Sloppy Joe Turnovers

My mom used to make Sloppy Joe Turnovers for my brother and I when we were kids. Back then she used sour cream and Hungry Jack Biscuits. Fond memories of growing up made me copy the recipe down before I got married (some people fill hope chests, I filled shoe boxes with recipes) and it's taken me oh...many years...to finally make it for my daughters. These meaty turnovers are definitely kids

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe for thumbprint cookies is from Ball's Blue Book of Canning and Preserving. Originally egg-free, I've made it gluten, casein and nut free as well. It is my family's favorite holiday cookie, and very easy to make!Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies1 cup powdered sugar 1 cup Earth Balance Soy Free Margarine 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups GF flour blend (I used this one) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp.

Dark Chocolate Brandy Truffles

While DH was in grad school we hung out with a core group of friends who all liked to cook and bake. One member of our group made truffles one Christmas- the most evil, rich and decadent bits of chocolate I've ever had - and he shared the recipe with me. This year I've made them dairy-free, and they are just as fabulous as they were then. The original recipe called for 2 pounds of chocolate, 1

Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread (Gluten Free & Vegan)

It has been three years since I've had Scottish Shortbread! And finally, I've made some! The years just seem to go by so fast, and there are so many old recipes to convert. But it was shortbread's turn this year, since it is my mom's favorite. Now that she is also gluten free, I am very motivated to send these to her. I hope they travel well!2 1/2 cups GF flour blend (I used High Protein)1

Gluten Free, Vegan Gingersnaps

Happy Holidays! Here is my version of gluten free and vegan gingersnaps...not only are they really good, they smell just like Christmas. I love that they are a snap to throw together - no chilling needed! The original recipe (which I modified slightly) can be found here. I have used prune butter to replace the egg (I love, love, love using prune butter in cookies!), but you may try applesauce

Hooray for Soyatoo Casein and Soy Free Whipped Cream!

This Christmas, thanks to Soyatoo's Rice Whip whipped topping, I can enjoy a proper Irish Coffee! And the girls can enjoy a lovely hot cocoa! There is no casein, no gluten, no corn and contrary to its name, no soy in this stuff. And it tastes pretty darn good! It's not too sweet and it's light and fluffy like whipped cream should be. The price tag is a bit shocking, but for the holidays its

Gluten Free and Vegan Ultra-Rich Brownies

I cannot make fudge. Every year I try, and every year I fail. Fudge is not supposed to be terribly finicky, but I just cannot get it right. I can make a mean nut brittle, but forget about fudge. So I've given up on fudge! This Christmas instead, I will serve peppermint brownies! I've been tinkering with this recipe for months - unlike Cake Brownies, these brownies turn out rich, dense and

Cranberry, Pine Nut and Quinoa Tart (Gluten Free and Vegan)

Here's another extreme makeover of one of my favorite dishes ever. It used to be Cranberry, Walnut and Blue Cheese Tart. It was savory and wicked good. Here I've replaced the wheat, cream, eggs, cheese and walnuts of the original and turned it into Cranberry, Pine Nut and Quinoa Tart, which makes it officially gluten free and vegan. Okay, I used millet for this one in the picture, but quinoa

Tian De Courge (Squash Gratin)

Tian De Courge is easily my very favorite autumn dish. DH's aunt made it one Thanksgiving years ago and I've been making it ever since...well, ever since a couple of years ago. I've missed it, and this year instead of grumbling about it, I reworked it to be safe for my family. Although there is no chance the girls will go near this dish yet, I'm making it egg-free anyway against the time they

Apple Yogurt Crumb Pie (Gluten Free and Vegan)

Sour Cream Apple Pie used to be one of my very favorite pies. I've missed it the past couple of years. But this year instead of pining for it, I decided to rework it with So Delicous Coconut Milk Yogurt! Happy day, my pie came out great! Instead of using sour cream, sugar, flour and egg in the filling I substituted coconut milk yogurt, maple syrup and granulated tapioca. Now that Anna is

Roast Crisp-Skin Turkey (Edited)

I found it! My favorite recipe for brined turkey! It was stuffed in someplace really random, and now that I have it in hand I'm going to post it right away so all I have to do next year is head to my blog to find it. Phew!This is the most fabulous recipe for brined turkey ever. I can't remember where it's from. I think my mom gave it to me as a newspaper clipping or something like that.

