Gluten-Free Book Club

Gluten-Free Beer Can Chicken

2013-05-23T06:30:00.000-04:00

Grilling Chicken Whole

Have you noticed that it is grilling time? Wait. Is it ever not grilling time?

Definitely grilling time.

There are plenty of things you can grill on the grill, and chicken should be one of them.

But chicken is tricky. Too hot and you burn the skin. Or the outside is just right, but the middle is still raw.

Grill chicken too cool and it ends up juiceless and tough.

So how do you get it just right?

Here is one way.

One whole chicken. One half can of gluten-free beer. Some Beer Can Chicken Rub. One and half hours of indirect grilling time.

Magic!

All you need is the right ingredients, both food and method, and you will have magical gluten-free grilled chicken on your plates!

Beer Can Rub - Naturally Gluten-Free

2 Tbsp paprika
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

Open one gluten-free beer. Sample to ensure goodness. Set aside.

Rub the entire chicken down, inside and out, with olive oil. Then rub a generous amount of the Beer Can Rub into the chicken, inside and out.

Fill an empty soda or beer can half full with gluten-free beer. My gluten-free beer is homebrewed by a friend of mine. He bottles it, so I had to transfer some from the bottle to a can. If you don't have a gluten-free homebrewing friend, you can now get Omission gluten-free beer virtually all over the country.

Oh darn. There was more in the bottle than I needed in the can. I couldn't possibly let the rest go to waste. Do like I did and enjoy the remaining gluten-free beer while you prep the chicken. It makes this process oh so much more enjoyable!

If you are well into enjoying your gluten-free beer as you read this, let me remind you not to put that glass bottle on your grill! Cans only on the grill, please. You'll thank me tomorrow.

With your soda/beer can half full of gluten-free beer, add about a teaspoon of the Beer Can Rub to the can. Swish it around a bit.

Insert the can into the bottom of the chicken, without spilling any spiced, gluten-free beer! Carefully prop the chicken + can combo on top of your grill so that it gets only indirect heat.

Here, I think our chicken was trying to dance. We had to tango with it a bit to get it to sit nicely and not tip over. Left leg, out. Left wing, up. That's it. Now the right side. Right leg, out....

Now, carefully close the lid of your grill, making sure the lid doesn't touch or knock over the chicken. Enjoy another gluten-free beer or two. After an hour to an hour and a half, you should have one happy, grilled chicken! Internal temperature should be 165º.

Pull the chicken off the grill, being careful to not spill any remaining hot beer still in the can. Let the chicken rest for ten minutes before carving.

Enjoy!

This is the juiciest, tastiest, yummiest grilled chicken I have ever had! The meat is juicy and tender. And no matter what sort of diet you might be on, you will want to eat the skin off this chicken!

And it is gluten-free! Gluten-free beer is the magic that makes this chicken magically gluten-free.

Now it's your turn to make some magic. Abracadabra alakazam!

The Book of Lost Fragrances

2013-05-20T06:30:00.000-04:00

Book Review

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M. J. Rose.

I saw this book come up as a more recent release.

It's about time I read something new. For a change.

Well, fairly new. This book came out only last year. That's very new compared to most of the other things I've been reading lately.

And then I cracked the front cover.

Mysticism. Reincarnation. Egyptian myths. Tibetan struggles.

This was certainly beginning to look like something outside of my normal reading genres.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's just that I got a certain impression from the front cover, which reads, "a novel of suspense".

Suspense and mysticism? In the same book? I guess it is possible, but that is not a connection I would have anticipated before opening the cover.

Yes, I may be a skeptic, but I'm also sufficiently curious. It was time to find out how all these ideas could come together under one cover.

The Book of Lost Fragrances

This is the story of a family of perfumers, or rather, what is left of the family, and how they come to tie together family legend with historical myths with political maneuvering with business tactics. The family perfume business is in trouble and one protagonist is plagued with hallucinations and fears, while the other is driven by belief in myths. Together, they must find a way to save the business and survive to see tomorrow.

Sounds suspenseful.

The Triad and Dalai Lama both figure prominently in the story. Paris and its catacombs figure prominently. Cleopatra and Egyptian history figure prominently. Myths and reincarnation figure prominently.

What doesn't figure prominently is actual suspense.

The story jumps between different eras, different continents, different minds, different lives, different past histories.

Jumping around, this book does much.

Suspense? I guess. But I guess I had to be told about it. I didn't feel it. With each chapter relating a different time and often a different person, actual suspense between characters doesn't really flow.

Within a chapter, between characters within a chapter? Sure. There's some suspense.

Between chapters, between characters? Not so much. Suspense is not the first thing that occurs to me.

But what this story lacks in actual suspense, it makes up for in actual research. Our author has done her homework.

Almost to a fault.

The streets and landmarks of Paris are detailed more than what is necessary for the progression of the story. The exception to this is the treatment of the Paris catacombs beneath the city. This is well done and appropriate for the story. The Egyptian history is well researched and is in just the right amount. We are also given the right amount of background regarding the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan struggle with Chinese government.

The research is good. And seems complete.

But what about the various storylines woven into all that research?

The end of the book seems to come rather abruptly and it left me wondering what happens next.

Does the old boyfriend go back to his wife or divorce her? Does the business crumble or it is saved, possibly with a somewhat diminished product line? Does our protagonist gain control of her hallucinations or go mad? Does the lost fragrance ever get remade?

I'll never know. And this makes me wonder. I don't like wondering at the end of books. And it doesn't seem that there will be a sequel.

I guess I'll never know and I'll have to be accepting of that.

But this is an interesting read, bringing together all these various themes. Maybe it is a bit much, but interesting nonetheless.

It is nice to step out of the ordinary occasionally.

Eating Gluten-Free at Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

2013-05-11T06:30:00.000-04:00

Gluten-Free Bar-B-Que?

Is it possible? Does gluten-free bar-b-que exist?

I've always wondered. I've always been wary.

Sauces. You never know what people put in their sauces. You never, ever, ever know what restaurants put in their sauces.

And bar-b-que sauce is no exception.

When my cousin invited me out for dinner at a bar-b-que restaurant, I was skeptical. Hesitant. Cautious.

But just a moment's worth of research on the internet put my fears to rest.

This bar-b-que looked safe. They even have a full-fledged, gluten-free menu! With gluten-free appetizers! With gluten-free salads! With gluten-free BBQ! With gluten-free sides! With gluten-free sandwiches and burgers!

There was no way I was going to turn down this invitation. Bar-q-que! For the gluten intolerant! Finally!

Never mind that were were in LA, and the traffic was typical, lousy, LA traffic and I had to drive forty-five minutes, each way, in it in order to get my gluten-free bar-b-que. Yeah, never mind. It was worth all that traffic-laden freeway time!

Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

While waiting at our table, I asked the waitress if they had any gluten-free beer.

Yes! Redbridge.

Redbridge? Hmmm.... That's a sorghum-based gluten-free beer. I've heard terrible things about sorghum beers. I didn't want to waste a beverage on something I was skeptical about, so I opted for something else gluten-free. But I guess I will have to brace myself and try Redbridge one day. This was not that day.

Bonus points to Lucille's for offering a gluten-free beer, though!

They also offer their signature bar-b-que sauces for sale. So many choices! And these are gluten-free too!

Time to scour the menu for something to eat.

I was blissfully swamped by the plethora of gluten-free menu choices. So many gluten-free things to chose from! I had a hard time narrowing it down. I logically reasoned that if I was in a bar-b-que joint with a full-fledged gluten-free menu, I probably shouldn't waste the opportunity and get a ... salad.

Crime! That would be a crime!

No. I had to get bar-b-que!

Now... would it be baby back ribs, beef ribs, BBQ chicken, beef brisket, or BBQ tri tip? Oh my! Who would have anticipated such choices, all gluten-free?

Not me.

Dang. I had to pick. But which? There was no way I could try them all.

I stalled. I hemmed. I hawed. I couldn't pick just one.

Finally, I chose the beef ribs.

This picture does not do justice to size of this plate! It was enormous. I could have fed a small African village with this much food!

What was I thinking? Three huge beef ribs. And two gluten-free sides: the honey roasted peanut slaw and fresh vegetables.

I couldn't imagine finishing all this food. Not within the next week.

And then I bit into a rib. Oh. My. Goodness. Wow. Superb!

It was so tasty and delicious! I made a justifiable mess of myself chowing down on those ribs. Bibs needed! Handi-wipes required!

Outstanding!

And my cousin had the highest possible praise for the slaw. He said, "It's the only restaurant slaw that comes close to Grandma's." Yep, he's right. Close. Not quite as good, but close. And far better than any other slaw I've encountered at any restaurant.

Everything was so good, I couldn't stop eating. And then something amazing happened.

I finished it all.

I finished everything on my plate. Unbelievable. I seriously never thought I would come close to finishing it all. But I did.

It. Was. So. Good!

Maybe the best part of Lucille's is that there are many locations in Southern California, one in Northern California, two in Nevada, and one in Arizona. If you are headed to the southwest, you must find a Lucille's!

Okay, okay, that is not the best part of Lucille's, but it is a good thing!

The best part of Lucille's is the extensive and delicious gluten-free offerings! Here, you can have bar-b-que! Gluten-free bar-b-que!

Bar-b-que for everyone! Most excellent!

Urban Crave in Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston (IAH)

2013-05-06T06:30:00.000-04:00

Airport Eating - Gluten-Free

Airports are notoriously difficult places to find gluten-free food.

Between the fast food, fried food, bar food, and prepackaged food, you have no idea where that food has been, what else was in the fryer oil, what has been mixed with it, or what other ingredients are included.

Better to avoid it all.

But you can't.

