food allergies

Tasty GF Camping Can be Done!

Camping can be fun and relaxing.  We go most every summer.   This is tent camping at a state park, a place with a real bathroom with running water!  You park your car and empty it and set up the tent ten feet from your car.  Picnic table and fire pit provided. But we cook all our food, no running out for breakfast at some local joint like many campers do….so GF cooking would be part of the deal. We went camping last weekend at a lovely state park; Ricketts Glen; incredible waterfalls to hike around!  Some things were just as they normally are, like grilling proteins such as shish kabobs, baking potatoes in the camp fire, bacon for breakfast and lots of fresh fruit.   Image

But there were some GF recipe issues so I had to adjust some of what we ate. It wasn’t that problematic after all; more of an issue that one person did not eat meat so we had to segregate the bacon from the fakon – weird looking fake bacon that I did not try.  Maybe it tastes good but I will pass! Before we went I did some thinking and some research on how to make my favorites GF.

The usual buttermilk waffles I make in my antique cast iron waffle iron had to become GF.  I found a recipe that seemed do-able; I made them up as pancakes at home earlier that week.  But they were kinda stiff and dry.  I had to re-think them.  I had followed the recipe closely and it used water and buttermilk powder. I realized that real buttermilk would taste far better and buttermilk is a smart milk for camp baking. It is sturdier than regular milk and can exist in a cooler for 2-3 days and yet stay edible. And because waffles are naturally supposed to be crunchy, well the recipe worked very nicely. There is some cinnamon in them which helps with the flavor.  And all four of us loved them especially someone who is a cinnamon freak!  I brought some homemade grape syrup which was awesome poured on top.  Breakfast waffles – GF, Check!

And then there was protein; easy to do GF so I will not even get into a lot of detail there.  Suffice to say marinated salmon steaks, potatoes cooked in coals, corn on cob in husk on grill top.  MMMmm.  We also did shish kabob which is also GF by nature.  Just know that if you should need to flour any meat or fish, white rice flour works fine.  GF Protein – Check!

Sides: we had those baked potatoes and then the second night I made a wild and brown rice pilaf on the camp stove.  Easy and tasty; I added a bullion cube, diced red onion and some dried parsley to it.  I have also made quinoa on a camp stove, not hard to do either and it cooks faster than brown rice. GF Sides – check!

And the most problematic item was the cobbler.  We always have blueberry cobbler when camping as we both love blueberries and cobbler.  But I had tried some GF cobbler/crisp recipes with no real success.  The one I made this weekend was a muffin mix that said it could sub for a cobbler in a pinch and it was fantastic; light and fluffy and yummy.  I pre-made the mix for the cornstarch and sugar to cook the blueberries in and I premade the cobbler mix (sealed in baggies with recipe written on the side with a black sharpie pen).  We beat the eggs up as much as muscles could do and added that as well as a bit of melted butter and some buttermilk to the dry mix.  Stir well and pour over the hot fruit; it had to cook extra long on the fire as someone wanted extra cobbler topping and it nearly filled the pan to the lid.  We heaped hot coals on the lid and it finally completed the top layer. Next time I am not listening to him on that issue!  GF Dessert – Check check!

I should mention that on Friday night my best friend made a dump cake full of jam and chocolate, baked over the camp fire and served with whipped cream and Kailua.  She used a GF cake mix.  It came out sort of molten like a hot pudding. It was very tasty if kinda sweet.  And it was so supportive of her to bake GF for me!

So to reiterate: I found great easy recipes for GF waffles and cobbler.  Both as good as any you will find made with wheat.  We ate great protein and tasty sides.  I did make sandwiches for lunch using some okay GF bread.  I still haven’t found the perfect GF sandwich bread but someone gave me a new recipe I must try – she said it makes great sandwiches…. I live and hope for a success story on that item and soon as I really miss sandwiches and rolls.   My friends did not mind eating my GF cobbler and waffles and it was not any more difficult to take with us or cook on open fire.  So feel free to camp GF: if you want my waffle and cobbler recipes ask and I will post them soon.  Peace and happy camping!!

Originally posted June 21, 2013.  I went camping again last fall and the waffles were fantastic. I have made that cobbler again and it works wonderfully with many kinds of fruit. And, I have a new favorite pancake recipe; I will post it soon.

Chopped; Wheat Free Style!

IMG_0584Ever watch Chopped on Food Network? I love that show.  Each contestant gets 3-4 weird to normal ingredients that must be in their final dish.  The dish must be tasty, look good and they have to transform the ingredients.  I am fascinated by what they are able to create in a limited time.  Check it out sometime.

