The Devil Made me Do it! Deviled Eggs are a Great Snack!

So I was thinking about my favorite snacks after my recent re-posting of a snack post of last year.  There are now so many GF things to buy but frankly they are fairly expensive and full of weird stuff plus I don’t think some of them taste that yummy.  The other day my sister asked me about deviled eggs.  Then I read an article in Food Network Magazine extolling the delights of many versions of that very same classic picnic food.   You know, the one people used to carry in quaint Tupperware boxes with shallow egg half depressions.  It got me thinking and since Easter and hard boiled eggs are mere days away…I decided a post on an old favorite was in order: deviled eggs.   Image

Deviled Eggs; they are so easy to make, so old school and yet so very tasty.  They are naturally gluten free if you stay away from spice mixes or premade sauces. I don’t even use a recipe.  First I boil the eggs for 10 minutes and let them stand ten more in the hot water.  Chill and peel each egg carefully: I like to gently roll them around on the counter to crack them all over the shells.  Use the oldest eggs in your fridge for boiling; they peel easier and any size works fine.

I rinse them briefly after peeling and slice them the long way. Then dump the yolks into a shallow dish.  I add a scoop of good quality mayo, a ½ tsp or so of Dijon mustard, a splash of red wine vinegar, a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Don’t over blend and for goodness sake don’t add too much mayo, vinegar or mustard!  Excessive mustard is particularly egregious as the egg looks okay until you pop it in your mouth and the mustard sets your tongue on fire! Start with a small amount and add more until the taste is where you like it.

Then I scoop them into the empty egg white mounding up the filling. I don’t bother to pipe them in but you can!  An easy way to do that is put the filling in a ziplock bag, zip it and cut one corner out for piping it out of there.  Lastly, I like to sprinkle some paprika over it.  Some people guild the lily with a half olive (black or green as you like) but I prefer them plain.  Eat them the same day they are made, never a problem in my family as we never ever have leftovers.  They fly out of that dish like wings are attached to each egg half!  So, once the egg hunt is over,  you will be left with some eggs and this is a perfect usage that your family will cheer for. 

If you want the fancy versions check out this month’s Food Network Magazine at the library and whip up a few of them. Let me know what tastes good and maybe I will break with tradition and allow a funky topping to interfere with past deviled egg standards. Image

 

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.

Wheaty Snacks Abounding…What is a GF Girl to Do?

Image      So here I am, 12 weeks GF. Every day I have to actually think about how I will eat, meaning plan meals. I can’t just grab a HotPocket and a yogurt and run out the door. I have to plan my lunches so I have a decent GF lunch. And in the scheme of things, this doubles the stress of getting ready for work on days when I have no leftovers from the night before to take for lunch. So…I am forced to plan or accept whatever I might find at the lunchroom where ever I am that day. And elementary schools are not known for their healthful and GF fare!

Worse yet, the faculty rooms are often a place of temptation. Big plastic jars of pretzels, tins of chocolate chip cookies, donut boxes crammed full of sweet sticky wheaty donuts. Oh MY! Lunches and celebrations abound in the workplace. Some days I have to just turn around and leave as I can’t stay in the same room with the smell of those yummies. It is okay sometimes but other moments I can’t be in that space with those things I used to eat but no longer can. I take a GF muffin or breakfast cookie to school every day so I have a safe snack choice.

Volunteering can be a really positive thing in one’s life. I volunteer at my local library- this time every week is very enjoyable. But even there the specter of temptation rears its ugly head! During the 20th Birthday Celebration there are goodies to enjoy. Not for me! I urge others to eat them. Get them gone so I won’t keep staring at their tastiness….

Church gatherings are full of wheaty treats. I have been to events where a long, long table of baked goods beckoned to me. Not one thing I could consume. I am resolved that I must bake GF goodies for such events if I want a treat. So that will be my solution: more baking but GF from now on. Frankly GF cookies are so good no one will even know they are GF!

Visiting friends is another source of temptation. Of course, their countertops are the location of boxes of crackers, cookies and other wheat filled treats that are off limits for me. I think I will need to bring a GF treat in my purse so I can eat that when the lure of the treats causes a dangerous crack in my resolve….

There is a family wedding this weekend that I am looking forward to and I got in touch with the bride to find out what I could eat at her reception. Most of the meal looks safe for me. I will cross my fingers that the food is not contaminated by any wheat flour. But, no wedding cupcakes for me! I am bringing a GF vanilla cupcate of my own to celebrate this special day for Lisa and Mike.

I am planning a trip to visit friends and family up in New England. We normally eat some meals out and have a big family dinner party. This year it is a bit different in that the planning must include discussions on what I can eat and where I can eat it. A favorite restaurant we used to go to does not have a GF menu so it was passed by in our planning. I will be making some bread to take up with me and I plan to bring a baggie of GF baked snacks so I have something safe to gobble up when hunger strikes at 3 am!

