tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69984463845431017992012-01-27T10:52:21.689-05:00Food is love. Very delicious, usually local, and (mostly) gluten free ...ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.comBlogger266125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-63427116676741472792012-01-15T14:40:00.006-05:002012-01-20T22:12:09.450-05:002012-01-20T22:12:09.450-05:00

Friday is my no work-no sitter-no plans day. I love hanging out with my two littlest ones, baking something yummy to snack on, and leisurely enjoying a cup (or two) of coffee... This past Friday, I found a can of canned pumpkin in my cupboard and I had some leftover butternut squash in my refrigerator so my younger daughter and I made pumpkin squash bread. It was delicious - gone in a day!

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-43230857601551772472012-01-13T14:35:00.000-05:002012-01-13T14:35:36.142-05:002012-01-13T14:35:36.142-05:00

Chorizo and Cheddar Frittata A few ingredients ... and minimal preparation. This chorizo and cheddar frittata is perfect for a weeknight meal or weekend brunch. I have never bought chorizo before, but it recently appeared in my winter CSA delivery from C-Saw Hill. Chorizo? A spicy Spanish pork sausage coming from the foothills of North Carolina? I was intrigued... I couldn't wait to cook it up

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-27002147579105334812012-01-09T06:53:00.001-05:002012-01-09T06:53:00.319-05:002012-01-09T06:53:00.319-05:00

Super simple egg salad with dill from our herb garden Eggs are such a versatile ingredient. We polish off a substantial amount of eggs in this house on a weekly basis in all sorts of ways. Eggs are a low calorie source of protein and essential nutrients and they definitely offer a lot of bang for their buck. We get our eggs locally and they seem to last forever. Even my husband, not seen in

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-90967837002453476292012-01-06T14:10:00.000-05:002012-01-06T14:10:58.982-05:002012-01-06T14:10:58.982-05:00

Chocolate Cheesecake with a Gluten Free Cookie Crust My daughter and I both love chocolate. A lot. So when we were asked to bring something "chocolate and gluten-free" to a party the other evening, we decided to experiment with a chocolate cheesecake. To be honest, I didn't have a backup plan... thankfully, it came out great! A cheesecake is really an easy dessert to make gluten free. If you

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-29024674856126343422012-01-01T16:08:00.001-05:002012-01-01T16:08:59.057-05:002012-01-01T16:08:59.057-05:00

Sunday Morning French Toast French toast is one of our favorite Sunday morning breakfast treats. The best part is that it is so easy to make with just a few ingredients - all you need is eggs, milk, and bread. Any bread will do - we are big fans of the cinnamon chip bread made by our local bakery - Great Harvest Bread Company. We are lucky enough that they also make a gluten-free version.

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-34876774499452203302011-12-29T19:28:00.000-05:002011-12-29T19:28:50.696-05:002011-12-29T19:28:50.696-05:00

Sweet Potato and Gouda Gratin  A couple of days before Christmas I got a huge box of produce and eggs from Edgerton Farm and when I saw the beautiful sweet potatoes, I knew that I had to serve them at Christmas dinner.  Believe it or not, this fabulous side dish has only three ingredients. It is so easy to make and truly delicious. The total cooking time is about an hour and a half so plan

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-82250991043496778012011-12-14T19:11:00.000-05:002011-12-14T19:11:59.082-05:002011-12-14T19:11:59.082-05:00

Ginger Goat Cheese from Looking Glass Creamery Topped With Sweet Red Pepper Jelly  I love to make pepper jelly and my friends and family love to eat pepper jelly - win-win. With Christmas right around the corner, what better homemade gift than red and green jars of pepper jelly? Pomona's Universal Pectin This year I decided to make my green pepper jelly the usual way - with a little spicy

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-17548784876381720872011-12-12T14:52:00.000-05:002011-12-12T14:52:14.969-05:002011-12-12T14:52:14.969-05:00

In general, my philosophy when it comes to gluten-free food, is that it is best to NOT try to recreate beloved foods to make them gluten free. I find that I am usually disappointed because the new version is just not-quite-right. If there is one food that I miss terribly from my gluten-loving days, it would have to be cheez-its! Hands down my favorite snack ever. Love that orangey, salty, crispy

