Tasty Taco Salad Southside Musikfest

Well, tonight I traveled to the South Side of Musikfest, enjoying some fantastic Creole/Zydeco of Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, then a tribute to Jerry Garcia and we topped off the night with The Avett Brothers.  I really loved the Avett Brothers; fabulously hot strings and energetic soulful singing.  I was totally wowed. Avett brothers

Less wowing was the food selection Southside for someone with celiac disease.  I could only find one thing for a main course; a taco salad they made specially for me using fried corn chips topped with the rest of their standard chicken taco salad; shredded plain chicken, black beans, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, corn, sour cream, some pico de gallo sauce.  I put on a few splashes of hot sauce which added a much needed flavor boost.  I ate it with my fingers and with the fork they gave me.  Normally it would be in a deep fried flour tortilla. Obviously that was not possible for me to eat so they offered me the fried corn tortilla chips.  It was the best thing I have eaten at Musikfest this year.  This was at Cactus Blue up by Steel Staks.  I highly recommend it.

The only other thing besides a beverage I could find was a Breyer’s ice cream stand that had scoops in a cup.  I was too full from the taco salad to have some and I did have concerns that their scoopers might have touched cones made of wheat before scooping my ice cream.  I felt lucky enough to safely eat the taco salad as I was worried that deep frying them might have contaminated the chips. I had brought an emergency serving of quinoa salad just in case so I wouldn’t starve all night, no need to eat it but I was glad to have a back up food source.

musikfest nighttime 2014

So, I am still yearning for that GF food stand at Musikfest.  Tomorrow I will be down under the Hill to Hill bridge pouring beer and rinsing my hands lots! I will be searching for something safe to eat there. I did see some walk away main course Sundays at Shookies.  Humm? I will have to go ask them some questions but it looked promising the other day.  Go out there and enjoy some great music!

Musikfest Gluten Free…Not Easy but Possible

In the Lehigh Valley we have a big music festival in August every year, called Musikfest.  Ten days of free and paid music venues and lots of festival food.  I have been going for 30 years; missed the first year of it.  It used to be a place where I could enjoy waffles with ice cream and frozen strawberries topped with whipped cream, shared four ways; my sisters and I enjoyed that tradition every year.  Now I am GF and it is not so easy.  Below is my post of last summer and an update on so far this Musikfest.  musikfest 2014 2

————————————-

2013: Festing last week in Bethlehem was fun if slightly fraught for me. I was never sure what I would find to safely eat when I was there volunteering. The Saturday night I went with my sisters and our men to celebrate my dear sister Margie’s life, I didn’t eat anything there. The lines were long and I chickened out on asking the GF questions that have become so necessary to my continued good health.

Through the week I looked and looked. I did eat the Aw Shucks corn minus the seasoning. I had a chicken kebab minus the bread. On the last night I got adventurous and tried some kettle corn once the servers assured me it was gluten free. It was delicious! I also had some soft serve which was less than stellar although it was safe for me. I wished I had waited until I found the Bethlehem Dairy stand. Their ice cream is so good. It would have been worth the wait. Too bad I can’t eat their waffles anymore.

As to serving beer, I am considering doing wine service or serving cider. I did okay once I started rinsing my hands between beers. I will have to think about that aspect of volunteering there which I have loved for the past twelve years.

So next year, maybe there will be a stand serving GF food. Not hard if you just don’t sprinkle flour over the frozen fries, if you use corn tortillas, if you use rice seasoning that has no wheat in it. You can get GF burger and hot dog buns too. There are many good fair foods that could be easily made GF. Now I can only dream that someone will make it so….

Below is a brief 2014 Musikfest update:

No, I have found no GF stand, not yet anyway!  I have not gotten all around the fest.  I did find a walking taco in a bag that was safe; made with Doritos and the operator called the boss to check on the meat sauce and it was declared safe.  So I took the plunge and had one.  Pretty good and I didn’t feel ill later.  This was from a cash stand up by the Sun Inn in the little courtyard between the Sun and the corner building.

I had some BBQ pork Sunday minus the bun but with sauce that I was told contained no wheat.  It was less than inspiring and I won’t spend a fortune there (Leiderplatz BBQ stand) for anything else…

I am still pouring beer, endlessly rinsing my fingers and hands.  So far so good!  It is tough being the alcohol supervisor when you can’t even taste the beer to make sure it is the same beer pictured on the tap!

