Home-baked goodness

I seem to have reignited my love of baking this weekend.

Saturday night, on the way home from a friend's house, we decided we wanted biscuits and gravy for breakfast on Sunday morning. One of the more upsetting parts about not having gluten in my life is not being able to have biscuits and gravy. Yeah, I know they're not the healthiest thing in the world, but they remind me of being a kid, and I just love them. So to have biscuits and gravy now, I have to make the whole thing from scratch.

Step one, shopping. I know from experience that Bob's Red Mill GF Biscuit and Baking Mix biscuits are my preferred type. We had to go to two grocery stores to find the mix.

Step two, bake! I made the biscuits when I got home, which kept me up a little later than I wanted, but was well worth it come breakfast on Sunday. I follow the recipe on the back of the package, and the biscuits are yummy. They're not very fluffy, which is kind of sad, but they're perfect for being soaked in gravy.

Step three, on Sunday morning, make the gravy. I used the non-gf recipe found at Mama's Southern Cooking, and substituted the biscuit mix flour. I also used less sausage, since the sausage package had 12 oz. And for the milk, I used 1%, because that's what we had.

Step four, devour. It was so good! I restrained myself (and Mike!) and we saved some so that we could have biscuits and gravy for breakfast this morning also. So yummy.

This morning, since I woke up stupid early, I decided to try my hand at gluten free bagels. I used to make bagels a lot when I was living in the land of gluten, but I haven't attempted them since going gf. I did a bit of searching on the internet, and landed on The Gluten Free Cook's recipe. I was bound and determined not to leave the house, though, so this special gluten free flour blend the recipe calls for just wasn't going to happen. To try to stick as close to her recipe as possible, I used the King Arthur's gf blend, which doesn't have xanthan gum already in it, and added the xanthan gum called for in the recipe.

However, when I was measuring out the flour, I discovered I only had about two cups of flour, rather than the 3 1/4 she called for. I figured I'd approximately halve the recipe, and forged onward. Forgetting that the xanthan gum and salt I already measured out were not halved. I realized after pouring everything in together what mistake I had made, but I figured I'd just keep going and hope for the best.

I topped the bagels with garlic powder, dried chopped onions, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds. Everything Bagels FTW! They just came out of the oven, so I can't tell yet if they're any good, but they look like bagels! I'll be crossing my fingers that they turn out well, and looking for other recipes in the meantime.

Update: A Long Time Coming

I have been remiss with blogging lately, in part because of the end of school, in part because of just finishing school and becoming lazy. :) But that doesn't mean I haven't been living the gluten-free life, so here's a couple quick things to check out!

www.yummly.com - My friend (and bridesmaid!) J. pointed me to this website. It's kind of social networking meets recipes. The awesome part? You can make a profile with your food allergy (or likes/dislikes/dietary preferences) that you can set to apply every time you do a food search! Now, I was pointed to this website all of five minutes ago, so I'll be sure to review once I do some future dabbling.

Wild Willy's Burgers of Worcester - I can not say enough good things about this place. This burger joint not only carries gluten-free buns, but also gluten-free french fries AND (wait for it...) gluten free ONION RINGS!!! Not good for my diet, but awesome for my taste buds. If you have one near you, call and see if they offer these options, I get the idea that they are independently owned, and thus might not all have the same food.

Glutino Gluten Free Crackers (original flavor) - My future in-laws bought these the last time they were up, and I had a couple with some peanut butter on them yesterday. They were great! They taste like regular crackers, and the calorie count isn't terrible.

So for now, dear readers, I'll leave you, with promises of more updates to come. Unemployment does have its benefits, after all.

Gluten-Free Desserts!

In the last post, I mentioned a gluten-free chocolate cake that my friend Sarah made for a dinner party at our place. This time, it's a gluten-free cheesecake that I made for a dinner party at her place!

I've never made a cheesecake, so this was an exciting (and scary) experiment for me. I bought a springform pan, and all the necessary ingredients.

For the crust, I used the recipe on the back of Pamela's Ginger Mini Snapz (which are a gluten-free cookie). This basically involved crushing up a bag of the cookies, mixing in melted butter, and pressing into the bottom of the pan. It also had to bake for about 10 minutes, then cool (which I failed at doing, instead putting ingredients in. Whoops!)

The recipe was for a caramel apple cheesecake, which looked different from the picture there, and I would argue looked far more delicious. I put the caramel apple topping in the middle, with a row of walnuts around the outside. Mmmm.

The dinner party attendees seemed to thoroughly enjoy the cheesecake, and it didn't have any weird gluten-free taste to it, which is always a plus! I should mention that prior to the cheesecake, we enjoyed tortilla chips with salsa and homemade guacamole, and Sarah's delicious Mexican feast of rice, black beans, and enchiladas!

Gluten-Free Dinner Party

Last night, I hosted a dinner party/game night with a group of friends from school. I would declare that it was a rousing success. One of the challenging parts of it, at least for the guests, was that it was potluck, so two couples who don't have any dietary restrictions had to come up with something I could eat for an appetizer and for a dessert. I would have been perfectly fine if they brought something I couldn't eat, particularly since it's my own house and I have plenty I can whip up if needed, but they all said they wanted to try to make something I could eat, which was really thoughtful.

Appetizers were potato skins, topped with bacon and scallions. Yum! One of my favorite appetizers. I made chicken, prosciutto, cheese, and spinach roll-ups for dinner, along with rice and spinach for sides. Dinner was a delicious chocolate cake made with rice flour and topped with chocolate chips and walnuts. Also super yum! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything, and the red wine that went with everything was the perfect topper to the evening.

And now, it's my first gluten-free St. Patrick's day...no soda bread or Guinness for me. :(

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Last night, I made gluten-free tuna noodle casserole for dinner.

It was basically from this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tuna-noodle-casserole-i-2/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package wide egg noodles
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 (6 ounce) can tuna, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can peas, drained

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large pot of salted water, boil noodles until al dente. Drain well.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine flour, butter, and salt. Stir until butter is melted and ingredients are combined evenly. Add milk, and whisk until the sauce thickens (usually it is at the proper consistency by the time it begins to boil). Add cheese to mixture, and whisk until cheese is melted and mixture is well blended. Stir in tuna, peas, and noodles. Spread evenly in prepared dish.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

I used Tinkyada brown rice spirals and Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour. Since the pasta package was 12 oz, I doubled the rest of the ingredients. I also sprinkled some gf breadcrumbs over the top, since I like things a bit crunchy.

The only complaint I had was that the pasta was kind of on the mushy side. I probably should have cooked the pasta for a few minutes less, but it was still delicious. M. and I tend to like things on the salty, peppery side, so we spiced it up after cooking.

I just had leftovers from last night, and I'll just say...yum.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Mix

This past weekend, I went to visit my friends A. and S. and their twin 3-year-olds in New Jersey. They were good enough to pick up some gluten-free goodies for me to eat while I was visiting, and planned a pasta night and a pizza night for my visit. For pizza night, the Gluten-Free option was Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Mix.

This mix was easy to make (enough so that I made it with 3-year-old twins with very little hassle), and not as watery as some of the other gluten-free mixes. It's good, but has a somewhat strange texture. I guess the best way to describe it is chunkier than a regular pizza mix. A. tried both, and said that in comparison to the Better Homes and Gardens pizza dough recipe, the gluten-free dough had more flavor.

I did use a pizza stone to cook it, and if I had it to do over, I would have used less of the dough to get a thinner crust, since it was pretty thick in some places. It was delicious, and the family sent me home with lots of leftovers, so I'll be enjoying it some more later today. :)