Pie Party!!

Posted on July 6, 2011 by

Today was a busy kitchen day. I decided last minute to participate in a pie party being thrown on twitter and Facebook by baking a pie or two.  Now I’m not usually big into baking but there has been a craving rolling around in my head ever since it was posted by Brian over at Fire and Salt. You see, he made crack pie a while back… around the holidays maybe and I’ve been wanting to make it ever since.

Crack Pie borrowed from Brian @ Fire and Salt

I’ll have to admit I haven’t bitten into it yet as I just ate dinner and don’t have room at the moment. I do plan however for this yummy looking pie to become my victim, unwilling or no later this evening. I’ll come back and update my findings after I sample.

I also decided to make a peach pie today. Fruit pies are fairly simple: five to six cups of fruit, some sugar (I used brown for this) a bit of cornstarch to help fight runniness and a dash of nutmeg. I have to say that the hardest part of a good fruit pie for me was the crust, I’ve since solved that issue and have a go to. I use a vinegar pastry (You can find it in Bette Hagman’s The Gluten Free Gourmet, pg. 146.) and it is so yummy, it works for both sweet and savory pies. To get a little more browning I dabbed the crust with a bit of milk.

Peach Pie with a gluten free vinegar pastry crust.

Posted in Adopt a Blogger, dessert, Gluten Free, pie | Leave a comment

Quick Tip – Grilling

Posted on June 26, 2011 by

When your dinner is cooking on the grill as it oftentimes is in the summer, stick an extra chicken breast or two on for salads later. If you have kids grill an extra couple of hotdogs, if they are like mine a bbq’d dog is preferred to one boiled or microwaved and they cook up in a snap.

What are some of your favorite time saving grill tips? I’d love to hear them.

Posted in Gluten Free, grilling, Just talking. | 1 Comment

Wild Veggie – Product Review

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

I admit I’ve been lax in posting lately. I’m eating wonderful tasty gluten free foods and I haven’t been sharing them with you. I apologize. Sometimes life just grabs you by the hand and as much as sitting down to blog is always on my mind I somehow haven’t gotten around to actually doing it. This is a post I should have had up a long time ago, its a product I really enjoyed and found very versatile so I’m going to share it with you now.

Wild Veggie, the Souper Drink asked if I would like to sample their product and of course I said yes. I love trying new things and this particular item hit home with me. You see, my husband and son do not eat their vegetables… ok, its a real struggle. I’ve purchased The Sneaky Chef books and while a couple of the recipes worked ok for us the boys were somehow able to tell something was a little off and didn’t quite like them. So this product, a vegetable puree that I could do almost anything with sounded right up my alley. I received a sample of their carrot, red bell pepper and broccoli products.

The first one I tried was the carrot, I opened the container and was hit with a wonderful smell; fresh, sweet and crisp. Unlike my home attempts to make a carrot puree this was smooth and frankly wonderful to work with. I made a couple of smoothies with it, added it to some tomato sauce, and I even ate a few spoonfuls straight out of the container feeling great the entire time knowing that I was getting nutritious healthy veggies into my family without the fuss I usually get.

I loved the Wild Veggie red pepper, it truly tasted like a bite out of a fresh bell pepper. It has a vibrant red color and the smell was fantastic. I added it to hummus and surprise surprise boys, I snuck it into my gluten free enchilada bake! It added a lot of color, subtle flavor and my husband who doesn’t like the pepper family at all said it was delicious this way. This one I would definitely pick up again.

Unfortunately the broccoli flavor is still in my freezer (which is how the product comes when you order it, frozen). I like broccoli in my stir-fry’s and raw dipped in various sauces but I’m not a big fan of broccoli flavored things. I do have plans to mix it into a veggie dip and maybe a soup somewhere down the line I simply haven’t had opportunity to.

If you have opportunity I would say to try this product out. It has so many uses and truly is very fresh and easy way to add a kick of flavor and nutrition to your meals.

Posted in Gluten Free, product review, vegetable | Leave a comment

Fun things to share, coming soon.

Posted on June 6, 2011 by

I just returned from my very first cruise ever! So much fun. It was a Disney cruise to Alaska and I just can’t say how much fun we had. This is of course a pre-courser post as I’ll share more in the next day or two about my gluten free experience on the Disney Wonder.