You can't because domestic flights rarely (if ever?) offer special, gluten-free meals nowadays. You can't because you can't pack all of your own safe foods, with an ice pack, through security. You can't because no one can (or should) live off of gluten-free snack bars when they travel.

You need options. You need to know where you can find safe, gluten-free food while traveling.

I am always on the lookout for safe places to eat. I guess it helps that I often find myself stuck in airports and airplanes for ten, twelve, even fourteen hours in a single day. That is certainly enough time to get hungry.

Really hungry.

Really hungry for real food.

If you find yourself anywhere near Gate C33 in the Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), you now have another option for finding gluten-free food.

Urban Crave

IAH is a huge airport, and I have been finding safe places to eat (like Pappadeaux's) there, but if my next flight doesn't land me at a gate near one of these places, I usually don't have enough time to get all the way across the airport and back to my departure gate for my connection.

More options. Need more options.

This time, I found Urban Crave close to my departure gate. It was worth a look.

The location is tiny. A bar and handful of tables. At best.

The menu is brief. At best.

Street food. Dogs. Burgers. Tacos. Wraps.

None of that looked especially promising. Too many variables where gluten might lurk. I want and need safe food, but I don't want to have to play 20 Questions with the server.

Then I saw the salad listed. Baby Greens. Blue cheese. Avocado. Balsamic vinaigrette. Now we're talking! But the dressing is often the killer. I would have to ask about the salad dressing.

I found a spot at the bar. Ordered my beverage. Scrutinized the menu. Then I started asking my server questions.

"Does it come with croutons? No croutons, please. I can't have them."

"No problem, they don't come with that salad." Good so far.

"Do you make your own balsamic dressing?"

"Ah, I don't think so."

"Is it pre-made? I can't have any gluten. So, if there is a label, it would be very helpful to look at it."

I'm trying to keep the guy from getting on the defensive, if it does come from a jar. I'm just after information. I'm not here to berate them about using ready-made salad dressings.

"It's from a jar."

"Any chance there's a label on that jar? I could see if it will be safe for me."

"Um, sure." Excellent. I could now read the label for myself.

My server promptly came back from the kitchen (all of five steps way) with an industrial-sized jar of dressing. He put the jar in front of me and turned to his other duties.

Industrial-sized, as in, a one gallon jar of salad dressing. Yeah, big. And it had a label. And I started reading.

I read it twice. Balsamic vinaigrette with no gluten ingredients! Success!

Yes, this is what I would have. And here is what came out of the kitchen for me.

I love my salads, but I especially love them when they look like this! Beautiful!

Outstanding! Everything was extremely fresh. Crisp. Green. Flavorful. And plentiful!

This was definitely some of the best airport food I have ever had.

The service was good, the prices as expected in an airport, but the quality and quantity of food was far better than average airport fare.

The location is physically small, and by the time I was finishing, the place was crowded, every chair and stool filled and people standing holding their drinks. If you are lucky enough to see a place to sit, grab it. You might not get another chance.

I certainly have never seen a salad like this served off of a food cart in downtown Los Angeles (aka "street food"), but I'm not complaining in the slightest. This was outstanding and a great find.

Now, if we could all just imagine that all street food was this good....

Allegro Hickory Smoke Marinade and Homemade Grilled Vegetable Marinade

2013-05-04T06:30:00.000-04:00

Allegro Hickory Smoke Marinade

Grilling is one of my favorite ways to cook. It imparts flavor to your meat that cannot be replicated by anything in a bottle.

And if you have a bottle of this marinade on hand, you have the opportunity to make that grilled meat great!

Several years ago I picked up a bottle of this marinade at my local store. I loved it immediately!

Of course, it being gluten-free might have had something to do with that!

See, most marinades have soy sauce in them, and most soy sauce has gluten. Most, but not all.

I went back for several months for a new bottle of Allegro each time I ran out. I didn't want to be without this in my kitchen.

And then suddenly, one of those trips to the store left me disappointed. Allegro wasn't there anymore. No spot on the shelf. No price label on the shelf. No sign of it anywhere. Nothing.

And the next trip to the store was just as disappointing. And the next. And the next. I think you get the picture. The store had stopped carrying Allegro.

Ultimate disappointment set in. Deeply. For years.

Fast forward to near present day. Last month, a new local grocery store opened near me. Allegro is something I went looking for.

And behold! There it was. Bliss once again!

This is, hands down, my favorite meat marinade ever. And it just so happens to be gluten-free!

We snagged some not-too-expensive slabs of beef and started marinating!

You don't want to put this on any very expensive cut of meat. You probably don't want to marinate an expensive piece of meat in the first place. No filet mignon here.

We chose some slabs that were quite thin, since we were short on time. Time is your bestest friend ever when it comes to marinating. The more time, the better.

On this particular afternoon, time was limited, so thin was better for us. We marinated our slabs for about a half hour.

No worries, though. The result was outstanding!

Our daughter boldly announced that this is her absolute favorite way of having beef. Marinated in Allegro and grilled.

What a fabulous combination!

But wait! There's more....

Grilled Vegetable Marinade

If you are going to grill, you are going to need some meat. If you are going to grill meat, you are going to want some vegetables to go with it....

Naturally gluten-free vegetable marinade!

We've been making grilled vegetables with this marinade for years. For many years, even before I needed to be gluten-free.

2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup minced onion
3 or 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 Tbsp. fresh basil, minced
1/2 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix well. This is where my little wisk shines. Wisk this all together with a fair helping of elbow grease and you'll see it come right together. Your bits of garlic and onion will still sink to the bottom, but your oil and vinegar will be emulsified!

It's now called an emulsion, for you fellow nerds out there. I love my marinades and vinaigrettes as emulsions!

Now, what vegetables to grill, you ask?

Cherry tomatoes. Mushrooms. Red, orange, or yellow bell peppers. Red onions. Zucchini. These are our favorites.

Yours? Well, that depends on what you like.

We next decide whether we are going to make kabobs or use our outstanding stainless steel grilling pan. Time is usually the determining factor: lots of time means kabobs, while not lots of time means grill pan.

Cut your veggies according to whether you are using skewers or your grill pan: slightly larger and with skin for skewers, slightly smaller and with or without skin, depending on the vegetable, for the grill pan.

Note that I am not talking about a grill pan that you use on your range to get grill marks on your steak. No, I am talking about a perforated pan (yes, it has holes in it!) that you use right on top of your outdoor grill. The holes let all the grill's smoky goodness get into the pan and flavor your veggies!

We have two of these, of different sizes, and they have removable handles. This allows the lid of the grill to be closed as needed. You can find the pans here. (Full disclosure: W-S doesn't know I exist and I get no kickbacks for recommending them. These grill pans are just far superior to any of the others we have used over the years.)

How ever you choose to cut your veggies, pour your emulsified marinade over every single vegetable surface available to you. (If yours isn't emulsified, don't fret. Just stir it well before coating your veggies.) The more you coat those veggies, the happier you and they will be.

You will want leave your veggies coated in deliciousness for at least a half hour before they feel any of that glorious grill heat. Longer is better, but don't go overboard and do overnight. That's too long, because you'll just end up with soggy, sad veggies. A couple of hours is plenty.

We want happy, smiling veggies and this marinade will make them smile!

Aren't those flames beautiful?

Don't let those flareups worry you. Yeah, yeah, you are correct if you are going to tell me that they are bad for your meat. Yes, correct. You don't want charred meat.

But these flareups didn't touch our meat. The flareup is from the olive oil in the veggie marinade falling through the holes in the pan. So really, it is only hitting the underside of the grill pan, not even touching the veggies. If the flareups get too big and start to worry you, just close the lid of your grill.

Remember, safety first. Smother a grease or oil fire.

If you need to. But we're not letting it get that far. We want dinner, not charcoal!

No worries here. Besides, those flareups make for great pictures!

Stir your veggies periodically. We had a lot of veggies here, so they took longer to cook than our thinly sliced meat. Judge yours accordingly.

Pair these grilled vegetables with your marinated slabs of beef and you have a big hit! Everyone in our family, even the pickiest (no names, no names!), was thrilled with this dinner!

It's grill time, baby! Get grilling!

Locked Rooms

2013-04-27T06:30:00.000-04:00

Book Review

Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King.

My reading time and interest has been quite limited of late. Travels, distractions, focus elsewhere have kept me away.

Then there seemed to be an opening in my available time and I grabbed at it. Time to get some reading done.

With all the options out there, I was drawn back towards Laurie R. King. I like her writing.

Even though I have been away from this series for some months now, coming back to it feels like slipping on a old, familiar glove. It is nice to get back to it.

But this story is structured different than the others and delves into characters in ways I've not seen in the previous books in the series.

All in a good way. Different is good sometimes. Especially when it still feels familiar.

Locked Rooms

This is the eighth book in the Mary Russell series and the events follow chronologically immediately after the previous book, The Game. Russell and Sherlock have just left India and are on their way back to Britian, via Russell's native San Francisco. Her former home holds both business for her and secrets from her.

This is a different type of Russell story. This one focuses on Russell's past and her present memories of that past. Normal Russell stories don't involve so much of the characters' personal history, but this seemed to evolve naturally enough from the journey home to Britain.

Russell must deal with the family holdings and in doing so, her repressed memories of her childhood begin to resurface. Tragedy forced those memories into the deepest recesses of her mind, but now she is faced with confronting them.

Despite the personal nature of our characters memories and activities, we are still presented with a genuine mystery. And not just a run-of-the-mill mystery. This one gets Dashiell Hammett written into it.

I'm not sure how I feel about having all these fictional characters interact with and get to know and work with actual historical figures. Aside from the implausibility of multiple interactions with multiple historical figures, it seems to be pushing the stories just a bit too far. Can we get back to just some plain, ol' good-natured fiction?

