Pasta with Fresh Corn Pesto

From Bon Appetit (August 2010)
 

4 bacon slices, cut lengthwise in half, then crosswise into ½-inch pieces (I used turkey bacon)
4 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 6-8 ears) (I used frozen corn)
1 large garlic clove
1¼ teaspoon coarse kosher/sea salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for serving
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup olive oil
8 ounces brown rice fettuccine (or any pasta you have laying around)
¾ cup coarsely torn fresh basil leaves, divided

Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, stirring often. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon drippings from skillet. Add corn, garlic, salt, and pepper to drippings in the skillet. Saute over medium-high heat until corn is just tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer 1½ cups corn kernels to a small bowl and reserve. Scrape the remaining corn mixture into a food processor/blender. Add ½ cup Parmesan and pine nuts. With machine running, add olive oil through feed tube and blend until pesto is almost smooth. Set pesto aside.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1½ cups pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to empty pot. Add corn pesto, reserved corn kernels, and ½ cup basil leaves. Toss pasta mixture over medium heat until warmed through, adding reserved pasta liquid by ¼ cupfuls to thin to desired consistency, 2 to 3 minutes. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta to large shallow bowl. Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup basil leaves and reserved bacon. Serve pasta, passing additional grated Parmesan alongside.

I added diced tomatoes as well.  I thought this was a great addition, Tim disagreed, so you'll have to try it out for yourself.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Buttermilk Lime Dressing

Fried Green Tomatoes
From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

4 to 6 medium green (unripe) tomatoes
¾ cup fine cornmeal (gluten free bread crumbs work too)
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil or clarified butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons chopped basil, tarragon, or parsley (for serving)

Slice the tomatoes crosswise 1/3 to ½ inch thick. Press each piece into a plate of cornmeal to coat on both sides. Heat the oil in a wide skillet over high heat until hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Add the tomatoes, reduce the heat to medium, and fry on both sides until golden. Remove to a plate, season with salt and pepper, and serve with the chopped herbs, buttermilk lime dressing (recipe below), or mayonnaise.

Buttermilk-Lime Dressing
From www.ezrapoundcake.com
3/4 cup whole or lowfat buttermilk
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from 3-4 limes)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup finely minced fresh basil
1/4 cup finely minced green onion
1/4 cup finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

In a small bowl, whisk the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator not more than 2 days. Makes 1 1/4 cups.

Ginger Snap Pumpkin Pie

The leaves are beginning to turn vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red!  That means it's time to pull out all those delicious recipes... unfortunately, most of those delicious recipes have gluten in them.  That doesn't mean I'm going to go hungry, it just means I need to adapt!  Here's the first of what I'm sure will be many great autumn recipes.

Links to some of my favorite GF staples

"Granola" bars:

Enjoy Life
Enjoy Life makes a lot of GF items and is relatively easy to find.  It's all somewhat tasty.  Their "granola" bars are edible, not amazing, but great if you're on the go, hiking, or camping.

LARABAR
LARABARs are my favorite GF bars!  They make a wide variety of flavors, some are better than others, but you should try them and pick your favorite flavor!

Granola (great with yogurt, cottage cheese, or just milk):

Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's Gluten Free Granola






Pasta:

Quinoa Pasta
I really prefer this to brown rice pasta.  It has a better texture and doesn't get gummy and sticky like many GF pastas. 

Trader Joe's
If I'm at TJs and out of pasta, I like to pick up a few bags of brown rice fusilli.  It's cheaper than the quinoa pasta and often times more convenient, since I do most of my shopping at TJs.  The penne just isn't as good (I don't know why).  It's great with their Vodka Sauce and Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage!




Bread:

ENER G
I'll be quite honest.  Unless it's fresh baked, warm, right out of the oven, Gluten Free bread sucks.  It just does.  It's not good.  Bread, like beer, should have gluten.  But if you're really having a hankering for something that really needs bread (grilled cheese, hot dog, hamburger, toast, etc) Ener G tapioca bread is the way to go.  It tastes MUCH better if it's toasted.  Ener G pretzels... not good.




Snacks:

Glutino
I love Glutino pretzels, they have a wonderful texture.  I haven't tried their other products, but I'm excited to!

MI-DEL Cookies
Tim and I love the ginger snaps... they're delicious!

back to NATURE
For some reason, these crackers on not listed on the website.  I don't know why... but they are very tasty.  If you can find them, give them a try!








Beer:

Redbridge Beer
As a micro brew enthusiast it pains me to recommend an Anheuser-Busch product, but this is the best GF beer I've found thus far.







Flour and baking mixes:

 Namaste Foods
Namaste Foods has consistently had the best baking mixes out there.  I haven't tried all of their mixes yet, but I've been very pleased with what I have tried.  They also make an all purpose GF flour.

 Bob's Red Mill
 Bob's Red Mill makes a HUGE selection of GF flours and mixes.  It's a great company to support and their products are wonderful!    I believe they make an all purpose GF flour blend, however the main cookbook I use for baking has a very specific flour blend that all the recipes are based off of, so I have yet to try Bob's pre made GF blend.  I use a blend of Bob's Sorghum, Potato, and Tapioca flours for my GF flour needs. To get a good texture, you need to blend a few types of GF flours together.