Posted in Gluten Free, Travel | Leave a comment

If your weren’t you shoulda been….

Posted on March 21, 2011 by

So, I pretty much made the best roast ever tonight. A gorgeous medium rare rump roast done in a clay pot. Perfectly seasoned, wonderfully tender meat and vegetables and the juices made for the best gravy I’ve EVER managed to put on a plate (even before going gluten free.) So I suppose what I’m saying is, if you weren’t at my house for dinner tonight, you should have been.

Posted in beef, Gluten Free, main dish, mushroom, onion | 1 Comment

Winco is coming along!

Posted on February 12, 2011 by

I’m very happy to say that Winco (an employee owned company serving the Northwest) is coming right along when it comes to carrying gluten free goods. They’ve got the Betty Crocker mixes, Bob’s Red Mill is also on the shelf, Chex cereals in droves, and now they’ve added Udi’s to the list. I was so happy to learn that I can go to the bakery freezer (where the pies are kept) and get many Udi’s products; muffins, breads and pizza crust. Thank you Winco for making my grocery shopping that much easier.

Posted in Gluten Free, Gluten Free News | 2 Comments

Dessert…? Oh, yeah.

Posted on February 1, 2011 by

The last few years I’ve slowly had my craving for all things salty turn into something more of a sweet tooth. I don’t mind of course, I enjoy cookies and chocolate, ice cream and fruit. There are many many options for a quick goodie when I need something to tickle my taste buds. Over this winter I’ve found some very worthy of praise recipes shared in the gluten free community so I thought I would in turn share them with you.

I’ll start with What’s Gaby Cooking, this is one special lady and I love the feel of her blog, its full of spunk and life. She doesn’t blog gluten free exclusively however she does post a winning gluten free recipe on occasion. I’ve made two of her cookie recipes so far and will make them again and again.

The first reminds me of a cookie that I used to get whenever I could get my hands on it. A molasses cookie, that’s right. The big one from Starbucks, I loved that cookie. Gaby’s recipe filled the bill for me, however I did find that melting the butter as she calls for landed me a very spread out cookie, no mater how long I chilled the dough. So, I don’t melt it, I just let it get a little less than room temp and had no problems. I will say that this cookie tasted great flat or fluffy.

I also made her salted caramel bars, wow. Those were good… messy but good (I may not have heated the caramel enough, I was at a very soft ball stage). Very rich so I would suggest if you make them, share them as you will be hard pressed to finish them off yourself. The shortbread cuts the richness of the caramel just enough to make these really shine. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of these as they went quick, however her’s do them much more justice anyway just take a look here. I served them at our New Year’s Eve party. Now while the recipe Gaby has posted is not stated to be gluten free all you need to do is replace her shortbread recipe with your own gluten free one and you are on your way.

Another blogger I follow regularly, Shauna aka Gluten-Free Girl has many many wonderful things posted all the time, two cookbooks (that I still haven’t managed to snag yet) and a way with words that will have you enjoying the little things in life just as much as she does. I had a huge bag of lemons I bought for a New Year’s Eve party we threw and afterwards many lemons left over. What should I do with them, lemon bars! I hadn’t had a lemon bar since way before I stopped eating gluten, I love lemon bars, why the heck hadn’t I made any since. Shauna not only has a great recipe on her blog, it incorporates ginger and wow, what can I say. Watch out ladies and gentleman, if you make these delectable treats you won’t be able to stop at just one.

Posted in Adopt a Blogger, cookies, dessert, Gluten Free | Leave a comment

Gluten Free Bisquick Baking Mix giveaway winner.

Posted on November 21, 2010 by
Congratulations Cheryl!!

Using a random number generator you were selected as the winner. Thanks to Bisquick and MyBlogSpark for providing this wonderful opportunity.

Posted in giveaway, Gluten Free, winner | 1 Comment

Apple Crisp

Posted on November 19, 2010 by
I’ve made many many crisps over the years. They aren’t difficult, the recipes are all fairly similar to each other. This makes crisps a really quick and easy dessert to put together. 5 cups of fruit, some sugar and spice and a buttery, brown sugary topping. Yum.

