GF Recipes: Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe is courtesy of my bro-in-law Jared. He made these cookies just because they're (ridiculously, super) easy and tasty, and when he heard of my malady, he was happy to offer me a recipe that he had been baking for years that is naturally gluten free! Enjoy!

This is Jared deciding whether or not he can eat one of these pizzas in 30 minutes and get it for free when we visited Ocean City.

Jared's Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients: 
1 c. peanut butter (smooth or chunky - most are naturally gf)
1 c. white sugar
1 egg
Directions:
Mix ingredients together. Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls. Press them down with a fork. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes 18-24 cookies.
Additional ideas:
Adding 1 t. of vanilla (make sure it's gf! most varieties aren't, though Costco's store brand is) and/or 1/2 c. chocolate chips.

Easy, fast, yum.

Valentine's Day from Far Away

It's Valentine's Day! Yay!

It's Valentine's Day, my husband lives in Tennessee, and I live in New Jersey! NOT yay! The OPPOSITE of yay! Booooooooo!

Luckily I've never been much of a huge Valentine's Day fan. In college I used to get kind of depressed and wear all black (granted, I was usually single at the time). It's a pretty silly commercial holiday. It makes single people feel extra alone, and makes couples feel the need to spend money on tacky junk.

It also falls quite soon after both Christmas and our anniversary, so I'm kind of on candy-and-gifts overload by February 14. I know, I know, who knew this could happen to me, but it does. Granted, I still love receiving my annual Valentine's Day package from Mom and Dad (and this years contained a USA Hockey shirt signed by Jinelle! Now I'm a real fan!), but I feel no pressure to celebrate this holiday to its fullest. So I'm not as sad today as I would be if I was alone on my birthday. Birthdays are SERIOUS. In fact, I'm not really sad at all. But I do miss Daryl a bit more today than I do on normal days... Tennessee is just so darned FAR.

Still, if this year has taught us anything, it's that staying maritally close when we're geographically far does take work but it's infinitely worth it. So we've learned to be creative.

Therefore, we planned a Valentine's Day together even though we're far apart. What can I say? I have a really sweet, wonderful husband. Our Valentine's Day celebration consisted of the following:

1. Going to church (1st Pres., Moorestown - me, The Village, Nashville - Daryl)
2. Watching Team USA Women's Hockey annihilate the Chinese team 12-1 (me).
3. Napping (Daryl - who didn't get the hockey channel).
4. Cooking the same dinner in two different states.
5. Skyping during our romantic dinner.
6. Opening sweet Anniversary/Valentine's Day cards we wrote to one another.
7. Looking forward to seeing one another on Thursday for a long weekend. Looking soooo forward to it. Last time I saw Daryl I was still suffering from the February death-virus, and our visit looked a lot like this:

Daryl: Morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?
Me: (Grrrraarrrrrppphhh, sniffle.)

(later)

Daryl: Are you going to get up? It's almost one in the afternoon.
Me: (Mrrrrph, sniffle. Groan.) Yes, I'll get up.
Daryl: Great! What do you want to do?
Me: Take some Tylenol Cold and go back to bed.
Daryl: Okay...
Me: No, wait!
Daryl: (hopeful) What?
Me: Can you turn on a movie for me?

(much later)

Daryl: Do you want anything to eat? I'm going to make dinner.
Me: (Sniffle, sniffle). Sure.
Daryl: What sounds good?
Me: Sprite.
Daryl: Sprite? Anything else?
Me: More Tylenol.

Nothing like traveling hundreds of miles to see my dearest love and not even being able to have a conversation with him, I was so out of it. It was really sad.

But now I am well and I am only five days away from seeing him again and proving that I am more than just a sniffly, snuffly, Kleenex-toting entity. It will be sweet indeed.

