Gluten Free Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake

Sophie made this cake to take to Joe's parents' house this afternoon.  She tweaked a couple of recipes from the web, one for the cake and another for the glaze.

GF Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake

We use the Artisan blend at Peter and Kelli Bronski’s No Gluten, No Problem blog or in their Artisinal Gluten Free Cooking cookbook.

• 3 cups Gluten Free Flour Mix
• ½  cup butter
• 2 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 eggs + 1 yolk
• 3 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 c milk

Beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• ¼ cup powdered milk
• ¼ tsp. Salt

Mix dry ingredients together and then stir into wet ingredients.  Beat with a mixer for a couple of minutes until well mixed and fluffy.

Pour batter into greased Bundt pan and back at 350°F for about 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool about ½ hour, and then tip onto a cake plate and cool thoroughly.

When cooled, poke holes with a skewer and coat with lemon glaze, spreading glaze slowly with a spoon so it soaks into the holes a little bit. Continue to scoop up glaze and re-apply until the cake is well-coated.

If you want, you can use a couple of spatulas to lift the cake onto a fresh plate. Cover until just before serving.

Lemon Glaze

• 1/3 c lemon juice
• 2 c powdered sugar
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• 1 Tbs water

30-minute Gluten Free Yeast Rolls

I adapted these for Gluten Free and as with many gluten free items, it takes a bit longer baking, so probably they're, .... oh, .... 35- or 40-minute rolls, but still pretty quick for a nice fluffy GF yeast roll.


30-minute Gluten Free Yeast Rolls

Heat oven to 400°F.

Grease a muffin pan. 

In your mixer bowl combine

1 c plus 2 Tbsp warm water

⅓ c coconut oil

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

¼ c raw honey

Let rest for 15 minutes.

Mix in the

1 tsp salt

½  tbs xanthan gum

2 eggs

3 – 3½ c *GF flour mix, or until mixture is a very thick batter.

*I use Peter and Kelli Bronski's Artisan Flour mix. 

Drop dough into a greased muffin tin.

Let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes, or until internal temp is 205-210º.

Remove from oven. 

Let cool for five minutes. Remove from pan and set on a cooling rack to to cool.  Or better yet, wrap them in a cloth napkin and basket, and serve them warm and steamy.

Adapted from a recipe at the Your Homebased Mom blog.

Food and Nutrition, 2016 style

Ok,  yes, ... this makes me laugh.   Laugh at myself.  Because it's so, ... ludicrous.  Not ludicrous in general, for everyone.  But ludicrous for me.  Considering my whole homemade foods/slow foods/kind-of-sort-of-natural foods preferences.

I work at a place called Kay's Naturals.  They produce and market processed snack foods.  High protein, low glycemic, gluten free snack foods.  But still grab and go processed snack foods.  This kind of food is not generally in my scheme of cooking and providing food for my family.  And it's definitely not in my budget for providing food for my family. And I find word "natural" kind of ironic.

But I do realize that there is a market for such foods.  And if people want them, if they provide a marketable consumer good, hey, go for it.  And do it well.  Which I think Kay's does.

In that spirit, I tell people about our products.  I take samples home to share with those who might be interested.  (It's part of the marketing at Kay's to allow their employees to do this.  I'm not stealing.  Just saying.)  And I sample them myself, so I can make suggestions to those who ask.  I've been working there about six weeks and I've not yet sample all 19 of their products, so it's not like I'm pigging out on them or anything.

Besides making high protein, low glycemic snack foods, Kay's also makes and markets 3- and 7- day meal plans.  These meal plans include individual sized servings of Kay's snacks throughout the day plus suggested foods to complete the meal while keeping the lowcarb, high protein aspect.  I think they are also low fat.  My understanding is that since most people eat much junk food and high-carb, highly processed foods anyway, this plan gives a framework someone could use as a foundation to start to eat healthier, and maybe lose some weight.  These meal plans can also be a useful tool for those with blood sugar issues, since they have a low glycemic index, and snacks are included throughout the day.

A few people at work had been talking about (procrastinating over) doing a 7-day plan.  I decided to do it, too, and we decided that this is the week.  If it goes well, the sales staff can use our experience with it in their promotions.

This is Day 2.  I'm eating my Cinnamon Almond Cookie Bites as I type.

Getting back to my original sentence about this whole business making me kind of laugh to myself, here's the deal.

While on the seven day meal plan, we can eat as much fresh vegetables as we choose.  There are a variety of acceptable fruits that can be eaten at certain times of day.  The rest of the plan is as follows.

For breakfast each day we have a Kay's cereal and some lowfat yogurt.

1) Yes, I'm in a breakfast cereal rut.  And yes, an argument could be made that the high protein cereals from Kay's are better than the pencil shaving stuff we have been eating until theMom gets her act together (store brand Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Corn Chex, and an occasional bag of Golden Puffs).  Ideally, when I'm in the groove, I prepare a hot cereal, eggs, potatoes and meat, or a homemade low sugar baked good.  I would not consider cold cereal for a "jump start your healthy eating" plan.

2) Nonfat vs regular yogurt?  I'd much prefer to have those 8 grams of good dairy fat than the pectin to hold the yogurt together.  And their suggestion of low sugar?  When I'm in the groove I make my own plain old white unflavored yogurt.  But these days I've been splurging and buying the quarts of plain yogurt.  I am so used to it, forget that some people use the word yogurt to mean something flavored and sweetened.   When the kids have friends over and I serve yogurt, they sometimes wonder what it is.

Midmorning snack.  A Kay's individually packaged processed snack.  I rarely eat a midmorning snack.  So here I am on a "diet" (oh, I mean meal-plan), and I'm eating a midmorning snack.

The noon meals consist of some sort of processed convenience food plus the Kay's product, a high protein chip or puff or snack of some sort.  The suggested pre-packaged entrees are a variety of Progresso soups, a Weight Watchers or Amy's frozen selection.

I confess, I did buy a handful of store bought soups during the the first month or two after our recent move.  But besides that, I can't tell you when the last time was I bought canned soup.  And frozen entrees?  I do buy an occasional pack of frozen burritos when I know Joe's going to be gone.  Frozen pizzas during the first months following our move.  And for my first week of work.  Before our gluten-free days (when I only had five or six kids to cook for) I'd allow myself the indulgence or luxury of one meal of fish sticks, one meal of corn dogs, one meal of frozen ravioli, and one meal of frozen pizza each month.  That was our big "naughty" eating.

And here I have a healthy eating meal plan that wants me to use these foods.  I looked at the frozen foods section at Wal-mart, but I just couldn't get myself to spend our family's money on any of the suggested items.  I'll fill in with other high protein, low carb home cooked items.  But I can't promise they'll be lowfat.

Mid-afternoon snack.  A Kay's individually packaged Cookie Bites.  Oh I'm loving this diet!  Cookies every afternoon!

