JeanC's Kitchen

GF Huckleberry pocket pies

2011-10-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

We were getting together with some friends on Saturday for dinner at our place and wanted to do something really special for dessert. I knew I wanted to do something pie-ish and was thinking maybe a tart when hubby remembered we have some dough presses we'd picked up at Ross a while back (they are similar to these) and I said that was it. We also decided to forgo the usual canned pie filling and I hauled out some huckleberries a friend gave us and started them to thaw.

In the meantime I dug out my gluten free cook book I have been putting together and decided to try a recipe from Bob's Red Mill:

Gluten Free Pastry Crust for Double Crust Pie
contributed by Carol Fenster, Ph.D.

This crust works best with fillings that don’t have to bake for a very long time such as stone fruits––cherries, peaches, or apricots. The fruit should be thoroughly drained before using. The dough should be made in a food processor for even distribution of liquids.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

1 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
1/2 cup Sweet White Rice Flour
1 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp. Guar Gum

Liquid Ingredients:

1/2 cup Shortening
2 Tbsp. Butter or Margarine
1/4 cup Milk
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

Pie Filling:

2-16 oz. cans Tart Red Cherries
2 Tbsp. Cherry Juice
2/3 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp. Quick-cooking Tapioca
1 tsp. Almond Extract

Directions:
1. Prepare cherry pie filling. Combine 2 cans (16 oz. each) drained tart red cherries, 2 Tbsp. of the cherry juice, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp. quick-cooking tapioca, and 1 tsp. almond extract in bowl. Let stand while rolling pie crust.

2. Place dry ingredients, shortening, and butter in food processor. Mix well. Add milk and lemon juice and blend until dough forms small clumps or a large ball. Remove dough from food processor and shape with hands into a ball.

3. Flatten dough to circular disk, wrap tightly, and chill 30 minutes so liquids are well distributed throughout dough.

4. Massage dough between hands until warm and pliable, making crust easier to handle. Roll half of dough to 10-inch circle between two pieces of heavy-duty plastic wrap dusted with rice flour. (Keep remaining half wrapped tightly to avoid drying out.) Use damp paper towel on countertop to anchor plastic. Be sure to move rolling pin from center of dough to outer edge, moving around the circle in clockwise fashion to assure uniform thickness.

5. Remove top plastic wrap and invert crust, centering it over pie plate. Remove remaining plastic wrap and press into place. If dough is hard to handle, press entire bottom crust in place with your fingers.

6. Fill with cherry filling. Or, use your favorite fruit filling for a 9-inch pie, but limit the amount of extra juice to two tablespoons.

7. Roll remaining dough to 10-inch circle between floured plastic wrap. Invert and center on filled crust. Don’t remove top plastic wrap until dough is centered. Shape decorative ridge around rim of pie plate. Prick crust several times with fork to allow steam to escape. Freeze 15 minutes. If desired, brush with milk or beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Place on nonstick baking sheet.

8. Bake pie in preheated 375º oven for 15 minutes on lower oven rack to brown bottom crust. Move to next higher oven rack and bake another 25-35 minutes––or until crust is nicely browned. Cover loosely with foil if edges brown too much. Cool thoroughly on wire rack before cutting to allow juices to thicken.

Makes one 9-inch pie crust (12 slices).

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Servings Size: 1 slice
Calories 270, Calories from Fat 100, Total Fat 10g, Saturated Fat 3.5g, Cholesterol 5mg, Sodium 80mg, Total Carbohydrate 42g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 19g and Protein 2g.

So for my pocket pies I made the crust. I did eliminate the guar gum as I didn't have any on hand and it pretty much does the same thing as the xanthum gum and I simply doubled the amount of xanthum gum.

While the dough was resting in the fridge I took the huckleberries and drained them (and after being in the freezer they were very juicy). I put the liquid into a small sauce pan and turned the heat up to medium high to reduce the liquid. I added a little bit of Splenda to offset the tartness a bit. You can use sugar if you like. I didn't want the huckleberries to be too sweet or too tart. When the liquids had reduced to a thick syrup I added a little bit of corn starch to thicken it a bit further and then added the drained berries.

While the berries cooled I took the dough out of the fridge and sprinkled some rice flour on my big cutting board and rolled out the dough after dividing it into two balls. When it was thin enough I used the 2nd largest dough press to cut out the rounds (the presses I have are set up to do that) and when all the rounds were cut, started assembling pies.

