Grilled Boneless Chicken Thighs on a Skewer: Succulent!

Grilling is one of the joys of summer cooking.  I made this recipe up for a recent camping trip but it works just as well on the grill at home!  Not too many ingredients and simple to put together.  It does have two marinades though but really simple ones; first one is one ingredient and some salt.

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I love Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce but use what ever you like.  You need to get out the skewers; I used the flat sided metal ones but you could use bamboo ones, soak them for 30 minutes first. If they are flat sided the meat doesn’t tend to spin around on the skewer; makes turning them easier.

I don’t put veggies on the skewers for a reason; they cook at a different speed than meat and generally don’t turn out so great; you could skewer some separately if you really want them fire cooked.  I would brush them with olive oil before grilling.

This chicken dish was a hit and is a keeper!

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Angie’s Grilled Boneless Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. sea salt

1 lemon

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp. mild olive oil or canola if you prefer

½ tsp. dried oregano

Directions

Put the chicken in a Ziploc bag, add the buttermilk and salt.  Seal and shake up good.  Put in the fridge or cooler for 1-5 hours. This tenderizes the meat really nice. Drain chicken, rinse off buttermilk marinade.  Put in a clean Ziploc and add the zest of the lemon (I just peeled bits off with a potato peeler, the garlic clove (peel it and squash it a bit!), the oil, oregano and the juice of half the lemon.  Zip and marinade at least 30 minutes, up to 3 hours, in cooler. This marinade is for flavor.

Heat your grill or campfire. Not really hot; will char the chicken; medium is best.

Drain off the marinade and pat the chicken somewhat dry with a few paper towels; you don’t want a ton of marinade dripping into the fire. Thread the thighs onto flat metal skewers; I put 1 and a half on each skewer; you can leave the chicken thigh whole or cut in half or long strips; will need to cut one in half for sure! I put a quarter of a lemon on the end to help hold chicken in place and add flavor.   Grill over a medium flame.  I did about ten minutes on each side. I used a meat thermometer to check for doneness.  When it was cooked fairly close to 180 degrees; maybe 170 degrees, I used a cheap pastry brush I keep for camping to paint BBQ sauce on the side facing up; let it cook a few minutes, flip and do the other side.

I served it with a simple rice pilaf cooked on a camp stove, sliced summer tomatoes and corn on the cob cooked on the camp fire.  No fuss and very tasty: my kind of camping recipe. I made it up on the fly with what I had available and I know I will make this or some variant of it again for sure.  It was a big hit with both of us; the whole meal was excellent.  Super easy to make on your grill at home if you don’t camp.

Musikfest Update Friday 8.14.15 GF Brownie Alert!

Eating gluten free at the Musikfest is sure challenging and when you are volunteering with only 30 minutes for a meal break it can be tough.  Snacks might be easier.  Last year I had some great kettle corn and some super Creamery ice cream up by the Hotel Bethlehem.  I am guessing you can still get those treats this Fest.

hempzels

I did find some incredible brownies, up on the edge of Leiderplatz; right at the back of the Sun Inn.  Hempzel Pretzels has a small stand there.

hempzel signI used to eat their tasty soft pretzels years ago at the fest, when I could still eat wheat and gluten.  They still have many great pretzel products for sale but there are also some certified gluten free brownies.  I didn’t get a picture of them but the stand has a big basket of them.  The flavor is outstanding, creamy and very chocolaty.  Well worth the trip up to Leiderplatz.  They also sell a garlic jam, didn’t get a taste of it but it is gf and looks like it might be great on a sandwich.

garlic jam  I didn’t find anything else at Leiderplatz that was gf and safe for me other than ice tea. I like the one that is half lemonade. Thirst quenching…

Saturday I plan to trek down to Voltzplatz on my break for their crazy good baked potato with pulled pork topping.  It was incredible at last year’s fest, lots of tender meat topping a creamy baked spud. Can’t wait!