Since I haven't posted a recipe in awhile, here's our tasty (and gluten-ous free-ous) Valentine's Day Dinner:

Cabernet Beef Roast (pre-marinated from Trader Joe's)
* Pan sear in a frying pan on each side with a little olive oil.
* Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour
Mashed Sweet Potatoes 
 * Bake 4 sweet potatoes for 1 hour
 * Remove potatoes, peel and mash
 * Mix in 1/4 c. butter, 1/2 c. milk, 1/3 c. maple syrup, and 1 t. salt
 * Bake in a small casserole dish for 45 minutes
Roasted Broccoli
 * Toss broccoli in 2 t. olive oil
 * Add 1/2 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper
 * Bake in oven at 400 degrees until broccoli is slightly tender (15ish minutes)
  *Sprinkle with lemon juice (optional)
 Corn Bread
 * Courtesy of Pamela's oh-so-helpful baking and pancake mix. The recipe is here.


Dessert was going to be Trader Joe's flourless chocolate cake, which is completely amazing and supposedly doesn't contain gluten ingredients (or at least didn't back in August...). I was overeager and ate a small slice yesterday. BIG mistake. Enormous tummy aches followed. So dessert is probably the sorbet I still have in my freezer from the February illness-of-death...
 
So happy Valentine's Day all you married folks. And all you engaged folks. And all you single folks. Eat some chocolate, give someone a hug, and start looking forward to Easter. Now there's a holiday!

Thursday Recipes - Best Sorbet

I'm still sick, so I'm fudging this week's GF recipe. It's not even a recipe. It's just something tasty that happens to be gluten-free and good for sore throats and absolutely delicious.

Ben and Jerry's "Berried Treasure" lemon, blackberry, and blueberry sorbet. Soooo good. Can you beat lemon and blueberry together? I submit that you cannot!

Thursday Recipes - Chocolate Chip Meringues

My very favoritest cookies from Trader Joe's are their chocolate chip meringues. Light, airy, chocolatey... Mmmm... I can eat half a dozen without batting an eye. So you can imagine my dismay when I went to buy some for myself (and some for my fellow meringue-lover and Daryl's Nashville host Ted) recently and the friendly TJ's employee (they always are friendly, even in Jersey. Not sure how they find that many polite employees, but I'm all for it...) told me that not only were they sold out but the product had been DISCONTINUED. WHAT?!?! They still sell the vanilla kind (which = waaaay too vanilla-y), but I've never liked those.

Then I remembered - my mom used to make these cookies when I was younger! She called them "Bake While You Sleep" cookies because you actually put them in a preheated oven and then just turn the oven off and let them sit for at least four hours or even overnight - perfect for putting in the oven on Christmas Eve and eating on Christmas day.

This recipe is from AllRecipes.com and it's naturally gluten-free. I've modified it a bit to fit with my mom's recipe, and I'll be baking these sometime this weekend, if all goes as planned. Mmmmm... See TJ's? I can make it just fine without you... Until I need those white cheddar cheese puffs. Or your amazing fruit leather. Or that tasty mango lemonade... Yeah. I'll be back soon.

A few tips on making meringues, as they can be temperamental... 1) Make sure the egg whites are completely yolk free. Even a tiny sliver of yolk can make them impossible to whip. 2) Eggs at room temperature will whip more easily. 3) Don't even try to do this by hand... Use a stand mixer or a hand mixer, or else invite three or four friends with REALLY strong arms over to whip it for you. It will take a long, long, loooong time. 4) Make sure all utensils, bowls, etc. you use are extra, extra clean. If there's any oil from your hands or leftover grease from another baking project, they won't whip.

Don't be scared! They really aren't that hard, and the rewards are well worth the effort.

Chocolate Chip Meringues

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• Optional: a touch of food coloring (this is great for holidays - pink for Valentine's Day, green for Christmas, etc.), shredded coconut, nuts, replace chocolate chips with butterscotch ones, peppermint extract for mint flavor, the possibilities are pretty vast...

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla while whipping to stiff peaks. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Place cookies in oven and turn oven off. Leave cookies undisturbed for 4 hours (or overnight). Wake up to yummy cookies!

Thursday Recipes - Rosemary Chicken

Today's recipe is a GF recipe that my friend Cam made for Daryl and I when we were last in Chicago. You know you have good friends when you send out emails chronicling your necessary-but-pain-in-the-neck dietary requirements ("no wheat or gluten, and beware, gluten is found in odd places like soy sauce, salad dressing, and the ever mysterious 'natural flavors,' and if all this is too much of a pain we'll just pay for GF pizza for everyone...") and they respond with, "No problem! We'll make chicken."