All that aside, the book is good and kept me reading. I liked it. I liked it enough to want to continue on with the series.

I really enjoyed the discussion and description of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and its aftermath. The descriptions were good and had me curious enough to go research some pictures. The damage is astonishing. The before and after images are striking. The pictures taken during the tragedy are haunting.

It was quite astonishing to me to have lived for so many years so close to San Francisco and not know very much about the devastation from this tragedy. Quite remarkable. The city is beautiful now and to the naive visitor, doesn't show any signs of what happened. Maybe some day I'll take a walking tour of the city, looking for the remaining pre-earthquake buildings. Of course, the city has endured many earthquakes since, but none like the 1906 quake and its aftermath.

I liked the tie in between Russell's memories and the earthquake happenings that she didn't experience. It is a good historical treatment.

So, maybe it is odd that I liked the treatment of the historical events highlighted in this story, but I didn't like the intersection with the historical figures. Maybe this is because the events were presented as past events (historical even to the characters in the story), but the historical figures were written in as part of the current events of the story.

Maybe I just like history to be presented as history. Maybe that is it.

But now I'm just hoping that the next book doesn't involve a run in with another historical figure.

Fiction, people, fiction. That's what I thought I had set out to read. That's what I want.

There's still enough fiction to keep me reading the series. And that is a good thing. More fiction!

Dagoba Organic Chocolate and Gluten-Free Grief Therapy

2013-04-13T06:30:00.000-04:00

Gluten-Free Grief Therapy

Why isn't being old reason enough to make it easier to say goodbye? How about having had a full life? What about being ready to go?

My grandmother just passed away. Well, it has been a couple of weeks already, but it feels like "just".

She was old. By her own standards, not mine. Ninety-two and a half. She had done it all. She was ready.

And yet, selfishly, I didn't want to let her go. No, that's not quite it. I didn't want to keep her here, but I wasn't ready to be without her.

She was done here. I'm glad she was headed peacefully on her way. No drama. No drawn out, extended debate. She knew what she wanted.

Always.

Always, it had to be just so. That's what made her so great.

Everything in her purse had its place, and she had everything in her purse. Everything in its place. She also dated every can and jar of food brought home from the store.

And after she passed away, when we were clearing out her things, I found a box of tissues with a date label on it. A label she had made and put on it.

And we all laughed.

Tissues.

Do tissues ever expire???

Never mind. I guess she wanted to know when they were purchased.

This attention to detail is what made her so great at so many things.

This also was the case when she made her Christmas cookies. Precisely painted, precisely decorated, precisely loved, precisely adored, precisely delicious.

There are so many things I want to write about my wonderful grandmother, but I can't. It's too close. Too personal. It's too hard to share all of that with anyone who didn't know her. I want to keep those memories to myself and my family and those that knew her. Selfish, I know.

I made a long list of some of the things I thought I wanted to share. But as I looked that list over several times, I realized I didn't want to type those things up. I didn't want to post a picture of my wedding cake that she decorated, as beautiful as it was. I didn't want to share the stories, memories, thoughts. Selfish, selfish, selfish.

But, I've decided, this is my therapy. And if it is going to be my grief therapy, I have to do this my way.

So, I'm going to share the thoughts of my grandmother that I've already been comfortable sharing.

I've always consulted Grandma when baking or cooking or doing anything much in the kitchen. She was the expert. She was the one I consulted. I was thrilled when I was the lucky recipient of her treasure. Her recipe box. The decades-old reference for all of the goodness that came out of Grandma's kitchen. I now had it all.

It was at least a decade and a half (or more) before getting her recipe box that I asked for copies of her cookie recipes. Lebkuchen was a family tradition of her own making. Now, I think I am the only one of the family still making it. Other family members have asked for the French cookie dough recipe, and recipes for her chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. I'm glad these will continue to be made, but the Lebkuchen will always be special.

After having to go gluten-free, I needed to relearn many lessons I had originally learned from Grandma. My mother claimed that Grandma's pies were the best in the family. So, when I set out on a mission to learn to make great gluten-free pies, I consulted Grandma. She didn't know gluten-free, but she knew how and why each step of pie making was done just so. And she let me know when what I was doing seemed odd or silly. She sure straightened me out on making lemon meringue pie!

Of all the people I have talked to about being gluten-free, I might have expected Grandma to have the hardest time understanding it or relating to me about it. But she took it all in stride. She gave me all the advice I asked for, when I asked for it, and cautioned me when she didn't know how things would behave when gluten-free. She even went out of her way to make sure she had a gluten-free cookie option available for me when I visited her at Christmas time. She purchased a gluten-free cookie mix, just so I too could have cookies!

Grandma was the best. The best at so many things and I admired her in so many ways.

But I'm still sad.

I still have to remind myself that I can't just call her up for the next piece of baking advice. And it hurts to know that I didn't get around to getting all the stories associated with all of the recipes in her recipe box.

That one hurts. Didn't. Get. Around. To. It.

It's no consolation to know that there are hundreds of recipes in that box.

But. This. Is. Therapy.

My grief therapy, I believe, should include something that makes me feel better.

Good chocolate makes me feel better. Enter Dagoba.

Dagoba Organic Chocolate

I was first introduced to Dagoba chocolate several years ago. It is very good. I will admit it is not my absolute favorite, but it is very good.

Very, very good.

And it just so happened to be destined to be part of my grief therapy.

After arriving home from my travels, I found a gift bag on my desk. A gift bag from a very kind friend and neighbor. A gift bag filled with gluten-free goodies.

See? Destiny. Chocolate as part of grief therapy. This might catch on.

I was given four varieties of Dagoba Organic Chocolate.

milk - 37% cacao
lavender blueberry - 59% cacao
xocolatl - 74% cacao
new moon - 74% cacao

I ate this one first.

This chocolate is smooth and firm and not too sweet. Nice. Very nice. Very soothing.

And it is all labeled gluten-free. I'm so well trained to scrutinize ingredient lists that I missed the gluten-free labeling at first. But there it is.

The lavender blueberry was a different experience. I bit into a blueberry, which was nice, but only smelled the lavender. I didn't seem to taste the lavender as much as smell it. But then, smell determines most of what we taste, anyways.

I don't think anyone can really go wrong with Dagoba. It makes for mighty fine therapy.

And I feel better.

Surprisingly, this picture also makes me feel better.

I like this picture. I like it a lot.

Those are five fresh orchid leis laid out on top of my grandmother's casket. She loved Hawaii.

Those leis were beautiful. And for whatever reason, this picture soothes me. I don't know why, but it does. It is nice to look at.

Odd, I know. I have never before wanted to look at a picture of a casket. Normally, I would cringe from such things. But something about this picture is just right.

And in spite of that...

I am sad. I am crying.

But...

I will feel better. I will continue to like this picture. I will be okay.

I think I will have another piece of Dagoba chocolate now. This is therapy, after all.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookie Mix

2013-03-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

Baking Up Some Friendly Love

My daughter was invited to a friend's house for a (post-)Valentine's Day party. Not so much a "party" per se, but a get together for a handful of teenage girls to giggle and eat and giggle and giggle some more.

She wanted to bring something. Or was asked to bring something. Or was supposed to bring something. Whatever. She needed to bring some sort of yummy food item that all the girls would love.

Well, who wouldn't love some little hearts at a Valentine's Day party?

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookie Mix

I had been meaning to make up this mix that my husband bought for me, but I just hadn't gotten to it. So, when my daughter asked if she could make it up to take to the party, I agreed that these would be a great thing to take and share.

Even if none of those girls need to be gluten-free. Not one.

But there was one condition.

She had to share them with me! She whole-heartedly agreed.

Whew.

I trusted that this would be a good mix and would produce something delicious. We were not disappointed.

My daughter mixed the dough according to the directions with no assistance from me. This led to cold chunks of butter clanking around in my mixer, but so be it.

Then she got busy.

She rolled and cut and rolled and cut and rolled and cut.

I think she ended up with two full pans like this and a partially filled third pan. Beautiful, eh?!

Yes, she does have some OCD tendencies. I can't imagine where she might have gotten those.

Here they are after baking.

Still beautiful, but now you can really see that all that rolling produced cookies of different thickness.

If you need me to spell it out for you, I will: The browner cookies are thinner and cooked quicker. The lighter cookies are thicker and didn't have a chance to get brown.

Still very nice.

As taste? You want to know about how these taste?

Fabulous! These are shortbread cookies for sure. The texture is a bit grainy and almost gritty, but not in a bad way. A bit crumbly, as shortbread usually is. And buttery.

They wouldn't be shortbread cookies if they weren't buttery!

These are nice, rich, buttery, tasty shortbread cookies!

And who wouldn't love some of these little hearts? The girls all loved these! My daughter didn't tell them they were gluten-free until after they ate them. They were surprised!

That there is the best endorsement for a gluten-free product. Thanks, Bob's Red Mill!

Half Moon Bay Brewing Company

2013-03-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

Brewery Food

It is nice to be surprised sometimes. Assuming the surprise is one that is likable.

I had assumed that brewery food was on the same scale as bar food. Maybe. Maybe not.

I knew I wanted to stop at the beach in Half Moon Bay. I needed to get my beach fix. I needed a sunset. If I was going to stay for a sunset, it only made sense to find dinner somewhere close to that sunset.

So I looked for gluten-free options in Half Moon Bay. That seemed like the logical thing to do.

But I was with a small group of colleagues. Colleagues who are beer connoisseurs. I don't have a problem skipping the beer, but places where they get their good beer aren't usually known for their gluten-free food options. If they have any at all.

So when I found this place as recommended for gluten-free food, I had to give it a try. And luckily for me, the beer connoisseurs didn't have any objections. It is a brewery, after all.

