Shoo-Fly Muffins

My high schooler and I were watching Bobby Flay on a cooking show this morning. He was making Shoo-Fly Muffins. We decided to try to make them with a couple of substitutions. Yum.

 

Spaghetti Sauce Discovery

SPAGHETTI SAUCE in the crock pot

If you have browned meat in the freezer, this one is really quick.

1 pound of browned ground meat (beef or turkey) 

1 jar of squash baby food 

1 jar of carrots baby food 

4 small cans of tomato paste 

1 large can of corn-free tomato sauce
distilled water to thin to desired consistency 

1 tablespoon McCormick's Italian Seasoning 

a couple of tablespoons of olive oil 

a couple of dashes of balsamic vinegar 

a teaspoon of garlic from the jar in the refrigerator 

sugar to taste 

dash or two of Frank's Louisiana hot sauce OR a pinch or two of red pepper flakes 

dump everything in, stir it up, and heat. you have to watch it if it's on high, or the edges will blacken/burn.

My discovery: Pureed pumpkin works in place of the squash and carrots. Who knew?

"Brisket"

My mother and my grandmother have taught me to buy chuck roasts on sale and to cook several at once with the intent to freeze leftovers. They grill the roasts on low heat for a period of time and wrap the roasts in aluminum foil and finish the roasts in the slow cooker.

When I buy more than one to prepare and freeze for later, I skip aluminum foil and use parchment paper, instead. To freeze, wrap in more parchment paper and seal in a good quality freezer safe plastic storage bowl.

Last week, I bought one chuck roast on sale, grilled it on low heat for an hour, and am finished  it in the oven in the enamel coated cast iron pot I bought on clearance at a warehouse club. My non-grilling recipe is here. Braising my partially-grilled chuck roast at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of hours in sea-salted diluted leftover coffee will yield a tasty, fork-tender brisket-like roast. Sometimes I add a tablespoon (ish) of tomato sauce. Gluten-free, dairy-free. No cream of something soup required. Yum!

More Gluten Free + Recipe Finds

I stumbled upon a source of gluten free recipes, many of them dairy free or easily adapted, at

http://www.saveur.com/

Enter "gluten free" in the search box.

I put Coconut Milk Caramels; Gluten Free Corn Dogs; Gluten Free Whoopie Pies & Marshmallow Creme; Isaiah's GF Sandwich Bread; and a chocolate cake recipe that I've put on my short list of recipes to try.

Homemade Tootsie Rolls

This one came though in my facebook feed.

I want to try it w/ Enjoy Life chocolate chips.

Homemade Tootsie Rolls

Junk Food Makeover: Goldfish Crackers

I stumbled across a recipe this morning from Bon Appetit.

I haven't made it yet.

The recipe is GFCF.

Goldfish Crackers

My salad

I made this dressing again.

I used an orange champagne vinegar from Trader Joe's instead of the balsamic called for in the recipe. I added tangelo slices (from our marching band fundraiser), almonds, a goat cheese rolled in cranberries, some dried cherries to spinach. Delish.

Bookmark This (Allergen Free Recipes)

Horizons Developmental Remediation Center has a web page devoted to allergen free recipes. It is located here.

GFCF Christmas-y Snack idea

A stranger walked up to me at the checkout line at the warehouse club today and asks where I found the mini candy canes. (Right by the cash register, lady.)

First of all, I have to tell you, that would never, ever have happened in Michigan. And what happened next would not have happened in Michigan, either:

And then she proceeds to tell me what she wanted the candy canes for. Dip a marshmallow in melted chocolate chips, roll them in crushed candy canes (which she crushes w/ a hammer, btw) - yummy Christmas-y snack. She had no idea she was giving me a super gluten free, dairy free, soy free etc etc etc recipe...

GF Pie Crust

On GMA this morning, Emeril featured a pie with a gluten free crust.

The recipe is here.

Leftover Baked Potatoes

My children like baked potatoes. I usually bake more than we need for one meal, but my children complain that leftover, warmed-up baked potatoes are yucky and they refuse to eat them.

Today, I sliced cold, straight from the refrigerator leftover baked potatoes, drizzled them w/ oil, salt, and pepper (actually, hubby did that part), and wrapped them in parchment paper and reheated them on the bbq grill where we were grilling hamburgers and hot dogs.

Thumbs up! The 'recipe' is a KEEPER!

My photography skills need a bit of work. I quickly snapped a photo before the second potato disappeared, and it is a bit fuzzy.

Roasted Salmon; Spiced & Smashed Sweet Potatoes; Roasted Broccoli

I stay on the hunt for recipes and meals that I can prepare for our entire family so that our kitchen less resembles a coney-island type restaurant.

I'm finding that old-timey cookbooks are better (because the recipes were written before the easy access to cans of cream-of-something soup and to cheeses); meat cookbooks are better; and whole-food and market style cookbooks are better for opportunities to find recipes that I can make as-is or easily convert to make for the whole family.

I've abandoned Taste of Home and Southern Living type magazines and recipe books that rely on shortcuts like starting with a can of croissant or biscuit dough or a lot of cream-of-something-soups and shredded cheeses and mix-a-bunch-of-foods-together casseroles and have exchanged them for Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen and those type magazines and recipe books that rely on cooking from scratch and have a more whole-foods approach.

