Gluten free Flour

Gluten Free Mommy has a great post on Gluten free flours and what they do and how they work, really helpful when your working to replicate a certain flavor or texture!

http://glutenfreemommy.com/gluten-free-grains-101-the-best-flour-blend/

Oh and I want to endorse a company

http://www.bobsredmill.com/

They have gluten free and gluten filled items but they really rock everything I have with their name on it has been wonderful! Also, I hear they are an employee owned company which is a major plus in my book.

I don't think there is any gluten free flour blend that I would truly consider all purpose BUT http://www.bobsredmill.com/gf-all_purpose-baking-flour.html comes pretty darn close!

I used it to make fried chicken strips and gravy and it was even better than my gluten filled one!

it also works for sausage gravy.. now if I can just learn to make a biscuit that doesn't fail hehe.

Ok off to figure out lunch..

Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Custard Bruleed

I hate the term Creme brulee.. It always sounds so French and hard! It often congers images of tiny portions of boring custards from over priced restaurants

I roughly used a recipe from http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dia/recipeID/3794/Recipe.cfm

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup +1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tsp. hazelnut extract or 1 vanilla bean (I used Kahlua)
(if you do not have the vanilla bean then use 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (I used bitter sweet chocolate chips)
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, ground into a paste (this can be easily done in a food processor) I used http://www.bobsredmill.com/hazelnut-flour-meal.html I didn't grind it or anything just put it in
1/3 cup freshly ground espresso (tell the person at Starbucks or Caribou that you need it ground into powder for baking) (I used about 3 tablespoons Instant espresso)
Sugar for topping and bruleeing (is that even a word?)

Preheat the oven to 300

Prepare a double boiler. If you don't have one use a pot of water and a heat proof bowl. (just a little water about an inch in the bottom of a pan then place the other pan or bowl on top and let come to a simmer but not a boil the point is low slow moist heat on the container so it doesn't burn the chocolate. Don't let this part scare you its not as hard as it sounds!

Instructions: Preheat oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C. In a double boiler, slowly heat cream, hazelnut or vanilla or Kahlua , espresso, and hazelnut paste (or hazelnut meal) for 10-15 minutes, While this is heating In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks and 1 tablespoon of sugar until smooth and creamy. At this point stir in the chocolate (if you used a vanilla bean remove it now). Stir until melted and the mix is shiny. (this will not be smooth if you use the hazelnut meal but it will be yummy) Remove it from the heat. Then temper the eggs, add a little of the chocolate mix to the eggs and whisk it in, then a little more and a little more until it looks like a lighter version of the chocolate, then combine the remainder. I made one more addition Bottom crust: 1 cup Hazelnut meal 1/3 cup of sugar 3 tablespoons of butter melted Mix them all together and pressed them into the bottom of each of the bowls*. Anyway this filled 4, 4 oz bowls, glass baking dish these fit nicely in placed the bowls inside then filled the bowls. Place the whole thing in the oven and slowly poured hot water in the bottom until it comes about half way up the bowls. I baked this at 300 for about 30 mins. Remove from the water bath and let sit (I used a towel) for about 20 mins to cool (you can let these chill in your fridge but I have no idea how long this will take because I can never wait) Then Lightly coat this with sugar (shake off any excess) if you don't lightly coat it the sugar will puddle and it with taste icky (yes that's a technical term). You can skip this step it will be just as yummy just have a slightly different texture. Okay if you added the sugar, you can use a blow torch if you have one of move the rack in the oven to the highest setting and place the dishes on a baking sheet and turn on your boiler but WATCH because it will burn in the bad way fast! *Ok I have these great little bowls made by pyrex I got years and years ago, they are about 4 ounces and oven safe I use them for soo many things, my favorite is baked eggs. Enjoy! Okay so this is a long complicated recipe with many steps and most people won't even try it. You should know it really is very very easy! It's worth every single step.

food today

I am getting more and more adventurous food wise, since my old stand by's are now a no no I am learning new ways to cook!

Today I made

Grogonzola pudding:

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta, drained (the ricotta has to be really well drained, even squeezed out using cheese cloth, otherwise your pudding will develop a watery layer on the bottom – if this happens, though, it doesn’t actually matter because it still tastes really good.)

1/2-3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola or other blue cheese (use more or less depending on how strong a flavor you like)

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chopped, caramelized green onion

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Then mix everything in a big bowl, then poured it into a glass baking dish, which I put into a larger roasting pan, placed near the bottom of the oven added some water to the pan and baked it for about an hour until it was lightly golden brown around the edges and pulling away. If you don't drain the ricotta I am told it makes a watery mess at the bottom but I didn't have this problem!

This is NOT my recipe, if it belongs to you or you know who it belongs to please tell me and I will put a link!

I served this with

Honey Mustard Roasted Chicken

This really isn't a recipe, kinda an unrecipe hehe.

I took a bottle of spicy brown mustard and put about half of it into a bowl, then mixed with about 1/3 cup of honey(roughly equal parts), about 3 tables spoons of lime juice and a bunch of chopped garlic (my family loves garlic) then put a small quartered white onion in the cavity of a whole chicken, placed it on my roasting pan and then coated it with about 1/2 of the honey mustard mix and mush it around under the skin with my hands then bake it in the oven at 375 for about an 45 mins then I took the remaining sauce and spooned it over the chicken and let it brown (about 15 mins)

Cut and serve! it was really yummy sweet and tangy and moist!

We had some lovely fresh steamed green beans that had been dressed with some garlic and butter on the side! YUM

Van's Wheat free gluten free waffles

these are very very yummy. texture is good and they are better than most normal frozen waffles

It's official I am sick of being sick. Being gluten free is much harder when your sick.. its been 2 weeks damn it cold go away!

Where have I been

No one reads this anyway.. it's more for me at this point.

I have been really sick, for a very very long time.

I kept getting worse, and the doctor's didn't know what was wrong.

I had migraines, stomach aches, stomach cramps, IBS like symptoms, I was constantly tired, had strange tingling in body parts for no reason, I was weak, nauseous, strange sometimes bloody stool, I bruised if you looked at me wrong, I had joint pain and I simply couldn't think or concentrate anymore.. Everything had a "cause" I had my gal bladder removed, I have reflux, I am over weight, ect.. so they had reasons but the treatments didn't help.. at all... not even a little! Also, no matter what I did (even a 500 calorie a day diet) I never lost weight.

So I started looking for causes.. there had to be more. I will be 40 this year I shouldn't feel like I am dying!

I have an autistic 8 year old.. I had been reading about that when I stumbled across a Celiac website. When I started looking at the symptoms.. All of my symptoms were on the list.. sure there were a few that were not, but the more I looked the more sense it made.

So... I started reading about what it takes to be gluten free

and reading

and reading

and I made the jump

1st I detoxed, I went on a liquid diet for a few days

then added protein

then milk

then rice

and started learning to cook again

because I felt WONDERFUL!!

It was working! finally something was working!

Then.. I got something with gluten in it (soy sauce), with in hours most of my symptoms are back I hurt all over, I want to vomit, my head hurts... I feel like I have been run over by a truck!

I have been gluten free (mostly) for about 6 weeks..

Today I have the flu hehe but still its the best flu I have had in years!

even though my ribs are sore from coughing and my head hurts, I still feel better than in years

and I am finally learning to think again, slowly the fog that my head has been in is clearing.

Slowly I am becoming me again.

Some days gluten free is hard! Especially when what I want is a grilled cheese and potato soup to chase the sick away..