Kitchen Chaos

Sourdough Herb Boule

2011-11-03T11:59:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when developing recipes, it has to be tried several times and tweaked. Other times it just all falls into place but you never quite know which way it will go.

A few weeks ago, Living Without sent a newsletter with a recipe for a sourdough bread and we had been wanting a sourdough. Yum. So I called Daisy in to help me mix up the starter, mainly so she could see that it wasn't a big deal. It isn't a long complicated thing, it just takes a few days.

Four days later we had a loaf of sourdough bread with supper and Daisy took one bite and said "contest bread!" We had been experimenting with some yeast bread and had pretty much picked one out but once she tried the sourdough, she loved it.

I had seen a beautiful round loaf on Pinterest that had herbs baked onto the bread crust as decoration. Daisy and I thought it looked beautiful and since the judges won't actually taste the food (worries of food poisoning), it needs to look as good as possible. Since this herb bread wasn't gluten-free, she tried making the sourdough as a herb bread and it was wonderful.

Honestly the best sandwich I have had was this herb bread with pesto and turkey. But this is really good bread without the herbs.

As for the flour amounts, they aren't written in stone. The original recipe was "3 cups of your favorite flour blend" and this one was made up on the fly. I didn't even write down the amounts I used (but I was was able to get it within 10 grams on each flour). My main thing was 60% starch by weight and 40% whole-grain/protein flour.

She did an amazing job with this bread. Daisy has reached the point where she is comfortable enough in the kitchen to work some on her own, especially on a recipe that she has made several times. Poor thing, nearly every time I would print out a new recipe, something would be wrong with it which made for extra practice times for her. The day before contest, the recipe I printed out was again messed up (the potato starch was missing) so the two loaves made on friday were a mess. She got up on her own at 6 on saturday morning and did everything for the bread. I over-slept (I was going to keep her company) and all that was left for me to do was slide it into the oven.

She won first place and will be going on to district in February. That day she will also be competing again in the Food Challenge. And the following week is youth fair.

Gluten-free Sourdough Herb Boule

127 grams potato starch
100 grams arrowroot flour
73 grams brown rice flour
50 grams almond flour
20 grams sorghum flour
8 grams mesquite flour
50 grams sugar
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup “fed” sourdough starter
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1½ cups warm coconut milk (about 100°F)
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
1 tbsp fresh basil, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
whole basil leaves
parsley leaves
thyme sprigs

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, xanthan gum, cream of tartar, sugar, salt and yeast to combine. Add sourdough starter and oil and mix to combine.

2. With the mixer on low, pour in the milk in a slow, steady stream. Once the flour has begun to incorporate the liquids, beat the ingredients on at least medium speed for 4 to 6 minutes. The dough will be pretty sticky—thicker than cake batter, not quite as thick as cookie dough. Scrape the dough onto parchment paper on a sturdy oven-safe baking dish (cookie sheet or pizza stone) and smooth into a boule shape with wet hands.

3. To decorate loaves: Place a large bowl of cold water beside the stove. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Drop basil leaves, parsley and thyme sprigs into the boiling water for a few seconds. Retrieve with tongs or a slotted spoon and drop into the cold water. Pat herbs dry.

4. Blend egg white and water with a fork in a small bowl; brush over the risen loaves. Arrange herb sprigs decoratively over the loaves. Brush again with the egg-white glaze.

5. Allow the dough to rise in a warm, humid place for 30 to 45 minutes or until it has about doubled in size. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.

6. Bake the loaf in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a nice, golden brown crust has formed on top.

Gluten-Free Banana Struesel Muffins

2011-11-02T23:03:00.001-05:00

Each year my kids have participated in our county's 4-H Food and Nutrition contest where they make a food and then have to tell how healthy it is. Its a long list of stuff they need to do and know since they need to know the calories per serving, which food group it goes with and how that fits into a healthy diet, could it be made healthier, as well as explaining how they made it. They have to know what primary nutrients the dish provides (ie protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals) and what those nutrients do. They also have to tell what community service they did, what sort of leadership they did, what they have learned in the project and what sort of activities they did to learn those things.

This was Junior's first real year to compete.

In previous years he would make the food and the older teens would ask questions but he would get a ribbon just for showing up. He could say he didn't make it, his mama did and he would get a ribbon. He could say he didn't even like the food and he would get a ribbon.

This year he had to know his stuff.

He chose banana muffins - actually he first said banana bread but when I pointed out that he would have to serve it to the judges he decided muffins sounded easier to serve. Then I suggested a streusel topping since sometimes gluten-free baked goods just turn out ugly. Its unfortunate but true. A streusel could hide a number of flaws. Junior was less convinced about a streusel but he didn't remember ever eating one. The compromise was to make a practice batch and do half with the streusel and half without but by the time he was topping the muffins, he decided that the streusel sounded good and they were all topped.

The muffin recipe came from Carol Fenster's book Cooking Free and the streusel came from Gingerlemongirl's Streusel Topped Fresh Blueberry Muffins.

And how did he do in the contest? Well, he told the judges that they didn't want to know what protein did because it is "absolutely disgusting!" Luckily the judges realized he meant fiber.

He won first place and so will go on to district in February. And everyone loved his muffins - not even realizing that they were gluten-free or what that meant. They were just yummy, cinnamony muffins.

Gluten-Free Banana Streusel Muffins

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
112 grams potato starch
74 grams sorghum flour
22 grams almond flour
47 grams tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas
½ cup chopped nuts of your choice (optional)
Streusel topping
3 tablespoons sorghum flour
2 tablespoons certified gluten free oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin tins with nonstick spray or insert cupcake liners.
2. Cream sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla with electric mixer.
3. Mix together potato starch, 74 grams sorghum, almond flour, tapioca starch, salt, baking powder, and spices in a separate bowl.
4. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, alternating with bananas. Stir in nuts if using. Batter will be soft. Pour batter into prepared muffin pan.
5. Mix 3 tablespoons sorghum flour, oats, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, and butter in a bowl with a fork and sprinkle over muffins.
6. Bake for 18-24 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

why I use weights to measure

2011-10-31T12:37:00.001-05:00

I love baking. I made my first loaf of bread when I was 12 and my mom was out of town. My dad let me do what I wanted in the kitchen. It was a basic white bread loaf and I was so proud of that loaf. Later in speech class we had to come up with a speech explaining how to do something and I chose bread baking (since I had made 3 or 4 loaves and was now an expert in my 13 year old mind).

I loved the kneading and punching down, it was a great stress reliever. Plus, since regular bread takes so long to prepare - a minimum of 3 hours - it would force me to slow down. That is really what I miss about baking gluten-free is the stress-busting properties of bread baking.

When I saw the list of ingredients for a basic gluten-free bread recipe, it was discouraging. I searched for weeks trying to find the definitive basic white bread before I realized there wasn't one. This person may use white rice flour, cornstarch and sorghum while this person uses brown rice flour, millet and tapioca starch and each claiming that their recipe made the "best ever sandwich bread."

I would spend forever measuring out each ingredient because each baked good has a minimum of 3 flours (except for a few rare exceptions like Jowar Roti). I had done some weighing of ingredients (Alton Brown highly recommends weighing bread or all purpose flours when baking because it is more accurate) and I decided that had to be easier. It just had to.

So I set out to find a conversion chart of weights of gluten-free flours and I found this lovely resource but it wasn't quite what I wanted because I didn't want to have to take out a calculator each time I needed a 1/3 cup. So I sat down and made my own chart with 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 cup and then hung it inside the cabinet door where most of the flours are.

It now takes me less time to measure out 2 1/2 cups of several flours than it takes someone to measure out 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose. I know because we went to a 4-H workshop where scones were made and I was surprised at how long it took to measure out the one flour.

It also takes me less time to leave the kitchen and look up the weight of peanut butter so I can weigh one cup of peanut butter than it would for me to try to get rid of all the air holes in the measuring cup.

I have handwritten the weight of All-Purpose flour so I can easily convert recipes that are not gluten-free.

My husband isn't as familiar with the weighing method but he doesn't bake. Last time he measured out flour for me (we were making 3 batches of Jowar Roti), each bowl had a different weight varying by almost 20 grams. A 1/4 of a cup of sorghum weighs 31 grams so there would have been a difference between the batches.

My kids find it much easier to bake with weights. I need to make a chart with other commonly used ingredients like sugar, coco powder, and brown sugar and others rather than look it up each time.

The other thing that makes it easier is with the gluten-free flour blends that most of the cookbooks have. Each one is significant with only that cookbook and they usually make 4 1/2 cups and the recipe I chose usually needs 3 cups - or some similar ratio so that I can't do a double batch of the recipe without making 2 batches of blends.

It. Drives. Me. Crazy. Soon the pantry is filled with blends and there is no unblended flour and no room for any unblended flour.

So I now sit down with a calculator and figure out how much the weight of each flour is in a cup of the blend and I write it in the cookbook. Then on the page of the recipe I want to make, I am able to write down the exact measurement of each flour for that recipe.

So Much Simpler. That is what I did for my sons banana muffin recipe that he made for 4-H contest (post to follow soon). My daughters bread recipe called for 3 cups of our favorite blend, I looked at the weight for Carol's sorghum blend (the last blend I mixed up) and realized I needed 378 grams of a flour blend . . . but more on that later.

The long and short of it, if you bake gluten-free, get a scale.

If you don't bake gluten-free, but you bake very much at all, get a scale.

Camping menu

2011-04-20T00:43:00.000-05:00

One of the hardest parts for me of our recent camping trip was planning the meals. It sounds simple until the realization that everything going with the meal needs to be packed. For instance, if pancakes sound good then you need all the ingredients for the pancakes plus whatever toppings (syrup, fruit, whatever) that everyone will want.

It is easy to say that Friday we will cook hamburgers but to think of everything that everyone is going to want on the hamburger as well as what sides can make it more difficult.

All in all though, I think we were all satisfied with the camping menu.

As a special surprise, we made donuts while camping. When I was a kid, my dad would make donuts out of canned biscuits that were shaped and then deep fried and rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture. Yum.

Since we are gluten-free, those canned biscuits are out and I hoped I could find something to taste equivalent. What I ended up doing is taking a cinnamon roll Chebe mix and making donut balls with it that were rolled in cinnamon sugar. The flavor was really good but they were chewier than I really want them to be. The kids loved them though - Hubby said they had a good flavor but he couldn't really eat them (long story that will come later).

Full menu to come in a post soon.

White and Dark Chocolate Dacquoise part 2

2011-04-03T11:09:00.000-05:00

The meringue is the persnickety part of the whole thing. Or at least the most persnickety. If you missed part one click right here

Next comes the buttercream but it isn't the sugary sweet stuff on the store cakes. Ok. If I am honest it is still plenty rich though.

This is with the white chocolate but you get the idea

Using a double boiler you melt 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate and 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. If you have never done a double boiler, you place a bowl over a saucepan with an inch or two of boiling water but be sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. I like covering the bowl with cling wrap to be sure that no water droplets get in the chocolate so it doesn't seize. It will take about 8 minutes.

You then remove that bowl from the heat and put on one with 8 ounces of white chocolate and let it melt for 8 minutes. The dark chocolate will need stirring to make it look melted and then after the while chocolate is done, you stir it as well.

While these are heating cream 1 pound of butter. Yep, 1 pound or 16 ounces or 4 sticks. After the chocolate has cooled a bit, stir half of the butter up with the dark chocolate and the other half with the white chocolate.

Then wash the bowl really quickly but be sure to get every single drop of oil off the mixing bowl and beat 8 egg whites Whisk on high until stiff but not dry, about 1 ½ minutes. Gradually add ¾ cup of granulated sugar and whisk on high for 1 ½ more minutes. Remove bowl from the mixer and divide egg white mixture between white chocolate mixture and dark chocolate mixture. Use rubber spatulas to thoroughly combine both mixtures (still keeping white chocolate separate from dark chocolate.) Place each in its own pastry bag without a tip.

Remove one meringue rectangle (circle) from parchment paper and place bottom side down on work surface. Using pastry bags, pipe a ½ inch wide strip of dark chocolate buttercream along one short end. Pipe an equal sized strip of the white chocolate, then another line of dark chocolate and another line of white chocolate. Continue until the meringue is covered with buttercream. (If you are doing circles, just do a circle of dark then a slightly smaller circle of white then a smaller circle of dark then white until you reach the center.)

Place the other meringue, top down on buttercream pressing gently down. (With the circle cake, you have more butter cream to pipe on this layer just like you did the bottom layer, then top with the remaining buttercream.) Place the entire cake in a freezer for at least 1 hour.

Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 5 strips approximately 1 ½ inch strips length-wise.

sorry for the horrible color, we were tired and it was late

Then cut a triangle off the end and then cut parallel strips a little over an inch wide making 6 diamonds (parallelograms) per strip for a total of 30. (You will have a left-over triangle on each side of each strip to eat or throw away.) Set diamonds aside. (skip this whole part for the circles.)

like this, except I think someone ate the triangle off the right side

I promise it won't take as long to get the last steps posted but for now, here is the recipe so far:

White and Dark Chocolate Dacquoise

Meringue

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

8 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

White and dark chocolate buttercream

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into ½ ounce pieces

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken into ½ ounce pieces

8 ounces white chocolate, broken into ½ ounce pieces

1 pound unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

8 egg whites

¾ cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

To make the meringue:

Draw two 8x11 rectangles on a sheet of parchment paper with a pencil and lay face down on a cookie sheet large enough (or put on 2 cookie sheets). Set aside.

Sift together the confectioners’ sugar and corn starch. Set aside.

Place 8 egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high until stiff but not dry, about 1 ½ minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar while still whisking on high for an additional minute. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the dry, sifted ingredients.

Fill a pastry bag with no tip with meringue and trace around both drawn rectangles with a ½ inch thick piping of meringue, then fill in with remaining meringue. Place in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Lower oven temperature to 200 degrees and bake for an additional 2 hours. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 30 minutes before handling.

