Fresh Ginger

This blog site is moving!

2007-04-20T15:58:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been having blog envy for a while now. The solution? Design my own blog with my colors and layout. I wanted a theme to match my mood, the colors of Mexico. It is still in process, but from now on I plan to post on this site: http://www.freshginger.org/ Once nice aspect is that the address is easier to remember.
So, update your links and enjoy! Gardening season is here and I am very much looking forward to my visit on Sunday to Van Atta's http://www.vanattas.com/index.php3 to gather more varieties of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, other veggies and always more herbs. Next weekend I hope to install a cold frame in the garden and work on some long awaited landscaping.

I will figure out a way to link you to the new blog soon when someone types in this address. Lucky for me, my boyfriend is an internet/blog guru and is helping me with this project, ok, he is doing all of it and I just pick out the colors and photos.

See you over at the new Fresh Ginger, where I will actually be including more recipes on a regular basis soon!

www.freshginger.org

i'm out

grapefruit and boys

2007-04-17T21:32:00.000-04:00

I have to gush for just a moment here, so give me a small gush moment if you would. Last night I was making stir fried shrimp with snow peas from this magazine http://www.saveur.com/ (of course I can't find the recipe online to link to it) and my sweetie offered to make me a cocktail. Being a vodka girl (ok, you got me, also a rum girl, bourbon girl and perhaps a tequila girl too), I said how about a vodka grapefruit? (my standard evening cocktail - a girl needs her vitamin C right?)
He says "ok" and looks in the fridge for the grapefruit juice.
"Where's the juice?"
Me "Oh, I ran out on Easter and have been squeezing the ones my dad gave us from Florida ever since" (side note here - these grapefruits are so delish - he picked them up at a farmer's market down there while on vacay).
I thought of course that he would bow out of the making of the cocktail offer or offer to make something different. No, he went down into the basement, grabbed two grapefruits and began squeezing them. They were a beautiful light pink color and I had to take a photo - I know, it is just grapefruit juice and vodka, but it was a gorgeous color. He went to the beer club meeting this eve and took the camera with him, so I will post the photo tomorrow.

The point is, he didn't think twice and squeezed fruit to make me my goto cocktail. He will even make me a much more labor intensive mojito on occasion. That's love.

And well, it doesn't stop there, the gushing, just a bit more gushing. I was on the road all day today driving to Lake Huron and back and upon arrival home noticed two large pots of flowers on the deck greeting me. If it weren't dark out right now, I would take a photo, but tomorrow I will. The pots were filled with purple pansies, pink hyacinth, daffodils and yellow tulips - all in bloom and blasting with color and vibrancy. I melted. In the back yard was the remainder of a flat of pansies waiting to be planted. I am still so taken aback by such selflessness (well he might like the flowers too). He went to the local garden store to get flowers, nothing else.

To top it off, he organized the laundry room and built shelves. I should mention that he had the day off. All of it such a surprise, pulls on the strings of my heart. The little things, they have much more distance in them sometimes.

i'm out

every blog needs a cat photo...knitting and pakora

2007-04-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, I completely forgot for a while that this blog is also about knitting and gardening too, so here is my first post of a knitting project. I should have lots of photos, but have a habit of giving the finished knitting project away before photographing. Here are my adorable niece and nephew wearing the "dready hats" I knit for solstice. The pattern was provided to me by my friend Ragnar at Domestic Piracy, on her blog I am known as jiggy. http://domesticpiracy.blogspot.com/index.html

and my cute kitties:

Now that that is out of the way, back to food and gardening. I now have tomato plants growing happily indoors until it is warm in MI. I recently planted some Thai basil and sweet basil in pots and the seeds have germinated - yip yip.

And finally, a food shot:

I will post the recipe for these Indain pakora/bangladeshi dora in the next day or two and add the unbelievable cilantro mint chutney sauce to it. I just look for reasons to make this sauce and put it on these pakora/dora. It is sooooo tasty - but I am a sauce girl by nature.

i'm out

Wings... is it the sauce or the chicken??

2007-04-01T18:46:00.001-04:00

For me, it is all about the sauce and the crunch, well, two sauces really. Hot wing sauce and blue cheese sauce. Eating wings is a reason to eat the wing sauce. Just like for my dad, eating shrimp is just a way to eat as much cocktail sauce as he wants. He could dip carrot sticks in there and I think he would be just as happy.

I have discovered/created something that rivals wings, but has less calories (maybe, that could be debatable) and is far easier to make. No bones, no skin and no deep fryer. And well, it has potatoes in it and everyone knows that I love my potatoes.

Buffalo tater tots. Now there are plenty of brands of tater tots out there with no wheat added, so this makes it really easy. Bake them at whatever temp they should be baked at until they are crispy. In the meantime, in a microwave safe bowl add probably 1/8 to 1/4 cup of your favorite hot sauce, I like Crystal, Durkees or Franks, depending on what is on sale. Then add several pats of butter and some garlic (fresh or dried) and microwave for 30 seconds or so until the butter is melted. Stir and then toss the hot tots in the sauce when they come out of the oven. They sigh with pleasure as they adsorb the hot sauce.

Have a little side bowl of blue cheese dressing - luckily there is a brand supplied near me (found next to the lettuce in the store - the refrigerated kind) that uses Roquefort mold instead of bread for the blue mold innoculation. Yes folks, lots of blue and gorgonzola cheese is fine, I find that the blues of European origin tend to be the true stuff, and less frequently use bread mold as a starter. It is easy to make your own dressing too. Blue cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, chives, salt, pepper and maybe some mayo or cream.

Oh the heat, oh the crunch, oh the potato deliciousness. Then the creamy blue tang.

Let me know if you try it and like it. I might just have to make some for the Final Four game this eve. If I do, I will take a pic. Goes great with basketball. Sometimes a little junk food gets you through.

i'm out

GF Road tripping cont'd, cider, oysters and nachos

2007-04-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

Day 5 Savannah and Hilton Head. After sleeping in and waking up to the sound of the surf and gulls on Tybee Island, we headed in to explore Savannah. I am not going to blog about the dinner we had on Tybee Island, needless to say, we should have gone with our gut and not the hotel guy's recommendation. Dinner was so bad I couldn't eat it and went back to the hotel room and ate, guess what - chips and salsa (essentially nachos minus cheese).
We toured around down by the river (very touristy there) and had two goals. Find Moon River Brewing Co and find the local tobacco shop (we are in tobacco territory after all). Ok, three goals, eat seafood for lunch.

We found the brewery right away thanks to the plethora of maps available at the hotel. To my surprise and extreme happiness Moon River had hard cider on tap. They make it in the fall with Pink Lady apples from northern Georgia. It was hands down the best cider I have ever had. I make my own cider (in fact have 30 gallons of hard cider in the basement right now) and this was the best. Tart and tangy with a hint of sweetness and great apple flavor. I dislike sweet ciders. I was feeling pretty happy after my second one (in 20 oz glasses). We ordered a cheese dip subbing tortillas (what would I do if I couldn't eat corn?) for crackers. The sad news was, that in Georgia they cannot serve beer and cider in growlers (glass bottles to take home) and you can't bottle and be a pub, so all we could do was drink it there. They were on the last 1/3 of the last keg of cider, so that evening would be the last of it. My guy ordered the beer sampler - I think there were 8 or 9 beer styles. I think he really like the Alt, but I was focused on my glass of joy, so didn't pay much attention. And for the topping - you can ask for a take out glass for the remainder of your beverage. It is legal to walk around with open alcohol in Savannah, so of course we had to, just because we could.

We found the tobacco shop and bought some local blends ( my boyfriend smokes a pipe on occasion. Seems like the only occasions are when he is outside roasting coffee or outside brewing beer though).

Next, the quest for lunch away from the tourist meccas. Finally we found a place and guess what I ended up ordering? Yes, of course, shrimp nachos. This was however a challenge. Their chips are fried in the same oil as some wheat products. At this point we were so hungry we were about to become grouchy and neither of us wanted to go to another restaurant. They sure do like to bread and deep fry stuff in the south, making it slightly more challenging to dine GF. I decided that this would be an experiment and I would see if the cross contamination would affect me. Our waitress was great, so helpful and had a close friend who was Celiac. After all the discussion, the kitchen actually forgot to put the shrimp on the nachos, but they did bring some out to me afterwards and they were perfectly cooked. They had banana creme brulee for dessert, so we splurged and ordered dessert, a rare thing when I dine out. Roasted bananas and homemade whipped cream, need I say more? Mint garnish. Oh, by the way, yes, I could definitely feel the effects of cross contamination on my shrimp nachos, I was nice and bloated for a few hours - so won't be doing that again, but now I know for certain, even if I had already guessed.

After our late lunch we headed for Hilton Head, but not after debating whether we should go back to Moon River for one more. I knew if I did, I might not leave or get to the next local on time, so we didn't. We crossed the long marsh bridge and were in South Carolina. We were meeting my dad and step mom for a couple of days at their time share. Now for the record, there is no other reason that I would choose to go to Hilton Head and I am not a fan of time shares - unless of course they are free and sit on the ocean. The view from the deck:

Something that you can do while on the isle is crabbing. When I found out that you just went to the hardware store for a bucket and line and the grocery store for chicken necks I decided to pass. Apparently there are designated crabbing areas along the coast.