I haven't cooked this yet myself (I'm still working up the courage to stick my arm in a raw chicken and pull out the giblets... Yeesh...) but I can attest firsthand that it is amazingly delicious. And naturally GF, so it doesn't need any special additives AND normal non-GF-free folks will happily eat it. In fact, it's so delicious that I am planning on soon putting my arm in a chicken. Yes - it's THAT good.

Cam and Leah served this with potatoes and veggies, but it would be good with just about anything -- rice, pasta, salad, or bread (if you can eat that kind of thing). I've left in all of the extraneous directions from Cam's email because they seem pretty important (thanks for letting me plagiarize you, friend).

Happy giblet fishing.


Rosemary Chicken (naturally GF)

1 frying chicken, 4 - 4 ½ lbs (they usually say "Whole Fryer" on the label).
Rinse with cold water, remove giblets from cavity

In chicken cavity, place:
     1 onion, quartered
     1 stalk celery, with leaves (optional)
     2 sprigs rosemary
     1 or 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

Slip a finger under the skin along the breast on each side and slide a sprig of rosemary under the skin, one on each side
Coat skin with 1 T olive oil (maybe a little more - rub in with your hand)
Sprinkle with 1 T (plus a little more) Kosher salt
Place uncovered in preheated oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350, cook 1 hour 45 minutes.

Notes:
It is worth it to buy kosher salt for this recipe
It’s important that the oven is preheated to the full 450 before you put the bird in – that’s what makes the skin crunchy

Thursday Recipes - Stir Fry Sauce

Hello, friends!

It is Thursday. Today is happy for many, many reasons.

1. I am in Nashville, with the man I love (and happen to be married to!).
2. I turned in my final, final paper at 6pm yesterday. Thus, finals season have ended for me, and I am free to be sleepy, brain-dead, and full of Christmas spirit. I can also read novels for FUN now, which is a great gift.
3. I turned in my final grades for Rider, and I'm done being a teacher until mid-January. This is a break I always look forward to with great anticipation. No more quizzes to grade, lessons to plan, or lectures to give. Allllll done.
4. Daryl turns in his final paper at 5pm today. After that, I get my husband back. Hallelujah.
5. I have pumpkin bread baking in the oven. Mmmmm. If it turns out, it'll be next week's GF recipe.

Asian food is a great way to go if you're dining with someone who is gluten-free. However, soy sauce usually contains wheat, and many other good Asian sauces contain soy sauce (teriyaki, for one). You can buy gluten-free soy sauce, but it's also pretty easy to make your own tasty stir-fry sauce. Below are the two favorites I've come up with lately. I love making sauces because they're pretty difficult to mess up, as long as you taste them along the way. Do they need more salt? More oil? More seasoning? Add it in!

Sweet Lemon Ginger Stir-Fry Sauce

1/2 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. roasted red pepper
1 t. ground ginger
1 T. corn starch

This is great with chicken, stir-fry veggies (I love carrots, snow peas, baby corn, and water chestnuts) and jasmine rice.

Hot Pepper Stir-Fry Sauce

2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 c. beef broth
1 t. cider vinegar
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. black pepper
1/4 t. hot pepper sauce
1 T. olive oil
1 T. corn starch

This is tasty with beef, onions, and red & green peppers, served over brown rice. Mmmmm.

Thursday Recipes - Beware Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Mixes

Hello, friendly friends.

So, no recipe today. I'm 40 pages into my 70 pages of research-paper writing (and no, that's not one long paper - it'd be easier if it was), so blogging is not high on the ol' priority list.

Instead, a word of advice:

I went to the grocery store a few weeks ago and was thrilled to find Gluten-Free Betty Crocker baking mixes! Right by the regular cake and cookie mixes! They're pricey ($3.99 apiece here in Jersey, for mixes that make 12 cupcakes, a small pan of brownies, or 18 cookies), but I thought it'd be worth it to try them for convenience sake (as well as sanity's sake, as I bake like a madwoman when as I get stressed during school).