To Make the buttercream icing:

Heat 1 inch of water in the bottom half of a double boiler over medium heat. Place 6 ounces semisweet chocolate and 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate in the top portion of the double boiler. Tightly cover with film wrap and place over the water. Allow to heat for 8 minutes. Remove chocolate from heat and place in a stainless steel bowl. Use a whisk and stir until smooth. Repeat with white chocolate. Set both melted chocolates aside and allow to cool slightly.

Place 1 pound butter in bowl of electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat butter on low for 1 minute then scrape down the paddle and the bowl. Beat on medium for 2 minutes and then scrape the paddle and the bowl again. Beat on high for 5 minutes until light and creamy. Evenly divide the butter into the two chocolate bowls and use rubber spatulas to thoroughly fold the butter into the chocolates. Set aside.

Place 8 egg whites into a very clean electric mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high until stiff but not dry, about 1 ½ minutes. Gradually add ¾ cup of granulated sugar and whisk on high for 1 ½ more minutes. Remove bowl from the mixer and divide egg white mixture between white chocolate mixture and dark chocolate mixture. Use rubber spatulas to thoroughly combine both mixtures (still keeping white chocolate separate from dark chocolate.) Place each in its own pastry bag without a tip.

Remove one meringue rectangle from parchment paper and place bottom side down on work surface. Using pastry bags, pipe a ½ inch wide strip of dark chocolate buttercream along one short end. Pipe an equal sized strip of the white chocolate, then another line of dark chocolate and another line of white chocolate. Continue until the meringue is covered with buttercream. Place the other meringue, top down on buttercream pressing gently down. Place the entire cake in a freezer for at least 1 hour.

Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 5 strips approximately 1 ½ inch strips length-wise. Then cut a triangle off the end and then cut parallel strips a little over an inch wide making 6 diamonds (parallelograms) per strip for a total of 30. (You will have a left-over triangle on each side of each strip to eat or throw away.) Set diamonds aside.

White and Dark Chocolate Dacquoise

2011-02-23T23:38:00.001-06:00

This is what my 11 year old daughter made for youth fair. So you could do this. What is a daquoise? it is a meringue cake (usually the meringue has nuts but this one doesn't) that usually frosted somewhat like a normal cake. This one has a white chocolate and dark chocolate buttercream that goes between the layers of meringue and then is topped by a ganache.

uh-huh. The buttercream is not the typical birthday cake buttercream that is just butter and powdered sugar, in fact the dark chocolate has a bit of the bitter taste of dark chocolate (enough so that my kids didn't like it without the meringue).

Anyway, it is wonderful! but it is also incredibly time consuming.

This is something to make for a big anniversary dinner, not a I-feel-like-having-chocolate Thursday.

The first step is to make a meringue. And here is the cast of characters that play in the meringue:

And yes, buy the 18 pack because you will only have 2 eggs left - and a freezer full of yolks. Unless you forget to add the granulated sugar and then you will be wishing you bought the 24 pack. Don't ask.

You preheat the oven to 250 and then sift together the cornstarch and powdered sugar and leave it in a nice neat pile. She whisked it together because that works just as well.

Place 8 egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.

Whisk on high until stiff but not dry, about 1 ½ minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar while still whisking on high for an additional minute.

Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the dry, sifted ingredients. And it looks pretty much like it did before.

And then I forgot my job was taking pictures because there are not more of the next few steps so pretend.

Fill a piping bag without a tip with the meringue and decide what shape you want. If you want to make life easy on yourself, trace three 9-inch circles on parchment paper. If you want to complicate things, trace 2 rectangles that are 8x11 (do the circles, seriously). Turn the parchment pencil side down and you should still see the outline. Then with the tip cut off the piping bag (you could also use a gallon zip-top bag and cut off a corner), you trace the outline you made and then fill it in.

[Insert imaginary picture here]

We chose the rectangles because when finished, this cuts best very cold and so we had to precut into serving sizes so that it could be served at the contest. Making it for home, I would go with the circles.

[since you are imagining pictures you can also imagine that we made the circles too]

And then place into the oven and bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour, bump the heat down to 200 for 2 hours. And let it cool for at least 30 minutes.

Next comes the buttercream.

But that will be on another post.

Here is the recipe so far:

Meringue

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
8 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Draw three 9-inch circles (or two 8x11 rectangles) on a sheet of parchment paper with a pencil and lay face down on a cookie sheet large enough (or put on 2 cookie sheets). Set aside.

Sift together the confectioners’ sugar and corn starch. Set aside.

Place 8 egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high until stiff but not dry, about 1 ½ minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar while still whisking on high for an additional minute. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the dry, sifted ingredients.

Fill a pastry bag with no tip with meringue and trace around each drawn circles (rectangles) with a ½ inch thick piping of meringue, then fill in with remaining meringue. Place in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Lower oven temperature to 200 degrees and bake for an additional 2 hours. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 30 minutes before handling.

Leftover Redo

2011-02-05T10:01:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I wish I followed recipes just because I would like to remake something. I know approximately what I did but I don't know how well I can make it again.

The other day, I made a lazy chicken cacciatore - just chicken breasts cooked in spaghetti sauce with an onion and can of gluten free broth. The family was underwhelmed and so there was a bunch left over (I was having stomach problems so I just ate rice).

So last night I was thinking of vegetable soup.

It was cold and I had been cold all day. I just looked out the window and felt cold. (Yes, I live in Texas and I know those of you who live further north think that we are wimps. I am fine with that. If I wanted to miserable and cold, I would live further north. I chose to live in the south the be warm. And it wasn't.)

So I turned the chicken cacciatore into a soup somewhat vegetable-like. I added 5 carrots and half of a red cabbage and another onion. Some seasoning salt went in, as well as some black pepper and regular salt. It was good at this point and we would have been happy with it but I had 1/2 a can of coconut milk (we had made sleet/snow ice cream using the first half a can).

I know! As I was pouring the coconut milk in I thought "what am I doing!" My husband saw me doing it and was equally concerned.

And the last addition was a couple handfuls of spinach.

The coconut milk added an unexpected depth of flavor and the soup was so good! Hubby thought it was wonderful and he is one of those that can usually see some way to change or improve a dish. If I can figure out how to do it, I plan on remaking it and I will share a real recipe.

Now to prepare for a steak dinner. It is my father-in-laws birthday and I am also going to make some onion soup. YUM!

Adopt a Blogger - Ginger Lemon Girl

2010-12-10T22:43:00.000-06:00

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. We loved this! Well we are big fans of broccoli anyway but this was so good. Hubby loves "cheese sauce" on his broccoli (like the stuff in a can that I have never willingly bought) and this gives him a good cheesy flavor that I like too.

AND because my daughter had a sleepover Christmas party where they would be having regular pancakes for breakfast and she thought the idea of heating up gluten-free pancakes in the microwave was horrible - I made one more thing. Muffins.

She wanted muffins even though that was something we hadn't done yet. Even though it was a bit intimidating to me. So I found this lovely Streusal Topped Fresh Blueberry Muffins and I used frozen triple berries. I know! Shameful using triple berries (strawberry, blueberry and raspberry) that were frozen instead of fresh blueberries! But these were so good! I am thinking the other girls will be jealous. I will be making these again, both in the summer with fresh blueberries but also in the winter with other berries.

Carrie has a bunch more recipes so I really encourage you to look at what all she has.

Pizza Soup

2010-12-08T00:25:00.000-06:00

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 pepperoni in a large dice (this is where most of the pizza-y flavor came from but it didn't overwhelm for those that don't like pepperoni)
2 32 ounce cans of tomatoes (diced is good)
2 teaspoons seasoning salt (or more or less)
enough water to make it a soupy thickness you like (2-3 cups)

Dump it all in the slowcooker and stir. Turn it on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

If you like olives, you can garnish with chopped olives. Next time I will be adding mushrooms because I love mushrooms.

We did think that this needs some kind of bread to go with it. Like GingerLemonGirl's Brazilian Cheese bread would be almost like dipping the pizza place cheese sticks into the soup.

It's not December yet!

2010-11-30T12:26:00.000-06:00

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 a supply of wooden spoons and spatulas.

My sister made Daisy a pumpkin pie because I mentioned that she had really been wanting one but I hadn't gotten around to making it. She also made Junior a pecan pie when she found out that it is his favorite. Her son is also gluten-free but he is still young enough that he only likes a small handful of foods and doesn't want anything else. My grandmother got into an argument with me about the pecan pie, insisting it was the gluten one because the crust was so good. Hehehe.

I made a Clark Kent fudge pie this is wonderful and is the pie that the kids loved (although when the pecan and pumpkin pie came they went for those. My grandmother wanted the recipe. I also made a Almond Joy Impossible Pie and I have to be honest, my kids didn't like it as much because they think they don't like coconut. However that just means there is more for me. Mwahahaha. If you like Almond Joy candy, you will lurve this pie. I used coconut flour as my "flour of choice" to increase the coconut-ie-ness.

The big debate in our family is not the "Stuffing vs Dressing" debate I hear so much about. It is "marshmallow vs no-marshmallow". Some delusional people insist that sweet potatoes taste better with marshmallows. Gag. I didn't know that sweet potatoes could taste good until I tried them as an adult without marshmallows. I love sweet potatoes. Fortunately there were both kinds so people could choose.

And now I need to get geared up to do Christmas baking. We are going to be doing gingerbread house decorating with our homeschool co-op and I need to make the gingerbread for my kids. The other kids are doing graham crackers and some will possibly eat theirs that night and I could tell the kids they can make one and not eat it but that just isn't as much fun.

I also am going to start tying to convert some recipes. It should be interesting.

Food and Nutrition 4-H style

2010-11-11T00:42:00.000-06:00

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 what his favorite part of making it was his response was an enthusiastic "Eating it!"

One thing that struck us funny though, we get the judges score cards (with the actual numbers cut off) and one of the comments on Daisy's was "Good Job on reducing your sugar intake." It took me awhile but I finally figured out that they thought we are reducing glucose and not gluten.

She is already planning on doing some kind of bread next year and educating the judges.

Finally!

2010-11-09T23:35:00.000-06:00

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 that much.

Daisy had a birthday party to go to and I suggested that we make cupcakes so she could have one to eat while everyone else was eating cake. I even made buttercream frosting with real butter.

And I made up a dessert. Made it up as in created it, came up with an idea and wanted to see how it would play out. And it was good. Really good. More on that later.

I am finally having fun in the kitchen again. There are so many things to try and do and taste.

I also plan on blogging what we try and what I invent. For now I have some pumpkins to scrape.

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

2010-11-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

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 looked forward to it's arrival and immediately started reading it. I love cookbooks. They always offer the hope that I will actually cook.

Like with all cookbooks, there are some recipes that make me want to start cooking and some that make me lose my appetite (bacon wrapped pork belly. The thought of pork belly makes me feel ill but then adding more fat in the form of bacon. . . . Gag.)

I didn't want to say what I thought of the cookbook until I had tried at least one of the recipes. (If it didn't turn out, I would have tried another).

We needed some sandwich bread so I made "Crusty Bread that Even Those Who Eat Gluten Might Like."

I have one word to say : YUM!

Look at this:

Clearly I need to get a cutting board for bread as I am currently using a plate to slice the bread and that is why there are so many crumbs. But seriously, that looks like real bread, doesn't it. It tasted like real bread.

It smelled like real bread.

If for no other reason, this book is worth it for the bread.

The other thing that was interesting is that the other gluten-free cookbooks give some variation of "you must do the baked recipes exactly as written or the bread won't turn out, your children will hate you and the world will end." This one requested that you make the recipe as written the first time, after that feel free to try other flours by weight not volume.

And it gives the measurements by weight as well as by volume so that the measuring goes faster. I prefer to measure by weight only none of my other cookbooks do so.

In warning, the F word is used 5 or 6 times and a few other swear words. Some may find that offensive, I prefer my daughter not see those words. I just marked it out with a pen because my 11 year old may decide to read through it (she likes to read cookbooks).

Other than that and the bacon wrapped pork belly, I do recommend this book.

Did you guess?

2010-10-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

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 foods through the year that we think of to use in food competition.

I didn't mean for it to be quite that big but I think I will like it better with the extra size. I have already got it close to half-full.

Guess what this is

2010-10-26T06:53:00.002-05:00

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.

What to do to welcome traveling gluten-free family

2010-10-25T08:38:00.003-05:00

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 to learn so that I do feel safe eating what you have cooked - and don't be afraid to say "don't eat that, I didn't know how to make it gluten-free"

I know there are other things that I am not even thinking of - what would you suggest be added to this list?

Posole de la Gringa - or - White Girl's Hominy Stew

2010-10-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

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 took the meat out and cut it into bite-size pieces and put it back into the slowcooker along with a 32 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a large can of hominy.

I then added about a 1/2 teaspoon of habanero seasoning, two teaspoons of garlic powder, a teaspoon of thyme, oregano and salt, half a small can of tomato paste. I then decided it needed something to perk it up so I went with 5-6 dashes of Louisiana hot sauce and one long squeeze of ketchup. My son and I are wimps when it comes to spices so we could taste the heat but it wasn't uncomfortable. If you like it hotter, you could add more hot sauce and less ketchup. Then to thicken the broth I mixed a tablespoon of cornstarch and 1/3 cup of cold water and let that cook in.

My daughter LOVED it, she said she wanted to keep eating because it tasted so good but she was full. My son gave it a thumbs up and considering he almost always finds something to complain about its good but I wish you hadn't added onions he must have loved it. My husband was most surprised of all. This is not my usual cooking style, I have never added hot sauce or ketchup to any soup unless the recipe called for it. He loved it and told me to write down what I did so I could do it again.

As for me, it reminded me of visits to New Mexico and so I really enjoyed it.

