Something Smells Good

This week Beef Chuck Roasts were on sale and it put my husband in the mood for Italian Pot Roast. So that's what I made for dinner tonight. Since it is the middle of the summer and still pretty hot outside I decided to make it in the crock pot. I had cooked it that way once before and the meat was much more tender. It was nearly falling apart on our plates. While dinner was cooking the apartment slowly filled with an almost heavenly aroma giving me cravings to eat something, anything. On one trip into the kitchen looking for a snack (of which there were none) I made jello to go with dinner. On another I decided to make cookies for dessert.

I had a package of Betty Crocker GF Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix on the counter waiting for me to "find the time" to make them. I guess I finally found the time.

 The recipe said that the dough would be crumbly. They were right, but I wasn't too concerned because one of my husband's favorite (not gluten-free) cookie recipes made a dough that looked a lot like this.

Once you press it together with a spoon it looks more like normal dough.

 

They cooked up beautifully and tasted great.

My major mishap of the night was while I was getting the ingredients together for the pot roast sauce. I let the pan I was heating to sear the meat in get too hot. When I put the meat in, the hot oil splattered everywhere. It landed on the hot burner I had just moved the pan off of making an impressive 6 inch burst of flames. As well as on my wrist, burning it.

Overall it was a delicious meal.

My Kitchen

If you have ever wondered why all of my pictures have either the stove or the sink in the background, this post is for you. I have a really small kitchen which I think is the second biggest reason why I don't cook much. When I am working on a project (cooking) the stove top or sink are often included as part of my work surfaces.

(There is about 3 feet of space between one set of counters and the other.)

This is the "wheat" counter where my husband can make his sandwiches and where his toaster and cooking utensils are located.

This is my "gluten-free" counter where I can make my sandwiches and where my toaster and cooking utensils are located.

This counter is where our dirty dishes like to gather. It is a DMZ or no-mans land where I take my chances with food being contaminated with gluten unless I just cleaned it.

There is little storage in this kitchen so I have had to get a little creative about where I keep my flours.

I hope that my next kitchen is a little bigger but with apartments you have to take what you can get.

Starting to feel better

This week has been similar to the Spring cleaning that a lot of people have been doing lately. Unfortunately mine is more of a "clean everything that I have let slide the last several weeks". Not only did I get all of my housework caught up, but last night I made a fancy (for us) dinner. (Sorry, there are no pictures. I was busy enough trying not to burn anything or cut myself.) We had steaks, garlic mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and a green salad.

The steaks were Top Sirloin steaks that I rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic powder and let marinate in a plastic bag in the fridge for several hours. Then we broiled them in the oven. (My husband was home by this time and helped keep an eye on them.)

The garlic mashed potatoes were the ones I have mentioned before, here.

The fruit salad had apples, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew and fresh pineapple. The apples and bananas I dipped in a lime/water mixture to keep them from going brown. (I prefer lime juice over lemon juice because the taste is more subtle.)

The green salad was a simple lettuce, carrots and celery salad with ranch dressing and sunflower seeds.

As you can see compared to some meals this meal sounds simple but there was a lot of chopping involved which previously would mean that I would be so worn out by the time the meal was ready that I wouldn't want to eat. Last night I felt a little tired, but with a good meal behind me I still had the energy to go to a movie and actually enjoy it.

My husband figures that we spent about $10 for the entire meal which is much cheaper than if we had gone out to eat and I didn't have to worry about what might be hiding in my food. We might have to try this again sometime.

Frozen Pineapple

I like to use frozen fruit to make fruit shakes as part of breakfast. Last year I came across a frozen fruit medley that contained strawberries, mango, peaches and pineapple. My husband is not a big peach or mango fan, but it gave the idea to try frozen pineapple. Strawberry-banana-pineapple shakes are delicious, but just try to find a bag of frozen pineapple at your local grocery store. So I decided to make my own.

Pineapples have been relatively cheap lately so during the last month I have bought 4 pineapples and froze them. Here is how you do it:


 Cut the top and the bottom off of the pineapple as well as the outside of the pineapple. Try the curve with the skin. You will keep more of the fruit.

Quarter the pineapple lenghtwise.

Remove the tough stringy core by cutting off the point of each of the quarters.

Cut into bite-sized pieces.

Place a single layer of pineapple pieces onto a freezer paper lined cookie sheet and put in the freezer. (I usually let mine freeze over night.)

