can I buy this by the case?

If you have not made your own marshmallows yet,  you are seriously missing out.  I haven’t bought marshmallows since I made our first batch.

We added chocolate chips as eyes (and eyes and eyes) for our spooky little treats. Fast and easy.  Enjoy.   Martha Stewart Marshmallow Recipe.

So, my dear, sweet family has been eating less wheat too.  They are awesome.  We’ve found some excellent rice noodles, and they still taste great with pesto and spaghetti sauce.  I’ve got a small stash of flours for baking and I’ve been experimenting (insert mad scientist laugh here) on friends and family.  So far so good, ok well there was that one pie crust that was DISGUSTING, and I made brownies from the Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Brownie Mix (I thought they were horrible, but I know a few who have tried and LOVE them), but some things have really turned out well.

Then, the big challenge. Rob’s birthday.  And Rob feeling a little put out by the no-wheat food in the house.  You know, it’s just not the same (that’s right honey, it’s BETTER!).  So I researched for a while, I read a LOT of recipes.  Rob wanted something with chocolate and coconut.

I found Lauren’s recipe for Devil’s Food Cake.  I have to tell you this cake is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Not only does it taste great, the texture alone will have everyone convinced this is a cake made with regular wheat flour.  Guess what, there’s not a drop of wheat in it.

What started out as this:

Ended with this:

Rob had asked me, “Is it?”  again, “Is it?”.  He saw me eating it and I smiled. “It is.”

Enjoy.  Get the full experience on CeliacTeen.com with the original recipe here. I made a coconut cream cheese frosting (oh my).  Recipe follows below.

Lauren’s (CeliacTeen.com) Gluten-Free Devil’s Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup millet flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
5 tsp brown rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature *separated see my note
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup very warm water

Directions

*About 30 minutes before you start, get the eggs out of the fridge and separate them.  Cover them either with a lid or clear plastic wrap so they don’t get filmy.  They are easier to separate when they are cold.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease the bottom and 1/2 the sides of each pan.  Put a parchment circle in the bottom, grease the parchment.  (This is worth the time for success.  The parchment ensures no cake will be left behind, ugh hate that, and greasing up only 1/2 the pan, let’s the cake rise to it’s fullest.  Some will suggest only greasing the bottom, but I’ve had success with greasing 1/2 way.)

Combine all flours, xantham gum, cocoa, baking soda, baking power, salt and sugar.  Sift together in a large bowl. (I did it 2x, sifting adds air to the mix, helping to keep the cake light and helps in preventing the dreaded cake falling in the middle.)

Combine egg yolks, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and very warm water in another bowl.  Once thoroughly mixed, mix into the dry mix bowl, until combined, do not over mix, you want to keep as much air in the mix as possible.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.  (also helps to keep cake light and airy and prevent the dreaded fall) Gently fold these into the mixture.  Again, don’t over mix, the air in the mix is crucial, and over mixing eliminates the air in the mix.

Pour 1/2 the batter in each pan, bake for 30-35 minutes (mine was done at 30,), until the toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let the cake cool completely on a rack (if you have one).  While cooling you can prepare the frosting.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (for sprinkling on the cake)

Directions
Beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Stop and scrape the sides and bottom to make sure it is mixed thoroughly. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with heavy cream. Continue scraping the bowl to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. Beat in the salt, coconut flavoring, and vanilla extract. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and spreadable. Add additional confectioners’ sugar if necessary to thicken the frosting, or more cream to thin. Stir in the coconut. Sprinkle coconut over the cake.

Assembling the Cake
After your cake is completely, totally and wholly cool you may remove it from the pan.  Run a knife along the edge, remove cake from pan and place on cake plate.  Spread the frosting over the first layer, sprinkle a bit of coconut on top.  Place second layer on top of first layer.  Spread frosting over top and sides.  Sprinkle with coconut.  Put in fridge to set if you have time, don’t leave out in the heat, butter and cream cheese will run if too warm.