But would the food be gluten-free and good? I was about to find out.

Half Moon Bay Brewing Company

I offered to drive, since I knew the way. I suspect my colleagues were mildly thrilled with this, since that meant they had no limits on their ability to sample the selection of beers.

We enjoyed the beach and stayed for the sunset. Two items accomplished. Next, food and beer. Well, beer for them. Food for all of us.

After being seated, I explained my gluten-free needs to the waiter and asked him if certain items had any gluten in them. He wasn't sure, so I asked if he could find out about a few of the menu items.

I didn't get a lot of good vibes that the waiter knew what I was talking about. But he was willing to ask. And he disappeared in search of answers.

It took a seemingly long time, but when he finally did come back with our drinks, he also brought this.

Look! That there is a gluten-free menu! At a brewery!

So, in spite of my waiter's seemingly questionable understanding of what I needed, the brewery itself knew what I needed! Well done, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company management.

I was one happy camper with that menu in my hands. Safe eating. And choices. Several choices.

And then I looked closer. You should too. Go ahead. Look closely at the bottom of that menu.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Do you see it? Have you ever seen it before?

Portuguese Fisherman's Stew!

Really. No joke. No Photoshop. This is a real picture of a real gluten-free menu at a real brewery.

Stew is unusual at any restaurant, even more so at a brewery. But Portuguese Fisherman's Stew?

There was not a moment's doubt about what I would be ordering. My own Portuguese heritage was screaming for some of that stew. And gluten-free too!

And can you read the details on that menu up there? This Portuguese Stew has linguiça in it.

Linguiça! Oh, how I have missed you all these years!

Linguiça (pronounced lin-GWEE-sa or li-GWEES-a) is smoke cured pork sausage, made with garlic and paprika. Not chorizo. No, we are talking about Portuguese linguiça. There is no other.

See, I grew up eating linguiça frequently. I'm a quarter Portuguese, but you wouldn't know it by looking at me. My grandparents used to make their own linguiça every year. It was what you did when you raised your own hogs and you are Portuguese!

Once my grandfather died, we didn't make linguiça anymore. But it was still made in the community and we could get it readily from friends and family.

And then I left home and with it, my frequent exposure to linguiça. You just don't find linguiça very many places.

My lucky stars were aligned this night. A beach. A sunset at the beach. A brewery with a gluten-free menu. A gluten-free menu with Portuguese Fisherman's Stew! Portuguese Fisherman's Stew with linguiça! Who could ask for anything more? Not me!

Some unidentified fish, clams, mussels, langostino, shrimp and linguiça!

Oh, so you want to know how this stew was?

Absolutely fabulous! Just miraculous! Simply unbelievable!

This stew is worth going to a brewery for! Oh, that might not mean much to those who can drink all of the available beers. But for me, this stew was reason enough.

And as far as gluten-free menus go, where else have you seen so many choices of such variety. Not just the standard salad and grilled meat selections. Not here. These are choices.

Now I want to go back and try some of the other gluten-free choices. But I fear that my heritage will suck me back into utter bliss with this stew and that linguiça! Please forgive me if that happens.

Oh, and for the gluten-drinking members of your party, reports were that this brewery's beers were pretty good.

See, there's no reason for everyone not to go! That means everyone can go. Everyone should go.

Go on, go!

Bel Canto

2013-02-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Book Review

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

I have known about this book for some time now. For some long time.

But I held off getting it.

I had already heard that it was good. Probably a literary prize winner.

I had to bide my time. The time had to be right. I didn't want to use up all the good books in the world too quickly.

Okay, okay. So that's not very likely, but I think you get the idea.

Several not so great books in a row left me disappointed. And ready for something good.

I already knew that I liked this author, based on my experience reading State of Wonder.

And this copy is in large print. Perfect for the treadmill. A good book will keep me on the treadmill longer than a poor book.

Now was the time. Time for something others thought was good.

The question was, would I think this was good?

I was about to find out.

Bel Canto

This is a fictional story about many high-powered businessmen and politicians who come together for a birthday party, at which a world-renown soprano is providing the evening's entertainment. Instead of the entertainment wrapping up and the party-goers dispersing, they are held hostage by a group of armed outlaws.

What ensues over the next several hundred pages is a testament to great writing. Great writing.

This is not usually a style of writing that I adore.

This writing is not laden with lots of dialogue, but what dialogue there is perfectly balanced and well chosen.

More than anything, this book exudes an aura of feeling. You feel for the hostages. You feel what they feel. You feel what they feel for the other hostages. You feel what they feel for their captors.

Part of why this is possible is the pacing of the book. I guess I have to call the pacing slow, but not in any negative way. It is slow in the sense of moving slowly to absorb some of that aura of feeling. Like moving through thick fog. You can't see what is ahead of you and you can't stop and you are straining to absorb everything you are able to discern. Yet the pacing is just right. Just the right amount of time to absorb everything.

This is a story about what happens to people. Yes, fictional people, but people nonetheless. This is not a book about the incredible actions involved in taking hostages.

And yet, throughout the entire book, the plot evolves around bel canto. Beautiful singing. This book made me want to fall in love with opera. I don't know opera. But I don't need another insatiable love. I already have sunsets and Shakespeare and beaches and The South Ledges, Appledore.

But that doesn't mean I might not love opera too. I'm just not ready to find out right now.

Oh, and as for the treadmill... well, this book kept me on the treadmill longer than a mediocre book would have. A lot longer. But then I had a new problem.

I wanted to keep reading long after my legs were ready to give out. I had to keep reading. I ended reading this book even more, while sitting. Sitting and reading. I don't need large print for that. Ha! Not yet!

If you are ready for a nice, leisurely stroll through the minds of people held captive, this is your book. Even more so, if you are looking for something you can dive into and wrap around you while sipping a favorite coffee or tea.

Stop. Sit. Breathe.

Read.

This is your book.

Omission Gluten-Free Beer

2013-02-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

Gluten-Free, Barley Beer?

Is it possible to have a beer made of barley and it still be gluten-free?

And if it is possible, does it taste like real, glutenated beer?

I didn't know, but I would have to find out.

I tried another gluten-free beer months ago, but that one isn't made with barley. It is made with strawberries and you can tell. It is sweet.

If you make beer with no barley, wheat or rye, you don't have to take any gluten out of it. There won't be any in it.

But no barley means not real beer to many. That was state of things until Omission came along.

Omission Gluten-Free Beer - Lager and Pale Ale

Omission makes beer with barley and then takes the gluten out. Somehow. They use a proprietary process to take the gluten out and leave the rest of the beer.

And this takes like real beer! Because it is real beer.

I tried the lager first. I didn't like it at all, but apparently that is my taste, not the beer. I just don't like lagers apparently.

Then I tried the Omission Pale Ale. Much better. I liked it.

But I still didn't know how it compared to a glutenated pale ale. I don't think I've ever had one, or if I have, it was so long ago, I wouldn't remember it.

A beer connoisseur friend of mine assured me that this Omission Pale Ale tasted like the real deal. A real pale ale. And this one is gluten-free. Real, honest-to-goodness, barley-but-not-glutenated beer!

Not just made of other stuff, like strawberries. Not that there is anything wrong with strawberries, but the purists will tell you that isn't real beer. Not near beer, either, but not real beer.

The Omission beers are real beers!

Now for the bad news: Omission is currently only distributing their gluten-free beers along the West Coast. And this is where I got mine. Those of us who live on the east coast will just have to wait for demand to entice them to distribute across the entire country.

In the mean time, if you want to try real beer that is gluten-free, and you are on the west coast, pick up some Omission. You won't be sorry!

UPDATE: It was being distributed only on the west coast. Omission is now available across the country! Find your local pub or store here.

Gluten-Free Natural Red Velvet Cake

2013-02-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

Non-Traditional Color and Flour

I've never had an experience with Red Velvet Cake, only hearing about it as an adult. And what did I hear?

It is just chocolate cake with red food coloring.

That's what I heard. That's what stuck with me.

I don't know what exactly inspired me to try to make it gluten-free for Valentine's Day, but inspired I was.

I looked up The Pioneer Woman's version and found that she uses a full bottle and a half of food coloring to get that color. A bottle and a half?! Looks artificial enough, but you want me to eat that much food coloring? More importantly, you want me to feed that to my family?

I was having a hard time swallowing that.

Luckily for me, I stumbled upon a video for making a natural red velvet cake. Natural, as in natural food coloring. Natural, as in beets.

Beets. They really do have the most beautiful color.

Now, I was on a mission. A mission to find a recipe for a gluten-free red velvet cake that didn't use artificial food coloring.

So, I went looking for a recipe. Look, I did. Search, I did. Scan, I did. Read, I did.

In the end, I found recipes with natural coloring but little chocolate and wheat flour or artificial coloring with little chocolate and gluten-free flours, but nothing with natural color, lots of chocolate and gluten-free flours. I would just have to make my own recipe.

But all indications were pointing to either lots of color or lots of chocolate, but not both. Gluten-free it would be. I was sure about that.

Gluten-Free Natural Red Velvet Cake

I pulled this recipe out of thin air, based on inspiration from five or six different recipes, including a gluten one from The Pioneer Woman, a gluten-free one from Jules Gluten Free, a glutenated one from an unidentified natural baker who produced a video, and a few others I stumbled upon in my internet searching. Here's the result of all that inspiration.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup peeled and shredded beets
1 cup raspberries
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 18" x 20" cookie sheet by heavily spraying oil over entire surface, including the corners, edges, and up the sides. Don't miss a spot!

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until well incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add cocoa and vanilla. Mix well.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together brown rice flour, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk again, just for good measure.

