But earlier in the year, when I was overrun with figs, I decided to make brig dip. Super easy appetizer... I overcooked mine, which did nothing to diminish the taste, only diminishing the appearance.
Pre-heat oven to 350 or so. Peel your brie and place on a baking sheet. I used a small one to do this in the toaster oven. Pour the chutney over the brie. Cook for about ten minutes or so, until brie is slightly melty. DO NOT FORGET ABOUT IT. If you do, it will look like this:
I served mine with toasted bits of corn tortilla. If you're not gluten-free, this would be excellent with sourdough bread or crackers.
Occasionally, we miss restaurant food. Occasionally our sinuses go nuts and we want something hot. Occasionally, we feel like eating bad.
Hot wings satisfy all of those occasions. So easy, so much cheaper than eating them out somewhere. But not a bit healthier. OOOPS.
We do have a deep fryer (sad but true) and pull it out sometimes for wings. Sometimes we bake them.
They are better fried. The thing about frying them is they get that crispy, crusty, yummilicous texture that lets you know you are eating something bad for you.
The other secret to wings is in the sauce. Some places make sauce that is too mild. Some places make sauce that is hot but has no flavor. Some have all flavor and no kick.
PUH-LEASE
You gotta have good sauce.
Yummy, Fabulous Hot Wing Sauce
1/2 stick butter
2 tbsp. minced garlic
32 oz. bottle of a base hot sauce (Frank's Hot Sauce or Texas Pete will do)
1 tsp. worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1 tsp. lemon zest.
Mix all with a wisk. Don't skip real butter! Toss your wings in it... this should coat about 15 or 16 wings. Serve. Repent and eat your veggies tomorrow.
My brilliant husband decided that we NEEDED corn dogs. Um, I'm not especially sure that anyone ever NEEDED corn dogs, but he was cooking dinner, so I went with his theory.
His recipe:
1 pack of chicken hot dogs that are gluten-free
1 1/2 cups cornmeal (not cornmeal mix)
1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour mix (we like Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Mix together all batter ingredients until they are really good and smooth. Heat oil to really hot in a pan on the stove, about 375 degrees. Once the oil is ready, dip your hot dogs into the batter, making sure you have a nice, fat coating. Drop into the grease one by one and cook through. Serve as immediate as possible with mustard and ketchup.
Random, I know, but like most of my recipes, I had a craving. Sweet meat and pancakes (ish). Traditional mu shu is typically pork, which my husband doesn't eat, and served with pancakes, which my son and I can't eat. And I wanted it to be easy.
Easy it was. I did about 10 minutes of prep work ahead of time, and when it came time to actually make dinner, this was less than a 30 minute meal. Rachel Ray, eat your heart out!
I thawed the meat ahead of time, cheated and used corn tortillas and bought my veggies pre-chopped. But it was a keeper, definitely.
Mix together ground turkey, ginger, garlic, tamari sauce, and corn starch in a large bowl. Stick it in the refrigerator to marinate. If you are making homemade hoison sauce, mix together above ingredients with a fork. Set it aside.
Go do whatever you have to do for a couple of hours.
When you're ready to make dinner, pull out your turkey, a pack of corn tortillas, your sauce, and your slaw mix. Heat a large skillet and add the sesame oil. Add the turkey and brown. Remove the turkey to a bowl or plate. Beat up your eggs and cook in the same skillet, flipping once. Chop. Remove to plate or bowl, and toss in the broccoli slaw. Stir fry it until it is just limp. Add the turkey and egg back to it, and about a half-cup of water. Cook on medium heat about five minute or until the sauce is reduced.
Meanwhile, steam the tortillas in the microwave. To serve, spread a tablespoon or so across the corn tortilla, add the turkey and veggie mixture, and roll up.
Don't fight with each other over the last of the hoison sauce. You can always make more.
Something about being gluten-free makes me crave foods I never ate or cooked regularly before I was gf. Fried foods definitely fall into that category! I do try to eat healthy and cook healthy for my family. But I am a Georgia peach and our okra plants produced great big okra...too big for pickling. And my youngest had never had fried okra..... Ok, ok. Enough excuses!
Gluten-free fried okra:
5 or 6 large pieces fresh okra
1 cup cornmeal (NOT cornmeal mix.. It contains wheat flour and is not gluten-free)
1/2 cup gf flour mix (I used Bob's but it doesn't really matter)
2 cups milk (I used goat's milk)
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Black pepper
coconut oil
Directions:
Mix together all dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour milk into another small bowl. Start heating coconut oil (enough to coat the bottom of pan). Wash okra and slice into medallions. Dip each piece into the milk and then in dry ingredients. Add battered okra into the hot oil. Cook until brown on one side, then flip. Once second side is browned, remove from pan and drain grease. Salt and serve hot. Eat a few before debuting to the kids or you won't get any!
I tried socca a while back but wasn't overly thrilled with it, just kinda appeased that there was a bread-like substance about. I obviously didn't do a good job making it.
Because now I'm in LOVE.
When I went to Seattle last week, I made a pan. And I cut the slices and made a sandwich to take on the plane. A SANDWICH. A sandwich that didn't make me sick. As a breadman's daughter, that means A LOT.
And I found a much, much easier recipe to make here on the New York Times. I cut the amount of rosemary and pepper in half, but otherwise left it the same. Served it with spaghetti (made with rice noodles) for dinner. I didn't even miss the garlic bread.
