Blubarb Pie

We made a pie today! This is a feat, something I have not tried yet as a gluten-free citizen. We used a mix. It worked pretty well and tasted super - 5 tablespoons each of butter and earth balance margarine. It's blubarb. FGH enjoyed it immensely. Actually, none of us really wanted to eat supper because we knew pie was coming. I think the crust might have covered a little better if we used something besides a play-doh rolling pin.

Toddler Muffins

Freddy and I made muffins the other day and much was learned about baking with people of the toddler variety.

1. Have things ready as though we are on a cooking show. A quick trip to the cupboard to get vanilla may result in eggs in the honey jar.

2. Use the biggest bowl possible if you are to let the little one stir.

3. Flour is slippery (more so with gluten-free flour?)

4. Do not expect the product to "turn out"

5. The toddler will fill with pride and adore the baked creation, even if it crumbles to a pile of dust when touched.

Next time we may try instant pudding.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal-Flax-Almond-Sunflower-Coconut-Craisin Cookies

With P's help I finally found the beaters to my handheld mixer. The KitchenAid was well hidden under tools, bulk grocery items and painting supplies so it's use was out of the question. I hardly bake since my Grandma makes all of my (gluten-free!) baked goods. But, sometimes one just needs to make cookies, eat a bit of the dough, and have warm deliciousness. A cold July evening is just the time to do so. (What is WITH the weather anyway?)

I modified a gluten-filled oatmeal cookie recipe and measured all of the ingredients clumsily, took out half of the sugar, added an extra egg, included many extras, and voila, cookies that taste like granola bars.

We're heading to the Honor the Earth Pow Wow this weekend. It's a tradition to go up to the cabin near Hayward, WI this weekend and participate in the festivities. It's the biggest pow wow in the country. We haven't been able to go the past SIX years since we were quite busy at the farm this time of year, but we always wished we were going...so this year is the year. We were there for our honeymoon 84 moons ago!

Heating Up the Kitchen

I am growing tired of cooking as evidenced by the last few meals of bread, cheese, avocado, and salad.  That still sounds good, actually, but I know the boy(s) in the house enjoy the casseroles.

  

OK, I like them too, it is comfort food after all. 

Tonight I have the kitchen heated up with a couple big pots of food bubbling away.*  These should last a few days (or longer since I got a little creative on one recipe and that's not always the best idea...it may be in the fridge collecting fuzz for a couple of weeks).

Curried Lentils

I make this often.  The boy likes it and you can throw all sorts of veggies in it.  He likes the curry.  Go figure.

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, cubed 

1/2 head cauliflower, cubed (baby-sized chunks)

1 white potato, cubed

1 large sweet potato, cubed

olive oil

salt

2 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 or so cups of broth (chicken or veg)

2 cups red lentils

frozen peas

Saute onions in olive oil until soft, add garlic and carrots and saute another 5-10 minutes.  Add curry and saute a few seconds.  Add tomato paste, potato, sweet potato, broth, lentils, and plenty of salt.  Bring to a boil and then reduce and almost fully cover with lid.  Simmer for a good 20 minutes or until veggies are soft and lentils have turned into a good mush-consistency.  Mmmmm, mush...great word choice.  Add peas.  

Split Pea Quinoa Casserole

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 head cauli, chopped

olive oil

2 tablespoons herbs d' provence

splash of plum vinegar (or another tasty vinegar)

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup uncooked split peas

5 cups broth (chicken or veg)

1 can wild salmon

salt

saute onions and garlic in olive oil until browning, add cauliflower and herbs d' provence, and salt and saute another 10 minutes.  Add the splash of vinegar.  Mix mixture with quinoa, split peas, and broth in a 9x13 (or comparable round) baking dish.  Evenly distribute sections of the salmon throughout casserole.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, covered, checking and stirring half-way through.  

I think next time I'll add mushrooms and maybe asparagus.

*It is now out of the oven and quite tasty. 

Cake

I did not bake this cake, the bakers at Wuollet Bakery did (and my MIL brought it over).  It is beautiful.  I had a bit of a mishap in my own kitchen, so much of a mishap that I chose not to even show it on my blog.  My cake for the husband looked like a pile of vomit.  Really!  True, the WB cake is full of gluten, which certainly helps when baking.  I used a mix (I already threw out/recycled the packaging so I'm not sure what brand) which SHOULD be full proof, even without gluten.  I blame my oven.  I left the cake in the oven for at least 20 extra minutes and when I cut into in today it was a little too fudgy...aka undercooked...not a GREAT feature in cake. It was chocolate, so it had that going for it.  I was going for German Chocolate so I made that frosting with the coconut, pecans (I only had almonds which worked well), evaporated milk, vanilla , and butter...a HALF POUND OF BUTTER.   Needless to say, it was tasty.  Tasty, but a little nasty when your house is 83 degrees, humid, and the frosting is starting to turn back into butter, a little droopy on the too-short raw-ish cake.  Mmmmm.  The vomit similarity came from the texture of the frosting and also the fact that I had much more frosting than cake, but I used all of it and just kept piling it on until it looked like a big puddle.   I blame the heat.  One can always blame the weather, right?