As usual, I didn't measure so all measurements are approxomate, taste and add more if you want.

Those pills are not quite the miracle we hoped for

2010-09-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

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 spinach enchiladas and a pill.

Monday I went walking and I liked to have died. My ankles hurt, my shins hurt, my knees hurt, my hips hurt. I was praying to get through it. The only things that got me through the walk was prayer and knowing that if I went home, I would just sit there and get fatter.

Tuesday I was mostly better.

Wednesday I added more distance to my walk.

So what happened that bad Monday? I really suspect it is the gluten. Even through the pill keeps my from having a messed up stomach after eating gluten, it doesn't protect my body from inflammation. When I am sedentary, I don't really notice it but it is probably still there.

So what about these pills? I dunno. I am going to keep them around for emergencies (no chance of eating for a few hours and no gluten free items available.) I will also probably take them when there is a risk of cross-contamination.

They are not going to be an excuse anymore to eat what I want though.

Making my daughter eat her words OR Applesauce Chicken

2010-09-15T22:12:00.002-05:00

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 some salt and some cinnamon and stirred as well as I could with the frozen breasts. I put it on high and we left for church. And I prayed it would be edible because I made it up.

Two hours later we got home and the chicken was not cooked through so I pulled it out and cubed it into bite size pieces. These went into a large pot and I cooked them through then added the rest of the applesauce/onion mixture and let it cook down. Meanwhile I put some rice on and we had to wait until it cooked so the applesauce was back to applesauce consistency.

I served the apple chicken on top of the rice and my family loved it. It was slightly sweet but not too bad since it was the no sugar added apple sauce. It is one that we will be adding to our recipe collection although we might play with it some more. We were thinking a handful of dried cranberries the last 10 minutes would add an additional pop of flavor. I found a recipe on A Year of SlowCooking where she adds apple cider vinegar and red pepper flakes and she actually measures the ingredients.

And we did point out to Daisy that she was eating her words since she was positive that apples and chicken would not go together. She was also appalled that people serve applesauce with pork chops but I can only cook one meal at a time.

Cheeseburger and rice soup

2010-05-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

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 would help. I did also throw in some chia seeds for added nutrition and to thicken it up a bit.

Cheeseburger and Rice Soup

2 onions diced

1 1/2 lb ground beef, browned and well drained

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 box of broth (I used chicken because that is what I had)

2 cups cooked rice

1/2 large block of v*lvetta (processed American cheese) cubed

1/4 cup chia seeds

Cook the onion with a bit of salt until translucent. Add broth and tomato and stir and let it come to a boil. Add rice and cheese and let cheese melt. If you are using chia seeds, add now.

Serve.

That’s it. The hardest part it browning the beef and making the rice.

On Death and Dying – again

2010-03-31T23:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Brownies, yummy easy gluten-free brownies

2010-03-21T22:10:00.002-05:00

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?

Are you sure?

Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Black beans.

Nope, no typo there. Black beans like what might be used to make soup or refried beans or other savory dishes.

Black bean brownies

I promise they don’t taste like black beans – they taste like real brownies. Real fudgey, moist brownies.

And they are not much harder to make than a box mix of brownies. Really.

Black Bean Brownies

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed well
3 eggs
3 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor (you might could use a blender but I don’t really know). And blend until its a smooth batter (you don’t want anyone biting into noticeable bean bits). You can add chocolate chips or nuts at this point.

Pour into a 8x8 pan that has been greased and then bake for 30-ish minutes (until a knife comes out clean). My oven seems to cook slow so it usually takes mine about 40-45.

Let cool before cutting.

That’s it.

Nothing else.

Well you could put something else on them, frosting or ice cream or nuts or whatever but they are good by themselves.

They don’t need anything else.

With the beans and the eggs, I figure they are healthy. Ok, maybe healthy is pushing it, but they are better for you than some other options. Beans are good for you anyway.

By the way, if you are one of those who doesn’t like bean flour, for some reason this doesn’t have the bean flour taste according to other GF people I have talked to who don’t like bean flour. It isn’t just me.

children can be so aggravating

2010-03-10T13:22:00.002-06:00

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.

On death and dying

2010-03-04T08:45:00.001-06:00

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.

Salmon Croquettes – a quick little throw-together

2010-02-16T00:05:00.001-06:00

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 didn’t measure.

I know, shame on me.

Anyway, I am guessing about 1 cup of corn chip crumbs (although potato chip crumbs would probably work too). And then I put in 2 eggs and a can of salmon.

I then mushed it around in my hands until it was mixed and then made patties. These were then pan fried with a bit of olive oil until they were a beautiful golden brown.

Daisy was excited to try them because she loves tuna and other fish.

Junior was not. He was convinced that he would hate it because he hates tuna (among other things).

He was shocked – and so was I for that matter – he <i>loved</i> them. He ate two and then requested that “we have them every day for lunch” and then he told me that we needed “to have them for dinner so that Daddy can try them.”

Daisy did love them as well, although that didn’t surprise me because she is fairly open-minded about food.

So will be doing this again, I just need to eat some more chips so we can have the crumbs at the bottom.

Pizza. Finally.

2010-02-05T02:02:00.000-06:00

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 some starch replacing some of the sorghum). It tasted to me like a whole wheat pizza - but I have always liked whole wheat better than white.

Hubby's favorite was the one glued to the aluminum foil, he laboriously peeled pieces of foil off so that he could eat it. I will admit, it was pretty good too, except for the metal.

Daisy liked the other pizza best (it tasted to corn-y for Hubby and I) because . . .

HELLO! It can't be simple! Can it?!

Junior was just thrilled to have pizza, I don't know if he cared for one over the other (he didn't try the foil one). Poor kid, he has just been wanting pizza for 2 months. As long as I didn't put any weird toppings on it, he didn't care.

Realistically, it was less work than making a wheat pizza, I didn't have to wait for the gluten to relax, or the yeast to do a lot of work. Just mix it up, dump it onto the pan and smoosh it into the right shape.

I wonder if gluten-free pie crust is as easy. I can't make a regular pie crust - never have been able to - but if it is like pizza crust, I might can do it.

I can't believe I did that

2010-02-02T15:39:00.000-06:00

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 it but I gave my son a promise and I have to break my promise.

2010-01-30T14:25:00.000-06:00

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.

Chic-fil-A

2010-01-22T09:43:00.000-06:00

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, nuggets or patty. With no breading. I was completely shocked because we have eaten there several times and I had no idea there were several options for the gluten-free kids meals. I thought it was just the one large patty. So they got grilled chicken nuggets.

I got the chargrilled chicken and fruit salad - which comes gluten-free no special ordering for it.

I ordered hubby one of the chargrilled sandwiches (he needs to be gf but he won't admit it yet) and she asked if we wanted the bread off of that too so it would be gf.

While we waited for our order she conversed with my 6 year old while he told her all the things he was planning on inventing (a jet pack, a gun that helps you fly etc).

When we got home, we enjoyed our meal while I told Hubby how amazingly helpful she was.

I noticed that instead of the usual crouton pack and sunflower seed pack - both of which have wheat - she put in a granola pack that had no wheat. Now the oats weren't gf so I still couldn't eat it but I was still very impressed - I didn't say gluten-free or wheat-free and really probably the only ones that know the difference are the ones that have to know the difference.

In fact, I think I am going to call the owner/manager of the Chic-Fil-A and let them know how impressed I am.

By the way, as dictated by FTC laws, I have to tell you that I paid for our meal, I didn't get anything free except ketchup packets and straws and napkins. I am not being given anything for posting this review.

Today I felt like cooking

2010-01-16T23:31:00.001-06:00

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 form), and spinach, didn't notice the onions, corn meal or spinach. My daughter would like the spinach layer to be increased because she thought that part was really good.

This is a definite do again, although I will be increasing it to make a 9X13 pan so that we have leftovers and may just use homemade polenta.

Then for supper we had something completely different. Have you ever heard of Pupusas? I hadn't although around here we mostly have Tex-Mex sort of things like tamales, enchiladas, that sort of thing. Pupusa comes from El Salvador and is somewhat like a thick corn tortilla stuffed with meat or beans or cheese.

I found this recipe through a round about way. Book of Yum hosts an Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger event where you pick a gluten-free blogger, try one of there recipes and then blog about it. Well Book of Yum spotlighted one of the adopters here and told about what Heather had posted about. So I went over to Heather's Blog Celiac Family and read about her making the papusas and thought that I had to try them. So I got the recipes from Diane's blogThe W.H.O.L.E. Gang where she posted the pupusa recipe here and the accompanying Spicy Slaw here.

To be honest, the recipe called for cooking pork and I just didn't want to do that.

This Texas girl used brisket. And not just any brisket, but a pre-made frozen brisket bought from Sams. But my kids loved them. They really loved them. They didn't turn out very pretty, we will have to practise at it more but they were definately tasty.

They were less impressed with the spicy slaw (yes Mom, I made cabbage slaw and even ate some without gagging). They ended up sprinkling it with sugar for a sweet and sour slaw that was actually really good. To be honest, I liked it a bit better with the sugar too but I liked it without as well.

Really the slaw was a bit stretch for me because the one food I have always refused to eat is cole slaw. I don't really like ham, bacon, sausage, raisins and mustard but I will eat them. I don't like to look at cole slaw or smell cole slaw or even think about it. My kids picked up from me that slaw is disgusting so I am impressed that they ate it at all.

Anyway I will be making this meal again, and next time I may even try a more traditional filling. Or I may just keep eating it with brisket.

All in all, it was a good day in the kitchen.

Buckwheat Groats

2010-01-15T11:09:00.000-06:00

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.

I now know the difference

2010-01-10T14:21:00.000-06:00

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.

Baby its cold outside

2010-01-09T01:12:00.000-06:00

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 found out that I know her daughter because she goes to church with me. Then she said she had a nearly full can of it at home and she hates it, she would he happy to give me half the can if I followed her home. She also lent me a Jewish cookbook which is such a blessing. I had been wanting to look through one but the chances of finding one here in my small East Texas town are pretty remote.

I ended up finding the nutritious yeast at another store and it does seem to taste closer to cheese but I am going to play some more with the brewers yeast. I found this list of things to do with it but I haven't really tried any of them out.
The reason I wanted nutritious yeast is to make some gluten-free dairy-free macaroni and cheese. Junior has been patiently asking when we could have mac&cheese because I promised him that we would still be able to have it.

I vaguely remembered seeing something about it - a recipe or mention of frozen dinner or something. If all else failed I could make up a gluten-free dairy-free bechamel and grate up some vegan cheese (although the price makes me wince).

So then I found this recipe which for some reason just sounded good.

It isn't the blue box but it is pretty good and really quick to go together. I used sunflower nut butter instead of almond but I am going to try it sometime with the almond nut butter.
I posted here on my other blog about how I had given up on my drug of choice - wheat/gluten. I am not craving wheat all the time now, barely give it a thought (except in my dreams apparently). But I still hadn't found a bread recipe I liked.

So I made a loaf of bread yesterday and it was awful. I baked my first loaf of bread at 13 (Mom was out of town and Dad had no idea how involved it would be). So I have been baking bread for years. I have never baked a loaf that was so ugly and tasted so bad. I don't even think it could have been saved in a bread pudding. I threw it away. I have never thrown away a loaf of homemade bread because I can always figure out some way to use it.

So I tried again today and I may have just found our basic recipe.[insert happy dance] It was actually good. The kids liked it and Hubby liked it. It is from Bette Hagman's book (I forget which one and am too lazy to go look right now).

It earned me 2 high fives from Junior.
I am glad the bread turned out because the homemade pasta sure didn't. I have a pasta machine that I got 2 years ago so I could make pasta but never did so it is gluten-free.

I tried Bette Hagman's bean pasta recipe but I must have done something wrong because it just didn't want to work right.

So I let the kids play with it and the pasta machine.
Luckily the other part of dinner did turn out well. While watching Little House on the Prairie, we saw an episode where Almonzo says his favorite dish is cinnamon chicken. And we all looked at each other and said "huh? I have never heard of cinnamon chicken."

A few weeks later I was reading some blogs and The Good Eatah said she saw a recipe that Cat Cora had put in a magazine for cinnamon chicken and tried it and loved it.

So we tried it and loved it. The kids wanted seconds and thirds on the chicken. Hubby said he could make a meal out of the onion sauce and bread. Junior gave me another high five. Everyone said that we should make it again.

Which totally made up for the pasta turned play-doh.

And that is the end.

Cabbage and Lentil Soup with curry powder

2010-01-06T09:38:00.000-06:00

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 spoonful of curry, I didn't want it to be hot but I wanted to taste (for the first time) the flavor of the curry. I then went and sat down to wait for ~~my migraine medicine to kick in~~ for the cabbage and lentils to cook.

After about 25 minutes, I went and tasted the broth and added salt. Tasted it again and added more salt. Tasted it again and added more salt. I prefer to do small additions frequently rather than run the risk of over salting. Since the broth was very thin, I put some cornstarch in a cup with cold water, stirred well and added it to the soup. I let that cook in a few more minutes and then served it up.

The curry flavor was there but it wasn't very strong - it wasn't spicy hot or anything like that, it seemed (to me) to have cinnamon notes. The kids loved it and Hubby even liked it (he has said that he doesn't like curry but I don't think he has had it very much).

I will definitely be doing this again, especially on cold nights because nothing is better than a soup on a cold night.

A Giveaway and some questions

2010-01-04T02:03:00.000-06:00

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 of the pantry door detailing each flour, what it is in and where it is located so Hubby can cook when he wants. Even I have to pull out half of them before I find the right one and I know what kind of container to look for. Maybe large canning jars would work. I don't know. I would appreciate any tips.

I have lots more questions but I will stop for now. I don't want to overwhelm.

Traveling on a special diet and I Won!