So I went last week to Seattle on a business trip, and actually dreaded trying to navigate eating gluten-free. I was very pleasantly surprised that there were options everywhere I went, even striking it lucky at an Italian joint that happened to have gluten-free pasta on hand.
The best meal I had by far, however, was in Pike Place Market at the Athenian, a little seafood joint overlooking the water. I ordered their Salmon Sauté and it literally melted in my mouth. It was fabulous.
Sad that my family didn't get to enjoy it, I came home and made my own version. Sadly, my salmon wasn't as fresh so it didn't have quite the same taste, but it still came out pretty darned good.
Salmon Sauté
8 oz. Salmon (preferably wild-caught)
3 tsp. lemon zest
2 onions
1 bell pepper
2 banana peppers
7 cherry tomatoes
3 leaves basil
2 celery stalks
1 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 garlic cloves
copious amounts of olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
brown rice
water
fresh squeezed lemon juice
Start your rice. While it is cooking, chop your onions, peppers, and celery, and set aside. Slice the garlic cloves. Quarter your cherry tomatoes and put them in a separate bowl from other veggies. Let rice cook about halfway before starting everything else, just so it all finishes up at the same time.
Once you're ready to start, heat a large skillet and pour in about 2 tbsp. olive oil. Once it's hot, add in peppers, onions, celery, and sliced garlic. Cook on medium heat until veggies start to soften, then push to the side of the pan. Turn the heat up to medium-high and place salmon in empty space, skin side down.
Rub olive oil over the top of the salmon. Continue stirring veggies to ensure they don't burn. Cook the salmon about 5 minutes, or until skin separates easily when you pick up the salmon with a spatula. Remove skin and discard. Cut salmon up into bite-size pieces and return to pan. Add in butter, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Lower heat back to medium and cook, stirring continuously. After about 5 minutes or so, add in tomatoes and basil. Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking until fish is cooked through and/or rice is done. If your rice is taking FOREVER (like mine) reduce the heat to almost off so the fish doesn't overcook.
Serve over rice with fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Verdict-- the whole family enjoyed it, but the baby is going through an anti-green stage, so he pulled all the peppers and celery out and argued with his dad about eating them. But definitely a keeper.
Randomly my 7 year old was watching a cooking show the other night and asked for vanilla pears. I had never heard of such, but was impressed she would ask for such a thing. So on a Saturday morning I found myself at the market buying organic bourbon vanilla extract.
And here's my recipe:
2 1/2 tbsp. organic bourbon vanilla extract
2 tbsp. lemon juice.
1/8 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp. butter
2 pears, washed, halved and de-seeded
ground cinnamon
Wash and slice your pears as directed above. Place in the bottom of a greased baking dish and drizzle lemon juice over. Sprinkle over with brown sugar and then drizzle on vanilla. Top each pear with 1/4 of the butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cook in convection oven on 350 for 50 minutes, turning the pear halves over once. Baste them often with the juice in the bottom of the pan.
Serve immediately. Eat yours quickly, before someone tries to take it!
I am SO behind on blogging! I started a new job and am working 6 days a week, which definitely takes some getting used to. I think I've been sleep deprived for a month!
But I had to share some more of what we've done with the wealth of fresh figs we've been given....
Ok, so this is very, very easy, particularly if you can get a volunteer (aka my husband) to make you pancakes! Ours were gluten-free naturally.
I started by washing the figs and chopping them into quarters or smaller, and throwing them in a saute pan with the butter. Then I sprinkled the sherry vinegar and sugar over them. I cooked over low heat, stirring often, for about fifteen minutes. The result? A yummy fruit topping/syrup that everyone loved. In fact, they loved it so much I didn't get a picture at all (OOOPS.)
In a saucepan, bring the rolled oats, coconut oil, and water to a boil. I always go ahead and put the oil in because it helps it keep from sticking. Once the contents of your pan are boiling, reduce the heat to low. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. When you are starting to get an oatmeal-looking substance, add in your figs and maple syrup, mixing throughly with the oatmeal. Sprinkle in cinnamon and powdered ginger. Cook (still on low) another 10 minutes or so, stirring to be sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the pat of butter, and cook until it's melted. Stir throughout.
Note: I didn't use any sugar in this, and my youngest ate two bowlsful!
The lessons you learn in college are not all, shall we say, academically related. That being said, when I was a student at UGA, my roommate and I had a house that happened to have fig trees in the backyard. And one of the lessons I learned was that fresh figs are absolutely divine.
My cousin got married this weekend, and I didn't get to talk to my grandparents much at the wedding, but my Mema (that's Southern for grandmother if you are uninitiated) sent me some fresh figs from one of her trees. None of my family aside from myself had ever had any, either, so it was with great joy yesterday that I introduced them.
Mema sent me a sackful of figs, which can turn bad rather quickly, so we could not extend the joy, they had to be used right away. We ate a lot of them, sliced them and threw in our dinner salad (which we had with our gluten-free spaghetti-- yay!) and then I started cooking.