Remove the fruit from the freezer paper and place into a freezer bag.

Now you have individually frozen fresh pineapple chunks that are delicious to snack on as well as to make shakes with.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

I just wanted to explain why I have not posted for a while. In mid April we found out that we were expecting, which explained why I had not been feeling very well and had little desire to cook. Unfortunately, a week later we miscarried. I am still not feeling like my normal self yet, but I am working on getting some of the things that I wanted to post during that time ready to post.

Please have patience with me while I work through this. I will get more things posted as soon as I can. Thanks.

Fluffy Cornbread

I came upon this recipe by mistake. I misread the recipe for Bette Hagman's Feather-Light flour mix you use in the "Cornbread recipe" from "Life Tastes Good Again". I used 1 Tbsp Potato Starch instead of Potato Flour. You would think that 1 Tbsp won't matter much one way or the other, but it does. I used this messed up flour mix to make cornbread and loved it. A while later I used it to make biscuits and they came out like hockey pucks. They didn't rise at all. I was so disappointed. Well, now I know why.

I liked the cornbread so much that I have of bag of the mix just to use for cornbread. My version of the mix is:
1 c. Rice flour
1 c. cornstarch
1 c. tapioca starch
1 Tbsp. potato starch
Mix well.

The cornbread recipe is:

Preheat oven to 425 deg F.

For the cornbread you mix  1 cup corn meal,1 cup cornbread flour mix, 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt together in a bowl.

Then mix 1 cup milk, 1/4 cup oil, and 1 egg in a separate bowl. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients slowly while mixing. Mix together on high for 1 minute until well blended.

Pour into a greased pan.

Bake 20-25 mins (8x8 pan) or 12-15 (9x13 pan).

Enjoy.

Italian Pot Roast

The first time I tried this recipe was a sunday and my husband was going to be in a meeting until about 5pm. That left me all alone for about 6 hours. So I decided to keep myself busy by making a traditional sunday dinner (something we had not had since we moved away from family). I looked through the freezer to see what meat we had and then through cookbooks to see what recipes looked good. I came across the recipe for Italian Pot Roast in Carol Fenster's cookbook "1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes". It used meat I had and did not have any weird ingredients, like orange rind. (Please don't put orange in my food. Not in cookies, on chicken... I just don't like the taste.) The recipe called for boneless chuck roast, but all I had on hand was bone-in and I wasn't about to go to the store. So I used what I had and it was delicious.

Last Sunday my husband had another long meeting so I decided to make Pot Roast again.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F with the rack in the middle postion. Rub the roast with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. In a large stock pot, that is all metal and has a lid, heat 1 Tbps oil on medium and sear the meat on all sides.

Add 1 finely chopped onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 cup water (the recipe calls for wine, but we don't like the wine aftertaste and water works just fine), 1 undrained 14oz can petite diced tomatoes, 1 Tbps basalmic vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp Italian Seasoning, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, and 1 bay leaf.

Cook over medium heat until the sauce starts to simmer. (I don't know why, but when I uploaded this photo it got flipped and I can't figure out how to unflip it.)

Cover pot and place in the oven. Cook for 2 hours.

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Transfer the roast to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. (When handling the pot remember that it is extremely hot. Use hot pads when removing the lid and moving the pot. I didn't think about it and tried to treat the pot like I usually would and I burned my fingers.)

 

 Remove bay leaf and skim any unwanted fat from the sauce. Heat the sauce on medium heat. Make a slurry of cornstarch and cold water. Add the slurry slowly to the sauce while stirring until the sauce thickens. (The recipe says to discard all but 2 cups of the sauce, but it is so good that I thicken all of it and use the leftover sauce on chicken, etc.)

Slice the roast and serve with the sauce.

We had it with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I ran out of energy at this point so I didn't make any other veggies to go with it.

When we had it again Monday night I looked in the fridge and found some leftover veggies. I heated them to add to the meal. There was only enough leftover Garlic Mashed Potatoes for maybe one serving so I made some instant potatoes. You know a meal is good when your husband says, "That sauce makes even Potato Pearls taste good." Too bad that was our last chuck roast. I guess I need to watch the grocery store ads so we can buy some more.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I was making Pot Roast for Sunday dinner and wanted a yummy side to go with it so I made Garlic Mashed Potatoes from Carol Fenster's cookbook "1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes".

