Thursday, November 19, 2009

Gluten Free Blueberry Pie Recipe

Welcome to the next stop of our Gluten Free Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner Party! We have arrived at the part of the meal most of us have been waiting for all week.  The Dessert course, Pie to be exact.

Or at least that is what my family says about the Thanksgiving feast.

Blueberry Pie is one of our favorites, we pick pounds of blueberries each summer just to guarantee that we will have pie.

So enjoy!
Printable Recipe


Blueberry Pie

Make a batch of Pastry Pie Crust

Pastry Pie Crust - for a lattice pie

1/2 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup sweet rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon gelatin powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup shortening ( I use Spectrum organic palm shortening)
1/4-1/2 cup cold water

Mix together all dry ingredients in food processor or bowl. Add shortening and cut into pea sized pieces.


Stir in water till dough holds together. Form into 2 balls, one slightly larger than the other, a 60/40 split. Let rest for 2 hours or overnight.

Roll out between parchment paper to form bottom crust with the larger ball
Roll out the smaller ball for the lattice work.  Cut strips for the lattice work approx 3/4 inch in width.

Roll out the larger ball of dough for the bottom of the pie to a diameter of 11 inches or so sandwiched in parchment paper.  
Roll the pie crust around your rolling pin to carry it to the pan.
Remove the bottom layer of parchment and place the crust into the pan, gently patting it into place. If the pie crust breaks, just patch it.
Brush the pie crust with a bit of melted butter or shortening.  Chill the crust for 10 minutes. This prevents the juices from seeping into the crust.

Roll the other ball out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut strips from the entire circle of dough.

Make a batch of Blueberry Pie Filling. 

Blueberry Pie Filling

For a standard glass deep pie pan

1/4 cup sugar or up to 1/2 cup if you prefer sweeter
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
4 cups of blueberries- can be frozen or fresh

In large bowl, combine sugar and tapioca flour.  Add in the berries. Stir well.
Make sure that each berry is coated in the tapioca mixture.
Remove the prepared pie crust from the fridge and pour in the blueberry mixture.

Starting from the center of the pie, place the longest strips of pie crust across the center, alternating which piece is top and bottom as they cross.

Continue to add in strips from the center out, weaving as you go.  If a strip breaks, just place it appropriately .
Crimp together the bottom crust and the lattice strips, 
Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or till the pastry is lightly browned and the filling is bubbly.
Let cool before slicing.

Where to Stop Next:

Don't forget to stop by the rest of our blogs this week for more of our Gluten Free Progressive Thanksgiving Dinner Party. Here's the schedule:

Ali and I served DRINKS on Monday, Nov. 16 at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen andGluten Free Organics .
Karen, Jean, and Seamaiden served APPETIZERS on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at Cook4Seasons, Gluten Free Organics andBook of Yum.
Shirley and Ali served MAIN COURSE on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at gfe-gluten free easily and The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.
Diane, Stephanie, Ali and Shauna are serving the SIDE DISH/SALAD today, Nov. 19 at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang, A Year of Slow Cooking, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Gluten Free Girl.

Karen, Ali and I will be serving DESSERT on Friday, Nov. 20 at Cook4Seasons, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Gluten Free Organics.
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at 10:23 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Lemon Chili Olives and Spiced Honey Almond Nibbles Recipes

Welcome to the next stop of our Gluten Free Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner Party! I will be serving drink nibbles, Lemon Chili Olives and Spiced Honey Almonds.




Holidays as a child meant many things.
The preparations would start weeks before the holiday.
There would be much frantic rushing to clean the house, a speeded up pace in the kitchen as vast quantities of food were prepared, lots of polishing of silver serving pieces and silverware.

And some rare appearances of special foods, you know the ones that only come out once or twice a year along with the fine china and real crystal glasses.