I've never made jam before, so I made a large jar of jam using a recipe I found on the internet (that I can no longer find to share) and then I made fig chutney. I couldn't find a recipe that was what I wanted, so I just made up my own:
Fig Chutney
12-15 fresh figs, washed, stemmed, and chopped
3 tbsp fresh ginger
3 thai chili peppers
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. Tabasco sauce
½ tsp nutmeg
Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until everything is nice and thick. Stir regularly, to prevent sticking. Pour everything into the food processor and and pulse three or four times until you have a chunky consistency. Refrigerate before serving and use as a condiment.
The chili we had on vacation was sooooo good, I came home wanting more chili. Yes, in the middle of the summer. Weird, huh?
But I didn't want to make the same 'ol, same 'ol, so I used some chicken and black beans. It was delish. Actually, I haven't really had lunch yet, so maybe I can go grab some out of the fridge for a late lunch.....
The dairy tolerant of us topped this with swiss cheese and sour cream. Those of us who gained weight over the course of vacation and now can't fit into a bridesmaids' dress for this Sunday did not.
Black Bean Chicken Chili
3 boneless chicken thighs
1 bag of black beans, soaked overnight
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp. tumeric
2 tsp. chili powder
1 cup salsa
1 tsp. cumin
Once beans have soaked overnight, start them to boil in a large stockpot. Boil for 1 hour on low heat before beginning anything else. Once the hour is up, add all ingredients except the chicken and salsa into the pot, continuing to boil.
Dice the chicken. Heat a medium skillet and add chicken pieces and salsa. Cook until chicken is done, and empty all into the chili. Continue to cook on low for 30 minutes or until you feel ready to eat. I cooked mine for a couple of hours so the flavors would meld together.
On vacation last week, I accidentally re-discovered a healthy cooked treasure, and it's gluten-free.
Salsa Chicken
I was making fajitas, and didn't have my normal spice cabinet to pull from to season the meat, and felt it needed something. (my spice cabinet at home:)
I spied a huge jar of salsa that I knew we wouldn't eat, and began to cook. And the delicious result reminded me that one of the 1st "real" meals I made often when cooking on my own was salsa chicken.
And so, here, my friends, is an easy, healthy, gluten-free dinner recipe. Sometimes I get so caught up in cooking and experimenting that I forget that simplicity has its own beauty.
Salsa Chicken
3-4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1/4 cup salsa for each chicken breast
2 cups brown rice
Heat a skillet with a tiny amount of oil in it, just to make it non-stick. Add chicken breasts and pour salsa on top. Cook, flipping once one side is done, until chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile, cook rice in a separate pan. Serve rice under chicken & salsa, with a salad.
So we went on vacation to Orlando for a week, had to be gluten-free and use a limited budget. That's hard. I planned a grocery list, looked up the sale fliers in the area, packed coupons to take, and even took groceries with me. The plan, of course, went astray.
So why did we go on vacation when I just got laid off and we're broke? We have a timeshare that we'd already paid for, and my mom paid for gas and groceries and went with me and the kids.
So what does one eat on a gluten-free diet on vacation? Apparently lots of stuff.. I gained 4 pounds.
For dinners, we had:
-Steak, baked potatoes, salad, & grilled asparagus
-Fajitas (corn tortillas)
-Chicken Stir-Fry (made from scratch, gluten-free ingredients)
-Chili
-Honey Mustard Chicken & Rice
We ate out once and had a leftover night. For lunches we had wraps made with corn tortillas and gluten-free lunch meat. We snacked on fruit, raw veggies, yogurt, and gluten-free popsicles. Breakfast was eggs and turkey bacon and fruit.
The other snack was a delicious, delicious gluten-free cookie recipe that a friend posted on Facebook that she found on Allrecipes.com right here. They were so good we had to make two batches! They used up ingredients we had on hand and were simple enough for a vacation that we intended to spend all by the pool!
So I have not posted mostly this week because I have been swimming, swimming, swimming. *sigh*
My hubby woke up sick this morning. He was taken out to a business lunch yesterday, where he ordered a turkey wrap. In a flour tortilla. Late last night, he realized his mistake. Nauseous, headache. Yep. Too much gluten.
He had to call in sick today. So I determined he needs to go to work tomorrow. So I made soup, designed to get him better. He swears it's perfect and has eaten 2 bowls and managed to get out of bed.
Gluten Free Noodle Soup for Sick folks
6-8 cups chicken broth (homemade)
1 tsp. Hungarian paprika
1 clove fresh garlic, smashed and chopped coarsely
2 tsp. grated ginger
3 teaspoons miso paste
3 oz. vermicelli noodles (I used the sweet potato kind)
Heat chicken broth with seasonings. In a separate pot, prepare noodles. Drain them and add to soup base. Cook 3 more minutes. Pour two cups in a bowl and deliver to sick person. Tell them to eat it without complaining.
The road to gluten-free has often been one with many speed bumps. There are some things that we love that we just don't want to give up. And this has caused me to give some of my recipes a "makeover." Sometimes that's easy and sometimes it's not.
I do it anyway.
Enter chicken springrolls. I posted my recipe for them a while back. It just seemed to need a few tweaks to make it gluten free. First things first, I bought some gluten-free spring roll wrappers a while back. I went to Super H Mart, but Amazon also sells the ones I used. I am a bit puzzled by their claim that you can buy it, or buy it new, though. ????
