Gingerbread Men

Yesterday, I made gingerbread men!  It was the first time I made gingerbread cookies in awhile and I made them with my sister :)  I used a Little Bay Baking Mix that I won.  The gingerbread cookies came out excellent.  I would definitely recommend this mix.

Here is a picture of some of our little men:

Lunch Foods

Lunch doesn't have to be a midday bore, it can be grand :)  Here are two great lunch items that I made recently.

Grilled Cheese with Tomato Sauce, Green Peppers and Mushrooms on homemade Potato Buttermilk Bread

Those of us who have to gluten-free for health reasons know that a lot of gluten-free breads on the market can leave something to be desired, hence when I can I bake my bread.  The crisp outside of the bread contrasted pleasantly with its soft insides.  

Pinto Beans on Brown Rice Griddlecakes

I used flaxseed as the binder for my tortilla-like cakes and it gave them a delicious multi-grain taste.  This was a project with leftovers of brown rice and broccoli from the night before.  I left the broccoli in the rice when I made my griddlecake mixture and it added a wonderful flavor.

Merry Christmas

Hopefully this Christmas season finds you with family and friends. May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26

I'm a Winner :)

I won a contest from Be Free For Me, a blog that provides information about gluten and allergen free living.  The contest I entered was entited The Little Bay Baking Contest.  The winner of the contest was to receive three mixes.  The mixes I received were their gingerbread cookie mix, their yellow cake mix and their waffle/donut hole mix.  So far my sister and I have baked their yellow cake mix and the results were quite nice.  The yellow cake package also gives information on making the yellow cake into spice cake; my sister and I decided to split our mixture into one half spice and the other half yellow.  Both endeavors came out well and we were sure to frost them with vanilla frosting :) 

Pancakes

Pancakes are a weekend tradition in my home.  During the summer, when I was a summer camp counselor, I made sure that I had enough to last the whole week.  Having pancakes greet you around 6am is always quite nice.

Here is a simple pancake recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk (or a non-dairy alternative such as rice, almond or coconut)
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
2 eggs (or a 2 eggs worth of an egg substitute)

Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly.  Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Pour wet ingredients into the bowl containing the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.  Give the mixture a few minutes to rest.

In the meanwhile,  oil a skillet or a non stick griddle and heat your chosen item to medium heat.  Apply about 1/4 cup of the mixture to the skillet/griddle at a time.  When the edges of the pancake start to dry and the there are bubbles in the middle, it is time to flip the pancake.  The number of pancakes made depends on the amount of batter used at a time.

Companies Producing Great Treats

     Courtesy of my grandmother, I was given the opportunity to try four great products: Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookies, Josef's Gluten Free Cinnamon O's, Cherrybrook Kitchen's Gluten Free Chocolate Cake and Cherrybrook Kitchen's chocolate frosting.  While I don't have pictures of the cookies (they're gone), I do have a picture of a cupcake :)  All of the treats were quite good, the texture and the flavor of each product was delightful; I savored every one of them.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

To tell the truth most of the books I've read have been written by people who have been dead for multiple years.  So, this recent book pick is the first one since elementary school that I have read in which the author is still living.

This book made The New York Times Book Review; it is called The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.  As someone who likes to cook, I thought it would be interesting to read what the New York Times Book Review calls a "[t]houghtful, engrossing... explanation of exactly where food comes from."

Shouldn't we know where our food comes from?  Of course, it would seem to be common sense to know.  Apples come from apple trees, chickens come from eggs but technological advances have changed the way in which food is produced and is cared for; not all farms and orchards are created equal.

Should it matter what food items we purchase? If one sees him or herself as a steward of the environment does what a person eat matter and is it possible to be ecologically and budget friendly in accomplishing the above?  While this book may not have all of the answers to the questions I posited, the questions I mentioned may be ones to be considered.