Sweet Corn on the Cob Without A Hot Kitchen

Sweet corn season is here.  In many places really good sweet corn can be had, like farms markets, road side stands and even Wegmans!  You can get it at Musikfest at a price; $4 for an ear. aw shucks corn

It is delicious but really? That’s a lot of moola for an ear that costs 40 cents at my local grocery store. Big mark up going on! So make it at home. I don’t know about you but when I only am making one or two ears it seems silly to fire up a tall pot of water.  I do steam the corn which only takes an inch or so of hot water but still…too much to do.

Last summer, on a hot day, I realized there was a quick and easy way to make an ear…or two without that big hot pan of water and steam. I just take a large frying pan, put a quarter inch of water in it, sprinkle of salt and let it heat until bubbling.  I then lay in my ear or two (I think you could squeeze in three) which I have husked and removed all the silk.  Then the pan is topped with a lid or a metal pizza pan if your frying pan is too big for your lids.  Cook it the usual time; depends on how fresh the corn is.  The fresher your corn ears, the less cooking time you need.  The steam in the pan will cook it really fast.  Maybe 6 to 8 minutes.

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And the bonus is that if it runs out of water your ear will get a bit of carmelization going which only adds to the flavor.  In fact I hope it gets browned a bit; sometimes I rotate the ear to brown it on another side.  Remove with tongs when your corn reaches the done stage you like.  Sometimes I take a quick bite to test for eating readiness!

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Carmelization…Yummy!

Serve your ear(s) with salt and butter and enjoy fresh corn without heating the kitchen up much.

Originally published June 2015: I thought some of you needed a gentle reminder to try this; gonna be hot in the next seven days here in PA!

No, I Can’t Eat Even One of Your Cookies!

This post is for those of you who wonder about us celiacs deliberately consuming gluten at will just because we miss wheaty foods.  I have no “big” answer but maybe this will help you understand how I roll. I’m gonna get kinda serious but I think that is necessary once in a while.  Next post I will get back to a yummy gf food recipe!

I belong to several on line celiac groups.  I see a lot of interesting comments and discussions on foods and eating styles.  Some people are very critical of how others live their lives and others are incredibly supportive.  Recently I read a somewhat whiny post by a lady who cheats on her gluten free status in what seems to be a regular pattern.  “It is  very hard to stick to a gluten free diet when your family and friends eat gluten right in front of” you.  Well, I had to respond to that because, I am constantly exposed to gluten based foods in my jobs and I have been able to resist the temptation…so far.  This is what I wrote to her.

Of course it is hard but I would rather live than die from cancer due to cheating or constantly suffering the pains from being glutened. The more you cheat I bet the more you rationalize it. If you set your mind to never ever cheat no matter how tempting it is it gets easier over time. It is a mind set…..I miss many many things that contain gluten. And it is very difficult at times. But I never intentionally eat gluten, I see it as a dam, I don’t want any cracks in my dam from cheating that will lead to my early demise….

That lady is correct, it is very hard to stick to eating gluten free every single day.  But she is wrong to rationalize it and to cheat, deadly wrong.

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I write today for all of you who think it is easy to live gluten free or that we who do must cheat a lot.  I frankly do not see a lot of people on line who admit to voluntarily eating gluten on occasion.  When someone does make that admission a number of others generally jump in to chastise the person, to explain how detrimental to their health it is and generally attempt to persuade them to return to the straight and narrow, no gluten ever, life style.  No one says, hey, that’s okay.  But usually someone says, “It happens, we all make mistakes.”

