Kitchen Chaos

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

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 st

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 i

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 t

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

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