Don’t get me wrong, traveling GF is not scary or impossible but it does seem that planning will help me avoid bad situations like that 3 am brownie craving and nothing I can eat in the house. Plus I am hoping my sisters do not leave wheaty treats about to tempt me but never fear: I will be ready with my bag of GF treats to satisfy any hunger pangs and late night cravings. Planning is everything when you are GF….

Now, I am going to eat a totally yummy GF vanilla cupcake, frankly even better than my cupcakes used to be. And so much safer for my tummy!

Originally published May 17, 2013.  Update coming this weekend!!Image

Aside

Crackers, Snacks and Other GF Treats

I wanted to check in with others who eat wheat free and see what some of you like. I do a lot of my own baking but others who eat GF take a slightly different path. They buy most of their GF breads, crackers, cookies, cakes, muffins, etc. So I thought I would share a couple of favorites of mine and see what you all like to buy for snacks.   Image

My new favorite snack is Snyders of Hanover’s Mini Pretzels, they are also dairy and egg free. Somehow Snyders is able to make a small but mighty pretzel that reminds me strongly of their wheat/gluten pretzels. I was really pleased as my
first pretzel purchase of some “twig” pretzels found them to be rather odd and uneven in flavor. Some were yummy and some just this side of inedible! But these mini pretzels are quite tasty so check them out. Giant carries them in the GF aisle.

Another tasty treat are Van’s “Lots of Everything” crispy baked crackers. I got them at Frys Better Foods and they are awesome if tiny! Full of flavor and crunch they will hold their own against any wheaty cracker you can buy! They were great with some extra sharp cheese…or maybe as a snack for kids in the car or at gatherings like a church service.

A few weeks ago I bought some Glutino Cheddar flavor GF Crackers. They are round and look quite like a Ritz. The flavor is mostly of cheese and the texture is rather tough compared to the tender flaky buttery delight of a Ritz. Okay with something on it but not that great alone. I will continue to search for my Ritz replacement.

So what do you buy to snack on? GF of course? Share, please do, so I can try more things without as much trepidation. To know that someone finds something tasty is really a big help when snacks cost far more than what one is used to paying. I look forward to your suggestions with much anticipation!

First published in April 2013.  Stay tuned for an update later this week.Image

Pizza Pizza…Take One

So, I have been craving pizza for almost two months. Just didn’t fit into my meal schedule. But I had to chow down on a slice or two and soon. This past Saturday we went for a walk on the rail train and then ordered some take out GF pizza. It was from a pizza parlor here in Hellertown that has a sign in their window. That would be how I knew GF pizza was available there. I had called earlier to see how long it would take; they told me 15 to 20 minutes which seemed short to me for a fresh GF crust… So I was a tad skeptical…still we ordered – just one size; half plain and half with mushrooms. We both love shrooms but a plain pizza is the acid test, as it were.

I need to digress and say that I am very particular about my pizza. I have found one place in the Lehigh Valley that makes exceptional pizza; Martellucci’s in Bethlehem on Easton Avenue. My mouth waters when I think of their pizza!! Yet, up in the Poconos; in East Stroudsburg on Crystal Avenue is Tony’s Pizza, the best thin crust pizza outside of NYC to my mind… Pizza crust so good I never save any for the dog. He is kinda ticked about that as he loves pizza crust. So that was what I was hoping for but I think I knew there was no way this GF pizza could measure up to either of those stellar pizzas…..

So anyhew, I went in to pick it up and happened to speak briefly with the owner. He told me he had tried to make his own GF pizza dough; made many failed efforts and finally gave up. The solution is that he buys the shells frozen and ready to top and bake. He gives you a free plastic pizza cutter to keep from contaminating the pizza with his cutters for which I was very thankful and impressed by.

Not so impressed with the pie we got. First of all it was quite underdone. The cheese was barely melted, pale white and flaccid. The sauce underneath was thick and unflavored with basil or oregano much less any garlic or the like. The mushrooms were fine if undistinguished. And the crust seemed to have a middle layor of somewhat raw dough, ick!

It came on its own heavy duty aluminum foil baking pan which reassured me that it was not coated with wheat flour on the bottom. We ate a slice, made disappointed faces, and then I had the brilliant idea to fix it up and bake it a bit more. So I sprinkled it with basil and oregano, and some red pepper flakes. I put on a few pepperoni slices to punch it up and put the plate and pie in the oven for a few minutes. The resulting pie was much improved. I should note that the crust is a bit like a bar pizza; thin and cracker-like.

So, Mr. Pizza shop owner; punch up that sauce with herbs and some good olive oil, spread it thin and bake the pie until the cheese starts to brown a tad; golden at least. If those minor changes can be made it isn’t half bad – I would get it again for sure!

Now, to learn how to make my own GF crust and top with cheese and shrooms. It would not be made like I used to make my crust; no stretching and rolling…but, still… a fresh crust pizza that I can safely enjoy! A lovely dream to bring to life in my GF lifestyle.

Originally posted April 8, 2013.

Stay tuned for part two which is my update on ImageGF pizza for me…….