We had lunch at the Crab Shack and I ordered a broiled seafood plate and it was a big deal at first to sub out the stuffed flounder (that had bread crumbs in it) for something else, or to take it off the plate. But then our waiter became more accommodating and just had it removed. Huge scallops and shrimp and a piece of salmon. Broiled with a squeeze of lemon, simple, nice and safe.

Dinner was at the Oyster bar. This was a bit of an adventure too, but they had a real manager who was flexible and very helpful. I really wanted some oysters and some shrimp, I asked the waiter the usual questions about the dishes I had in mind and he went to the kitchen to check and sure enough, the oyster apps that I wanted were fine. All the fish had sauces that included wheat in some manner and I am a sauce girl, the sauce makes the dish, so if I can't have the sauce, forget it and move on to something else. So I decided to just order the oyster app and a baked potato (they had fresh hush puppies on the table - that was torture). I had asked about the sauces on the oysters and had been given the go ahead. Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Savannah. The Rockefeller was topped with spinach and bearnaise sauce (which should never have wheat in it, unless they make it from a box). The Savannah was to have cheddar, bacon and onions - no sauce. I start to dig in to the Rockefeller and eat one, then the Savannah, well, it had no bacon or onion, but a creamy white sauce (Paula Dean Oysters I called them) and cheddar. I ate the oyster and then looked more closely at the sauce, seemed to be a thickened sauce. I called the waiter over - who had given me the go ahead and asked him to double check as I had doubts. He went straight to the kitchen and this time, well, no, I couldn't eat that one, but the Rockefeller was definitely safe, no wheat in the bearnaise sauce. I start to eat the Rockefeller as he orders a few more oysters to replace the Savannah ones and the manager rushes over before I get the bite in my mouth and says the spinach has roux in it (a mix of butter and flour). He was extremely apologetic and asked me what I wanted instead. I decided to go with oysters on the half shell and he said that he would make sure I got the best ones (there were several varieties to choose from) and they were on the house. They came with two sauces, a cocktail sauce and a tasty balsamic vinaigrette. These oysters were fresh and delicious. They really worked hard to make amends after giving me the wrong info and I appreciated their efforts to do so. So I was the cheap date that night for the price of a baked potato. I was really going to ready to cook up a storm of seafood when I returned.

We spent two days at Hilton Head and then started the long journey home - this time making it a two day trip instead of one 18 hour one! We wanted the scenic route through the Smoky Mountains and drove through Ashville NC to Kentucky that day. We passed through the last pass of the mountains just as the sun was setting, so both trips we passed through Tennessee in the dark. We went to a local authentic Mexican restaurant for dinner and I ordered a pork and onion dish. I find that if you ask for their hot salsa, you usually get the one that really tastes of Mexico, and they had a fabulous tomatillo hot salsa. I practically drank it.

We left London Kentucky the next morn and beat the path back to Lansing MI with a stop at a large grocery store outside of Toledo called Andersons. Lo and behold, they had Bard's Tale Gluten Free beer!! It is pretty good. I hear they are experimenting with a dark beer, I will look forward to that. A couple of days later, our friends came over and we did a bourbon tasting and a comparison of the three GF beers I had on hand - New Grist, Redbridge and Bard's Tale. The New Grist wasn't as fresh as it could be - my fault not theirs, but half the crowd (of normal beer drinkers) preferred Bard's Tale and half the New Grist.

As long as you like lots of nachos..GF road trips work just fine.

i'm out

Gluten free road tripping

2007-03-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...vacation. Road trip with the significant other. We both survived and surely it was because of my driving (he would argue because of his driving I am certain) and mostly lack of gluten with a week on the road. As all of you celiacs know, eating GF on the road is a challenge, one fraught with many potential side effects.
Anecdotes from a food trip:
Well, I thought it would be a good idea to stock up on cheeses, smoked turkey, salami and other delicious sandwich items for the road. Didn't realize that sandwiches were not on the agenda of my boyfriend. Maybe I was more in camping mode, not sure, but at any rate I hustled to make a loaf of GF bread before departing. One that would be great with sandwiches. Well, it fell flat, really flat, so I made a different one, a sourdough recipe that I have used before. This one turned out great.

So, did I eat it? I forced myself to eat a slice with peanut butter since I made the effort to bake it and bring it. It was tasty, but cold from the fridge and I had no way to toast it. I had asked for the hotel to put a mini fridge in my room for the three days we were in Athens and they graciously obliged. I continued to drag the bread around with me for 3 more days and on the day we were leaving, my stepmom tried a piece as toast with her breakfast. But the loaf did look great. And held up well for a week on the road.

First day - bourbon tasting at Buffalo Trace.

If you enjoy bourbon at all and are traveling through Kentucky, I highly recommend that you swing in and take the tour and enjoy the tasting that follows. These guys are serious about their craft and love their bourbon!

We went to a local Mexican restaurant and I couldn't order what I wanted (flour in the sauce) so I ordered the beef nachos. It was literally ground beef and cheese on nachos. Skip the vegetables, just meat and cheese. But whatever they did to that beef, it was tasty! It tasted like grilled ground beef. I think the tortilla chips were probably not in a dedicated fryer based on the wonderful bloated feeling I had afterwards, but oh well. Sometimes I am scared to ask.

Next day - Athens. We went to the local brewery there Copper Canyon and they had no cider on tap so I ordered - bourbon and then a bourbon and coke. This set me up quite nicely for my next beverage - a margarita at the Taco Stand. A fun little taco place with terrific (and strong) margaritas and a hilarious bartender named Matt. His southern accent was so fun and funny. I will post on all the wisdom we gained from Matt another time. I have to find my notes still. So, half drunk and pretty hungry, we eliminated the majority of items on the menu that I wanted to eat, so I ordered...you guessed it...steak nachos. Now, these were really not so good, even under the influence of tequila. I really do not care for cumin in my salsa and this one was loaded with it. I asked for their hot salsa and it was beginning to ferment (fizzed and popped right on to my tortilla chip). But the bartender was completely worth it.

Day three - Greenville SC. We drove over to visit my Aunt and she insisted that we go grab sushi at her favorite place. Now, in my experience there is always something you can order at the sushi restaurant, but don't look at all the delicious rolls with crab or you will be sad. We had a great waitress whose grandma has Celiac and she was very helpful. I ordered the crab cock roll and it was sooo tasty. I travel with my own wheat free tamari for sushi emergencies and it always comes in handy. This cock roll was a California roll made with tuna and avocado instead of crab and then sliced, topped with blue crab and some sort of sauce which I found out was their mussel mayo (slightly pink color)and then broiled till the mayo melts. I didn't know it was mayo at first and was eating it without guilt until our waitress said mayo. But, how often does one indulge in hot mayo covering blue crab and a California roll?
We forgot to take photos of this, but it was a site and my rainbow roll was gorgeous. The ride to and from Greenville was horribly rainy and thundery and we found out when we returned that tornadoes were out and about in the Southern part of the state.

Day four Athens through Savannah to Tybee Island. We drove past pecan groves, past where a tornadoes touched down the day before and past a few cotton fields with cattle grazing. At least I think they were cotton fields, there were little tuffs of white stuff floating about. We turned south towards Vidalia in the hopes of finding an out of season onion stand with no luck. Just cows. We stopped at Andy's Barbeque for lunch, way out in the boonies. Tasty pork BBQ with a nice vinegar spicy sauce.

stay tuned for the rest of the trip and photos...

i'm out

back to asia and some more breads

2007-02-25T23:06:00.000-05:00

One day this winter I tried to satisfy my craving for spring rolls/egg rolls and make my favorite Vietnamese style rolls. Since I can't use regular spring roll wrappers, I tried to use spring roll papers - the rice ones. This worked ok. They were sticking to each other and breaking open while frying. Even though I was frustrated I decided to freeze the ones that we didn't fry up. Well, I am happy to report, that a little time in the deep freeze produces the perfect GF eggroll! It dried out the rice paper enough that it could withstand a bit of frying and a lot of dipping!

Here is some pita I recently made. These had great flavor and a chewy crunch. However, they need to be eaten in a day or two or they get tough. I used Bette Hagman's bread book Pita recipe and it works great. I used ground flax seed once and oatmeal bran once in place of almond meal. In fact, I haven't used the recipe as is yet. Under cook them a bit if you want to use them more like actual pitas.

And finally, some fat free, egg free french bread. Also out of one of Bette Hagman's books. I modified it by adding fresh rosemary and roasted garlic. This loaf is great for making garlic bread or little bruscettas.

Ok, finally again. Here's some yummy GF mac and cheese. I tossed in a little andouille sausage, topped it with some canned tomatoes (from the garden - my supply is diminishing fast) and some homemade GF bread crumbs (from a loaf of sourdough). Creamy, crunchy and a bit of spice and tang.

i'm out

A few sweets to tempt...and some demi glace

2007-02-25T22:29:00.000-05:00

A little story about a tart. My brother was in town for the weekend, babies and wife too. He got up early in the morning on Sunday and pulled out my Rebecca Reilly GF cook book and made a pastry dough and filled with the pear tart. But first he had to drive to the local store and get pears, butter and heavy cream (hum, I always run out of butter when he is in town). The filling is a combo of heavy cream, ground almonds and eggs. Then top it off with sliced pears. When you are finished baking it, top it with apricot jam warmed up with a bit of cognac to make a nice glaze.
Here it is unbaked:

What is note worthy to me is, that he just pulled the book down, rummaged through my GF jars of flour and put it together. No fear. I might have thought about it for days first. Although he did mention that he wanted to bake one since the moment he arrived. I was lucky enough to wake up to something delicious in the oven.

