Summer Time!

• The only activity you’re willing do in class is sign yearbooks.


• Long sleeves have been officially outlawed.

• You realize its time to get a new bathing suit.

• Bright colored nail polish begins to be replenished. (Sorry boys, you’ll have to think of something else).

• It’s forecasted to be eighty degrees and above everyday of the week.

• Your house becomes a poaching chamber.

• The fire pit gets cleaned out.

• Mommy breaks out the barbecue to renew some smokin grillin skillz.

• Evenings in the hammock, enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze becomes a ritual.

• You end up with tons of boysenberries.

When all of these things begin to occur, there’s only one conclusion to come to: Its summer time.

Summer is a time of relaxation. School is over for a couple months, every evening is beautiful, the fresh produce is great, and you can’t disagree with me with this one, some of the best dishes you have all year are during the summer. Come on now, you can’t disagree with me there. If you do, you’re leaving me a comment to enlighten me for any legitimate reasons why not.

Did you notice the last thing I listed? That may not pertain to you, but it does to me. Every year, our freezer becomes filled with bags, BAGS, of boysenberries.

If you want a smoothie, bust out some frozen berries, yogurt, and honey. Frosty cool goodness for the soul.

Or if you want a touch of flavor in your rice chex mix, slip on the slippers and pick a few off the vine.

What about pie? My mom and I were picking berries and apricots the other day. As we were heading back for the house she practically gave me a heart attack. No lie. My mother, Angie, mentioned making a pie. My mom! A pie!

You know when your brain isn’t familiar with something; it takes a few moments for your brain to process what ever it is? That’s what happened to me. I promise you. Even ask my mom... She saw me stop for a moment and the puzzled look on my face. AND today, she decided she wants to make a boysenberry cobbler! I, am, sooo extremely proud of her.

She said I could whip something up of my own. Bingo, my dear friend. I had a recipe for boysenberry tulips in the works. Is this great or what? Oh, ha, I know it is buddy.

You may be thinking “Tulips? Did she just say tulips?” Yes, indeed I did.

Have you ever been to the store, (well of course you have,) and seen a scrumptious little treat called an “Apple Blossom,” or a “Berry Blossom”? Very tasty. But, oh so glutenized. And dairyenized when you make it al-a-mode. Omgness, THAT is DEFINITELY how you do it. I will teach you the oh so magnificent ways of melty vanilla ice cream on top of hot fruit filled pastries.

There are two reasons why I’m calling them Tulips instead of Blossoms. One, I don’t want someone to come along one day and try to sue me for using their name, “Blossoms.” I could be over reacting. Two, it’s an opportunity to create something with a different visual presentation. How many pastries have you seen that resemble tulips? Point made.

Well, guess what?  As you can see, they didn't turn out to be tulips at all.  They're more what you would call a blob of pastry.  And one pretty pocket pastry sorta...thing.  But! I made it al-a-mode like I said I would.  But I'm not sharing it with you.  Sorry.  Well, actually I'm not sorry, because the recipe needs to be perfected.  I'm not too happy with the flour combo.  I'm not going to share anything that I feel wouldn't be approved by your taste buds.  That's just how I roll.

I had an awesome weekend though!
Day One, aka Friday:  Ultimate little person number one in my life, my sister, promoted from middle school!  Sniffle sniffle...so proud of her :').

Day Two: I drove my mom up to Chula Vista and we survived.  That was a joke.  I'm not a bad driver...at least I hope not.  Hey!  I'm getting my license on the sixth so that should tell you something! ;-)  I earned a little mula that night, babysitting.  Those kids are just so funny.  The oldest decided she wanted to make cookies.  Good ol' Betty Crocker.  Choices?  Chocochip and Peanut butter.  The youngest, decided he wanted to help.  They chose to combine the batters.  Peanut butter Chocochip cookies.  Not too shabby of an idea...  The youngest, who is EIGHT, "taste test" the batter and says, " Mmm delightful!"  I start to laugh and his response is, "What?  You've gotta let a man enjoy his cookies!"  Omg, those kids, I promise you, are a crack up!

Day Three: I drove my entire family up to Chula Vista.  And yes, we all lived...for the second time.  My uncle's girlfriend, as of yesterday it has been announced that she is his finance, taught me how to make Chile Rellenos.  I absolutely love her!  I'm happy for both of them <3.  Don't get mad at me!  Yes, forgot my camera AGAIN.  My relleno was dairy free.  My aunt hooked me up with Daiya.  This stuff is amazing.  The flavor and texture?  Up and out the roof.  So good.

