Designing in Life

Gluten-free Crackers

I admit it.  I am totally addicted to these crackers.

They are made with fresh rosemary and a sprinkling of kosher salt on top.  You can't eat just one, or two, or 6. 

Here is the modified recipe from Elana's Pantry.

Gluten-free Rosemary Crackers

3 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tablespoon grapeseed oil
2 eggs
Kosher Salt – optional

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and rosemary
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together oil and eggs
3. Stir wet ingredients into almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined
4. Roll the dough into a ball and divide into four pieces.  Press one of the pieces  between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll to 1/16 inch thickness
5. Remove top piece of parchment paper
6. Transfer the bottom piece with rolled out dough onto baking sheet
7. Cut dough into 2-inch squares with a knife or pizza cutter and sprinkle with kosher salt if desired
8. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden
9. Let crackers cool on baking sheet for 30 minutes, then serve

I know if you try these, you'll love them as much as I do.   They are very easy to make, which is always a bonus when you're trying something new.  As far as making and eating foods that are gluten-free, these get an A+ from me.

It's Sugaring Time!!!

When the temperatures rise above freezing during the day, and dip back during the night, you know it must be March...and that means it's time to tap the sugar maple trees.

Traveling anywhere, this is a very familiar sight:

I have several friends that sugar with buckets, and there a lot of people who do it this way.  Now-a-days though, you find more and more people using the tubing method.  Running tubes to the tapped trees and into your sugarhouse eliminates the daunting task of hauling all the sap.

It takes 30-40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.  The sap contains a high percentage of water. Boiling the sap evaporates the water, which eventually thickens and becomes that beautiful amber sweetness that's just right on your breakfast pancakes.

To celebrate the season, I thought I'd share a recipe for something I make all year long with maple syrup.

Maple Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup Pure Vermont Maple Syrup
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Preparation:

Combine mustard and garlic in a small bowl. With a whisk, add vinegar, maple syrup and lemon juice. Add olive oil and continue whisking until ingredients are well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerated, the dressing will keep for several weeks.

And for the record...Mrs. Butterworth doesn't have a fighting chance when it comes to the real thing.  Splurg when it comes to syrup.  You'll be happy you did!

 

Mango Sorbet

It might be winter and it might be cold, but I bet that has never stopped you from eating a tasty frozen dessert.  My new favorite?   Mango sorbet.  And it's so easy to make, it will surprise you.

I found this recipe in the recent issue of Vegetarian Times.

Ingredients:

4 Cups frozen mango

1/4 Cup lime juice

1/2 Cup Agave nectar

(I decided to add the zest of one of the limes, and that was a good decision.)

Thaw mango for 15 minutes.  Put all ingredients in a food processer or blender and mix until smooth.  (It did take me a while to get through the lumps.)  Put sorbet in freezer until you can scoop.

After making this the first time, I went to my local co-op to buy more frozen mango.  To my surprise the shelf was empty.  Maybe everyone else saw the recipe too.  I decided to go to my local grocery store to see if I could find some fresh mango.  Guess what??  They were on sale 10 for $10.  I took them home, peeled sliced and froze them in 2 cup baggies.

Now I'm thinking that I could make this with orange zest and squeezed oranges or grapefruit.  Since I have a supply of frozen magoes in the freezer, it looks like I'll just have to make more and see how it turns out.

 

Heart Shaped Calzones

I love anything that resembles pizza.  Having tried to eliminate as much dairy and wheat from my diet as possible, pizza night is no longer something that is purchased, but something that is made at home.

When I saw the post on Craftzine with instructions by Kristin Fitch, I knew it would be something fun to make, especially since I'll have a little one visiting this weekend. 

Kristin includes a recipe for the dough in the post, but I'll be making this one. (scroll down to May 6, 20010)  If you want to make a great tomato basil sauce, try this recipe.  It's very simple.

I'm just about positive that the big kid in my house will enjoy these as much as the small one.

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in "test kitchen" mode this afternoon.  I have been wanting to try making the chocolate chip cookie recipe that is in the Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook, by Elana Amsterdam.

As you can see, the two batches are different.  The first batch on the left spread out quite a bit, and even though the bottoms seemed perfectly cooked, the tops were still a bit too "wet."  In the second batch, I added a small amount of spelt flour, which of course, made them not gluten-free.  For us, that is fine, since the small amount of gluten in spelt doesn't bother us.

What I failed to notice in the recipe was the note below, which says that Bob's Mill almond flour affects the results – which it did, because that's what I used.  What would I do next time?  Well, I should look into some other brand of almond flour.  But I do think I could chill the dough and keep the dough in a larger ball before baking, which might help the cookies from spreading so much.

Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour*
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil (I used melted coconut oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cocoa

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Form ½ inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes
6. Cool and serve

Makes 24 cookies

* Please note: Bob's Red Mill almond flour does not yield successful results when used in this recipe. For more information regarding this matter please see my FAQs.

Oh, and my personal taste tester said both cookies were very good – at least that's what I think he said as he walked away munching.

Baked Lake Salmon

Knowing someone who loves to fish during the winter months when the lake salmon are biting is a big plus.  A couple of times each winter, a fresh, just-caught salmon ends up in my kitchen.

Usually it shows up needing to be dressed aka gutted.  Yesterday it showed up with its insides gone (oh thank you, thank you), and ready to be de-boned.  There are a lot of bones in a salmon.  You can easily remove most of them with a very sharp knife, pressing the very sharp knife (did I mention you need a very sharp knife?) against the backbone which holds all the smaller bones.