2010-01-04T01:19:00.000-06:00

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 to do really well with it. Junior would ask if it had flour in it when he was offered a piece of something. That is really impressive for a 6 year old.

On the other hand, I didn't know what to bring with us. I also have a very, very small list of substitutions I can cook (like hoe cakes instead of pancakes) and I hated to try something new when there wasn't something to fall back on if it didn't work. If it was just me, it wouldn't have been such a big deal but I don't want the kids to feel more deprived than they already are.

I did learn what would make it easier. If there is a meal plan in place (something my Dad would really prefer to have) then I can plan accordingly - if we are having hamburgers than I need to bring buns or the stuff to make buns. We were able to get a bread mix from the local health food store that made a fairly decent loaf (Bob's Red Mill). I think I let it rise too long, but it was still pretty tasty.

We did eat out a couple of times which was rather nerve-wracking. We ate at a Italian place where I ordered 2 main dishes to share with my two kids - and asked that both have the pasta left off because we need to eat wheat free. I had never before realized how filling the pasta part of the meal was before that, I was still somewhat hungry. But then I saw a piece of spaghetti noodle on the plate. Like maybe they had started to load the plate with the pasta, then realized they shouldn't and took most of it off. My stomach did seem to be a bit more irritable after that but it wasn't bad.

It was just a reminder that the ones most concerned with my health and my children's health will be us, not the waitress or cook.

But now, I am just looking forward to getting back into the kitchen and learning.

Yummy Goodness

2009-12-27T20:03:00.001-06:00

Yes, it is December.

Yes, it is cold.

But this is east Texas and our idea of cold is in the 40's so the idea of making ice cream isn't completely ridiculous.

Or is it?

Wait! Don't answer that.

The ice cream did turn out pretty good. It has potential anyway. I was drooling over the strawberry coconut and peach coconut and so I picked up a bag of frozen blackberries (that is what Daisy wanted even though she didn't know what project I had in mind).

The blackberries just didn't interact with the coconut milk well. They were like two shy junior high kids at a dance, they were both there but neither was very noticeable.

Hubby suggested peaches because the coconut and peach would play well. He also suggested raspberries because it would contrast nicely with the coconut.

Junior was annoyed that I put in all the seeds. He didn't seem to care that it was God who put in the seeds (and they were a little annoying).

I wonder how almond milk would do with the blackberries, I see them playing better together but I don't even know if almond milk would work in ice cream.

It is also possible that the blackberry would do better in a sorbet, maybe that is what I should try with the almond.

Either way, it isn't going to go to waste. I do like it and think it tastes good - just not great and the potential is there.

Basing it off this recipe here I did change it somewhat.

I used

1 lb frozen blackberries
2 cans coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar (I didn't have that much honey)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

I put it in the blender then poured it in my ice cream maker. After letting it run for about 30 minutes, I took the container out and popped it in the freezer for a couple of hours.

Dining for Christmas Day - results

2009-12-26T15:51:00.000-06:00

Every year there are last minute "disasters," things don't turn out exactly as planned. Luckily everything this year turned out eatable at least. Although it may not have been as pretty or as tasty as planned.

So here is what we had:
Brined Turkey - This is the first year that the turkey was too salty. We made the vegetable broth instead of using store bought chicken broth and Hubby didn't taste the broth to see if it tasted good and so added extra salt (homemade broth always needs more salt than I think.

Dressing - my in-laws did try to make a gf dressing but it was too bitter (they used just soy flour) so they went ahead and made the regular version. So we quickly threw together a dressing that was gf/df. For a first try, it did taste pretty good, I think I want to play with it a bit more before I post the recipe.

Gravy didn't turn out well, it needs alot of work because I didn't stick to the recipe. Sigh. Dinner was waiting on the gravy and so I tried to hurry it. It was edible but wasn't good.

sweet potato casserole It really did turn out well gluten-free and dairy free - also lower sugar. This is a keeper.

cranberry sauce - Daisy made this one, she did 2 Granny Smith apples instead of just one and probably put more sugar than I would. But she is not big on tart stuff.

bread or rolls - since we had to make dressing at the last minute, we didn't even attempt to do bread or rolls.

mashed potatoes - made with ghee and goat milk and soy milk. (We are doing dairy free for the casein and goats milk is very low in casein.)

Creamed Spinach - blah. I found a recipe but it wasn't something I would recommend. it was seriously lacking.

Fruit ambrosia - This turned out really good. Yum. it is more of a method than a recipe. You can check it out here.

And for the end of the meal, we have desserts.

I was really, really sneaky and made brownies that had black beans. I didn't tell anyone what was in them until they had tried them - because I am not stupid. The kids LOVED them, Hubby thought they were good but they did taste a little unusual (I think he has more hang ups on the GF thing than the kids). They were very dense, fudge-like brownies and not overly sweet. EVERYONE was surprised that the main ingredient was black beans. I will be making these again and playing with the recipe doing things like adding nuts or seeing if I can make them more cake-like just for variety. If you want to check it out, here is the recipe I found.

I also made Gluten-free Lemon Bars from Living Without. These had a wonderful flavor but they didn't turn out quite right. I used ghee instead of butter and probably should have used less. It also took quite a bit longer for the crust to cook up - again maybe because of the ghee. I don't know. I was also expecting the lemon layer to be on top (like a lemon pie) but it didn't really do that and that maybe because there was something wrong with the crust. Either way, it tasted really good so I will try playing with the recipe some more to see if I can get it to turn out.

And then Daisy made something like these Raw Date Truffles except instead of dates, she used prunes - because that is what her mom had bought. We also added a little bit of powdered sugar to the rolling cocoa because otherwise it was too bitter. Otherwise we really liked them, I want to try with some other fruits just so see how the other fruits compare. It was also nice to know that it was a healthy treat - no sugar (except for a tiny bit in the rolling cocoa and I used presweetened coconut).

Hubby was really wanting green bean casserole and I could have done it except for the fried onions on top. At some point it will be do-able but I am having too much to learn to cook and so that is going to be put off for another day.

How was your holiday meals?

Ambrosia

2009-12-26T14:40:00.000-06:00

I kindof combined two recipes and then didn't follow either very well. But it was yummy. We all loved it (except Junior who still thinks he doesn't like coconut. insert eye roll here.)
I found this recipe from Whole Foods website and this recipe from Aprovechar. I wanted to make the coconut whipped cream but didn't have any safe yogurt and forgot to chill the bowl and beaters. It made really soft peaks but it fell in the fridge - not that it affected the flavor. It was still yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmy.

Coconut Ambrosia

This is more of a method than a recipe and if you don't like something than change it.

1 can of coconut milk chilled for 6 hours and only used cream skimmed off the top
3 tablespoons sugar (except I didn't measure, I just guestimated )
4 kiwi - peeled and sliced
4 clementines - peeled, segmented, and cut in half
1 navel orange peeled, segmented cut into chunks about the size of the clementine chunks
2 apples, cored and cut into small chunks
1 cup of minimarshmallows (I still didn't measure)
3/4 cup of coconut (continuing to not measure)

Whisk the sugar and coconut milk cream together then stir with all the other items. Chill completely before serving.

Sweet Potato Casserole

2009-12-26T14:01:00.003-06:00

When I was in high school one of the women where my dad worked brought some of this and he liked it so much that he got the recipe. I think this was one of the first times I had tried sweet potatoes without marshmallows (gag) and loved this.

I used to make this with all purpose flour and regular milk and was one of the competitors in a sweet potato cook-off my family did here. Since we have gone gluten-free it is not something we can eat anymore so we remade the recipe. It tastes just as good as the original but is gluten-free and dairy-free.

We have reduced the amount of sugar in the topping and increased the sweet potatoes to make it less sweet. Plus we made it gluten-free and dairy free and something we could all eat.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes (we used 5 cups to lessen the sweetness)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ghee or equivalent to 1/2 stick butter melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
2 Eggs -- slightly beaten
1 cup rice milk

Topping.

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup gf flour mix - whatever your favorite is
1/2 cup pecans chopped
scant 3 tablespoons of Ghee or 1/3 stick butter melted

Combine first 7 ingredients into greased dish. Mix topping ingredients. Spread over casserole and bake 30 minutes at 350.

Something I am realizing

2009-12-23T01:03:00.000-06:00

As I pull my focus off of what I can't eat and learn more about what I can eat, my food horizons are broadening. Instead of whining about not being able to eat boxed macaroni & cheese (where most of the nutrition is probably in the box), I am planning meals with kale and polenta and garbonzo beans and sauerkraut and flax and . . . .

Well, you get the idea.

I could complain about how cold cereal tastes disgusting with soy or rice milk (my kids like it though) or I can make smoothies and gf waffles and migas and other stuff that would be healthier.

I think that we tend to get in dietary habits and without something significant to shake us out of those habits, we stay in them. Or maybe I am the only one who has planned a week of meals and realized they are all similar in some way (mostly chicken, mostly beef, mostly tex-mex, or mostly pasta).

The first week I planned out the menu for the week that was dairy-free and gluten-free, I thought it would be simple. Then I went shopping. When I shopped I found out that dairy-free cheese is horribly expensive. I thought we would starve or hate our food - after all it didn't have a topping of cheese on it. And it doesn't have wheat in in. And. And.

But I haven't really missed it.

I mean, yes I am still looking for a good sandwich bread. The kids prefer rice cakes to any bread that I have made.

Yes, there are things I am going to miss.

But, I think that my diet is going to be generally healthier when I get more into the swing of gf/df or gf/cf.

Pot roast

2009-12-22T09:38:00.000-06:00

I had decided that a pot roast sounded wonderful. Yum. I love a good pot roast. For some reason my sisters don't but I love them.

My normal method is to drop the meal in the slowcooker with some onions, potatoes, carrots and a packet of onion soup mix.

Except I didn't have any onion soup mix, and I forgot to check at the store for any, and I don't even know if it is gluten-free/dairy-free.

So I instead thought about what makes onion soup the deliciousness that it is and the answer is onions caramelized into oblivion.

Note that this is more of a method than an actual recipe mainly because it kindof depends on what you like.

So for the first time in my life, I seared the pot roast (I dusted it with white rice flour first). Since I wasn't going to have the packet-o-flavor I needed to up the natural flavor.

Then I julienned 2 onions and put them in the skillet I had done the searing in with two big pinches of salt and turned the heat to medium high. When they had caramelized quite a bit, I dumped them into the slowcooker and turned it on low.

A bit later, I checked it and the liquid level was lower than I wanted so I poured in about 1/2 a cup of red wine (due to the influence of Julie and Julia I had been thinking about boeuf bourguignon).

When the meat was nearly done, I added the potatoes, carrots and big chunks of onions plus a bit more water. I also seasoned it with more salt and this grill vegetable seasoning I have.

I think it is the best pot roast I have made. Hubby agreed. Both kids loved the flavor although we have doctrinal differences in our household. Hubby likes thick gravy-like liquid, I like the liquid liquid. Daisy thought there wasn't enough slurping liquid, Junior thought the liquid was too much like water.

But at least everyone liked the flavor.

Christmas dinner plan

2009-12-21T00:52:00.000-06:00

I enjoy hosting adn cooking special dinners. Typically I have too much that I want to cook, too much to try to do, and I can't do all that I would like to do.

This year may be different.

With us on a full gluten-free dairy-free diet it is going to be more challenging.

So with that in mind here is what I am planning so far (the recipes, where available are linked):

Brined Turkey - I have never been a fan of ham so turkey is a given

Dressing - my in-laws are going to make this. My father-in-law is intrigued with the idea of making it gluten-free and dairy-free.

gravy - it's a must have this one is gluten-free but not dairy free. Maybe use unsweetened rice milk.

sweet potato casserole - I am working on making it gfdf

cranberry sauce - yum, one of my favorites

bread or rolls - I have no ideas on this one, I need to get busy baking to see what I can find. Any suggestions?

mashed potatoes - made with ghee and some kind of milk. I don't know what kind, possibly goats milk (we are doing dairy free for the casein and goats milk is very low in casein.)

Creamed Spinach - I am still working on a recipe

Fruit ambrosia - again working on the recipe

And then the reason my children will eat any turkey, stuffing or anything with nutritional value - desserts.

Part of me would like to try a pie, but honestly, I can't even do a pie crust with gluten. I am afraid to think about a gluten-free one.

What are your plans for dinner?

A confession

2009-12-19T23:30:00.000-06:00

When I did the gluten-free thing before, it was just me and I mostly just reduced the gluten. I tried not to blow it very often, or at least not very big. So if we went out for pasta, I didn't eat the rolls.

Surprisingly, I did reduce the gluten enough to feel better but when I began to sense that maybe I needed to reduce it more, like completely, that is when I quit. It was too much. Because I hadn't gone completely gluten-free, it wasn't a major sudden change in how I felt when I gave it up.

So yesterday, we had a late breakfast and then I cleaned out the freezer (got rid of the gluten and cheese in there).

Then we had to head over to a 4-H event where we were selling trees, then tae kwon do, then back over to the tree sale. Then at 6:30 I realized we had skipped lunch and I was beyond rational thought.

I suggested we blow our diet. and we did. in a big way.

We went to Pizza Hut, I had a deep dish pizza because I have never liked pizza on crackers (thin crust). I had cinnamon sticks. I lamented that it tasted so good. And I enjoyed it.

Two hours later, both kids needed Pepto-Bismol and I had a stomach ache. I also had a stomach ache this morning and felt tired all day.

I think I can say that I learned my lesson. I need to be sure that I eat before we go somewhere and I do something stupid like this again.

Score two for me!

2009-12-16T23:43:00.000-06:00

As I have said, my kids are less than delighted with our new diet. In fact they have complained about it a fair bit but today I redeemed myself in their eyes.

I made pancakes and chocolate cookies.