And for supper I'm supposed to eat a big salad with lemon juice for dressing, topped with the Kay's recommended chip for the meal.  I confess I'm still using my olive oil.  Another healthy fat. (There's a note in the pamphlet that warns, "1 tbs of olive oil is 120 calories."  Oops.)  I almost always use plain olive oil for salad dressing.  I'm so used to it I think nothing of it.  When my big kids come back home or especially when they bring friends, they have to dig around to see if there's any dressing around.  Sometimes we do have it, if some church member has given us some or if there is some left from a church function that they want to get out of the church fridge.  I'm going to make a mental note to make some more exciting homemade dressing when they come next.

100 calorie treat in the form of a healthy snack.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, we're encouraged to drink as much calorie free beverage as we want: diet soda, sparkling water, or bottled water.  I'd love to be able to justify drinking a few cans of sparkling water now and then.  Again, another one of those things that makes me think, "Wow, I get to have a LaCroix?"  But for the budget, I think I'll stick to plain old tap water with a few cups of plain black coffee thrown in.  I hope that's OK.

So that's the meal plan.  I don't doubt I'll lose weight.  But not because of eating healthier.  Rather it will be because I'm paying attention to portion size and carbs.

If I have time, I'll do a little write-up for each day, what I've done and what I've changed.  And I'll be sure to report any weight lost during the week.

And a final note because I've become so insecure these days about how I write things, I mean no disrespect toward those who eat and cook differently than I do.  I realize I have notions regarding food and health that might be strange or extreme to many.  I realize that cooking and budgeting for all of us mandates us to live more simply and to limit our discretionary food and beverage purchases.  And I also realize that even with my high standards for what and how I cook, I certainly do not do it perfectly.  I just lately feel like I'm kind of sort of getting back my brain and organization enough to cook well after all the chaos of our last year.

Gluten Free Streusel Crumble Coffee Cake with a cup of memories.

Gluten Free Streusel Crumble Coffee Cake

One of the reasons I love facebook is because of the surprise connections I find.  It's fun to hear from long lost friends and acquaintance that I never thought I'd hear from again.  One such friend is a guy who went to my elementary school for only a few months when we were in eighth grade. 

I attended a small Christian Day School, so everyone knew everyone, and most of the same families also attended our church.  It was our neighborhood.  Our primary community.  When a new family moved into the area, they were instantly part of our circle of people.  Bob's family moved to our city for only a few short months.  He had several brothers and a sister, the different ones of them aligning with different kids in our family.  For whatever reason, we've always remembered their family.  Throughout the years, we've talked about them periodically.  We've tried to remember their names and ages and which one was in whose grade, etc.  And we've wondered where they ended up.  They were a nice family and a nice addition to our "neighborhood" for the short time they were with us.

A few months back, I heard from Bob on facebook.  I had posted a picture from my gradeschool years and tagged some of the others of my friends with whom I'm still in touch.  And Bob had seen the tag and gotten in touch with me.  What a fun surprise!

Besides the getting-to-know-an-old-friend, thing, I've also totally appreciated Bob's photos of the wonderful Puget Sound area.  Oh, how I sometimes pine for those views.  And seeing periodic photos seems to feed that little hungry spot in my heart.

Bob is a single dad of two beautiful girls, and in such a role, he does many "Mom" type things.  One of the things he's been working on lately is teaching his girls to cook.  And as he finds recipes that work well or that look like something they might try, he posts them on facebook. 

The other day he posted this recipe for Cinnamon Roll Cake.  The picture reminded me of the Cinnabon Rolls that my friend, Ann, used to periodically buy us when I lived in the Madison area.  All the gooey cinnamony sweetness.  The tactile pleasure of the yeasty rolls. The glutenous goodness.

I saw right away that this was not a yeast leavened cake.  But I bake Gluten Free, and since generally I have better luck producing something wonderful using quick bread type leavenings rather than yeast. 

I opened a document straight away and began transposing the Cinnamon Roll Cake recipe into a Gluten Free version.

And Saturday morning, I finally tried it out.

Some of the kids said it was too dry.  Others said too crumbly.  When I got back to the house after some work I had to do down at church that morning, I eagerly tasted a piece.  Or two.  Yes, it was a bit crumbly, but I don't think much more so than many other gluten free baked goods.  It wasn't dry either.  But it was heavy.  And kind of, ... well, ... Clara said it best when she said, "It kind of gets stuck in the back of your throat like homemade doughnuts."  Yes, that's it.  It had a similar clingy heaviness.  Which many of us like and others don't.

It's wonderful with a hot cup of coffee.  I've been eating a square of it each morning with my first cup before the kids get up.  And that's how I know it's not terribly crumbly.  We don't allow the kids to eat in the living room.  And Joe and I only allow ourselves occasional adult living room indulging.  I've been eating my cake in here each day without making a crumbly mess.  I have it on a napkin, but I can life up the piece and take a bite with only a minimal dropping of crumbs upon my bathrobe. 

But I've only had it after it cooled the first day, and then the two mornings since, it has bee refrigerated.  Perhaps that makes a difference.  Because of the high amount of fat, I suppose that it might hold together better when chilled.  Maybe when the kids had it fresh from the oven, it fell apart more readily. 

You'll have to try it your self to see.

I'm going to veer off one more time into some memories before posting the recipe.  So, read on or skip to the recipe according to your preference.

After my parents passed away when I was five and six years old, I went to live in "the city" to be raised by my aunt and uncle.  A few things were packed away for my sister and I to have when we were older.  One of the things that we found when we went through such things was a couple of 1969 church cookbooks from Holy Cross Lutheran Church, in Withrow, WA.  Our mom had purchased one for each of us girls and written our names inside the front cover.

Holy Cross had been our church when we lived with Mom and Dad, and Withrow was our home town.  A very small town.  Fewer than 50 people probably lived there at that time.  And although there are a few residents still in Withrow today, I've seen it listed among Washington's ghost towns.   Holy Cross church as since closed down, although I understand there is still a core group of people in that area who would like to try to reorganize.

Needless to say, this cookbook, for all the sentimental reasons listed above, is one of my special possessions. 

Within it's pages is a recipe for a coffee cake called Deelish coffee cake.  My gluten free version of the Cinnamon Roll Cake kind of reminded me of this recipe I used to make quite often. Of course I always changed things up a bit, and you can still see my variations penciled in.

Here's what I think I did for my Gluten Free variety.  I do have it written down, but, because of my change-it-up tendencies, I have no idea how close it is to what I actually made.  It seems like I must have used some almond meal, too, but, ... I just can't remember for sure.

Gluten Free Streusel Crumble Coffee Cake

Grease two 9x13 pans

Preheat oven to 350°F

CAKE

• 6 c GF flour mix flour*
• (perhaps 1/2 - 1 c almond meal)
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tbs. baking powder
• ½ tbs xanthan gum
• 3 cups sour milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbs. vanilla

Mix together.

• 1 cup melted fat (I used about half butter and half coconut oil)

Drizzle fat in as you mix.

When well mixed, pour into cake pans.