We topped it with the leftover homemade whipped cream that I made for the flourless chocolate cake. This cake is so not cakey and rich. I made a ganache topping. The recipe I used is from epicurious.com and is here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/14478

The camera I used isn't the best, but here's the photo. Mind you the taste is all that mattered.

And one more...
For Valentine's Day I made these for my sweetie and a few friends:

These are little lavender tarts from Gluten Free Girl's lavender tart recipe, http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2007/02/photo-sharing.html, however, I must have done something wrong, as they wouldn't set up. Could be that I used regular sugar to save a trip to the store. So I froze them. But they had great taste.

While my bro was in town, we made some veal demi glace (GF) so that I would have my own supply for those demi glace emergencies. He is in love with learning all there is to know about the French classics and I, everything ethnic (except using chicken claws - I have to draw the line somewhere). Demi glace is a two day event, but it is so decadent that it might be worth it (when your bro is in town and does most of the work - however he leaves copious amounts of dirty dishes). I now have most of a pint jar of the elixir in my freezer.

i'm out

Cardinals in the snow

2007-02-25T22:28:00.000-05:00

This a picture taken out of our front window.

i'm out

Oh my larb!

2007-02-25T20:14:00.000-05:00

I finally uploaded a bunch of photos and will post them here soo, but first, breaking news - oh my larb!!

Ok, so I just made some larb gai - thai chix salad with mint - the type that Lamai Thai (my local delish Thai restaurant )often has. I looked up a recipe and then paid no attention to the amounts, just the ingredients and it is so delicious that I can hardly wait for lunch tomorrow.
I recommend that you each make a batch of this asap. It is my new favorite thing. this photo does not do it justice.

6 boneless skinless chix thighs, or you can use breasts too, but I like thighs
a bunch of chopped mint - maybe 1/2 cup or more if you like it as much as I do
half as much chopped cilantro as mint, so maybe 1/4 cup or less
4 green onions, chopped, greens and all
1 1/2 limes squeezed
red chili ( i forgot I had chili sauce in the fridge and used NM ground hot chili - 1 tbs or more)
couple of shallots or some red onion minced finely (about 1/4 cup)
1 tbs or so of fresh grated ginger (I use my fine grater on the cheese grater and grate peeling and all)
fish sauce - i probably used 2 tbs
2 tbs basmati rice, toasted and then ground to a powder in the coffee mill.

Toast rice until golden brown, and grind.
Put the chix in the food processor and grind it up into small bits, but not as fine as hamburger, saute in a non stick pan if you have one - don't add oil, unless it is chix breast - then maybe. Add a couple tbs of lime juice and a little salt to chix while cooking. Let cool a bit.

In a bowl add all other ingredients and then toss with the slightly cooled chix and let the flavors blend.
I took a photo or two, but the cord to the camera is currently not at the house, so you will have to wait to see the photo.

Yum yum.

i;m out

And we begin....

2007-02-19T13:55:00.000-05:00

Ok,I will admit to less blogging since my laptop fried. But now I have use of my boyfriend's ignored Apple laptop and life is good again. Be prepared for a barrage of cooking photos and recipes now! I suppose I should take the occasional photo of my knitting projects too. I often give them away before capturing them on the camera.

sushi rolls and slurpy soup

2007-01-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

Sushi roll success

The edamame got a little over cooked. But the sushi turned out great. I used cream cheese since I didn't have any avocado and wanted a creamy (american) element. I tossed the crab with GF tamari and fresh ginger to freshen it up as the fake crab was a little sweet for my taste. The black specks are black sesame (for some crunch) as I have no caviar on hand.

Instead of miso soup, I decided to make a pho bo style soup with dried mushrooms instead of bo. I like a little tofu in my miso and had none, but had leftover pho veggies. It turned out pretty well. I could eat pho bo (vietnamese soup with beef and noodles) almost every day I think. I ran out of Thai basil, but included mint, cilantro, green onion, serrano chile and then used chinese napa cabbage sliced super thin instead of sprouts as I was not going to go to the store for sprouts and this added the crunch texture that bean sprouts would have. A big squeeze of lime over the veggies and noodles and pour over the broth. Yummo,

i'm full and....

i'm out

Brown rice can't substitute for everything..

2007-01-28T17:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, the brown rice tortillas were disgusting. I heated one up a bit to soften it before topping it with mixed greens and some delish chicken salad with green onions, Parmesan and sour cream. I rolled it up, sliced it in half, secured the wrap with toothpicks and placed them in a ziplock bag. That and some seedless red grapes and I was off to my evening meeting.

On route I opened the bag and pulled out one of the wrap halves and took a nice big bite as the chicken salad was threating to jump ship. Now I know why, that chicken salad was right. The tortilla was so dry, chewy and cardboardy tasting that I almost spit it out. I attempted to eat the chicken salad alone and then gave up, afterall I was in a car driving. I threw it and the second half away and haven't looked back since.

Last night I had some friends over for dinner and decided to make some focaccia. I used Bette Hagmans recipe from her Bakes Bread book and it is great! I load it up with garlic, fresh rosemary, parm and thinly sliced shallots. I should have taken a photo of this one, it was a keeper. Here is a not so good shot of a leftover piece. I need a camera that can do nice close up food shots.

This eve I have decided to make some sushi rolls for dinner. It has been years since I have attempted this. It is much easier to run down to my local sushi/korean restaurant and order a couple of rolls togo. But, I always have to avoid the crab as most fake crab has wheat in it. This week I found a new brand of fake crab sans wheat starch, using potato starch instead. Being from a potato farm (and cherries and apples too) I am always a fan of anything potato.

So the crab is thawing, the nori is sitting out, the rice is calling me and we will see what else I have in the fridge to complete the picture. Cucumbers and green onion for starters. Together with some edamame and some white rice miso soup and GF tamari and wasabi, it will be great. So I am off to a GF Japan this eve and if it turns out, I promise to take a photo this time!

i'm out

Tortillas

2007-01-21T20:55:00.000-05:00

I meant to mention this last week. I bought a tortilla press. I thought if 10 million Mexican women can do it, so can I, so I did. However I think I made my dough a little too stiff. My tortillas turned out, but had a real chew factor to them. So I turned them into an enchilada casserole along with some shredded charcoal grilled chicken and some wonderful NM red chile. I am low on medium, so had to use mostly hot red chile. The chicken was grilled whole which gives it a wonderful smoked flavor and turns it light pink on the outside under the skin. Normally this only takes about 45 min on a hot grill in summer, but it is January and it is Michigan and it is finally snowy out, so this one took about an hour and 15 minutes. Good thing we had lots of wine to drink!

To the chicken part of the enchiladas I added roasted poblano peppers (from the garden) and raw onions. I love the crunch factor of some slightly cooked onions in my enchiladas. Layer it up with tortillas, chix mix and cheese and pour on a wonderful NM red chile sauce. I have to make some version of these every two weeks on average.

The reason I started this tortilla blog was to inform you that I have found GF tortillas. Now for the longest time I thought, what the heck do I ever need a flour tortilla for? But I have come to recognize that corn tortillas will never get as large as the flour ones and can't really be used to make wraps. In my local health food store, lying in the freezer I spotted them. Really I was looking to see if any new frozen pizza crusts had been developed. Earlier in the day I had been reading my EveryDay Food Mag (I know, the books are still waiting, but the food mags get immediate attention) and in there was a recipe for an extra thin, crispy pizza crust with asiago cheese, red onions and mushrooms. I thought, hum, I have wanted to attempt something similar for a while, but there are no GF flourlike tortillas in my neck of the world.

And there they were. Not very many of them, maybe 6 for about $2.79. But I gladly paid for the chance to make a wrap as my homemade GF bread (with the exception of a couple of loaves) doesn't really hold up well for sandwiches. I am on the road for my job a lot and it would be nice to have some hand held food.

I will update you on the tortillas once I taste them. They are made with brown rice flour and rice bran.

Time to knit.

i'm out

Yet another pizza crust trial....

2007-01-21T20:19:00.000-05:00

So, I am always on the search for the perfect Gluten Free pizza crust, the one that makes me say, yum, I would eat that with no toppings. I tried a new recipe this eve, one I found on Silly Yaks (must learn how to make those little links someday) and well, it doesn't have the wow factor. Yes, I can eat it, but...once again I would rather just eat the delish toppings. This one has artichoke hearts, roasted red and yellow peppers (from Trader Joes), calamata olives, loads of onions, spinach and pepperoni (Hormel is GF by the way), oh, mozz and parm too of course. I make my own tomato sauce from last summer's canned garden tomatoes.