At any rate, once I had those, the recipe was easy. The hard thing was learning to manipulate these wrappers. To get them bendy (because I strive to utilize technical terms) you soak them in water. Not too long, or they stick to themselves, not too short or they won't be bendy. I settled on about 2 minutes a piece.
I did find, too, that with these wrappers, I needed to bake my springrolls about 25-30 minutes instead of 15-20.
Gluten Free Chicken Spring Rolls
1 lb. ground chicken
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 splash tabasco
2 tbsp. white vinegar
splash of apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp. sesame oil
minced ginger, garlic, and onion
spring roll wrappers
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
In a small pot, heat peanut butter, tabasco, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and onion for about 5 minutes over low heat. Stir regularly to blend. In a skillet, begin to cook the ground chicken, pouring the sauce over the chicken and cooking it in. Once the chicken is almost ready, add the cabbage and cook until it starts to turn tender.
Soak each spring roll wrapper for about 2 minutes, and once it is flexible, spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoon into the wrapper and roll. Add to greased baking dish. Once pan is filled, cook at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I served this time with Dijon mustard and some hot & spicy chili sauce.
Yet another morsel of appetizery goodness, complete with a recycled ingredient. I have this absolute VAT of sweet vinegar slaw in my fridge that my mom sent home with me the other day. I love the stuff, but can't seem to make it disappear. So I blanched some of it and made pancakes. Potato pancakes. It was (relatively) easy, took very few ingredients, and passed everyone's muster. Problem is, I need to cook and clean more, and I want to lay around and eat tons of the little suckers slathered in applesauce and sour cream.
Potato & Cabbage Pancakes
2 cups vinegar slaw, rinsed off OR 2 cups shredded cabbage, cooked until tender
2 red potatoes
4 cups water
1 cup chicken broth
salt
pepper
coconut oil
Bring water to a boil. While the water is heating up, scrub your potatoes well and chop them into small pieces so they will cook more quickly. Boil them 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Strain and return to pan. Pour in a cup of chicken broth and mix with an electric mixer until you have mashed potatoes. Add in cabbage or slaw. You may have to hand stir to distribute cabbage evenly.
Heat up a medium sized skillet, and once it gets hot add coconut oil. Scoop a large hunk of the potato and cabbage mixture up and drop into skillet. Flatten with spatula. Cook about 2-3 minutes and flip. You may have to repeat this step a couple of times. It seems there is a delicate balance between oil and heat to make them cook perfectly.
Serve hot with sour cream and/or applesauce on top. Delicious.
Today I feel kinda munchy. It seems too hot for a full meal, but I am definitely hungry. So I announced to the fam we are having an appetizer night. I'll be making an appetizer or more each hour, letting us eat and enjoy.
I am also getting leftovers OUT of the fridge.
My first effort was bean baskets.
They really turned out quite lovely:
And easy:
Ingredients:
2 cups of bean salad (black beans, edamame, corn, and salsa mixed together)
Scraps of corn tortilla from the bottom of the bag
Sour cream
Olive oil
Ah! Another use for food that might otherwise be thrown out! Get yourself a 6 muffin muffin pan and spray it or grease it with your preferred muffin pan lubricant. Arrange corn tortilla pieces to form cups in each of the muffin holes. Brush with olive oil.
Cook in the oven on about 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until edges start looking suspiciously brown. Remove from oven.
Heat your bean salad and put about 2-3 teaspoonfuls in each cup and top with a bit of sour cream. Serve it right away and prepare to fight over them. You only made 6 after all.
You know when you start to get to the bare bones in the fridge and you need to go to the grocery store but you just don't want to make the trip out in the heat? Yeah. That day.
I had that day yesterday. When I met up with it and needed a side item, I made up a quick veggie stir fry with what I had on hand. It was delish.
Ingredients:
2 carrots
3-4 stalks kale
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. fish sauce
3 tsp. worchestershire sauce
6 oz. snow peas
olive oil
Scrub and slice your carrots at a diagonal (just to make them a bit prettier.) Dollop about 2 tbsp. olive oil into the pan and bring it to medium to medium-high heat. Meanwhile, wash your kale and remove the thick stems. Chop into smaller pieces. Toss those into the pan too, and give it a quick stir. Throw in garlic, sliced coarsely, the ginger, and the liquids. Let simmer on the stove while you are trimming the snow peas (if desired.) Add in snow peas and continue to cook, stirring regularly until the carrots are done to your preference.
I looked around last night and discovered I had neither rice nor potatoes. What's odd about that is that we haven't bought rice in a year (we bought a 20 lb. bag last time) and we don't necessarily eat one or the other for every meal. But I was stumped. So after refusing to cook and taking a bath accompanied by reading a book, I recalled having some gluten-free noodles on hand.
And my plot began to form. My husband, for reasons unbeknownst to me, refuses to eat sweet potatoes. I have tried to explain how much better for him they are than white potatoes, but he still refuses. However, last night I prevailed, as I had some vermicelli on hand made from sweet potatoes. HA! So there, dear! (Small victory, I cannot gloat, as he still has no idea.)
I received a rating of "great" from my daughter, "delicious" from my husband, and a clean plate from our little president of the clean plate club.
