General Talk - Winter Is Almost Here

Geee's... time is just like gone. Time... what is time?? I have none of it lately! I can't believe it's the last day of the 2nd week of December already! Just another week or so and it's officially winter and just a couple days past that it's Christmas.

What do you have planned for your Christmas meal this year? Share with us! My blog might not be very well known yet but I hope that will change and your comments will make it better! I would love to hear from those of you that are living the gluten free life and those of you that must live it such as myself.

This Christmas we have decided to join my parents at their place for dinner this year. We're going to go over early, 9 or 10 in the morning so that we have lots of time for yummy cooking while the 'boys' go about setting up a new wifi router for my father as his Christmas present this year.

We're planning on going traditional and since we don't celebrate Thanks-giving out here, we opted for a turkey for a change. Hubby doesn't care too much for ham or pork type meats at all and it's way too salty for my mother so we decided a turkey would be the way to go and lots of left overs for both families.

I'm going to go about making a home-made stuffing recipe with gluten free white bread, sage and onions. Lots to stuff the bird and lots to make another pot to bake off after the bird. We're going to make home-made garlic mashed potatoes and don't forget the home-made cranberry sauce! And to top it all off perhaps we'll attempt making a from scratch pumpkin pie but I some how think with the rest of the dinner, we'll end up with something easier like pumpkin spice bars or something more cake-ish. I don't know if we'll have enough energy or want to try attempting a home-made pie crust and then figuring out home-made pumpkin filling using real pumpkin and not canned as we simply do not have that out here.

I intend to bring my camera with so that we can take photos of our adventure since the cooking part is really going to be my mother and mine while the boys are off playing with their computers and electronics... besides I can't help but think sometimes to the days that I won't have her around any more and I want to capture some of these moments while I can. Christmas is certainly the way to go.

So, to cap it all up... here are some of the recipes that will come with Christmas this year... remember when you see something mentioned as a dish I'll be making and I've finally had the time to post about it, I'll come through and post a link to it.

Traditional Stuffed Turkey

Sage & Onion Stuffing/Dressing

Home-made Cranberry Sauce

Fresh Steamed Baby Carrots

Home-made Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Pumpkin Spice Cake/Bars w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Today sometime I will be attempting to come back and post a recipe too. It's been way too long since I got any time to do this and I really have lots of photos and recipes on stock to put up. Just need the time and today with the cold, rain and wind, it would be a good day to do so

General Talk - Where Does The Time Go??

My god... it's been forever since I was here. I almost forgot I even had this blog running with how busy my life has gotten over the last few months. Tonight sparked my memory though because when showing some one that I work with photos off my phone when it showed me all of the 400+ photos I have uploaded already to my wonderful gluten free food blog.

Summer... it's come and gone already and I feel that I have, at least this year, gotten a lot more done then I have in the last 10yrs worth of summers. No one to take care of like my MIL or such, still in the same apartment, finally have a beloved new car (got it July 4th, 2012 of all dates), I'm coming up on just short of being in Belgium for 11 full years, I have had a steady job for the last 8months, my health is getting better, I'm losing weight but still I have not cooked, baked or even attempted any thing in my kitchen in months. My main meals have consisted of 'poor mans omelets' and sandwiches.

The summer months have been warm and very sunny here this year. So much in fact that for the first time since moving here I've actually got a small tan going that is darker then my husband's! Usually it's him out so much in the sun that he will be 2 or 3 shades darker then this pale skinned American lady. Not so this year LOL

So I don't really know when I'll be back to post a recipe but I do know I still have photos and recipes on stock to share. Not much in the way of spring/summer things I don't think but at least they are still very yummy (or I wouldn't post them) and sure to appeal when the months start turning more into fall weather then summer.

Bare with me while I find my footing but I think this week Thursday I'll be able to bring a new recipe since I should have the day off but one never knows until one actually arrives on the day, in my case. Some times someone calls in sick and I need to fill in so never know.

General Talk - Be Careful Of On-Line 'Gluten Free' Shops!