I actually made 2 batches of pancakes, one a Bob's Red Mill and the other a variation on Alton Brown's Dutch Oven Hoecakes. I made the Bob's Red Mill according to the directions using vanilla soy milk but then needed to add a bit more milk because it was too thick. The hoecakes I added 1 tablespoon of sugar and didn't put in the corn (someone thinks he doesn't like corn.)

Daisy loved the hoecakes although she did say that if they were very big, they were too cornbready. I agree with her, the cornbread flavor is more noticeable on the larger one. It seems the good size is silver dollar pancake size.

She also liked the Bob's Red Mill pancakes, she said she would be happy with either one. Junior prefered the mix but his hoecake was pretty big so that may be the reason (he doesn't like cornbread).

So then tonight we had a cookies and caroling event at our church. We went to one of the local nuring homes and sang Christmas carols. After we did that, we went back to the church for hot apple cider or hot chocolate and cookies. We made Cocoa Melt Away Cookies that are gluten-free dairy-free and just wonderful. The outside is crisp and the inside is chewy and these could easily be habit forming. There is another family with a daughter Junior's age that is newly gluten-free and dairy-free and they brought gf/df cupcakes so the kids got to have both and so didn't feel very deprived.

It was a good food day for the kids and so it was a good day for me.

Butternut Squash and Chicken Pasta

2009-12-13T15:15:00.001-06:00

Both of my kids love participating in the 4-H County Food and Nutrition contest. Daisy has to go into another room with three adult judges and then gets judged and ranked.

Her first year she won first place for applesauce bread, last year I don't remember how she placed with her baked apple.

This year she won first place again! She made Butternut Squash and Chicken Pasta which is so perfect in the fall.

She is supposed to know things like how many calories per serving, what are the primary nutrients you get from the dish, how you prepared it, what you could substitute and could it be made healthier. The judges don't taste the food - or they aren't supposed to, there was a food poisoning incident several years ago - but they do look at how it looks and smells.

Butternut Squash and Chicken Pasta

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 pounds uncooked chicken breast, cut into 1 inch peices
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped
3 1/4 cups gluten-free chicken broth
12 ounces gluten- free pasta
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for just a minute. Add the cubed chicken and cook through. Add squash, rosemary and saute for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer until the squash is tender and the liquid is reduced by about half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the (gluten- free) pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often. Drain pasta.
Toss the pasta and squash mixture in a large bowl until the liquid thickens slightly and coats the pasta. Transfer the pasta mixture to a wide shallow bowl and serve.

Junior's Macaroni and Cheese - not dairy free

2009-12-13T15:10:00.001-06:00

Both of my kids love participating in the 4-H County Food and Nutrition contest. Junior is considered a "Clover Kid" and so he isn't really judged - he gets asked questions but his ability to answer isn't scored. His dish for 4-H Food and Nutrition was Baked Cheese and Pasta - well Macaroni and Cheese but he didn't do macaroni noodles.

His dish has been more challenging for me just because of various problems. The first time he made it, I forgot we were doubling the recipe when we added the cheese. So it only had half of the necessary cheese. It was good, just not cheesey.

When we were making it for the contest I planned on us making it the night before and then baking it the day of. So right before bed, we are in the kitchen and trying to make it. I had gotten a block of cheese because I needed sharp cheese and it ~~was cheaper~~ more economical and was going to use the food processor. It broke. So we are scrambling around looking for the cheese grater - Daisy didn't even really know what it was - so that 12 ounces of cheese could be grated. And I had to make the bread crumbs to go on the top.

Luckily it all turned out well.

Baked pasta and Cheese

1/2 pound gluten-free pasta in desired shape
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1 cup gluten-free bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the tapioca flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Top the macaroni with the bread crumb. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

A few random things

2009-12-13T15:01:00.000-06:00

Well , I reorganized things so that I think it is going to be easier to find, maybe.

Everything that is not gluten-free or dairy-free is labeled as such in the title. I am going to try to rework them to make them gluten-free and dairy free and then I will repost them with the changes to make them gluten-free and dairy-free. (Some I don't know if they could be reworked or if it would be worth all the effort.)

I am going to get rid of the categories gluten-free and dairy free because I am going to try to only post such things anyway. Not to mention, those two categories will get very overloaded.

I also fixed all the recipe posts so that you don't have to scroll through the whole long recipe to get to the next post. If you want to see the whole thing, just click "more." I did this because I was getting annoyed looking through my own blog for recipes and having to scroll through so much.

_______________________________________________Last night I cooked the my first recipe from The Gluten-Free Gourmet: Living Well without Wheat. I did the Lentil stew and it was lovely.

Yumm! Definitely something we will do again.

Junior was a bit concerned though because the recipe called for bacon and he thinks that bacon should be done crispy. Obviously bacon in soup isn't going to be crunchy so how can it be bacon?

_______________________________________________

I need to start planning Christmas dinner, some of it is going to be easy but some is going to be a challenge - like the dressing and the rolls. I have done gluten-free gibblet gravy before so that isn't a big deal but we haven't yet found a basic dinner roll recipe that we like.

And then there is the dessert stuff. Yet another challenge. sigh. I guess I had better start planning.

Feeling hopeful again

2009-12-12T15:32:00.000-06:00

Ok, I am on the upswing again. I will figure out this gluten-free dairy-free thing. I found a recipe for buns, called the "wonder bun" that I just had to try.And if didn't taste like cornbread but like real, live wheaty bread. It is a bit too dry for us to use as rolls for a meal but for hamburger buns it would be great.

I wish I had found this pre-gluten free days just because it is a quick throw together bread that is great for the sandwiches that need a denser bread (like hamburgers, sloppy joes, and the like).

Yep, it is that good.

I would have totally eaten it instead of store bought, nutrition-less buns.

And it is quick. The recipe is for one but you can easily make more, just cook one at a time for 90 seconds in the microwave.

I may play later to see if they can be oven baked at the same time (which would be easier when making several) but for right now the microwave is great.

There is a video here on how to make them or you can read a blog post here.

I also got my book, "The Gluten-Free Gourmet: Living Well without Wheat" by Bette Hagman and can't wait to try out some of the recipes in it.

So things are looking up.

Meal planning

2009-12-11T01:03:00.000-06:00

I want to meal plan, I would love to meal plan. It is just difficult when the list of things that can be cooked is so incredibly short.

Or maybe I should say the stuff that I know we can cook and like. I don't have a list of quick and simple throw-togethers that I can quickly and easily make. My old standbys were spaghetti or mac & cheese - both are on the no-no list.

I am also trying to cook with less tomatoes. Awful, I know. I just got to thinking about how I crave pasta and tend to put tomatoes on everything and wondering if I have an intolerance to tomatoes.

So that has got me wondering, if you don't have gravy and don't use tomatoes, what else is there? Seriously. I have no ideas.

Tonight I cooked little steaks (top round maybe, I forget) cut them in thin slices and then cooked them some more with onions and cranberries because I couldn't think of anything else. Luckily it wasn't that bad but my kids really hate the nights mommy throws random stuff into dinner. Hubby isn't too fond of it either.

I did also make the wonder bun and that turned out pretty well. It was so nice to have bread with dinner and it didn't taste corn bready. Like real wheat based bread. I am definitely going to play with that recipe some more.

But I still don't know what to do for meals. And there are 3 of them a day. Any ideas?

Shepherdless Pie

2009-12-01T23:46:00.002-06:00

This is one of the easiest, quickest throw-togethers. The hardest part is the mashed potatoes and if you aren't doing dairy-free then you can pick up mashed potatoes at the local fried chicken place.

This is something I have been making for years - although not often because Hubby is less than thrilled with vegetarian meals. Normally I do add the cheese and have buttery potatoes but that doesn't fit in with the dairy-free.

Sheperdless Pie

1 can kidney beans drained
1 can black beans drained
1 can creamed corn
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 cup salsa
1 can mixed vegetables
2 cups prepared mashed potatoes (I use way more, we like mashed potatoes)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese shredded -- optional
1/4 cup corn flakes or some other bread crumb replacement -- optional

In a casserole dish, mix beans, corn, salsa, veggies, and garlic powder.
Top with mashed potatoes and sprinkle with cheese if using.
Bake in oven at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until hot.

I did 3 - 4 baking potatoes and one sweet potato for the mashed potatoes so they looked a little cheesy but it was just potatoes and margarine but no cheese. The cornflakes gave it a topping that we all loved plus it looked pretty.

My daughter loved it, my son liked it but was happier about the stir-fried cabbage (which I thought he would hate.) Hubby liked it, but pointed out that some ground beef would be good in it too. I think occasional vegetarian meals are good for us.

So all in all it was a hit.

Week 1 completely gluten-free dairy-free

2009-12-01T23:29:00.001-06:00

First, I need to say, Monday doesn't count. Not at all. We were traveling and it is difficult to eat gluten-free dairy-free on the road.

So today it started for real.

I have to say, the hardest part is the mental part. You know the part of me that is screaming "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T EAT CAKE AND MAC&CHEESE AND PIZZA EVERY DAY?!?!?"

Not that I eat that way every day, but it is a different mindset. There are so many things that are naturally gluten-free & dairy-free but most of it isn't convenience foods. I could do mac&cheese but instead of 3 for $1 it will cost more like 3 or 4 dollars.

I have got to learn how to cook again while avoiding what I need to avoid. I know I have problems with gluten and I suspect my daughter does. My son has problems with milk (I may too but I don't really crave it so it isn't a big deal for me.)

So here is our meal plan for the week and if you notice, none of it is really weird. Recipes and results will follow.

Tuesday - Shepardless Pie
Wednesday - Chicken Cacciatore
Thursday - Layered Vegetarian Enchiladas
Friday - Sloppy Joe Potato Skillet
Saturday - Mexican Cornbread
Sunday - Beef Stroganoff

The gluten-free is a challenge, but I am finding the dairy thing to be almost more of a problem. I can work around the wheat thing - I think - but some things just seem to scream "I NEED CHEESE!" like pizza and really I like having it in Mexican Cornbread.

I also would like to have yogurt, without paying an arm and a leg (and I do fee ok with making it at home if I can just find a starter.)

Anyway, that's the plan. Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

Being Busy Baking

2009-09-21T00:15:00.002-05:00

Our 4-H group starts off each year with having a cookie contest for the first meeting. The kids make the cookies and then judge but there are 2 divisions, 12 and under and 13 and up. Then for snack they have the cookies. Can you say "sugar high"?

Daisy made her cookies with almost no help - I got stuff off of high shelves for her and put them in and out of the oven but that is all I did. She did Cowgirl cookies that I found on Bakerella's website (I would directly link to the cookies but the site is down right now for maintenance). They were a bit too dry and crunchy that night but the next day they were really good.

Junior made Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies. Have you ever heard of them? They are the perfect fall chocolate chip cookie! Yummmm! We really weren't sure how good they would be because really, pumpkin and chocolate. together. But we loved these. Again, I got the recipe from Bakerella although we did not frost ours. Because I was tired. and it was hot. and I wanted to sit down, not frost some cookies and then have to figure out how to get them there without getting frosting everywhere.

Sorry, I am ok now.

And then, because I am slightly crazy, I thought I would make Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for our Bible study class Sunday morning.

I did sort of follow her recipe, although I cut the butter way back (like 1/2 - 1/3). And I didn't do her frosting recipe because I didn't want to make coffee just for the frosting and I didn't have any maple. Anyway the "Browned Butter Maple Frosting" that went with the pumpkin pecan chocolate chip cookies sounded really good. So I mostly followed it except I still had no maple so it was "Browned Butter Vanilla Frosting."

I made the full recipe which was way too much (the other couple in our class bringing refreshments also brought cinnamon rolls although I think theirs was canned) so now I am going to see how well they freeze.

But I can hear one of the pans calling my name. Can you hear it?

Must. Be. Strong.

Really, making them wouldn't have been too bad except I tend to underestimate how long something will take in the kitchen. And I procrastinated starting. So at 2:30 AM I was still in the kitchen working on those cinnamon rolls. And again at 7 AM. So that is about 4 1/2 hours of sleep.

I mostly stayed awake during church. At least I wasn't doing the head bobbing thing, that is miserable. And I don't think I was incredibly coherent during Bible study.

I am planning on posting another recipe soon but I think Daisy is going to make it for 4-H Food & Nutrition contest so I hate to post it yet.

But it is really good. And healthy. And one of the few things that my kids have wanted to eat the left-overs. That says alot.

Chicken noodle soup

2009-09-14T01:37:00.005-05:00

Ok, I have to be honest this is more of a method than a recipe. The nice thing about soup is it is really difficult to ruin it - unless you burn it and there is no rescue that I can find for scorched soup. If you know of one, let me know please.

Anyway, since the whole family wanted to come down with (or fight) some sort of respiratory illness (kids had "the crud", Hubby has sinus issues, and I am trying to come down with the crud) I thought it was the perfect opportunity for Chicken Noodle Soup.

Junior thought it was a horrible idea until I let him help me decide what to put in it.

So here is what we did:

Drop a chicken in a pot and cover with boiling water. You can use the bones off a left-over chicken or cook a whole chicken or what ever you want to do. I used the left-over chicken from a roasted chicken I had made and since there was not as much meat as I wanted, I threw in some chicken breasts.

Boil until done. Then remove the meat from the broth and let it cool until you can touch it without your fingers melting off.

To the broth you add the veggies you like. I always use onions, carrots and celery and then add whatever else I feel like. As for how much, it depends on how much you like and how much soup you are making.

This last time it was 3-5 celery sticks, 3-5 carrots, 2-3 onions and then I added a whole head of garlic, 3-4 potatoes, 2 heads of broccoli (Junior's suggestion) and a bunch of turnip greens (I gave Junior a choice of spinach, collards, mustard or turnip greens. I have no idea why he chose turnip). And put all of that in the pot with the broth - except the greens, I held those back a bit longer.

While waiting for the veggies to cook, I removed the meat from the chicken. And tasted the soup. The soup needs more salt than you would think and when you have it nearly salty enough you know what else to soup needs. I think this time I only added salt.