Hoison Salmon Vermicelli
Salmon:
16 oz (or so) of salmon (preferably wild-caught), cut into 4 oz. pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. grated ginger
3 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 oz. soy sauce
1 tsp. powdered wasabi
1/8 cup hoison sauce
Noodles:
8 oz. vermicelli (glass) noodles
8 cups water
1 cup green tea
2 tsp. fish sauce
2 tsp. hoison sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. powdered garlic
1/2 tsp. black pepper
It sounds like a laundry list, but most of the ingredients are repeaters. We brought this all together, including thawing the salmon, in under an hour.
Pour first 6 ingredients of the salmon marinade into a small pan, cook on low while stirring until fully blended. Add hoison sauce and stir well. Spoon the marinade over the fish, set aside to marinade for at least 10 minutes.
While fish is marinading, put on a large pot of water to boil. Splash a dash of salt and sesame oil in it. Meanwhile, make a cup of green tea. Make yourself a cup, too, you deserve it. Set tea aside.
Begin to heat a skillet over med-high heat. Once it is hot, pour in enough coconut oil to coat the bottom. Let heat for a minute or so, then add the salmon pieces, skin side down. Cook for 5 minutes. Flip. Cook for 4 minutes and remove. Keep warm & covered.
Meanwhile, either have your significant other cook the veggies (like I did) or stir-fry all ingredients together. Add your noodles to the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Strain and rinse well with cold water (my package said to rinse 3 times.
Pour your cup of green tea into the salmon pan, and scrape up any bits left on the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil. Add your noodle ingredients (fish sauce, hoison sauce, grated ginger, powdered garlic, black pepper.) Let boil together about 2 minutes. Taste. If it's super yummy, add your noodles. If not, adjust the seasonings. When adding the vermicelli, be cautious. It tends to travel by plop (I burned my face in 3 places when I strained them initially. NICE.) Cook 3 more minutes, your noodles will resemble in looks a tar pit. Never mind that, serve immediately, in layers-- noodles + veggies+ sauce.
If, like my husband and I, you like some things to pack a little heat, we used the Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce.
With summer in full force, I am always seeking ways to not only entertain the kids, but also get things done around the house. This morning was definitely one with an aha! moment. I was reading the other day that including shredded newspaper can help you to maintain a balance between "greens" and "browns," that is vegetable matter and dead organic materials so that everything breaks down more quickly and smells less.
Yes!
It just so happens I have a subscription to the weekend paper, and I currently recycle it when we're done with it. So that is covered. But my shredder is broken. And then, like a cartoon lightbulb, I had another AHA moment.
THE KIDS!
Yes, folks, I have two wonderful short people who are more than capable of shredding a newspaper. So there you have it. And I feel absolutely no guilt about having them do a "chore" that can be SO MUCH FUN.
They love it. What a wonderful, green, learning, exciting, experience. *sigh*
When I was searching for a recipe for pizza crust the other day, I kept coming across recipes for Socca bread, this Italian fried/baked chickpea based flatbread that is often used for pizza crust. I kept it in the back of my mind.
I'm still embroiled in reading the Amelia Peabody series, and in the most recent book I was reading, "The Serpent on the Crown," they kept eating lentils. I'm extremely open to the power of suggestion, and I found myself towards the end of the book starting a nice lentil stew. It also seemed the perfect opportunity to make the Socca to accompany it.
For the Socca I used an exact recipe (I made mine with fresh basil) and it turned out quite pretty:
I also used freshly ground white pepper vs. black pepper, because that's what I had onhand. I found that 2 tsp. of white pepper was a bit much for us, and overall we would have like the bread plain (odd for my family but true). My hope was that we would be able to fold it and eat the lentils with it, kinda like a naan bread, but it was not as foldy as that. It was very good dipped in the lentils though.
Lentil Stew
1 bag lentils
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 clove fresh garlic
1 tsp. tumeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
3 cups fresh spinach, shredded
1/2 jar marinara sauce
7 cups water
This is a really, really easy recipe. Throw everything in the pan, and cook on low heat for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally to be sure that the bottom isn't burning. About forty-five minutes before you want to serve, turn the heat up and bring it to a low boil. Simmer for 40 minutes or so, or until the lentils are really tender. I took the lid off of mine for the last 20 minutes or so to reduce the liquid. Serve immediately. You could also cook this on low in a crockpot for probably about 8 hours.
The baby ATE THIS UP. The rest of us liked it, but he especially enjoyed it.
It's been close to a hundred degrees all week. All I want to do in the afternoon is sleep. It's that hot.
So this afternoon I decided to dispel the heat a bit with some limeade. And then when I started rooting around in the refrigerator (generally a sea of Rubbermaid containers) I discovered 5 strawberries. Eureka!
This is seriously, seriously, the best.stuff.ever.
Strawberry Limeade
5 limes
5 strawberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
club soda
Juice fruit. Set aside. Make simple syrup. To make simple syrup, boil one cup of water with one cup of sugar in it. Boil about 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Pour the syrup into the juice. Get (short) glasses and put ice in them. Pour about 3/4 inch of juice/simple syrup mixture in the bottom of each one and then fill with club soda. Serve immediately.
I have mentioned lately the need to not let food go to waste... this morning I woke up with one thing on my mind-- making a scramble. One that involved leftover rotisserie chicken.
We bought a BBQ seasoned Rotisserie Chicken at Kroger 2 days ago- both because I prefer that seasoning and because that seasoning blend reads to be gluten-free. We ate a bit last night with some leftover side items; I called it my clean out the fridge dinner.