Swiss Chard-Wrapped Fish

My new favorite way to make fish is to wrap it in chard leaves and bake it. I've tried this with different seasonings and each time it's been very good, no matter how I've seasoned it. Each time the fish comes out perfectly cooked. It's like parchment-wrapped fish, only better in my opinion because you get to eat the wrapping. Even better? The girls love this dish, which is great because

Arugula Pesto

We have scads of arugula crowding our little garden! It's very exciting. I just love going out to the garden to harvest green things for dinner. Our little peas plants have also produced several plump pea pods that Anna has enjoyed splitting open to eat the little green peas nestled inside. I love that she eats so healthy and loves fresh green things almost as much as I do. In spite of all

Chewy Gooey Ginger Bars

Ah, Prune Butter...there is not enough time to sing its praises. It turned my Chewy Ginger Bars into total fabulousness. Don't get me wrong, they were good before now, but they had eggs in them. Eggs have been out for months now and all my current baking is gluten free and vegan. It's not so bad, really. It gets easier and easier with time, and more fun with each experiment. I promise it

Gluten Free, Vegan Bran Muffins

This was the first recipe I tried replacing eggs with prune butter. Holy cow, these muffins came out so good! I'm not into muffins or sweets too much - I make them for my family - but I really enjoyed these. The prune butter keeps the muffins moist and really does add a rich flavor - and the muffins don't taste like prunes at all. I've made gluten free bran muffins before, and this vegan

Prune Butter (Egg Substitute)

It's been busy here lately. Among a myriad of other things, I've been trying to find creative ways to replace eggs in my baked goods. Whereas before I'd use applesauce or mashed banana as egg replacers, I can't do that now with Anna's elimination diet. I've been using a lot of flax and needed a change - flax meal, while good, isn't a great egg substitute for everything.So while searching for

Gluten Free, Vegan Pie Crust

Thanksgiving is arriving soon. And while Thanksgiving is currently the farthest thing from my mind, other people are thinking about it. Recently a friend asked - how does one make a gluten-free and vegan pie crust? I told her as I'm telling you - it's very easy. This recipe below is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens (I still use their cookbooks on a regular basis, gluten-fee or not).I

Sauteed Kale

I love kale - really, really love it. Actually, I love most greens...spinach, swiss chard, beet greens, mustard greens...the greener, the better. My tastes have slowly changed over the years from preferring savory over sweet almost all the time. It started when I was pregnant with Anna. I just could not get enough of spinach. Crazy, right? I craved the stuff from morning till night. I'd

Dairy Free, Soy Free Coconut "Sour Cream"

As a sour cream substitute, Avocado Cream is really very good. But avocados have been sub-par at the grocery stores lately, Whole Foods included, so I cannot make mock sour cream for any of my favorite foods, which include quesadillas and black bean soup. I keep looking for a dairy free, soy free and nut free sour cream alternative at the stores, but so far nobody has ponied up on that front.

Dirt Cake

This cake is a hit with kids and adults alike. I always get the best comments when I bring this dessert to a party, usually centered around the flower in the cake and the worms sticking their heads up out of the "dirt". It's a great way to use a "failed" cake - if you have one that craters or is delicate and breaks apart, just turn it into Dirt Cake. It may not be the cake you originally

Gluten Free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

(The cookies above have amaranth flour in them, the cookies below have buckwheat flour in them.)(Don't need to be egg free? See this recipe for chocolate chip cookies that are simply gluten and casein free.)I've been playing with gluten free and vegan chocolate chip cookies for a little while now. Each time I make them, they turn out wonderful. I've used different flours such as amaranth or

Millet Burgers with Hot Sauce

Millet burger with heirloom tomato and hot sauce.Today I served these burgers for our Labor Day lunch with friends. Everybody loved them, even the kids. I had originally wanted to make sweet potato falafel but had leftover cooked millet and baking potatoes readily available, and tahini is out for Anna right now as she can't have sesame seeds. So I came up with these burgers instead and

Gluten Free, Vegan Bagels

Bagels. Fabulous, gluten free, vegan bagels. Perfect with margarine, but just as good as a sandwich. It's been a long time since we've had bagels. Well apart from Enjoy Life bagels, which while pretty good, are not the same as big, light and airy homemade bagels. Actually, I've had homemade bagels before going gluten free and I have to say, I was less than impressed. They were, well, lumps