Well, since going gluten free I’ve been trying to incorporate oats in my topping, something I always used to do with Quaker quick oats and can no longer do with my gluten free oats. Every time I tried to use my steel cut oats straight out of the package the topping would come out… gummy almost slimy, kind of like, well… oatmeal. So I decided to try something out this time around, I toasted my oats in the oven before adding them to my crumble topping mix. I put the recipe together, hopeful that I would get the results I was looking for. Not only did it work perfectly this time around but my family managed to put away this 9×9 pan of apple crisp in record time (and my husband asked me to make another the next day.)

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

Ingredients:
5 cups apples (use what you like, I leave the peels on.)
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg

Topping:
1/3 cup gluten free flour (your choice all purpose)
1/3 cup toasted gluten free oats
2/3 cup brown sugar (packed if you like it sweet)
4 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of ground ginger

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together apples, lemon juice, granulated sugar and spices and pour into a 9×9 baking dish.

Mix up the crumble topping and spread evenly over the top of your apples.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes (apples should be bubbling away and some of that goodness should be leaking through your topping)

Remove from oven, let cool a bit. Serve it up with a bowl, a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and a shovel. Enjoy.

Posted in apple, cinnamon, dessert, Gluten Free | 1 Comment

Bisquick Gluten Free Baking Mix – A review and giveaway.

Posted on November 16, 2010 by

Bisquick, a staple in my pre-gluten free pantry, I haven’t missed it for the last 8 years or so. When I feel like having something sweet and fluffy for breakfast I’ll whip it up from scratch with my well stocked gluten free pantry, something I’ve gotten fond of over the years. One thing going gluten free has done for me is help me appreciate taking things slow in the kitchen. Feeding myself shouldn’t be about convenience. It should be about love, quality and appreciation for the chance to cook for and eat with my family and friends.

This of course doesn’t mean I’m not up for trying a new product when it comes out. So when Bisquick offered their gluten free baking mix through MyBlogSpark I thought, what the heck, once in a while it is nice to have a quick and easy to turn to, or to recommend to family or friends less industrious in the kitchen than I. Here are my thoughts after trying the product.

I decided to try the mix out in the most classic form first, pancakes. Mostly because I wanted to try out the pancake pen, I’ve never used one. Bisquick Gluten free baking mix proved easy to use in this application which is exactly what you would expect from a Bisquick product. The batter acted like normal pancake batter and had a nice consistency. The pancakes themselves came out nice and fluffy and one recipe provided more than enough for my family of three. I was a little disappointed in flavor, however that is probably due to the fact that these pancakes taste like what they are mostly made of… rice flour, sugar, and leavening. I have recipes I’m more fond of than this so will continue to use those but I would recommend this to a newly gluten free or short on time person for the ease of use.

I also tried the oven baked chicken recipe provided on the box. It was a fairly quick and easy recipe to follow and put together, the majority of time from prep to table being in the oven. The chicken came out crispy, which is the main thing I was looking for. It could have used a little more flavor in the crust, but that I can adjust easily as it is just a recipe and I like to take liberty with seasonings. I didn’t care for the tongue feel, again coming back to the rice flour which I try not to use in excess in my kitchen for that reason. Would I make it again, probably, if I had the mix on hand.

Overall Bisquick’s Gluten Free Baking Mix was easy to use and very convenient. I’d recommend at least trying it out if you get the chance. If there is one thing I’ve learned, its to try a thing before you form an opinion of it, this is one of those things you should try for yourself. If you need a quick and easy alternative on occasion or aren’t much of a baker this product is probably right up your alley.

In that vein I have the opportunity to offer one of my readers this fun little pack of goodies, thanks to Bisquick and MyBlogSpark. If you’d like a chance to win simply leave a comment below and include your e-mail address (if I can’t contact you, I can’t get the prize to you). This giveaway will run through Friday, November 19th at midnight PST and I’ll announce the winner Saturday. I also have this handy little link that will provide you with a printable $1.00 coupon for Bisquick Gluten Free Baking Mix.

Posted in breakfast, dinner, giveaway, Gluten Free, product review | 6 Comments