TOPPING

• 1 cup fat, softened (I used coconut oil)
• 2 cup brown sugar (usually for this I'd use white sugar with a little molasses, but I didn't have it, so I just used white)
• 1/4 c GF flour mix. flour
• 1/8 c cinnamon

Mix together until cream. Drop by tablespoons onto cake. Swirl into the cake batter with a knife.

GLAZE (I only had about 1/2 c of powdered sugar, so our glaze was very minimal)

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 5 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. Vanilla

Drizzle over warm cake.

Two Gluten Free Rhubarb Bars to try this year

There are always so many recipes passing around facebook, and mostly I ignore them.  There are three or four main reasons I tend to ignore even the tastiest looking ones.  1) They are not usually Gluten Free; 2) Much of the time I can't think clearly enough to follow a recipe; 3) The additional cost of special ingredients, even things like chocolate chips are often a luzxury; and 4) I don't need the tempation of treats and sweets lying around.

But isn't there something irrisistable about rhubarb in the spring?

I took the time this to translate two really yummy looking rhubarb recipes into gluten free.  Oh, and they're also sized up a notch.  I've not had time or rhubarb to try them, since I'd just frozen and cooked up anything that was ready when these two recipes came along.  Feel free to try them and let me know how they turned out.  I'll be trying them in a couple of weeks.  Our rhubarb plant should be good and full by the time we return from vacation.

GF Rhubarb Cheesecake Bars
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Crust

• 2 ½ cups GF flour mix*
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup butter or fat of choice (I use equl parts lard and coconut oil)

Spread into jelly roll pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Rhubarb Layer

• 3 cups chopped rhubarb
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup GF flour mix

Mix together and bake for 15 minutes.

Cream Cheese Fillin

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

Whip together until fluffy.  Pour over rhubarb and bake for 25 minutes.

Glaze

• 1 cup sour cream
• ¼ c sugar
• 1/2 tbs vanilla

Spread over hot bars.

GF Rhubarb muffins with Struesel topping

Prepare 3 muffin pans as desired, greasing or papering. Preheat oven to 400°F.

• 6 c GF flour mix*
• 2 c sugar
• 2 ½ tbs. baking powder
• 1 tbs.ground cinnamon
• ½ tbs baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tbs xanthan gum

Mix together.

• 1 c fat (½ c coconut oil and ½ c lard)

Either cut into dry ingredients, or melt and cool slightly, then add with liquid.

• 3 cup sour cream
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tbs. pure vanilla extract

Wisk together and stir into dry ingredients.

• 4 cups rhubarb, diced small

Stir into batter.

Spoon into greased or papered muffin cups. Fill to just over level with top of muffin cups.

• 3 Tbs. granulated sugar
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon

Sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake at 400°F for 18-20 minutes.


*Note re Gf flour mixes:  If your mix already has xanthan gum or baking powder in it, you may have to tweak the amounts of these ingredients. I use the Kelli and Peter Bronski's mix from their cookbooks and their No Gluten, No Problem blog.  This mix has a small amount of xanthan gum, but no baking powder.

Quick and easy ground beef and cabbage

I made a wonderful supper tonight.  Really.  Wonderful. 

Every once in awhile I get lucky. 

I haven't have much imagination for cooking these days.  Most often lately, I've thrown something together with left overs, fried eggs or made pancakes, or let Joe cook.

Maybe it was the positive glow of losing four pounds this week.  Or maybe it was the energy gained from making ahead all kind of premixes for breakfasts.  Or maybe it was just that desperate feeling of not wanting to depend upon my husband once again.  Or the fear of him wanting to trade me in for a newer model if I didn't kick it into gear a little bit. 

Whatever it was, I'm not complaining. 

I don't know what to call this recipe.  It's got kind of an Eastern European flare to it. 

For lack of a better term, I'm going to call it Hungarian Beef and Cabbage.  All amounts are estimates.

Hungarian Beef and Cabbage

• 2 pounds ground beef

Brown in 3 qt saucepan

• 1/2 large head cabbage, sliced or cut
• 1/2 small bag of baby carrots, or about three med carrots, peeled and sliced

Stir into about a tablespoon of your choice of fat in Dutch oven.  Heat and stir over medium-high heat until coated with oil and starting to cook.  Turn down to medium or medium-low and cover.  Stir occasionally. 

• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tbs onion powder
• 1 tbs paprika
• 2 tbs caraway seeds
• 1 tbs salt (if your tomato sauce is salted, you might not want to start with this much)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tbs sugar

Mix together in small dish and set aside.

When cabbage and carrots are most of the way cooked through, and beef is browned, mix everything together in the Dutch oven. 

• 1 qt tomato sauce (see above note about salt)

Stir into the above.  Heat to simmering; turn down to maintain a very gentle simmer, and cover.

• In the pan in which you browned your meat, bring 6 c water to boil with a tsp or so of salt and a generous drizzle of olive oil.  Add a splash of sesame oil if you have it.   
• When the water boils, stir in 3 c white rice.  Return to boiling.  Reduce heat to just above lowest setting and cover.  

In twenty minutes remove both pots from heat and set aside for a few minutes while you set the table.  The rice will be nicer if it steams for a few minutes after removing from heat.  And the sauce will taste so good you'll burn your tongue if you don't let is sit a few minutes before eating it.

• Just before serving, stir 1 c of sour cream into the sauce. 

Enjoy!

Sophie's GF chocolate chip bars (like tollhouse bars)

Sophie found the original recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the Land of Lakes website.  She adapted it to better fit our baking style.  Great job, Sophie!

Sophie's fabulous Gluten Free chocolate chip bars
Heat oven to 375°F.

Wisk dry ingredients together.
2¼ c GF flour mix (We use Pete and Kelly Bronski's flour recipe.)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp xanthan gum

Combine and whip until frothy.
¾ c melted butter
1¼ c sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 generous tbsp molasses

Combine the above two mixes with hand-mixer.
Stir in 2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Spread patiently onto a jelly roll sized baking pan.  It works best to drop a little at a time around the pan.  But it still is a kind of putzy job.  It will feel as though there's no way there's going to be enough, but it will fluff up as it bakes and fill in the thin spots.

Bake about 10 minutes.

My latest favorite pork roast

Keep in mind I don't really follow recipes or measure, so all amounts are approximate.  Cooking time and temp, too.  Most of my meat is butchered at home or a local locker, so I don't even know the weights of my roasts.  It's all a guess.  But this will give you the starting point for a wonderful way to do pork.

Curried Pork Roast
Pork roast
salt
pepper
curry
oregano
sugar
apples
onions

Times and temps
Last night I had two pork roasts, one perhaps 2-3 lbs, the other maybe 4-5.  I would have preferred to bake them at low (270-300) for about 5-7 hours, but I didn't get them in soon enough.  I ended up doing them at 325 for about 3 hours.  They were cooked through, and mostly tender; but another hour would have made them fall-apart tender.  I baked my roasts in a small roaster.  Medium would have been better, but I didn't realize how large the one roast was until I already had the smaller one dirtied. 