The thing besides my fear of cancer that keeps me on the straight and narrow is how ill I feel when I get accidentally glutened by a very small amount of something, generally cross contamination.  I feel such burning pain and nausea as well as total exhaustion for hours and residual gut pain lasting for days that I am loath to bring this suffering (or worse as a big slice of pizza gotta be worse on my gut than that speck of cross contamination that made me so ill the other week) on me; all in the need to eat a slice of pizza or bagel.  Sure I get tempted but I never seriously entertain taking that bite of pizza.  The negatives are just too great to contemplate doing that voluntarily.

crunchmaster crackers

Yes, people who have celiac cheat.  Some have less will power, some have no active symptoms and just knowing it is bad for your gut isn’t enough for them I guess and some are in situations that make it easy to make poor choices. We with this auto-immune disease have to plan ahead for any meal away from home. We can’t just trust to finding something decent to eat.  That may well lead to a snack not a real meal.  I would rather bring a picnic than trust to what I will discover as I travel. I would rather suffer the torment of watching you eat pizza than getting ill from it for the next few days.

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lemon shortbread cookie, gf of course!

I hope that my commentary has enlightened this issue for you folks who don’t have celiac. It isn’t easy to be constantly strong but it is vital to staying healthy and living a longer life. It is not a joke or a yes one day and no the next.  It is a lifesaving lifestyle that we cannot take on or off like a t-shirt.  Please take it seriously when a celiac is coming on a visit and asks you to serve only gluten free foods or brings their own meal so they can eat safely.

You or someone you know may choose to eat gluten free to lose weight.  That’s okay, but please recognize that it is not a “dieting” choice for me. I chose to do it to stay healthy and feel good, eating gluten would make me terribly ill and if done more than rarely could quite possibly lead to cancer and hasten my demise.

And for goodness sake, don’t wave your bagel in my face as a tease or beg me to taste a yummy cookie.  You are making it just a little bit more stressful as to my daily efforts to eat safely.  I will not eat that cookie/bagel but it would be far nicer not to tempt directly.

Be kind to the celiac you know, it sure would make their day if you serve something they can safely enjoy and if you are polite and understanding about their need to eat gluten free every single meal.

If you have celiac you might want to share this post with anyone who just doesn’t get it, like that person who urges you to have a slice of warm bread or a fresh roll, just this once!  You know exactly what I am talking about, don’t you?  Eat safe and live well.

Musikfest 2015 Food Notes For First Weekend

It is Musikfest time again here in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  I volunteer every year.  This year I am a cider server and an alcohol site supervisor.  I know…put the cat in charge of the mice!! Hahaha. Seriously, just kidding!

musikfest 2015

Anyway, I am there for like six hours each shift so of course I get hungry and food has to be in the equation.  My first shift I cheated; I brought a Wendy’s style chicken sandwich I made myself and a piece of fruit.  I ate it on my break, un-warmed but it was terrific. Probably the healthiest food to eat there… Today I ate festival food.  It was a bit of a gamble but I survived, unglutened! I had a plate of rice, red beans and chicken from the Hogar Crea stand. I had some last year or the year before and didn’t get ill so I took the chance and it was pretty good, 8 tickets equals $8.  Lot of money for rice, beans, and about a half a chicken thigh but it is a worthy cause and the rice/beans part was particularly good. I think I need to make some myself!

aw shucks corn

Then I went to the Aww Shucks corn stand.  I gambled a bit again, getting butter and Parmesan cheese.  The cheese was something I hadn’t tried before since my diagnosis.  It added a lot of flavor and I sure enjoyed that ear of corn, $4 for it; actually one of the cheaper things to be had and relatively good for you. Warning, do NOT get the spice topping, it is not gluten free. I did not get ill from either offering. Not really the best way to find out but I was kinda desperate due to low blood sugar.  You can do better by planning ahead as there are a few other gluten free things around the fest; you might want to check my posts from last summer. All of these vendors are here again; the tacos can be had on the north side too.

https://myworldwithoutwheat.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/tasty-taco-salad-southside-musikfest/

https://myworldwithoutwheat.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/sensenigs-meats-comes-through-with-safe-yummy-bbq-pork-for-gf-festing/

https://myworldwithoutwheat.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/musikfest-gluten-free-not-easy-but-possible/

Enjoy some cider; it is to be had at the Cider stand next to the Beer at FestPlatz, 4 varieties, all very tasty and all gluten free.

If you go to the fest and find some great gluten free food message me so I can check it out. Fest away!