I peeled the raw beets with a vegetable peeler and then cut them into chunks that would fit into my food processor. You don't want to do this too soon, since the beets darken as they sit exposed to the air. Peel, shred and then be ready to use them immediately.

Warning! There is nothing clean about working with beets!

But oh, look at that beautiful color!

Purée the shredded beets and raspberries together. Then add buttermilk and vinegar. Purée again. I used my food processor for this and let it run a long time (many minutes), so that I was sure not to have any chunks of beets or raspberries left.

Oh, yes! Color, in living color!

Back at the electric mixer, gradually add small parts of the flour mixture to butter-egg-cocoa mixture, alternating with small parts of the beets mixture, a bit of each at a time. Mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently.

Pour the batter into cookie sheet, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes.

Look at that color change! Before baking is on the left and after baking is on the right. Baking turned my beets brown!

Remove the cake from oven and let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Invert a large cutting board over the top of the cookie sheet, grab both together and flip them both over together. Let the cake come out of the pan.

Even if it isn't very red anymore, let the cake cool completely. Now is a great time to start making the icing.

The Pioneer Woman's Best Frosting Ever, but Gluten-Free

Following the initial inspiration of The Pioneer Woman's, I decided to try her recommendation for icing. Actually, I've since learned that this icing goes by several names, including boiled milk icing, butter roux icing, and ermine icing.

Well, frosting, as she calls it.

Except I needed to make it gluten-free, of course. This frosting as flour in it. No joke. Flour. In frosting.

Good thing I know just how to make it gluten-free. Just substitute

5 Tbsp sweet rice flour

for the regular flour and proceed according to her directions.

Now, it is time to put it all together. I had made a sheet cake not because The Pioneer Woman suggested it. I made a sheet cake because I knew my heart cookie cutters would be able to cut me some bee-you-tea-full hearts!

It's Valentine's Day and I needed to have hearts somewhere in my baking! This was just the thing. Slap a bit of this smooth and creamy frosting across that not-so-red velvet and top with a fresh raspberry!

Voilà!

The cake came out very moist and chocolatey and delicious! It was not very red. It was not sweet enough without the frosting, but just perfectly sweet with the frosting. And the frosting. Light and fluffy and nice. Very reminiscent of sweetened whipped cream.

Everyone here really liked it!

In spite of it having beets in it. Boy, did I hear about that during the baking! I told Complainer Boy that if he didn't like beets, he wouldn't be eating any dessert. He didn't like the sound of that and promptly shut his trap. (When was the last time you heard someone use the term trap like that? Okay, don't answer that. Thanks.)

He shut his mouth until a plate with this was put in front of him. Then he gobbled it down faster than anyone else!

Heh. I guess he now knows beets aren't really so bad.

Based on the experience described above, I conclude that you can either have a naturally-colored chocolate cake or a naturally red not-so-chocolate cake or an artificially-red moderately chocolate cake, but you can't have knock-your-socks-off red and knock-your-socks-off chocolate at the same time in the same cake. And certainly not natural red beet color and significant chocolate at the same time.

You are just going to have to choose.

The version above is a keeper for those of us who want the natural, chocolatey version!

Happy Naturally Red Velvet Day (aka Valentine's Day)!

(Oh, and just in case you need to make this ahead of time, both the cake and the frosting tasted better after spending the night in the refrigerator!)

The Mark of Zorro

2013-02-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

Book Review

The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley.

While at the library some time ago, I happened to pick up the 1940 remake of the original, but silent, movie The Mark of Zorro. We watched as a family and we enjoyed it for the most part. We had to do a bit of educating the kids about old movies and the way they used to be made, but that was fine.

The movie was good. So I started to think I should read the original book. That's not the order I usually do these things, but no harm done. Not yet.

I searched my local library catalog for the book. No luck.

Next, I tried interlibrary loan. Yep, I could get it, but there's no telling how long it would take to arrive at my local library. Request it, I did.

It only took a week or two. Not bad, compared to other requests I have made through the system. Finally, I could dive into the most original version of that infamous, sly "fox"!

And almost immediately I thought I understood why my local library did not have a copy of it.

The Mark of Zorro

I really need to start paying more attention to these signals. I think my library has an internal filter for bad books. This analysis is not based on a sample of one. It is, actually, based on a sample of two. Not trustworthy statistics, but I'm starting to see a trend.

If it isn't in my local library system, it isn't a good book.

Originally the story was titled The Curse of Capistrano, written in 1919, and published in serialized installments of a magazine. The book form wasn't published until after the success of the 1920 silent movie. Huh, no wonder.

The writing in the original story is terrible. Horrendous. Horrible. Horrid. Horrific. Horrifying. Right from the start.

What makes it so terrible, you ask? Well... where do I start?

Generic and extremely brief dialogue. Poor organizational structure. Telling the reader what was meant, instead of showing. Restating events from another omnipotent viewpoint (one should be enough!). Little, if any, setting description. Completely fictional and mixed up geography and historical time periods and proper names. Out-of-voice, flamboyant, pretentious, ostentatious word choices sprinkled amongst the rudimentary prose.

Is there anything else that could be wrong? Actually, yes, but it was the only good thing about the book.

Plot. The plot is what kept me going. Slowly, but going. The book has got plot.

I persisted. I kept reading.

I renewed the book once, but that still wasn't enough and I was at the limit for my interlibrary loan. It had to go back. In spite of not being done with it yet.

Luckily for me, it is old enough that I found it on Project Gutenberg. I downloaded it to my phone and finished reading it there.

I'm not a fan of reading on my phone, but yet again, I persisted. I had to know how the story ended.

Does he reveal his identity? If so, how do the other Zorro stories begin? If not, how do you wrap up the story without leaving things hanging?

Luckily for us, we have good moviemakers that turned a terribly written book into a good movie. This is probably the one time I will wholeheartedly recommend "just go see the 1940 movie" to anyone who asks.

As for the other Zorro stories that came after the original, I'm clueless. There are other books, other movies, other plots. But I don't know anything about those.

Plot is the only reason we have an enduring hero by the name of Zorro.

Eating Gluten-Free at Red Lobster

2013-01-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

Commonality Breeds Familiarity

Major chain restaurants are rarely my favorite places to go out to dinner. Often the food is unoriginal and not very interesting.

But getting to know if a chain restaurant can take care of my gluten-free needs safely is absolutely invaluable.

Chain restaurants have the advantage of being readily available in many locations and usually use common recipes and methods of food preparation across the entire chain. If I am familiar with a chain restaurant and know that it can feed me safely, then I have fewer problems and I have more options available to me when away from home.

Options are good.

Red Lobster is definitely a chain restaurant and has many, many locations. So, when my daughter requested we go there for her birthday dinner, I didn't groan too loudly. I wanted to find out if they could feed me safely.

Red Lobster

This was my daughter's choice. I think she had been talking to her friends about various kinds of seafood. I'll bet one of her friends mentioned the restaurant. I'll bet that's what inspired the request.

And this is what she ordered.

It was a combination plate and what definitely not exclusively gluten-free. See those battered and fried shrimp? Yep, not gluten-free. But that's okay, since she doesn't need to be gluten-free.

I do.

She didn't actually expect to eat all this seafood herself. She really just wanted to sample lots of different kinds of seafood. So, I offered to help (ha!) her, if she could just substitute a form of lobster that would be gluten-free.

The lobster variety included in the combination plate was not gluten-free.

How do I know this? Well, in spite of not having a gluten-free menu, the restaurant did have a binder with printouts of all the menu items and their allergens. From this, I was able to identify a style of lobster that was gluten-free.

We just asked our waitress to substitute the gluten-free variety for the variety in the combination. No problem.

The crab legs were already gluten-free.

For myself, I ordered a gluten-free salad, of course. The blue cheese dressing was gluten-free.

I did eat safely here. That is good news!

But I must also admit that it was not a fabulous dining experience. The restaurant was very noisy, the waitress slow, the salad boring.

And the seafood?

Well, my daughter was happy to have gotten her huge plate of different kinds of seafood. She enjoyed it. What I tasted of it was just okay. If I were looking for a good, not even great, seafood dinner, I would choose somewhere else.

But...

...and this is a huge "but"...

...but Red Lobster did prepare gluten-free food for me that was safe. I did not get sick. I did get to eat seafood. I did get to share a nice dinner with my family and my daughter on her birthday.

That is the true value of this safe dinner.

Red Lobster fed me gluten-free and I was able to enjoy a birthday dinner out with my family. Now, I have one more option available to me when I travel.

Or when there is a request from a family member.

January Sunshine (Gluten-Free Savory Pumpkin) Soup

2013-01-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

Sunshine in January

Sometimes sunshine comes in January. Sometimes it comes in two different forms in January.

That bowl there is full of sunshine. Both types.

We already had an inch of snow on the ground from the day before. Then another inch or so fell on top of that.

And it was cold.

Frigid. Frosty. Biting. Snowy. Bitter. Icy. Raw. Chilly. Gelid?

Gelid.

With this outside my front door, I needed soup. Again. Another hot soup. But not the same ol' gluten-free tomato bisque. And I didn't have gruyere or Jarlesberg or even plain swiss cheese to make gluten-free French onion soup.

The soup du jour had to be something I could make with the ingredients I had on hand. I was not going out in that for any ingredients!

It just so happened that I still had some pumpkin purée in the freezer, from one of our uncarved jack-o-lanterns last year. I guess I still have to blog about that....

That one pumpkin made nine of these quart-sized bags full of purée!

Don't think for one minute that I'm interested in sweet pumpkin soup, pumpkin-pie-style. No way. This is January, baby, not October. I'm only interested in a savory, tangy, squashy soup.

It just so happened that the only squash I had available was of pumpkin form. Frozen, pumpkin form.