Out of pure boredom tonight, I went searching to see if I could find anything nice and tempting to buy gluten free on the web. I came across a site that seemed almost too goo to be true. It was shop located in Aussie but also right under it's logo mentioned 'world wide shipping'. This sparked my interest right off the bat.

I started to look... first thing I went to was cake decorations. I have been DYING for some stuff like sprinkles and confetti to decorate cakes/cupcakes and what not with. I start to open pages to look at them more in depth as they also offered ingredient lists to the items. By now I'm totally and utterly excited because it's been so long since I had any of these to make things pretty, specially for Christmas and the last page I opened made my jaw drop... right smack in big bold print were the ingredients that even made FULL mention of glucose syrup from wheat! WTH?!

They say in their 'about us page' that they say and I quote (without names being mentioned of course as I'm not here to bash any one)....

'We take pride in providing the largest range of gluten free products in Australia. The majority of us here experience some allergies or food intolerances, which helps us considerably to understand what each of you, as customers,are looking for whilst shopping.'

Now this item might have only been a slip up but I can't see how it could possibly be a slip up when it comes to gluten free if a person actually has to type in the word 'WHEAT' when putting in the ingredient list. Come on.... 

So my heart sunk... another site I can not trust to be 100% gluten free. Even today I was out shopping at a local outdoor market with my mother for the last time for a few weeks due to some festivals that will be happening and wanted a bottle of water... I couldn't even do that because the only place to buy it was at a stand that sold hot dogs, sausages and burgers all with buns... then they would have to touch my bottle of water.... blah.

Ok so with that said, BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING ON THE WEB! If you see something that looks a bit off... DON'T CHANCE IT! I know there are a lot of people out there that are only living this life style because they think it's better for their bodies but for those of you that are following my blog because you HAVE to live this way such as I do, you can not ignore this instinct... if you think it's wrong, then most likely it is wrong.

I wrote a comment to this site and will see what their response is but I know for a fact that if people who have to live gluten free didn't have a problem with items such as sugars in items made from wheat then we also wouldn't need factory warnings on items that are only processed in places where gluten products are made... after all the same amount of wheat will be in the item with sugar from wheat as those made in a factory as far as I'm concerned... it all hurts our bodies and reverses the healing effects we've worked so hard to get to happen!

Now I might be overly sensitive to this subject so I looked up about if sugars made from wheat are 'safe' or not. The first report I found was at http://surefoodsliving.com/2008/09/is-glucose-syrup-gluten-free/ and says according to the FDA guidelines that it is 'safe' but sorry, I can tell them 100% that it isn't. But again, I'm only 1 person aren't I?? But I don't need medical testing to tell someone that I got into wheat some where... I don't need a test to tell me I have a tummy ache, bathroom problems, tiredness, anxiety and memory problems/fogginess due to getting into gluten some where. I believe personally the best way to avoid getting into gluten that could be doing your body harm is to just stay away from it. Simple as that. The only reason we have this issue going on is due to 'processed' foods any how and I do strive to stay away from these as much as I can and if I can't, I know I can simply avoid the few items that do contain stuff like this.

Ok rant done... storms have rolled in again for the 3rd night in a row and I'm gonna go enjoy them! I miss my old USA based thunder storms so I have to enjoy them while I can!

Simple Soft Scrambled Eggs

It seems that people always have a reason for not having something for breakfast but then it also seems that every one says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The meal that starts you off, gets your body going and gives you the energy you need to get through your day.

So here is a short break down on how to make a fast 2 or 3 egg soft scramble that are so velvety that you will want to make them every morning!

You don't need a large pan for this, in fact you want a fairly small pan. You don't want so much room that your eggs have room to move away from each other, you want them to stay together for the cooking process.

Slightly preheat your pan over a medium heat. Remember you will want to work quickly with this! Place a bit of oil or even butter in to coat the pan, break your eggs in and add a small nob of butter to the eggs themselves. Now start working the butter into the eggs with a spatula. You want to mix this. By the time the butter is completely melted, your eggs should be ready! Simple but elegant!