So, I often play my home version of Chopped.  But I don’t limit myself to 20 or 30 minutes nor do I ask myself to radically transform the ingredients.  My rules are that I must make something yummy for supper using ingredients I already have in my kitchen and at least 2-3 that I must include in that particular meal.  Generally I have limited time to throw it together due to my hectic work schedule.  So, sort of like a Chopped episode.  At least I don’t have 3 other chefs there trying to out cook me!

Tonight I had a package of chicken thighs, a head of cauliflower, and half a lemon to build a dinner around.  I added potatoes, onions and garlic as well as some herbs to create a lovely one dish meal that was done in less than an hour.  I started it roasting and was able to complete some chores before sitting down to a wonderful supper.  I did supplement it with a salad of kale, celery and some cooked broccoli, topped off with my own olive oil vinaigrette.  I suppose you could use another cut of chicken, just adjust your cooking time accordingly but thighs cook long and that gave my vegetables enough time to be soft and lightly browned for perfect flavor and texture.  Here is my roughed out recipe

Feeds 4

Ingredients:

One package of 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed

2 Tbsp sweet brown rice flour (can use plain brown rice or sweet white rice flour)

¼ tsp paprika

¼ plus ½  tsp dried thyme

½ to 1 tsp sea salt, good sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper

1 to 2 Tbsp mild olive oil

½ a head of cauliflower, cut up into 2 inch florets

½ a lemon; make zest strips from the skin and you will use the juice too

1 medium yellow onion

2 garlic cloves

3 large russet potatoes

1-2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup chicken broth.

So I took the flour and put it in a large baggie, added the herbs, salt, black pepper.  Shook them up and shook each chicken thigh in the baggie briefly to coat it.  Heat 1 to 2 Tbps. olive oil in a large frying pan, when hot, add the chicken thighs.  They should not touch each other.  Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side or until browned.  I turn them with my old school metal tongs, the kind with the rounded ends, they look like weird scissors.  Perfect for turning chicken pieces.

While it browns get the veggies ready.  Spray a 9×13 glass or ceramic low sided casserole dish with canola or olive oil cooking spray.  Peel and cut the garlic cloves in half, throw in.  Wash and cut the potatoes into 1 inch wide wedges, cut them across into short wedges.  Throw in.  Cut up the onion into 1 inch long chunks, toss in.  Toss in the cauliflower florets. Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the veggies. Drizzle the juice of the lemon over it and cut up the lemon half and sprinkle small pieces on the dish. Sprinkle them with some more thyme; maybe another ¼ tsp.  Sprinkle with more salt if you like and some fresh ground black pepper.  Nestle the chicken thighs in there, pour the chicken broth over it.  I had some homemade leftover from another meal and it was perfect for this, I even left the chicken fat in it for extra flavor.  Cover the casserole with a sheet of aluminum foil.  Bake in 375 oven for 45 minutes to an hour; until veggies are done when poked with fork and chicken pieces are also done; clear liquid only when pierced.

Dig in and enjoy the subtle flavor of the lemon and herbs with the chicken and cauliflower along with the mellow flavor of the potatoes, onion and garlic.  Simple and gluten free  and a perfect meal on a chilly spring evening.    Use your favorite gf flour for the chicken dipping.  Most any kind will work.  I am betting you could change out the veggies to suit what you have around the house.  Healthy, tasty and cheap especially if you get the cauliflower on sale.  I think I am almost ready for my Chopped episode!

Eeek my GF Sibling is Visiting and I Have no Clue!

It may seem daunting to make dinner for a friend who is gluten free. What can you make? How can you do that in your kitchen? I want to give you some basic advice for such a situation so you won’t feel too stressed out about it. I wrote this for my sisters and a friend who wanted to cook a meal for me last summer. Image

First, I suggest you make sure your pots/pans/cutting boards/knives/baking dishes are very clean; if you have a dishwasher run them through. Any small bit of wheat flour can be a problem so scrub up good! Especially colanders that had wheat pasta in; it sticks in the tiny holes. If you are planning on cooking GF often you should have a colander dedicated for GF usage.

Planning is everything when you are entertaining. Good menu choices for sides: anything with potatoes or rice or corn as the star is generally okay. You should check that your GF friend doesn’t have any other allergies -like to corn or dairy. Unfortunately, that is fairly common for GF individuals. So ask before you plan a menu. Also acceptable for sides are quinoa, a wide variety of beans or polenta which is made with corn. There are lots of GF pastas out there; you can make enough for everyone or just enough GF for the person who must have it. In the summer you can serve a variety of tasty salads or picnic side dishes: rice salad, potato salad, baked beans, pickled eggs and deviled eggs. If you grill do clean the grill well in advance just in case something wheaty was on it (some bbq sauces have wheat in them as a thickener). If you buy a rice mix at the supermarket check it for a GF label; a lot of seasoning packets have wheat in them. Zatarians marks which of their mixes are GF.