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-60397520283938648962011-12-10T13:00:00.002-05:002011-12-10T13:00:01.551-05:002011-12-10T13:00:01.551-05:00

Homemade granola makes a great gift Weeks ago, I saw a recipe for homemade granola bars that used buckwheat groats. I was intrigued. If you follow a gluten-free diet, buckwheat is completely allowed! Buckwheat groats look like a grain, but it is actually a fruit seed - related to sorrel and rhubarb. Who knew? I found buckwheat groats in one of the bulk bins at Earth Fare and came home eager to

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-36800965921151827692011-12-03T21:18:00.000-05:002011-12-03T21:18:40.868-05:002011-12-03T21:18:40.868-05:00

Papa's Pecan Pie My dad makes the best pecan pie. It is practically world famous. Throughout college, I would bring classmates to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner and weeks later I would still be hearing about the pecan pie. Needless to say, I had to learn how to make it. For this Thanksgiving, I made ten pies. Five of them were pecan pies and four of those were given away to very

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-48490162025277352222011-11-26T13:51:00.000-05:002011-11-26T13:51:46.878-05:002011-11-26T13:51:46.878-05:00

Mini Crustless Sweet Potato Pie Sweet potatoes might be the state vegetable of North Carolina. They grow abundantly all over our state and all the varieties taste absolutely delicious. Sweet potato pie is a great use for leftover sweet potatoes - if you ever have that problem. I have been trying to make a sweet potato pie for weeks, but every time I bake some sweet potatoes, they are promptly

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-21152787184499287042011-11-10T14:20:00.001-05:002011-11-14T22:13:52.744-05:002011-11-14T22:13:52.744-05:00

Chicken with Fennel and Cranberry Sauce Another super easy weeknight meal - and another recipe-that's not really a recipe... Years ago, I found a recipe in the Mayo Clinic cookbook that involved chicken, tomatoes, and fennel. I was new to fennel at the time and was a little bit skeptical about the flavor. I had been told that fennel tastes like a combination of celery, cabbage, and licorice.

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-51248232310318149702011-11-09T14:57:00.003-05:002011-11-12T22:50:22.267-05:002011-11-12T22:50:22.267-05:00

Chuck Roast with Caramelized Onions and Baby Bella Mushrooms I recently mentioned to my husband that I could probably devote an entire blog to meals I make just using food that friends drop off at my house. Truly, this is an amazingly frequent occurrence. I know that I have some awesome friends here in Charlotte but I also think that when an errant bulb of fennel or container of peppermint

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-90011392348500314802011-11-07T09:00:00.006-05:002011-11-12T22:52:55.765-05:002011-11-12T22:52:55.765-05:00

My bushel of potatoes On a lark, I recently ordered a bushel of potatoes from Beach Garden Farm to split with my friends. They grow all sorts of veggies in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Rutherford County, North Carolina and the potatoes grown in North Carolina are definitely the best I have ever tasted. I speak from experience. Since I am Irish, I must feed my family potatoes

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-42858794129813728222011-11-06T12:04:00.002-05:002011-11-12T22:54:54.976-05:002011-11-12T22:54:54.976-05:00

Crockpot Bolognese Sauce This recipe is a great way to get a hearty meal with limited effort on any day of the week. I started out thinking that I was going to make a ratatouille. I had the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants all ready to go. And then, as the day progressed, I checked on the progress of my ratatouille and realized that I might not have made enough to feed the masses that were

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-4718405271756859382011-11-03T16:14:00.002-04:002011-11-12T22:55:31.123-05:002011-11-12T22:55:31.123-05:00

We have a salad almost every night with dinner - usually made with arugula. We love arugula and it is such a great local, fall green! For this easy salad, I topped our arugula with spoonfuls of goat cheese, thinly sliced Pink Lady Apples and toasted walnuts. Apples, Goat Cheese, and Toasted Walnuts Salad To make the toasted walnuts ...  Walnuts, butter, maple syrup, cayenne pepper,

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-44535074903756727582011-11-01T16:26:00.001-04:002011-11-01T16:26:00.073-04:002011-11-01T16:26:00.073-04:00

