Bittersweet Chocolate and Montmorency Cherry Scones

Having been convinced, by a candle that smells like Gwyneth Paltow's vagina, that the only way to survive the pandemic is "clean" eating, I broke out the bag of turbinado (raw) sugar that's been sitting in the pantry for two years and made a batch of scones.  They're baking in the oven as I type this.

I have no idea how they'll turn out.  I've never made scones before today.  I like scones, but if I'm going to whip up something in the kitchen, it's usually something to feed a crowd (like a couple dozen cupcakes) or that can be single-serving frozen (like cookie dough) for the need-to-have-now cravings that occasionally make their appearance.

Every once in awhile, I'll pick up a scone for myself from our local co-op while grabbing a rustic croissant for my super hot Husband.  Husband treats croissants like a guilty pleasure and rarely eats them in front of me - saving it for a snack (he swears).  Not wanting to moan in glutinous, pastry based ecstasy is my hunch.

The problem with the local co-op scones is that they're way too dense.  A common problem with gluten-free baked goods of all varieties.  I mean, my wedding cake was delicious and I could have done better at home with one hand tied behind my back.  It wouldn't have been as pretty and I love the pictures that will eventually make their way into our wedding album, if we ever find the time to sit down and prioritize those pictures we want highlighted.  Perhaps this pandemic and the requisite extra time at home will make that happen.

That, however, is really neither here nor there.  It's somewhere in the ether.  What's here is scones - or the recipe for scones.  What's there is the actual scones baking in my kitchen oven.

I used this recipe by Stella Parks as a base for my first scone experiment.  I'm not such a fan of milk chocolate in my baked goods.  Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina candle convinced me that "closer to the natural state" is the only thing that will save us.  So, I swapped out the milk chocolate and added bittersweet chocolate instead.  Being celiac, I also substituted gluten-free flour for the all purpose flour.  Then, deciding that what a scone with bittersweet chocolate truly needed was some montmorency cherries and almond, I adjusted the amount of flour to accommodate blanched almond flour and cut back on the amount of chocolate to accommodate some dried cherries.

Here's the modified recipe:

7 ounces gluten-free flour
2 ounces blanched almond flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp sugar
2 ounces high-fat butter (Hope Creamery)
3 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
2 1/2 ounces dried montmorency cherries
2 ounces whole milk
6 ounces heavy whipping cream
1 tsp almond extract

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling


Pre-heat the oven to 400F.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Cut in the butter until it all forms a coarse meal.  Stir in the chocolate and cherries.  Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, cream, and extract.  Mix to combine.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and shape into a 7" round.  (Rather than buy one of those fancy boards or try to draw a 7" circle on my paper, I placed my parchment paper on the bottom of an 8" round cake pan and patted the dough out to within 1/2" of the pan edges).

Cut into six wedges, sprinkle with a bit of turbinado sugar, and transfer the parchment paper to a baking sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes.


I just heard the kitchen timer warn me that there is one minute left in baking.  Let's hope this worked well and that they taste better than Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina candle smells.

GF Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

I love pancakes.

I do not eat them often, but they're one of my favorite breakfast foods. Right up there with scrambled eggs with ham, chihuahua cheese and green chili sauce; scrambled eggs with ham, goat cheese and chives; scrambled eggs with ham, cheddar and sriracha; Eggs Benedict; D's waffles and fried ham; scrambled eggs with any assortment of tasty things and potatoes fried in duck fat.

Okay, so the truth is, I actually just LOVE breakfast foods. And D does scrambled eggs SO WELL. And he makes amazing waffles. And we collaborate weekly on Eggs Benedict because I'm good with tempering things and he's good at poaching things.

But his birthday was earlier this week, so I wanted to make him breakfast and I wanted it to be something I thought he'd really enjoy.

Since I know his love of all things lemon, and since I know he likes blueberries, I decided I'd have to find a way to make gluten-free lemon blueberry pancakes.

As the company whose gf all purpose flour blend I like best seems to no longer make gf all purpose flour, and as I can no longer find their pancake and waffle recipe to use as a baseline for using a different flour, I had to go a different route.

