Watermelon Smoothie

First posted in June 2010, but watermelon was on sale this week, so I'm drinking this delicious one again.  This time I blended the watermelon with only lemon and that too was yum!  
I jumped away from the veggie cooler for this week and I'm enjoying a watermelon smoothie. I really believe that you should eat whatever foods are in season--all of it! Eat it until it's gone or until you sicken of it. That's what I think.

So this week it's that ten pound watermelon and it's been delicious! 'Til now, I didn't realize that the other three persons in this family don't really like watermelon. Really?

I think that half of it was rind. (I'll wait to save the rind next year for pickle preserving!)

Salud!

1 cup ice cubes

3 cups seeded watermelon

1 cup strawberries

1 t. lemon juice

1/8 c. sugar (Sweet berries so I didn't need any sugar)

G-F Devils Food Chocolate Cake

Last night's party was so much fun and there was food, learning and enthusiasm for being healthy and gluten-free.  Thanks everybody for coming.

Okay, I'm reminding you where I posted the chocolate cake that is always so successful each time I attempt it.  I recognize that it is a modification of the copyrighted recipe from Bette Hagman (Praise Be Her Name), from her cookbook Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods, but I have recommended that same book to all my friends and acquaintances, so it's all fair.  Buy it online--used on Amazon for under ten bucks, you won't be sad.

Stir together

1 cup powdered cocoa (I use dutched for that extra rich flavor)
3/4 cup boiling water

Cool then add
3/4 cup buttermilk (almond milk with a tsp of lemon works)

Mix dry ingredients

1 3/4 cup gf flour (I use my 8 grain healthier featherlight)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan/guar gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons egg replacer

Mix wet ingredients
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup mayonaise (not salad dressing0
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla


Combine all  ingredients together. Pour into a 9x13 pan, a bundt pan for Peanut Butter Delight or into 60 mini cupcake papers for DING DONGS and bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes.  Test doneness by inserting a toothpick, knife or dowel until it comes out clean.

Magnifique!

Fabulous Flour Table

This is a repost from 6-03-09 and 9-21-11   Happy flour storage!!!!

This table is designed to help you decide which flours combine to make a great flour mix.

Good Luck in your mixes.

EXOTIC GRAINS http://www.usda.gov nutrients of 13,000 foods we eat
TYPE **supergrain	USE IN:	QUALITIES	SOURCE	STORAGE
Almond meal	In breads, mixes, desserts, crusts,	High in Proteins,	Almonds ground in food processor or blender. I do it w/ rice flour	Fridge, freezer-tightly sealed, keeps 6 months
Amaranth **	In mixes bread, muffins, bagels, pasta, milk, nut butter, cookies, gravies, sauces, pancakes, flatbreads, doughnuts, dumplings, pasta.	Excellent filler grain, 1-3 grain mix	Bobs Red Mill, Arrowhead Mills, Walton wheat, grind fresh or harvest home.com specialfoods.com	Tightly sealed, fridge, freezer, keeps 1 yr.
Arrowroot (starch)	West Indian starch	Swap for cornstarch	Bobsredmill.com, Arrowhead Mills	Seal tightly on Shelf
Bean, black, pinto, white, garbanzo, fava, romano,	In mixes, as thickeners, Indian foods, baking breads	High food value, pulses mixed with grains = complete protein	Grind alternating with rice flour, high moisture, BobsRedMill.com, or Asian/India market	Shelf
Buckwheat ** aka groats (Kasha)	Pancakes, cakes, baking	Flavorful, grainy, rhubarb relative	Bobs, Arrowhead mills, grocery stores	Tightly sealed, 6 mo.
Coconut	Mixes, Can comprise as much as 10-30% mix	Good fiber, protein	Bobs, tropicaltraditions.com simplycoconut.com	Refrigerator, freezer
Cornstarch	Thickening- soups, sauces, and mixes	Bland, blending power	Grocery shelf, or asian store.	Shelf, cool dry
Corn flour, meal	Muffins, spoonbreads. tortillas, hot cereal	Gritty,	Grind from popcorn	Shelf, cool dry, years
Green Pea	Soups, thickening	Strong flavor,	Grind	Shelf
Flax **	In everything	Heart, colon healthy	Coffee grind, blender	Fridge, freezer, dark
Millet **	Breads, salads,	Grandma’s favorite	Grind, or steamed whole	Grain– Shelf, cool dry Flour, freezer/fridge
Nut, hazelnut, pecan, walnut,	Dessert crusts	Flaky, flavorful	Grocery stores - grind in coffee grinder or blender	Fridge, freezer
Quinoa ** flakes, flour, grain	Salads, tabouli, in place of couscous, flakes in place of oatmeal, sprouts 4 hrs.	Exotic, complete protein.	Bobs, quinoa.net, Wikipedia suggests 3 parts quinoa, 3 parts sorghum flour, 2 parts potato starch, and 1 part tapioca starch.	Shelf, dry, 1 year, longer if unground and stored in grain.
Potato Starch	In mixes, superior thickening,	Good blending power	Bobs, Asian/Indian store	Shelf
Potato Flour	Thickener, flavorful,	Moistening power	Bobs, Can grind instant potato flakes	Fridge
Rice, white, sweet, wild rice Montina, brown	Baking superior, alone and in mixes, soups, salads, performs best when mixed.	Gritty, mild, good base flour in mixes	Grind myself, or Sams, or Asian Store, Waltonfeed.com or Bobsredmill.com,	Brown whole grain rices must be frozen or refrigerated. All others shelved Wild rice– indefinitely
Sorghum **	Alone in cookies, makes great raw dough, in mixes,	50% swap in flours, good mix w/cornstarch	Grind, or Bobs, best source is Twinvalleymills.com in Ruskin Nebraska	Shelf, in grain form 10 years cool, dry - flour refrigerate or freeze.
Soybean	Mild nutty flavor	Never alone, mixed 30% with other grains	Versatile, I grind, Bobs	Freeze, fridge
Tapioca starch	Favored GF Flour, in mixes, adds chewyness	Mucilagenic	Bobs Red Mill, Asian/India market, Walton Feed,	Shelf
Teff**	Exotics, in mixes, soups, thickener, sprouted, salads--chocolate cake!	Tiniest grain in the world, good 30% mix	Teffco.com and natural food stores.	Sealed tight, fridge, freezer

