Bird and Little Bird

While We're on the Subject...

Of food, that is. Because I think that all last week, I pretty much only wrote about food here.  Which is fitting if we decide to think of this blog as a digital extension of my brain (which is basically what's going on here- this is why you end up with the random posts about my laundry and how much I like cupcakes).  But this recent obsession with my kitchen and what comes out of it should be considered a positive turn of events for certain.  For so many months I have been semi-wallowing in my disappointment at our descent into the impossibilities of allergen-free living that I have been pretty much wholly uninspired in the culinary department.  It was getting pretty sad there for awhile.  And, honestly, I'm probably not quite done with it. There are still days when I am a total loss for what to make, and if I haven't thrown something together to put into the crockpot by about 1 p.m., we are very likely going to have a pretty strange dinner. 

Part of the gradual rebound of my love affair with the kitchen that I'm currently undergoing is the result, I think, of looking for new inspiration in places that offer more realisitic options for us.  My days of ogling fancy Martha Stewart recipes are over.  At least for now.  And that's okay; I think I'm finally coming around to using this situation as an opportunity to make some nice changes, rather than seeing it as something to accomodate short term while complaining loudly. 

One thing that I've been doing lately is making green smoothies.  I think that this is something I used to do long ago, but it has been a good while, and I hadn't really thought about green smoothies until I recently came across this post from Stephinie's blog. She had linked to this recipe.  It looked good, but it had a number of things in it that are on the list of problematic foods around these parts.  So, I modified it to fit our particular needs, and I must say, I'm pretty happy with the results. 

Allergen-Free Green Smoothie

1 cup rice milk

1 1/2 cups assorted frozen or fresh fruits (we've been doing peaches and mangos)

2 bananas

2 Tablespoons ground flax seed

2 large leaves kale, torn into small pieces

Put the kale and rice milk into the blender and blend on high speed until smooth.  Add in the bananas, other fruit and flax.  Blend on high speed until smooth.  This has been making enough smoothie for a large glass for me, a small one for Mariam and a half sippy cup full for Zak.

 

Amaranth in the a.m.

For many years, we were unencumbered oatmeal enthusiasts.  Oatmeal wasn't just a breakfast food in this house; it was an institution.  So, when Mariam was diagnosed with celiac and oats had to go out the door (along with so many other things), there was a bit of trauma.  I know that the oat question is a controversial one in gluten-free land, and that many families choose to continue incorporating oats into their diet provided that they are certified gluten-free.  I don't want to ruffle feathers per se, so I'll just say that we don't take this approach, primarily because of emerging research that suggests that oats themselves create an immune response in people with celiac disease that is similar to the one triggered by gluten, and that this is true even when the oats are "gluten-free."  Also, our gastroenterologist said not to touch them.  So there it is.

Eliminating oats has left an odd hole in our family breakfast routine.  Oatmeal used to be an easy and popular option for all of us; one of the few breakfasts that we would generally all like to eat together.  Mariam and Dan have found solace in eggs and corn tortillas, but since baby Z is allergic to eggs, I can't go that direction myself.  In the last couple of weeks, I've happened upon a new solution to the breakfast foods conundrum.  Amaranth.  I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, but it is pretty much perfect.  A warm bowl of amaranth porridge with a bit of coconut milk and some maple syrup.  Not a bad breakfast at all, actually. 

Move over, oatmeal. 

Amaranth Breakfast Porridge

1 cup amaranth

4 cups water

a pinch of salt

maple syrup and coconut milk to taste

Begin by combining the amaranth, salt, and water in a small saucepan with a lid.  Allow it to come to a boil, and then lower the heat to medium-low.  Let simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens and the water is absorbed.  It will be a consistency similar to oatmeal or porridge.  Add more water if needed to get the desired texture.  Spoon into bowls and top with coconut milk and a bit of maple syrup. 

This will keep well in the refrigerator for the better part of a week and can be easily reheated on the stovetop with a bit of extra water to get it back to a smooth consistency.

 

Rhythm of the Home for Autumn (and Allergy-Free Caramel Sauce for You).