Roasted potatoes and parsley Roasting vegetables is such an easy side-dish for dinner or a great after-school snack! How-to ... Lightly toss chopped potatoes (I combined local sweet potatoes with white kennebec potatoes - 3 cups total) with a little bit of olive oil (1 - 2 tablespoons or so), coarse sea salt and fresh chopped parsley. Roast for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.  Turn the

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-41651489718543532092011-10-31T15:00:00.002-04:002011-10-31T23:06:35.040-04:002011-10-31T23:06:35.040-04:00

Arugula and Goat Cheese Risotto My good friend surprised me the other weekend with an enormous bag full of goodies that she picked up for me at the local farmers market. Her kids are a little bit older than mine and she knows that I rarely am able to make it out of the house on a Saturday morning to enjoy perusing the local produce. One of my favorite goodies was a huge bag of arugula. Yum! We

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-75740059601396498032011-10-30T15:33:00.000-04:002011-10-30T15:33:15.030-04:002011-10-30T15:33:15.030-04:00

I recently found myself with a lot of extra Brie cheese on my hands ... being a cheese lover, this was not necessarily a bad thing. If you happen to trip across the Pack Square Brie-style Cheese from the Looking Glass Creamery in Asheville, North Carolina - grab some! It is absolutely delicious. My favorite way to eat this cheese is sliced with some fresh apples but for lunch the other day, we

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-9220023790862792882011-10-27T15:12:00.000-04:002011-10-27T15:12:08.411-04:002011-10-27T15:12:08.411-04:00

This recipe is another not-a-recipe recipe. Bagel pizzas are so inexpensive and easy and they can be a great weeknight dinner option or a weekend lunch. When I was little, my mom would make us English muffin pizzas using sliced English muffins, tomato paste, and sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled with a little oregano. Delicious. This is just a slight variation on that yummy snack. Bagel pizzas can

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-83465047546368729952011-10-18T12:11:00.000-04:002011-10-18T12:11:07.338-04:002011-10-18T12:11:07.338-04:00

Gluten Free Rice Krispy Treats For years, it was a mystery to me that Rice Krispies cereal was made with rice and yet it was not gluten free. Kellogg finally got wise to the current gluten-free mania and has actually made a gluten-free version of rice krispies made with brown rice - even better! After years of patiently waiting, my daughter can finally indulge in a yummy rice krispy treat. I

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-86459103093865901282011-10-17T23:53:00.000-04:002011-10-17T23:53:57.098-04:002011-10-17T23:53:57.098-04:00

Kale and Potato Soup Although today was 83 degrees and sunny here in Charlotte, it really is fall and fall calls for soups. Soups are so healthy and so very hard to mess up. This weekend, my girls and I had a rare opportunity to wander our favorite Farmers Market on Saturday morning so I was able to pick up some fresh kale, local onions, and amazing homemade butter. The butter has absolutely

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-85644979339896911802011-10-11T23:30:00.000-04:002011-10-11T23:30:13.128-04:002011-10-11T23:30:13.128-04:00

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup in a Crockpot Many, many years ago, my husband bought me this crockpot for Christmas. I had another very good crockpot at the time, but he thought I loved my first one so much that I might put a second one to good use as well. He was right, of course. This cute little crockpot is perfect for keeping hot dips warm at parties or cooking up a perfect batch of soup on

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-85247819146539756422011-10-03T22:53:00.002-04:002011-10-03T22:58:11.099-04:002011-10-03T22:58:11.099-04:00

Quinoa During the month of October, a great food blogger, Andrew Wilder, writer of Eating Rules, has challenged the food blogging community to commit to eating unprocessed food. In short, that means that if you cannot make a food in your kitchen (even if it takes a little bit of effort) than you cannot eat it. If you are eating healthy and gluten-free already, this challenge might not seem too

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998446384543101799.post-31859138640761754032011-09-27T22:43:00.001-04:002011-10-03T23:00:33.020-04:002011-10-03T23:00:33.020-04:00

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup With Apples and Ginger I have been getting lovely butternut squash from Edgerton Farm for the past few weeks and my children never seem to tire of this delicious and healthy veggie. I had made a spicy soup with it back in August, but today I had some apples left over from lunch and about an inch of ginger root that needed to be used up so Roasted Butternut Squash

ERINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03434934287276064776noreply@blogger.com5