GF Dosa is Happy Bread

Hey Friends,

Family is coming to visit to watch our homeschool Shakespeare show, The Taming of The Shrew.  That means in addition to sewing four capes, ten hats, two pair of pantaloons, two dresses, two vests, two skirts, and three pair of boots/covers,  I'll be feeding two vegetarians, two celiacs and four abysmally normal eaters.

I'm pulling out old recipes like this one and looking for some new ones.  I think I might even try this wrap bread recipe from Living Without made from lentils and rice.    Let you know how it goes.  http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/Gluten_Free_Lentil_Crepes-1583-1.html?ET=livingwithout:e126976:83436a:&st=email&s=p_rotw050913i

First posted on 10-19-11

When a person has celiac disease, every morsel put in the mouth has to be extra nutritious! We just don't have the intestinal fortitude (HA!) or energy for superfluous foods!

I made the bread for Mr. Darcey's 50th birthday party from a recipe proposed by my friend, Kent. He makes it using the true Indian method, but he gave me hints and tips for cheating the long fermentation process.

Here is a link to About Recipes' Dosa video if you want to watch a video!

Iused the same recipe,

1 part (1/3 cup) urad daal (black beans skinned) (My asian store had these.)

3 parts (1 cup) idli rice (Asian store)

Rinse these grains and cover with water overnight. (I just learned my asian store has the flours already ground and even mixed together, but for purity, I soak and blend my own.)

Flush and rinse again in the morning and whiz in a blender until smooth batter forms.

Add 1 teaspoon yeast

I stirred this all together then let it sit on the counter, stirring it down every few hours until I was ready to cook them in the evening.

ADD SALT

before cooking, add one to one and a half teaspoons salt. Makes about 20.

Cook in a skillet like pancakes. We had such success with this that the guests ate all we cooked, but for one and the son popped it into the toaster for breakfast. Still delicious.

For lunch, I took the remainder of the batter out of the fridge and cooked up some more and they were delicious! I don't know how long the batter would remain viable in the fridge, but I'm going to try the recipe again soon.

The bread was flexible (foldable for sandwiches) and easy. And dipped in MINT CHUTNEY! HEAVENLY!!!!

Reality Bite: People, this has both grains and legumes and like many ethnic foods, these countries have learned to be healthy by combining the two foods to build a whole protein. Let's eat healthy.

College Boy Wrap Bread #1

First posted on 4-4-10   Still a most successful wrap bread.  Can be milk free and delicious.


Today College boy attempted wrap bread. He used two flours, and beat all ingredients together, spread it on the pan, let it raise 15 minutes, bakes 15 minutes. Bread for the week!

Or for today at least--depending on how hungry he is. This is one of the mixes I sent to college with the college girl. (Make sure that you remind them to add the yeast separately with the dry ingredients when they do the mixing. The yeast dies when stored due to the salt in the mixes).

College Boy's choice of flour today was my wholegrain 8 flour mix--but I made the same recipe yesterday with plain rice flour--still good.

Then on Easter, we made it using straight up Sorghum flour with the tapioca and sprinkled on asiago before baking. It was, again, delicious.

What a versatile recipe!!

Cinquepalmi's Sorghum Cook Book

First posted on June 28, 2008   Sorghum Flour Baking Cookbook

I DID IT! I was cynical about spending about $105.00 to drive 150 miles to this gluten free class but I must say, it was money well spent!

We gorged on teff blueberry waffles, wraps, chocolate cake, sandwich bread, and crackers that were delicious! If I figure it right, it was just about as expensive as eating out at a really good gluten-free restaurant, watching the chef make them and then asking for the recipes. AND THEN GETTING THEM.