Enjoy.  This has to be one of the best cakes I’ve made so far. And the best part, it doesn’t taste like one of those gluten-free bricks.

I had a few zucchinis in the fridge and have been wanting to try to make some crispy zucchini fries.  These were so fun to eat.  Super crispy on the outside (probably thanks to the panko) and super smushy soft on the inside.  AND, Izzy, the 5yo who-used-to-eat-everything-and-now-doesn’t child, LOVED them.

“EW”, she said when they came out of the oven, “I am NOT eating that.  What is it?”

The rule at our house is you have to taste it.  If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it, after all we should enjoy what we eat, mother nature worked hard to grow it and we take special care to make it, it should be yum to eat, right?

Well after the first one, there was the second one, third, fourth, fifth….she ate these before the raviolis.  We’ll be making these again, and the best part?  These are so easy a 5 year old could totally make them too.  It’s fun, all the dredging and rolling and sprinkling, it’s total tea party time.

Enjoy!

Crispy Yummy Zucchini Sticks

• 4 Medium Size Zucchinis
• 1 1/2 tablespoon flour
• a couple sprinkles of your fave seasoning, I used cajun spices, but Italian or anything you fancy would be nice.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs
• Olive Oil (spray if you have it)

Preheat oven to 475F -500F depending on your crisp factor (I did 500F)

Prepare a cookie sheet, brush or spray with olive oil, set aside.

Cut the zucchinis lengthwise in quarters, then into 3rds or quarters again.

Mix the flour, seasoning and salt together in a bowl.

Whip the egg whites until they are really frothy, almost until they form soft peaks, almost, in another bowl.

Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl.

Dredge the zucchini sticks in the flour mixture, dip in the egg whites, dredge in the breadcrumbs.

Place on prepped cookie sheet. Repeat until finished. Spray or drizzle sticks with olive oil.

Put in oven for about 20 minutes, turning half way through.

My Notes:

I used cajun seasoning and they were good, I think cumin would be AWESOME, and of course, the old stand by – Italian seasoning.

I used panko, the Japanese breadcrumbs. LOVED them, super crispy.

We really liked the super crispy outside and super soft inside, we cooked them for probably 25 minutes until the breadcrumbs started to turn super dark brown.

I think you could totally make a batch and freeze them after they’ve been coated with the breadcrumbs.  I’m going to add this to my “What to do with all the zucchini” part of the year and freeze a bunch for later.

We were watching a cartoon on some channel, not one that we normally watch, and there were commercials, and one came on for Pop Tarts.  I remember eating Pop Tarts.  We’d occasionally have them in the house growing up, but it wasn’t a normal breakfast for us.  It was a treat.   I know in some cultures or houses, cake or pastry for breakfast is the norm, but not at our house.  That being said, there is nothing more wonderful than the occasional delicious treat.

However, I never thought Pop Tarts were delicious.  I thought they tasted like sugar coated card board.  And, have you read the label?  Totally too many ingredients that I can’t pronounce, or have to look up to figure out what it is.  So here I have to follow some of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules like:

#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Amen to that.  Have you made your own junk food?  WAY better than the commercial stuff. And I think you burn all the calories while making it and cleaning up afterwords.

#11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

This I learned from my mother, ANYTHING advertised on TV is off limits.  (except the stuff I do for my job, it’s on TV, and well, I’d buy it).

So, literally, I’ve been thinking about it this week.  Totally, sort of obsessing over it, thinking about these big convenience food makers and their role in our lives.  (Ok, that’s for another post, later).  Anyway, catching up on my food blogs, I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and well the rest is history.  We made them right away.

We rolled the dough into rectangles.  Don’t you love my perfect rectangle?  Isn’t it AWESOME.  Tip #1, I used my large rectangle cutting board as a template.  I felt so clever.

We made smaller treats (portion control is important, you don’t need big ones to enjoy them and they are treats), and cut the rectangles down to 12 pieces.  I think next time I would cut them into 16 pieces, even the 12 pieces were too big at around 3×4″.