I need to get over to Voltzplatz and Handworkplatz to check out their food offerings.  I will be on the southside Thursday, and will see what is safe or reasonably safe there.  I want some plain roasted corn, too bad their seasoning sprinkle blend is unsafe…..And yes, ice cream in a cup and some kettle corn. Maybe I will find something in the protein family that is safe for me. Hope so!  I am not letting my GF status keep me from festing and having fun this August.

Strawberry Tartlets to Tempt Romance!

Yes, it is the end of July but juicy ripe strawberries can be found in the supermarket and some produce stands like Lehigh Valley Produce on Main Street in Hellertown even now! I saw baskets of fresh berries earlier today at LV Produce.

This is a sweet and romantic dessert; two could share one deep dish tartlet! If you weren’t piggish that is….  Maybe everyone needs their own tartlet.  Totally your call. But do try to make these as they are not difficult and strawberries are very healthy and delicious even in August!

Angie’s GF Strawberry Glace Tartlets

Makes 4-6 tartlets; lesser number if deep dish ones and more if the flat bottom style that hold less berries.

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 4 inch metal tart pans or 4 inch mini deep dish pie pans with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Set aside.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes.    tart shells ready to bake

Cut it into 4 balls and roll out each ball into a small pie crust in a pie bag or between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in mini pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Do again until you have 4 shells and use all the crumb leftovers to make a fifth tartlet crust.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10-13 minutes until the crusts are light brown.  Cool at least 30 minutes before filling.

Glaze:

1 cup mashed very ripe strawberries (I sort through the berries and use the riper ones for this part.)

2/3-3/4 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

½ cup water

 Directions:

Mix sugar and cornstarch in 1 qt heavy bottomed sauce pan, stir in water and mashed strawberries.  Cook on medium heat until it boils, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir one minute.  Let cool at least 20-30 minutes or until close to room temperature.

Filling:

4 ounces of light cream cheese, room temperature

4-5 cups fresh strawberries, hulled

Line the bottom of the cooled tart shells with the cream cheese, spread it as evenly as possible. I use half of an 8 ounce package.  Place berries in a big bowl.  Pour the glaze over top and gently mix.  Pour the goopy berries into the mini pie shells.  I like to pick one really nice one for the top of each tartlet.  strawberry tartlets

Chill 1-2 hours before serving.  Make some real whipped cream, the fake stuff will not be right; 1 cup heavy cream whipped with an electric mixer or a whisk until soft peaks, I like to chill the bowl and beaters a few minutes as it helps the cream whip faster.  Then add 2-3 tbsp powdered sugar and ½ to 1 tsp. vanilla.  Beat just a bit longer, until nearly stiff peaks.  Top each tartlet with the whipped cream.

Dive in, one deep dish tartlet is a substantial dessert.  If you make them in a flat bottomed round tartlet it will make more tartlets; less berries are needed to fill it.  I have a pair of those sort of pans; each pan makes 4 tartlets.  They would be a good alternative to the deep dish tartlet pan.

Either way this is a yummy dessert to share with someone you love.

Brown Rice Flour Mix– for crust
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Pretty Tasty Pickles in a Big Jar

Some of us adore pickles and some dislike them.  If you are a pickle fan read on.  If not, read anyway as these are far better than the tired flabby canned pickles found at the grocery store.  A good gardening friend gave me this recipe.  It is really easy and rather fun to construct.  Even better is that you can pickle most any veggies. I have tried zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, green peppers and red peppers.  Of course, cucumbers are in there too!

You do need a couple grape leaves.  You might be able to find a neighbor with a grape vine.  I am betting you could use wild grape leaves from a state park or along a country road.   They really add to the authenticity of it so snag a few from somewhere.

Also needed are 3 dill heads (the flowers of a dill plant).  This might be more problematic but if you know a real gardener, aka someone like me, you can beg the dill heads as frankly they are not used much for cooking and I was happy to give some to the friend who gave me this recipe.  Grow your own dill for next summer; it is so easy to do and it does reseed and come back year after year.  Dill is lovely in potato salad and in other salads like my stuffed tomatoes which I plan to blog about later this week!