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cubed. 2 gloves garlic, peeled.

Combine in a  pot and cover with water by 1 inch. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil until done.

 Drain. Mash. Add 2 Tbps olive oil, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper.

Add one cup chicken broth slowly until the mixture reaches the desired consistency (you might not need the entire cup worth). 

Serve immediately, garnish with parsley. 

I don't know what I did but this recipe still tasted like raw potatoes. With the sauce from the pot roast over them they tasted fine, but it was a little disappointing. I think that next time I make these I will use red potatoes instead of russets. Maybe even the Yukon Gold potatoes like the recipe suggests, if I remember to pick some up before hand and have the extra $$$.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Last week my husband was sick and I was not feeling well myself so I decided to make Chicken Noodle Soup. This recipe comes from a gluten-free cookbook called Life Tastes Good Again.

Peel 2 carrots. Dice carrots, 2 stalks celery, and 4-5 green onions. (I didn't have any green onions so I used 1 med onion.)

Dice 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. In a medium skillet, heat 1-2 Tbs oil. Add the chicken and saute over medium heat. Set aside.

While the chicken is cooking, combine 5 cups chicken broth, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil.

Add the vegetables. Boil until the vegetables are just beginningto soften. Stir in the chicken. Break spaghetti noodles into 3 to 4" long pieces and add them to the soup. Boil until the noodles and vegetables are soft.

Serve Hot.

The authors of the cookbook say to use a quick cooking noodle, but I don't have any so I used Tinkyada's spaghetti noodles. They take longer to cook and as they cook they release a lot of starch so I have to add extra water (about the same amount as the broth, 5 cups) or the soup is more like a condensed soup you would get out of a can.

All in all a pretty good soup.

Ah, a fast food burger.

Yesterday when my husband came home from work he said, "Get your stuff we are going for a drive." He had been craving a hamburger for weeks. There is a McDonald's about 15 minutes to the south of us, but my husband prefers Burger King. I quickly got on the internet and looked up what is GF at both restaurants. I was surprised to find out that BK had a better GF menu than McDonald's. I was shocked to find out that McDonald's Southern Style Crispy Chicken Breast Fillet has wheat in the seasonings they put on it. So the Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad that I thought was safe isn't.

We decided to go to Burger King which is not quite an hour to the west of us. I have not quite recovered from all the salads I ate when we were preparing to move 6 months ago so I ordered a Whopper with cheese without the bun. The ladies at the counter were great. They put it in what I assume is a side salad container topped with all the fixings they would have put on the burger (sans the condiments, but they were easy enough to add). The first bite was a reminder of simpler days. I don't know why I let all those people who bad-mouthed having to have their hamburgers bun-less keep me from enjoying one. It was a great drive.

Sun Flour Mills Sugar Cookie Mix

The first weekend in February my brother got married. On the way "up north" for the wedding my husband let me stop by the Health Food store that is the store closest to where we live that sells a decent variety of GF foods (it's about an hour away). I had forgotten that they were doing samples of a new GF line (Sun Flour Mills) until I walked in the door and was greeted by free food. The items I liked most were the bread and the cookies. So I picked up a bag of their bread mix. When my husband was "up north" for work he got me a bag of the sugar cookie mix. I haven't tried making the bread yet, but I did make the cookies. They were as good as I remembered.

Their texture reminds me of Keebler's Sandie's Shortbread cookies more than a sugar cookie, but they taste like a sugar cookie. My husband says that there is an aftertaste. I think it is more from the shortening than anything, but if you are expecting a GF cookie to have the same taste as one made from wheat you are mistaken. After a year of eating GF I guess I have forgotten what wheat-based foods taste like.

The Sugar Cookie mix cost $6.00 and makes 24 3inch cookies which is not bad, but is more expensive than I want to pay on a regular basis.

Why is it that homemade GF food tastes ssooo much better than the store bought??? (I would not touch a store-bought cookie with a ten foot pole. I have not found a single store-bought cookie that I like.)

To Tortilla or Not to Tortilla?