Dairy-Free, Egg-Free Caesar Dressing

Here is a Caesar salad dressing that has no egg, no casein, and no soy! Without compromising its integrity, it retains all its familiar Caesar tangy-ness. Which is good, because a Caesar dressing without integrity is, well...bad.This dressing ha a lovely tan color due to anchovies.3 medium or 2 large cloves garlic1 tbsp. dijon mustard1 tbsp. lemon juice1 tbsp. vinegar2 tbsp. mayonnaise2oz can

Gluten Free, Vegan Buckwheat Zucchini Muffins

School started this Monday. It was so hot, like 105 degrees, the kind of hot that sizzles your skin in 10 seconds flat, coupled with the kind of humid that makes it harder to breathe. When it gets that hot and humid, it's like living in an armpit. We've been treated to this sort of heat for over a month, I think (although I stopped counting the days because it's just too depressing). Yesterday

Gluten Free and Corn Free - Fried Green Tomatoes!

It's been obnoxiously hot and humid here for three weeks and counting. My tomato plants are looking very sad. No matter how much I water them, they are frying in the sun. They are still producing small to medium tomatoes, but as soon as they ripen they get rotten spots where the sun hits them all day long. I've thrown out many ripe tomatoes, which is starting to make me very cranky. Then I

Gluten Free, Vegan Snickerdoodles

Finally! I've finally made egg-free Snickerdoodles that work! The first time I tried replacing the egg in my old recipe with applesauce (which works for many things but apparently not those cookies), they tasted truly terrible. Since then I've realized that there is more to baking without eggs than simply replacing egg in a recipe. So I scrapped the shortening for canola oil and I used maple

Shae's Hot Wings

Full disclosure: I'm not a wing person. I could live without chicken wings basically forever. I don't know what it is about the chicken wing craze where we are (lots of wing restaurants everywhere), but I'm not part of the insanity. I was happy to live a wing-free life indefinitely until a friend (Shae, you did it again) made dinner for us one night. He said "I'm going to make hot wings!".

Crock Pot Baked Beans

My BFF makes great baked beans from scratch. She bakes them in the oven using her grandmother's beanpot. Truthfully, I'm slightly green over her beanpot. I want one in the worst way. Actually I want two, one to pass down to each of my daughters. But until then I will have to make do with baking beans in my crock pot. Actually that's not so bad right now, as it's we've had triple digit heat

Dairy Free, Soy Free "Sour Cream" (or Avocado Creme, How I Love Thee)

Recently I stumbled across Ellie Krieger's recipe for these Broccoli Stuffed Potato Skins with Avocado Creme. They look pretty, no? And they are YUMMY, a true crowd-pleaser. Daiya Cheddar stands in for regular sharp cheddar just fine, and the potato skins can be filled with something other than broccoli, such as chili. What is particularly exciting about the recipe is the Avocado Creme ,

Sauteed Lentil Sprouts

Sprouted lentils - what's not to love? They are super healthy and delicious!Recently a friend came over with a gift of lentil and mung bean sprouts, a full dry pint of each. He said the CSA he's part of is having a hard time producing vegetables, so the farmer sprouted lentils and mung beans. I said thank you, raised an eyebrow, and asked him what to do with them. He told me to saute them in

Homemade Laundry Detergent and Other Money Saving Strategies

So, we've been in our new house for almost 4 months. Our expenses have gone up while DH's net income has not. I'm looking for ways to trim the budget, which is really hard to do in the face of our food sensitivities and allergies. You'd think that eliminating certain foods from our diet would be easier on our budget, but it's not. Quite the opposite, in fact. Eliminating gluten, casein, soy,

Crock Pot Chicken with Wild Rice

I love my crock pot. It sees a fair bit of use even in the summertime when days get filled with pools, parks and play dates (or those days where I'm too lazy to do much of anything). Turkey tenderloins work just as well as chicken. One of these I might try rabbit, too. The meat is best brined for a couple of hours before placing in the crock pot, if you can manage it.* 1 1/2 cups wild rice1