Results? Blech. My basic criteria for gluten-free baking is: Does it taste better than a Snickers? Snickers and Butterfinger bars are gluten-free, cheap, tasty, and satisfy my sweet tooth. No sense in baking if I'd rather just gnaw on a fun-size candy bar...

As for Betty's new line, I've tried the following three mixes:

Yellow cake. Just tried this one tonight. Even bought chocolate frosting to go with it (all Pillsbury frostings except the German Chocolate one are gluten-free!). This was by FAR the worst of the bunch. I didn't even finish one cupcake before I threw out the whole lot. They taste chemical-y (despite containing no chemicals) and like potato starch gone bad. Ick. Ick, ick, ick.

Brownies. These were pretty good when warm, though they had kind of a weird aftertaste. Unfortunately, they quickly turned into cute little brownie-rocks after they cooled. I had to chip them out of the pan to throw them out a couple of days later. The taste wasn't awful, but the texture could ruin all your fillings... Pamela's Brownie mix makes the best GF brownies I've had so far. These didn't compare.

Chocolate chip cookies. I have yet to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe where the cookies don't A) fall apart, or B) taste like bad potato starch. These held together pretty well, and were quite tasty when fresh from the oven (I think I ate about four right away... they turned me into the gluten-free cookie monster). But as soon as they cooled, they tasted stale. And icky. And like bad potato starch.

So if you're really desperate and don't want to buy all the crazy gluten-free flours needed for baking (white rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, potato flour, xantham gum, etc., etc., etc.), the chocolate chip cookies will do, but eat them FAST. The brownies will do, too, but you have to eat the entire pan right away, which may not be a good use of resources (or waistline treatment...). Or make 1/4 of the batter at a time, and refrigerate or freeze the rest.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Thursday Recipes - Irish Potato Chowder

Happy Thursday! Today's recipe is a modified version of my all-time favorite soup. In the world. That my dad always made in a giant, silver soup pot, and served to my family on cold, snowy winter days. Sigh. Yes, I am feeling nostalgic about soup that I will probably be eating in two and a half weeks when I'm home...

Finals season makes me crazy. I stay up all night, eat odd things at odd hours, start cleaning things I normally don't clean ("Gosh, it's really dusty under the bed!"), and start developing a twitchy-eyed, glassy, thousand-yard stare. Luckily, Daryl finds this whole thing endearing, though this year he'll only get to hear about it from a distance. The only thing that helps me through is remembering that none of this is permanent, and that I'm two (count them! TWO!) finals seasons away from graduating. And never having to do this again. Woot.

Anyway, this is a modified, gluten-free version of the recipe from his Ovens of Brittany cookbook. Ovens of Brittany is a really popular restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. If you like good wintry food, this cookbook is a winner. So good. So, so good. And if you're not anti-gluten, eat it with a giant loaf of warm bread. If you're not so much with the gluten, well... then just eat it. It's so good you may not miss the bread.

This soup has the added benefit of being meat-free, which makes it nice and affordable if you have some of the spices already on hand. Don't skip the hot pepper sauce - it makes a huge difference!

Irish Potato Chowder

To make roux:
5 1/2 Tbs butter
8 Tbs rice or potato flour (you can use 7 Tbs of regular flour if you're not gluten-intolerant)

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Mix in flour and cook over low heat for a 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.

For soup:
1 1/2 T. butter
1 chopped white onion
1 1/2 c. chopped carrots (I like bigger pieces, like half the size of a baby carrot)
1 1/2 c. chopped celery (same)
1 t. basil
1 t. parsley
1 t. dried chives
4-5 c. vegetable or chicken stock (make sure this is gluten-free - lots of broth brands contain gluten)
5 c. peeled, diced potatoes
3 c. milk (the higher the percentage, the creamier the soup - I use skim and it's still tasty)
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 t. hot pepper sauce
salt and white pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large soup pot; add onions, carrots, celery, basil, parsley and chives; cook about 10 minutes.

Add stock and potatoes and simmer until potatoes are tender (15-20 minutes).

Stir in milk; return to simmer and whisk in roux until liquid is thickened and smooth. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add sour cream, hot pepper sauce, and salt and white pepper.