Once I have found or created my perfect bread and pizza recipes, I hope to have more time to blog. I don't know how all those bloggers do it, between cooking, working, knitting and experimenting with the Kitchen aid and 14 different flours. I have a pile of books weeping in the corner from being ignored. It has been all about the kitchen. Ok, I do get in the occasional movie, but even my Food Network watching is down, but that might be because they seem to have a lack of true cooking shows anymore. Unless that is, you don't work during the day and can catch them then.

It is time for a Gluten Free cooking show. Sadly, Food Network didn't like the DVD I sent them last year. I wasn't diagnosed with Celiac yet anyway, but was and am a gardener and there is a lack of vegetable gardening and using and preserving your own produce in the kitchen shows.

On a totally different subject: Drogging, ie Drunk Blogging can lead to extreme headaches the next day, as if you didn't know that already.

I have had some successes and I will try to post them soon. Some great knitting projects, some great food creations that I used to make and haven't attempted the GF version.

Between now and Mid Feb I plan to continue to bake the ultimate loaf of bread and will begin working on homemade pasta so that I can have ravioli again! Along with that, wonton dough, egg rolls (for frying) and samosa dough. In March, once I have assembled the ingredients, I plan to brew some gluten free beer, a nice hoppy IPA style and a nice dark porter style. I have 4 ongoing knitting projects in the works to finish too.

Before I sign out, I have been working my way through what I am calling the GF brownie challenge from Gluten Free Goddess's website http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/index.html
and have to agree, the GF Pantry Truffle brownie mix wins, by a large margin.

i'm out

drogging

2007-01-19T22:02:00.000-05:00

Drogging, drunk blogging.

I have to blog right now. After two pitchers of margaritas on a Friday night with one of my best friends, I have to blog. Cause who doesn't want to drog after that. I am about to stir fry some delish Thai food, basil, beef, a delish mix of fish sauce, broth and wheat free tamari, onion, garlic and well, who knows. Who cares......some brown rice on the stove. when I am finished, it will be fab. And I will be happily still tequilaed. In fact I am currently under the drog influence and wondering if, since it is Friday night, can justify one more margarita, if I can still mix it? Maybe not. Need to stir fry first.

Just baked some delicious bread, recipe to follow when not under the influence. Yummo bread with rosemary, onion, pepper, garlic and parm.

Ok, enough drogging, till later. Must go Thai of sorts, stir fry.

i'm out

50 hours to go and brief synopsis of the last 6 weeks

2006-12-28T21:55:00.000-05:00

Really, I haven't forgotten to blog, I just haven't had time. Really. Not sure where the extra time in my life has gone, but will blog on probable causes soon. I started baking my own bread, made some delish cardamom shortbread cookies, enjoyed thanksgiving, spent a week in the UP(Upper Peninsula of Michigan) at a casino for work(sounds strange I know), had a birthday (the 6th 33rd bday) visited 10 farms for my job and went up north for 5 days for the holidays. I missed the Solstice toast at a friend's house by 3 minutes for being too busy. I knit a super long double layer scarf, two baby dready hats, a poncho and a new baby hat. And, remember those cookies I mentioned? I worked on a bunch of GF recipes and typed them directly into my computer. Computer....fried. Will now begin the physical dumping of the hard drive. Those were it's final words to me. All recipes gone. All photos from Thanksgiving (cute niece and nephew photos to boot) ----- gone. That will teach me to back things up, won't it?

So, fitting that it is almost the new year and I can begin anew.
Anew with a kitchaid mixer to be my lovely assistant as I begin the lifetime achievement of baking all of my own baked goods. Anew with a new toaster that has never met a slice of gluten, anew with several cookbooks, some GF and some for "entertaining under the influence", a retro view of the good life and anew with ultra sharp kitchen knives.

Time to start thinking on the New Year's resolutions. I only have 50 hours or so and the last several of the 50 will certainly be under the influence of champagne. So I need a head start.
I can foresee that some resolutions will have to do with finances, blogging, more reading less knitting (not sure about this one), removing dust bunnies on a more regular basis, and of course, exercise (or diet, which would you choose?). I think I will have to make a mojito calendar to ensure that they are regularly consumed. This will involve adding mint to the food budget in winter (this relates to the first afore mentioned possible resolution) and I will need a fresh flower budget too. Life is pretty good right now. I can't wait to see what the new year brings, but don't want to let go of this one just yet. Lucky me, I still have 50 hours.

i'm out

oh my mojito

2006-11-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

I went to Chicago last weekend with a bunch of friends. I went for a barrel aged beer festival. I have a weakness for bourbon stouts and such and wanted this to be my farewell to beer. I will admit, I was a bit nervous about drinking beer as I hadn't had any (except tiny sips to taste) since early August. As it turns out, no need to be nervous. I was determined to maintain a gluten free diet over the weekend to minimize any effects that beer might have (see earlier post in August discussing beer and the gluten that may or may not still be in it). I did pretty well.

Here is my travel log of dining in Chicago:

To start, on Friday, after our arrival we went to Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill for lunch. I have always wanted to go. I called the day before to see if they had a gluten free menu and my call was routed back to the kitchen to speak to the head chef. He informed me of what I already knew to be true, that Mexican cuisine is naturally gluten free for the most part.
Once there, I promptly ordered a delicious sounding margarita, my compadres ordered beer and margaritas too. It was just as the waiter described, very tart, in fact I don't think they used any sugar outside of the orange liqueur. On the menu, the ceviche app immediately attracted my eye. My dilemma was, the two friends I was with are not fans of seafood, at all. I was splurging, so I decided to order the appetizer even if they didn't want any. We ordered chips and two salsas too (I could almost live off of chips and salsa - only good salsa).
The trio, trio, trio ceviche came in small martini glasses set on a glass plate, looking very attractive. Here's the description from the menu:

Ceviche Fronterizo - lime-marinated Alaskan True Cod with vine-ripe tomatoes, olives, cilantro and green chile; served on crispy tostaditas.

Vuelve a la Vida - seaside cocktail of shrimp, ceviche, fresh-shucked oysters and avocado in limey, Tamazula-sparked cocktail sauce.

Ceviche Yucateco - steamed organic shrimp and calamari tossed with lime, orange, habanero, avocado and cilantro.

My favorite was the Fronterizo.

For my entree, Tacos al carbon with marinated skirt steak and roasted onions and poblano peppers. It came with beans and a nice portion of guacamole (with roasted red peppers). It was great! The guys ordered chicken enchiladas in mole and duck quesadillas. I ordered a different margarita (they were very small and to that end steep, but I was splurging here) and my friends ordered a mojito and another beer. At some point I looked over and asked to taste my friends mojito, being a huge mojito fan, and noticed that it strangely had no mint in it. I tasted and it, it tasted remarkably like a margarita. We called the waiter over and he figured out that I had the wrong margarita and he did not have a mojito so he promptly brought us the correct beverages. I leaned over to taste the duck quesadilla as my friend specifically ordered it with corn tortillas so that I could taste it and I mentioned that it was the palest looking duck I had ever seen. We decided that it was chicken, but it was still good and by this point mostly gone, so we didn't say anything.
It was a great meal overall.

We then proceeded to the Rockbottom Brewery and I was too full to drink anything, but still drank water. To full, way too full. After a brief L ride, we then walked to the Field Museum to arrive 15 min too late to get in for the day. Bummer. So we went back to join the larger gang of friends who had all arrived in town by this time.

The Hopleaf is a fabulous Belgian beer and food bar and that is where we next headed.
I decided to go ahead and order a beer as they had one of my all time fav's there: The Dutchess du Burgionne ( can't remember how to spell it at the moment). It is quite tart and it didn't really sit well with me, started to give me heart burn, a sure sign of gluten something, so I gave it away, drank water for a bit and then ordered a magnum of hard French farmhouse cider. I failed to blog about my 35 gallons of hard cider that I started fermenting last Tuesday, but needless to say, I love hard cider, tarty, bubbly, tasty cider not sweet icky fake Woodchuck style.
Along with my cider, I found out I could eat the onion rings (using an arborio rice flour and in a dedicated fryer) and the pomme frites with garlic aioli (also in a dedicated fryer), so we ordered both. My choices were made easier by having a "gluten insensitive" waitress who was very helpful. I also ordered the mussels in lobster sauce with bay leaves, shallots, white wine and cream. So good I slurped every bit of the broth. Wow that broth was fabulous and so were the mussels in it.

Let's see, the next day I had an extremely disappointing breakfast, so I won't describe it, but for the record, everyone else loved theirs. We ate at Clare's, a diner somewhere near the beer fest at Goose Island Wrigleyville. I am totally spoiled here in Lansing with my favorite diner, Golden Harvest, where the cook is a chef and knows my gluten free needs and makes hands down the best hash browns in the state, and hollandaise too.

Beer fest time. I really need to review the list, there were 76 beers and I tasted probably 50 of them. I had 12 tickets and ended up giving some away. Lots of beer, really yummy yummy beer. I did order the spinach artichoke dip (sans bread bowl and with tortilla chips) at some point as I needed some real food. That was a life saver and was of course, delish.