GFCF Coleslaw

My mom's coleslaw is really good. She does not have an official recipe, she makes it by memory every time. While she was visiting we went over the basics and I wrote them down. Since the coconut milk in my homemade vegan mayo makes it slightly sweeter than traditional mayo, I increased the vinegar in the coleslaw and cut back on the sugar slightly. It came quite close to the coleslaw that I

GFCF Eggplant "Lasagna"

Eggplant has been on sale recently. Inspired by the success of Spaghetti Squash Lasagna, I bought an eggplant and decided to make lasagna out of it, too. Predictably, the girls won't go near this, but DH and a friend thought it was great!1 medium eggplant, washedsalt3 tbsp. white balsamic vinegar4 tbsp. olive oilprepared spaghetti sauce, such as BertolliDaiya shredded mozzarellapine nutsItalian

GFCF Cake Brownies (Egg Free)

I've been dying to make brownies for a long time but have been hesitant to make them egg free, afraid they'd turn out gummy and heavy. I really need to get over that fear, because my recent gluten free vegan baking is turning out really well. It's true that there is a learning curve but once you get the hang of it and can anticipate how a baked good will turn out based on experience, knowledge

GFCF Skillet Cake

I ran across this recipe for Skillet Cake in the latest Penzey's catalog and was intrigued. I love using my cast iron skillet for just about everything, but cake? I had to try it. It converted to being gluten free easily, it's already egg free, and it's delicious.The kids were so excited to have cake in a nifty skillet that they were falling over themselves in excitement. "Mommy, is that cake

Black Bean Dip

Anna has been on her elimination diet for over two weeks now. One of the things she cannot eat is sesame seeds. This is a problem since hummus has been one of the staples of her diet. Lately I've been making White Bean Dip with Sage, and for variety I made this Black Bean Dip last night (original recipe here, with minor changes). I'm happy to say that Anna really likes this dip and it has now

GFCF Blueberry Peach Crisp

Tis the season for berries! Years ago before my girls were born, my mom and I would go berry picking on a Saturday morning and spend the rest of the weekend baking and canning. Our favorite was blueberry lime jam. We made it for ourselves and gave it away as gifts, and there was nothing better on a cold winter day than to open up that jar of jam and with one whiff being whisked back into

Kitchen Sink Pad Thai

Lately I've had a hankering for pad thai. Food sensitivities make it difficult to order take-out, so I decided to try making pad thai at home with what I had in the kitchen - chicken thighs, onion, red pepper and almond butter. I ended up really liking it, especially the little hint of lime in the sauce. I used this recipe as my guide but instead of sweet chili sauce I used nut butter, I added

Fresh Berry Sauce

Megan has become picky again with her fruits and vegetables. Currently the only "vegetable" she will "eat" (that is, if you don't count ketchup or salsa) is tomato/vegetable juice. Her list of fruit is limited to apples, bananas, strawberries, canteloupe, pineapple and sometimes, grapes. As we are eliminating the first three from her list for the time being, I had to get creative with serving

Easy Pancakes (Gluten Free and Vegan)

The girls' elimination diet began on Sunday, with a few hiccups here and there. They're supposed to avoid apples but I was brain farting and giving them apple juice. So I guess maybe it won't start completely until tomorrow. I've been using applesauce to replace eggs in baked goods but I can't do that now. Same for mashed bananas. So I just went for flax meal in these pancakes. They turned

Messing around with Vegan Soy Free Mayo

Recently we learned that Anna is sensitive to nuts, at least for the time being. So for the next few weeks, mayonnaise made with almond milk is a no-go. Using that same recipe, last night I tried two milk alternatives - plain unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk and plain unsweetened rice milk.Here's the coconut milk one. I put black pepper in it.Here's the rice milk one. I put white pepper

Banana Cookies

This weekend has found me practically knee-deep in bananas that are just past their prime (read: perfect for banana bread). I froze as many as would fit into my freezer and had to use the rest really fast. So last night I made banana muffins (using this recipe) and this morning I made these banana cookies. I modified this original recipe and I'm pleased with the results. These cookies are

Shae's Raw Beet Salad

My friend Shae is a really good cook. I don't think he ever follows a recipe, he just makes stuff up as he goes. Recently he presented us with this raw beet salad. I never would have thought raw beets would be a good idea, but they are - especially with a mustard dressing. Hello, yum. This is a great summer salad that would go well with just about anything. You'll want to pick beets that are