When the soup was nearly ready, I poured in the noodles (you could use gluten-free noodles, make noodles that are gluten free or do rice), the greens and let cook a few more minutes - until the noodles were done.

Then as I was serving, I poured a bit of half-and-half into each bowl to make it creamier. It wasn't necessary but it was good.

OH YUM!! It was just about perfect for me and the kids - for Hubby it was at the point where he could add some hot sauce to give it the bite he wanted. But the only difficulty is that I had a lot of soup. No seriously a lot. With that many veggies, we had a lot of leftovers. I could have frozen half of it. or two-thirds.

Ok, so here are the really hard rules with soup.

1. If you don't like it, don't add it. Junior hates mushrooms so no mushrooms (even though they would make it goooood. He has also decided he hates corn (insert eye roll) so no corn either.

2. Add the stuff you do like. If you like corn, then add it. If you like rutabaga then add it.

3. Taste it, and don't be afraid to add stuff to the pot. Most things with soups can be fixed or hidden - but not if it is scorched.

4. Umm that's it. Soup isn't hard.

Soup is so customizable!

It may not be lemonade but it is still good

2009-07-17T00:50:00.005-05:00

I have a horrible tendency to save stuff because it is special until it is no longer special - it is ruint (yes, that is a word here in the south). If I have plenty, then I am not that concerned - like with jam I usually get several jars, so I go ahead and eat them.

But if I don't have very many - I really want to save it.

Just before Christmas 2007, we stopped at this little winery about a 1 1/2 hour drive from here and picked up a bottle of raspberry wine (I really didn't like dry wines at all then and mostly went for dessert wines.) And we brought it home and I saved it. And saved it. And saved it. We really don't drink very much wine, just the occasional glass with dinner. and I kind-of forgot about it.

I finally opened it 2 weeks ago and it was nearly vinegar. So I poured the whole bottle into a plastic juice pitcher, added some Braggs apple cider vinegar and covered the pitcher with a paper towel I taped on. You have to use an apple cider vinegar with the "mother" in it if you want to speed the fermentation into vinegar. (You can skip adding the mother but it takes longer and I am prone to forget if it takes too long).

So after letting it sit for two weeks, I gave it a taste today. OH MY! The fruit flavor came through so clearly, it was delicious.

And if you think there is no way vinegar can be delicious, you have never tried homemade vinegar. It is like comparing water to juice. In most store bought vinegars you taste sour and then maybe a slight difference between the types. The homemade ones have so many other flavors going on that the sour is there but it is with the fruits and other . . . .

I can't even describe it.

If you drink wine, consider making some homemade vinegar - it is well worth the tiny bit of effort.

If you don't drink wine, you can still make homemade vinegar without getting a bottle of wine. You can look for recipes online but it is basically getting some kind of fruit, crush it, strain it and let it ferment until it becomes vinegar.

What can you do with the vinegar?

Well there is the vinegrette salad dressing - just your vinegar and some oil to taste.
You can also use it in marinades.
One of my favorite ways is to cook a chicken breast in vinegar, using the vinegar about like I would an olive oil - just enough liquid to keep it from sticking. Depending on the tartness, I may also add water and honey because the kids "hate vinegar" (Although Daisy mentioned the homemade was really good.)

If you have any additional ideas for using homemade vinegar, please let me know.

Edited to add (a few months later):

I cooked the simplist chicken Thursday night for supper. Boneless chicken breast cooked in apple cider vinegar (although you can use a different vinegar, just not white distilled) and some water. Then when the meat was close to done, I added some honey to sweeten the sauce/glaze.

Junior thought it was the best, until he asked what was in it. Then he said he hates vinegar. Honestly if I avoided the stuff he hates, we would eat PB&J and cereal. The trick is not letting him know one of his forbidden foods it there.

I didn't measure but it was 4 chicken breasts, around 1/3 - 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1/4- 1/3 cup water and then 2-3 tablespoons of honey. Cook over medium until the meat is done and then the glaze/sauce reduces.

Best Ever Chicken and Dumplings - not gluten free

2009-07-13T15:21:00.001-05:00

When my family wants Chicken and Dumplings, this recipe is what they are craving, not any of that stuff with bisquick or canned biscuits or tortillas.

It isn't a quick simple meal, but it does make a huge amount. I always freeze half of it either to eat at another time or give to someone else.

3 pounds chicken -- (3 to 4)
water to cover the chicken
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
2 ribs celery chopped
1/2 medium onion chopped
1 carrot shredded
6 cubes chicken bouillon

Dumpling ingredients

6 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 can chicken broth (you can use 2 cups of cooled broth from cooking the chicken, but I find this easier)

Place whole chicken and water into large pot or dutch oven. If you forgot to defrost the chicken, don't worry. The cooking time will be longer but not a big deal.

Add poultry seasoning, garlic powder& pepper. If you want to add more veggies here too, that's fine. It will only up the flavor.

Bring to boil and reduce heat to medium.

Cook thawed chicken for about 1 hour or until tender. Cook a frozen chicken longer.

When done, carefully remove chicken from pot; set aside to cool.

Add celery, onion, carrot and bouillon cubes to remaining stock and continue to cook on simmer.

While chicken is cooling, prepare dumplings.

Into large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, poultry seasoning and salt.

Add butter and combine until mixture is coarse and crumbly. I use a stand mixer but this stuff is pretty hard on a mixer, you might want to use a cheap mixer so you don't burn up your good one.

Add eggs and chicken stock then stir by hand to form a dough. (I use the mixer as long as I can.)

Turn out onto floured surface and knead slightly until smooth.

You may need to divide dough in half and only roll out half at a time. Or even smaller amounts depending on your counter space.

Roll out to approx 1/8-inch thickness.

Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough in vertical strips about an inch wide.

Then repeat the process, cutting horizontal strips, which will give you little square or rectangular dumplings. This doesn't have to be perfect.

Return chicken stock to a boil; drop dumplings in, a few at a time, as quickly as possible.

Cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking to bottom of pan.

When done, remove from heat and cover pan.

Remove skin and debone cooled chicken.

Cut into bite size pieces then fold into hot dumplings& broth.

This recipe will serve a family of 4 two main course meals with some left over - if you eat nothing else with it. I am telling you it makes ALOT.

Mexican Corn Dip - not dairy free

2009-06-30T12:48:00.003-05:00

This is another dip that my mom made while we were there, this one is a creamier dip while the other is a salsa-y dip. Yes, that is a real category of dips and no, I didn't make it up. I really didn't.

Mexican Corn Dip

6 green onions
3 small cans mexicorn
1 can small green chilies
1 package mexican shredded cheese
8 ounces kraft mayo
1/2 Teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin

Combine and refrigerate. Serve with chips.

Since I know you are dying to know what dip I made, it was this one. We doubled it. There was some left over but it was put in quesadillas with a bit of mushroom.

Mexican Shrimp Martini

2009-06-30T12:38:00.004-05:00

My mom made this on our recent family reunion and it was yummy. She didn't put it in individual martini glasses but it still tasted delish.

Shrimp, tomatoes and avocado combine to form a wonderful dip.

1/2 C cold water
1 C chopped Roma tomatoes
1 C chopped onion
1/4 C cilantro chopped fine
1/2 Tablespoon Jalapeno pepper chopped
6 Tablespoons Avocado in 1/2 inch chunks
3/4 Cup Heinz Ketchup
2 teaspoon lime juice
1 Tablespoon red Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon green Tabasco sauce
1/4 Tablespoon Worcestershire (gluten-free)
1/4 Tablespoon Cajun Chef Hot sauce

Stir all together and this yields about a quart. Add cooked shrimp to mixture (recipe doesn't say how much) and serve in a martini glass.

Like I said, we didn't do martini glasses, it was one big bowl and then a huge bowl of chips.

Yum!

Kid friendly recipes

2009-04-02T12:07:00.003-05:00

I thought I would add a new category that is stuff my kids have cooked. For the most part, these are fairly simple recipes. I don't use very many mixes though, I want them to know how to make a bechemel or gravy or cornbread without a mix.

You know your child better than I do though. If they can't make an edible peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then they probably aren't ready for the more complicated stuff.

Some of the other stuff posted is something kids can cook, but mine haven't yet.

So look for the label Kids Cook.

White Mexican Queso - not dairy free

2009-03-17T08:43:00.007-05:00

This stuff is amazing.

Seriously.

It will make you turn your nose up at that yellow stuff. Velvetta & Rotel tomatoes will not satisfy you any more.

Ok, maybe not but it is really good.

First you set up a double boiler, if you don't have one (we don't) put a big metal or glass bowl on top of a pot of boiling water.

Pour in 1 cup of half and half and 1 1/2 cups of onions chopped up.

You get 6 ounces Oaxaca cheese (which can also be called Asadero or Queso Quesadilla) and cut it into smallish chunks and put it in the bowl. Then 1 pound white American cheese - we only found it in our store in the pre-sliced plastic wrapped package so that meant opening each piece and then tearing it into chunks and they join their friends in the bowl.

Now comes the hardest part - deciding how big of a wimp you are. The original recipe called for 2 jalapenos with the membranes removed and chopped. Hubby and I, being good Texans, couldn't taste it. Well I am a wimpy Texan, but I still couldn't taste it. When we made it a second time, we used 4 jalapenos and left the membrane on one and it had a nice bite. Well the kids declared it too hot, but that was after they ate alot of it.

So you decide how much jalapeno, chop it up and mix it in with the others.

Then you let it cook for 30 minutes. I know! Torture!

After 30 minutes the onions will be almost melted so if you have a kid who refuses onions - they can't see it.

Serve with chips or whatever else sounds good. I actually sliced up and apple and used that to dip with. The kids thought it disgusting but I loved it.

Not responsible for excess pounds as a result of eating this.
Warning: this dip is highly addictive.

White Mexican Queso

1 cup half and half
1 1/2 cups of onions, diced
6 ounces Oaxaca (Asadero or Queso Quesadilla) cheese, cut into smallish chunks
1 pound white American cheese, chopped
2-6 Jalepenos, membranes removed and chopped

Put all ingredients in a double boiler and let cook for 30 minutes.

Prizewinning Pineapple Bread Pudding - not gluten free or dairy free

2009-02-24T12:39:00.008-06:00

Hubby took a double batch with him the other night to work because some of the people he works with were curious about Daisy's dish. He brought home an empty container and rave reviews. You might think that is is an easy crowd but I have NEVER gotten all positive reviews. There is always some guy who's mom made better, or thinks it is too sweet.

edited to add: We took some to our Bible study class, and made a double batch. They loved it, and there were several requests for the recipe. And I did it with the less butter!

This is the dessert that Daisy won the 3rd place award award in the youth fair. There were over 300 kids competing and there were 8 others in her category. Not only do the kids have to make something that tastes good, but they also have to be able to talk about how it was prepared, nutritional value, what they learned. They also have to serve it and not do anything like play with their hair, lick their fingers, any thing you wouldn't want your waitress doing.

You can use a store-bought french loaf for this, if you prefer. The bread is pretty simple to make though, just a little time consuming. The recipe is right here. With the rising and baking times, it is about a 3 1/2 hour project. This might also be good with sourdough or some other bread. One thing I like about the baguette though is there is no oil. Some of the other breads might really raise the fat content (like a brioche).

In case you were wondering, pineapple bread pudding does not contain raisins (gag).

So here is what you do, set out a 1/2 cup of butter or margarine to soften.

If you forget to do that, set it on the top of the stove while preheating the oven to 350 F.

Cube some French bread - either the homemade baguette or store bought stuff - into about 1 inch cubes. It can be stale, but if it is completely dried out, you might want to add back some of the pineapple juice. To be absolutely and completely honest these pictures were done with the store bought bread because the home made baguette was still rising.

Into your mixer, put the softened (semi-soft) butter/margarine along with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Crank it up to medium for about one minute, scraping the bowl frequently. We had originally forgotten the cinnamon, so it got added after the butter was somewhat creamed.

Then in a separate bowl, crack four eggs one at a time, and pick out any shells. Then pour the eggs into the sugar mixture. You will not enjoy this dish with crunchy bits of shell.

Let the mixer beat the eggs into the sugar for 2 minutes or until "light and fluffy."

Fold in the two cups of cubed bread and most of a 20 ounce can of pineapple drained. The recipe calls for a 14 ounce can, but I couldn't find those so we just pulled out a spoonful of pineapple. 'Cause the kids wanted to eat it.

Then pour it into a greased pie dish or 1 1/2-quart casserole.

Bake in the oven that helped soften the butter for 40 to 45 minutes, when lovely toasted brown and until a knife (spaghetti noodle, toothpick, etc) inserted in the center comes out clean.

Ok, honestly I don't bother with the knife test. We cook it until some of the bread bits are close to being burned (close but not quite burned).

See not quite burned.

This will be screaming hot when it comes out to the oven so you will want to let it cool a bit before you serve.

Serves 4 or 5, maybe. It does do well doubling, although you probably want to be sure that you use a pan that is not really deep.

So to recap:

Prizewinning Pineapple Bread Pudding.

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (or you can use 1/4 c butter and 1/4 c milk)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 can crushed pineapple, drained (14 ounces)
2 cups French bread cubes (about 1/2-inch pieces)

In a large bowl with mixer on medium speed, beat butter, sugar and cinnamon for about 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently.

Add eggs; beat on high speed for 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy.

Fold in remaining ingredients; pour into a greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 40 to 45 minutes, when lovely toasted brown and until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serves 4 or 5, maybe.

Homemade Baguette - not gluten free

2009-01-27T14:18:00.002-06:00

A baguette is an incredibly easy yeast bread to make with no complicated ingredients.

The first bread I made was "white bread" and that had a fairly long list of ingredients. This is much simpler. This is the bread that Daisy made to go in her pineapple bread pudding for youth fair.