Tonight we had tacos for dinner. This is what my taco looked like:

I have yet to find tortilla shells that I actually like eating. I have tried some teff tortillas which tasted more like flavorless crepes. I bought some brown rice tortillas but they went moldy in the freezer before I even got a chance to use them (two different times this happened, I'm not wasting any more money). So in my tacos I use Lightly Salted Frito's. Regular Frito's are just too salty. I hope that the Lays company keeps making them. They only became available recently (within the last year). In fact I had to ask my local grocery store if they would stock them. I originally found them when we lived "up north". The sleepy little town where we now live doesn't have much variety and to get them I would purchase them in bulk when we would go "up north".

I have not given up, but for now the answer is: not to tortilla.

Fettucine Alfredo Recipe

While visiting my sister, we made this fabulous recipe that was adapted from "On Cooking". "On Cooking" is the textbook from the culinary arts class I took in college (I have the second edition). It is a great resource. It has information on just about anything you want to know about cooking basics in it, but since it is a textbook it is fairly expensive. Sorry there are no pictures to go with this recipe.

  
Fettuccine Alfredo

1 pint cream

1/2 cube Butter/Margarine

4 oz Parmesan Cheese (2oz Parmesan, 2oz Romano - optional)

1 Tbsp Cream Cheese

1 tsp garlic (or 1 glove garlic)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and simmer until thick, stirring often. Serve over Fettuccine Noodles. 

Optional sides are: Chicken Breasts cooked with garlic, Mushrooms sauteed in butter, Tomatoes sauteed in butter, Bell Peppers sauteed in butter, Garlic Bread, Mixed Vegetables, Salad.

Marinara Sauce

One of our favorite meals is homemade Marinara Sauce and Garlic Chicken. We were introduced to this recipe by my husband's friend. It is fairly easy to make but it takes a while to cook. Our favorite pre-Celiac way to eat it was in Pitas with an Italian 6 Cheese Blend. I have not tried to make GF Pitas yet, but I might just have to since this recipe makes a lot of sauce.

The recipe is:

Finely dice 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 2 gloves garlic. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a stock pot, add diced veggies. Sweat the vegetables (which is another way to say saute on low until the onions are clear, stirring often).

  
Add 3 (15 oz) cans of diced tomatoes, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 bay leaf, 1 Tbsp oil.

 Let simmer for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally.

 

We had the sauce with diced chicken cooked in garlic, Italian six cheese blend, and toast. It can also be served over noodles like a spaghetti sauce. Find your own favorite way to eat it.


Marinara Sauce

2-3 Tbsp oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 gloves garlic, finely diced
3 (15 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Heat 1-2 Tbsp oil in a stock pot. Add diced vegetables. Sweat the vegetables (which is another way to say saute on low until the onions are clear, stirring often). Add 3 (15 oz) cans of diced tomatoes, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 bay leaf, 1 Tbsp oil. Let simmer for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally. Serve warm. Yields about 5-6 cups of sauce.

Interesting Artilce on Copyright and Recipes

My Sister-in-law sent me a link to this article about recipes and copyrighting them. This article makes the copyright laws about recipes easy to understand. (Legalese is not my favorite thing to read.)

The actual section of Copyright law as it regards recipes can be found here.

So I will be posting some of the recipes I have been using lately.

Eating Somewhere Besides Home part 2

Friday night went fine (right up to the point when I did something stupid). The dinner was buffet style with the food on a table in the corner of the room. We ate while sitting on couches and chatting. The meal consisted of ham, sandwich fixings, potato salad, chips and dip, a veggie tray and sundaes for desert. At first I felt awkward, but soon I relaxed again. What happened was that after the prayer on the food was said no one moved. Even after I got up to get my food no one moved. I tried to tease them into coming and getting some food which didn’t work either. Finally when I had to ask where the plates were because I could not see them, people came. I forgot to bring my own sandwich fixings so I just had ham, cheese, veggies and chips. After people were going back for seconds I decided that I would like some more of the veggies (which was a stupid thing to do because the veggie tray was right next to the rolls and people had been picking them up with their fingers). After dinner we had sundaes. Several of the toppings looked homemade, so I skipped them. (If they were store bought I could read the labels and make sure they were ok.) I had vanilla ice cream and almonds. It was not until we were on the way out of town that I started to not feel well. I had made sure to pack some antacids and some pepto-bismal tablets, so I took some of the later. Between the pepto-bismal and talking to my husband I was able to distract myself enough that we made it to my sister's without incident.