After the fest we went to a Houkah bar, had tea and smoked a double apple houkah and a chocolate, mint, expresso houkah. That place was terrific, silk pillows, cushions and curtains. What atmosphere. It did make us really hungry and we went across the street to El Jardin, a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I was not too drunk that I didn't remember to show the waiter my GF Mexican card. He came back and said, there is nothing on the menu you can eat except fajita and carne something, no beans, no rice, nothing. I think personally that he misread the card. But I avoided the beans anyway and ordered the carne and received this huge slab of flank steak that had been marinated and grilled. Frontera Grill was much better. They did have great guacamole there. I think we went home after that.

Next morning, ok, afternoon, we walked about 4 blocks and were in the Vietnamese area and went to Cafe Huong's. Holy Cow, was this place good. It was packed with people too, always a good sign. I ordered the spring rolls with rice paper, shrimp, pork and veggies, the lemon beef salad, with tons of ginger and mint (this was enough app/salad for 4 people and then the Pho Bo, with beef, the traditional Vietnamese soup with bean sprouts, basil, lime, green onion, beef shaved so thin you can almost see though it, and rice noodles. Add some hot chile sauce and wow. Low fat to boot. They gave us amazing service, even though they were so busy and brought hot tea for all. I will go every time I am in Chicago I think.

Then a trip to Sam's off of Clyborne, a giant warehouse full of wine's, beers and liquors of the world. Add to that speciality cheeses and sausages and you have the perfect place to spend far too much money, which I did, but well, I only do it once a year and they have an enormous selections of cognacs and calvados, both of which I decided I could not live another day without.

I spent $40 or more on cheese. Truffle cheese - goat and cow, cheese wrapped in grape leaves soaked in cognac, blue cheese from Rogue River, triple cream delice de bourgoine and manchego (I can get some of these in Michigan, but have to drive to Ann Arbor) and so on. I couldn't decide on which Tequila reposado, so I got two.

So with all my new additions to the liquor cabinet, what am I drinking tonight? A mojito.

i'm out

Turkey day count down begins now

2006-11-06T23:27:00.000-05:00

Now that it is November, I feel as though I can admit that I have been mulling over what fabulous dishes I will serve on Thanksgiving day. I pulled out all my November additions of my cooking magazines for this year and last and shall begin the process of designing the perfect turkey feast. My new challenge this year will be to create stuffing with out any normal bread. Stuffing is in fact my favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner, well, only if there is gravy to put on it. I could care less about pumpkin pies, dinner rolls or Jello (which is not a salad, ick), give me the stuffing. So new ideas are in need this year.

I have tomorrow off, election day. I am planning a glorious day of recipe conversion and research, since it is now too cold to do yard work. Of course, I will knit too. Voting will fit in there as well, as I feel obligated to take advantage of my civic duty.
I will fill you in on the details of the trip to Chicago last weekend. Am I the only one who can walk up to a cheese counter and spend $40 on 8 small wedges of the cheeses this world has to offer?

Stay tuned....
i'm out

quail breast with a truffle demi-glace, pheasant......

2006-10-24T20:16:00.000-04:00

So I took the leap. Well, a leap for me at any rate. I told my brother that I would babysit his babies (19 months and 5 months) while he and his wife went to a show in Chicago. I live about 3.5 hours from Chi Town, a reasonable drive. So, they appeared on Thursday and left on Friday morn for Chicago, leaving me with the most adorable little ones. My niece at 19 months already knows her cuteness appeal, which worries me. My little nephew smiles with almost no effort, which of course makes one feel special immediately. I haven't ever spent any significant time with my nephew and not with my niece since March, so my brother and sis in law must be very trusting. Truth be known, they were great. Not at all like they are around their parents. It was fun and gave me the opportunity to get to know them much better and see my nephew's personality develop.
As a thank you gift, my brother brought me many delicious items that he knew I would love. Bribing really as he gave them to me on Thursday night. Porcini powder, truffles, dried mushrooms, saffron and fleur de sal - he knows me better than I thought. He is now raising pheasants, quail and chicken on our family "fruit" farm, changing the nature of the farm in a positive, sustainable way. In addition to the fowl, he wants to market items that will compliment his products, things like dried wild mushrooms, herbs, truffles and wants to start canning broth and demi glace (he bought 30 pounds of veal bones in Chicago to make demi glace, I think he's nuts) and is researching all the proper methods and laws to do it.
My brother prefers French style cooking and is learning all the classic sauces. It likely helps that his wife(who I think is fabulous)has attended culinary school. We have all worked in many restaurants and love cooking. I seem to go for all the ethnic cooking and my brother goes for the classics.

He brought with him, three quail and a pheasant. So, we decided to cook dinner, on Saturday night. I think we had 5 courses. My brother cooked up the apps (2), this took 2 hours. My brother and sis in law don't drink, so keep in mind, I was sober the whole weekend. I want to respect and support their choices, but wow, a glass of wine would have been great with these apps.

He cooked quail breasts and topped them with a quail truffle demi glace (using the not so dry riesling I had in the fridge, very disappointed that I used the rest of the sauvingon blanc in my dish - they cook with wine, they just don't drink it anymore) and then we had pheasant breast stuffed with quail force meat (for those of you who think this sounds strange, essentially it is making a sausage out of quail) adding roasted chestnuts and truffles and the recently purchased GF bread crumbs I had (he is still adapting to cooking gluten free when I am around) and a pheasant demi-glace that he made from the rest of the pheasant. Wow, both were so delish, yummo. But, did I mention that it took two hours (that included cooking the demi glace and deboning the birds). It was really special, all the more so as he had raised and butchered the birds himself.

Then we had a boring salad, nothing special, but I did make some ceasar dressing from scratch. Next, grilled pork loin with a mustard cumin rub and a mustard green peppercorn cream sauce. I made that as well as potatoes au gratin. We were raised on a fruit and potato farm, so we must have our potatoes. The au gratin had herb de provence, sauvingnon blanc, swiss cheese and cream, so of course it was melt in your mouth. The potatoes were a Michigan Purple variety, developed by a friend of mine who does potato research at MSU (our in house potato sex guy), our local land grant college. Very similar to red skin potatoes, just purple. And then, an apple pie. We used a rice crust and well, I need to experiment with this a bit, but the pie turned out really well, with the exception of thinking the apples were not cooked yet, and I kept it in the oven a bit to long(so the crust was really dark brown around the edges). My brother had two pieces and is not an apple pie eater (had I realized this, I would have made a blackberry pie, but we did have lots of fresh honey crisps from my dad to eat). He ate a piece for breakfast the next day. It did work pretty well with vanilla ice cream.

They left the next day and leave me wanting more pheasant, quail, and quality time with family.

Tonight, it is Moroccan chicken and a quinoa pilaf (in place of cous cous) with apricots, quinoa, scallions, mint and toasted almonds. I have had a fire raging in the wood stove all day and it is toasty inside and cold outside.

Life is grand...after dinner, knitting and a movie.

i'm out

marry me risotto

2006-10-16T21:20:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while I cook something that tastes so fabulous I think, wow, if a guy tasted this he would fall over and ask me to marry him. It's that good. I have my marry me polenta and now, the marry me risotto. The only catch is, the guy has to like polenta or mushroom risotto.
Somehow I have gone my entire adult life without making my own risotto. I am not sure how this happened, it always seemed very labor intensive to make gooey rice. But today, I had two types of mushrooms that needed to be used and decided to make mushroom risotto. So good, first try. I had to force myself to stop eating it to save room for the last of the garden's pole beans. I am already looking forward to eating it for breakfast. I don't really care for most typical breakfast foods anyway.

For the record, the onion/white bean gratin dish from the other night had great flavor, but you cannot, repeat, cannot use gluten free bread as a substitute for stale crusty sourdough. The dish would be better without any bread, or just on the top layer. The bread desolved into the wine. So, less wine next time and no bread.

You have probably noticed that all of the above has nothing to do with knitting. Blogging is a conscious choice to not knit for a few minutes. Hard to do. I have 5 projects that I am working on before solstice. Ok, 6. But this is a food, garden and knitting blog, so once in a while I have to mention getting knitty with it.

Ah, sitting next to a nice fire in the wood stove, knitting and drinking some nice spicy red wine. What a life I have. Especially if you add in the marry me risotto. Snap crackle pop says the mulberry wood in the fire. Did I mention I used shallots and fresh herbs from the garden in the risotto???

i'm out

uh oh, somethings missing.....

2006-10-13T20:35:00.000-04:00

It's Friday night, time for a stiff cocktail and a blog whilest dinner is in the oven. My meat is rubbed and resting in prep for the grill.
I have been in cooking indecision mode, not sure what I want, so I will cook everything, faster than I or my friends can eat it. Mostly ethnic foods, experimenting with lots of Indian dishes, some Bangladeshi, lots of Thai and always
authentic Mexican and New Mexican.

But tonight, I reverted back to a long time fav, a sort of French style cassoulet/fondue cross, a white bean, onion gratin if you will. Maybe because it is snowy and cold out and I am not yet ready for heavy stews of potato and beef. I do have a yummy potato leek soup with weisswurst (a german/irish morph) planned for the weekend to utilize the 5 gallon bucket of leeks that I have stored in my basement. I harvested them from the community garden yesterday in the snow. It is a lot of leeks!!!! And I have more to harvest in the backyard garden, but those can stay put in the ground for a long time.