It is a rainy, rainy day here in Vermont, so it does seem appropriate to announce that the Autumn Edition of the Rhythm of the Home magazine is here!  I have a recipe for an allergen-free caramel sauce in the new edition, which you can find here.  Also, those of you have visited Rhythm of the Home in the past will notice that the magazine has a brand new (and oh-so-beautiful) design.  You cannot imagine the amount of behind-the-scenes love and effort that went into the new site, so when you have a moment, please hop on over and take an appreciative look!

The Corn Tortilla Project.

As we have ventured farther down the road of gluten-free living, various little challenges have arisen.  No surprise there, I suppose.  However, it was a little unexpected when corn tortillas, generally a big time staple at our house, temporarily became a no-go.  Corn, being corn, is naturally gluten-free.  But, after being advised by various gastreonterologists about the importance of maintaining a strictly gluten-free environment for Mariam, we found ourselves needing to read labels on everything, even products that were seemingly safe.  And it turns out that a corn tortilla that is both semi-decent and guaranteed to be free from any and all traces of gluten is not to be found in the greater Burlington area.  Thus the humble brilliance of the tortilla press arrived at our house.

 

Making corn tortillas turns out to be surprisingly simple, which is a good thing, since we have been eating them like it is our job.  The biggest challenge in the whole operation was probably just assembling what we needed.  We couldn't get guaranteed gluten-free masa locally, so we had to order it online.  And the press came from Amazon as well, since none of our local kitchen shops had them in stock when we were looking.  We'd love to find a cast iron one, but apparently they are few and far between and so far, we haven't had much luck.

 

We've been using a combination of 2 cups masa, 1 1/2 cups of hot water and a teaspoon of salt for each batch of tortillas.  This seems to yield a dough that is stiff but still workable and that forms and presses well.  Letting it sit for an hour or more after mixing up the batter is important to getting good results, so I would definitely recommend doing that. 

 

The basic process goes something like this: mix up the dough in the proportions mentioned above.  Let it sit for an hour at room temperature. Then, make a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it between two sheets of wax paper in the center of the press.  Close the press and press down hard enough on the handle to really flatten out the dough.  Open it back up, peel off the top sheet of wax paper and then gently peel the tortilla off of the bottom sheet.  Toss the tortilla into a dry skillet and cook it over medium-low heat, turning once about half way through and taking it off when it begins to brown just slightly.  You can reuse the same wax paper to make the rest of the tortillas from your batch of dough.

 

And as always, easy and good continue to be a stellar combination.

Making Coconut Milk.

I use coconut milk often enough in baking and cooking that I try to always keep a can or three on hand.  Except that lately I've been forgetting to do that, and seem to find myself without it when I'd like to throw a bit into a batch of lentils or a pot of tofu curry.  Well, do you know what turns out to be remarkably fast and easy?  Making coconut milk from scratch.  I've been using the technique from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, but I've seen essentially the same recipe with the same proportions in a couple other books that I have hanging around the shelves, so I'm assuming this is pretty standard business.  Give it a try!

Coconut Milk

2 cups shredded, unsweetened coconut

2 cups water

Put the coconut into a blender.  Bring the water to a boil and pour it over the coconut.  Blend on a high speed for about thirty to forty seconds, then turn the blender off and let the mixture rest for ten minutes or more.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl or large liquid measuring cup, pressing down on the mixture with the back of a spoon to extract all of the liquid.  This should yield between one and half and two cups of coconut milk. 

Squash-Based Meal Planning.

I realize that there is plenty of talk around the interwebs right now about how fall is Apple Season.  This is, of course, more than true in Vermont where we have been eating apples at nearly every meal for the last few weeks.  I am unabashedly in love with all things apple, so this is a good, good thing.  However, fall is also the official season of another much beloved agricultural goodie; winter squash.  Winter squash, really, is an abbreviated term for "happiness with a peel on the outside."