We brushed our squares with egg, then poured our cinnamon filling on top.  There are more ideas at Smitten Kitchen, but I really liked the nutella suggestion.  For Izzy, since she’s not so into sweets, I need to come up with some savory ideas.

We cut up the 2nd rectangle and put them ontop of the first rectangle and pressed down the edges to make little pillows.

Using forks, we sealed the edges.

Izzy added her designs to each one.

I cooked 4 of them, and put the rest in the freezer.

Sorry, when they came out of the oven, they were gone right away, no photo of the finished product.  Next time.

This was so easy peasy.  Seriously an awesome project.  SO EASY A 5 YO COULD MAKE THEM!!  We now have a bunch in the freezer for treats and I think if I can find a savory filling, these would be an even bigger success at our house.

Recipe at Smitten Kitchen, Enjoy!

It was so stinkin’ easy.

Fluffy pillows of lemony goodness…

Boiled….

Then pan fried….

Gone in 60 seconds.

Recipe is from EveryDay Food (and of course, I’ve been carrying this issue around with me I LOVE IT and can’t find the magazine to share the recipe, I’ll post it when I can find the link or the magazine.

In our never ending quest to make as much of our food from scratch, we made marshmallows today.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to buy them again.  Fast and easy.  Enjoy.   Martha Stewart Marshmallow Recipe. Turn them into Bunnies.

Izzy hand picked a big pile for our tart.  She carefully checked each one, turning it around and around, making sure they were the right ones, red and delicious.

We poured our cut strawberries onto the rolled out dough.  She folded the edges of the dough over the strawberries. And we popped it in the oven.

This was totally delicious, and so easy a 4 year old could make it (with a little help from mom).

Rustic Strawberry Tart

Tart Crust

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg separated
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons ice water

Filling

• Lots of fresh strawberries, sliced

Preeat oven to 400F.

Put flour, butter, egg yolk and sugar into the food processor and pulse until the mixture turns into little balls, like course meal.  Slowly add the cold water until the mixture forms one big ball.  (Watch the amount of water you put in, too much and the dough gets too wet).  Remove ball, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by hand too! Make a mound of flour on a work surface, then make a well in the center of the mound and put the butter, egg yolk, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of the cold water into it.  Mix the ingredients in the well with your fingertips, then begin incorporating the flour in until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Add 1 tablespoon water and continue to blend, adding water 1/2 tablespoon at a time as needed to form a workable dough, gathering it into a ball. Add a little flour to the work surface and knead the dough two or three times with the heels of your hands. Take care not to over knead. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Remove the chilled dough and place on a floured work surface.  Roll out to desired thickness and size.  Brush egg white over entire dough surface.  Pour cut strawberries onto the center of the dough.  Fold edges up over strawberry hill.  Brush egg whites over the dough edges. *Optional, sprinkle entire tart with sugar (we did not and it was just fine!)

Place tart on flat sheet.  I lined mine with parchment paper.  Cook for 30 mins until crust is a golden color.  Let cool for about 15 minutes before cutting.

We used just plain fruit for the filling, nothing else, and it was perfect for us, not too sweet.  We’ll be making these tarts with the fruit we get each week from our Farmer’s Market, and it’s something Izzy can do a lot of by herself, pick the fruit, pour the ingredients, pulse the food processor, roll the dough, brush the egg whites, fold over the dough, and of course, eat it.

I remember the large black wood cook stove in our kitchen in our farmhouse growing up.  It heated our whole drafty 200 year old log cabin farmhouse throughout those cold Bucks County winters.  It kept us warm and cozy.  Mom also cooked on it. And in it.  One of our most favorite treats was beer bread.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It smelled so good, it just filled the house with bready sweetness.  We’d stand there and wait for a whole hour, checking on it constantly.  Finally, it would be done and come out of the stove.  I’m sure we had to wait 15 minutes before we cut into it, but I remember the hot slices all steamy, in my hands, then gone!  The bread never made it to the table.  The butter was close by, and spread on each slice.  HEAVEN.

