Blondie Brownies (GF & Allergen-Free) & a Cookbook Giveaway!
I have missed butterscotch blondies. I never ate them terribly frequently–they seemed to pop up primarily as Christmas goodies where I grew up–but when I ate them, oh, how I loved them. Sweet, rich, creamy, chewy, a touch grainy–delicious. There are things you miss when you’re gluten-free, certainly, but when you add in additional restrictions, what you miss multiplies rapidly. Being gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free means I haven’t found a fascimile of butterscotch that’s worth eating. Butterscotch is, after all, primarily made from butter, and it’s the cooking of that butter that creates the delightful taste.
But these ‘butterscotch’ blondie brownies–they are good. Dan’s non-allergic and sometimes picky family members ate the whole pan in less than 24 hours.
read moreHerby Whole-Grain Crackers (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free)
A friend requested that I post a cracker recipe on this blog. Gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free crackers are hard to come by in the grocery store, and most of the ones that exist taste like cardboard. Fortunately, crackers are actually pretty easy to make, and boy howdy, are people impressed when you make them from scratch. When I’ve served homemade crackers at parties, people have inevitably oohed and ahhed over just how very homemade-chic I am to have bothered to make something so basic from scratch. It’s all rather hilarious.
In part because of flavor, and perhaps in part because of texture, gluten-free crackers tend to be heavy on the nuts. I’ve done a lot of nut-based postings lately, so I thought I would switch it up and offer a nut-free cracker recipe. I like the flavor of chickpea flour in Indian flatbreads, so I started with chickpea flour and then added what I wanted to taste/feel in them. I don’t consider this recipe perfected, but the crackers are downright tasty (and my husband says they’re simply great). I’ve changed up the recipe I’m including here from the one I used to shift the seasonings how I will when I make them next time. Feel free to change up the seasonings to suit your own cravings.
read moreEasy Dairy-Free, Soy-Free Alfredo Sauce
I don’t generally make 20-minute meals. I tend to opt for dishes that have me working in the kitchen for an hour plus. But today’s recipe—a dairy-free, soy-free Alfredo sauce—made for one quick lunch yesterday. I put asparagus in the oven to roast, and I put a covered, large pot of salted water on to boil for gluten-free pasta. While I waited on the water to boil, I washed spinach, peeled an orange, sliced an avocado, and made a mustard-citrus dressing for the salad. When the water was boiling hard, I put the pasta in and stirred it around. I flipped the roasting asparagus and then put the ingredients for the pasta sauce in the food processor. When the pasta was cooked, I scooped out the pasta water I wanted for my sauce, I set the food processor running, and I drained and rinsed the pasta. I tossed the pasta with the sauce, pulled the asparagus out of the oven, put tongs in the salad, and voila! Lunch in less than half an hour.
Oh, and this easy sauce was tasty enough that my non-gluten-free, non-allergic friend who was over for lunch got seconds.
read moreRustic Meyer Lemon Cake (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Soy-Free)
When we came to Santa Monica from Atlanta for my husband’s interview, I didn’t expect the city to feel Mediterranean. I had been to Northern and Central California but never Southern. I knew Southern California had lots of palm trees. I knew that LA had bad traffic, lots of smog, and South Central. But I had no idea that visting–and then settling in–Santa Monica would transport me back to the month I spent in Greece. Flowers bloom riotously here. It rarely rains. (LA would be the desert if it weren’t for all the irrigation.) In winter, the temperature hovers around 70 degrees during the day but, with little humidity, quickly dips into the 50s at night; I hear summer won’t be too different. The farmers’ markets (three times a week!) in Santa Monica have every imaginable delight from both winter and spring produce. We get local dates. The dwarf blood orange tree my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day is blooming and sending its heady, potent scent through our open windows. It is actually really lovely here. Perhaps I would have been more open-minded about living in California during Dan’s job search if I had realized that LA’s cliches don’t speak too much to its realities. (I mean, yes, the traffic is horrendous, but we just live near my husband’s workplace and walk or cycle the gridded streets to get places. And Santa Monica gets ocean breezes, so the smog isn’t bad here.)
Two days ago it was unseasonably warm, about 82 degrees. I was walking the dog, wearing a tanktop with the sun warming my shoulders, and enjoying the life we’re creating in Santa Monica when I decided one of my next posts should be a Meyer lemon cake. A simple cake, a bit rustic, with a tender crumb but also the crunch of cornmeal around the edges. Something that would incorporate a celebration of Mediterranean influences: olive oil, almonds, yogurt, honey, and, of course, citrus. Mmmm Meyer lemons.
read moreOrange-Sesame Chicken (Gluten-Free, Soy-Free, Egg-Free)
I love getting blog comments. Everyone does, right? I especially love when someone reports that a post has really resonated with her (usually her) or that she has used one of my recipes to make something she thought she had lost. It’s such a thrill to know that my words and work make someone else’s life more understandable, more meaningful, or more pleasurable. So I was very pleased, last week, when I got a response to my Like-PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken recipe (gluten-free, etc., natch), where Kerr said (in part):
THANK YOU!! My half Korean husband was ecstatic. He even broke out into song once…. =) After 4 years of cooking for our multiple allergen and celiac daughter, we were enraptured to eat something that tasted like it was straight out of our favorite, and sadly avoided, Asian restaurant! Hats off to you!
Then she went on to say: Now… off to see if you have a sesame orange chicken recipe…
That, dear readers, is a challenge to me. It’s a bit like a dare. Growing up, I would never turn down dares. I quit taking on all dares without question after my friend Amy dared me to drink 10 shots of vodka in a row when we were in college. (I did. I got very sick. She cried. Thank you, Robbie and Jill, for taking care of me that night, and thank you, Amy, for cleaning up after me the next day.) But I still love a good worthwhile challenge, so after I got Kerr’s comment, I started pulling up orange chicken and orange sesame chicken recipes to see how difficult it would be to make them gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free.
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