This morning I cut up about half of a leftover breast and got to work making a de-licious scramble. My husband is currently out working in the garden and I am tempted to eat his portion, so he'd better hurry up. This was husband-friendly, but I made the kids plain scrambled eggs.
Rotisserie Chicken Scramble
1/2 chicken breast, diced (about 1/2 cup diced, cooked chicken)
2 tbsp. diced onion (how much I had in the house)
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 cup fresh shredded spinach
1 clove garlic, smashed and sliced
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup shredded cheese
3 eggs
Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Add garlic, onion, chicken, and spinach. Cook until spinach is thoroughly wilted. In a small bowl, beat up eggs. Pour over the mixture in the skillet. Sprinkle with cumin. Stir regularly and add cheese when eggs are almost done. Stir up so cheese melts throughout and serve immediately.
It's really odd, but when my daughter was 17 months old, I was horribly obsessed with preventing her from acquiring a taste for junk food. No chicken fingers, no burgers, no fries, no pizza. Nothing was to pass her lips. Slowly but surely, however, my family, daycare, school, friends, and she have overcome a lot of that. She does eat junk sometimes, but I try to balance it out with tons of healthy food to help keep her body more or less in balance. And it seems to be working. We very rarely have to take her to the doctor.
Interesting, isn't it, how different things are from child to child?
I have been obsessed lately with all of the things my (cow) dairy-free and gluten-free son is missing out on. Maybe because I've been missing out too. But I digress. We made goat's milk ice cream on 4th of July, and homemade french fries a couple of times (fried in oil not touched by batter or gluten of any kind) and I bought popsicles recently, determined and successfully finding some that were gluten-free.
But I have procrastinated and procrastinated about making a gluten-free pizza. I don't know why except that all the recipes I have found involve several different types of flour and I haven't had it in my budget to buy a gluten-free crust mix.
But when checking out Bob's Red Mill website the other day, I found a recipe for making a gluten-free pizza crust from the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour mix.
The recipe was very easy to follow, despite the fact that the uncooked product was questionable looking:
I did, of course, differ from the recipe. I baked my crust for about 5 minutes before topping. I did a small pizza for the baby, topped with tomato sauce, spinach, turkey pepperoni, and goat cheese,
and a larger one for everyone else, with freshly grated mozzarella, spinach, turkey pepperoni, and tomato sauce.
The crust bubble up nicely. It was a thicker, chewier crust ( I like it crisp on the bottom). My family loves any and all pizza, though, so it was well received. I did bake the crusts in a pan, which lended itself to thicker crust.
I'll definitely repeat this recipe. I still want to find a way to (easily) make a gluten-free sourdough crust.
Ah! Creamed Corn! Terrible out of a can, ok if you buy it frozen, but simply AMAZING when made homemade. This was my first time making it, but it was very easy. And I actually made it to re-use leftovers.
Homemade Creamed Corn
3 ears of corn, husks and silk removed
1/8 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 tbsp. black pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp. butter
Carefully slice corn kernels from the cob and then use a spoon to remove any pulp that may be remaining. In a large pan, saute the onions, garlic, 1 tbsp. butter, the olive oil, the lemon zest, and black pepper, until onions and garlic start to look translucent. Add corn kernels. Stir a few times to mix seasoning, then add the water and sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the sour cream and nutmeg, stirring briskly, and cook until sour cream dissolves into a sauce. Serve immediately by the bowlful.
It's been a long time since I made tamales, and in fact I have only made them with chicken before. I have been religiously saving my corn husks (hi, recycling!) and freezing them for future usage however. And last night I had a particular beef craving of the grass-fed (of course) variety.
So my daughter and I made tamales. And while making tamales with a 7 year old can result in masa dough in the floor and some tears, it was a good learning and team-building experience.
I used the same dough I used before in my Chicken Tamale recipe, and did different seasonings with the beef:
The dough:
3 cups masa harina
5 1/3 tsp. butter
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
4 c. chicken broth
Ah. For some reason I didn't remember this as being particularly labor intensive. It kinda was. But well worth it.
Soak your corn husks in water to make them pliable. Cook meat mixture until almost browned. Mix up the dough in a large bowl, it will look like a large bowl of hummus.
Before assembling the tamales, get a large pot with a steamer basket ready. Take a corn husk (the fatter the better) and spoon about 2 tablespoons of dough in it. Make a slight indention into the dough with your thumb, and spoon a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful in. Wrap the cornhusk around the dough and meat, somewhat like rolling a burrito. Tie it closed with a skinny piece of corn husk. Stand the tamale straight up in the steamer. Repeat until all materials are used. Steam for 90 minutes. Serve hot.
The hubby liked his with salsa, the rest of us ate them plain. The baby especially liked them. And the last episode of tamales got a poor review from the older child, but since she assembled them this time, she ate them. Several. And cleaned up the masa flour she spilled in the floor without complaint. (Miracle of miracles!)
Ah! Corn Season! 4th of July, Cookouts, Grillouts. Should we settle for plain jane summertime grub?
Hell, no!
So we make simple a.k.a. beat the heat fixes to old favorites to make them a bit more tasty.
Enter my long-standing tradition of jalapeno lime butter.
Just typing the words makes me hungry.