We've been especially fond of delicata and butternut for the last few years, in part because they are both so adaptable and can be easily served so very many ways.  Annie 2.0 and I planted a ton of both varieties in our shared community garden plot this year, but alas, they were lost in the post-Irene flooding along with everything else.  Plus, our super wet spring and summer had already made the plants very tempremental.  So, we are dependent on the local produce aisles and farmer's market for fufillment of our fall squash needs this year.  Somehow, I think we'll make do.

 

Carmelized Delicata Squash

One delicata squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

a pinch of salt

 

Rinse the squash and cut it in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and then cut each half of the squash into half-moon shaped pieces about 1/2 inch wide. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and then add the squash.  Let the squash cook in the oil, and every few minutes give it a stir to make sure that it is browning evenly.  About ten minutes in, add the brown sugar.  Continue cooking the squash until it is brown and a bit crunchy on the outside and the flesh and peel are soft.  

 

Possibly My Favorite Thing.

The other day someone asked me if I've been having any of those infamous pregnancy-induced food cravings.  I said that no, other than the fact that I no longer hate food with a white hot burning passion, there wasn't anything in particular that I found myself absolutely needing to eat.  Of course, I realized later that my answer was entirely dependent on my having forgotten about chickpeas.  Which, by the way, are the best thing that modern agriculture has to offer. Perhaps you were previously unaware of this fact? Not to worry.  I kind of was too.  But then I got pregnant and threw up for four months and when I stopped I realized that chickpeas were the key to making everything right once more.  

Mostly I've been making chickpea salads to eat with lettuce or wrapped up in a tortilla.  I'm a big fan of tomato/vinaigrette/chickpea combinations, but I'm kind of waiting for the garden to start producing tomatoes before I go after those recipes in earnest.  Today I did make a chickpea salad with a bit of tomato, but with more of a yogurt dressing and a few other things thrown in.  It's another modified Heidi Swanson recipe, this time from this book. Have I mentioned that I love her cookbooks?  Yeah, I thought that I had too.

I loved the look of her Chickpea Wraps recipe, but just like with the granola, I didn't have the ingredients for the actual recipe on hand, so I just kind of took the general concept and made changes to acommodate what I did have.  It goes like this:

 

Chickpea Salad with Yogurt Lemon Dressing

(based on Heidi Swanson's Chickpea Wraps from Supernatural Everyday)

3 cups cooked chickpeas

2 to 3 chopped celery stalks, diced

2 tablespoons stoneground mustard

2/3 cup plain yogurt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt (adjust to taste)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 small tomatoes, chopped

2 teaspoon capers

mixed salad greens 

 

Whisk together the yogurt, mustard, lemon juice and salt in a small bowl.  Mix in the capers and then toss the dressing with the chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and diced celery.  Scoop a generous portion of chickpea mixture onto a bed of fresh leafy greens and enjoy!

 

More with the Berries (Plus Nut-Free Granola).

I'm really trying to resist the urge to do an entire week of posts about the intensity and depth of my love for blueberries.  But maybe you'll indulge me one more post?  Because it isn't really about blueberries, it's actually more about granola.  Which is also good and which I love almost as much as blueberries.

Because we are a very strictly treenut-free household and the granola bulk bins at the store are a hotbed of nut contamination potental, I generally have to make granola myself if I want to be able to eat it.  Danger everywhere, I tell you.  Of course, I always get myself thinking that making granola is so much harder than it actually is, so I don't make it as often as I should.  But really, it is very easy and takes such a short amount of time that I feel a little ridiculous for not just making it a part of my normal kitchen routine.  

Anyway, this particular batch of granola is based on Heidi Swanson's Grain-ola recipe from SuperNatural Cooking, a super stellar cookbook which you actually should own if you don't already.  Her recipe calls for using nuts, which of course I didn't, but also needed a couple of other ingredients which I just didn't have on hand.  So, I modified the recipe to fit my pantry and my husband's allergies, and this is what I came up with.  It is, I should say, stunningly good. Especially with...wait for it... blueberries.