Each round went into the press, filled with a couple tablespoons of huckleberries and then I moistened the edges and folded (I love those presses). Onto a greased cookie sheet and gave them all an egg wash and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top.

Into the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Out of the oven and onto a wire rack to cool.

They were the prefect ending for a wonderful dinner with good friends.

Corn bread

2011-10-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Had a serious hankering for a bread product that texture wasn't different then what the non-gluten version would be (I love the GF breads I have been making, but the texture isn't even close to a nice fresh from the oven wheat bread), so I decided I HAD to have some corn bread:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup corn meal
1 cup masa harina (the fine ground corn meal for making tamales or tortillas)
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
bacon grease

Preheat oven to 450F. Put 1-2 table spoons bacon grease into cast iron skillet and pop into the oven to melt.

Mix dry ingredients, add eggs, milk and oil. If the batter is to thick, add 1-2 tablespoons more milk until creamy and pourable.

Take skillet out of oven and pour in the batter and put back into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or golden brown. Use a toothpick to check for doneness, toothpick show come out clean when poked into the corn bread.

Cut into pieces and add butter, honey or what ever you like on corn bread and enjoy.

NOTE: If you don't have a cast iron skillet a 9"X9" baking pan or cake pan works just as well.

Gluten free chicken and dumplings

2011-09-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

So I had a jonesing for chicken and dumplings. I started the other day by tossing about 3 chicken carcasses with some meat into the big slow cooker to make stock. Let that simmer all day and then strained out the bones and meat and put everything in to the fridge over night.

Next day I took the resulting chicken jello (the stock was perfect) and put it into a pot to simmer on the stove. Once it was going I tossed in boneless, skinless chicken thighs, dehydrated Walla Walla Sweets, dehydrated broccoli and dehydrated yellow squash that I chopped up to disguise they were squash slices. I also added some salt, pepper and basil and let it simmer.

I then peeled what meat was left from the carcasses and set that aside in the fridge since I didn't want them to cook too much longer since it has simmered quite a while the day before.

I then puttered about the web looking for gluten free dumpling recipes that used the ingredients I had on hand. I found a few that were doable so I came up with my own recipe using the info I found:

1 1/3 cups white rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup gluten-free all-purpose (I use Bob's Red Mill)
2 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Let the dough sit and rest for about 15 minutes. Drop by big spoonfuls into the simmering liquid and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes. I did sprinkle pepper on top before I covered the pot.

While the dumpling dough was resting I thickened the stew with rice flour to make a nice gravy when everything was done.

I grew up with Bisquick dumplings and that is the texture I am used to, so the denser texture of the gluten free dumplings took some getting used to. They were quite tasty and not too dense (I've made from scratch dumplings in the past with regular flour that could kill you if you got hit with one), but not as fluffy as I would have liked. The hubby liked them and he isn't a big dumpling fan. He felt they needed something added tho, I sprinkled a bit of adobo seasoning on his 2nds and he thought they were perfect.

So I will look at tweaking the recipe a bit for future meals and look forward to having lots of dumplings for various meals (turkey and dumplings, beef and dumplings the variations are endless).

Cucumber and tomato salad

2011-09-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

A very tasty salad is cucumber and tomato. It is a nice salad in that you can do all sorts of things with those two ingredients as a start. I like to take tomatoes and dice them up, dice up cucumbers and add some finely diced sweet onions. Drizzle some olive oil over it, a squeeze of lemon juice and toss.

The salad above I sprinkled with dried mint leaves and let it sit in the fridge to let the flavors meld.

I love to use garden fresh cukes and tomatoes, but my garden this year was pretty non-existent due to weather and not having the energy to do much. I do have a couple tomatoes in pots that have tomatoes on them, but they are still quite green, so I had to make due with what I could get at the grocery store as I haven't been to the farmers market in a while.

I chose Roma tomatoes for this salad as I wanted a nice meaty tomato and made a big batch. When serving it yesterday I made a dressing of plain Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon juice and more mint leaves.

It was quite delicious yesterday, but after sitting and melding over night...YUM!!!!!!