There are many small bones  that can be removed with tweezers.  If you run your finger down the middle of the fish, you can usually feel them.  I think I did a pretty good job, because there were only about 2 that were found while we were eating.

I cut the fish into 4 filets and baked three of them.  The third one I skinned and froze.  It's going into a fish stew that I'll make this weekend.

I'm not sure how it is that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so you're going to have to trust me on this.  The fish was delicious.

I sprinkled an Asian seafood seasoning (from Whole Foods) that has garlic, salt, turmeric, thyme, black pepper, fennel seed, ginger, lemongrass, rosemary, sage and tarragon in it.  Whew!  Then I poured a little olive oil across the filets, some fresh snipped dill and some lemon sliced on top with capers.  I baked it at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.

Lake salmon is very mild tasting.  I think the taste is closer to trout and nothing like ocean salmon.  I look forward to the next one showing up.

Gluten-free Bread

I decided to try a recipe for gluten-free bread using almond flour.  The recipe is from "The Gluten-free almond flour cookbook", by Elana Amsterdam.

Reading the ingredients, I just couldn't quite grasp how this bread would bake because the amount of dry vs wet is so lopsided.  But it came out just fine, and I think the combination of eggs and arrow root added to the volume.

Recipe:

3/4 C creamy roasted almond butter at room temperature
4 large eggs
1/4 cup blanched almond flour
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbl ground flax meal

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a 7 by 3-onch loaf pan with oil and dust with almond flour.  (I used a slightly larger pan, because I didn't have one this small.)

In large bowl, mix the almond butter with a handheld mixer until smooth, then blend in eggs.  In medium bowl, combine the almond flour, arroroot powder, salt, baking soda and flax meal.  Blend the almond flour mix into the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven, until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  (I baked mine for 35 minutes on the center rack)  Let cool then serve.

To keep fresh, wrap in a paper towel then a plastic bag or wrap.

It was good and moist.  I made sandwiches with it today.  Since I'm not gluten-intolerant, but gluten-sensitive, I can actually make a better tasting bread with spelt.  But the spelt bread needs yeast, which takes time to rise, so this recipe is a good alternative when you need it in a hurry.  Also, in one of the bread recipes (which is identical in ingredients) she adds black olives and rosemary.  I'll try that next time.

What's for Dinner?

Beth suggested that I should try to plan out my meals for the week.  As it is, it takes me about 2 hours to make dinner.  That's after getting home at 5:30 and not doing much else.  Part of that 2 hours is trying to decide what we're going to have.  So, starting next week, I'll have a go at it, but for this week, I'm working my way through what is in the refridgerator.

Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potato and Kale on Quinoa

You've all made chili, right?  Make this the same way substituting beans and sweet potato for the meat.  Here is the ingredient list in case you're wondering.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 plum tomatoes (I pulled 6 out of the freezer and chopped them.  You can add a can if you'd like)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (some people like more!)
• 1/4 teaspoon caynne pepper
• 1 sweet potato, chopped
• 1/2 bunch kale, removed from ribs and chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans

I also made some corn muffins to go with the chili.  The substitutions I used were: spelt for flour, 1 teaspoon agave in place of the sugar and almond milk in place of the regular milk.  (You'd never know the difference.)

This is a perfect meal on a cold winter evening.  The quinoa and beans make this dish protein-packed, and the jalapenos and caynne add enough heat to warm you up.  Sweet potatoes have carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.  Kale is loaded with vitamins and minerals; calcium and omega 3 fatty acids to name 2.

Yup, this is a great meal to start the new year off with if you've decided that 2011 ia going to be the year of delicious dinners.

 

What's for Dinner When it's SooooooooHot!

Understand, I am not complaining.  I have said this before.  I am a camel, not a polar bear.  I love the hot weather, and this time of year when it changes, well, I just start wishing for summer again.

This year things have been a little different.  We have just gone through a hot, humid spell that reminds me of growing up in South Jersey.

So, yesterday the temperature was

Not the usual temperature for the beginning of September.  The pool temperature was

Not extremely refreshing, but there was a brisk south breeze blowing that made it very enjoyable.  So, what was for dinner?

Curried chicken salad on tomatoes and mesclun, black-eyed pea salad and fresh peaches. This is a fast and easy dinner if you happen to have some left over chicken.  Tuna works also.  Just make your chicken or tuna salad the way you like it (I put celery, onion and parsley in mine.  I also used dijon in the dressing, because I'm not a big fan of just mayonnaise.)  Then add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon (more if you're adventurous) of curry powder.  Other things you can add are, nuts, dried cranberries or raisins.

The beans have scallions, celery, red peppers and basil in them with a garlic/dijon vinaigrette.  Here's a simple recipe:

2/3 c olive oil
1/3 c red wine vinegar
1 minced clove garlic
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
about 8 chopped basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the oil and vinegar together, add the dijon, garlic and basil leaves.  Salt and pepper however you like it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, so maybe I'll feel like turning the stove or oven on.  It IS corn season, you know.  Nothing like fresh corn with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

What's For Dinner??

Nick is in Florida visiting his new grandson.  Cooking has become non-existent in this house.  So what could I possibly have for dinner?

Uh, well, salsa and chips on the deck, of, course, when all you have to do is make a trip into the garden for the ingredients.

Simple Salsa

Chop 4 tomatoes of your choice...I used plums

1 clove of garlic chopped

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1/2 chopped jalapeno

3 tablespoons chooped onion

3 tablespoons red pepper

Sprinkle some Kosher salt and stir.

So, is there really anything easier than this?