I began slicing the onions for the dish, the dish takes two onions, two cans of Northern White Beans, some leftover yummy bread (in lieu of this option, ie using old sourdough bread, I am attempting this dish for the first time ala gluten free and using Kinnickinick White Bread) Swiss cheese (almost a pound, grated) some Parmaesan cheese and yes, an entire bottle of dry white wine.

Onions are sliced so I start putting them in the casserole dish, sprinkling them with some freshly cracked pepper, salt and marjoram and thyme, a little parm, arranging the bread, layering the Swiss cheese on top and then again, onions, herbs, bread, cheese. I am about to pour the wine in and ...... something is missing, what seems to be missing? This looks great, but....oh..... .. the beans. Forgot the key ingredient, white beans. I had to laugh, as it is funny. No point in getting upset. I briefly considered leaving the beans out, but nah, then it is just onion gratin.

Luckily for me, I have many, many bowls. I slowly began deconstructing my recently constructed casserole. Cheese in one bowl, bread in another and then one for the onion rings. Then, I start over, putting a can of rinsed beans in the bottom, onions, herbs, bread cheese and repeat. Ah, now that looks better, it almost doesn't fit in the dish. Now, the finale, the entire bottle of sauvingnon blanc over the top. Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw)works great for this from Trader Joe's (in MI it is 3 Buck Chuck...shipping). Now it is in the oven for a long time at a lower temp so that everything melts, softens, adsorbs and gets nice and gooey. It smells fabulous from here.

I am also grilling a couple of sirloin steaks in an Ancho chili/cumin rub for some quesadillas tomorrow. I just realized that someone gave me a Quesadilla maker 1.5 years ago and I had not even taken it out of the box until today - it might double as a panini press too. Sometimes it is good to clean the pantry out, great forgotten discoveries!

The garden is finished now with the exception of those veggies that like the cold, brussel sprouts (I am really hoping that I will get to eat my first one by November, they are growing so slowly) the rest of the leeks and swiss chard and collard greens. I harvested the rest of the peppers and beans the other day. The final eggplant was turned into a Thai curry last night.

Next year, just one garden. Need more time for knitting......stay tuned for a review of my new knitting projects.

Time to go, the wood stove is raging and it is a toasty 73 F in my living room, ok, the rest of the house is 62F, but it is nice and cosy in here. The oven timer is ringing.....smells like wine and swiss cheese...yummo

i'm out

bora bora vs ravioli and smut???

2006-09-24T21:29:00.000-04:00

In the quest to recreate the foods I like that are no longer readily available or available at all, I decided to try making my own ravioli today. I was successful, but chose to not eat more than one or two. This effort definitely needs perfecting. Creating a dough without wheat flour that can be turned in to long wide noodles with a pasta maker, not so easy. Creating the delicious filling that goes inside, much easier.

So, I decided to make some Bangledeshi bora instead. This I have now perfected after watching my neighbor make them twice. Lacking spinach, I used swiss chard, finely diced eggplant, onion and garlic and created a batter and fried them. They are a lot like Indian Pakora. I used Gram, corn and coconut flour for the batter. Once fried, I had a delicious mint/cilantro chutney to dip them in. In fact, I like the chutney so much, that I cooked the bora just so I could dunk.

I am by nature a dunker, a dipper, simply, a sauce girl. Why eat dry food when you could dunk and add more flavor and texture?

The garden is still producing produce, despite the cold snap. Well I thought it was a cold snap, as it turns out, it is just fall. What to do with 40 leeks?? I will be searching to find the best way to preserve what was originally labeled "scallions" (which I thought I could use all summer). I love leeks and am hoping that blanching and freezing the stalks might work. How to remove the tasty soil between the layers, well, I need something to do this winter.

My favorite thing about going over to my community garden plot is running into my Mexican gardening neighbor. He is always pushing off his hot peppers on me as he planted too many. Me, I tried to explain in spanglish how to cook swiss chard for beginning swiss chard eaters. I think he won the contest. Everyone knows what to do with hot peppers. He might be making swiss chard with chicken water and onion. That was the best I could do to say chicken broth in Spanish. I will see next time I am there if he liked the chard. I really should study up on the linguistics prior to heading down there. My other gardening neighbor is from Nigeria (and speaks more English) and she has some really interesting veggies growing in her plot that is surrounded by corn stalks. It is kind of like walking through a forest and then suddenly you are in veg heaven. Her corn has lots of smut (huitchocotli??) and I would love to know more about how to use that Mexican delicacy, ie, when to harvest it.

I made some hot pepper jelly yesterday, a nice, heat filled batch. This stuff is great with aged hard cheeses and crackers or even over a log of cream cheese. Also great stocking stuffers, at least I think so. Mead was made yesterday also. I would like to say that I made it, but really I just supplied the honey and estrogen. Tomatoes and hot peppers are in the food dehydrator and green chiles have been roasted and peeled.

Time for a movie.........

i'm out

cold camping and lots of fun

2006-09-11T22:50:00.000-04:00

This weekend I went to Wheatland music fest where typically it is very hot even though it is the first weekend in September. This year, not the case, and I didn't really pay attention to the weather report, cause I never do.

Chilly describes it a little. It went down to the low 40's one night, and it rained. Both nights. Now this might sound miserable to some, but I love camping like this. Waking up to bacon and hot coffee every morn, huddling under the gazebo to get out of the rain, not playing my mandolin even once, but getting lots of knitting accomplished. All great. It could have only been better if we had a bonfire too.

I had a lot of fun pulling muscles (can't elaborate here), dancing, hanging with great friends, not sleeping, having a few cocktails, oh yeah, and listening to music. I even got a little sunburnt when the sun remembered who we were on Sunday.

Pillaging and plundering ( knitting at the bar) will take place tomorrow night. This will get me going on the winter knitting projects (sweater is almost finished) and solstice gifts. It has been too long since a little P&P has taken place. And it will be ladies night.....

i'm out

15 minutes of fame?? and finally a pizza

2006-09-07T21:18:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time there was a girl, she liked to cook. Last fall she created a DVD demonstrating her idea for a cooking show. It was fabulous and fresh, and the demo made it out of the mail box but not onto the network.

Ah, too bad.

Well, there is another opportunity. This time I will switch up the style and have a slightly different theme. I am open to ideas if anyone wants to weigh in. Last time I had a "use stuff from your garden" type theme. This time will most certainly include how to be a cook and eat gluten free and not realize it. I will work on figuring out how to take something that you enjoyed eating and cooking your whole life (with gluten) and turn it into a gluten free delish dish (gluten free double D).

For example, pizza. I am still looking for the dough that makes me happy. So until then, I will do what I did tonight. I mostly like pizza toppings, so I took a pie pan and spread some sauce in the bottom (homemade sauce of course) and then placed my pepperoni on the sauce, a layer of mozzarella and some thinly sliced onions on top. Baked it at 400 until it was golden brown and then lifted/poured it onto a plate and ate it with a fork. Finally a pizza I liked. Simple. Crustless.

Or maybe I won't submit a new DVD and be happy. I am already happy. Life is pretty good right now. What do I have to lose? What do I have to gain? I think I just won't answer those questions.

Maybe I will think on it over the weekend. I need to think about what I will cook in my 3 minute video. I need a new name for my potential show. Last time it was.....you guessed it...Fresh Ginger. Guess I have decided. Afterall, it will be fun.

i'm out

what you do for friends

2006-09-04T15:28:00.000-04:00

Recently, in the last year or so, several of my friends have taken up stringed instruments. Over the winter, I decided that I hate the flute (what I played in HS) and wanted to learn the mandolin.

Two reasons for this decision: If I ever want to see my friends again I have to learn how to play music all over, and, well, I like the mandolin.

I did try the fiddle once, for a month and decided that maybe I just want to listen to other people play.

Similar things have happened with knitting and drinking. This makes me sound like a conformist really. If I want to see some of my friends I have to go to "sewing night" where anything goes really - it is a drinking club with needles involved or I have to say, "it's time for some pillaging and plundering" i.e. drinking (and knitting) at the bar.

It's Labor Day and I am laboring with knitting. I am making a sweater for a friend for Christmas and just finished the first half and realized that I have knit the last four rows incorrectly, due to my inability to interpret knitting directions. Driving directions I have no problem with, cooking directions (although I ignore them), no problem. Beer making, no problem. But when it comes to knitting, I think I am missing the secret knitting code interpretation gene. This is okay, as it makes me feel less domestic (see blog from a month or so ago). I have decided to try to overlook the mistake vs taking out 600 stitches and make sure I knit the second half the same way.

Random thoughts of the day: check out this site which is from my friend bourbon boy or BB (I prefer not to mention any of my friends by name on this blog to protect their identities - one never knows what can happen on the "interwebs"): http://www.goatonapole.com/ this appears to be a newly forming religion and being a bad pagan, I am always interested in new ideas.

Since it is labor day, I feel some obligation to grill since I am not at the beach and if I were at the beach I would still feel the obligation to grill. So, what to grill...? Shrimp. Nah, a New Orleans style BBQ shrimp app and then a steak, with blue cheese melted overtop, or some compound butter made from fresh garden herbs.