Jalapeno Lime Butter
1/2 stick butter (preferably organic and made from raw milk)
about 5 slices pickles jalapeno, chopped finely
zest of 1 lime
juice from 1 slice of said lime
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Add all other ingredients and stir well. Serve warm over corn or refrigerate to harden and serve like regular butter. Either way, it's scrumptilillicious!
Yum, applesauce. UM, except, have you read how much sugar and preservatives is in a lot of the store-bought stuff?? I try to buy the "natural" kind, the kind that has ingredients limited to apples and water.
But, occasionally I make it homemade. The kids love it and it's very very simple. Today I found 3 apples that were not really crunchy enough to be yummy anymore but not bad either. So I sauced them. My kids eat a container of applesauce in 1 day anyway, so I figured it would help clean out the fridge and reduce waste.
Ingredients:
3 apples (any variety or a mix)
6 cups of water
cinnamon
Wash and chop your apples into little bits. Bring the water to a boil, and toss the apples in the pan. Boil about 10 minutes or until apples are very tender. Strain apples, discarding water. Dump the apples into the food processor, and add cinnamon to taste. I am addicted to the McCormick Spice Grinder.. it makes it easy to have "fresh" ground cinnamon, which tastes extra yummy. Pulse the apples 3-4 times or until you get the consistency you want. Serve immediately or refrigerate if you prefer it cold. It also freezes well. Makes a great topping for oatmeal.
AAAAAGGGHHHH! It's hot! It's that time of year that no matter what you seem to do, you can't stay hydrated enough. Enter the homemade electrolyte drink. Contains no artificial colors, no preservatives, and I got the recipe from a beekeeper at the Suwannee Farmer's Market. It's good stuff. But honestly, noone else in my family will drink it. They're addicted to Gatorade. Go figure.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. honey (preferably local)
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (preferably raw)
1 glass water
Put honey and vinegar in the bottom of glass and stir well. Pour water over and continue to stir until all is mixed. Then you can add ice if you like. It's a bit like a lemonade, and VERY refreshing. Cheers!
I got laid off from my job last Friday, which can explain a few things about my cooking:
1.) I've been using powdered garlic
2.) I've been really working the leftovers
3.) I don't care how long it takes to cook a meal.
Somehow yesterday, in the midst of running out to see my best friend (who's in town from Chicago) and her beautiful son, buying groceries, and attempting to keep the kids out of trouble, I got inspired. With leftovers, no less.
And once again, I couldn't find a recipe online (not that I would follow it anyway) for what I wanted.
What I wanted, was to recycle my watermelon salad and make a watermelon glazed chicken. And I wanted cumin lime potatoes and fresh corn and minted peas. I don't know why I wanted these things. I just did. And so I made them.
I did, however, rinse the feta and basil out of the watermelon.
Watermelon Glazed Chicken
For the glaze:
2 cups fresh watermelon juice
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup tamari sauce
For the dry rub:
1 tbsp. fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cumin
The chicken:
1/4 cup watermelon chunks
1 boiled lime
1 whole chicken
Preheat oven to 375. Wash chicken and pat dry. In a small bowl, mix together the dry rub ingredients. Rub all over chicken, outside and in and under the skin. Place in a large roasting dish. In a small saucepan, bring sauce ingredients to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Baste chicken with a small amount. Cut your boiled lime in half and place it and the watermelon chunks inside the chicken cavity. Place chicken in the oven and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes or until cooked through. Use a meat thermometer to check this chicken, as the watermelon glaze is rather red and makes it difficult to determine using the juices. Baste the chicken periodically with the sauce, being careful not to cross contaminate. Serve chicken cut with sauce spooned over.
Cumin-Lime Roasted Potatoes Ingredients:
zest of one lime
3 russet potatoes
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. oregano
Juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup of olive oil.
Wash your potatoes thoroughly and cut into small pieces. In a small bowl, mix together all other ingredients. Toss the potatoes in the seasoning and place in small oven-safe pan. Roast for about 45 minutes. Lightly salt before serving.
I also served fresh corn on the cob and minted peas. I still have not perfected my minted peas, but the dinner was fantastic. Even if I served it rather late. Don't start thawing out a whole chicken at 2 and expect it to be ready for dinnertime. It won't be.
I cook a lot of one pot or one pan meals, which results in a lot of leftovers. Quite frankly, with the economy and my budget being what they are, I see no reason why or how we can get away with wasting food. I do a couple of things with these. I package them up and label them and freeze them, which are great lunches for work and great dinners when noone wants to cook. We also have leftover nights.
Part of the problem with cooking creatively a lot is that we get bored easily. Bored as in, if I don't freeze leftovers and I put them in the fridge expecting them to disappear, it ain't happening. Because we all want something new. So my husband and I try to re-work things and make them appealing. We eat a lot of wraps (made with corn tortillas so they are gluten-free.)
Last night I had this wrap:
It had Chinese Shark, Kale & Chickpeas with Broth, salsa, and feta cheese on it. It was really good! (No I am not pregnant, just willing to try anything!)
After leftover night, my daughter and I tried our first Gluten-Free Cookie Mix. We made Chocolate Chip with the 365 (Whole Food's Store Brand) box mix. They were extremely easy, even to me who makes cookie slabs instead of individual cookies.
My kids loved them. My husband loved them. I thought they had a weird texture, extra grainy or something. Not weird enough to keep me from eating 3 or 4 though. My daughter said they were better than "regular" cookies, and loved them enough to dive into the bowl.