Simplest Bean Burger Possibilities

Below is a picture of the casserole I mentioned in my last post:

Here is the recipe I used:

The Simplest Bean Burgers

makes 4-6 servings
time: 20 minutes with cooked beans

2 cups well-cooked white, black, or red beans or chickpeas or lentils, or one 14-ounce can, drained
1 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup rolled oats (preferably not instant) (if you are avoiding gluten, please be sure to make sure oats are labeled gluten free, I used cooked rice instead of oats)
1 tablespoon chili powder or spice mix of your choice
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg (in place of egg you can use 1/2 cup mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal, 1/2 cup cooked short-grain rice, 1/4 cup Vegannaise, 1/4 cup miso, or 1/2 cup tofu)
bean-cooking liquid, stock or other liquid if necessary
 a neutral oil such as olive oil

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse them until they are chunky. Your mixture should be moist but not wet. If you have time let it rest for a few minutes.

With wet hands, shape your burgers and give them time to rest a bit (the burgers hold up better if they rest before being fried).  While they are resting, fill the bottom of a skillet with oil and heat it to medium heat.  Place the burgers in the skillet and cook until brown and firm on both sides (approximately 5 minutes each side).

Variation: Ground Beef-like Crumbles

If you want the ground beef-like crumbles such as illustrated above.  Do not shape the mixture into burgers, do heat an oil filled skillet to medium heat and place the mixture inside it without stirring until it is crisp and brown.  After it is crisp and brown, stir and break the pieces apart and cook until it is done.

Your ground beef-like crumbles can be used to make a similar casserole to  the one above.  Besides a "ground bean" filling, I added carrots, broccoli, tomato sauce, carrots and mozzarella cheese.  There are vegan cheeses that actually melt.  While I can't recommend any good vegan cheeses (because I don't remember the names of the ones that exist), I can admit to trying some a few years ago and it was rather good.

If this recipe sounds exciting, please check out How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food and learn more about what other delicious meals you can make :)

Working with Legumes

Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food.  After flipping through countless recipes I settled upon one entitled The Simplest Bean Burgers. As I read what was required for this recipe, I also looked at the side note which said it could also be made into cutlets and "meat"balls.  After reading the possibilities, my sister and I decided to use this recipe to make three things: burgers, "meat"balls and ground beef-like crumbles which we affectionally called "ground bean".

We used a mix of black beans and pinto beans, brown rice, a seasoning assortment that included paprika, garlic, and onion Considering the large amount of beans we had we tripled the recipe.

Below are pictures of our burgers and of the casserole we made with our "ground bean".

The burgers held together when they were left to rest for a few minutes before frying. 

For the casserole, we added broccoli, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and carrots to our "ground bean" and baked it like a regular casserole.
                              

A Thankful Post and a Delicious Recipe

Thanksgiving has come and gone; Christmas now approaches.  For my family and I, we were blessed to have three Thanksgiving meals and each one was quite delightful.  It was good to spend time with family and friends and to remind each other of what we are thankful for. 

Here are is another recipe I think might be enjoyable for you and yours.

Here is a recipe for pizza crust on Bigoven.com; I have found to be quite good.

Pizza Crust recipe

	2 1/2 c Rice flour
	1/4 oz (1.5 teaspoons) Gluten-free quick rise yeast
	1 ts Salt
	1/2 ts Xanthan gum
	1 1/4 c Warm water; divided
	(120130 degrees F.)
	3 tb Olive oil
	1 tb Honey

Combine flour, yeast, salt and xanthan gum in large bowl. Stir in 1 cup water, olive oil and honey. Use hands to work dough (dough will be soft and crumbly). Add just enough of the remaining 1/4 cup water to hold mixture together. Knead dough in bowl 5 minutes. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Lightly grease 12-inch pizza pan; sprinkle with cornmeal, if desired. Flatten dough into round disk; press dough into pan. Add sauce, desired toppings; sprinkle cheese over toppings. Bake in 425 degree F. oven 20 to 30 minutes, or until crust is brown and cheese melted.

I have made variations of the above by substituting part of the rice flour with potato or doing a half and half of white rice and brown rice flour and both variations proved to be quite tasty. The picture below has toppings of tomato sauce, spinach, broccoli, green bell peppers and mozzarella cheese .