. So we got out of 4-H at 7:30 and I had a splitting headache and . . . and . . . and Chic-fil-A was on the way home. Although they don't really advertise it, Chic-Fil-A is a great place to get safe food. Their fries and hashbrowns are gluten-free and fried in dedicated friers - not the ones the chicken are fried in. They have the chargrill chicken that is gluten-free and is good on the salads - I LOVE the chicken and fruit salad. They also do the kids meals with the chargrill (although it isn't on the menu, you have to ask). So the kids and I went in to place our order, they were not really crowded and by the time we had figured out our order, we were the only ones ordering. So I ask for the kids meals with chargrill and she asks "Do you want the sandwich, nuggets or tenders?" I tell her the kids can't have bread so she asks if they want strips, nug

To be honest, cooking is not my favorite thing to do but there have been a couple of things I wanted to try and so I did them today. For lunch we had acorn squash and polenta lasagna . Oh yes, we did. It was something I have wanted to try ever since Katrina at GlutenFree Gidget posted about it. I even mentioned it to Hubby but he looked at me like I had grown another head. He is not that adventurous with food. But I was excited because I love, love, love winter squash, Katrina used butternut which is my favorite but I had an acorn squash wanting to be used. Since we are diary-free as well as gluten-free I couldn't figure out what to so for cheese because lasagna isn't lasagna without cheese. Right? The cheese was not missed because there was a yummy faux ricotta layer. And the noodles were not missed because polenta was used instead. A nd the kids requested I make it again, and maybe even make it for dinner. And my kid who hates onions, corn meal (corn in any for

I tried some buckwheat gross groats yesterday and I must be missing something. I don't know what the problem is but they were awful, nasty, burnt smelling (and no I didn't burn them). I tried with sugar but then it was like burnt, bland cookies. I thought about dried fruit but that didn't help either. Maybe they have to be mixed with something to be good but I don't see how they could improve the taste of anything. It was kind of cool though watching them in the pot of water, sort of like those sponges encased in a gel capsule - Grow A Dinosaur sort of thing. I don't want to eat those either.

You know that loaf of bread that I made on Thursday that was so repulsively nasty? The one that was so incredibly ugly? The one that I fed to the dogs and hubby asked why I was poisoning them? I figured out what went wrong. You know how some recipes almost scream at you to use potato starch not potato flour? Well, this one didn't. Yep, I used the wrong one. Which explains why it tasted so bad because apparently potato flour has a stronger flavor. I am just glad that I wasn't able to make another loaf immediately - because I was out of potato flour otherwise I don't know when I would have figured it out. or if I ever would have. Since I have been taking notes on how much the flours weigh (to make life simpler), I know what I did. Luckily the 3 flour mix called for either corn starch or potato starch and I used corn starch otherwise the 3 flour mix would be messed up too. So I am going to make another loaf. This time I am going to use the right flours.

It is so cold that I can't write a coherent post so you get bullet points. First I need to let you know about a give-away I have going. Chantel Hobbs has written a fabulous weight-loss book called One-Day Way, while it is not gluten-free it could be by ignoring the meal plans. Click here to see more information about it. Do I hafta go and get a new toaster?If no one is toasting wheat bread anymore then shouldn't it loose all the gluten before we get that sensitive? I dreamed about bread again. That is just pitiful. The other day I went to the health food store to pick up some nutritious yeast - which they didn't have. So I picked up the brewers yeast to ask the guy working there if they tasted similar. (I don't know why I bother because he never knows the answer to my questions.) So I was walking around looking because I wanted some other items and and older lady came up and asked what I was planning on doing with the brewers yeast. Well we got to talking, we f

Yesterday was another day of dreaded errands and by the time I had finally gotten home, I had a headache. A doozy. So I wanted to throw something together with minimal effort that would taste good. So I thought of lentil soup. I love lentils, they are such a small bean that they don't need any soaking and cook in about 30 minutes. I also had a head of cabbage that needed to be used and cabbage does well in soup. I first chopped up an onion and threw it in the old stockpot with 5 slices of turkey bacon, I then got involved in something else and let the onions get a bit burned too caramelized. But with my throbbing head, I just poured some red wine vinegar over it and then lots of water (at least 8 cups but I used the sprayer on my sink so this is a guess). Then I added the lentils - about 1 cup or maybe 1/2 cups - but be careful to look them over and pick out any rocks (oops) and rinse them first (I did do that). I then chopped up a cabbage and added that. I also added a

Gluten Free Gidget is doing a great giveaway on her blog for Xagave a brand that combines the nectar of two types of agave plant for a richer smoother flavor. I just love agave, I just don't use it as much as I should. Sugar is a bit of a habit. Anyway, so if you are interested, check out this contest . Now for some questions: Did you find that your palate changed as you went gluten-free? I used to hate avocados - those green bombs of mushiness. As in like 2 months ago, I thought they were gross. Now, . . . well, let's just say I could seriously over eat these things. And I tried guacamole on top of gluten-free frito pie instead of sour cream and cheese and found I prefer it that way. How do you keep the gluten-free flours from overtaking your kitchen? I was putting them in canisters (and the ones we use a lot are still in canisters) but seriously?!? They are taking over the pantry. And the fridge. And the freezer. I thought about hanging up a chart on the inside o

I was lucky enough to win this giveaway done by Babyfro at Living Without Wheat . I am so excited about this. Now I just have to figure out some gluten & dairy free casseroles. We went to visit my Grandmother and parents over the holidays and it was the first time we have traveled while trying to completely stick to our diets. Oh boy. In some ways it was so very hard but in others it was actually easier. In my family, we bake. Cookies, cakes, pies, candies are everywhere. It is a dieter's nightmare but almost all of it was loaded with gluten and dairy and was off limits (we did have some gf-df brownies that were good but that is pretty much it as far as the sweets went). For me, there wasn't any of this "should I / shouldn't I" wishy-washy-ness. There wasn't any (or at least very little) "just one tiny piece won't hurt." I am feeling better than I have in months, I was not about to blow it on a piece of cake. Even the kids seemed