Not that these foods were truly unusual, we're talking about suburban New Jersey after all.  No, just special to us because my folks didn't entertain frequently. With 6 kids in the family, special and expensive foods did not grace the table unless there was company, we had an abundance of plain foods.

At Thanksgiving the parade of dishes always began simply, with olives and crudites in the crystal divided dish.  Oh, how we waited for those enormous black olives to top a small finger, the little green olives stuffed with peppers to suck out and chew, the occasional bit of carrot or celery to wash the olives down.

And loved to nibble on the mixed nuts that came from a can.  The sound of the vacuum being released was always my favorite part. The nuts were always a bit too salty for me.  But you could scoop out the cashews and use them for bargaining for more olives with a sibling.

Nowadays, nuts and olives are essential parts of my pantry, used frequently and plentifully on an almost daily basis.

But I still love to have that simple platter of crudites, olives and nuts to nibble on while the dinner finishes.  And it helps to keep the party occupied somewhere else than in the kitchen with me.

The presentation has just gotten a bit more flavorful now.

I make these wonderful Honey and Spice Almonds





Honey Spiced Almonds Recipe              printable recipe

2 cups of raw almonds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat honey and brown sugar in large pan over medium heat till melted and small bubbles appear.
Stir in all the spices. Pour in the almonds and stir to coat well.
Lower heat and continue to cook the almonds till the glaze has melted, bubbled and reclung (is that a word?) to them. This takes approximately 5 minutes or so.
Spread onto parchment covered cookie sheet pan to cool.

And these:





Spicy Lemon Chili Olives     printable recipe


One 16 .5 oz jar of mixed green and black olives - drained   I used Tasso brand
1/4 cup kalamata olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you love heat
grated peel from one organic lemon

Warm olive oil in small pan till just body temperature.  Go ahead and check, it should not feel hot to a fingertip. Remove from heat.

Stir in the red pepper flakes and lemon peel, then add the drained olives. Stir well to coat the olives.
Put the olives back into the olive bottle and squeeze the juice of the lemon over the olives. Shake the jar well.
Let marinate for at least 2 days, shaking the jar whenever you remember.



If you are like me and won't remember, you can double the sauce recipe and just realize that you will have a lovely lemony spicy sauce left when the olives run out.

Feel free to nibble a few before your guests come.
Where to Stop Next






Don't forget to stop by the rest of our blogs this week for the more of our Gluten Free Progressive Thanksgiving Dinner Party. Here's the schedule.



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at 3:00 AM 4 comments

Monday, November 16, 2009

Hot Ginger Lemon Cider recipe -perfect for starting a holiday season.

Welcome to the first stop of our Gluten Free Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner Party! 

I have an admission to make,

If we weren't attempting to live by a food stamp diet, this would be a Very different drink recipe for the holidays. The holidays are such a time of joy and sparkle that I love to have sparkling glasses to welcome my guests.


It would look a lot more like this, and be made of a Fine hard cider (check out this post for guidance) and a splash of Calvados, (French apple cider brandy).

I love the tiny bubbles carrying the scent of fall ripe apples along with the complexity of cider brandy.

It is oh so simple to make, find the best hard cider you can and place gently in a champagne glass.  Pour in 1/2 ounce or a bit more of Calvados.
Swirl gently and enjoy.


But you can't purchase alcohol with food stamps.  You have to use cash for that.

And as much as I could just say that my adventure could be suspended for the holidays, it can't be for folks who are truly living on this budget.  For them, choosing to spend their cash on alcohol may mean other bills not getting paid.
And making that kind of choice is not a happy way to celebrate a holiday.


printable recipe

So I created this tempting hot cider recipe instead, splurging a bit to use our local Bellewood Acres Cider and fresh organic ginger and lemons from Terra Organica.



Everyone in our family will happily drink this spicy, citrusy cider.
It sets the stage for eating a tasty dinner without assaulting our taste buds with overwhelming sweetness, nor filling our stomachs with too heavy milk based nogs.