Thursday Recipes - Pumpkin Pie with GF Crust

I've gone gluten-free. Yes, I know... For those of you who know me, this must be a shock. I've always been bread-girl. I was such a fussy eater as a kid that I would often find myself eating just the bread portions of a meal (rolls, tortillas, pizza crust) and turning my nose up at the other parts. I was that kid who often had a ball of white bread wadded up in her fist at the lunch table. I didn't just like bread, I liked squishy, white bread.

I also normally bake glutinous foods like a crazy person, especially when I'm stressed. There's an episode of Grey's Anatomy where Izzie, one of the main characters, has a breakdown. Her roommates know she's losing it because every inch of counter space is covered with muffins, and she's still making more. That's not far from how I usually act during finals week... There are brownies and cupcakes and cookies and breads on every available inch of kitchen space. Daryl finally made me promise to start giving the stuff away so we didn't turn into human blimps.

Anyway, when I visited Daryl in Nashville back in August, I decided to go gluten-free for a couple of weeks. The point in this was more practical than experimental - one of the friends he is living with has celiac, and gets really sick if she eats gluten. Since she and her husband are being incredibly kind and gracious in giving Daryl a place to crash for the year (hi, Ted and Heather!), the last thing I wanted to do was accidentally poison her with stray cookie crumbs. So I just avoided it entirely. It's amazing the amount of fresh fruits and veggies I found myself eating when cinnamon rolls were no longer an option...

And something crazy happened. I felt great. I've always had minor stomach troubles. Nothing truly terrible, but bad enough that I have always felt lethargic and crampy after eating. Enough to send me to a couple of doctors over the past three years, both of whom proclaimed it stress. I got a lot of fairly worthless advice, from "do yoga" to "eat more whole wheat" to "try to cut stress out of your life" to solve the digestive troubles. Um... okay... when I'm a full-time graduate student who needs to hold down a couple of part-time jobs to put food on the table, how exactly should I eliminate stress? Also, eating whole wheat made me feel terrible. So nyet to that.

But being a bit obtuse, I thought I felt better because I finally had time to rest for the first time in months, not because I had given up gluten for a time. My ordination exams were over, I was sleeping in most days, and I had little work to do for the first time in over a year. So when I got back to Jersey, I went back to my usual diet (bagels for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pizza for dinner, etc., etc., etc.). And again, I felt terrible. "Hmmm..." I thought.

So I went back to being totally gluten-free in early September, and I've avoided it since (except for a few meals at friends houses where I indulged... and then immediately regretted it). I'm going to get myself tested for celiac and other complications in the coming months. I'm praying I just have gluten sensitivity and not anything more serious.

In the meantime, I've discovered the fun of gluten-free cooking. There are loads of good products and recipes out there, and for those of you who are interested in giving it a try, I thought I'd post a recipe I've tried and liked each week on Thursday. Today's is a new one - the finished product is currently cooling on a wire rack in our tiny kitchen. It looks delicious, and I'm hopeful that it will be. If not, expect this post to disappear tomorrow...

For today, in honor of Thanksgiving, I give you: Pumpkin Pie with GF Crust

GF Crust:

• 1-1/2 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (This stuff is pricey but great - it eliminates all the random types of flours and xantham gum you have to mix to get a normal-ish gluten-free flour mixture, and it can be used to make everything from pancakes to cornbread to brownies. Most bigger grocery stores have started to stock it, but you can also find it here.)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 cup ice water

Yield: one, 9-inch pie crust

1. Combine the baking mix and sugar in a bowl.

2. Cut butter into flour mixture with two knives until butter is in very small pieces.

3. Add oil, then ice water, slowly until dough comes together, not sticky. You may not need all of the water.

4. Press dough into pan with fingers, the thinner the better. (Rolling it out is much too tricky, as it doesn't stick together like normal crust will.)

Pumpkin pie filling (naturally gluten-free!):

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake for 15 minutes. If you're using the crust above, cover the edges of the crust with tinfoil or it will burn.
   
4. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. 

* You can also substitute 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice for all of the spices in the pie filling (especially if you are a financially strapped student who doesn't want to buy several $6 jars of spices... ).

Yum. Pie. And no tummy aches, to boot!