If your recipe for scalloped potatoes has flour in it; replace it with white rice flour, it works fairly interchangeably for thickening sauces, flouring fish fillets or meat, or for making gravy. You can buy GF bread crumbs although I personally prefer to grind up left over GF bread and freeze the crumbs. You can buy rice flour in most supermarkets and health food stores these days. Chinese grocery stores sell it too. Supermarkets have a GF area where you can find crackers, hamburger buns and a decent variety of foods to help create your meal.

Some on line resources you can check out while planning a GF meal include: http://glutenfreeresourcedirectory.com/uid/4df6c6a2-2750-4966-a17d-540b30b115c5 Also, http://celiaccentral.wordpress.com/ or: http://www.celiac.com/. There are lots of sites with GF recipes; even food.com and foodnetwork.com have gluten free recipes you can chose from.

For desserts you can always serve fresh fruit, puddings, ice cream (no cookies with cream or cookie dough ice cream!), sorbet or ices. If you want to bake a dessert there are lots of great GF recipes out there; cookies and cakes translate well to GF, sometimes tasting even better than their wheat counterparts. I put up a pie recipe a few weeks ago; the crust and crumb portions from that recipe will make a great fruit pie; just use tapioca, cornstarch or white rice flour for thickening the fruit filling of your choice. The grocery stores GF section carries cake mixes and cookie mixes so you can make a quick and tasty dessert. There are lots of recipes for flourless chocolate cake which is a chocoholics dream! And you can get GF graham crackers to make a cheese cake crust that is safe for us celiacs. Use the above mentioned flour alternatives if any wheat flour is in your cheesecake recipe as a thickener. I just got some ice cream cones that are GF. Great snack choice if your company includes little kids. There are many tasty GF dessert choices for a minimum of effort.

Honestly, you can easily make a lovely tasting meal that will be safe for your celiac friend(s). It just takes some planning and extra care in the kitchen. Step one is planning a tasty GF meal, two is purchasing GF ingredients, three is making sure the utensils and surfaces are really cleaned up well so no wheat clings anywhere, four is cooking your meal components safely in a wheat free environment and step five is relaxing with friends enjoying the delicious GF meal you lovingly prepared for your company. So, don’t hesitate when you find out someone you love is now GF. You can make a great meal without totally stressing out about how to make your food all GF. It’s as easy as one, two, three, four, five!

Originally posted in July 2013.

Chocolate Almond Cloud Pie…Oh My!

chocolate puddingSo I had this chocolate cookie crumb pie crust I bought a couple of months ago. I wanted to use it before it got stale. What to make…. Well, I have a fantastic cookbook, all pies, nothing else. By Farm Journal, published in 1981 but it has the vibe of the 1950’s. Lots of interesting combo fruit pies and chiffon pies like you never heard of. I found this recipe for a chocolate rum pie. The premade cookie crust could sub in for a traditional pie crust which the recipe called for. I had all the ingredients except the cream. And the rum flavoring…and the pudding mix and some whole milk….but I thought it sounded tasty and worth a trip to the grocery store for all the other items.

It was! Not hard to make either. I threw it together in three easy steps. It was one of those recipes where the sum of the ingredients is far tastier than the components would lead one to believe. Everyone devoured their slice. People took slices home. My mom was eager to keep a second slice….for tomorrow. This enthusiastic audience caused me to mention it on facebook. I got all these likes and a few hungry comments. The buzz of happy responses led me to decide to share my version of chocolate rum pie. I have renamed it Chocolate Almond Cloud Pie.

The name comes from the fact that it is as light as a fluffy cloud and from my love for my older sister who died nearly a year ago. Margie’s love of pie was renown in our family and I am absolutely sure she would have adored this pie. Whip some up this weekend and woo your family with chocolaty goodness that should please everyone.

Chocolate Almond Cloud Pie

Ingredients
1 pre-made chocolate cookie crumb crust, GF
1 pkg chocolate pudding, the kind you have to cook
2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cocoa
1 cup slivered almonds, divided
1 1/3 cup heavy cream, divided
1 tbsp dark rum
4 tsp. sugar

Pour the almonds into a frying pan, no oil and toast them, stirring constantly. Alternately you could do this in the oven at a low temperature but I prefer the frying pan. Stop when they are medium brown, try not to let too many get black on the sides.