In fact, let's just leave pumpkin out of this. I had squash purée and it was the color of sunshine. That's enough for me, this frigid, gelid January!

Gluten-Free January Sunshine (Savory Pumpkin) Soup

This warm, sunny soup only took me 35 minutes to whip up, start to finish, with ingredients I had available.

2 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 green onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tsp sweet rice flour
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups pumpkin purée (canned is fine, if not sweetened)
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk (optional, can substitute equal amount of additional chicken stock)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter or margarine, over medium high heat, with olive oil. Add celery, green onion and white or yellow onion, stirring occaisionally until onion starts to caramelize, about ten minutes. Then add garlic, continuing to stir and cook for another 4 or 5 minutes.

Don't let the garlic burn. You'll be sorry. Trust me.

In a small bowl, stir together sweet rice flour and several tablespoons of chicken stock, mixing well. Pour and stir this mixture into the hot, caramelized vegetables and oil, stirring well as it thickens. Then gradually add remaining stock, continuing to stir well as you go.

Stir in pumpkin purée. Cook and stir a few minutes. Add milk, stirring well until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately!

While cooking, but before I added the evaporated milk, I tasted it. It was already good. If you don't prefer milk/cream-based soups, substitute another cup and a half of chicken stock for the evaporated milk. It will still be outstanding!

Oh, and if you need to add a little heat to your January, try adding some roasted chili peppers to your sunshine. This soup can take it. The question is, can you?

Now for the quiz of the day:

Can you identify these tracks in the snow?

Hint: We don't have a dog or a cat, and the bunny tracks were behind me when I took this picture.

Answer:

I don't know either. Maybe the upper one is fox. Maybe the lower one is squirrel. I don't think either is deer or birds. We have plenty of all of these around our house!

Island Beneath the Sea

2013-01-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

Book Review

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende.

This is something I kept seeing again and again and again at the library. In large print.

It is by the same author that wrote Inés of My Soul and I enjoyed that. This is usually a good sign.

And large print is good. I like large print for reading on the treadmill.

I needed something to get me back on the treadmill. I'd been away far too long, due to traveling so much.

I've been staying at a hotel that doesn't have an exercise room. I'm not a happy camper when the hotel doesn't have a treadmill, let alone any exercise room at all.

If I stumble upon the right book, I will want to get on the treadmill more and more often and for longer and longer. That is the true test of a good book!

I thought this book could be that, but there was only one way to find out. I had to check it out.

Island Beneath the Sea

So I did. And I got on the treadmill with it. More than once.

But then I had travel again. And I do not like to travel with large print books. So, I left it home.

And I found that after I returned home, despite waiting for me, this book didn't entice me back onto the treadmill.

Not a good sign.

A short couple of weeks went by with little, if any, reading getting done and then it was time to travel yet again.

This time I wanted to take the book with me. I wanted to finish it. I looked it up and found that my local library had a regular print copy on the shelf. Great! I could travel with that copy instead.

Actually, not so great. The regular print copy was physically larger with its industrial binding and all, than the large print copy.

So much for that great idea. I had to travel with the large print copy after all. Which I did.

And after all of that effort and all of that travel, I still didn't finish it.

Doubly not a good sign. So, what was it about this book that wasn't getting me to finish it?

This is a historical fiction story about the late eighteen century island of Saint-Domingue, which is current day Haiti. Slaves, plantations, masters, mixed races, lovers, political upheavals, social classes, revolt, war, rebellion, blood, fire, escape, and emancipation. It is all here, spanning forty years of one slave's life.

There's lots of plot here, as you might guess. There are enough characters. There just isn't enough dialogue.

Not enough dialogue.

Hundreds and hundreds of pages of narration is what is here.

And even our protagonist slave only gets the infrequent chapter devoted to her voice.

This was a great disappointment to me, since I had enjoyed Inés so much. But thinking back, maybe Inés was full of narration too. But there, I felt in touch with the protagonist. It was her story.

Here, in Island Beneath the Sea, I never felt close enough to our protagonist's own story. We are given brief snippets surrounded by much of the immediate world around her, but that is from an outsider's view. Not her view.

Yet, the historical perspective is interesting and, as I already mentioned, there is plenty of plot to keep things moving.

If you are at all interested in this part of Haiti's history, give this a read. You'll just have to find something other than a treadmill to inspire you to keep reading.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston (IAH)

2013-01-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

Airport Food, Relaxed Style

I've been traveling again lately. On one particular trip, I ended up with a more than three hour layover in Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Usually I have between a half hour and hour or so between flights.

This was my first long layover in a long time, or relatively so, given that I'm only going across the country. And I wasn't looking forward to it.

Three hours is a lot of time to kill.

On the up side, it was plenty of time to find a restaurant for a real meal.

No rushing. No boxed meal. No eating at the gate, using my lap as a table.

A real, sit-down-and-relax meal.

But I had to find a restaurant. All of my previous eating experience in that airport consisted of packaged, grab-and-go food.

I stopped at a bar that was packed. Normally that is a good sign. I asked to see a menu.

Bar food, alright. And it appeared that all of it was fried.

I'm not willing to risk eating fried food cooked in a probably-shared frier. So I left and kept walking through the airport.

Then I started seeing numerous signs for a French-sounding place that touted seafood. I followed the signs through Terminal E to the area between gates E2-3 and E8-9.

Pappadeaux.

Probably cajun. Cajun in Houston? You bet. It would probably be good.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

So I checked the posted menu before going in.

Lots of seafood. Check.

Lots of non-fried options. Check.

Lots of salads. Check.

But could they accommodate my gluten-free needs? There was only one way to find out. I went up the elevator and added my name to waiting list.

I didn't have to wait more than about three or four minutes before they had a table for me. I asked the hostess if they had a gluten-free menu. No, but she assured me they would be able to take care of me.

My server was very knowledgable and immediately ruled out the recommended buffet and everything fried on the menu.

That, already, was two excellent signs that I would eat safely there.

I examined my viable options and started asking questions. Salad dressing. Fish. Seafood. And the server left to get answers for me.

Before I realized what had happened, I had a manager at my table, providing answers and suggestions for me, while both of us looked at the menu. That was more than I expected, but it certainly served my purpose!

She answered all of my questions, even the new ones that cropped up as we discussed additional options available for me. I finally settled on a Seafood Cobb Salad, but I substituted lobster for the shrimp. That wasn't a choice driven by gluten, just my preference.

I also ordered blue cheese dressing, which I was assured was gluten-free, on the side. This was perfect for not overpowering the delicate flavor of the crab and lobster. Nice.

This salad was fantastic! As in, "I'm a fan!"

You can't really tell from the picture, but this salad was deep and far more than I could finish, even in three hours and with a cup of coffee!

Everything was delicious and fresh and fabulous. The seafood was superb! You want one of these salads!

Pappadeaux is a chain of several restaurants in the Houston area, so you have more than just the airport location to look forward to!

Ian's Gluten-Free Panko Breadcrumbs and Fresh Salmon Cakes

2013-01-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

Breadcrumb Trail or Trial?

If you cook a reasonable amount, you will run into the need for breadcrumbs. And that isn't much of a problem for most people.

Well, I'm not most people.

Gluten-free breadcrumbs aren't available everywhere. When I do find them, I certainly don't waste them on making a trail! But I certainly will give them a trial!

Normally, I just make some fresh gluten-free breadcrumbs from some sort of gluten-free bread product I have on hand: sliced bread, hamburger bun, bagel. These are fresh breadcrumbs.

But that isn't good enough when the recipe calls for panko. Panko is a Japanese variety of dried breadcrumbs and is lighter and cripser in texture than fresh breadcrumbs.

It is hard to make your own gluten-free panko substitute from fresh gluten-free bread products. They just aren't light enough, assuming you do get them dry enough.

So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon these in one of my local health food stores!

Ian's Gluten-Free Panko Breadcrumbs and Fresh Salmon Cakes

I had to pick these up and try them!

But what to make with them?

It just so happened that we had fresh salmon on hand.

Instead of coating the salmon with panko as one usually might do, we decided to mix it into the salmon and make fresh salmon cakes. Canned salmon can also be used, and that makes a good alternative in a pinch. But if you have fresh salmon, these cakes rock!

Fresh Salmon Cakes

2 cups fresh salmon, cut into quarter inch chunks
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
optional: 1/4 tsp dried dill or 1/4 tsp chili powder

Mix all ingredients together well. We usually start with the panko and then add the eggs, letting the two sit together for a bit and get to know each other. You might think that defeats the purpose of the light and crispy panko, but not so. These cakes are lighter because of the panko.

If using canned salmon, form into cakes. When using fresh salmon, these don't really pack together into cakes very well. You need to spoon it into the moderately hot pan, making cakes as you go.

Sauté cakes in butter until brown, about 5 or 6 minutes. The salmon around the edges will start to look cooked. Then you know it is time to turn them over.

Here, the top three cakes are ready to be turned and the bottom three cakes have already been turned. You want to aim for lightly browned.

These are not supposed to be blackened. Blackened salmon will have to wait for another post.

After turning, cook for about 4 to 5 minutes more.

That's it! These are ready to serve hot, right out of the pan. Of course, if you overdid it a bit with the butter in your pan, you can rest them briefly on a paper towel before serving them.

These are a great, quick and delicious meal! You can serve these cakes with tartar sauce (my boy's choice), or lemon juice (my choice), or just as they are (my husband's and daughter's choice).

The gluten-free panko works well and tastes good. Don't confuse panko with just any breadcrumbs. Fried foods will be lighter and crispier with panko. Give it a try!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2012-12-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

Book Review

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

I've read this before. Years and years ago. It was either late in high school or very early in college.

It was not an assignment.

I had heard others discussing it. It already had a semi-cult-like following.