GF oatmeal cookies

2011-09-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

Another recipe from Bob's Red Mill, this one for oatmeal cookies:

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
3 cups Gluten Free Rolled Oats
1 cup Butter (softened)
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 large Eggs*
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 cup Raisins (Unsulfured)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter and sugars together until smooth. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. In a separate bowl, blend flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and Xanthan Gum. Stir flour blend into wet ingredients. Add oats and raisins and mix well. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool one minutes then transfer to wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

*Eggless Option: Mix together 2 Tb. Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tb. of water and let sit for a minute. Add to recipe as you would the eggs.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving Size: 1 Cookie - Calories 100, Calories from Fat 40, Total Fat 4.5g, Saturated Fat 2.5g, Cholesterol 20mg, Sodium 50mg, Total Carbohydrate 15g, Dietray Fiber less than 1g, Sugars 9g, Protein 2g.

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These were very yummy, tho flatter then I like and a bit crispier then hubby likes. I will probably sub butter-flavored Crisco next time around, tho my neighbor told me not to mess with the recipe LOL!

I prefer thicker, chewier cookies but I like how these made a perfect substitute for graham crackers in s'mores. They were the right thickness for s'mores and I enjoyed my first s'mores in over a year this last Sunday.

GF sandwich bread

2011-07-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from my friend Betty, who is also gluten intolerant. She's been at it longer then I have and has come up with some good recipes.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs active dry yeast
1 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 cups water (105F)

2 1/2 cups gluten free, soy free all purpose flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill GF AP flour)
2 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 1/2 Tbs oil
1 tsp cider vinegar

Combine yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Add water while gently whisking the yeast and sugar. Let this sit while mixing rest of ingredients to proof the yeast.

Combine flour mix, xanthum gum and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir well.

In a 3rd bowl whisk eggs, oil and vinegar until eggs are a bit frothy.

By this point the yeast should be proofed. Pour the 2 liquid mixtures into the flour mix. Stir until well mixed (this is where I love my KA stand mixer). The result will resemble a batter more then a dough.

At this point you can either make your bread in a bread machine or in the oven. If you opt for the bread machine, dump the batter into the pan of the bread machine and bake on the 80 minute setting.

If baking in the oven: grease a loaf pan and scoop batter into the pan. Cover the pan with a damp cloth and place in a warm area to rise 45-60 minutes. Dough should double.

Preheat oven to 375F and bake for 60 minutes. Remove from oven, turn out on rack and allow to cool 15 minutes before slicing.

Gluten free Molasses Crinkles

2011-07-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite cookies is molasses crinkles. So I adapted the recipe:

Mix thoroughly:

3/4 cup soft shortening
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses

Sift together and stir in:

2 cups gluten free AP flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp xanthum gum
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Chill dough. Roll into balls the size of large walnuts. Dip tops in sugar and place on greased cookie sheet sugar-side up 3 inches apart. Sprinkle each cookie with a couple drops of water. This will create the crackled look.

Bake until just about set but not hard, 8-10 minutes in a 350F oven. Let cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

Gluten free snickerdoodles

2011-07-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

I adapted my snickerdoodle recipe to use gluten free flours. Came out very tasty.

Mix thoroughly:

1 cup soft shortening (part butter, but I prefer all butter)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs

Sift together and add in:

2 cups GF all purpose baking flour (Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar (2 Tbs cinnamon and 2 Tbs sugar). Place 2" a part on ungreased baking sheet (in my case I used a silicone baking mat on the cookie sheet). These cookies don't flatten themselves while baking, so pat them down flat to 1/4 inch thick.

Bake at 400F until lightly browned, but still soft.About 8-10 minutes.

Cool on a baking rack and then enjoy! I've taste tested these on a number of people and if I hadn't told them they were gluten free, they would not have known!.

Gluten free peanut butter cookies

2011-07-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Another Bob's Red Mill recipe:

Ingredients
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 slightly beaten Egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 Tbsp Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Mix ingredients together and roll into 1 inch balls and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for approx. 8 minutes. Makes 24 cookies

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:
One cookie contains Calories 103, Calories from Fat 52, Total Fat 6g, Saturated Fat 1g, Cholesterol 8mg, Sodium 112g, Total Carbohydrate 12g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugar 10g and Protein 3g.

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This is also another recipe that required pre-flattening.

Gluten free sugar cookies

2011-07-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last month while in Portland for a visit, we hit Bob's Red Mill and I came away with some goodies. A couple big bags (25 lbs each) of gluten free flour (all purpose baking flour and brown rice flour). Needless to say, I am baking cookies again!