You can make a whole pot if you would like, just hold onto the lemon juice till you serve it.  The lemon juice will cook and flatten in flavor if you add it too soon.

If you desire to make a large batch, I would suggest slicing the lemons for your guests to add as they serve the cider to give the lift of fresh lemon right at the end.
Just put the lemon zest and the ginger in the crockpot and pour in the water and cider. Let it come to a low simmer and serve.

Perfect for the holidays, you can make this up first thing in the morning and not worry about it again. Except of course, to make sure the pot stays full.


Don't forget to stop by the rest of our blogs this week for the more of our Gluten Free Progressive Thanksgiving Dinner Party. Here's the schedule.




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at 12:05 AM 4 comments

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Week 2 menu Cinnamon Rolls Recipe, Hunter stew recipe and a few pictures

Onward to week 2.

Sunday Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls with walnuts made from the pizza dough I had prepared for Friday night. I mixed it up to rise in the fridge while we worked, but we all wanted something else when we got home.
On Sunday, I brought the dough up to temperature, patted it out on parchment, sprinkled on sugar, cinnamon and walnuts.  Grated on some butter and rolled the dough into a log.  Cut the log into 2 inch rounds. placed them into a pan and baked at 350 for 40 minutes.  They were good, not spectacular but good.

Lunch was a group effort at the Girl Scout meeting. Each girl brought a vegetable.  We combined them all after dicing with some vegetable broth.  When this was simmering we made up Bob's Red Mill Biscuits, the girls really love to work the butter in with the pastry blender.
Finished the soup by adding rice noodles and served.
Why you ask do we cook at Girl Scout meetings?  We are working on a couple of cooking badges since our once a month meetings bracket lunchtime.

Dinner was salmon filet with baked sweet potatoes and brussell sprouts.  I was fortunate to buy the salmon last month at Fred Meyer's anniversary sale for $2.99 per pound.  I bought 3 whole fish and stocked my freezer.

Breakfasts so far this week are Kinnickkinnick bagels, since we were given a bag at the Community Awareness Event, eggs with tortillas or rice pudding.

Lunches have been hummus, lots of apples from our neighbors and chicken noodle soup with ginger.
Dinners so far were sausages with polenta, carrots and dill.
Pasta with salmon, spinach, capers and olives
and tonight Bigos- A Hungarian hunters stew made with pork, beef, carrots, onions, apples, paprika saurkraut and GF beer.

Rest of our planning is a bit loose again but here goes.

Breakfast tomorrow is hot cereal with milk.  Most likely oatmeal but I might make millet instead.
Lunch is Organic baked beans and hot dogs (from Neiman ranch) for Fiona, Katie will most likely take tuna fish salad and crackers.
Dinner tomorrow is already made, Bigos.  I am speaking at the YWCA on a healthcare panel so I won't be home. :(

Friday will be eggs or cold cereal.
Lunch will be quinoa and black bean salad for us girls.  Ed will most likely eat curry veggies.
Dinner will be pizza and a movie 'cause we all feel like we didn't get a weekend last week.


Saturday- Apple crisp with oatmeal and walnuts
lunch- quinoa salad again
dinner- stir fried pork with hoisin, lancilota kale and rice

Sunday- Almond meal waffles with sauteed apples and maple bacon.
Lunch_ I am cooking at a friends- pumpkin soup, cookies , chili. all will be made.  One for lunch the other for dinner.
I'll make more sourdough to go with the soup.
cornbread for the chili.


Monday- egg custards with raspberries sweetened slightly with honey for breakfast.
lunch quinoa salad  (last time I promise)
Dinner Onion Soup with sourdough croutons

Tuesday - Cereal either hot or cold
Lunch- pumpkin soup
Dinner- Salmon most likely

I'll be posting the recipes soon so check back.  Each title will go live once I upload them.
Enjoy!
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at 9:23 PM 2 comments

Recap week one on Food Stamp budget

Time seems to be moving at double pace right now. Lots of fun but not a lot of time to keep you all up to date with our adventure. It's been a week since I told you of my family's progress.