A quick google search shows me I could read for days about cooking times and temps and still not have it all figured out.  There is the safety issue, the lean vs. more marbled issue, pastured vs confined, etc.  There's no exact rule of thumb that encompasses all of it.  From what I could see quickly scanning a few pages, today's regular supermarket pork is alleged to be best reaching an internal temp of 160.  "They say" that will kill any germs and yet leave the pork juicy and succulent.  "Others say" that you must maintain an internal temp of 190 for an extended period of time to slowly melt the collagen that will give your meat a silky texture and offer maximum health benefits. 

What I know is that lower temps for longer times will give you a tender and juicy end result.  I think the meat roasting gurus call it low and slow. 

Seasoning
1 T salt
1 T curry
1 T sugar
1 t oregano
1 t pepper

Mix together and rub all over meat.






Put into roaster or crock pot.


Fresh fruits and vegies
two apples
one large onion
sprinkle apple and onion slices over the roast

Consider celery and carrots, too.  Or an orange, cranberries, or whatever sounds good.  I really like fruit with pork.  Apples, onions, and celery go well with curry.  I don't really like carrots with curry, but that doesn't mean you won't.  I can imagine that oranges and cranberries would be wonderful, but I don't know whether I've tried them or not.  The curry in this is not terribly strong.  It adds a kind of warm glow that goes well with the meat and the slight tang of the fruit.  Subtle, but really, really good.

Definite Comfort Food Success

Meals around here have been stuck in the "one of those days," rut lately.  Too little meat in the freezer, too little forethought to have anything thawed in time, too little maternal energies, ...  I fear, too many excuses, right?  I've been using many, many eggs, and canned elk or venison and bear, since it's quick and easy.

I prefer to have Sunday Dinner in the oven before church on Sunday, especially when we're on the late service schedule.  Sunday school is at 10:00, and church at 11:00.  Since that service is the last of three between which the pastor has to rush on a Sunday morning, whichever church has the late service often starts late.

Yesterday was a late late-service day.  We got out of church closer to 12:30 than 12:00.  Joe had to  run to a quick visit after church.  So I knew dinner would be later still. 

Which actually worked to my advantage since I had not begun work on our family dinner before I left for Sunday School.  I had taken a couple of pounds of ground beef from the freezer before church and set it on a cooling rack to thaw.  But that was the extent of my planning.

I had a few carrots in the fridge at the stage I'll call the beginnings of being slimy.  I had some cauliflower that was getting a little gray at the edges of the florets.  I had an unopened quart of half and half.  And I had some dried garden herbs from a previous year I've been trying to remember to use up.

"Hmmm," thought I, "I can do something with that." 

And what follows is the delicious result.

Creamed Cauliflower and Carrots to serve over meat and starch of your choice
1 head of cauliflower, cleaned and cut into largish bites
1 large onion, sliced or wedged
4-6 medium carrots peeled, and cut into bit sized chunks
fat of choice for sauteing (I used 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 lard)
1/4 c (small handful) whole dried sage leaves
1/4 c (small handful) dried parsley
1/2 qt half and half (or a little more)
salt and pepper to taste
about 1/3 c corn starch

Variation, ... use fresh cream rather than half and half.  You can probably omit the corn starch thickening if you do this.

In a dutch oven, cook the vegetables and herbs until tender-crips in about 4 tbs fat of your choice.  This takes about 15-20 minutes, on medium to medium-high heat.  If you keep the lid on while they are cooking, they will kind of half-steam half-saute, rather than browning in the oil.  Stir periodically.

While vegetables are cooking, you can prepare the starch and meat you want to serve alongside.  I cooked up some white rice.  Brown rice, potatoes, or pasta would also be good.  Or toast, biscuits, or English muffins.  I browned some ground beef and added the last half of a jar of salsa.  Sliced and cooked chicken breasts, pork chops, or steamed shrimp would go well.  Or bacon and eggs. 

When the vegetables are still a little bit firm, pour half and half over them until vegetables are covered and the amount of liquid is to your liking.  When the liquid returns to simmering, thicken with the cornstarch dissolved in water.

Salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for two minutes more.

Ladle creamed vegetables over your choice of carbs and meat. 

Mmmm.

How a Lazy Evening Became Productive

As 5:00 came and went, the school kids had gotten home, had a quick snack, and then were off to Wed school at 5:00.  I had diced potatoes in the oven.  Garden fresh potatoes from Dawn N., with ricotta cheese and home rendered lard stirred in, topped with parsley, sage, and thyme from my beds.

I had not gotten out to mow.  In fact, I had decided not to mow today, since I've had a little nagging sore throat all day.  I had a good school and chore day around the house, so I was using that sore throat as an excuse to watch a movie or something during Wed. School.  I was tired.

Inge, Donna, and Stella asked for a movie so I told them they could watch on the kitchen computer.  But after several failed attempts, they reported that the kitchen disc drive drive didn't work. 

"Sigh," said I.  Then to myself I added, "I suppose I could get off my chair and let them use mine."

I didn't think my disc drive worked either, since it's had trouble with certain formats lately, mostly written material and audio files.  But I remembered Joe saying that different formats read differently, so don't assume something won't work.  We popped Willy Wonka into my machine and voilà.  It worked. 

And so I got up and got busy.  I scrubbed three acorn squash and put them on a lower shelf in the oven.  I may as well get as much use as possible out of the heat that's there anyway, right?  I got the meat for supper ready, but it was too early to put it in the oven, too. 

So I headed outside at about ten minutes to 6:00.  I got the mower out of the detached garage and up to the house to fill it.  I mowed the first few strips and had to empty the bag already.  "Uffda, it's going to be a long job."  That grass was way, way, way too long.

I'm not going to say when we mowed last.  But suffice it to say that if I had a tail, it would be far between my legs.

I mowed a few more rows and emptied my bag a few more times.  Then I ran inside quickly to slide the meat into the oven along with the other things.  I was feeling very high by that time.  Invigorated and energized.  Up. 

Besides the accomplishment of actually getting started on the mowing, I had much food in the oven.  Squash for a meal, plus enough extra for about three coffee cakes or custards.  I had potatoes roasting, enough for at least two big meals.  And tonight's meat was was easy to pop in, being left over roasted turkey from the end of last week. 

After sliding the meat into the oven, I was right back out to the mower.  Up and down, around and over.  Up and down, around and over.  Empty the bag.  Start again.  By 7:00, the kids were done with Wed school, but I had just a corner of one section left to do.  It was getting dark, but I was determined.  On a roll.  Tenaciously trying to finish.  Perhaps I ought to have waited.  I ended up not finishing anyway, since I ran out of gas with about five minutes worth of mowing left.  But worse yet, I hit a rock under one of our spruce trees and shot it at the garage door.  I couldn't believe it when I looked — a 2" round dent, and triangle of torn metal about an inch long in the middle.