I spotted three recipes in an online newspaper that are either GFCF or are easy to convert, appear to be fairly simple to make, sound positively tasty to me, and are worth passing along to you in case you too are looking for something new to make:

Roasted Broccoli

Roasted Salmon

Spiced & Smashed Sweet Potatoes

Kid-Friendly Recipes from the White House

I watched this segment on TV this morning. The salad looks amazing! I have to try that dressing. And I want to try the fruit pies made with Udi's gluten free bread filled with pear sauce from Trader Joe's. The segment is worth passing along (the recipes are here).

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Summer Supper - Salad w/ Orange Vinaigrette

I bought a couple of sweet oranges, thinking we'd eat them for a snack or maybe I'd prep them for a salad. Arrived home from an overnight trip to Mom and Dad's and decided on a salad. Thought I'd add slivered almonds and dried cranberries and then look for a dressing recipe.

Googled dressings to go with oranges and landed on this gem.

And it tastes yummy on a salad that is sitting next to salmon patties on the plate, too.

A keeper.

Brunch: A "Grilled Cheese" Hit (maybe)

Li'l Bit asked for a grilled cheese. I attempted one without a recipe. I made a roux using arrowroot flour and coconut milk, added some shredded Daiya cheddar flavor and a dab of yellow mustard, wisked & wisked & wisked, and used a spoon to spread it on toasted-in-a-pan slices of Udi's GF bread. She ate half the sandwich.

GFCFSF Sloppy Joes

Li'l Bit has been begging for Sloppy Joe's. I didn't think she would eat them. I don't like smelly foods all mixed together - the thought almost makes me gag. (I have a few sensory issues.)

After several days of listening to her begging for Sloppy Joes, I looked for recipes. I found two rather quickly. One is a crock pot recipe (that contains cabbage-is that unusual for Sloppy Joes?) from a cookbook I reviewed, Easy Gluten Free. The other recipe came from one of Carol Fenster's cookbooks that I bought from a warehouse club several years ago, Wheat Free Recipes and Menus. (No cabbage in this one.)

We decided on the Carol Fenster recipe. It was a tad dry, and we added some water. I suspect we should have added some tomato sauce, instead (but what do I know? I don't eat Sloppy Joes.) Hubby, who grew up on Sloppy Joe's, says it's bland, that it needs something, but he's not sure what. After some thought, he said next time, we'll omit the cloves. (I am not sure I follow his reasoning, but, he's the Sloppy Joe expert, and I'll have to trust him on that one.)

Here's the Sloppy Joe recipe on gluten-free bun from Ener-G:

And a photo of the recipe page. I do love my StudyPod for holding the cookbook open.

The verdict? Li'l Bit helped us make it; she got some experience reading fractions down to 1/8 tsp, and together we smelled (and described) every spice that went into the ground beef. Cooking with dad and mom is very RDIable. She tried a li'l bit, but she wouldn't eat a whole sandwich. She said it reminded her of GF pizza. I think there's a texture thing for her, and maybe she's a li'l bit like her mom, who does not like a bunch of food mixed together on a bun like that.

GFCFSF Cheese Sauce

With the encouragement of GFCF Chef Tom Dickinson in a thread on facebook, I attempted a homemade "cheese" sauce. Chef suggested I start with a GFCFSF roux, something I'd never attempted (although I've made a roux with wheat flour and cow's milk a few times). Chef Tom's motto is, "It's not about sacrificing, it's just about replacing." Chef Tom actually suggested a roux of rice milk and arrowroot; I used coconut milk and a GF flour mixture and stuck with a familiar recipe I'd used before I had a child on a GFCFSF diet.

I began by adding Farmo brand pasta made from corn and rice to boiling water.

I began the sauce with a basic roux, that calls for 2 cups of milk (I used boxed coconut milk from So Delicious); 1/4 cup of flour (I used Cybele Pascal's basic blend, except that I use corn in place of potato); and a half stick of butter* (see note below). Melt the butter over medium heat; add the flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture bubbles up well. Do not allow the roux to brown. Add the milk all at one time; cook and whisk until the mixture is smooth.

I added some pink himalayan sea salt from a grinder and a half-teaspoon of dry mustard and whisked that in.

Then I began adding Daiya cheddar flavor shredded "cheese" until the color looked right.

Li'l Bit asks for mac-and-cheese, but won't eat it when I make it. I thought it was because other sauces I've tried are too spicy; this one is not spicy, and still she wasn't feelin' it. *sigh* I think it's a texture issue. She did try it.

She asked for chips to dip into the sauce. That's some creative problem solving! *smile*

From someone who knows how mac-and-cheese is supposed to taste, this attempt is a step in the right direction. This one is a bit bland, and next time, I will add more mustard and more salt, and possibly some Daiya mozarella flavor "cheese". I wonder what other spices I might add that would add flavor without "ick". And I might mix the pasta with the sauce in a casserole dish and crunch up some rice cereal or GF corn flakes on top and bake it for a few minutes. Some chicken or ham or turkey bacon would be good in it. Hmmm. Look at me, creating my own recipe!