My photos today are showing off the eggs I made to go with our Sunday brunch a while ago of Blueberry Pancakes with chicken sausages.

Drinks - Fizzy Raspberry Lemonade

It's officially summer around here in Belgium and I don't mean just by the date but all that tells you that it's summer time. School is officially out as of this weekend, all my beloved summer fruits such as Donut Peaches and raspberries are out, the sun is already giving me problems due to having sun sensitivity (I'll take that over not having summer though!) and it's just plain ol' feel of summer.

The other day I had tried a soda that I hadn't before just for the sure want for something 'different'. It was Schweppes Lemon. I normally don't go at all for lemon soda around here mainly due to the fact that it's a bitter lemon and I do not like that at all.

This soda is different though. It has a very very light lemon taste that would remind you more of the old style American style lemonade but with the added soda fizz. This brought up a longing for a lost love from the States... Raspberry Lemonade.

So one afternoon I bought a pint of raspberries and went about trying to make it! Ok so that wasn't *THAT* hard but honestly I loved it more then my husband but lets all face it, I'm still an American by all means and lemonade + raspberries just make sense!

So grab a bottle of schweppes lemon soda, take out a nice tall/big glass, add a bunch of ice, mash up a few raspberries (no sugar needed as there is sugar plenty in the soda), place the mashed raspberries into the glass of ice and pour in your soda. Give a mix up with a spoon and let sit for a moment to get nice and cold. The results are amazing.

Later on though, I'll post a recipe for home-made lemonade both with and without fizz version so that you can also make this the old fashioned way! But for now, I couldn't resist showing off the amazing photos my husband took of these drinks and well this IS a gluten free blog... not just recipes right??

General Talk - Another Project

It has been like 15yrs or more since I had the ever famous 3-layer coconut cake by Pepperidge Farm. Not to mention as far as I go, I seem to have different tastes and cravings as I grow older. I use to like coconut when I was younger but never craved anything with it really. This past week I suddenly got a HUGE craving for a coconut cream cake though and as that sprang into my mind, it also came the thought that this is Belgium... coconut cream anything is *not* on the menu any where which means my husband would have never tasted anything like it. *BANG* it was there... I MUST MAKE THIS!

I started my hunt for a recipe but through a week of research I have not found the 'perfect' recipe for this yet. What I did find is 3 different recipes that I'm going to pull different parts from.

One for the cake itself because all the recipes I found wanted to make a yellow butter birthday cake style cake which is WAY too many calories and fat that I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. So I'm opting to make a white butter cake recipe that calls for half the butter, 1 to 1 1/2 cups less flour, a whopping 5 eggs less and half the sugar.

Another one is for the filling. I want to go all out and make my very first layer cake (yes VERY FIRST!) and I want it to be outstanding so I'm pulling a simple coconut cream filling recipe from another coconut cake recipe. This only has sugar, milk, coconut and sour cream in it. I think it will pair perfectly with the choice for frosting that I've chosen.

And of course a layer cake can't be true unless there is a good dose of a good frosting so the 3rd part of a recipe is from yet another one for a cream cheese frosting that only calls for 1 stick of butter instead of 2 and 1 cup less sugar.

When trying to figure out what to do with this, I wanted to try and come up with something that was between the good vs bad line. I didn't want the sugar, over hit of fat (like hello, no gull-bladder any more so that amount of fat is *not* gonna be pretty) or the heaviness that the original yellow butter cake called for, I didn't want the over dose of sugar that some of the fillings called for either. But I also didn't want to totally give up on a great cream cheese frosting for it so I opted for one with a bit less sugar and butter but hopefully with the filling and flaked coconut to go on the outside, it will make enough.