We turned it into a good lesson, though.  I had all the kids run out and look.  "This is why we don't leave rocks in the grass.  And this is also why we don't play near the mower.  Imagine if that was a child's head rather than the garage door."

I had said to a friend this morning, "I really do love push mowing. I love the exercise and the, ... oh, ... exhilaration of the accomplishment.  But I also really love afterwards the relaxation of a summer evening, sipping a cool drink, looking at the nicely groomed green grass and other summer glories, and listening to all the summer sounds. Somehow, the pleasure of it eludes me at this time of year..."

I didn't go out and sit to enjoy the newly mowed grass after mowing this evening.  But I did enjoy the freshly mowed sections of grass much more than I imagined I would.  Even in the fall drabness, those areas that were freshly cut looked very good.  I can't wait to get out tomorrow and do some more. 

GF Red Lobster Style Biscuits

Clara recently discovered a wonderful gluten free quickbread to go with soup or eggs or whatever. 
The original recipe is from Gluten Free Easily, but Clara adapted it to work with our flours and fats.  In the original recipe, she also includes dairy free options.

Gluten Free Cheesy Garlic Biscuits (Red Lobster Style)
5 cups gluten-free flour mix (We use Artisan Gluten Free Blend from the Bronski's at No Gluten, No Problem blog.)
1 1/2 tbs xanthan gum
1/2 tb tsp salt
1 1/2 tbs garlic powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 c lard
4 cup milk
4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix together dry ingredients.  Work the lard in with your fingertips until crumbly. 
Mix the cheese and milk together. 
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Add the milk and cheese to the well and stir to combine.

Drop onto greased jelly roll pan by spoonfuls (about 1/3 c).

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the biscuits comes out clean.

Great job, Clara!

Taco Seasoning Mix

This mix is salt free.  I season to taste as I cook. 

I've never tried to figure out how much salt to add to the recipe in order to make it "right," but when others have asked, I've calculated that maybe the 1/2 cup that would fill the jar would be about right.  This is based on an estimate of about1 tsp salt/pound of meat.

Taco Seasoning Mix
1 c chili powder
3/4 + c paprika
3/4 c cumin
1/2 c onion powder
1/3 c garlic powder
1/8 c cayenne or other pepper power (adjust to taste, depending upon variety of pepper)

Mix together and store in a quart jar.  Use 1/8 c for every pound of meat, or taco seasoning packet called for in a recipe.

Tip 1:  If you inadvertently get steam in your jar while measuring, a few grains (scant tsp) of dry white rice will help the mix from sticking together. 

Tip 2:  I labeled my jar with a piece of wide masking tape.  I wrote the name, "Taco Seasoning Mix" on the top with a sharpie, but I also wrote the recipe on the tape, too, with a ball point pen.  Then when I need to replenish my stock, I don't need to look up the recipe.

Quick and Healthful Soup for Sick Days

I've had sick kids for days.  The last two days were spend with my two youngest hanging their heads in buckets.  By the time today rolled around, they were so puny.  Just wimpy looking, flaccid skin and muscle tone.  They could hardly hold up their little cups to sip their drinks. 

Besides that, theMom was pretty much at the end of her stamina, too.  Simply no more energy to wring out of me.  I had nothing left to give.

Which left us in a situation in which I felt we needed a good healthful meal, but had no energy to produce one.  With stocked up ingredients and a little creativity, however, we ended up with a fabulous and hopefully nutritive soup.

I'm not sure I could come up with a good name for it, since the ingredients are so, well, strange.  Probably the best I could do is Elk and Onions in Beef Bone Broth, with Spaetzle and Carrots.

Easy Healthy Soup, aka Elk and Onions in Beef Bone Broth, with Spaetzle and Carrots

• Three medium onions
• Celery with leaves.  I used about an inch and a half diameter of the center of a stalk.
• A hefty splash of olive oil
• Three to four quarts of your choice of broth.  Homemade bone broth is great if you have it.  We have canned home made beef bone broth on hand.  It's more of a concentrate, really.  I used 2 pints of broth and diluted each with about 3 pints of water.
• salt to taste

Simmer to soften veggies.
Prepare your spaetzle batter while the soup simmers. (See below)

• When veggies are about halfway softened, add 1 bag of frozen carrots. (If you don't have frozen, you can add fresh with the onions and celery; or canned at the end with the meat.)
• When the veggies are almost done cooking, add your spaetzle.   Cook according to instructions below.
• When spaetzle is done cooking, remove from heat and add 2 cups of your choice of cooked meat. I used a pint of canned elk.
• Stir in your choice of herbs and spices. I used parsley, oregano, black pepper, and sage, to taste.  I don't measure, but perhaps 1 T parsley, 1 T oregano, 3/4 t black pepper, and 1/4-1/2 t sage.

GF Spaetzle

Mix together:

• 3 c GF flour mix
• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum (unless your mix already includes it)
• 3/8 tsp salt

Mix together

• 3 egg
• 1 c milk

Pour milk and egg mixture into flour mixture.  Stir together.  Set aside until soup is nearly done. 

When veggies are nearly done, add spaetzle to soup by putting through a potato ricer with largish wholes.  Stir.  Bring to simmering and reduce heat to just maintain a simmer.   Cover.   Cook for about 5 minutes.
A few things I will do differently next time:

1) I forgot to salt my broth until the very end.  So the spaetzle was a bit bland.  When we make broth, we cook up the bones into infinity, and then strain through cheesecloth.  Then we let it sit overnight and skim most of the fat off before canning.  (We do use the fat, but Joe has read fat can effect the seal in home canning, so we use or preserve it separately.)  After the fat is off, Joe pressure cans the broth.

2) I perused a few other spaetzle recipes, and I think next time I will add more eggs and cut the milk some.  These were more fluffy than chewy.  The spaetzle I've really liked in the past is chewier, more dense.

3)  I will add more broth.  We all got broth the first helping.  But after that, what remained was more like stew.

Even without these suggested improvements, the soup was terrific.  It was very fun to see the kids all taking seconds and third, and even fourths.  And the two littlest sickies both ate a small portion eagerly.

What more can a mom ask for, right?  A nutritive meal that took less than 1/2 hour to prepare.

Easy Creamy Curry Hotdish

Canned Bear Curry Bake

• 3 c dry rice
• 1 qt canned bear (or if you don't happen to have any canned bear; use 1-2 lbs of meat of your choice, pork and chicken go especially well with curry)
• 1 med onion, sliced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2 ribs celery, sliced
• 1 orange, halved and then thinly sliced
• 1/4 c - 1/3 c sugar
• 1-3 tbs curry powder, depending upon how strong your curry is and how strong you like your curry
• 1 tbs salt

Layer the above in a large baking pan or small roaster.  I used a 10x15" baking dish and covered with aluminum foil.  Next time I will use a roaster, or cover with a jelly roll pan, since the oranges reacted with the foil a little bit.