At the farmer's market the other day I bought some kale. I have been craving kale, largely due to watching it grow at what seems an extremely slow rate outside my kitchen window. I asked my daughter if she wanted it and she said, "Only if you make it with the beanies and tomatoes." Hmm. I had forgotten about that. So the night before last a dutifully put out half a bag of garbanzo beans to soak overnight.
Garbanzo beans do not do well with a quick soak or a quick cook or anything like that but I truly think they taste better from dried than canned. And I've become a bit suspicious of cans and am trying to usher them out, thanks to all the BPA hoopla.
So after soaking them overnight, I rinsed and drained them and put them in a pot to boil and cooked them, checking them periodically for 45 minutes or so. Until they were soft but not totally done.
Mind you this was the day after that really big bottle of sake...I decided some broth might be in order. So I had to make 2 recipes for 1 dinner with 4 people. (Ridiculous, isn't it?)
Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans, eh, whatever you wanna call 'em) & Kale
1/4 bag of dried garbanzo beans, pre-soaked and pre-cooked
1/4 bunch of fresh kale, washed and coarsely chopped
6 cups of broth
salt
pepper
garlic
I thawed out my broth, which is homemade, mineral-rich, and gluten-free, and was also a mixture of turkey and chicken. I thawed it only slightly and then threw the frozen hunks in the pan, letting the stove do the rest of the work. I was feeling a bit in need of laziness, and perhaps it showed. Adding some garlic powder and wishing I had fresh on hand, I stirred in the kale and the beans. I simmered this at a low heat for about 20 minutes, allowing all broth to de-frost and all flavors to meld. I seasoned with salt & pepper and then sampled a cup, taking immediate notice, shall we say, of its restorative properties.
In another pan, I made my daughter's request:
Chickpeas with Kale & Tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup red bell pepper
1/4 bunch chopped kale
2 cups marinara sauce
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. powdered garlic
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup dried garbanzo beans, pre-soaked and pre-cooked
In some olive oil, saute the onions and peppers until they start to be tender. Add the
garbanzo beans and kale. Pour the marinara sauce over it, add seasonings, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat immediately to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the kale has begun to soften. This dish has always been a favorite of my daughter's, in its many incarnations. I have used fresh or canned tomatoes before too. I just don't buy canned tomatoes anymore, so I have subbed in the marinara.
No this is not the latest craze on Cartoon Network, believe it or not. It was last night's dinner. And quite tasty it was, too. Easy to make, pleasing to the whole family, a winner in my book. The baby is going through this mysterious stage where he doesn't want to eat vegetables. I'm not really sure why, and quite frankly, I really don't care. Eating vegetables is not an optional thing around here, and the sooner he learns that and quits screeching and throwing things, the better off we'll be. But he ate last nights veggies without protest, which made dinner a much quieter affair. See? If you were brought a steamy yummy looking plate like this-- I bet you'd eat your veggies too.
Ingredients:
1 lb. shark steak (preferably wild-caught)
1 cup jasmine rice
4 cups water (divided)
a large chunk of fresh ginger
frozen veggies
tamari sauce
powdered garlic
Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup onion
rice vinegar
sesame oil
corn starch
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
lemon zest
Cut your shark steak into large cubes and place in a bowl. Grate up about a tablespoon of fresh ginger, and about a teaspoon of lemon zest. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar, 1tsp. powdered garlic, and about 1 tsp. of tamari sauce toss. Set aside. Start rice cooking (for me jasmine rice seems to take about 25 minutes. I have no package directions because we bought a 25 pound bag and are down to just a bit in a Rubbermaid container.) In a large skillet, pour about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and the chopped onions. Once the onions start to turn translucent, add the marinated shark to the oil and cook at medium heat until the chunks are cooked through. I forgot to time this, but was able to prep coffee for the following morning, inspect a messy child's room, feed rice chex to the baby, stirring throughout, and then I think it was done, if that gives you an idea. Remove shark to another (clean-please!) bowl.
Grate more ginger into the pan, add another teaspoon or two of garlic, about 1/8 cup tamari, 1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce, another tsp or so of lemon zest. Stir together, and add the frozen veggies. Fresh would be great if you have them on hand, I did not. I used a frozen pack of "Asian" vegetables and a mystery can of salt-free green beans that has been around for ages. Cook until veggies are cooked through, then add them to the bowl of shark. In the same pan, add more sesame oil, about 1 tablespoon, more grated ginger and lemon zest, 1/8 cup rice vinegar, and about the same amount tamari sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered garlic, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. of cayenne. Then, dissolve some corn starch into 3 cups of warm water. How much you use depends on how thick you want your sauce to be. Add this mixture to the sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook together for about 3 minutes.
Add shark and veggies to the pan and stir well, making sure all is coated evenly. Serve shark & vegetables over rice with sake. This meal is totally gluten-free. I'm not sure about the sake though.
A note on sake: We always buy the same brand, and we only buy it at Super H Mart. It's twice the price anywhere else. We have developed a pretty easy method for heating it, since we like hot sake but don't want to cook the alcohol out. We bring a small pot of water to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Then pour your sake into your sake carafe and place it in the water for 2-3 minutes. Remove the carafe and pour from there.