The sauce would be good on steamed broccoli or cauliflower. Or maybe asparagus.

My verdict: a little bland; still, it is an excellent first try, and I am encouraged.

*Confession: I use real butter. I know that most GFCFers do not use real butter. However, when my daughter had been on the diet approximately six months, our holistic MD (who was training in the DAN! protocol at the time) told me to try real butter instead of the substitutes we were trying. He'd attended a medical conference on the topic of fats in the diet, and thought butter would be good for her diet, as opposed to substitutes. I resisted. I'd seen my girl regress for four. long. days. after eating ONE teeny cheerio, not once, but twice, in the past six months, and I wanted no part of a deliberate infraction. Dr. N. said that there isn't enough casein in butter to affect some children; that only the most sensitive individuals would react to the miniscule amount of casein that might be in butter. I thought he was crazy. A month or so later, over a holiday break with my parents here helping, I decided to give butter a try. We saw no infraction reaction/regression, and while I do not serve her food made with butter all of the time, I do use it. It is the only milk product I use in her food and I buy organic.

Roasted Berkshire Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Salsify, Apple, Brussels Sprouts, & Apple Cider Jus

I learned something new this week. Wiley will send me a recipe and photo (and permission to post it) from a review cookbook for my readers to enjoy. Here's a mouth-watering recipe from the Winter section of "Fresh From the Market". The recipe is gluten, casein (dairy), soy, nut, and egg free.

Roasted Berkshire Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Salsify, Apple, Brussels Sprouts, & Apple Cider Jus
(Recipe photo by Quentin Bacon)

Berkshire pigs are renowned for their tender, flavorful, and juicy meat.

The name is derived from Berkshire County in the United Kingdom, where this breed dates back nearly four hundred years. They have been carefully cultivated in America since the late 1800s.

SERVES 6

Caramelized Vegetables and Apples
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 pound salsify, peeled and cut into 11/2-inch pieces
1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and each cut into 6 wedges
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup pearl onions, peeled and halved
3 garlic cloves, smashed
3 fresh thyme sprigs
2 cups apple cider
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Pork
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons juniper berries
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
3 pork tenderloins, 1 pound each, cut in half crosswise
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Prepare the vegetables

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the lemon juice. Add the salsify and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Immediately transfer the salsify to a bowl of ice water. Once cool, drain and pat dry.

Bring another saucepan of salted water to a boil and cook the Brussels sprouts until tender, about 3 minutes. Immediately transfer the Brussels sprouts to a bowl of ice water. Once cool, drain and pat dry.

Prepare the pork

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Place the fennel seeds, juniper berries, black peppercorns, allspice,
and mustard seeds in a small sauté pan over medium heat and toast until fragrant, about 1 minute. Once toasted, transfer the spices to a spice grinder and coarsely grind. Season the pork with salt and the spice mixture. Heat the oil in a large cast-iron pan over high heat. Sear the tenderloins on all sides, about 1 minute on each side. Transfer the tenderloins to a plate.

Caramelize the vegetables and apples

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in the cast-iron pan over high heat. Add the apples and sugar and cook until the apples begin to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the apples to a plate. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pan and add the pearl onions, garlic, and thyme and sauté for 1 minute. Add the blanched salsify and Brussels sprouts and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Deglaze with the apple cider and vinegar, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the apples to the pan.

Finish cooking the pork

Arrange the pork on top of the vegetables and apples. Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the pork registers 160˚F, about 8 minutes. Allow the pork to rest for 3 to 4 minutes before slicing. To serve Divide the vegetables and apples among 6 plates. Slice the tenderloins and arrange them on top. Spoon the pan juices around the pork and serve.

Wine suggestion

Serve this dish with a rich and creamy Chardonnay that offers flavors of golden apples, pain grille, and mouth-watering acidity, such as Chardonnay, Patz and Hall, 2006, Russian River Valley, California.

Garlicky Green Bean Salad

My friend, Candace, e-mailed me this recipe today. She didn't know that I have fresh green beans in the refrigerator. ;)

Garlicky Green Bean Salad

6 cups fresh green beans, cut in half
1 clove garlic, chopped
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbsp wine vinegar
¼ tsp Dijon mustard
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper

Cook the green beans. When done, cool, then put into the refrigerator to chill.

While the beans are chilling, make the dressing: Mash the garlic and salt together. Stir in the vinegar and mustard. Gradually beat in the oil with a whisk. Grind on the pepper.

Add the dressing to the beans and stir well. Keep in the refrigerator until an hour before serving time. Let come to room temperature and stir well before serving.

This is best made a day or two before serving so the flavors can blend.

(Adapted from ideas in The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash, Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)

Simple Italian-Style Meat Sauce

I have food on the brain today.

I made Simple Italian-Style Meat Sauce this afternoon. I used two slices (they're small) of Udi's GF bread in place of the wheat bread, and I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water to replace the milk in the recipe. I omitted the cheese. I made a pot of GF pasta and a pot of wheat pasta so that everyone could have some. I got three thumbs up out of five. ;) The sauce is delicious!