• 1-2 cans coconut milk
• water to equal 6 c liquid 

Pour over layered ingredients.
Cover and bake at 350°F for 2 hours.
Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5-15 minutes before serving.  If desired, serve a dollop of plain yogurt on the side or drizzled over the top.

Jordan Rolls, Gluten Free

One of my facebook friends recently posted the link for a wonderful looking recipe called Jordan Rolls.  When I clicked to the link, I saw the most mouthwatering photos of a delectable looking yeast roll.  And the recipe looked pretty easy.  The technique seemed to be along the lines of a yeast biscuit that I've read about in historical fiction.  I've never made yeast biscuits, because by the time I became curious about them, I had mostly eliminated glutenous flours from my home.

But, oh my, did those photos look tasty.  Just click on that link above and see if you don't agree.  Can't you just almost smell that yeasty, wheaty, buttery goodness?  The smell as they bake, developing a crispy golden crust?  The steamy aroma as you pull them from the oven?  Can you smell it?  And then pull them apart, and watch that springy gluten hold it's delicate shape.

Mmmm.  OK, maybe I'm coveting just a little bit.

I read through the recipe a few times.  On a couple of different days.  I looked at the photos.  Dreamed.  Pined, even.  And I imagined how I'd change the recipe for gluten free flours.

After a few days, I cut and pasted the recipe onto a document file.

And then after that, I made a few changes.  At first, I kept the recipe as is, except for replacing the flour and adding xanthan gum.

Then I streamlined the instructions.  This may actually make things more confusing for some, but for me, it's easier this way.  I find it really difficult to keep track of where I am in an ingredient list and where I am in the instructions.  So I usually rewrite my recipes so that the ingredient amounts are right in the instructions, but in bold.  Then I only have to keep track of my steps in one location on the page.

Next I considered whether I needed all the different steps and how things might work differently using the GF flours.  For instance, most GF bread dough is more like very thick batter.  So putting it out on a floured surface to kneed it and then moving it afterwards, ... huh-uh.  Not going to happen. Besides, since you don't need to develop the gluten, you really don't need to kneed it.

I'll post my version here, and then at the end, I'll add any commentary.

Gluten Free Jordan Rolls
Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid fat (bacon grease, lard or tallow, butter, shortening)
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 packets fast acting yeast
1 tsp xanthan gum
5 cups GF flour mix, divided
4 eggs (the original recipe calls for 2 eggs, but while I was adding the second bunch of flour, the dough seemed too stiff, so I added two more, for both moisture and protein.)
½ c coconut oil
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
Mix
½ c sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
2 c flour
1 ½ TB yeast
1 tsp xanthan gum
Mix in a large mixing oven proof bowl.  (I used the metal bowl from my Kitchen Aid mixer.)

Cut in ½ c fat
Stir 4 eggs lightly with fork, then stir into above. 

Heat together until blood warm ½ c coconut oil
1 ½ c water
Stir into dough mix. (I used the whipping attachment for the first steps, to imitate a pastry knife; then switched it to the standard beater from here on to the end.)

Add remaining 3 c flour a little at a time, until combined.  Mixture should be very thick, but not stiff.

Cover with a sprayed pan or lid, and let sit in a warm place for twenty minutes.
Optional: heat oven to 175F degrees then turn it off, and put the covered dough into the oven.

After twenty minutes, turn out into a greased 10”x15” pan.
Spread evenly into the bottom of pan.
Cut into 15 squares with a pizza cutter. (I greased a large plastic ulu style pizza cutter and it was still a mess, trying to do this step with GF flours.  It turned out OK, but I will probably try something different next time.)
Cover.
Let rise again for twenty minutes in warm place.

Take the pan out of the oven after dough has risen, and preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
Bake at 350F for about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden.
Brush with additional melted butter. 

Things I liked: These rolls were light and fluffy.  The texture was appealing.  The flavor and aroma were nice.  After being refrigerated overnight, the left-over rolls could be sliced without crumbling into small bread slices for toast or sandwiches.  It was quick and easy.

Things I didn't like:   The rolls were very crumbly when fresh from the oven.  We were able to carefully slice them in half, and dab (not spread) a bit of butter on the halves, but they would not have stood up to anything being spread on them.  Some of the kids broke theirs apart and used their spoons and forks to eat them.  Also, these made very big rolls.

Things I will do differently next time:  Use two 9"x13" pans, 12 rolls/pan, which would make smaller rolls; or simply blob the batter onto jelly roll pans, doing smallish blobs (maybe 1"), but somewhat close together so that they will come together a little bit as they rise.

I also might try some almond meal, just to see what happens.

The flour blend I use is from Pete and Kelli Bronski's No Gluten No Problem blog, also found in their cookbook, Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking.

Wonderfully Restful and Productive Sunday

Roads were surprisingly good this morning, after a couple of days of sleety yuckiness sitting over our area.  We got to have church this morning here at Oak Park.  Mt. Olive yesterday (20 miles south of here), and St. Petri this morning (35 miles north of here and at an early 8:00 am) cancelled.  But Nazareth and Oak Park (which are at 9:45 and 11:00am, and both right here in the neighborhood) were able to have services.  It's always a bit stressful to Joe to have to help decide when to cancel and when to venture forth.  I'm glad we had opportunity to be fed with God's Word.

We came home to homemade soup made with bear bone broth, home canned elk, a variety of left-overs and some fresh vegies, and herbs and spices.  It was accompanied by two loaves of freshly baked GF bread, along with raw honey, some pepper jelly from a friend, and some of Joe's choke cherry jelly. 

An extra bonus that added to the "feel good" impression of the meal was that the left-overs in the soup, too, were fun.  They were so filled with homemade goodness.  I used remnants of two hotdishes.  The meat in one was a corned venison roast Joe cured two falls ago.  The meat in the other was the meat pickings from the beef bone broth we cooked up last week.  I bet there were 40-50 beef soup bones in that batch of broth.  So even just the pickings was enough for two hotdishes.

All in all, it was an excellent lunch.  The kids all ate the soup without complaint; and we filled in the edges with many slices of the still warm homemade bread and toppings.

At the end of the meal, Sharol Johnson came over with Clara's deer, so Joe excused himself to help hang it in the garage.  When the men returned, sure enough as he is wont to do, Sharol had a bag of candy for the kids, so everyone got to choose a piece for the afternoon.  Then we put the rest away.  Sophie had made some fudge-like concoction yesterday from which we all also had a nibble.

After lunch, the kids did some outside chores.  Matt came home from hunting with a load of left-over food stuffs that was apparently his portion from what got divvied up. 

A little while later, Sharol returned asking which of the kids wanted to go out and sit with him in the deer stand.  Clara had gotten hers the other afternoon hunting with him, and Sophie had yet to get one, so she went with him.  Elsie and Joe headed out a little bit later.  We have only three deer hanging in the garage right now.  One is a good sized doe; the other two are yearlings, a buck and a doe.  So really, that meat will not last us very long.  North of here, in the area of Joe's St. Petri church, the firearm season goes another week yet, so it's possible Joe, or Joe and a couple of the kids, could find someone's land up that way on which to fill out their limits.