I started with recipes on their site and the first one up was for sugar cookies:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Butter
2 Tb Honey
1/2 cup Sugar
1-1/2 tsp Vanilla
1-3/4 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Grated Lemon Peel
1 Tb Water, if using electric mixer
1 large egg white

Directions
In food processor, blend butter (room temperature, not melted), honey, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, baking soda, egg white and lemon peel, blending until mixture forms large ball. If using electric mixer, blend ingredients, then add water if needed, 1 tablespoon at a time. Shape into flat disk, cover tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick vegetable spray. Preheat oven to 325F. Shape dough into 24 one-inch balls and roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place 2" apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set. Switch position of pan(s) halfway through baking for even heat distribution. Remove from oven; cool two minutes before transferring to rack to cool. Store in airtight container. Makes 24 cookies.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Serving Size: 1 Cookie

Calories 70, Calories from Fat 20, Total Fat 2g, Saturated Fat 1g, Cholesterol 5mg, Sodium 60mg, Total Carbohydrates 12g, Dietary Fiber less than 1g, Sugars 6g, Protein 1g.

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I didn't add the grated lemon peel and used some egg white in a carton. The cookies required being patted down as they didn't flatten while baking. I discovered this on the first batch and I flattened them while baking. The rest I flattened to about 1/4 inch thick and that worked fine.

I may play about with the flours a bit, cutting out part of the AP flour and adding some tapioca flour to see if that will help them flatten a bit while baking.

Gluten-free naan

2011-03-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

I adore naan, that wonderful Indian flat bread, but was despairing of ever having it again. A friend found a recipe for a gluten-free version and I gave it a try this last weekend.

GLUTEN-FREE NAAN

Ingredients:

A little more than 1 1/4 c. tepid (lukewarm) whole milk
2 tsp. caster (extra-fine) sugar
4 tsp. active dry yeast

A little less than 2 1/2 c. rice flour
A little more than 1/2 c. tapioca flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
2 tsp. xanthan gum
[For garlic naan, also add 2 tsp. granulated garlic]

4 tsp. vegetable or canola oil
2 tsp. caster (extra-fine sugar)
A little more than 1 1/4 c. (10+ oz.) plain yogurt
2 eggs

Directions:
In a bowl, mix tepid (lukewarm) milk, 2 tsp. sugar, and yeast. Then sit bowl in a warm place for 4-5 minutes.

Sift the flours, salt, baking powder, xantham gum [and garlic, if making garlic naan] into a bowl or food mixer.

Add remaining 2 tsp. sugar, oil, yogurt, and egg. Mix with electric mixer until smooth.

Add yeast/milk/sugar mixture. Mix until smooth.

Preheat oven to highest setting (on my oven that's 550 degrees).

Make dough into 12-15 equal size balls. Roll out balls into a tear shape that is 1/4 inch thick. (Roll dough in rice flour and put some rice flour on the rolling surface to keep dough from sticking. I used lightly floured wax paper on top of dough balls when rolling them out to also help with the sticking issue.)

Preheat a heavy baking tray in oven. Remove tray and put naan on it.

Lightly brush naan with olive oil. [If making garlic naan, mix granulated garlic in the olive oil before brushing on naan.]

Return to oven for 4-5 minutes or until naan puffs up and turns light brown. Place tray under broiler for 30 secs. to 1 min. for extra browning.

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Mine didn't quite come out like hers did, but they were darned tasty. I made a couple batches, the first was garlic naan to go with the roast lamb and the rest of the Moroccan style dinner we were having over at a friends. The second batch was plain and went very yummy with Nutella.

I didn't read the ingredient very well the 1st batch, I added too much yogurt and it was VERY sticky. I ended up no rolling any out, simply sprayed the baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray, dropping the batter on and then patting it out with wet fingers.

The very first batch to hit the oven stayed in a little too long and got extra brown. I got the timing better the next couple of sheets. The garlic naan was a hit at the dinner and I left it with our friends.

I made the 2nd batch on Sunday and did better on the measurements. I still think I had too much of some liquid as I had to shape them with wet fingers again, tho they weren't quite as battery and sticky. Next batch I will use 3/4 of a cup of lukewarm milk to start the yeast and then add milk to the dough as needed to see if I can get the right consistency.

For the castor sugar, you can buy extra fine sugar at the grocery store. I simply put some regular sugar in my mini blender (bullet type) and gave it a few pulses to make it extra fine.