So yea... there is my next project! A 2 or 4 layer Coconut Cream Cake depending on how thick the 2 round cakes come out. I'm beginning to work on it today already but it's a process I must admit. First having to make the cakes that involve a bit more effort then a yellow butter cake would call for due to the whipping of egg whites and what not. Baking them for 20mins and then letting them cool for 10-20mins in their pans, turning them out and letting them cool the rest of the way. Covering them and putting them in the freezer while I prepare the filling and frosting. Then of course putting the thing together and putting it back in the fridge for a couple of hours. It's certainly not a cake you want to attempt on the fly or when you need something 'now'. Mmmm think I should start adding a rating to some of my recipes both on time needed and effort. Wonder how to go about doing that *ponder*.

Easy Shrimp Bisque

A while ago, when it was still winterish around here, I saw the recipe for an easy shrimp bisque by Barefoot Contessa on the food network. I think I drooled as I watched her make it and I couldn't believe how easy it was! I don't have a lot of 'loved' cooks but I do have a couple. Contessa and Jamie Oliver I think happen to be my top 2!

Today I bring you that recipe with my own twists and of course in a gluten free version! You can find the original recipe at the Food Network website. The biggest difference in my recipe vs Contessa's is that I didn't enrich the fish stock with the shells of my shrimp. The reason for that though is simply down to error because I thought I had shrimp with shells but turned out they were completely shelled already. The results were still amazing but I do want to try it with the enriched stock!

Ingredients
 ♥ 1 pound (1/2 kilo) large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
 ♥ 4 to 6 cups seafood/fish stock

 ♥ 2 cups chopped leeks

 ♥ 3 cloves garlic, chopped

 ♥ 3 tbs olive oil

 ♥ 1/4 cup each of Cognac and Sherry

 ♥ 4 tbs butter

 ♥ 1/4 cup gluten free flour

 ♥ 2 cups soya cream or light cream

 ♥ 1/3 cup tomato paste

 ♥ small pinch cayenne pepper

 ♥ salt & pepper

Directions

This soup is a little more time intense then my normal creations but it's so worth the efforts and really, it's not *that* much more work. Firstly make sure your shrimp are thawed before using them. In a large soup pot fry the leek for about 10mins in the olive oil. You want them to get soft and translucent like you would if you were frying onions. When soft and tender, add your the garlic and saute for another couple of minutes, add shrimp as well as the pinch of cayenne pepper and cook until the shrimp have turned a wonderful rose pink color.

At this stage, I would put your fish stock into a kettle that is big enough to also add your leek/shrimp mixture to, you'll find out why in the next step. As per the original recipe though, add the 1/4 cup Cognac and cook for 1 minute and then add the 1/4 cup sherry and cook about 3 mins longer. This is not exact rocket science, another minute here or there is not going to matter much.

This is where my recipe differs from Contessa's. Since I do not have a food processor nor a blender that I really care to use for stuff like meat (it's meant for fruit and veggies in my house and only holds a liter if that), I thought, why not use my stick blender instead? So that is exactly what I did. This is now the reason for the kettle big enough to also fit the leek/shrimp mixture. Add your stock to that kettle, add the shrimp & leek mixture but try to reserve a couple of the shrimp for re-addition later.

Whiz the stick blender through the mixture until you produce a thick and still slightly chunky mixture. Set this aside for a moment and add the 4 tbs butter to the original soup pot, melt and add the flour. Cook for about 1 mins and add the light/soya cream to it and whisk (yes with a whisk on this part, not a spoon or such) until the mixture is smooth and begins to thicken. Contessa mentions about 3mins for this process.

Now remember her recipe calls for you to puree the shrimp/leek mixture without the stock. Since I didn't do this with mine, you now return the thicken puree of shrimp/leek to the roux you just made, add the tomato paste and season to taste with salt & pepper. Although I did not find it needed with the salt that is in the stock and the pepper/seasonings already added. Heat the almost complete soup slowly until hot, either toss in the reserved cooked shrimp whole or cut them into smaller pieces and let warm through.

Serve with garlic cheese bread or fresh made biscuits... it's a wonderful hearty stick to your ribs soup that is perfect for a meal of it's own. And it can, if done with care of your ingredients, be low in fat too!