I wanted to know what I was missing out on.

So I read it.

And I didn't really get what the fuss was all about. So much so, that this many years later, I couldn't remember what the story was about.

All I could remember was 42 and the infamous towel and being invisible by shutting one's eyes.

That's not much to go on. That's not much of an endorsement.

And then I learned that my daughter would be reading this as a school assignment. That meant that it was a perfect time to reread it.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

With this being an assignment for her class, it was likely that she would be reading it in a predetermined schedule. And so it was.

And so it was that she finished reading it before I did. But I finished it soon enough.

Not soon enough to avoid her nagging me about it.

But finish I did. And now I know what the story is about. Unfortunately, it didn't impress me much more this time than it did the first time.

Well, wait a minute. It did impress me more...

...just not in an overwhelmingly positive way.

See, it has taken me over four weeks to force myself to finish this post. Not to finish the book. Just to post about it.

That's a pretty bad endorsement in my world.

Maybe this is just one of those rights is passage that we science nerds must traverse.

Maybe.

And my daughter? She freely admits she's a science nerd, but she didn't love it any more than I did.

Can someone explain to me what everyone seems to love about this book?

Is it the dichotomy between having advanced technology and yet getting only an answer to which we don't know the question?

What is it???

Please help!

Eating Gluten-Free at Mary's Pizza Shack

2012-11-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

Pizzeria Gluten-Free Pizza

I've been making my own gluten-free pizza for years. I even made my own (glutenated) pizza for years before needing to be gluten-free.

Gluten-free pizza is not new to me.

Some restaurants have started offering gluten-free pizzas. But only in the last couple of years.

Uno's Chicago Grill and BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse immediately come to mind.

But it has taken its sweet time getting to honest pizzerias.

Here is a home-town, honest to goodness pizzeria that serves gluten-free pizza.

And not just serves it. Makes it safely. Serves it safely.

This is real pizza, made by a real pizzeria, that just happens to be gluten-free.

Hurray! Real pizza! Real pizza, gluten-free!

Finally!

Mary's Pizza Shack

I was visiting a friend and her two girls in Petaluma, CA. When dinnertime rolled around, we started talking about options, good for the kids and at the same time safe for me.

I saw Mary's listed in my gluten-free app, but I was hesitant. A pizzeria that can serve a gluten-free pizza is not news, but one that can serve it safely is a whole other matter.

I've had a particularly bad experience at a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant that served me from their gluten-free menu. The server assured me, more than once, that she knew what I needed and they could provide it. They did provide me something that appeared to be made without intentional gluten, but it made me sick anyways. I strongly suspected that there was cross-contamination in the kitchen and they were unaware of those dangers to someone as sensitive as me.

I've been assured of gluten-freeness by restaurants, only to end up sick anyways. So, forgive me if I was a bit skeptical.

I had to call Mary's and find out.

Did they really have gluten-free pizza? Was it made separately, cooked separately, served separately? Could I be sure it would be safe?

Yes. Yes. Yes. They assured me they knew what they were doing to serve me safely.

Lucky for all of us that Mary's was also one of the girls' favorite places to eat!

Then, I was in for even more luck.

My friend said she was fine with ordering a gluten-free pizza for everyone. Really? One, gluten-free pizza for all the gluten-eaters and gluten-free-eaters alike?

That has almost never happened to me before (except with another friend when eating Chinese). I'm usually on my own ordering my own gluten-free meal.

How nice is it to be able to share common food with the people we love!

How nice it is to absolutely love this gluten-free pizza!

This was not some sad, limp, crumbly, flat, lifeless gluten-free pizza. No. This was real, honest-to-goodness, gluten-free pizza!

Real pizza, that is gluten-free. Everyone enjoyed it!

Yes, Mary's Pizza Shack can feed you safely gluten-free. Even deliciously gluten-free! They have many locations north and east of San Francisco. If you are in that area, check them out!

Plentils

2012-11-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

Lentil Chips?

I know what lentils are. I eat lentils occasionally.

But lentil chips?

This is something I have never seen before now.

Rice chips. Bean chips. But lentil chips?

Sure, I guess.

I immediately saw that these are gluten free. And that's when I knew I had to try them.

But I had no idea what to expect.

That picture certainly doesn't look anything like the lentils I am familiar with. But it was enticing enough.

Sounded like it was time to try something new.

Plentils, Margherita Pizza Flavor

I opened the bag and this is what I found.

These are a little less flat and perfectly square than the one pictured on the bag, but close enough.

They are light and airy. The picture above makes them look an awful lot like corn chips, but these are much less dense. And thinner.

But they are crispy and chippy. A light crunch, not a hard, dense, solid crunch like corn chips.

More airy. Less solid.

As for taste, well... that's complicated.

The seasoning sprinkled on the outside was good. Lightly salted, flavored like cheese and basil and tomatoes.

The chips themselves have a taste that is... well... like lentils. With a bit of an aftertaste.

I am not a fan of aftertastes.

I found that if you just keep eating them and tasting the seasonings, they are okay. Acceptable. Almost good.

But the moment you stop, that aftertaste becomes noticeable. I didn't much care for that.

And yet, my daughter absolutely loved these! She has no need to be gluten free, and yet she loved them anyways.

When I expressed my less-than-stellar opinion, she was surprised! She liked them so well, I gave the rest of them to her. Unreservedly.

And she enjoyed them.

It seems that individual tastes will determine the success of these Plentils. Try them and see what you think.

To Kill A Mockingbird

2012-10-27T06:30:00.000-04:00

Book Review

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I know I have read this book before. It's a classic.

But I don't remember if I had to read it as a school assignment or not. One would imagine so. Isn't every American teenager required to read this book at some point?

Well, I hope so. I remember that I loved this book.

Never mind that I couldn't remember what actually happened in this book.

I seem to remember something about the movie. That was a great movie too.

But what happened? I couldn't have told you.

And then I found out that my daughter would be reading this later this year as a school assignment.

Ah ha. That's my cue to get reading. And if I can't remember what happens, but I can remember that it is a great book?

Well... like I said, it's time to get reading.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This is a fictional story set in the American South in the 1930s. Some might even call this historical fiction, but since there are no direct references to the historical figures of that time and place, maybe this label is a bit of a stretch.

In case you hadn't already guessed, the setting of this novel is all about racism. Living it, loving it, hating it. Mostly just living it. I don't see a lot of justification of it or defense of the racism, just a subliminal acceptance of it, recognition of its wrongness, and the hope for change. Hope is better than nothing.

While I was rereading this, I kept hoping that this story was going to end "right." I honestly couldn't remember how it ended.

And now that I have reread it, I can't say definitively whether it ended "right" or not. That depends on your perspective. That depends on the author's perspective. That depends on the context in which it is read. When it is read. Where it is read. By whom it is read.

You'll have to decide for yourself.

A few of the author's choices of words struck me as unfamiliar or just plain unknown to me. I didn't keep notes of them all, but I assume that they are particular to that area of the South or maybe the South in general. I haven't spent much time at all in the South, so I can't say for sure.

Are you familiar with "scuppernongs"? I wrote this one down and now I've looked it up.

Grapes. Grapes native to the South. A particular species of grapes native to the American South. I've never heard of these grapes before. Ever. And I certainly don't remember them from my first reading of the book. Heh... if I can't remember how the plot ends, how could I be expected to remember reading the word "scuppernong"?

I discovered another curiosity (to me) in this second reading. At least twice, the author uses the idiom "... another think coming." This is curious to me, because I have always heard and said, "... another thing coming..." I had never encountered "another think coming" before (except that previous reading, which only marked my memory in a very limited way).

I love stumbling upon odd literary references and idioms and allusions.

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that this novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Another prize winner. But this one is one that I liked. Not like those other, more recent prize winners that I didn't like. This one was good. No. Great. This prize winner is great!

A classic. A prize winner. A great novel. Go read it if you haven't already.

Actually, go read it, even if you have already read it. It is worth it!

Gluten-Free and Vegan at Great Sage

2012-10-20T06:30:00.000-04:00

Vegan Restaurant?

Vegan? Me? Me eat vegan?

Well, I'm not opposed to it, but I am most certainly an omnivore nisi glutine (eat everything except gluten).

I don't find myself eating vegan very often. There are some meats I like very much. There are some meats I won't touch. I eat a fair bit of dairy and I like it.

I was raised on a small farm, for crying out loud.

I've always assumed that I would never become vegan.

I'm not particularly interested in trying meat substitutes. I'm perfectly fine eating real crab and real chicken. I don't want the vegan substitutes. The vegan substitutes of these hold no allure for me.

But eat vegan once in awhile?

Sure.

Especially when the vegan restaurant provides gluten-free options for many of their standard menu items, all of which are vegan and organic.

I'm all for organic.

I'm all for good food... even if sometimes it is vegan.

Great Sage

Great Sage is a vegan restaurant that is pretty unassuming. Not pretentious. Not granola, either.

It is located in a nice, small, strip mall in Clarksville, MD. It's decor is cozy, not fussy and not frumpy.

All that is just the first impression. Then you get the menu.

Choices, choices, choices.

Allergies? No problem.

Raw selections? No problem.

Gluten sensitivity? No problem.

Carnivore? They have substitutions for that.

No separate menu for each of these special categories. Everything is easily managed on one menu. Options are clearly labeled for each item.

And this menu is full of gluten-free options. There was no need to resort to having a gluten-free salad.

But I like salads and my body needs salads. I eat a lot of salads and sometimes they get a bit routine and boring. But I saw this one that looked different. It looked like it was worth a try.

I must have been hungry. And it must have been good!

This is what was left of my Santa Fe Salad, gluten-free, by the time I remembered to take a picture.