Once I get the recipe worked out to my satisfaction, I will see about making several batches of plain and garlic to stash in the deep freeze for ready use on weeknights when I want to make dinner quickly.

ETA 3/13/11: Reduced the milk to 3/4 of a cup, still a bit too sticky, but getting there. Next time I will cut it to 1/4 of a cup of milk and add liquid a bit at a time if need be. I also should note I use Greek yogurt as it it thicker and creamier then the regular stuff. Well worth the few extra cents to get it.

Biscuits and gravy

2011-01-24T14:39:00.000-08:00

I have been seriously jonesing for biscuits and gravy eve since I have gone off gluten and FINALLY was able to feed the need.

I was given a bag of Pamela's Products gluten free baking mix and then picked up a package of sausage. I mixed up a double batch of the biscuits according to the instructions on the package (a single recipe says it makes 5-6 drop biscuits, they must be tiny biscuits as I got 6 good sized ones from a double batch) and baked them:

In the meantime, I broke out my cast iron skillet and set to browning the sausage:

Once the sausage was browned thru I set the sausage aside in a bowl and drained off all but a couple of tablespoons of grease. To that I added a couple tablespoons of rice flour (for those folk who are not GF, a couple tablespoons of plain flour will work). Stir the flour into the grease and let it cook for a couple minutes over medium heat until the flour is well coated and has a chance to cook some of the floury taste out. Keep stirring to avoid scorching the mixture.

Pour in milk (I used about 2 cups) and stir to break up any lumps. Increase the heat to medium high and keep stirring until it comes to a slow boil and thickens up.

Add the sausage back to heat thru and add salt and pepper to taste. Break biscuits on to a plate and ladle the sausage gravy over the top.

YUM!!!!!

Preperations continue.

2010-11-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

I've two pumpkin pies in the freezer, along with two ramekins of pumpkin pie filling. Since I am going gluten free and didn't feel like making GF pie crusts, decided regular store bought pie crusts for everyone else and crustless "pies" for me.

Just pulled the sweet potato casserole out of the oven. Once it cools I will put it in the freezer. I'll pull it out Wed night to thaw in the fridge, then Thursday I will heat it up in the microwave and then crisp the topping under the broiler once the turkey is out of the oven. Used Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour to replace the flour the recipe calls for.

Picked up a 24 lb bird and some inexpensive wine to shoot it up with. Picked up 2 packaged of Bob's Red Mill GF bread mix to make a couple of loaves for stuffing the turkey. I will make up a batch of dressing with regular bread for the hubby and the others so there will be plenty. Plus this will keep the bird and the drippings gluten free. I will use rice flour to make the gravy.

I've a ham for Wednesday dinner, so I'll have sliced ham for Thanksgiving to have a little more variety for dinner.

So, just need to pick up what I need for the green bean casserole on Wednesday and do that up on Wed night and then I can just pop it in the oven when the bird comes out to finish heating thru.

So things are falling into place and I am looking forward to an easy day of cooking on Thursday.

Cheesy potato bake

2010-11-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

A really nice and simple side dish is a cheesy potato bake.

Start by melting a tablespoon or two of butter with a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium heat in an oven safe pan:

While that is melting, slice your potatoes (I used about 5 medium sized russets) and preheat the oven to 350F:

Melt the butter and olive oil until the butter is bubbly:

Take the pan off the heat and start to lay in your potatoes:

Sprinkle on some fresh ground black pepper:

Sprinkle in your favorite cheese, in this case I used shredded Colby jack and sharp cheddar:

Layer on more potatoes, black pepper and cheese and repeat until the pan is full :

Bake in oven until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is a golden brown.

Let it sit to cool a few minutes and serve.

Count down to Thanksgiving

2010-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

I plan on having as much done as possible before the big day in order to have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving dinner. To that end, the mashed potatoes are done and in the freezer.

I started with peeling and slicing enough potatoes to fill my one pot a bit over 3 quarters full. I used a veggie slicer/mandolin for the job this time and I must say, the potatoes cooked to perfection in a lot less time then if I have simply rough cubed them.

Once they were done, I drained them and then mashed them with a potato masher. I added a stick of butter and a package of cream cheese and mixed it all in.

