Off Limits!

Unfortunately, I haven't been doing a ton of cooking lately, but I didn't want to totally neglect the blog.  So, today I am writing about something I encounter on a fairly regular basis: foods I SHOULD be able to eat, except for cross-contaminants.  Sound familiar?  A lot of times I feel pretty frustrated when I approve an ingredient list, only to read further and find out that the produce was manufactured in a shared facility/on shared equipment with wheat.  Why does this have to happen?  After some deep thought, I've come up with an answer: to stop me from eating junk.  Most of the foods that present this problem are things I probably shouldn't eat anyway, like potato chips.  My initial frustration ends up transforming into relief, because there is a more concrete reason I shouldn't eat the chips (besides obvious nutritional ones).  In retrospect, I almost wish this happened more often!  But, then I eventually submit to the cravings and buy the potato chips that I CAN eat.  :)  Oh well, at least I will battle myself internally for a bit longer first...  But I will always be vigilant about checking lables.

Polenta

Polenta is Italian style corn grits.  I'm not sure I've ever eaten what might be referred to as American style grits, but I'm not sure I need to, given my love of polenta.  You can buy dry polenta mix and prepare it similarly to standard grits, or you can get it in a 'roll' that resembles a salami.  (In shape only, not color)  Most prepared polenta should be gluten free, as the ingredients are corn meal and water, but I would recommend checking the label just in case.  You can serve pre-prepared polenta in many ways: sliced and fried and served with maple syrup, topped with a variety of things, and especially as a substitute for pasta in many Italian dishes.  In short, polenta is extremely versatile.  My favorite way so far to serve it is an Italian influenced dish of my own creation.  I whipped up one day, full of anticipation, and to my delight, it was even better than I had hoped.  I've only served it to a few people, but they were all amazed, and claimed it was restaurant quality.  Cook it for someone you want to wow!

Polenta with Sausage, Marinara and Basil

1 Roll of Polenta
1 Jar of your favorite marinara
4 Chicken sausages
4 Tbsp sliced fresh basil
4 Tbsp mazcarpone cheese
1 Tbsp olive oil

Slice the polenta into eight rounds., Heat a large pan on the stove over low-medium heat and add the olive oil.  Coat the pan thoroughly with the oil, then add the sliced polenta.  Cook for about six minutes on each side, or until lightly browned.  Careful, the oil might spatter a little.  After starting the polenta on the stove, slice the the sausages into 1/2 inch rounds and add to another pan.  Cook these on the stove top for about five minutes on each side, or until nicely browned.  Meanwhile, go ahead and slice up your fresh basil.  Once the sausages are browned, add the marinara to the pan and cook until heated through.  When the polenta and sausage/sauce are done, you are ready to plate.  Arrange two slices of polenta on each plate and top with equal portions of the sausage/sauce.  Then top with the sliced basil and a dollop of mazcarpone cheese.  Then serve and savor!

Serves 4

Bob's Red Mill

Today's post is a shout-out to Bob's Red Mill.  Bob's makes a wide variety of grain products, but I love them for their extensive line of gluten-free offererings.  I start almost every morning with Bob's Gluten-Free Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal, which is a blend of whole grain brown rice, corn, sorghum and buckwheat.  These grains make MTHC a great nutritious choice, especially in the fiber department, which Celiacs naturally tend to struggle with.  The instructions tell you to make this on the stove-top, but I cheat and cook mine in the microwave, which takes less than two minutes.  Watch it though, or you might have a cereal explosion on your hands.  I jazz mine up with some dried fruit, coconut flakes and chopped pecans.  YUM!  When I'm not having that (or g-free toaster waffles) I reach for Bob's certified gluten-free rolled oats, which are grown in dedicated oats-only fields and kept segregated throughout the entire field-to-store process.  Apparently, some Celiacs can't tolerate oats, even if they are gluten-free, so it wouldn't hurt to excercize some caution when giving these a try.

I can't talk about Bob's without lauding their gluten-free cornbread mix.  Even though it's CORNbread, when made traditionally it does contain wheat flour in addition to the cornmeal.  Bob's replaces this with a blend of corn flour, sorghum and potato starch.  Replace away!  This cornbread is SO delicious.  I prepared it for the first time to serve to some dinner guests as a side to the soup I had made.  After finishing our meal, the table was cleared except for the pan of cornbread.  We nibbled on that cornbread until it was completely gone!  Not only is it totally impossible to notice the lack of gluten in this bread, but I would be hard pressed to find a better, tastier cornbread.  If you are looking for something to serve that will please both gluten-free and gluten eating guests, I highly recommend this mix.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free/

Check out this website, as well as your grocer's shelves for these and other Bob's Red Mill Products.

(Birthday) Cupcakes

Saturday was my first gluten-free birthday, and with a little creativity, I wasn't missing anything!  Seeing as cupcakes are experiencing some sort of revival, I decided to make some.  If you've ever tried g-free baking, you know what a pain it can be.  Baking is much more a science than cooking, and there is a lot that can happen in the 30 minutes your experiment is in the oven, even with regular baking.  Because I don't like to be restricted to just g-free recipes, I have modified regular recipes on several occasions.  My lemon-poppyseed layer cake was quite delicious, but it was time consuming to sift together my own flour blend.  (I refused to use a pre-blended flour.)  By the time my sister and I finished the cake, we had clocked about 3 hours, and after the layers had cooled, they proceeded to sink like a bad soufflé.  Along with my mother, we determined that there must be some tinkering needed with our leavening agents.  We used Xanthan gum, but thought that perhaps more baking powder and soda were necessary.  I have yet to attempt that cake again, but I am searching for some information online that will tell me how to modify recipes to gluten-free.  Since that time consuming flop, I've been a little lazy, but with good results.  The birthday cupcakes are a prime example.  You simply make some additions to g-free boxed cake mix.  I managed to crank out three varieties of cupcakes: Mexican chocolate with chocolate buttercream, coconut with salted caramel buttercream, and orange with citrus buttercream.  Mmmmm!  The coconut were my absolute favorite, and the homemade frosting certainly didn't hurt.