Daisy used my beloved Kitchen Aid stand mixer with its dough hook, but you can do it by hand. I actually enjoy kneading bread when I have the time.

The recipe calls for a "packet" of yeast. I buy the jars of yeast and store it in the freezer, it keeps a long time that way. As long as you "proof" the yeast, you will know if it is still good or not.

So the first step is to proof the yeast.

Pour up 1 1/2 cups of warm (105 - 115 F) water into the mixing bowl and add the packet of yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar. In about 5 minutes, the yeast/water should be foamy or at least have bubbles. If it doesn't, your yeast is too old and you need to get fresh yeast.

Blend in 2 cups of all-purpose flour until it is combined with the water.

Add in another 2 cups of flour and 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Blend well. When all the flour is off the sides of the bowl, stop the mixer and feel the dough. If it is sticky then you need more flour. Add up to another half cup, slowly.

Then let the mixer kneed the dough for a few minutes. If you walk off and leave it for a long, long time you could over kneed it. But I get bored before it gets anywhere close to being over kneeded.

Here is what you are doing, when you look at bread you see lots of holes. Those holes are from gas that the yeast let off. But you have to have something to hold the air bubbles in, or they would just float right out. That is where the gluten comes in.

Gluten acts like bubble gum for the air bubbles. Just like bubble gum, it needs a bit of work before it is ready to hold a bubble. With gum you chew it for a bit, with bread you kneed it for a bit.

Ok, so the bread has been kneeding for a few minutes (about 8 if you are doing it by hand). You transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, flip it over so the dough is coated in oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp (clean) dishtowel. Let it rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn your oven on to 475-500 F and then "punch down" the dough. You do this by folding and refolding the dough to break up the air bubbles. Shape the loaf into a baguette shape about 21 inches long and 3 inches wide - or you can make it shorter and wider - or make individual mini loaves - whatever you want.

Put loaf diagonally on a large or 17 x 14-inch baking sheet and let rise, uncovered, about 30 minutes. You can grease the baking sheet, but I don't really bother.

After you let it rise cut diagonal shallow slashes with a sharp knife or razor and brush top with cool water.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. You can also tap the bread and it will sound hollow when done.

Let it cool some before cutting.

For a chewy interior and perfect, crusty exterior, place a oven-safe dish filled with water in oven as it preheats for about an hour. The humidity will ensure the texture comes out right.

So to recap:

Homemade French Baguette

1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups water (105 -115 F)
4-4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt

In a large bowl sprinkle yeast and sugar over warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
With a wooden spoon stir in 2 cups flour until combined.
Stir in salt and 2 cups of remaining flour until mixture forms a stiff dough.
On a lightly floured surface knead dough with lightly floured hands 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic, kneading in enough of remaining 1/2 cup flour to keep dough from sticking.
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled deep bowl, turning to coat with oil, and let rise, bowl covered with plastic wrap, until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat oven to 475-500°F (My oven does best with 475°, but it runs hot).
Punch down dough and form into a long slender loaf about 21 inches long and 3 inches wide.
You can also form individual mini-loaves.
Put loaf diagonally on a lightly greased large or 17 x 14-inch baking sheet and let rise, uncovered, about 30 minutes.
(Baguette may be made up to this point 4 hours ahead and chilled.) Make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes on loaf with a razor and lightly brush top with cool water.
Bake loaf in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until golden and sounds hollow when tapped, and transfer to a rack to cool.

Notes: For a chewy interior and perfect, crusty exterior, place a dutch oven filled with water in oven as it preheats for about an hour.
The humid enviroment will ensure the texture comes out right.
Baking stones don't hurt either.
If you don't want to put water into the oven, you can use a spray mister to keep the enviroment moist as it cooks.

a salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing AKA dressing I could eat with a spoon

2009-01-19T11:38:00.003-06:00

This dressing comes with a special recipe for salad complete with apple and cranberries and is probably pretty good. I have never made it though. I have only been interested int the dressing.

This dressing is amazing. Think of a tart lemonade. It's good on a salad, good as a fruit dip, and good as a marinade.

Lemon Poppyseed Dressing

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons diced onion (I use dried minced)
1 teaspoon Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil (olive oil also works)
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Winter fruit salad
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pear - peeled, cored and sliced

In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard, and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running, add oil in a slow, steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth. Add poppy seeds, and process just a few seconds more to mix.

In a large serving bowl, toss together the romaine lettuce, shredded Swiss cheese, cashews, dried cranberries, apple, and pear. Pour dressing over salad just before serving, and toss to coat.

Split Pea Soup

2009-01-15T14:05:00.009-06:00

I have to confess, I thought split pea soup would be gross. I am not too fond of canned peas (I don't pick them out of things though) and that was my thought of what this would taste like.

I was wrong.

It doesn't happen very often, but yes I was wrong. Hubby also was not thrilled with the idea of trying it, but he likes it as well.

About the only way I can think of descibing this is a spring vegetable soup. It just tastes like spring.

This is great with grilled cheese, or bread or any number of things I can't eat.

10 cups water
1 pound dried split peas
1 pound ham cut into pieces or ham bone
1 medium onions
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 or 3 carrots chopped
2 or 3 celery stalks chopped

Heat water and peas to boiling, boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and put in crock pot. Let sit for one hour then plug in crockpot. Toss in remaining ingredients. Cook on low for eight hours or high for 4 hours.

Ok, now a confession: if your family is like my hubs, this soup will not be enough for supper. Because most of the ingredients dissolve, there isn't anything to chew so you may want to serve something else with it. If you aren't worried about being gluten free a loaf of french bread or grilled cheese sandwiches would be great.

Slowcooker Apple Butter

2009-01-13T15:01:00.005-06:00

Oh my. This stuff is the best ever. If you ever had that jarred muck in the store, and thought it was gross, try this. It's like apple pie and applesauce had a child. Great on toast or applesauce bread. My kids love it in peanut butter sandwiches.

A fruit butter is fruit cooked down slowly with sugar to make a spread. Butters use less sugar than jams or jellies and so would be somewhat healthier. With the really sweet fruits, butters can taste better because of the less sugar; peach butter is divine, but I find peach jam too sweet.

Slowcooker Apple Butter

5 1/2 lbs apples - cored and finely chopped
4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Place the apples in the slowcooker. In a medium bowl mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. I have a hard time getting all of this to fit in my 4 quart slowcooker, the lid won't fit tightly. After it cooks down some though, it works well.

Cover and cook on high 1 hour.

Reduce heat to low and cook 9-11 hours, stirring occasionally until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. (If you don't want it to be dark brown, you can add some lemon juice from what I have heard. But then it won't look like apple butter.

Uncover and cook on low for 1 hour to thicken. Stir with a whisk, if desired to increase smoothness.

Spoon mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze. Jars can also be processed in a water bath and then stored on the shelf.

The smell of cooking apples will make your house smell wonderful. This makes alot and is really yummy.

Slowcooker Black Bean Soup from Dried Beans Recipe not gluten-free

2009-01-09T18:58:00.003-06:00

I got this recipe from Recipezaar.com - one of my favorite places to get recipes. Apparently the person who posted it on recipezaar, found it on Hillbilly Housewife's website.

In any case, this is a yummy filling recipe that even my "I don't like black beans" Hubby liked as well as my "I don't like soup" son. I served it with the gluten-free corn bread which went nicely.

Oh, why dried beans? They are cheaper, lower in salt, and that's what I had. I had bought the beans before finding a recipe, I know a bag of beans will make a good sized pot of soup. I am not sure how many cans it would take.

I think this recipe could be converted to gluten-free it just has the bullion cubes which have wheat and I am not quite sure how to replicate their flavor with ease.

The original recipe was for the stove top, I just prefer cooking beans in the slowcooker. If you want the stovetop recipe, click the title below.

Black Bean Soup from Dried Beans Recipe

SERVES 8 -10

1 lb dried black beans
3 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
4-6 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
6 chicken bouillon cubes -- I used beef because I thought I was out of chicken. I do like the beef.
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Pick over the beans to make sure there aren't any bad ones.

Or rocks.

Then rinse the beans, and put in a big pot and cover with water. These will double or triple in size so put in plenty of water to cover them when they have expanded.

If you are organized, you will have done this the night before. If you are less organized, you will need to bring to a boil and let it boil for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it soak for 2 hours. If you are really unorganized, a pressure cooker will work in a pinch.

After soaking, pour off the water and then add enough fresh water to cover. Bring it to a boil and then dump in your slowcooker. Turn it to high and let the beans simmer until they are tender.

When the beans are tender then you can add the veggies, oil, and seasonings. Cover again and cook another 30 minutes - 1 hour until the carrots are tender. If you want the broth to be thicker, use an immersion blender or pour some in a regular blender, puree and add back to the soup.

Yum, yum, yum.

Peach Salsa

2009-01-09T16:25:00.003-06:00

This stuff is absolutely wonderful!!! It is a bit unusual, but great on chicken or fish.
Katie's Peach Salsa

6 cups peaches -- diced (I used frozen for convenience)
1 1/4 cups red onion -- chopped
4 jalapeno pepper -- chopped*
1 red pepper -- chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro -- loosely packed
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
3 cloves garlic -- finely chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Simmer all ingredients for 5-10 minutes.

Either eat and enjoy or pack into hot jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (0-1000 ft.), 15 minutes (1001-6000 ft.), and 20 minutes (above 6000 ft.).

*If you like it a little spicy, leave in some of the ribs and seeds of the jalapenos.

Absolutely Yummy Gluten-Free Cornbread

2009-01-05T23:14:00.003-06:00

Absolutely Yummy Gluten-Free Cornbread recipe came from my Grandmother's Mexican Cornbread dish. Its a wonderful meal and really isn't spicy-hot. I have made it somewhat healthier than her original which called for bacon drippings and I am pretty sure more than 1/3 of a cup (I think it was 1/2). I am pretty sure this could be done even healthier but I haven't really puttered with it too much.

First the Mexican Cornbread recipe and then I will do the regular cornbread. Oh, I make this in a number 8 cast iron skillet (which for some reason means 9 or 10 inches) and it fits perfectly.

Grandmother's Mexican cornbread

1 can cream-style corn
2 well beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 Cup oil (vegetable, olive, etc) or bacon drippings(I have successfully reduced this to 1/4 cup
1/2 pound ground beef
1 large onion finely chopped
1/2 pound cheddar cheese grated
1 can mild green chilies -- you could leave these out, but I promise you don't want to

MIX & SET ASIDE first 7 ingredients

Saute ground meat. Drain on paper towel

Place in a separate mounds: onion, cheddar cheese, and chilies

Grease a large black skillet. Heat, sprinkle a very thin layer of corn meal in skillet and let it brown slightly.

Pour 1/2 batter in skillet

Sprinkle cheese evenly over batter, Meat, onion and finally peppers

Pour remaining batter on top.

Bake 45-50 min.@ 350. Serve with salsa, and maybe a salad.

So I took that recipe and found my cornbread. YUM! Unfortunately for you, I forget to time stuff when I cook it so the bake time is a guess.

Absolutely Yummy Gluten-Free Cornbread

1 can cream-style corn
4 well beaten eggs
2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 Cup oil (vegetable, olive, etc) or bacon drippings

MIX ingredients, if it seems too soupy to you then add some more corn flour. I usually do (to both recipes) but I have a bad tendency to also not measure, so I don't know how much more edited to add: I remade this and measured. I added an extra cup for that batch.

If you have a seasoned skillet, just pour it in. If not, you may want to grease it.

Bake 45-50 minute at 350. Although you might want to check it after 30.

You probably could leave out the creamed corn but I think its part of the reason it's so moist. You could add sugar for those of you that like sweet cornbread, but this one doesn't really need it. The creamed corn adds a subtle sweetness but not like Yankee cornbread for my fellow southerners.

Although I like Yankee cornbread.

By the way, I cook somewhat like my Great-Grandmother. I use measurments as a guideline but I do tend to eyeball alot. Or throw other stuff in that appeals to me that day. That's why my recipes are somewhat vague.

I am a bit more precise about baking though. With alot of baking, there is science involved and it's not worth the hassle. In this case though, its not as big of a deal.

If you want to try a real southern treat: cut a good sized slice of cornbread and put in a bowl, pour milk about 1/2 way up the cornbread and then break it up. Let the milk soak into the cornbread and eat (you can heat it or eat cold.)

My grandparents and great-grandparents would do this with buttermilk instead of milk but . . . ewwwwwww. I don't like buttermilk.

Sweet potato casseroles

2009-01-02T22:10:00.003-06:00

Another post I was going to do before Christmas but didn't. I love sweet potatoes and it doesn't have to be a major holiday for me to make them though, so I will go ahead and share.

Well, I was over at A Year of CrockPotting and found this lovely looking recipe for Pecan Topped Baked Sweet Potatoes. I had planned on making My Mom's (remade) Sweet Potato Casserole but was intrigued by the slow-cooker version with cranberries.

Since I couldn't decide and WAS NOT making two dishes of sweet potatoes -- see how well that worked-- so this is what we did. One night we had just sweet potatoes for supper -- the kids wimped out and also had a sandwich --and tried out both recipes. Here is what we came up with.

The Crockpot Pecan-topped Sweet Potatoes

Ease of preparation:

They were both fairly easy. The slow- cooker required the potatoes to be sliced and stagger-stacked. Once it was assembled, it required nothing more for 4-6 hours. For someone with perfectionist tendancies, the stagger-stacking was a bit tiresome -- I kept telling myself it wasn't Christmas dinner and didn't have to be perfect.

Appearance:

To be honest, the cranberries in the slow-cooker made it very dark, I would have thought it overcooked if it had been in the oven. Also the milk did some funny curdled looking things. Now it is possible that I did something wrong to account for this but I am not sure what.
Also there was a big pool of liquid that went most of the way up the potatoes. As someone who doesn't like their food to touch, all this liquid is disturbing. (I know, I know. I am strange.)