"The food of your garden is rich in memories - a kaleidoscope of sunshine, rain, green fields, earth - and a subtle suggestion that all the joyous things of this life are gift." - "Gastonomie sans Argent" (August 1957, Gourmet mag).

That quote represents summer to me and I am thankful for the gift of friends, all of them.

i'm out

horseradish for free

2006-08-29T20:56:00.000-04:00

This evening, after visiting my garden and the 4 foot high weeds, I have decided to inventory all the plants (minus weeds) that are growing in no particular order. This is mostly to help me next year in planting less, I hope.

Garden Inventory:

tomatoes (about 42 plants, about 10 varieties - too many yellow)
green chiles (about 20 plants - don't need more plants, just fertilizenext year)
poblano chiles
jalepenos
red bell peppers
green bell peppers
hungarian peppers (which happen to be very hot)
collard greens
broccoli
broccoli rabe (mistakenly mis-tagged - lucky me)
brussel sprouts
eggplant
swiss chard
arugula
red leaf lettuce
green leaf lettuce
butter lettuce
leeks (there were supposed to be scallions too, but they are all leeks - about 60 of them!)
shallots
onions
acorn squash (three plants are taking over 1/2 the garden - next year no squash, don't really like it enough to have bushel full)
cucumbers
sweet peas
pole beans - kentucky and italian flat
tomatillos (these are coming up from last year and once i realized it wasn't a weed I have let them grow - bonus as I saw no tomatillo plants for sale)
swiss chard
purple potato (missed one from last year and it grew again after over wintering)
horseradish (grew from neighbors garden roots after tilling now taking over garden where acorn squash isn't)
dill (from last year's seed)
radish (these were in my neighbors plot, but planted for both our use - but they didn't grow well)
zucchini (almost forgot that one, how could I)

basil

cilantro and bonus, now I have coriander as it bolted

I think that's it. I have a full perennial herb garden too, but that is a different post.

With today's broccoli harvest I made chicken divan ala my style - chicken dijon with chicken, broccoli, a chicken broth based creamy dijon wine sauce and parmesan cheese - yummo. Served over rice cooked in chicken broth and fresh herbs. I used a fine rice flour from the asian market (Indian isle) and it worked great for making a roux.
And of course fresh tomatoes (one brandywine and one yellow, I even peeled them this time) with olive oil, torn basil, chives, sea salt and loads of freshly ground black pepper. I eat this salad almost every day. Delish.

i'm out

procastination motion

2006-08-29T16:50:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I was at my Aunt's house sipping a margarita and visiting with family and upon leaving, guess what I saw on the kitchen shelf? That's right, a rooster pitcher. If you recall, the profile to the right of this blog has a little statement about rooster pitchers.

"For your birthday, your aunt gave you a maple syrup dispenser shaped like a rooster. Please write her a thank-you note:
Which end of the rooster does the maple syrup come out of? Chic-kens!!"

I saw that pitcher and started laughing. Well to answer my question the syrup is supposed to flow from the beak. I bet you were all dying to know.

I think it is a sign. Not sure what kind of sign, but I do smile everytime I think about it. Maybe I will knit a rooster hat for the winter.
My brother has started to raise pheasants, quail and chickens. I bet he would love a rooster hat.

On a different topic I seem to have this tomato canning avoidance system in me right now. I desperately need to can the tomatoes which are falling off the vines in my gardens, but feel like doing nothing about it. I think this is a result of being gone for 11 days. And the fact that I have to return a tank of gas in order to can and that is a pain.
I am in a procrastination mode. The eggplants are ready too. Think I will roast those and freeze them. I need to get out of this funk. You know the i'm broke and my house needs cleaning and the tomatoes are ripe all at the same time kind of funk.
I need to cook, something that I've never made before. Something spicy, something mood changing. Send ideas. Use garden veggies. Send lobster.

i'm out

chicken salad and root canals

2006-08-16T14:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a root canal. We all know they are not fun, so I will skip the details.
Things you crave and want to eat right after a root canal but can't because your jaw can't open, you can't chew and you are still numb:

Chips and salsa
Nuts
Pizza
French bread ( I really need to find something to replace a crusty loaf of any bread)

What you can eat: gluten free (beginning to dislike those words already) mac and cheese.

Being a redhead, I wear off the normal shots they give you for numbing and pain in about 20 minutes, 1/2 hour tops. So they wisely gave me a numbing shot that should last for 8 hours and figured it might last 6 and sure enough, six hours later, I could feel again. Nothing like starting to unnumb right when they are getting down to the bottom of your root.

Ah happy gas.....

I have a bushel of garden tomatoes that need to learn how to can themselves.
I have been dining on fresh tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzerella with a little olive oil, salt and pepper as well as fresh chives almost every night. Yummo!

What does chicken salad have to do with this blog today? Nothing, I made it for lunch with cashews, celery and dried cherries.

i'm out.

on a Sagittarian being domestic

2006-08-14T15:20:00.000-04:00

Hum, everything you read about Sagittarians is basically me, I am uber Sag really. Except for one little thing. Domesticness. Is that a word even? For lack of a greater disposable income I have traded travel for domesticity. I still travel mind you, all the time, just not where I want to travel all the time and not out of the county nearly enough.

Today's domestic list:
Blanched and froze Swiss chard, broccoli, pole beans and collard greens (it's the southerner in me) and am about to can hot dilly beans and then while they are processing I will roast the dozens of green chiles that I have harvested from the garden. I am going to roast some jalapenos too as I have too many to eat in a timely fashion.
Tomatoes will have to wait. I tried to connect my beer burner to the propane supply and the hose won't fit. I was sold a lame propane tank that must be returned so that I can process tomatoes outside. This is so much nicer than heating your kitchen up in August and giving yourself steam baths.

I suppose having a garden in general is too grounding for most Sagittarians. And I have two. Hum, no, no Cancer moon, trust me. Taurus moon.

i'm out.

there are no sad polka dancers ...and zucchini

2006-08-13T14:23:00.000-04:00

I spent Friday and Saturday in East Lansing at the Great Lakes Folk Festival. This fest is great as it is 2 miles away and free! Friday night I arrived in time to hit the dance tent when the polka band was playing. It is such happy music. Nobody is moody or teary eyed when polka is playing, in contrast to the Cape Breton celtic band who played on the main stage later that eve. They had great music too, but that style can bring out all sorts of emotions, wistful, longing, deep, dark sea moods as well as happy little jigs.

But polka...is always polka, fun, happy, goofy and full of laughter. Cajun is the same way, a walking party with music.

I mowed the lawn yesterday. I love a freshly mowed lawn. It has been so hot here lately that my lawn stopped growing. I am sure the lack of consistent rain helped too. Somehow, the weeds always manage to grow as they are so well adapted to their climate. So, really, I just mowed the weeds. Just the same, everything is the same height now.
I received news this morning, exciting news, that my privacy fence will be going up on Tuesday. Oh happy day!!!! To once again have privacy in my backyard will be so nice!!! I recently removed two very large and tall cotton wood trees from my backyard and several little trees that were along the fenceline with the cotton woods had to be removed too, as well as the chain link fence that was in place. So now my backyard opens up into the neighbors, a neighbor who has been very sullen about the tree removal repercussions. He is a renter with a dog and now has to actually pay attention to his dog so that the dog stays in his yard. His fence was removed too to make the tree removal easier as his yard opens up into a parking lot. So, for a month I have been looking into the parking lot of the two neighboring duplexes and incurring all the nasty looks of my neighbor. His dog is however, very content now. The neighboring landlords put up a new privacy fence this week and wow did that help. I gave him a bunch of garden tomatoes as a peace offering two days ago. He planted his tomatoes in the shade. They are about 1 foot high, with no blooms.

Ok, this blog is getting decidely boring. Time to change topics.

My garden is now producing faster than I can eat anything, so I am taking tomorrow off to can hot dilly beans (pickles), blanch and freeze beans, swiss chard and collard greens (love them! great in winter soups) and can and dry some more tomatoes.
I wonder if I could blanch and freeze zucchini? Do I really want zucchini that badly in winter? I made a point of only planting one zucchini plant this year and it still gives me more than I can use. Last year I spent a lot of time slicing it and putting it in the food dehydrator so I could put it in soups all winter.
Did I? No, not once. I still have dried zuc chips. I am thinking the squirrels might like them.

Somehow two cherry tomato plants ended up in my garden. I really dislike cherry tomatoes, they have no true flavor compared to a real tomato. I checked the tags I planted with them and sure enough, somebody switched them at the garden center as they are definitely not Roma's. Disappointing, but at least I have 6 other Roma plants and they all weren't cherry tomatoes. Here is a pic of last year's tomato harvest. I planted lots and lots of heirlooms. This year I cut back on the heirlooms as they are not really for canning and I can't eat them or give them away fast enough. But they are tasty and beautiful!

Did I mention that on Friday I made the best margarita I have ever tasted? I will post the recipe another day. The secret: key lime juice and great tequila.

i'm out

ode to beer

2006-08-11T17:44:00.000-04:00

http://www.acme.com/heartmaker/

Cheers!

I'm out.

demise of beer consumption

2006-08-11T17:25:00.000-04:00

First of all, blogger lost my post and this is what I have recovered. Next time it would be nice to know, that while doing maintance, that one should not post. I am in the process of making everything below readable. Patience, not one of my virtues (spelling either) but maybe one of yours....