Brief Update on my depression

I don't want to ramble on about this too much, because I have several more detailed blog posts rattling around in my head that one day I may or may not put to the virtual paper.  But I do want to rejoice a little bit, and ask you to join me in thanking God.

Really, it's so amazing to me how different I feel than I did six months ago, or even six weeks ago when I had a little "relapse" precipitated by all the stress and busyness of the last weeks of August and first weeks of September.  It took me about four to six weeks to get my feet under me after that physical and emotional drain.   But when I stop to think about things, when I compare myself to my last winter's self, or even the winter before that, really, I praise God for the healing He's allowed me. 

Sunday has always been my Day of Rest.  Besides the opportunity to rest and refresh my soul with the spiritual gifts of Word and Sacrament, I have made it my own little personal tradition to do next to nothing on Sundays.  I try to have dinner started or at least prepped before church, so it can be put together quickly afterwards.  After dinner is done, I'm done.  That's it for the day, except a bare minimum of parenting responsibilities.  Occasionally when I have energy enough, we might do a family activity such as an outdoor outing, or jigsaw puzzles, or games, or crafts.  But anything like that is very rare the last several years.  I simply ran out of oomph.

But today, TODAY!  I have folded three loads of clothes and switched the wash; I will soon do the lunch dishes for my kids, since I agreed to do that so that they could get the outdoor chores done.  And I have energy for it.  I don't feel wiped out.  I even feel rested!  Isn't that strange? 

And I made bread this morning. That in itself is amazing.  I had oatmeal soaked for breakfast, so after my first cup of coffee, I got up and turned the oats onto medium-low heat, to come slowly to a simmer.  While that was heating, I was able to think clearly enough that even with the kids buzzing around my feet  and kitchen, I was able to double a recipe; and convert the basic ingredient, GF flour blend, to correct proportions of separate flour and meal components, since I currently have no GF flour mix done up.  Things in my brain have been so muddled that concentration is difficult to achieve and fleeting once I can manage it.

That may not sound like a big deal to anyone who has their head screwed on straight.  But it's been years since I've been able to do that.  Really.  At least two years, since I was able to double, convert, and mix up a recipe if my kids were around.  Or if I had to summon the energy to accomplish something that took such thinking, I was wiped out afterwards for half a day at least.  And here I am this afternoon, still energetic and clear headed!  Truly, this is a gift of God.  I cannot suitably express my excitement at this landmark! 

So praise God with me,friends! 

And if you are struggling through a low spot, take heart.  God can and will bring you out, according to His will and timing; with or without medicinal intervention, natural treatments, or depending upon whatever course of action you prayerfully decide.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  And He indeed knows when best to give His gifts. 

I can't help but exclaim inwardly with the Psalmist David,

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

Dare I Post a Couple of Strange but Delicious Food Combinations?

I made myself a salad for lunch that I did not anticipate enjoying as much as I did. I enjoyed it so much, I'm going to tell you all about it. But I also treated myself to a bowl of ice cream mid-morning, since I am dealing with the stressful situation of having my oldest daughter traveling to Italy. I find that a little ice cream makes many things better.

Spicy Tuna and Polenta Salad

Heap your plate with

• a bed of torn lettuce or greens of your choice
• a spoonful of crumbled polenta (this is really left over corn meal mush, but in a fancy-pants recipe, I have to call it polenta)
• several ounces of canned tuna

Top this with

• a hearty blop of hummus
• a drizzle of vinegar and oil
• a handful of crumbled Lays Hot and Spicy Barbeque Stacks chips

It was an amazing combination of textures and flavors.  The flavors all complimented each other well, but I especially grooved on the textures.  I liked the cold of the refrigerated hummus with the spice of the chips.  The cream of the hummus with the slightly chewy bits of polenta.  The crunch of the chips and lettuce, and the wetness of the tuna.  This culinary adventure was a very stimulating tactile experience.

As an interesting spellcheck tidbit, my blogger spellcheck can only recommend one alternative for what they think is wrong with the word polenta: tadpole.  Please do not put tadpoles on your salad.  I can't be held responsible.

Hot and Sweet Icecream Combo
Top your favorite vanilla ice cream with a generous sprinkling of chocolate chips and peanuts, but don't forget to include a spoonful of spicy pepper jelly.  Mmmmm.

Beaks and Suckers Everywhere!

I've been thinking lately of Pastor Longshore's description of Italian food,  "They put squid in everything.  And beaks and suckers everywhere.  Hope she likes it."

Calamari Stew from the Italian Food Forever blog

The she in his comment of course, is Louisa, since she will be traveling soon to Italy.  And one of her primary reasons for wanting to go is the food.  Since we eat mostly gluten free here, she is eager to eat plenty of pasta and bread.

Pastor Longshore, I suspect, would admit he is not a very adventurous eater.  He was, after all, loth to try Joe's sauteed milkweed pods or picked fish. 

OK, so maybe those are rather extreme examples. 

My Louisa is not a very adventurous eater, either.  So I'm going to tease her a little bit with this post.

Louisa, my dear, I don't know how the Biancos cook.  I don't know what kinds of foods are common in their area of Italy.   Pastor Longshore said that he spent time in southern Italy, but on the Adriatic side rather than the Tyrrhenian.  So perhaps you will never get the opportunity to try the squid soup he described.  I have no idea, in fact, if the stew I have pictures is anything like what he ate.

But I do so very much like this particular phrase of his description, "...beaks and suckers everywhere."

I found an online guide to cleaning and cutting fresh squid.  Too bad there is not more time before you leave to find fresh squid near us.  I'm sure your dad would be eager to try his hand at it.

Fresh Squid, notice the beak off to the side on the lower right

I know you are greatly disappointed.  I understand how you love all your dad's experimental culinary delights.

But I also know, Louisa, that you have a little bit of that spirit of culinary adventure yourself, albeit in a mostly different direction than your dear father.  The recipe for the Calamari Stew pictured above, should you ever decide you'd like to try it, can be found at the Italian Food Forever blog.  It is Gluten Free, so you could make if for your dad.

I love you, my dear oldest daughter, and I will miss you intensely when you are gone.  I hope all the Italian food is wonderful!

Sweet and Tangy Curry Lettuce Salad

Do you find yourself bored with Just Plain Garden Variety Lettuce Salad?  You know, the lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes kind.  Try my latest invention for a little taste of the exotic.

I offered to bring a salad to a gathering a few weeks ago.  Although my taste buds really like the fluffy sweet concoctions every "good Minnesota woman" knows is called salad, I try to avoid that sort.  Truthfully, most of these are more a dessert than a salad.  No matter what my mouth thinks, my brain knows that when I eat, I need only a certain number of carbs, and that what I really need more of is veggies and fiber. 

