Chocolate Muffins

In July one of Baldwin's Sister-in-laws and her daughter came to stay with us for a couple days. During their visit I made some of these muffins for breakfast and both of them asked for the recipe, which I thought I had posted here. When we went "up north" for a visit our niece reminded me that they still needed the recipe. So here it is. I adapted this recipe from Carol Fenster's recipe for Chocolate Latte Muffins in her book, 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes. I just left out the 2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules and the topping.

 Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Grease a 12 cup, gray, non-stick muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl beat two large, room-temperature eggs  on low until light yellow and frothy. Add 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup canola oil, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Beat on low until well blended.

In a another mixing bowl whisk together 1 1/2 cup Carol's sorghum blend, 3/4 cup regular cocoa powder, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum, 1/2tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt.

 Slowly, with mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips (in this batch I also added mint chips).

  Pour the batter evenly into the muffin tin.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are firm and the sides start to pull away from the sides of the tin. Cool muffins in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove and cool for another 5 minutes.

Eat and enjoy.

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.