New Blog

This blog has been dead for a long time.

Come check out my new blog at http://www.glutenfreemaui.com

Postings

I know that I haven't posted in forever. I do have some pictures I want to post up of the strawberry apple crumble tart things I made for Easter breakfast. They turned out beautifully and everyone loved them.

The thing is, I'll probably keep baking bread for the bf but I wont be baking as much as I'd like to.

The problem is that I can't eat gluten anymore. That's right, the girl who loves to bake can't even eat most of the stuff she makes.

I did bake a chocolate cake and put strawberries on it last Saturday for a party. I used Gluten Free Pantry's cake mix and added 1/3 cup chocolate and some chocolate chips to the mix. It turned out really yummy. I"m still having a little trouble with home made icing. It comes out pretty thin, but maybe I'm just not letting it sit long enough in the fridge. I'm always doing these things last minute. My icing also had chunks of powdered sugar in it on this last cake.

What I plan on doing is ordering some gluten free baking supplies from the internet from either Bob's Red Mill or Kinnikinnick. I've heard good things about both of their gluten free lines. I use Bob's Red Mill now for wheat based baked goods.

One thing I know I'm going to really need for baking gluten free is xantham gum or guar gum. From what I've read xantham gum and guar gum are equally exchangeable. Xantham gum runs about 13 dollars a bag at the local health food store, and I saw that guar gum is considerably cheaper online (since I can't find it here). The only difference is some people experience laxative properties in the guar gum if they eat a lot of it. I think I can get away with guar gum though because it's only a teaspoon usually.

If any of you out there have some delicious gluten free recipes you'd like to share please do. I may eventually want to try making some gluten free bread, but I'm trying to live without bread. Somewhat easier and cheaper to do without, I suspect.

I'll try to get those other pictures up soon.

I do miss posting here more.

St. Patrick's Day

Man oh man. I am so wiped out from making an insanely good dinner plus dessert.

The Menu:

-Partially whole wheat Irish Soda Bread
-Shepherd's Pie
-Strawberry apple crisp in a home made tart

So for the first:
I took a recipe from a youtube video. I did the 2 cups whole wheat flour instead of the ground flax seed, seeing as how I had no ground flax seed to use. I wanted to add raisins, but I forgot to.
It turned out absolutely delicious anyway. The outside was crunchy, the inside was just the right chewiness. And, it was sweet because of the brown sugar. I used dark brown. Served it on the cutting board with Smart Balance and Soy Garden for buttery options.

The second:
My shepherd's pie is really simple. It's a bag of frozen mixed vegetables cooked with browned hamburger (in small crumbly pieces), topped with mashed potatoes (I brown them under the broiler). Everything gets cooked, seasoned while cooking, and tossed into a casserole dish with the potatoes on top.
Tonight I jazzed it up a little with some Worcestershire sauce, Adobo seasoning, and tomato paste. Because I was making two pounds of hamburger I used the whole can of tomato paste.
I made a ton of this because the bf loves it for quick lunches during the week. I froze the leftovers.
It was a hit.
I used instant mashed potatoes, the ones I use I get from Costco and they're totally happy healthy. Instead of cow milk I used a mix of rice and soy milk. The potatoes came out a little creamier than usual. I also cook them with chicken broth, not water.

Third course:
This one was a challenge. The tart recipe asked for cream, but all I had around was some leftover coconut milk. The recipe said to use a dash. I added a teaspoon because I read that a dash is 1/8 of a teaspoon and that seemed rather small of an amount to me. But even the teaspoon of coconut milk looked like too little. I stuck with it anyway. The dough was dry. It tried its hardest to not hold together. I brushed the outside of the dough balls with some more coconut milk before I fridged them in plastic wrap for an hour.
Rolling one of the dough balls out was not easy. I kept having to flour my pin and the dough kept wanting to crack or lift up onto the pin.
Eventually I got it to roll out big enough. I had to use a pie plate because I didn't have little tart pans. The first 15 minutes of cooking I put white rice in parchment and put it on top of the tart. The recipe said to use dried beans, but I only had rice. It still worked out.
Another 15 minutes with no rice. The bottom puffed a little, but it went down. It actually was rock hard by the time I got to put the filling in it.
The filling consisted of strawberries (sliced), green apples (sliced), white sugar, and cinnamon. It was cooked on the stove top over medium heat. I cooked it too long though, or so I think because the strawberries went rather juice like.
The crumble for the top, which made way too much, was delicious. I told the bf to put some on his yogurt in the morning.
There is some extra filling leftovers as well.

