Category Archives: food

friday eats

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Candied Cashew and Pear Salad
Ingredients:
3/4 cup cashew halves
4 slices bacon, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dressing:
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste
Salad:
1 (10 ounce) package mixed salad greens
1 medium pear, thinly sliced
1/2 cup halved seedless red grapes

Directions:
In a large, dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast cashews until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove cashews to a dish to cool slightly. Return skillet to medium-high heat, cook bacon strips until crisp on both sides, about 7 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, and soak up grease with a paper towel. Coarsely chop bacon, and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together butter, rosemary, curry powder, brown sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, and toasted cashews. Set aside. In a small jar, mix together white wine vinegar, mustard, and honey, olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, cover and shake. In a large salad bowl, toss dressing with greens, pear slices, grapes, and bacon, and sprinkle with nut mixture. I made this for a family dinner recently and it was a big hit, toss on a little cooked salmon or chicken and you have yourself a meal!

“The colors of a fresh garden salad are so extraordinary, no painter’s pallet can duplicate nature’s artistry.”  ~Dr. SunWolf

summer sweets

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My friend, Fab, gave me a recipe for simple blueberry jam. This morning, I smeared some of my homemade jam on a toasted, gluten-free English muffin and tasted summer in every delectable bite.

5 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon until the berries have released their juices. Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture has thickened for about 20 minutes. Transfer to containers and refrigerate for up to 1 month or freeze for up to 1 year.

gobble gobble!

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Hanging with family all this week and hosting Thanksgiving at our house. We have two birds in the oven, a spiral sliced ham, and lots of gluten-free casseroles and several yummy desserts all ready to go! One year ago today we were reeling and missing my mom, now we are just missing her. Have a wonderful day, and no  matter how much your family is annoying you, take a moment to be grateful for them:)

fall food

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I don’t post many recipes, but decided to share one of my favorites today. One of the best things about living in a four season state is changing your cooking with the weather. We’re covering up the barbecues and firing up our ovens and Crock Pots here in Michigan. My sister Carrie, the family cook, made this beef stew for us once and it immediately became an all-time favorite around here. Not only because it tastes so good, but because it’s pretty much a no-fail recipe!

Carrie’s Beef Stew

4 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained
1/2 cup hoisin sauce (I use Kame brand because it’s Gluten-Free)
2 bay leaves

1 pound slender carrots, peeled, cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Add meat to pot; sauté until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Push meat to sides of pot. Reduce heat to medium; add 2 tablespoons oil to pot. Add onions; sauté until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Mix meat into onions. Add 1 cup wine, tomatoes with juices, hoisin sauce, and bay leaves. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrots and 1 cup wine. Cover; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, increase heat to high; boil until sauce is slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes longer. Reduce heat to medium, add cornstarch mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Season stew with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Bring to simmer before serving, stirring occasionally.) Transfer stew to large bowl. Sprinkle with parsley; serve.

Okay, so that’s the recipe. Now I don’t know about you, but I always change things up as I go depending on my mood and what I have in the pantry. I like to use lean, thinly sliced steak, I usually make it in a Crock Pot cooking it on low for about 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. I throw in baby carrots sliced in half if I have them, I rarely have fresh parsley around so I skip that or use dry, most of time when I make this all the wine goes in at once, my husband and onions don’t get along so I use onion salt or flakes, and I often don’t get around to the cornstarch. The stew goes great with mashed potatoes or rice. I’ve even made it into a rich soup a couple of times by thinning the stock with a little water and adding frozen chopped vegetables.

The cows in the photo hung out in a pasture near our condo in Jackson Hole. Hmm, their cute little bovine faces are giving me a case of the meat-eating guilt’s, maybe I’ll skip the beef and throw in some tofu next time!

more cheese please

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The other night while at a friend’s house for dinner I sampled a cheese and fell head over heels in love. Now I’m not a particularly cheesy person (so I like to think anyway),  and I’m even a little lactose intolerant, but this cheese was so yummy I made Sarah write down the name so I could pick some up. It’s called Dubliner and has a slightly sweet, nutty taste. I like it sliced thinly on gluten-free crackers, but it’s also great with apples, wine, and even beer. I’ve read that it melts well too so I plan to try it in some recipes. So move over George Clooney and bring on the Metamucil, this babie has a new crush;)

Age is not important unless you’re a cheese. ~Helen Hayes

i dream of pizza

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So it was one of those good-news/bad-news moments when I found out that I would feel better by not eating food containing gluten. And most of the time I don’t miss all those carbs, mainly because I began to look at them differently. When I see a slice of chocolate birthday cake, a mound of spaghetti, or a basket of hot rolls I see poison. But the one thing I still missed after being wheat-free for many years was pizza. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I didn’t care, that it was gooey and fattening and no big loss, the truth is, I still longed to bite into a hot cheesy, crusty slice of yummy pizza! Last week, while standing in front of the gluten-free product freezer at my local market, the woman next to me asked if I’d tried the Kinnikinnick Pizza Crusts. She went on (and on and on) telling me how she prepared them and how great they were while I stood there nodding and thinking that she must be totally deluding herself. There was no way they could be as good as the “real” thing, but I threw a bag in my cart and figured I’d give them a try. I made two individual pizzas that night and she was right, they were fabulous! My husband even loved them and he can eat wheat. So thank you gabby grocery store lady, you were right, I was wrong, and now because of you I’m eating pizza again and I’m going to have to ramp-up my meager workouts on the outside chance that winter will eventually end here in Michigan and I’ll have to put on a bathing suit someday (4-8 inches of snow predicted tonight!).

Did you know that when man first began eating wheat it contained only 1-2% gluten, while today’s wheat contains 55% gluten? No wonder more and more people are feeling the effects. If you have chronic digestive problems, skin rashes, or autoimmune health issues, consider talking to your doctor about a screening and perhaps giving the gluten-free diet a try. It’s really not so bad, really, you can even eat pizza:)

cheesecake bliss

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Ever since I’ve gone gluten-free I rarely bake anymore. It just doesn’t seem to be worth the effort, especially since I’m the only one in my family that avoids the sticky little proteins (although there are others who show signs of needing to, but I won’t go there in this post). Anyway, I hosted book club last week and wanted to make something I could actually enjoy along with my friends so I adapted a cheesecake recipe to make it gluten-free. It was soooo good you’d never know the crust was wheat-free and even people who aren’t big cheesecake fans loved it! It’s almost a cross between cheesecake and apple crisp because of the crust and the crumble top so this is the perfect time of year to make it and impress your friends and family. And since this was my first time ever making cheesecake it must be a fail safe recipe! Click on “keep reading” to get the recipe:)

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