So, I visited another site that I've good luck with and decided to modify this recipe as follows:

GF Lemon Blueberry Pancakes:

• 140 g white rice flour
• 50 g potato starch (the original called for 47 and I spooned it in too quickly and couldn't retrieve the extra)
• 23 g tapioca starch
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup vanilla sugar (talk to AB about this one)
• 5 tablespoons butter flavored Crisco (don't judge me), melted and cooled
• zest of one lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon mixed with enough whole milk to make 1 1/2 cups fluid
• 1 large egg slightly beaten
• fresh blueberries

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients and whisk to fully combine.
2. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot. Lube the skillet with a little oil.
3. Pour batter into skillet, about 1/3 of a cup per cake.
4. Sprinkle 7-10 blueberries in each cake.
5. Cook until the cake is bubbly and the edges have become noticeably dry.
6. Flip the cake and cook the other side until it stops emitting steam.

This recipe makes approximately 8 good sized pancakes. Enough for 4 people (technically), but who really wants to eat leftover pancakes? And who wants to risk the batter going funky in the fridge overnight?

Nope, as their were just 2 of us at the table this morning, that made for 4 pancakes a piece. Pure bliss.

Next time I might cut back on the sugar and increase the lemon. Just to see how it goes.

Lemon Thyme Pudding

Lemon is amazing. Pudding is delicious. Thyme is delightful.

And since I had a few leftover yolks and some lemons in the fridge and a few sprigs of thyme that were quickly headed toward "beyond the point of usefulness," I decided to make a lemon thyme pudding.

It's phenomenal.

*****

Ingredients:

• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cups demerara sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 5 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 Tablespoons very fine fresh lemon zest
• 1 generous pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

In a medium saucepan, heat thyme, half-and-half, and milk until it just reaches a simmer. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a medium saucier, whisk the sugar and cornstarch to combine. Pour the milk mixture through a sieve to strain out the thyme and whisk thoroughly into the sugar mixture.

Add the egg yolks, zest, and salt. Mix until fully incorporated.

Place the saucier over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thickened and holds to the whisk.

Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the lemon juice and butter.

Divide among dessert dishes (6-7 4oz ramekins or similar) and allow to come to room temperature. Cover loosely and chill for several hours before serving.

*****

Chef's Notes:

This recipe used slightly less than 2 1/2 lemons worth of zest and juice, using a very fine microplane to zest the lemons and wooden reamer to juice them. (I would have just used to two whole lemons and called it good, but I had a 1/2 lemon left over from our Sunday eggs Benedict and I wanted to get it used up).

I might up the amount of thyme with the next batch, as I'd like a bit more of that flavor. However, since the point of experimenting with this today was to use up all of the thyme in the fridge (which I did), I'm extremely pleased with the results.

With the remaining zest and juice, I made a loaf of gluten-free lemon poppy seed pound cake. Because I'm awesome like that.

Key Lime Bars

It was a citrus themed weekend.

Key Lime Bars:


For the Crust:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups gf flour blend (I like Domata brand)

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbls cornstarch
Juice and zest of 1 lb key limes
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Mix crust ingredients until it resembles course crumbs. Press into 9x13 cake pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

While the crust is baking, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Add juice, zest, and eggs. Mix completely.

When the crust is finished baking. Immediately pour key lime filling mixture over the crust and bake for an additional 20  minutes.

Remove from oven. Cool completely.

Passionfruit Bars

In line with the most recent recipes I've been working on, this weekend I stopped by the grocery store to pick up eggs in order to make lemon bars and key lime bars and saw that passionfruit was on sale! So, I bought several with the intentions of making passionfruit bars as well.

I love the tartness of passionfruit, but it's quite a delicately flavored fruit otherwise. As such, these are a very mild bar, which I liked less than the key lime, but which one of my hosts favored a great deal. I also altered the crust and cut back on the total sugar in the recipe. It could still be tweaked, but all in all, it was pretty good.

*****

Crust:
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups gf flour

Filling:
Pulp (seeds removed) of 10 passionfruit
1 cup sugar
3 Tbls cornstarch
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Combine butter, sugar and flour until it resembled course crumbs. Press into a 9x13 cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add pulp and eggs. Mix completely.

Pour filling over hot crust and bake an additional 20-25 minutes.