If you haven’t made beer bread before, you are missing out.  Seriously.  It is a simple and amazingly delicious treat.  You will eat it standing up at the oven hoping it has had enough time to cool off so it doesn’t burn your mouth. Super delicious alone, but some butter makes it even more delish!

Aunt Ellie’s Beer Bread

3 cups Self Rising Flour*

3 tablespoons Sugar

12 oz beer

pad of butter

sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375F.  Put a healthy pad of butter in a 8″ loaf pan and place in the oven so the butter melts in the pan.  Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Pour in the beer.  Mix together so dry ingredients are no longer dry.  Carefully remove hot loaf pan, sprinkle sesame seeds over the melted butter.  Pour in the dough.  Bake for 45-60 mins.  Bread should be crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside.

*Don’t have self rising flour? You can make your own: for this recipe:

3 cups of Flour, 1 teaspon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Salt

Notes:

3 tablespoons of sugar makes this bread pretty sweet.  If you want a less sweet bread, try 1 tablespoon of sugar.

That’s not to say that Autumn doesn’t have a wonderfulness that I love. I love the changing of the leaves, the crispness in the air, the smell. I’m excited about my sweaters and thinking of making a new poncho (LOVE THEM). And well, the food is of course, fantastic.

I got very excited about a Pumpkin Soup recipe I found, and turned it into my own.

(adapted from SmittenKitchen – be sure to click over, the pictures are so beautiful)

I think making this the day before you want to eat it really makes it a more flavorful soup.  I had to change this from my inspiration, as I didn’t have the same ingredients on hand.  The pumpkin (the variety escapes me!), is not a pie pumpkin and has green seeds.  I was really worried that it was not the “right” kind, but was actually perfect!  When I picked these up at the Farmer’s Market, she told me she’d actually never cooked this kind before!

1 small pumpkin (with nutmeg and olive oil)  or you can use a can of pumpkin puree
1lb dry beans, soaked and boiled until ready to eat
1 28oz can plum tomatoes
1 red onion, sliced into smiles
8 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup dried mixed mushrooms (I used the wild mix from Found and Foraged Edibles, which I can get at my local farmers market)
3 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Garnish: sour cream or greek yogurt and coarsely chopped lightly toasted pumpkin seeds

Make the Pumpkin Puree. Wash the pumpkin, slice the top and bottom off, cut into quarters, scoop out the guts (save these). Sprinkle with nutmeg and olive oil and place in a pan on one side.  Place 1/2 the red onion and chopped garlic under the pumpkin slices.  Sprinkle with Olive Oil.  Roast at 400F until tender, about 45 mins.  Remove and let cool slightly.  Scrape the roasted flesh off the skin.  Combine the pumpkin flesh, roasted onions and garlic in the food processor.  Puree.  Pour into another bowl.  Set aside.

Chop mushrooms into bite sizes. Put into a bowl, cover with boiling water.  Let sit for about 10 minutes.  Set aside.

In a food processor coarsely puree beans and tomatoes. Set aside

In a soup pot cook onion, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper in butter over moderate heat, stirring, until onion is softened and beginning to brown. Stir in bean and tomato puree. Stir in broth, pumpkin, mushrooms, and wine until combined and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 30 mins, until it thickens up.

Just before serving, add vinegar and simmer soup, stirring, until heated through. Season soup with salt and pepper.

Serve soup garnished with greek yogut or sour cream and toasted pumpkin seeds.  (To toast your pumpkin seeds, preheat oven to 375F, rinse and remove all the pulp.  In a bowl pour a bit of olive oil and some salt.  Spread mixture out in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  (I did this, but on top of parchment paper).  Sprinkle with a little bit more salt.  Put in the oven.  After 10 minutes, stir up the seeds.  Cook for about another 10 minutes.)