Now I am beat. I didn't work on my paper for school and it's nearly bedtime. Perhaps in the morning?

It's worth it though to see people enjoy the food. The compliments don't hurt either.

I still have one loaf of bread. Maybe I can capture a picture of it tomorrow.

Cabin

I'm hoping that this coming weekend we'll get to go to the cabin up in the woods. The bf doesn't have to work on Friday because it is Good Friday. It's certainly good that he doesn't have to work. 

If we do plan to go up there I'd better start thinking of what I'm going to cook. Now, it's certainly not a clean kitchen. It's very old. There's no running hot water. There is only freezing cold water coming out of the pipes. 

The last bunch of times I've gone up there we've had to take a propane camp stove with us. But now they've installed a gas stove and oven. I'm looking forward to using it. If I plan on baking anything like pies I'll have to get them prepped at home before we go up. I could possibly roll the dough out up there though. I'll just have to take plenty of parchment paper. 

I'm also going to take up my own pots and pans. The ones that are up there are old teflon pans that have been scratched to death. They could make you sick I'm sure. 

There's no electricity either. Not a lick of it. That means no refrigerator. I'll take a cooler. There's a screened in box attached to the back of the house that I'll hide some food in. The bugs will stay out of it and it'll keep it moderately cool. I'll keep things like eggs or milk in the cooler with ice packs.

What would you cook if you were up there? What would you eat in the woods when you have no refrigeration? 

Does anyone actually read my blog?

Bread Time Again

Well, we're just about out of bread (the first batch I baked) and so it was time to make some more whole wheat bread. I used the same Bob's Red Mill recipe as before. I really need to start baking bread earlier than 4pm. It takes me from then until 11pm for it to do all of its rising and cooking. 

I'm really tired. I didn't just bake, I was cleaning the house at the same time. I also made a delicious dinner of salmon, brown rice, and steamed asparagus. 

I am excited to have some of this bread in a few days when I finish out the other loaf. I'll probably put some of it in the bag with the bread I still have and the rest in the freezer. 

Baking my own bread is working well for us. I belive it is saving on money, considering it's not the crap at the grocery store full of HFCS and preservatives. It's next to organic. I would spend 6-7 dollars on a loaf of organic bread at the health food store.  I pay 6 dollars for a 5 pound bag of flour and there are 68 1/4 cup servings in a bag and I use 6 full cups for 2 loaves of bread. Not bad.

Well, I'm gonna finish the TV show I'm watching while the bread finishes in the oven. 

Take care!

Blueberry Muffins

So, we each had a blueberry muffin last night after they came out of the oven. Then, this morning we ate them for breakfast. I had mine with a cup of caffeine free gingerbread spice hot tea sweetened with honey and Silk French Vanilla creamer. 

Delicious.

They were a bit dense, a bit heavy, but that makes for a good breakfast.

We took some out to the park today with a friend and had apple juice. 

Baking makes me and others happy. I'm going to an event tomorrow. I think I'll bake a cake tonight. I'll have to start now though, so I can maybe do some homework before bed. It means I'll be staying up really late.

If I bake tonight though, I'll have the afternoon free tomorrow for homework.

*Sigh* The life of a student trying to be a baker. LOL

::edit:: I've decided to not bake anything for tomorrow. I'll let others handle it this time. I'm too tired with too much to do.

Quick and Easy Baking

Just baking blueberry whole wheat muffins tonight. I got the recipe from 8thcontinent.com The soymilk brand. 

No camera, though I suppose I could use the bf's iPhone. 

I'm looking forward to eating some. Breakfast, here we come!

Just enjoying some baking.