You know, I'm a haphazard baker at best, but even when I ripped home and made my version of the cracker recipe, by adding 50% too much butter and then the wrong flour measurement, and then evened it out by adding starches in the wrong increments, EVEN THEN, the crackers were delicious. Light, crunchy, crispy and delicious with no after taste. And the techniques she explains in her book were swift and easy. I will pop crackers off again in the near future with no problem. I can't wait to try her graham crackers.

I can recommend Jennifer Cinquepalmi's book, The Complete Book of Gluten-Free Cooking, available by Aidant Publishers at http://www.aidantbooks.com/ because as a scratch baker who likes whole grains and quick and easy, I was impressed.

NOPE:  OLD LINK:   Today, I just bought a new copy (loaned out the old one) on Amazon used books for twelve bucks.  http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Gluten-Free-Cooking/dp/0977847403

Celiac Disease v Gluten-Sensitivity

Celiac disease: Celiac disease is a medically diagnosed autoimmune digestive disease, which interferes with absorption of nutrients from food and can lead to malnourishment and other conditions. Even a very small amount of gluten contamination can cause an autoimmune reaction including both digestive and non-digestive symptoms, typically appearing a few hours or days after gluten has been ingested. 

Gluten sensitivity: According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), the condition affects 18 million Americans and falls within the spectrum of gluten-related disorders. Symptoms of gluten sensitivity often overlap with celiac disease. Unlike celiac disease, gluten sensitivity is not an autoimmune disease and does not result in the same type of intestinal damage.

Domino's GF Crust?

Wait, Domino's now has a GLUTEN-FREE** pizza crust?!

Domino's Pizza retains all rights to this image, and has no affiliation
with Gluten-free Reality

**sorta.

Here is Domino's FAQ page about their new "GF" pizza--which is made in the same part of the kitchen, on the same counter, as the non-GF kind. Phooey.

However, their hand-thrown crusts are thrown with cornmeal, so there may still be hope for us to be able to eat a pizza there! 

As usual, your saintly, hungry college lab rats Brian and Dia are here to test it out for you. Brian has almost been GF for five months now and Dia's a veteran of almost five years (am I 23 or 23?) unless you don't count her mission (which she doesn't, because she ate ... everything... on accident).

Send hopeful thoughts our way! 

Symptomless Gluten Sensitivity

A newbie?  I really found this doctor's opinions to be very interesting .  Dr. Clark on YouTube.

GF Triple Chocolate Cookie Balls

Triple Chocolate Cookie Balls? Delicious and easy. Can I make them GF? Yeah!

First posted 11-11-11

YET Another Party? YES! But this one was for a good cause... they all are, but we collected infant supplies to donate to our local Emergency Infant Services.

While we got together for gab and grub, fellow potluckers brought some delicious food, and I'll be blogging their recipes as soon as I get them.

We ate the mandatory cookie salad, green apples diced, cool whip slathered over and snicker bars cut up and tossed in. That was interesting and decadent.

I made Indian food--hey! If I keep inviting different guests, I can continue serving the old stand-by right? Go With What Works! It's a No-Brainer.

My friend, Erin brought Mediterranian Seven-layer dip and that was terrifically delicious! So watch for that coming up.  HeRe iT Is!!!

And I made a rip-off of the world-wide party food, dessert balls. I saw them on a Kraft blog and had to modify them for GF.

This GF Triple Chocolate Cookie Ball recipe calls for oreos crushed, jello instant pudding and I added cream cheese.

Delicious! Enjoy!

GF Thai Tuna Patties

What fun it was to make this simultaneously with the daughter long distance over the phone last night.  We joked, laughed and cooked together, her modifying the crumbs to whatever she could find in a newlywed cupboard.  Once again, the guys liked it so much they fought over the last burger.  Truly delish!

First posted 1-25-10

My boys loved this recipe! Shock and awe! I called it a tuna burger... that might be why.

1 lb of Ahi Tuna flaked (or you could do like me and open three (5 oz.) cans of Starkist)

1/2 cup bread or cracker crumbs (YAY someplace to use all those stale loaves.)

Mix the following ingredients together then combine all together:

1/2 tsp onion powder (or green onions)

1/4 tsp minced ginger (I doubled this and it was great)

1/2 tsp sesame oil (Sushi Chef most are GF)

1/2 tsp fish sauce (Thai Kitchen  most are GF)

1 Tablespoon GF soy sauce (LaChoy or Kikuman's new GF type)

1 egg

Mix altogether and form into patties. Brown on each side in a nonstick skillet or my trusty cast iron on medium heat.

Serve atop greens with a Cucumber Aiolo sauce (fancy name for a simple sauce)

1 Tbs. mayo

1 Tbs. finely grated cucumber

Delicious! Easy and already to make from the contents of the pantry!!! So this one moves to one of the top twenty easy/fast main dish recipes.