Saturday, while we were out running errands we stopped by a great locally owned restaurant for lunch. The owner's wife is Celiac so he has created a gluten-free menu. He also has a dedicated area in his kitchen, with its own fryer, for making gluten-free foods. After our errands we hurried back to my sister's to start on the Fettuccine Alfredo. By the time we got there her husband had started cooking the chicken and making the salad. I got busy making the Alfred sauce, sauteing tomatoes and cooking gluten-free noodles. My sister soon came and joined the party sauteing the mushrooms. After the mushrooms were finished my husband came to cook the wheat noodles. By this time my parents had shown up and there was a full kitchen. My sister's stove is located in the bar that separates her kitchen and dining room. I mention that because my husband was on the dining room side cooking the wheat noodles. I was on the kitchen side talking to my Mom when out of the corner of my eye I see my husband reach for my gluten-free pasta spoon and start stirring his noodles. I stop mid-sentence, turn towards him and start repeating "No, no, no." When he keeps ignoring me I grab the spoon out of his hand and hand him the wheat pasta spoon. (I tried to do it as nice as I could.) His reply was, "I thought that you were still talking to your Mom." (The reason why I acted so quickly was that when you are cooking pasta the starch that is cooked out of the noodles is really hard to get cleaned off of the utensils and strainer you use and can lead to cross-contamination of other foods you use those utensils to cook later on.) Then I rinsed off the gluten-free pasta spoon really well and finish cooking my noodles. Apparently I caught it in time because I don't recall having any unusual symptoms that evening. The meal was delicious. My parents brought gluten-free brownies and ice cream for dessert.

Sunday afternoon we went and visited with my parents. They feed us a big lunch: Teriyaki Chicken, rice and veggies with left over brownies, vanilla ice cream, and sundae toppings for desert. We stopped by my In-laws at dinner-time and my husband had some dinner. They were having Chicken Noodle Soup with homemade bread. I pulled up a chair and visited with everyone while they ate. I think I had some tootsie rolls when we got back to my sisters that night.

Monday morning I got up and made cornbread for breakfast. My favorite kind I made by mistake the first time. I added potato starch to the recipe instead of potato flour (they are NOT the same thing) and the cornbread came out nice and fluffy. I had never had fluffy cornbread before and I found out I like it better than the normal stuff. For lunch we stopped by the Olive Garden and eat another big lunch. We knew that we would be driving home when we usually eat dinner.

So over all it was a good experience, but I learned that no matter how tempting those cucumbers are that I should be more careful when I go back for seconds.

Eating Somewhere Besides Home

Eating some where besides home is a challenge. At home you have your system and know what you need to do to be safe from gluten cross-contamination. (I don't really like the visual image of the phrase "contamination". It makes it sound like gluten is radio-active or something even more horrible. Unfortunately, I don't know of another phrase to use.) Eating at someone else's home or even at a restaurant you lose most of that control. You never know if they cut bread on a cutting board and then, with out rinsing it, cut up the vegetables that they try and serve you as safe. ...

The reason why I am posting this is that this weekend I am not going to be eating at home for several days. Last night was our Pack's Blue and Gold Banquet. I am involved with the Cub Scouts in our area and so was expected to go. Usually at Pack Meetings there are treats and I just don't eat them. But last night was the traditional Birthday Celebration for the Cub Scouts which includes a dinner. I was part of the planning committee for the dinner and so was my Sister-in-Law. (My Sister-in-Law has had some experience cooking for people with Celiac. Her cousin's husband is Celiac and their families got together for dinner on a regular basis when they lived close to each other.) So I had help to be sure that I could eat some part of the dinner. We, as a committee, decided to have a Pot Luck dinner. The Pack would provide the meat and the rolls. Others were asked to bring side dishes, chips and dessert. At the dinner I took a quick look over what people had brought to see what looked like it would be safe. As well as visited the kitchen to see how the food was being prepared and read over the label of the sauce that was used for the meat. After the prayer was given I tried to be near the front of the line. I got my plate and the next thing I saw caused me to pause. The ladies that were serving the meat had decided to be efficient and start putting meat in the rolls so people can grab them and move on. Now that in and of itself is not bad, but what I noticed was that they were using the tongs to spread the meat over the rolls and had several rolls already done. The part of that that made me pause was that they were dipping the tongs back into the meat afterward. This is a REALLY good way to "cross-contaminate" foods that don't naturally contain gluten. (Something they could have done to prevent "cross-contamination" would have been to dollop the meat on the rolls, making sure that the tongs don't touch the roll, and use a plastic knife or some other utensil to spread the meat.) I smiled at the ladies and said that I would just get my meat from the pan that was still in the kitchen and continued on down the line. (Since I had visited the kitchen I knew that there were two pans of meat. Otherwise I would have passed on the meat and eaten more of something else. Other times, when there has been only one pan, while I was visiting the kitchen I have asked if before the food was placed on the table that I could put some of the meat on a plate just for me and leave it in a corner of the kitchen that was out of the way.) In the end I had the meat from the kitchen (without the roll), veggies from a veggie tray (no dip, some dips contain gluten and I was not sure if it was safe), and some chips. This was ok because I had eaten a little something at home before I went to the dinner. (You never know if something simple, like how they serve the meat, is going to make it so there is little you can eat in a social setting. So I try and eat a little before hand.)