I have decided that I must give up drinking home brewed beer and along with that, stop brewing the beer I drink. I have been down and out about it. Isn't it enough that I have to give up all normal breads, crackers, cookies? Apparently not says the upper intestine. I had been holding out hope that I as a celiac/gluten intolerant newbie, would be able to continue drinking beer, home brewed beer and micro brews based on this article:

http://www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Abstracts/2005/TQ-42-0045.htm

I even gave a copy to my gastro doc to read and tell me what he thinks. Of course he said, (after reading the article) that based on the info in the article, he thought it might be okay to drink beer, if it is really filtered. Well, most homebrews and delicious micro brews are not that filtered and I have done a little experimenting and as I stated above, now believe that I will have to give them up. I still feel that I might be able to drink Pacifico (my Mexican fav) or maybe a Stroh’s (stroh’szac as I like to call it), but what I deem as regular beer, must go. Sure, you the reader are thinking, so what???? You can still drink rum, vodka, wine and hard cider. What you may not realize is that brewing and drinking homebrews is an enormous part of my social life.

This decision sucks. Really sucks.

However, I am going to try to brew some yummy gluten free beer and develop some great recipes. But the wind has temporarily left my sails. I am sure a breeze will come by again. I belong to not one, but two homebrew clubs and work part time at a brewery as a bartender. I could be happier if gluten free bread tasted ok or if I found a decent pizza dough replacement or if the whole world didn’t use soy sauce (second ingredient: wheat), but now the beer. If anyone has a great gluten free porter recipe please send it my way.

I haven’t really been too down and out about having to maintain a gluten free life as I feel much better when there is no gluten in my system, but the beer gods have knocked me down to the ground with this one. Training all my friends and family to think gluten free is a slow process. They have no incentive to do it unless I am around. I will have to have a traveling vodka/rum bottle to take with me to every backyard beer event. Or a six pack of hard cider. I will have to get cracking on making large quantities of that this fall.

I have known this blog was coming since last Saturday (day of experimental beer drinking) and have been holding back as once it is on paper or the internet, well, then it is a done deal.

Now, time to get on with my life and well, I do love mojitos….and a great bottle of wine. Guess I will live, well, even longer now minus the gluten.Since my basement is well stocked with beer, I think I will have a blowout backyard party (once the privacy fence is up, but that’s a different blog day) and have all my friends over to help me get rid of my beer stash. When they ask, what can I bring, the answer will be……RUM!!!

Grumpy ramblings shall end here and now...after all, it's Friday and ...what's that??? There's a mojito calling my name from the kitchen...

I'm out.

cooled couches

2006-08-07T13:58:00.000-04:00

Why doesn't someone design a couch that has an internal chiller, like the SAAB car seats that heat up? Couch temps could be controlled, warm or cold. It seems to me that if I could sit on a chilled couch that I wouldn't need as much air conditioning and same in winter if my couch could heat up. Thus, cost and energy savings for all.

Someone will like the idea and market it soon.

Here is a pic of my garden, the one in my backyard. I have a community garden plot too, which is slightly weedier than the one pictured below.

Soon I will be unable to keep up with the tomatoes and canning will commence.

I am still searching for the best gluten free pizza dough (a mix or frozen or recipe), if anyone has suggestions, please send them my way. What I made last night....well let's just say, the toppings were tasty.

Hollandaise sauce: best possible use of eggs with the except of bearnaise sauce, which really is the same thing as hollandaise plus tarragon.

Feeling uninspired.....

Mariachis in Mexico

2006-08-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

This was a photo taken on a train in Mexico. The Mariachi is the only one who hasn't been drinking tequila, but looks like he wants to. Random photoness.

Tuesdays are for Mojitos

2006-08-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I never made my mojito last night. Truth be told, I hadn't really had but one cocktail since last Tuesday (I was under the weather enjoying the Noro virus while in Winnipeg and then inadvertently ate something with gluten in it, so the system was down for the count for 4.5 days) so decided, why not wait a night and go virtually a week without cocktailing?

The wait is over. Energy is back. Heat is scorching. Mojitos are refresco!

Thank goodness for central air!!!!! Those of you just stopping by this post should realize that most people in Lansing do not have air conditioning, why, I do not know as it is ALWAYS disgustingly hot and humid here in July and August. Up North, in goddess country, you don't really need AC, just a fan for those really hot days, which thanks to global warming, are going to increase, so just do yourselves a favor and go get central air installed in your houses. I love run on sentences, always have. Why am I in Lansing instead of goddess country? A job with retirement and beni's. Thought I would only be here two years. Going on 6.5 now. It does grow on you, Lansing, after about 4 years. I think you just give in. At least we have lots of Thai and Indian restaurants and the MSU Spartan sports.

Here is my friend Ragnar's mojito recipe. Check out her blog at www.domesticpiracy.blogspot.com She needs help weeding her garden. Every time I raid her mint patch (mojito heaven) I now pull twice as many weeds as sprigs of mint. I think that is fair, don't you?

Mojitos....simply the best thing to drink, ever.

Put 1/4 of a lime (sliced into several pieces) and 10-20 mint leaves (about three stalks worth) in the bottom of a tall glass (pint sized rather than hi-ball) and "muddle" them (that is to say "crush") until the limes have been juiced and the mint leaves are bruised. If you don't have a muddler you can use a wooden spoon. Then add approximately a jigger (3 ounces, or two shot glasses) each of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, heated until all the sugar is dissolved and then chilled) and rum and a shot (1.5 ounces) of lime juice, fill the rest of the glass with club soda and stir. Serve iced. You can of course adjust any of those amounts based on your personal taste, and you can drink them without the rum.

They are good without rum too, I guess they would be like limeaid with loads of mint. You really do need to use a lot of mint, seems like you are about to drink mint salad? That's the right amount. After some testing, I have decided that Mount Gay rum (from Barbados) is the best, then Appleton (Jamaican), but then I always think Mt Gay is best.

Knitting, I am starting an new project, a poncho/sweater. It is a really simple pattern that I can knit at all times without needing to review the pattern. I have several wonderful colors of yarn, 4 out of the 5 colors are the actual sheep color (different shades of brown) from New Zealand. The 5th color is a light heathery sagey green. My friend brought the yard back (found a little farm in the middle of nowhere, NZ) with a challenge. Knit a sweater by this time next year or give the yard back. Well, I am not a fast knitter and usually start each project 5 times before it really gets going, so needless to say, one year later, I was losing the challenge. Being my friend, she gave me a grace period and I pulled it off and knit a beautiful poncho/throw/sweater (as soon as I figure out photo posting I will post a pic of it) and there was so much yarn left, I am knitting one for her too. Just have to have it finished by Solstice.

I might work on it tonight, after I drink that mojito. Before I drink the second one.

Need to have a pillaging and plundering session soon (otherwise known as "knitting at the bar"...our gang has been slacking, but then, it is summer), that will really get the projects going.

ciao

All in a day's travel

2006-07-31T13:16:00.000-04:00

Gardens, they are an island of comfort in this world. Even if I do have to pull weeds. I was traveling in Manitoba last week and it was not quite what I thought it would be. I didn't really read up on it before going as it was for work anyway, not a vacation, but I did think since they have lots of rivers and lakes that it would be hilly. Well, no. As it turns out it is the flattest place in North America. I missed the garden while traveling, but not the weeding. I arrived back to cucumbers, a few early tomatoes, dill, the most beautiful head of broccoli I have ever grown, beans and of course a couple of baseball bat sized zucchini that nobody wants to eat. When I left they were the size of my finger, but it rained, a lot.

The great thing, strangely, about going to Winnipeg, was the flight there and back. We flew over Lake Michigan and over the southern end of county I am from, Leelanau and it was hazy, but beautiful to see it from the sky. Ah the Lake, I miss the Lake in summer as now I live in Lansing, MI. On the return flight we flew over Thunder Bay(Lake Superior), Isle Royal, the Keeweenaw Peninsula, Marquette and then South and directly over Leelanau County. Crystal clear and at 31,000 feet I could actually see our family farm (cherries, apples and farm market new potatoes). It passed too quickly and that glimpse of one of the most beautiful places on earth from the sky made the whole trip worth it. Well, most of the trip. Trying to eat gluten free from a college campus cafeteria, not fun and not tasty. Thus missing the garden and did I mention, cooking.

So I decided to start a blog and here it is. Stay tuned. I just had to post something today to see how it works.

While in Winnipeg I did see this great band Men in Kilts.Fabulous, full of energy and fun!
http://www.meninkilts.ca Check them out. I guess they have a tough time getting gigs in the US (customs, border crossing stuff), but maybe with some effort...someday.

Monday is for mojitos. I will post my friend Ragnar's most delish mojito recipe soon. If you aren't growing fresh mint, well time to start as this drink is addicting and might I add, refreshing.
I will be making my favorite italian style mac and cheese (need some comfort food after Winnipeg) this eve. Maybe I will figure out how to post recipes by tomorrow. It will be gluten free of course, with proscuitto and fontina cheese. I am thinking of adding dried tomatoes (last year's garden harvest, must make room for this year's). Yummo!

caio