For the Mexican chocolate cupcakes you start with a chocolate cake mix, then add about a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the batter, but start with less if you're sensitive to spice.  The cayenne brings a pleasant heat.  Then, you simply frost them with the chocolate buttercream, which calls for 1 stick butter, 1/4 cup confectioners sugar, 3 packets chocobake and 3 tablespoons cream.  Whip all the ingredients together with an electric mixer and you've got a delectable, and easy, frosting!

For the orange cupcakes, you begin with a yellow cake mix.  Make them according to instruction, EXCEPT, you substitute fresh-squeezed orange juice for the water, and you add the zest of one orange.  These get frosted with the frosting recipe at this link: http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/almost-homemade-buttercream-clv I just substitute orange juice for the lemon juice, add the zest of a second orange, and use less sugar.  Also, this make a VERY generous amount of frosting, and unless you're making a layer cake, you can get by on half a batch.

For the coconut cupcakes, you also use a yellow cake mix.  Prepare them according to directions, then add a teaspoon of almond extract and about 1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut.  The frosting is this recipe: http://www.chow.com/recipes/12100-salted-caramel-frosting and gets followed to the letter.  This frosting will be gracing many of my future baking endeavors!

Everyone at my party loved the cupcakes, and we didn't talk about gluten-free at all.  ;)  That can be our little secret.  These pseudo-recipes can easily be used with regular cake mixes as well.  Hope you like them!

SOUP! (#1)

It has gotten to be that time of year when I swear I could eat soup for every meal.  When there's a chill in the air, soup has a way of warming one from the inside which is unmatched by other foods.  They say chicken soup is good for the soul, but I'd go so far as to say that any soup is.  (As long as it's tasty!)  Coming up with my own soup recipes is something I quite enjoy, and with the exception of the fruit soup I made as a child, I've experienced quite a bit of success in this department.  Following is the first of many soup recipes that I will go on to share with you.  I dreamt it up while lying awake in bed one night, and it turned out to be just as tasty as I imagined!

Roasted Fall Vegetable Soup

1 carton chicken OR vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup half & half
3 ears of corn, roasted OR grilled
2 red peppers, roasted OR grilled
1/2 butternut squash, roasted OR grilled
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
splash of lemon juice
salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

When roasting/grilling your vegetables, you want them all to get a little charred.  You can put everything right on the grill grate, but keep the corn in the husk, until it's almost done, then peel it and finish grilling sans husk.

Cut the corn off the cob, and chop the squash and peppers roughly.  Put half of the corn, one third of the squash and the half & half in a blender.  Puree until mostly smooth.  (It will remain a little chunky no matter how long you blend it.) 

Add pureed liquid, milk, broth and remaining vegetables to a large pot over medim heat.  Once heated, add lemon juice and cilantro and season to taste.

Enjoy!

Fresh Figs

Thanks to my friend and fellow foodie, Geoff, I recently became acquainted with fresh figs.  WOW.  I wasn't really sure what to expect, but they are different from every other fruit I've ever tasted.  Most people's minds probably go immediately to Fig Newtons when they think fig, but the only similarity between fresh figs and the cookie is the seedy texture of the fruit.  When I looked online for ideas on how to prepare them, I ran into the same thing over and over: fresh figs stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto.  I deduced that it must be good, based on sheer figures.  But I wanted to try something a little different. 

I started with Nut Thins Pecan Thins.  I topped those with thin slices of (room temp) sharp cheddar.  Next comes a ginger-brown sugar candied pecan.  This all gets topped off with a delectable fig half.  Mmmmm!  To make the pecans, simply spread some nuts out on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Then sprinkle them with a little brown sugar and some freshly grated ginger.  Then bake them at 275 for about 10 minutes, or until the sugar has melted.  Then remove them from the oven and let them cool.  You can use them when they are still warm, or at room temperature.  Thankfully, even though they aren't local, figs are in season through November, so look for them now.  Enjoy!

Introducing... ME!

Well hello there!  And welcome to my blog.  This is a place where you can expect to read about my gluten-free culinary exploits as well my adventures in general.  I may even post a photo once and awhile.  If you aren't familiar with the gluten-free liftstyle, you should know that it can be somewhat of a challenge.  Gluten is a protein found in the grains wheat, barley and rye, as well as some other more obscure grains that we are far less likely to encounter.  Some people go gluten-free for the heck of it, while others forgo gluten due to Celiac Disease, an auto-immune disease that affects the lining of the small intestine.  If you want more information on this disease, there is a lot available online.  I am by no means an expert!  I was diagnosed with Celiac in November of 2009, and have been doing my best to live gluten-free ever since.  While this lifestyle can sometimes be stressful (ie. eating out), I've learned to embrace it, and tap into my love of food/ cooking to create healthy, delicious dishes that I and anyone else can enjoy.  I hope this might be of interest to others who are avoiding gluten, and also anyone else who likes to cook!  I will post my own recipes, as well as ones I find elsewhere and enjoy.  You will also hear my opinions on any gluten-free products I test out.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!