Taste:

You know, I didn't really taste the cranberries and the sweet potatoes were a bit bland as well. Sometimes two different flavors play together really well and seem to highlight the best in both (like chocolate and peanut butter). Other times they just wrestle each other into blandness. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as flavorful as I thought it should be. Now again, maybe it is just me or I did something wrong. I don't really know.

This also made a lot and reducing a slow-cooker recipe can be tricky. So I am not really tempted to try again.

Mom's Sweet Potato Casserole

Ease of preparation:

This recipe needed the potatoes mashed, but for someone with OCD tendancies this was much faster than the other. Really just peeling, and then chunking the potatoes to boil them and mash seemed easier. This is a dish I would feel comfortable letting my 9 year old make (maybe with help getting the potatoes out of the hot water).

Appearance:

I thought this looked very pretty, the orangey color of the potatoes peeking out through the topping. The topping made a lovely crust that was slightly crunchy which leads to taste . . . .

Taste:

I love plain mashed sweet potatoes but these are better. (Its like comparing fat-free ice cream to the regular. You might be fine with the fat free but the full fat is soooooo much better.) The topping is crunchy and sweet (like the streusel crumb topping on the really good muffins) and a great contrast to the smooth mashed goodness.

The Final Verdict

I really wanted to love the Pecan-Topped Sweet Potatoes (on the left) because I could just pre-assemble and then turn on the crockpot that morning. But we just didn't. It wasn't bad, and if someone else fixed it we would eat it (well, except Daisy who hates nuts). But it just didn't work for us.

So we made Mom's recipe. Actually made way too much, but it was delicious.

Again the recipe links are (click on the title) Pecan Topped Baked Sweet Potatoes and My Mom's Sweet Potato Casserole.

Gluten-Free Gibblet Gravy

2009-01-02T18:22:00.001-06:00

I had planned on following a recipe I found for gluten-free gravy but I couldn't find it. I did remember it used a gluten free cream of soup as a thickener -- so that is what I did, and then made the rest up.

Here is the recipe

All the stuff bagged inside the turkey
2 or 3 boullion cubes (gluten free)
1/4 or 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms --because mushrooms make everything taste good
one batch of cream of soup replacement I got from here
1 c. cold milk
2 Tb. cornstarch
2 Tb. butter
1 tsp. chicken bouillon or other flavoring
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Take the gibletts and neck and all those gross bits and put in a small pot with enough water to cover and boil.

When you think that they are done pull out the meat. Feed the neck and tail to the dog and chop up the heart and stuff into tiny pieces and put them back into the boiling water just in case they weren't cooked -- cause they still look gross.

Then add the bouillon cubes and mushrooms and cook for a bit longer. I had around 2 cups of liquid at this point. I didn't measure it but I thought I would mention it because if you have 8 cups of liquid your gravy won't thicken well at all.

In a separate pot, whisk corn starch into the cold milk. Add the remaining ingredients and heat to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for about a minute until thickened.

Then pour the cream of mixture into the broth mixture (or I suppose you could do it the other way). Stir to combine.

That's it. This got really good reviews from everyone except Junior because he didn't try it. He doesn't like gravy. or mushrooms. OHHH or onions. Nope, no onions in that recipe but it would be stinkin' good.

Really, really simple cranberry jelly

2009-01-02T18:21:00.001-06:00

Just so you know, I am not against the canned stuff. I just like the homemade so much better and it is so simple.

Hubby likes the canned stuff. With the canned shape. EWW. Ok maybe I am against the canned stuff but it is more of a personal choice thing. I won't force anyone to eat homemade if I am not forced to eat canned.

But this is really good. and since you make it to your taste, you should like it too.

Cranberry Apple Jelly

1 bag of cranberries
1-2 Granny Smith apples
sugar
splash of liquor (optional)

Wash the cranberries and put them in a medium pot. Chop up the apples really fine (unless you want them chunky) and add them to the pot. Pour about 1/2 a cup of sugar on top and stir. Turn on the heat medium, medium high, depends on how closely you want to watch it. Stir occasionally until most of the cranberries have burst. (I usually squash the remaining ones).

Carefully taste it (remember it could scald your tongue) and then add more sugar. Taste again, and add more sugar. Depending on how tart the apples and cranberries are and how tart you like your sauce you may have a lot or a little sugar.

Then if you want, add some liquor for just an added flavor. One year I used cinnamon schnapps, another plain bourbon, this year I used ammaretto. Or you can leave it out.

Pour into a pretty dish and chill.

Just a note: if there are a lot of under-ripe berries, this sauce will jell up tight because of all the pectin in the apple and the under-ripe berries. Not that this is a bad thing, just a warning.

My Christmas menu

2009-01-02T15:30:00.002-06:00

I was going to do this post before Christmas . . . but it didn't get done. Since it was full of goodness, I finished it and am going to run it now. I know, its after Christmas but really except for the turkey these would be good any night.

Just not all at once.

So here it is - - - My Christmas ~~challange~~ Menu

Every time I have a holiday dinner at my house I tend to go a little nuts. See the thing is, while I hate to cook dinner every night, I love to do something like Thankgiving or Christmas. I just don't know when to stop.

For example, one year we had mashed sweet pototoes, candied yams, mashed potatoes (regular baking), a sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie (yes I know pumpkin isn't a potato but sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie are so much alike I am including it anyway.) That was in addition to all the other food.

If I was cooking for alot of people it wouldn't be as big of a deal but I have never served more than 8.

So my Christmas Challange is to not enlarge this menu.

I mean it.

This is all that will be served. If I serve any more things than this, I will fail in my challenge.

If I have a recipe I am going to link to it.

For an appetizer, I will serve maybe some store bought hummus with vegetables and/or crackers. . . But that is it!

Brined turkey it's a tweeked version of Alton Brown's Good Eats Turkey
Dressing which my in-laws are going to bring
Gravy--gluten free just a note - this turned out really, really good
sweet potatoes---either mom's sweet potato casserole or crockpot pecan topped baked sweet potatoes more about this later.
green been casserole (reduced gluten) I completely forgot all about making this so we didn't have it.
banana split salad which Junior made. this was really good and I don't like banana splits
Sister Schuberts dinner rolls-- I love these but I didn't eat any
cranberry-apple sauce

Then for dessert

peanut butter pie
buttermilk pie
sawdust pie I decided to drop this one as we had enough desserts
And Daisy is making a flourless cakefrom here.

Now the update: Hubby made the sweet potatoes and in our trial it didn't seem to make very much . . . so we tripled it. WAYYYYY too much. Plus he peeled and boiled too many potatoes so there was a large bowl of plain mashed sweet potatoes. Good thing we like sweet potatoes.

My wonderful in-laws also brought over mashed potatoes, in addition to the rolls and the dressing.

So we had way too much food, but it was all really good. And this year I didn't keep adding things to the menu, even dropped two.

Yes, one was an accident but doesn't it still count!?!

While stores still have fresh cranberries, you ought to go over to Amie's Blog - Life with the Boys and look at her Cranberry Salsa recipe.

Oh

my

goodness!!!!

This stuff is incredible!!!!

Hoppin' John

2009-01-01T21:54:00.002-06:00

For some reason I have never had this classic Southern dish and so thought I would try it this year. I had gotten the recipe after reading A Year of Crockpotting and reading some of the comments on her first trial of black eyed peas. Anyway the recipe I sort-of used is right here.

I say sort-of because I added way too much cayenne. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and since I couldn't find that I used ground red pepper.

A little over 3/4 of a teaspoon.

I should have used 1/4 teaspoon.

Even my pepper-belly hubby said it was hot.

I read that lemon could cool down the heat and so I added that. It wasn't enough.

I added 2 bell peppers, and an extra 1/2 cup of rice, and heavy cream and it was still a little warm.

I do want to try it again though, using the right amount of cayenne.

I also changed the recipe so that I could use the crockpot. Here is my recipe (and what I am going to do next time is all italics. The last 3 things are all about fixing the pepper and really not necessary.)

HOPPIN' JOHN

1 cup dried black-eyed peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 smoked ham hock (those are sooo gross looking)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes OR 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper only add heaping 3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper if you want to set your mouth on fire
1 teaspoon salt
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained oops, just read that it was supposed to be drained. Oh well, I needed to add other stuff anyway.
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice I bulked it up with extra rice (2 cups total), however it seemed too much rice so I will go back to the recommended amount
2 bell peppers, chopped
about 1 tablespoon powdered garlic I didn't measure
about 2 ounces of lemon juice (to counteract the pepper)
1/2 cup of heavy cream (to counteract the pepper)
1/2 cup of sugar (both to counteract the lemon and the cayenne)

Pick all the rocks and bad peas out, then wash and soak them over night.

The day you want to eat this, heat some oil in a pretty good sized pot and brown the ham hock (may not be necessary but I did it).

Then add the onion and let it cook until softened. Then into the pot went 6 cups of water, and the black pepper, red pepper, garlic powder and salt and bring it to a boil.

Let it boil for about 10 minutes and then dump it into a crock pot (you can cook it stove top but I am less likely to scorch it in the crock pot).

Add the peas and bell pepper and cook until nearly tender . . . I have no idea how long. Kind-of depends on how tender you want them. Since you can choose low or high . . . and I really don't know how log for either of them . . . .

When the peas are tender-ish, pour in the tomatoes -- you could drain them but I honestly don't know if I would or not. I looooooooove tomatoes. The more tomatoes the better.

And while you are stirring in the lovely tomatoes add the rice, reduce heat to low and cook, covered for 20ish minutes (or until the rice isn't crunchy).

The final directions to the original recipe reads "Turn off heat, and allow Hoppin' John to steam in pot, lid on, for 5 minutes. Serve." Since that sort-of describes crockpot cooking, I just skip that part.
Yield: 6 servings.

There you have it. The flavor I could get through the flames on my tongue and throat was good before the lemon and the sugar (it was good after but I liked it better before . . . except the heat . . . if that makes sense). The cream was a lovely rich addition but makes me a bit nervous because of the tendency for milk to curdle in the presence of acids (like tomatoes or lemon.)

Because I feel like I need to redeem myself as a decent cook, I will let you know later about the cornbread I made to go with the meal.

Gluten-free.

No weird ingredients.

And met the approval of people who don't need to eat gluten free -- including my mother-in-law who is a picky eater. She might deny that she is a picky eater but she is. That's why I also had them bring cornbread - in case mine didn't turn out well.

But. It. Rocked.

Rice cooker rice pudding

2008-12-31T20:09:00.002-06:00

Because I am trying to lose weight I started craving tapioca pudding. Mmmmmm tapioca.

Unfortunately, I had less tapioca than I thought. So I got to thinking . . . and a close second is ~~bread~~ rice pudding. Bread pudding is not gluten free so went with the rice pudding.

So I got to looking for a recipe that used uncooked rice . . . because I am lazy that way . . . and found this one. Recipezaar.com is my favorite place to look for recipes because I can almost always find what I am looking for.

I have to admit, I hate-loath-and-despise raisins. I love, love, love dried cranberries. So dried cranberries were substituted but I thought cranberries and apples go well together.

This wasn't the creamy off-white I was expecting, it looked like it had been made with brown sugar (not a bad thing, just letting you know.)

Apple Rice Pudding for a Rice Cooker Recipe

by HappySphinx

1 hour | 20 min prep

SERVES 4

2 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup short-grain white rice (Carolina Gold is recommended)
3 cups boiling water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 pinch nutmeg
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

1. Put the rice, salt, 3 cups of boiling water, raisins, apples, and nutmeg in the rice maker.
2. Tell the rice cooker to 'cook'.
3. When the rice cooker says it is done or switches to 'warm', stir in the condensed milk, vanilla, and butter.
4. Tell the rice cooker to 'cook' again.
5. When it switches to 'warm' again or says it is done cooking, evaluate.
6. If there is too much liquid in your rice pudding for your preference, you can tell the cooker to 'cook' again.
7. garnish with cinnamon.
© 2008 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

The Verdict

Hubby loved it. The kids thought it needed something, maybe more sugar. I personally gagged at the thought of more sugar. It was plenty sweet and rich enough.

I think maybe because of the condensed milk, it had a bit too much of a caramel flavor. Since I am not too big on caramel, I wasn't crazy about it. It was good . . . . it just wasn't quite what I wanted.

Banana Split Salad - not dairy free

2008-12-18T18:23:00.003-06:00

This yummy sounding recipe came from a very good friend of the family. Her daughter and I were more like sisters growing up.

Junior is going to make this for Christmas dinner because . . . it sounds good and it looks fairly simple.

Plus I like them being able to take part in the preparations.

Banana Split Salad

1 large cool whip
1 can Eagle brand milk
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can crushed pineapple -- (8 ounce) drained
3 bananas sliced
½ cup chopped nuts

Mix well and refrigerate.

Ok this is a pretty shade or pink from the cherries and cool whip. Since I am not really big on bananas (I don't like real banana splits) I was afraid I wouldn't like this. But it is good! Everyone (even me) liked it. It was a bit too sweet to be a salad for normal meals, I would serve it as dessert then.

Junior sliced the banana on his own, so he practiced knife skills using a table knife. The rest of it was just dump in the bowl and stir.

Brined and Roasted Turkey

2008-12-18T18:22:00.005-06:00

A brined turkey is so much moister and better than a regular turkey. It is well worth the effort. This recipe is based off the recipe for Good Eats Roast Turkey, but I have changed it a bit.

The turkey should be somewhere between 12- 16 pounds and this must be done a few days in advance.

For the brine
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1 gallon iced water

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
The night before cooking combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

1 red apple
1/2 onion sliced
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
Canola oil

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.
Cook as suggested for your size bird.

You can also brine a deep-fried turkey and increase flavor that way.