I then let the mashed potatoes cool and then prepped the casserole dish I will heat and serve them in. Since I will need the dish between now and then, I lined it with cling wrap and then filled it with the mashed potatoes. Folded the cling wrap over and into the freezer it all went. Once frozen I can take the mashed potatoes out of the casserole and wrap it some more to stay in the freezer until the big day.

So, mashed potatoes down, pies and other side dishes still to go.

Falafel "tacos"

2010-10-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

Since I am off wheat for the duration and seriously wanted falafel pockets, I decided to use corn tortillas instead.

I started off by making the falafel:

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tablespoons mined garlic (or in this case a goodly amount of garlic powder. I was out of garlic)
1/2 onion, finely diced (again, no onion, so a heaping teaspoon onion powder)
1/3 cup dried parsley flakes
3 Tbs rice flour
salt & pepper to taste

I ran the beans thru the food processor, added the spices, garlic and onion powders, salt, pepper and parsley and mixed it with the processor. I then turned it out into a bowl and added the rice flour and mixed it in.

Normally the recipes call for frying in quite a bit of oil, but my frist attempt at that ended up with a mess. So instead I broke out my electric griddle, set it to 350F and poured on 2 Tbs of olive oil and spread it around. Once everything was ready, I made little falafel patties and fried them on the griddle:

I then set the cooked patties aside and added more olive oil and fried up the tortillas:

Then it was time to assemble:

Cheese:

Patty:

Tzatziki sauce:

Tomatoes:

YUM!

Elk roast with sweet potato fries and gravy

2010-10-11T10:58:00.001-07:00

Elk roast with sweet potato fries and gravy, originally uploaded by JeanC38.

Found I still had an elk roast hidden in my deep freeze yesterday, so decided that was exactly what I wanted for dinner.

I heated up some olive oil in one of my magnalite pans and tossed in some sliced sweet onions and the leftover mushrooms from the pizza experiment. I sauteed those for a bit and then popped in the roast, which I had sprinkled with salt and pepper. Then a generous dousing of balsamic vinegar to complete the seasoning.

Browned the roast and then into a 350F preheated oven to cook.

The fries went into the oven to bake about 15 minutes before the roast came out (I had the sweet potato fries, hubby had regular potato fries).

While the roast was out and resting I decided I wanted gravy. So I put in 3 table spoons of butter into the pan and let that melt and stirred the 'shrooms and onions into it. Since I am doing gluten free, I used rice flour instead of regular flour. I sprinkled it in and let it cook a bit and then added some powdered milk and then water. I let the gravy simmer on low for a while and it thickened up nicely.

Once everything was ready, I sliced the roast and plated with the fries. The juices from the roast went into the gravy and then the gravy onto the roast.

The gravy came out fantastic. Hubby said if I hadn't told him I had used rice flour he never would have noticed it wasn't wheat flour based.

Cheesy "pizza"

2010-10-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

The gluten free journey continues for the time being. The hubby got a serious hankering for pizza this weekend, so we picked up what we needed. Winco sells already made pizza dough, so we picked one up and I used that for the hubby's pizza. For me, well, I decided to see what I could do with corn tortillas.

First I softened the tortillas in some hot olive oil and put them on a cookie sheet. Then I topped them with the pizza sauce I made:

Layer of cheese:

Layer of sliced mushrooms:

More cheese:

Black olives:

And then baked them until the tortillas were a little bit crispy, but still a bit chewy:

Serious yum and I really didn't miss the regular pizza crust. In fact, it took care of my craving for corn tortillas and pizza al at the same time LOL

Brown rice elbow macaroni with meat sauce

2010-10-05T15:26:00.001-07:00

Brown rice elbow macaroni with meat sauce, originally uploaded by JeanC38.

Thank goodness for alternatives. Have to go off wheat and gluten for a while and of course that means a sudden and serious jonesing for anything pasta. So imagine how happy I was to be in Winco last night to find they had at least one non-wheat pasta available in their bulk bin section.

The brown rice macaroni is very tasty, tho it will mean some more experimentation to get the cooking method down so it comes out properly cooked. But last night I was just happy to have pasta that didn't hurt my tummy after eating it LOL!

Red Lobster cheese biscuits clone

2010-09-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

Fell in love with the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster, so went looking for a recipe on the web. Found this clone recipe and gave it a try.

OMG! So seriously good. I used shredded Tillamook sharp cheddar and left out the pinch of salt in the topping. These will be going into our NASCAR snack rotation.