 

Simple Nut-Free Granola

4 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup pepitas 

1 3/4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 3/4 cups dried cranberries (or other dried fruits)

3/4 cup honey

1/4 coconut oil

Combine the honey and oil in a small saucepan over low heat and stir to combine.  Mix the oats, pepitas and coconut together in a large bowl.  Pour the honey/oil mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine thoroughly and evenly.  Spread the mixture onto a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, stirring the mixture every ten or fifteen minutes during that time.  It should be uniformly golden brown when done.  Stir in the dried fruit and cool to room temperature before storing in an airtight container. 

Not Just Good.

I feel like it's time to talk about the making of pasta.  Have we done this before?  I kind of think we haven't.  At least not to the extent that is so obviously necessary.  Because making pasta is both easy and amazing, and there are not all that many things that can own both of those adjectives simultaneously.  

I use my kitchen-aid stand mixer to make my pasta dough, and this has always worked really well.  The recipe that I use is from Alice Water's book, The Art of Simple Food, but I have seen the same recipe other places as well, so I think it is pretty standard.  It goes like this:

Homemade Pasta

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 cups flour

 

Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a stand-mixer and mix using the paddle attachment until you have a well blended and fairly stiff ball of dough.  Add small amounts of water (a tablespoon at a time) if needed to get the dough to come together.  Remove from the mixer and knead a bit by hand to get a nice even ball of dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap (or some such thing- is there an earth friendly alternative that wouldn't stick??) and set aside for at least an hour. 

To prepare the pasta for cooking, I usually cut the ball of dough in half, and then roll each half out on a lightly floured cutting board.  You want to get the sheet of dough to be as thin as possible, because it will thicken up quite a bit when you cook it.  When you have it about as thin as you can get it, use a sharp knife or pizza wheel to cut the pasta into strips. Again, keep in mind that the dough swell when it cooks, so don't make your strips too fat.  I often take my strips and lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet when my cutting board gets too crowded.  

Set a good-sized pot of water on the stove to boil.  I usually put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some salt into the water.  The water should be salty; that is where a lot of the flavor of the finished pasta comes from.  When the water is at a hard boil, add the pasta and cook until the noodles are tender.  This is likely to take a little longer than you think; it isn't quite like making ravoili or gnocchi.  

And, that's it.  Because fresh pasta is so much better than dry, you don't have to do a whole lot to make it into a pretty servicable meal.  It is very good with the most basic of sauces, or even just with some butter and good quality parmesan or romano.  We often have it with a really basic parmesan bechamel and roasted brussels sprouts on the side.  

Is it dinner time yet? 

Too Many Cookies?

We don't make peanut butter cookies all that often at our house.  Dan isn't allergic to peanuts (since they aren't really nuts, but legumes), only tree nuts.  But, it is pretty hard to find peanut butter that is guaranteed to be free of cross contamination, so Dan is generally not a fan.  Every so often, however, I need peanut butter cookies and make a batch anyway.  Yesterday was one of those days, and I mixed up a batch of my favorite peanut butter cookies. And then ate about one hundered of them.  

What I'm trying to say is that these are good.  So, so good.  I would guess that they are really just a very standard peanut butter cookie; there are probably a thousand similar recipes floating around the interwebs.  But this is probably because a good standard is just that; something that you can go back to again and again, expecting to get reliable results.

This recipe makes a dozen cookies.  You could easily double it, but keep in mind that you will then have twice as many cookies. And you will eat all of them.  So, you know, make informed decisions.  That's all. 

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 stick of butter, softened

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tspn vanilla

1 1/4 cups flour, spooned and leveled

1 tspn baking powder

1/2 tspn salt

3/4 tspn baking soda 

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together the peanut butter and butter in the bowl of a standard mixer.  Add in sugars and blend until fluffy.  Then add in the egg and vanilla and mix until well blended.  Mix dry ingredients and add them to the peanut butter mixture, stirring until the batter is stiff but smooth.  Refrigerate the batter for about forty-five minutes, until it is firm.  Roll spoonfuls of batter into twelve equal sized balls and place on a cookie sheet.  Press the cookies flat-ish using the back of a fork.  Bake for eight to ten minutes, until the cookies begin to brown.