Cook the filling; put 2 cups whole milk into a medium sized and heavy sauce pan, Then add the dry pudding mix, the corn starch and the cocoa. Stir with a whisk as it heats. Once the mixture is bubbling all over the surface turn off the heat and add the rum. Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill until cooled. Take ½ cup heavy cream and whip. Add this to the pudding and whisk until blended. Take 3 tbsp of almonds and set aside for garnishing the pie later. Sprinkle the rest of the toasted almonds over the chocolate pie crust Gently spoon it into the pie shell on top of the toasted almonds. Chill at least 2 hours until set and cold. Whip the rest of the heavy cream in a chilled bowl, adding the sugar near the end of the whipping. Gently put dollops of it all over the pudding top. Sprinkle the reserved almonds on top. Enjoy!

Cooking for Easter, GF of course….

eggsEaster: holidays will be a major test of eating GF in and out of the house.

First off, this Easter I had company, my two sisters came to visit. A major test as they have never eaten GF and they can be a tough sell at meals sometimes. On Friday I made GF pasta for shrimp cannelloni with a saffron cream sauce which is a favorite recipe of mine, a good test choice…. I made the pasta sheets too thick to easily roll up with filling inside. It was pretty tricky to roll out in my Atlas pasta machine because of it’s sticky texture and I quit the rolling thinner process too soon. I think I will flour the dough a bit more as I run it through the tighter settings on the machine. It was pretty close in taste to wheat homemade pasta. Check off the pasta on my bucket list of things to try making GF!

I made a GF French bread Friday that was almost as good as any you could buy. You just glop the messy bowl of dough onto a French bread curved sheet and it rises and bakes to look pretty darn good! Check. One of my sisters asked for the recipe as she wants to eat less wheat. That is a major recommendation when Elaine asks for a GF recipe as she is pretty picky about her French bread! I made a meatloaf on Saturday night with GF bread crumbs inside it which were created in my blender from dried up GF bread slices. As good as ever…and not even a slice left for a sandwich today….check! We had a pear clafouti Saturday night – a sort of pear custard in a big tart pan, tasty and GF! Every scrap of it was eaten, Check! I made gravy Sunday to go with the pork tenderloin. Check. And for Sunday dessert I made a yogurt tart covered with fresh slices of orange. My crust was lauded by my mom; had ground almonds in it and almost like a shortbread cookie. I promised to make it again in May with local strawberries sliced on top….check, Check!

So I successfully fed my family three GF meals this holiday weekend and I was no more stressed out than normal visits in the past. The GF thing is getting easier. I find that if a recipe has flour in it I just use white rice flour and that is a really good substitution – gravies, white sauces, thickeners. And my go-to cook book is Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts. It has not failed me yet! What I love about the recipes is that they are the foods I grew up eating and like to make for company but now GF. If you are trying to go wheat free it is an absolute must buy. I have read that if you want to be GF as a permanent change you can’t give up bread and pasta, you just need to eat the same foods but with no wheat. This cookbook makes that eminently doable! Have a great week and try something GF if it is offered to you. You might be surprised at how good it is.

So…eating out…I happened to go to two different Panara Breads this past week. At the counter of the first one we happened to be waited on by the manager. I asked her for the GF menu. She said they had none. She said “What do you want to have?” This was a bit hard to respond to when she just told me she couldn’t give me even a paper with GF menu items on it. I said how about the Mediterranean Salmon Salad thinking this would be GF. She went and got a big ring binder. She paged through it and read off the long list of ingredients in the salad. She would not let me read it for myself! So… as I thought, it was GF, and therefore I enjoyed the salad down to the last sliver of almond! I averted my eyes as my man ate his baguette along with his boring chicken Caesar. He was openly envious of my lush salad full of a variety of tasty ingredients, all GF.

A few days later my family went to a different Panara for lunch on Easter Saturday. I asked again for the GF menu. I was told there was none. This server did not offer any suggestions or get out the big binder! I went for my fall back position and got another Mediterranean Salmon Salad. I found they had used the romaine they use in the regular Caesar so it wasn’t nearly as tasty as the one I had earlier the same week.

The thing that gets me is I could swear I read on line that Panara has a “secret GF menu” that you can ask for! It is so secret even the managers don’t know about it! How tough would it be to type up a two page menu showing how certain things could be GF; leave off the croutons, baguette gone, etc. And really, I have a few excellent GF bread recipes I could share with their research chefs. Panara could lead the industry by putting GF on their main menu; just set aside a couple of pans for GF and make a few loaves a day! Easy peasy. Would be a winner for Panara and their customers who surely have family members trying to eat less wheat. Listening Panara??
Have a great healthy eating week!! I know I will….

Originally published in early April 2013.