Tonight we are going to be having dinner with the new Bishopric in our ward. My husband is the new Ward Clerk so we were invited to come. Originally it was going to be a simple Ice Cream Social which I was fine with. I figured I could go a little early and look over the choices, find one that looked like one that had not been "cross-contaminated" and ask if I could have mine in a bowl. Wednesday I found out that the Bishop decided that he wanted something more substantial. The plan now is to have a spiral ham for sandwiches, a veggie tray, and chips and salsa. We are to bring the drinks. Last night after Pack Meeting I called the Bishop and talked to his wife about how she was planning on cooking the ham (to see if there was going to be a glaze, etc. that would make it so I could not eat it). Since they want to do sandwiches I am planning to take my own bread and spreads. (The spreads are something that get "cross-contaminated" easily so I like to put a little in a separate container for my own use.) I may also eat something before we go.

After dinner tonight my husband and I are planning to go and visit my younger sister and her family for the three-day weekend. She and her family are not Celiac, but we have stayed with them several times since we moved away. She understands my needs and is willing to let me do what I need to to keep my food safe. I take some of my own cooking supplies when I go visit her since she doesn't own any that are specifically gluten-free. My sister has requested that while my husband and I are there that we make them our version of Fettuccine Alfredo. (All I have to do to make it gluten-free is to use gluten-free noodles instead of the noodles they will be using.) My mother, who is also Celiac, lives in the next town over and wants us to stop by while we are there. I asked her if she would mind if we come for dinner when we come to visit. The other meals are not planned yet, but where she lives there are several grocery stores and restaurants that cater to people with Celiac. So there are lots of possibilities available for me.

I have tried to plan and make these situations as safe as I can. Let's hope that they will be enjoyable and I don't get sick.

Poppy Seed Muffins

This morning I made Poppy Seed Muffins. The recipe I used is from Carol Fenster's cookbook "1000 Gluten-Free Recipes". The actual recipe is her Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Crust. Lemons have a tendency to go bad in my house so I modified it to be more of a Almond Poppy Seed muffin.

 

 The recipe calls for eggs, milk, canola oil, lemon zest, vanilla extract, Carol's Sorghum Blend, Expandex, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Since, as I mentioned above I don't keep lemons on hand, I leave out the lemon zest. I also have not splurged for the Expandex yet (it is very expensive) so, as Carol suggests, I substitute her sorghum flour blend.

I have made this recipe 3 times now.The first time I made this recipe I added 1 tsp lemon juice which gave the muffins a nice flavor. The second time I had some sliced almonds so I added a bunch of those (too many I found out). I also accidentally left out the sugar. Those muffins tasted more like Almond Poppy Seed Biscuits. They were decent but not my favorite. This time I added only a few almonds to the mix and the texture was much better. These still weren't as good as the first batch I made. I think that next time I make these I will add the lemon juice again.

All of the times I have made these muffins the texture has been much better than when I have made Blue Chips Almond Poppy Seed muffins. Blue Chips muffins come out too spongy for me. When I say spongy I don't mean nice, light and airy like a Sponge Cake. I mean plastic-y, like you are eating your kitchen sponge, spongy (not a pleasant experience).

why I started this blog

I have always enjoyed cooking. Recently I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (which means that I can't eat wheat, rye, or barley any more without getting really sick). I what I enjoy in foods is their taste and texture. With this new diet foods just don't taste the same anymore. So I am starting this blog to share with you my journey to enjoying food again.