Refrigerator Pickles

2 cups white vinegar

¼ cup salt;  I used kosher salt in mine

4 cups water (I used 3 as my jar was slightly smaller than a gallon)

¾ cup sugar

————–

3 garlic cloves cut up

3 dill heads

2 grape leaves

Bring the first four ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan and let cool fully.  Put the other three ingredients in the bottom of a gallon jar.  Cut up your veggies and pile in the jar.  Top with the vinegar mixture. Put on the lid. Put in the fridge and let marinate for 3 days before trying it.

I have used pickling cucumbers, regular cukes, short zucchini spears, broken up cauliflower heads, thin slices of white turnip and pepper strips.  pickle jar  I want to try broccoli next!  Maybe celery?

My grandson who is three and a half clamors for the pickle jar to come out when he eats meals here.  I say, eat your lunch and you can have some pickles! He gobbles up his food and waits expectantly for me to fish out a pickle or two.

I like how fresh they are and how crunchy the pieces still are. Plus they have no additives or preservatives.  Naturally gluten free is important to those of us with wheat allergies.

You can keep adding veggies as you use them up.  I think the tough part is fishing them out of the jar.  The other day I lost a fork in there but luckily it didn’t go to the bottom of the jar; a cuke round stopped its descent! Now, go pickle fresh veggies and have some fun with it….

Bread Worth the Work; GF AND Tasty!

Baking tasty gluten free bread is sort of the Holy Grail for us folks with celiac disease.  I miss the flavor and texture of good quality bread.  I have tried many recipes that left me dissatisfied with the bread I baked.  In years past I used to make many different types of yummy wheaty bread.  The truth is that without the protein in wheat flour it is difficult to make satisfying gf bread.

Early this winter I discovered a website “Gluten Free on a Shoestring” by Nicole Hunn and bought the cookbook that had just come out “Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread.” I have made some of her recipes and had moderate success.  I will say that her breads are generally really good the first day you bake them.  I often freeze my leftovers before going to bed so they remain tasty.   I have made her pretzel rolls, lean crusty whole-grain bread and submarine rolls (from her website).  This week I made two of her recipes and I want to tell you about the bread.

It is zucchini yeast bread. Unusual because it is a savory bread, not a sweet dessert bread. Plus it has to chill in the fridge for at least 12 hours! I made the dough up Friday night and put it in a greased bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.  This chilled resting period allows for better texture and ease in forming the bread dough.  I shaped it Sunday afternoon, let it rise a bit more than an hour and popped it in the oven. Forty minutes later it was done, golden brown, raised a bit and smelled spectacular.  I took it to my mom’s for Sunday supper along with my best friend Bernie who was my college roomie and my goddaughter Danielle, her firstborn.  We had slices with our vegetarian dinner as Danielle doesn’t eat meat.

It was spectacular, fragrant, moist, crisp crust.  I could almost swear it had cheese in it and I knew it didn’t!  Second slices were had and I was so proud of a gf bread which hasn’t happened very often.

Her flour mixes are a bit complicated and some of the ingredients are pricey but if you just want the best bread I would say her recipes are a must have so you can treat yourself to the tastiest gf bread I have ever enjoyed.

Nicole Hunn’s website is “Gluten Free on a Shoestring.”  Check it out as it is chock full of her latest recipes.  She tries them out and showcases them on her blog before they appear in her books.  I believe she is about to bring out a cookbook where she re-creates gf a favorite commercial treat like the cookies and breads of Starbucks and the like.  It will be at least her fourth cookbook.

This bread alone is worth the effort of making up her special flour mixes; first you make her basic gf flour and then you use it to make her bread flour.  She uses whey protein powder to give the protein boast gf bread recipes need to allow for best flavor and texture.   There is also pectin powder in the flour mix.  These unusual ingredients allow her breads to be shaped and formed, even braided!   The doughs are tricky sometimes to work with but I am glad I am trying and I get to eat the tasty results!

Check out her website, http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/ and try a recipe.  The zucchini yeast bread recipe is on it.  If you long for yummy tasting, fine textured bread Nicole Hunn is your baker to follow.  I use several gf cookbooks but for bread, her information is revolutionary and worth investigating.  Good baking!