Cool. Cut and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Savory Thyme Lemon Bars with Raspberry

Having made lemon bars last week which led to some experimentation including Margarita Bars earlier this week. I also felt inspired between making and delivering the lemon bars to make the lemon bars with some herbaceous goodness in the crust.

As such, I present to you the recipe for Savory Thyme Lemon Bars with Raspberry.

For the Crust;

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups gf flour blend (I like Domata brand)
Leaves of 15-20 thyme stems

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbls cornstarch
Juice and zest of 2 large or 4 small lemons
4 eggs

10 oz  raspberry cake and pastry filling.


Preheat oven to 350*.

Mix crust ingredients until it resembles course crumbs. Press into 9x13 cake pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the crust is baking, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Add juice, zest, and eggs. Mix completely.

When the crust is finished baking, remove from oven and dot with raspberry cake and pastry filling. Immediately pour lemon filling mixture over the crust and bake for an additional 20  minutes.

Remove from oven. Cool completely.

*****

I continue to think I may need to bake the crust longer. Maybe 25-30 minutes. I was using a different oven, so it may be a matter of equipment.

I also did not have lemon extract on hand, and this is quite regretful. The extra tsp or two really makes it great.

In the future, I would double the thyme and halve the raspberry filling. More likely, I would double the thyme and fresh raspberries instead of filling. But, as first attempts go, this wasn't terrible.

Margarita Bars

Someone I know, who also happens to be quite special to me, loves lemon bars. And because I love to feed people I love, I made a big batch of lemon bars for this individual. While I was in the process of transporting the lemon bars, it occurred to me that there are numerous ways I can alter a basic lemon bar recipe to make it more spectacular.

As a girl who loves lime and tequila and all things margaritas, I decided to adjust the recipe to make margarita bars. And since several people have told me how much they enjoy these bars, I'm including the recipe here for you, my faithful readers.

Margarita Bars

Crust:

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups gf flour (I like Domata brand)
1 tsp kosher salt

Margarita Topping

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbls cornstarch
Juice and zest of 6 limes
4 eggs
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp orange extract
3 oz good silver tequila
6 pkgs True Lime (optional)

Preheat oven to 350* F.

Line 9 x 13 cake pan with parchment paper.

Mix crust ingredients until it resembles course crumbs. Press into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

While crust is baking, whisk sugar and cornstarch until thoroughly combined. Add the remaineder of th fill ingredients. Mix completely.

Pour over hot crust and return to oven. Bake an additional 20 minutes.

Cool completely. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Cut into squares to serve. If you like a saltier margarita, top each individual bar with a sprinkle of kosher salt.



These bars are super tart, the tequila comes through nicely, and the salt on top adds a delightful contrast to the occasional bitterness brought by the lime zest.

A Coconut Kind of Day

Having made coconut cupcakes today, I had things leftover and no real plans on how to use them. The great thing about coconut cupcakes is that I used a white cake recipe and simply substituted coconut milk for moo milk in the recipe. White cakes also uses egg whites. Lots of egg whites. In fact, it's the egg whites sans yolks that keeps a cake white rather than yellow.

So, in addition to half of a can of coconut milk, I also had five egg yolks just sitting in a bowl.

I decided this was the ideal day to make a coconut cream pie.

While the cupcakes cooled, I blind baked a pie crust. I used to make the best pie crust in the world, but being gluten-free means I've moved away from baking with wheat. This is sad, because gluten-free alternatives lead to a much more delicate pie crust, and I rarely have any interest in fighting with it. Thank the good Lord for frozen gf pie crusts!

For the filling:

1 2/3 cup whole milk
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp kosher salt
5 egg yolks
1 Tbls butter
1 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Mix the milks together.

Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the milks and whisk to thoroughly combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and bubbling.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks until lightened in color. Slowly whisk in the hot milk mixture.

Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan. Return to medium heat and continue whisking until mixture begins to boil again, whisking constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in butter and extracts. Fold in the coconut.

Cover the surface of the coconut custard with plastic wrap and chill.

When throroughly chilled, transfer custard to pie crust. Feel free to top with whipped topping and toasted coconut. Refrigerate overnight. It's delicious.


Once the cupcakes were cooled, I poked holes in them and then infused them with a coconut simple syrup. I frosted them with a coconut buttercream and rolled them in toasted coconut.