Apple Berry Breakfast Crisp

Who likes to eat pie for breakfast? I love pie for breakfast, especially fruit pies bursting with jammy goodness. So what's a gal to do when she's craving pie but does not have time to fuss with a pie crust? Make a crisp, of course. I cut back on the sugar in this crisp a little bit to let the fruit really shine. This crisp is easy enough to make the morning of, but I make it the night

Spagetti Squash Pesto "Lasagna"

I love spaghetti squash. Yes, Mom, I know you are rolling her eyes at me (all I would do as a kid is crinkle my nose at it and say "yuck"). It's funny how your tastes change as you get older. Now I think the stuff is great. So I bought one and it sat on the counter for several days, staring at me, daring me to make something different than my usual spaghetti squash recipe. I've been really

Vanilla Balsamic Vinaigrette

You know what's really fun? When a friend beats down your door and says "taste this and help me replicate it!". The dish in question was a cobb salad from a local gluten free restaurant, but it was not the salad that was giving my friend fits. No, it was the dressing. We tasted and tinkered and tasted again, and eventually came up with something very close to the original. Surprisingly, I

Chipotle Shredded Pork

Here's another recipe featuring chipotles in adobo sauce! I begged this off my friend, who throws in a whole can of chipotles into this dish. I use half that amount because I just can't take that much heat. Serve over rice and with sliced avocados or guacamole, which will help cut the heat. Believe it or not, this is great served on a hot summer day. The kids will not go anywhere near this

Successful Gluten Free Vegan Cake!

The other day was Megan's birthday. All her 5 year old little heart wanted for her birthday was a doll, a dress, and a chocolate birthday cake. I was sweating bullets thinking about making her an egg-free cake. I tried last weekend to modify a cake recipe (Ina's, which looks delicious, flopped for me when I tried to replace the eggs and it went in the trash, ugh). This weekend I decided to

Spicy Chipotle Steaks with Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I love Adobo Sauce. I'd eat it straight with a spoon if it didn't burn a hole through my tongue. Even though I buy the small cans of chipotles in adobo, I never use them all and I hate throwing the leftovers away. So here's a recipe designed to go together to reduce chipotle waste. If you have any leftover chipotles and adobo sauce, use them in this black bean soup!Spicy Chipotle Steaks6

Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Cookies (Gluten Free & Vegan)

(If you don't need to be egg free, see these chocolate chip cookie recipeshere and here.) Let me be honest with you. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around my new vegan baking reality. I was okay with baking gluten free. After getting used to the way gluten free flours behaved, it was all good. And baking casein and soy free is no biggie. But it's a lot harder to replace eggs in

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

This velvety vegan chocolate pudding is made with avocados. And prunes. Yes, you read that right. I don't know how else to preface this recipe other than to say it's really good. The original recipe is by Rice of Life . ( I used prunes because they are easier to find than dates). My girls cannot get enough of this pudding, which is great because it's the only way either of them gets prunes

Homemade Vegan Soy Free Mayonnaise

I'M SO EXCITED!!! I finally made mayonnaise that looks and tastes like the real thing! There are no eggs and no soy in this recipe, and it's very easy and cheap to make! Finally Megan can have mayonnaise again (she did not care for my previous incarnations). In fact, right now she's enjoying her first chicken salad for lunch in months. She even likes the mayo plain. I'm so excited that I

GFCF Skillet Sandwich Wrap

(Anna's hummus wrap looks thin, but I've stuffed wraps full of meat and veggies with no breakage!)Summer is almost here. So far this spring has been mild, but it is getting warmer and one of these days summer will arrive in all its triple digit glory. Although our kitchen does not heat up as much or as fast as our old kitchen, it still gets hot in here. I've been thinking about ways to keep oven

Sauteed Cabbage

I'm posting this simple recipe because, well, it's amazing. I keep making it over and over because I can't get enough of it. You can see the same recipe here. The coconut oil really makes this dish sublime. I've used green cabbage, red cabbage and brussels sprouts and they all turn out great.1/2 head cabbage, washed, cored and thinly sliced2 tsp. coconut oil, plus more as neededsalt and