FYI... I have yet to find a GOOD premade GF pancake or pizza crust mix (I tried TJs GF pancake mix... AWFUL!  Like eating little disks of cardboard).  I just make my own from scratch.  I'll post those recipes later.

Shepherd's Pie

So it's been a while since my last post.  It's not that I've stopped cooking, I've just been forgetting to take pictures.  Originally my goal was to take a picture of everything... but that's just not going to happen every time I cook.  So I'm going to start posting recipes sans pictures.  I'll add a picture later if I remember to take one... and the food looks appetizing (photographing food is HARD)!

Ingredients

• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound buffalo
• 2 tablespoons potato flour or tapioca flour (any GF flour will do)
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (or more, if you're feeling extra cheesy)

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash. Mix in butter, finely chopped onion and 1/4 cup shredded cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside. * Just make your favorite mashed potatoes, this part DOES NOT need to be exact!
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add carrots and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, mash and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook until clear. Add ground buffalo and cook until well browned. Pour off excess fat, then stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add ketchup and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Spread the ground buffalo in an even layer on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Next, spread a layer of mashed carrots. Then spread the corn and peas.  Top with the mashed potato mixture and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

A Delightfully Eclectic Dinner... or... We had A LOT of produce that needed to be eaten

Whenever we get ready to go out of town (even for just a weekend) I like to go through the fridge and use up any produce before we leave.  We've recently joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), so we get fresh veggies every week from Sauvie Island Organics.  This is nice because we get fresh, local, seasonal, organic produce every week... however, when we travel we end up with LOADS of produce that needs to be eaten.  This meal is a reflection of that!  Clockwise from the parsley, we have sausage, baked grape tomatoes, roasted potatoes, and green beans.

Sausage:
Spicy Italian Sausage from Trader Joe's (I believe all of their sausages are GF... so double check the label and take your pick)
2 Tbs. Oil

Slice the sausages lengthwise.  Heat the oil in a skillet.  Once oil is hot place the sausages in the skillet and brown. * If you have a BBQ, you should use that instead!


Baked Grape Tomatoes with Basil and Cornbread Crumbs 
(I found this at www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com)
3 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
30-40 yellow and red grape or cherry tomatoes (depending on size)
1 slice of cornbread or a corn muffin (to make 1/3 to 1/2 cup crumbs)* I used Glutino Brand Gluten Free bread crumbs... not as tasty, but MUCH easier!
2 teaspoons dried organic basil
Fine sea salt
Fresh black pepper
Fresh basil leaves garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice a garlic clove in half and rub the cut sides on the bottom of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom.

Cut the tomatoes in half. I sliced the tomatoes both ways- lengthwise and widthwise- for variation.

In a food processor, process all the garlic till minced. Dump out onto a plate. Process the cornbread (or corn muffin) until you achieve an even crumb. Add in the dried basil, sea salt. Pulse to combine. Add in the minced garlic. Pulse. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil into the crumbs and pulse briefly to distribute. *If you use crushed garlic from a jar and the Glutino bread crumbs you can skip the food processor.  Also, I added Parmesan cheese.  I bet it would be good with Mozzarella too!

Place half of the grape tomato halves into the pie plate, split side up. Snuggle them in.

Sprinkle with the seasoned cornbread crumbs. Top with the remaining tomato halves, cut sides down, rounded side up. Drizzle a little more olive oil over the tomatoes.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tender.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/03/baked-grape-tomatoes-with-basil-and.html#ixzz0x7S4gsZM

Oven Roasted Potatoes

1/5 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F 
2. In a large bowl, combine oil, garlic, basil, rosemary, dill weed, thyme, oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and salt. Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a roasting pan or baking sheet.
3. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

  
Green Beans
I make this recipe different every time and it's always good.  The measurements aren't exact and don't need to be, so I won't include them.  Do it to your taste!

1/2 lb Green Beans (or more)
1 Tbs. Olive oil
1/5 cup Water
Butter (just a tiny bit)
2 Cloves Garlic (or more)
Salt
Crushed Black Pepper
Paprika
Old Bay seasoning if you can find it (if not... seasoned salt should be fine) 

Chop the ends off the beans.  Heat oil in a skillet.  Add beans and garlic. Add salt, pepper, paprika, and old bay.  Stir for approx 4 minutes.  Add water and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, bring down to a simmer and add a hint of butter.  Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Water will cook down and beans will be tender and delicious!  *These beans actually keep very well in Tupperware in the fridge and taste great cold!

Strawberry Black Bottom Pie

After a day of strawberry picking we realized we had WAY more strawberries than we knew what to do with.  This is one of the delicious creations that came from our strawberry picking extravaganza!

NOTE:  This in NOT entirely gluten free!  It is WHEAT FREE, but the cookies have barley in them.  In the comments section you can find the ingredients.

Crust

Newman's Own Organics Wheat Free Newman O's (about 20)
4 Tbs melted butter

Crush the cookies in a plastic bag using a mallet or rolling pin.  Combine the melted butter and and crushed cookies into a pie pan and let cool (about 30 minutes).