New toy for my kitchen

2010-09-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Was chatting the other day with a co-worker and the subject of slow cookers, in specific my wish for a smaller one as the big 6 qt one I have is too big for certain applications I want to do, ie, overnight breakfast for the hubby. Well, seems he'd been gifted with a small 2 qt slow cooker he was reluctant to use as he is leery of leaving things plugged in like that while he is gone. He brought it in and gave it to me:

I tried it out the other night with Alton Brown's overnight oatmeal. A few modifications on my part (a big handful of some dried figs and apple slices, a half cup of milk powder and no half and half) and hubby had a very delicious hot breakfast the next morning.

Next time I will see about spraying down the crock with cooking spray before tossing the ingredients in, I had some stickage of oatmeal, but no scorching at all. Can't wait to see what other grains I can make breakfast out of for overnight cooking.

oatmeal cookies

2010-08-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Hubby was jonesing for oatmeal cookies, so I looked up recipes on the intertubes and found a nice recipe here

Pretty much followed the recipe, tho I used pumpkin pie spice instead of plain cinnamon and didn't flatten the balls before baking. I left them as is to let them flatten on their own:

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Once out of the oven, onto a wire rack to finish setting up:

Happiness is a plate of fresh from the oven oatmeal cookies:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beer can chicken...without the beer

2010-07-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

When the weather gets hot, having a means to cook outside is good. I had a whole chicken, some onions, mushrooms and zucchini and a gas grill. So I decided on beer can chicken, but I didn't have any beer. But the nice thing about this method of cooking chicken,you can use any liquid. In this case I had a can of pear juice to replace the beer.

I started by preheating the grill, then prepped th chicken. You can use any seasoning you like, in this case it was Old Bay garlic and herb. Poured out half the pear juice and inserted the can and placed it in pan and onto the grill it went.

When the chicken was close to done. I put my cast iron griddle on to preheat and then prepped the veggies. I Sliced the Walla Wallas and quartered the mushrooms and tossed them with olive oil. The zucchini was sliced, tossed with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar ans seasoned with lemon salt:

While I cooked the veggies I let the chicken rest:

When everything was done, I sliced some chicken and served it with the veggies:

YUM!

Tempura

2010-05-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

I am always on the look out for different way to do veggies. Watching Iron Chef America the other day, they pointed out Iron Chef Japan using rice flour to make tempura. I've always used either a store bought mix or made it with wheat flour, so decided to give it a try doing home made with rice flour.

So picked up a package of Bob's Red Mill rice flour, a Texas Sweet onion (Walla Wallas aren't in season yet), some Crimini mushrooms:

Cracked an egg, then added the rice flour and mixed with ice water:

Quartered the 'shrooms and sliced the onion. I put some rice flour in a bowl so I could dust the pieces before adding them to the batter:

Using my Fry Daddy, I used vegetable oil and brought it up to frying temps:

I alternated a small batch of 'shrooms witha a small batch of onions until they were done. I had also sliced up a piece of steak, dusted and battered them and then into the fryer as an experiment.

Everything came out nice, tho I think I won't do steak bites again, at least with rice tempura. Maybe with a good wheat flour beer batter. The onions and 'shrooms came out perfectly and everything made a great dinner with a couple of dipping sauces.

Rice flour tempura is definitely going into my cooking rotation, can't wait to try it on different veggies. Another thing I will do is set the oven to low and stash the finished veggies in there while I work on the rest to keep things crisp until serving time.

Oven fried chicken strips

2010-03-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hubby was wanting finger food the other day and we didn't feel like going to the store. I was already thawing out boneless, skinless chicken thighs for dinner (I knew we were doing chicken, just wasn't how I was going to do it and what I was serving it with), so a slight change in plans was not a problem.

I wasn't up for any frying or deep frying, so I decided I would oven fry them using cooking spray.

I started with cutting up the chicken:

Then blending some flour with a bit of baking powder and ranch dressing mix (you can also use any seasonings you would like, salt and pepper being a nice basic seasoning):

Toss the chicken strips in the mixture:

Shake off the excess flour and place on a cooking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray:

Spray the tops of the chicken strips with more cooking spray and pop into a 350F oven:

Flip the strips over at least once during baking and bake until golden brown and delirious. Plate and serve with a dipping sauce, in this case we had honey mustard and ranch salad dressings:

You can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts if you prefer (we just like the flavor of thighs better).