It included black beans, roasted corn, red onion, tomatoes, guacamole, and some roasted tofu. All this was lighted covered with a lime-cilantro dressing.

It was fabulous! I don't remember even seeing the tofu, let alone noticing it.

I don't usually worry about ordering a gluten-free bread substitute or starch with my salads. I don't normally need it. But I saw the gluten-free cornbread on the menu and wanted to try it.

Of course, I had to compare it to my own gluten-free cornbread.

It was good and held together nicely, without seeming gummy. It was rather short and a bit drier than I like, but it certainly stayed together when I bit into it. Mine only does that when I add xanthan gum and guar gum. Of course, this version may have also had the gums in it too. I don't know.

But look at that fabulous, golden brown top! Perfect.

Overall, this gluten-free cornbread was very good. I was very happy that they offered it on the menu. A rarity.

For my "main" course, I did a 360 and ordered the "starter" Vietnamese Spring Rolls, with the gluten-free option.

Again, I forgot to take a picture before I dove in.

These spring rolls were served with a fabulous peanut sauce. This is usually where these kinds of dishes fail to be safe for me.

Peanut sauce is usually made with soy sauce that is not gluten-free. This is such a bummer.

I love gluten-free peanut sauce and this one was great! It finished these spring rolls off perfectly.

Everything I ordered was vegan. Everything I ordered was presented beautifully. Everything I ordered was delicious.

If you are in the area, Great Sage can take care of your gluten-free needs and deliciously so!

Gluten-Free Grasshopper Pielettes and Glutino Gluten-Free Chocolate Vanilla Creme Dream Cookies

2012-10-15T06:30:00.000-04:00

Not Pies, but Pielettes

I've been meaning to make a Grasshopper pie for months. But these months have been busy, and there wasn't quite the right time for a pie.

Then fall arrived and suddenly it seemed late in the year. But, I decided, not too late.

We needed a dessert to bring to a picnic. Of course I'm going to bring something that is gluten-free. That's just what I do.

And, would you believe, there are now a few people who expect me to do this. They, too, are gluten-free.

I looked for recipes for grasshopper pie. Of course none of them were gluten-free. No problem. I know how to make the necessary adjustments.

In any case, all the grasshopper pie recipes I found in the house contained alcohol. Creme de methe and creme de cacao, to be precise.

And none of these recipes call for baking the pie.

That means the alcohol will not be cooked off.

Now, we were supposed to be bringing a dessert to a picnic with lots of children in attendance. I would never presume to serve all those children a dessert with a significant quantity of alcohol.

I needed to find an alcohol-free recipe for grasshopper pie. I had to resort to the internet.

But I didn't end up using any one particular recipe. I pieced together bits from a couple of different recipes. Therefore, I will now claim this as my own gluten-free, (almost) alcohol-free grasshopper pie recipe.

Except we didn't want to take a pie.

Serving a pie at a picnic is no picnic. It doesn't serve easily. So, I also decided that I would make mini pies or pielettes.

Gluten-Free, almost Alcohol-Free, Grasshopper Pielettes

I wanted to make twenty-four pielettes, so that there would be enough to go around at the picnic. That, and my daughter won this great cupcake carrier that holds two dozen cupcakes. Perfect.

I wasn't sure how much of the ingredients I was going to need, but just by rough guesstimates, it seemed that one pie recipe would likely make twelve pielettes. Therefore, I planned the ingredients for two pies.

Here's my recipe for one gluten-free, almost alcohol-free, grasshopper pie. Double this if you want 2 dozen pielettes like me.

1 package Glutino Gluten-Free Dream Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 7-oz. jar marshmallow creme
1 Tbsp. mint extract (not peppermint)
2 tsp. chocolate extract
3 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
green liquid food coloring

I started by laboriously separating each of the gluten-free chocolate vanilla creme cookies and scraping out the middle icing. Separate and scrape all of the cookies. Yes, the entire package.

No cheating. No sneaking. You need all those wafers for the recipe. But you can use the icing somewhere else. You won't be needing it for this recipe.

These cookies are good on their own, but I didn't want the pielettes, specifically the crusts of the pielettes, to be too sweet. So, out came the middle icing, which is very, very sweet.

Then I took all the chocolate wafers and put them through my food processor, several at a time, to grind them up into crumbs. This takes just a few pulses and a few seconds for each batch.

Reserve about a quarter cup of dry crumbs for later.

Melt the butter. Stir butter throughly into the larger portion of wafer crumbs.

Line a muffin/cupcake pan with cupcake papers. Distribute buttery crumbs evenly between twelve paper cups, about two tablespoons worth each.

Using your fingers, press the buttery crumbs flat across the bottom of each cup. Pack the crumbs down tight, working to keep the tops of the crumbs level.

Using a mixer, combine the marshmallow creme, both extracts, and green liquid food coloring and beat on low speed until combined. You get to choose the color intensity. I used four drops and it looked good, so I stopped.

But I forgot that I would be adding a whole lot of more white in the next step. Be advised: You might want to shoot for a slightly darker green, because it will lighten when the whipped cream is added.

In a separate bowl, whip two cups of the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form.

Fold whipped cream into marshmallow and extract mixture. Do this by hand and work gently. You don't want to stir wildly and have your whipped cream lose all of its air.

Here's my mixture at this point.

Can you see that it is green? Me neither. I aimed low with the food coloring and it got much paler once I added the whipped cream.

I guess that makes up for the obnoxiously green lime pie I once made....

Now, carefully spoon the whipped mixture into each cup, gently pushing it around to fill the space. I made mine nearly level with the top of the cup, because I knew I would be adding the next step. But not yet.

Now freeze these, just like this for at least five hours. That's right. Five or more hours. I froze ours overnight.

When you are ready to finish these off, whip the remaining cup of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. Using a spoon, plop a dollop of whipped cream on the top of each pielette.

My daughter, always the intrepid taster, was ready to help out.

"Can I taste the whipped cream?"

"Sure...."

"Eewww! Yuck! It's awful! Did you sweeten it?"

"Nope."

"Tastes terrible."

No, actually, it tastes like pure, unsweetened whipped cream. Just as I planned.

I guess she had never tasted unsweetened whipped cream before. Oh, and she was expecting it to be sweetened. Ha!

I didn't want these pielettes to be overly sweet, so I cut out the cookie icing and left out the sugar from the whipped cream. I assured her that it would taste fine when the whole thing was eaten together.

We had yet to see if my daughter would agree that the finished product was done right.

Next, we sprinkled the tops with the reserved chocolate wafer crumbs (unbuttered). Just a few will do. Then we topped them all off with a spearmint gel candy.

I was generally happy how these ended up looking. The pale green filling was too pale for my liking and didn't stand out at all against the white whipped cream on top. But the crumbs and the candy finished them off nicely.

I was quite pleased with these in terms of taste. Not too sweet. Not too minty.

And as for that unsweetened whipped cream?

My daughter agreed that when the whole thing was eaten together, it was good. The cream by itself was not, but together, it was right. Just right. Excellent!

But the spearmint candies were horrible, in my opinion. Just some garden-variety grocery store spearmint candies. Not everyone hated them, but more than one child of mine (that means all of them!) said they tasted like toothpaste. Yes, could be. I will definitely look for some other toppings next time.

The texture of the pielettes in general ended up being very soft, once they sat out for a bit and defrosted. The middle whipped cream mixture was just as soft as whipped cream. This made them a bit challenging to eat, since the crusts were quite firm and crunchy.

And, finally, the reason that these are almost alcohol-free is that those extracts have alcohol in them too. But by using them instead of the drinking liqueurs, the alcohol quantity is greatly reduced. No one pielette gets very much alcohol from those extracts.

All in all, these were a success. A bit more green coloring and some different candy toppers next time, and these will be real winners!

The Shoemaker's Wife

2012-10-12T06:30:00.000-04:00

Book Review

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani.

I first saw this title on a list at the library.

I had never read anything by this author. I had never heard of this author.

Just when I start to feel smug and start to think I know something, I get smacked back down to earth.

This author is not new. This author has been around for awhile. This author has published many things.

Where have I been???

Busy reading other things, I guess.

Well, since I am trying to crawl out of my cave, I decided I would brave a new-to-me author again.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

I had no idea of the author's style. I had no idea of the author's other works. I had no idea what was in store for me.

A blank slate again.

It's pretty exciting to be a blank slate, and then find that you can't put the book down!

The Shoemaker's Wife

And that is just what happened. I didn't want to stop reading.

This is a historical fiction story about two teenagers from neighboring villages in the Italian Alps, who meet under unfortunate circumstances. Then, unbeknownst to the other, they each end up immigrating to America. One to New York, the other to New Jersey.

They encounter each other again a few times in the ensuing years, each pursuing their lives mostly unaware of the other. This is their story and how they finally came to be together.

Trigiani weaves true, historical fact with personal, familial fact with detailed, fictional elements. And beautifully so. We get to know her own family history, during the time when the world was quickly and consistently remaking itself with new innovations. Trigiani never lets us lose sight of how crucial these immigrants and their hard work were to the prosperity of America.

We are escorted from the Italian Alps to New York City to France to Minnesota. Each with scene and setting presented beautifully. And at each place, we get a sense of what an immigrant's life was like. Difficult, rewarding, humbling, isolating, encouraging, satisfying. All are present. All are felt.

I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I didn't want to put it down. It is well written and flows nicely. The only criticism is the pacing. Much time is spent at some points in the story, while we are whisked through other parts. I especially felt this at the end of the book, when I wasn't ready to let go of the characters and story.

While this could be called a true-life novel or a fictional memoir, it is also a love story. Not sappy and cloying. Just nicely sweet. Quite pleasant.

Now, I know I will have to go find more of Trigiani's novels. I love finding a new, favorite author!