Risotto with Caramelized Onion, Prosciutto, and Bleu Cheese

Tonight, I went out on a limb and made up my own risotto recipe.  Rather than finding one that looked passable and making it better, I went all out and made it up entirely.  My mother called it "interesting."  I asked if it was "interesting good or interesting strike it from the menu".  It was interesting good.

*****

32 oz vegetable stock
1 3/4 cup arborio
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
6 oz prosciutto, roughly chopped
3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 Tablespoons butter
3 oz freshly grated Parmesan
3 oz bleu cheese
Fresh thyme

Heat 1 1/2 T olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add prosciutto and cook until very crispy.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Heat remaining olive oil and add onions.  Cook until caramelized.

Move onions to the side of the pan and add the butter.  Once the butter is melted, add the arborio and thyme and stir to coat.  Continue stirring for a few minutes, until rice is golden.  Reduce heat to medium/medium-low.

Add white wine and cook, stirring until absorbed.

Add vegetable stock in 4 1-cup installments, continuing to cook and stir until completely absorbed before adding next installment.

Once all of the vegetable stock has been absorbed, turn off heat.  Stir in Parmesan, 1/2 of the prosciutto, and 1/2 the bleu cheese.

Dish up risotto, sprinkling a small amount of remaining prosciutto and bleu cheese over each serving.

Serves 6

Macaroni and Cheese

1 lb macaroni
14 oz white wine, divided
6 oz chicken stock
8 oz smoked gruyere, shredded
16 oz brie, rind removed, cubed
3 Tbsp corn starch
1 Tbsp dried thyme, or 3 Tbsp fresh 
7 oz dried figs, coarsely chopped
4 oz sliced shiitake mushrooms
6 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
2 Tbsp butter
8 oz diced ham

Cook macaroni until al dente.  Drain and set aside.

Combine figs with 8 oz white wine and cover.  Set aside and allow to macerate until ready to use.  I had a full day of shopping, so mine were hanging out on the counter for 8 hours.

Toss cheeses with corn starch and set aside.

Combine chicken stock and remaining 6 oz wine in a medium saucepan.  Add thyme.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Slowly incorporate cheeses, melting completely before each new addition.

In the meantime, melt 1/2 the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Cook 1/2 the mushrooms until lightly browned.  Repeat with remaining mushrooms.

Pour figs and remaining wine into the same saucepan and cook down until wine has evaporated.

Mix macaroni, ham, figs, mushrooms, and cheese sauce.  Pour into 9 x 13 baking dish and cover with foil.

Put in cold over.  Set temperature to 375*.  Once over reaches 375*, bake for 40 minutes.

Serve hot.

Gingerbread Caramels

As you know, I love to cook.  And I love to feed people.  I do not have the time or the audience that I had when I was in grad school.  As such, I have to make the most of the opportunities I do have.  Since this is a four day weekend, and I finished work four hours early today, I decided to get started on my holiday care packages.

I have an out-of-town trip for work next week, and decided to bring some blessings to my friends to the north!

This is just an altered version of my basic caramels, but heavenly:

2 cups sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (I use Vietnamese cinnamon)
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Line a 9 x 13 inch cake pan with parchment paper, ensuring that the bottom and sides of the pan are covered.

Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, half-and-half, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in 5 qt saucepan and attach a candy thermometer.

Cook over medium-high heat stirring occasionally until mixture reaches 245*F.

Remove from heat.  Slowly stir in heavy cream.  Completely incorporate cream.

Return to heat and cook over medium until mixture reaches 245*F again.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Immediately pour into prepared pan.

Cool 2 hours.  Cover with plastic wrap and finish cooling overnight.

Cut into 1/2 x 3/4 inch rectangle and wrap in squares of waxed paper.

Putting Away for Winter

I do not garden.

I'm happy to pull weeds, harvest fruits, and generally poke around above ground.  I will not, however, dig in the dirt.  And digging in the dirt is a necessary part of gardening.

It so happens that my father loves to plant things.  Specifically, tomatoes.  He does not, however, bother to tend his garden.  No weeding.  No cutting off the suckers.  Limited harvesting.  6 tomato plants.  Hundreds of tomatoes.  Most will never be eaten.  They'll rot on the vine if they aren't picked.  They'll rot in the house if they are, because no one can eat ten pounds of tomatoes a day.  Not even my tomato loving father.