Want to know how it is going?

First, some menu changes occurred this past week due to unexpected life events.
Actually, lots of menu changes.  I had wondered whether or not I could actually create a menu before I saw the food ads. Now I know that I can't if I want to keep to a strict budget.

So this week the menu will start today and run to next Tuesday night.  It will be a much better representation of reality.

Our black bean soup for Wednesday turned into winter vegetable soup instead since I hadn't yet repurchased black beans.
Breakfast Thursday started the slide away from the proposed menu.


I decided to really focus on using all of our leftovers efficiently, since we had already paid for them.
I created a lovely pumpkin rice pudding custard for breakfast to use up the extra rice that Ed cooked in the office for lunch that I baked off on Wednesday night. We couldn't resist and had a bit for dessert with ice cream.

Our lunches on Thursday and Friday were leftovers as well.

The girls don't like to see leftovers that look like the last meal they had. Unless I manage to turn them into some thing else, Ed and I get to eat them.

The Friday night birthday party didn't materialize.  We ended up with pasta again, this time with salmon sausage patties on the side.  I was fortunate this summer to have a friend at Wild Catch let me in on the warehouse sale.  A pair of lovely seasoned salmon patties- pure salmon and gluten free spices no fillers- were $1 per package.  Approx weight 1/2 pound. I know that I can't replace these now at that price but we love them.
We had the remainder of one of the patties cut up and added to scrambled eggs in the morning with tortillas and avocados before dashing out the door to the Community Awareness event.
Lunch on Saturday was truly interesting.  There were so many amazing vendors there for the sampling that we all just noshed our way through them.

My favorite was the Santa Fe Rice and Beans from Storehouse Foods, although their chicken gumbo was tasty too.  I was surprised that food that comes shelf stable, freeze dried and vacumn sealed was so good.  I couldn't believe it was rehydrated food. It tasted fresh, nicely spiced with separate grains of rice not clumpy or sticky.  I am so glad that they gave me a bag of each to review for you.  I'll make it up sometime soon so you can see the ease of preparation and judge for yourself.  I know a few of these will be living in my pantry soon just in case the winter driving gets bad.

But a close second was the greek pizza from Fairhaven Pizza.  Somehow I missed out on the cheese-less pizza that he made for other GF CF volunteers, but the greek was savory with hints of oregano, feta and olives.


Yes, I still made the gluten free sourdough bread on Wednesday last week. As you can see it is lovely while rising.



I promise I will share, just need to finish the tweaks for perfection.
If you live in Whatcom County, I will be teaching this recipe and all the techniques needed on January 26th at the Cordata Coop.  Every participant in the class will go home with sourdough starter of their very own.


And as for Saturday night.  We were just wiped out.  Ed and I managed to chat with all the folks who had questions for us.  The girls helped to keep the events actual landfill contribution to a small waste can by working with Carbon Masters led by Mary Jensen.   Katie even managed to get to a birthday party.

So when Ali and Tom asked if we wanted to go out to eat after the event, we said, YES!. We gathered the girls, they gathered their clan and off we went.

I know that on a food stamp budget, you just can't go out to eat.
Thank goodness, that typically making this kind of choice is easy.
But for right then, it felt right to go and enjoy the company of folks we truly enjoy.  Best of all, we went to On Rice in Barkley.  When we asked our normal questions about gluten free food, the waitress left to reappear with a lovely printed menu that showed which menu items were naturally GF and which could be made gluten free specially.  It even mentioned which items Couldn't be gluten free.
The little card also covered dairy, nuts and shellfish.  Nice to get so much information so easily.

I will figure out the costs of creating a meal at home like we had there but for right now, I just put the amount we spent into the spreadsheet.
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at 8:31 PM 0 comments
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