Shout-out for Butternut Hash Browns

Heal~Balance~Live is a great blog full of great recipes - not all casein free, but all gluten free and all interesting. I pop over on a regular basis to check out recipes that are safe for us, such as these amazing looking Butternut Hash Browns. Yum! I can't wait to make them. There's no chance my girls will eat these, so I don't have to worry about the egg in them. Anyway, I keep trying to

GFCF Egg-Free Sandwich Bread for the Bread Machine

Up until now, I've been baking Megan's egg-free bread in the oven. It's been turning out great and it feels a little quaint, which I like. And I thought - why mess with something that is working? I've also been making two different breads - one for Megan, and one in the bread machine for the rest of the family that has eggs in it. For some odd reason I thought this was easier and cheaper, but

GFCF Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies (Vegan)

I am slowly embracing gluten-free vegan baking. Each time I turn out something edible, I feel like doing a little dance. So far I'm able to scaffold off of what others have done, but I'm not yet able to wing it myself. I tried to make my Snickerdoodles egg free and they turned out fairly terrible. I don't know how the kids ate them, but they did. Kudos to them.Today I made chocolate chip bar

Natural Food Colorings

I've gotten a couple of requests for dye-free frosting. Here I'm going to show you what beet and red cabbage can do!To use beet juice as food coloring, roast some beets in a little bit of water, about 1/2 cup. Save the brilliant red beet juice. A little bit makes a light pink frosting, a lot makes a dark fuschia frosting.To use red cabbage as a food coloring, boil half a red cabbage in a

Homemade Avocado Mayonnaise

In my continuing hunt for egg-free, soy-free mayonnaise, I ran across an article in Eating Well featuring Rick Bayless and avocados. The article mentioned that avocados are a natural emulsifier, so I ran to the computer and looked up recipes for avocado mayonnaise. Then I ran to the grocery store to pick out the perfect avocado - according to Bayless a perfectly ripe avocado is not green, but

Raw Tahini Dip

In my quest for mayonnaise that does not taste like tahini (though good, it does not work with everything), I tried making raw tahini to achieve a milder, less toasty flavor. This experiment failed miserably for how I originally wanted to use it - my food processor left it with too much texture for mayonnaise. Faced with a lot of raw tahini, I decided to make a tahini dip for friends who were

GFCF Mayonnaise Crust

So last week I made mayonnaise. It was good, but particularly flavored so I had not used all of it by week's end, and I didn't want to waste it. I happened to flip through The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy and ran across a recipe for Mayonnaise Crust. That looked very exciting, so I gave it a try using this recipe as a guide. It's just like an oil crust, but with mayonnaise.I've

Homemade Vegan Mayonnaise (Soy Free)

(This was my first attempt at vegan soy-free mayo. For an even better version - my favorite -, see this recipe HERE! )Okay, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. I've already heard the grumbles, sorry about that. I've been busy! Busy in general, but also busy trying to concoct palatable egg-free stuff for Megan. It took awhile to get bread down, and next on the list was mayonnaise. In

Chocolate Muffins

Don't these muffins look lovely? The recipe by Gluten Free Goddess can be found here. I made these changes:Used brown rice flour instead of quinoa flour, tapioca starch instead of potato starch, and guar gum instead of xanthan gum. I also decreased the nutmeg to 1/4 tsp., replaced the olive oil with canola oil, used 3/4 cup rice milk, replaced the Ener-G egg replacer and water with 3 tbsp.

Homemade Toasted Sesame Tahini

Yesterday I made homemade tahini for the first time. It never occurred to me that I could make it at home, I just assumed it was too difficult. But when I ran out of tahini and saw a bag of lonely sesame seeds hanging out in my cupboard, I decided to give homemade tahini a try. It's cheaper than store bought and it takes no time at all. I used a blender and clean up was a snap. Using this recipe

Sweet Potato Fries with Garlic Dip

Sweet potato fries are one of my favorite foods. Usually I toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake them, then drizzle lime juice over them before serving. But recently I ran across a Food Network recipe for Sweet Potato Fries with Basil Salt and Garlic Mayonnaise - it sounded soooo good. I made them today for friends (tweaked a little bit, of course) and between the three of us, the

GFCF Lemon Ice Cream

So I made this lemon curd. It was tart, and there was a lot of it. What to do with a lot of tart lemon curd? Turn it into ice cream, of course. I used this recipe at Joy of Baking as my guide. And it was very good. Everybody loved it - it turned out creamy and didn't crystallize in the freezer. I will definitely be making this ice cream again.1 can lite coconut milk (about 2 cups)1/2 cup