Filling*
5oz Cream cheese (room temperature)
3 Tbs Sour Cream
1.5 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 Tbs powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
Chopped up fresh strawberries (or any berries that are in season)
 *These ingredients DO NOT need to be exact, change the recipe to suit your tastes! 


Combine cream cheese and sour cream into a large bowl and mix well.  Add brown sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, and berries.  Mix well.


Topping
Fresh strawberries cut in half (mixed berries would be yummy too!  Just use what's in season)

Chill for a few hours before serving

Pineapple Macadamia Nut Carrot Cake with Pineapple Butter Cream Frosting

This is far and away my favorite cake EVER.  If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of any cake, so this is saying a lot.  My great grandma used to make this cake and I always looked forward to it at holidays.  I found a FANTASTIC gluten free flour blend and was able to take parts from the GF cake mix and the original recipe and turn it into something delicious.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Prep
Heat oven to 350* F.  Lightly spray or grease pans (or paper liners for cupcakes)

Cake
Namaste Foods Gluten Free Spice Cake Mix
3 eggs
2/3 cup oil
3 cups shredded carrot 
1 14oz can of crushed pineapple (reserve 1/3 cup for frosting)
3/4 cup coconut
1 cup Macadamia Nuts (coarsely chopped)
splash of Vanilla extract

Combine 3 eggs and 2/3 cup oil.  Add cake mix and blend well.  Mix in carrots, pineapple, coconut, and nuts. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes in two 9" round pans; 35-40 minutes in a 9"x13" pan, or about 20-25 minutes for cupcakes.  Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool before frosting.  Sprinkle frosted cake with toasted coconut (as seen in pic) or finely ground macadamia nuts.

Frosting
8oz cream cheese room temp (1pkg)
1 stick butter room temp (1/4 lb)
1 lb. powdered sugar (I only use about a half cup, 1 lb. seems like A LOT)
1/3 cup reserved pineapple
1/2 cup Macadamia Nuts (finely chopped)
a sprinkle of coconut if desired

Blend cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until smooth.  Add pineapple, nuts, and coconut and mix well.

Garnishes (optional)
Finely ground macadamia nuts
hint:  place nuts in a zip lock bag and hit them with a meat mallet or rolling pin
or
Toasted coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Lay coconut flakes out flat in a baking tray.
3. Stir in a small amount of cinnamon and/or sugar for flavor if desired.
4. Heat the flakes for about 5 minutes, until they turn a rich brown color.
5. Use as desired (make extra for later)

"Georgian Rice Salad with Eggplant and Tart Cherries" from Silk Road Cooking

Tonight's Dinner

Ingredients:
RICE
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
1 tablespoon veg oil or butter

4 Chinese eggplants (2 lbs) (you can use regular eggplants, but peel and de-seed them first)

4 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped)
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground paprika
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup pitted, dried tart cherries (or a little more)

SALAD DRESSING
1/2 cup sour cherry syrup (I don't use this... I just add a hint more olive oil)
2 tbs lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (coarse salt is best)
dash of ground black pepper
1 cup chopped parsley
1 cup chopped scallions

GREENS
4 cups of shredded greens, arugula, or romaine (I use arugula and it's FANTASTIC)

GARNISH (optional)
1/2 cup chopped pistachios or toasted walnuts


DIRECTIONS
1. Rinse rice in lukewarm water.  Agitate gently with your hand, then pour off the water.  Repeat 5 times until rice is clean (water will run clear).
2. Combine rice with 3 cups of water, 1 tablespoon oil, & 2 tsp salt, and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Gently stir once with a wooden spoon.  Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, until all the water has evaporated.  Remove from heat and set aside.
3. While the rice is cooking, wash the eggplants, dice into 1/2-inch cubes and blot dry
4. In a large bowl, mix the garlic, cayenne, cumin, paprika, and remaining salt.  Add the eggplant cubes and mix well so that the spices adhere to the raw eggplants.
5. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a wok or deep skillet over medium heat until very hot & fry the eggplant cubes for 10 minutes until golden brown.  Add 1 cup of water, cover & cook over low heat for another 15 minutes until tender.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.
6. Combine the eggplant, cooked warm rice & tart cherries in a salad bowl and set aside
7. To make the dressing, thoroughly mix all the salad dressing ingredients and adjust seasoning to taste.  Pour over the salad, toss well, served on a bed of greens and garnish with pistachios or walnuts.

My first blog ever!

I feel like I should write something really profound here... but I've got nothing.  I recently learned that I can't eat gluten (along with a myriad of other tasty things: black beans, bell peppers, dairy, pork, beef...), which is a super bummer!  But I LOVE to cook and bake, so I'm not going to let a few allergies and intolerances stop me!  I'm discovering that more and more people are unable to eat gluten and many are coming to me for recipes.  Instead of emailing each person when I find a really delicious recipe, I've decided to make a food blog.  I'd also love to hear of any tips or recipes you have to share, so join me on this foody journey and let's make some delicious delicacies!

As for something profound.... here you go: 

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” 

-Harriet van Horne