Having seen this happen repeatedly throughout my adulthood, I decided to be pro-active this year.  I asked him to buy canning jars.

He complied, being rather delighted with the idea of eating homegrown tomatoes in the dead of winter.

And thus, I made spaghetti sauce.

It went something like this:

8 pounds of tomatoes
1 large yellow onion
1 1/2 Tbls minced garlic
2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbls dried oregano, roughly
1 Tbls dried sweet basil, roughly
1 tsp dried thyme, roughly
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup red wine

Blanch, peel, and roughly chop tomatoes.

Thinly slice onion.

In a 5 qt pot, heat olive oil over high heat..  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds.

Add 1/2 of the tomatoes.  Place the remaining tomatoes in a blender and process on high until completely liquified.  Add to the pot.  Add herbs, sugar, and salt.

Heat to boiling and reduce heat to medium.

Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until reduced by approximately 2/3.  Or, until it has the consistency of pasta sauce.  Add the red wine and reduce until desired consistency has been reached again.

Ladle into hot, sterilized canning jar, wiping rims.  Lid and band, tightening bands to finger-tightness.

Process in a hot water bath for 45 minutes.  Remove from hot water and cool.

When cool, check the seal on each jar.  Immediately use or freeze any sauce that does not seal.  Store the rest on a pantry shelf for later enjoyment.

Yield:  Approximately 4 pints of sauce

Easy Mojitos

Recently, I found myself in want of a mojito.

And more in want of mojitos without the necessity of using the kitchen.

No knifes, no pans.  No cutting limes, no muddling mint, no production of simple syrups.

So, I decided to experiment, and this is what I came up with:

1 bottle of Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Key Lime Rum
1 package of Crystal Light Mojito drink mix
1 bottle of club soda or seltzer
Lots and lots of ice

Mix the Crystal Light and rum together.  Shake until fully incorporated.

Pour two shots of rum mixture over ice.  Add 12 oz seltzer.  Enjoy!

Cupcake Heaven

Recently, I decided to make cupcakes.  I wanted to do something I hadn't done previously, in the world of cupcakes and decided to borrow from my incredibly successful Valentine's truffles--White Chocolate Hearts filled with Lemon Curd and Raspberry Jam.

Forgetting the White Chocolate part of the equation, I made a standard yellow cake batter--gluten-free, of course.

I made 2 dozen standard cupcakes and 2 dozen mini cupcakes.  The mini cupcakes were a result of having leftover batter and not having any additional standard sized pans.  The minis could not be filled, and I ran out of frosting, so they weren't frosted either.

I filled the cupcakes with a Raspberry Sauce and frosted them with a Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.

The results were nothing short of amazing.

Yellow Cupcakes (from Roben Ryberg's You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free, Wedding Layers, Yellow -- Potato-based)

1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups potato starch
1Tbls + 1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tps baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Mix the oil and sugar until combined.  Beat in the eggs until thick and light yellow.

Add the mix and thoroughly combine.  Stir in vanilla and acv.

Sift all dry ingredients together and incorporate into the wet ingredients.

Pour by scant 1/3 cupfuls into lined muffin tins and bake for 25-27 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly.

Raspberry Filling


12 oz red raspberry
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbls cornstarch

Combine sugar and cornstarch.

Add to raspberries in medium saucepan.  Stir until raspberries are thoroughly coated.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar melts and the berries release their juices.  Continue cooking until the juice is clear--this indicates the corn starch is completely cooked.

Cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened
7 Tbls unsalted butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 lemon
1 tsp lemon extract

Juice and zest the lemon.  (This is an excellent job for a 13 year old who wants to help but who has trouble seeing kitchen baking tasks through from beginning to end result.  Though the seem to magically appear again once the task has been completed).

Beat cream cheese and butter until thoroughly combined.

Beat in powdered sugar, in 2-3 installments.

Add the juice, zest, and extract.

Using the smallest sausage attachment on a spritzer cookie press, fill the cupcakes with raspberry filling.

Frost with the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.

Eat too many.