GFCF Lemon Curd (Egg Free)

I don't know what came over me the other week, but suddenly I had a burning desire to make egg-free lemon curd. Megan just had to have some - I envisioned making thumbprint cookies for her and filling them with lemon curd. Mind you, she never mentioned craving lemon curd. But in my head she had to have some, and fast. It probably has to do with me - having conquered gfcf egg free bread to my

Risotto with Butternut Squash

I've had a Bon Appetit recipe for Risotto and Butternut Squash with Leeks that has been kicking around in my recipe box for years. I brought it out year after year and set it aside on the counter in my little basket of "short list" recipes but I never ended up making it. So I can't compare before and after results. But I can tell you that I made this modified version on Friday night and it was

More GFCF Egg-Free Sandwich Bread

Well, I've been busy. Life just sort of exploded after the new year and I don't know when it will slow down again, maybe not until summer break. But I have been busy baking egg-free bread for Megan and testing different flour blends to see how they work. So far I've tried Sorghum and Millet, High Protein and Multigrain blends. I like each of them - here are my notes.Sorghum and Millet - this

Brined Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy

A good friend of mine started her own food blog - Gluten, Soy and Casein Free! This is pretty exciting. While it's fun to talk on the phone about what recipes we've tried and what we made for dinner recently, it's even more fun to see pictures and recipes! I think we will go back and forth inspiring and challenging each other to try new things in the kitchen. One of her recent recipes has a

Oven Baked GFCF Egg-Free Bread

Well, I have been hard at work for over a week trying to make a loaf of egg-free bread to my liking. When I wonder why I've been beating myself up over this (other than being a glutton for punishment), all I need to do is to look at Megan's hands. She's been completely egg-free for over a week and the eczema on her hands has completely resolved. Instead of being cracked, red and raw, her skin

Gelatin Egg Substitute

I love my readers. They give me such great tips! This egg substitute recipe comes from Heather. She uses it in everything. So far I've only used it in sandwich bread, and it's been working great. Thanks, Heather! Keep in mind that gelatin is not vegan. For a vegan egg substitute, try Ener-G Egg Replacer.1 packet Knox gelatin1 cup boiling waterStir gelatin into water until dissolved. Let

Gluten Free, Vegan Apple Scones

While DH was in grad school I met a lot of interesting people from all over the country and all over the world. One friend I made was from Croatia. Everything she made was delicious - anything I could do, she could do 10 times better. So it was always a pleasure to get together with her and watch her cook and bake. One day she served currant scones that were the best I ever had - they were

Broiled Tomatoes with Millet and Pepperoni

This is one of my favorite light lunch recipes. It is a simple dish that can be made in under 30 minutes with minimal prep. I use grape or cherry tomatoes, but any smallish tomato would work. I like to broil the tomatoes until they are only just warm and fragrant. I also like the millet in this dish, but pasta would work well too.12 cherry tomatoes, halved1 tbsp. olive oil1 clove garlic,

Cooked Millet

I love cooking millet. Technically millet is a seed, not a grain, although it's used like a grain. It's a good source of fiber and magnesium (for millet's nutritional profile, go here). I like making plain cooked millet quite a bit - it's a nice change from rice and it cooks faster, too. With some sauteed vegetables, it would make a nice pilaf. But I usually serve it with something saucy

Homemade Cucumber Rolls

I love sushi - all types of sushi rolls, nigiri sushi, chirashi sushi, you name it. I don't normally buy it because it's expensive, but sometimes I'll splurge and bring some home. It never occurred to me to try making it myself, I thought it would be too difficult. But then what do you think popped up in my Google Reader one day right before the holidays? A recipe for Cucumber Sushi at (Never

GFCF Pumpkin Orange Bread

Happy New Year! I'm clearing out my stack of recipes left from autumn and early winter. This recipe, originally by Cooking Light, is one of them. It's one of our favorites - it can be enjoyed from fall until late winter. You can find the original recipe here. Dry ingredients2 cups GF flour blend2 tbsp. flax seed meal2 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. xanthan gum1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon1/2 tsp. baking soda1/2