But especially when bringing food for a gathering, I want it to be interesting rather than boring.  I really love the salad that's is popular these days with Romaine and strawberries.  But I don't generally have fresh strawberries on hand and am not usually inclined to make a special trip those 25 miles into town and back for strawberries.

So I came up with a lettuce salad combination that turned out very tasty.  And better yet, I usually have all the ingredients for it on hand.  Simple, plain ingredients that taste fancy when combined.  That's the kind of salad I like.

I've make this twice.  And neither time did I make it as I intended.  But both ways turned out nice.  The first time I used a vinegar and oil base for the curry dressing, because strangely enough when I went to my fridge for one of my staple items, the plain yogurt, there was none to be found.  My plan had been to make a slightly sweetened dressing with plain yogurt and curry powder.  But when I searched the fridge for the plain yogurt that I almost always have on hand, there was none to be found.

The second time I made this salad, I was sure I had a full quart of yogurt in the fridge.  I knew I had it,  because I had just seen it that morning and I had noticed the foil seal on the top was unbroken.  But in one of those strange twists of fate, I discovered that I must have grabbed the vanilla yogurt from the grocery store cooler rather than plain.

Good thing I'm not easily deterred.  I simply used the vanilla yogurt instead of plain.  I was planning to sweeten it anyway, and vanilla seemed like it would go well with the curry.  And it did.

So, here's the recipe for the salad.  I'll include all three dressing ideas at the end, but they really are just guesses, since I rarely measure anything.

Oh, and for the greens, use whatever you want.  I like a variety for visual appeal and a richer nutrient content.  I usually use a mix of green and red leaf lettuces, with a little Romain or Iceberg thrown in for crispness.  Spinach is always a nice addition, but I don't usually have it (unless Marlene has sent me home with a big bag).  I suppose you could also use beet greens, mustard greens, or even young Dandelions or Pigweed if you are adventurous.

I like to use a tangy apple such as Granny Smith, but Yellow Delicious is a more traditional choice to combine with curry.   If you don't peel your apples, use three different apples with a variety of peel colors, to add visual interest.

My recipe makes a big mixing bowl full, about maybe a gallon or a little bit more. 

Sweet and Tangy Curry Lettuce Salad

Tear up a bowl full of greens of your choice.
Dice 3 apples.  Peel if you wish.
One medium onion, quartered and sliced thinly.
Two stalks of celery, sliced thinly.
A generous cup of date pieces.  (If you buy precut dates, they will probably be coated with something, usually a sugar coating. You may end up too sweet if you use the pre-sweetened vanilla yogurt dressing.  Just experiment to see what works well.)

Combine the above and toss together.

Add one of the following curry dressings, then toss again gently to work the dressing through.

Creamy Yogurt Curry Dressing
Mix a cup or so of plain yogurt, a tablespoon or so sugar, and curry to taste, maybe, oh, 1/2 tablespoon.  Sample a bit and add additional sugar or spice according to your preference.

Lazy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing
Mix a cup or so of vanilla yogurt with curry to taste. 

Vinegar and Oil Curry Dressing
Mix 3 parts olive oil with 2 parts apple cider vinegar.  Add curry and sugar to taste.

Ok, so yes, this is all very scientific.  Sorry.  That's how things go these days. 

~Enjoy~

Ciatti's in St. Cloud, MN : Fine Italian dining with the added bonus of Gluten Free options.

I just "liked" Ciatti's Ristorante in St. Cloud on facebook.  We ate there yesterday, to celebrate our daughter Louisa, and her up and coming trip to Italy. 

It was a great dining experience.  The highlight was the large selection of Gluten Free menu items, including several pasta dishes.

The ambiance was pleasant.  The staff was knowledgeable and attentive.  The menu offerings were varied and interesting.  All of the choices sounded wonderful.  The three entrees we had were very tasty.  The price was moderate to even low, considering it was a somewhat fancy restaurant.  Considering the larger urban area than we generally frequent, I expected higher prices. 

Joe had an iced tea while Louisa and I stuck to glasses of iced water.

The meal began with salad served family style, and a selection of fresh breads on the side.  The salad was fresh and good with a nice variety of vegetables mixed in.  The waiter was careful with her method of serving to keep the salad free of bread crumbs and croutons. 

Joe ordered something that appeared to be a chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto and covered with a caper sauce.  I think it might have been the Chicken Saltimboca.  On the side he had steamed vegetables.  Joe commented that the beans tasted garden fresh.  They tasted fresh enough that he even surmised they might have been locally grown. 

Louisa had the Fettucini Alfredo, of which she could only eat a small portion.  I was more than happy to help her finish it off.  The pasta was wonderful and the cream sauce was mildly seasoned.  The entree was served with a garnish of thinly sliced Parmesan cheese.

I ordered Three Cheese Pillows.  It was a plate-full of cheesy raviolis, covered in a chunky style marinara sauce.  The sauce was flavorful and zesty without being overpoweringly so.  Mine meal was also garnished with the curling slices of Parmesan. 

We all three ordered dessert.  Can you believe it?  We really went all out.  Joe had a Butterscotch Budino, which was a pudding type concoction with carmelized butter drizzled throughout it and a sprinkling of sea salt over the top.  It was only mildly sweet, but perfect in its creamy, buttery, salty sweetness.

Louisa ordered the Creme Brulee, which she found excellent, but again more than she could eat.  I tell you, that girl does not get her birdlike appetite from me.  But I was unable to help her finish that, so she brought the little bit home and gave each of her siblings a little taste.

I finished my meal with a cup of coffee and a Tiramisu.  The coffee was excellent.   But I have to say that the Tiramisu was the one downside of the meal.  I've had much better Tiramisu.  I've even made better Tiramisu back in the day when I had energy for creative cooking.  The pudding tasted like it was from a can.  I have a hard time believing it was, since the restaurant appears to laud itself on from scratch cooking.  It was thick and heavy, as if the desserts in the fancy glasses were made up too long in advance and the moisture had evaporated from the pudding.  The cake layers were too saturated with the espresso, or something.  Instead of being soggy, they were almost runny.  Cake and coffee somehow stayed separate, instead of creaming together nicely.   Definitely a distinct coffee feel in my mouth.  Coffee with cake crumbs in it.  An unpleasant sensation. 

But, I reminded myself, perhaps since the chef was trained in Italy, he makes an authentic Tiramisu.  Perhaps I just don't happen to care for authentic Tiramisu.  It's probably just me, right?  But either way, I have to assert that I prefer the style of Tiramisu I've enjoyed elsewhere.

Except for the disappointing Tiramisu, the meal was excellent in every way.  Joe found it a relief to have a selection of menu items already designated Gluten Free.  And more than that, it is always a comfort to find a staff that already knows what Gluten Free means and how to provide it.  And even better still was that he did not get sick afterwards.

Cudos to the Ciatti's staff.  And to my readers, go try it.  You gluten free readers out there, be sure to support this fine establishment by giving them your patronage when you are in the St. Cloud area.