Enjoy every last crumb.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

1 lb black beans
1 Tbls olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 habanero peppers, minced
2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 Tbls ground cumin
4 bay leaves
1-28oz can crushed tomatoes
1-32oz carton vegetable stock

Rinse, sort, and soak the black beans in 8 cups of water overnight in a 5 qt dutch oven or similar vessel.

Drain and rinse the black beans. Return to pot and add 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Remove black beans from pot and reserve.

Heat oil in the bottom of the pan. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds more. Add peppers and spices. Stir to coat.

Add beans, tomatoes, and stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

You may want to serve this with cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, and large glasses of milk.

Baked Penne

12oz gluten-free penne
1-28oz can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
1-280z can spaghetti sauce
4oz good red wine
12oz lean ground beef
12oz Italian sausage
4oz shredded mozzarella
2oz shaved Parmesan

Cook penne according to package directions.

Brown ground beef and Italian sausage. Drain. Return to pan and add tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and wine. Heat through, and reduce slightly.

In a 9x13 inch baking dish, spoon about 1/4 of the sauce. Add 1/3 of the penne. Top with 1/4 of the sauce and 1/3 of the mozzarella. Repeat the penne, sauce, and cheese layers 2 more times. Sprinkle the Parmesan.

Bake in a 350*F oven for 45 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

Pot Roast

3 lb beef roast
1 cup baby carrots, halved on the diagonal
1 cup celery, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, minced
1 shallot, minced
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup beef stock
1 cup good red wine
2 Tbls tomato paste
1/2 Tbls salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place roast in a 5-qt crock pot. Add carrots, celery, garlic, onion, shallot, and rosemary.

Combine stock, wine, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Pour over the roast.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours.


I'm serving this tonight with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli!

Easy BBQ Pulled Pork

2 lb pork loin
½ cup minced onion
1 cup tomato sauce
1 Tbls black strap molasses
1 Tbls apple cider vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 cup chicken broth

Remove all visible fat from the pork loin.

Place the pork and onions in a crock pot.

Mix the remaining ingredients. Pour over the pork and onions.

Cook on high for 2 hours. Turn crockpot to low and continue cooking fro another 6 hours.

Shred pork with two forks and serve.

Red and White Chili

¾ lb 94% lean ground beef
26oz beef broth
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1½ Tbls chili powder
¼ cup ground cumin
1-28oz can RoTel
1-28oz can crushed tomatoes
1-28oz can chili beans
1-32oz can tomato juice
3-14.5oz cans great northern beans

Cook the ground beef in the beef broth, cooking until, about 1/2 cup of liquid remains. Add onions and garlic. Cook until no liquid remains.

Add the remaining ingredients.

Cook over low heat until quite thick, 2-3 hours.

Serve with gluten free Potato-Cornmeal bread.


Potato and Cornmeal Bread*

¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
5 egg whites
¾ cup plain yogurt
1¼ cups potato starch
¾ cup cornmeal
1 Tbls baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbls xanthan gum
1½ Tbls apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350*F. Lightly grease a medium loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.

Add the egg whites and beat until very foamy. Beat in the yogurt and apple cider vinegar.

Add the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.


*This recipe comes from Roben Ryberg's You Won'te Believe It's Gluten-Free! (2008). It is the multigrain loaf found on page 81.

Veal Tarragon

Veal Tarragon
Serves 4

4-6oz veal steaks, ¼ inch thick, or 24oz veal scallopini
½ cup potato or corn starch
1½ Tbls kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbls olive oil
2 shallots, minced
2 tsp dried or 2 Tbls fresh tarragon
½ cup white wine
½ cup heavy cream
¾ cup beef broth

Using paper towels, dry the veal very well.

Combine starch, salt, and pepper. Dredge veal in starch, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Arrange veal in the pan, in a single layer, cooking until lightly browned. Turn and cook other side until browned. Remove to a platter. Cook remaining veal in same fashion.

Once all veal is cooked and removed platter, add white wine to the pan to deglaze. Add shallots and tarragon. Cook until liquid is reduced to about 1 Tbls.

Add cream and cook until reduced by half.

Add beef broth. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Return veal to the pan, turning to coat each piece in the tarragon cream sauce. Heat through and serve.


This is excellent with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.