Banana Bread

There's no denying Banana Bread is a classic.

Its one of the first things your mommy teaches you how to make in the kitchen.

A friend of mine has a picture of her daughter when she was around four or five years old.

 The mother was in her chef's coat and her daughter was helping her make something.  Her daughter was at the counter, standing on a stool, wearing an apron, a shirt, and her panties.  Its one of the cutest pictures I've ever seen.

Not to mention, it makes the perfect afternoon snack. 

Its those simple things in life that make it enjoyable.  Banana Bread is one of those things that you don't consider to be an essential.  But when you can't eat it all of a sudden, you realize you miss those simple things, such as Banana Bread. 

In other words, its a comfort food.  We all need comfort food. 

This is the first recipes I successfully converted.  The recipe is simple, like Banana Bread, but scrumptious.  I like that word, "scrumptious" :-). 

I found the recipe here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/old-fashioned-banana-bread.  If you do use the orginal recipe, I suggest you ditch the powdered sugar, it just simply doesn't need it.  And I would add a tbsp of vanilla extract.

GF DF Banana Bread 

-1 1/4 cup Bob's Redmill All-purpose
-3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
-1 tsp Baking Soda
-1/4 tsp Salt (about)
-2 large Eggs (lightly beated)
-1/2 cup Canola Oil
-1 cup White Sugar
-1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
-2 large overly ripe Bananas (mashed)

Preheat oven 350F.  Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt.  In a seperate bowl combine eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla extract,  and the mashed banana's.  Slowly add to dry mixure.  Pour into a 9*5 inch loaf pan.  Bake for 50min or until inserted knife comes out clean.  Or into a 8*8 inch ceramic pan for about 25mins or until golden brown.

A Trip to the South

You, my dear friend, have no idea...of how long...I've been craving soul food.  Really.  You have no idea. 

Omg, just the words themselves: "ribs," "catfish," "cornbread," "greens," "mac n' cheese," "peach cobbler," "sweet potato pie." Ah!  Shier torture!  But, alas, its happening.  Finally! 

My mother has agreed.  I'm so happy! 

So tonight for dinner we're having fried catfish, cornbread, beet greens, and sweet potato pie. 

I'm in charge of the cornbread and sweet potato pie.  Haven't attempted either yet.  HOPEFULLY it'll turn out.  My resources are limited at the moment, so I'll be using Trader Joe's GF Pancake Mix.  For the cornbread and  the pie crust.

After reading that you probably just thought of something along the lines of, "Oh..."  And my response to that is, "Yeah...I know."  If it doesn't turn out I'm going to go by Julia Child's words, "No apologies!  No excuses!"

What can I say?  I will have tried my best.  And besides, you can't make discoveries without experimenting.  Am I not correct...?

                        Fortunately enough for me, the cornbread was delish! 
This is the original: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/golden-sweet-cornbread/detail.aspx.  Here's my version...my family really, really liked it :-).  *If you use the pancake mix don't add xanthan gum. 

GF DF Sweet Cornbread

-1 cup GF Pancake Mix
-1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
-2/3 cup White Sugar
-1 tsp Salt
-3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
-1 Egg
-1 cup Almond Milk
-1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

Preheat oven 400F.  Combine GF mix, cornmeal, sugar, and baking powder.  In a separate bowl combine the egg, almond milk, and vegetable oil.  Combine oil mixture with cornmeal mixture.  Pour into a 8*8 square inch pan.  Bake 20-25 mins.

Now for the pie...

 I learned something new today and perhaps humbled a little. I hear how it’s such a challenge to make a good GF pie crust. I basically thought to myself “what’s so hard about it? It’s like anything else.”

Wrong. When I made a tart crust for a quiche I had used Bob’s Redmill, which acts like wheat four when it comes to pie dough.

For this particular pie I wanted something that would carry more of a buttery flavor. Bean flours don’t. So I thought I would use the pancake mix from Trader Joe’s...because that's all I had. Ha.

1) Different flours react differently. That should have been a no brainer for me.

2) You need to check the ingredients of any prepackaged GF flour mix. Not just for xanthan gum but for baking soda and salt too.

But everything turned out! I would have to say that this pie has a nice combo of a smooth yet powerful filling, resting on top of a fluffy and very light crust. Yuuummmm!!!

I have to be honest with you guys. And some of you may hate me for it, but I must confess. I do not like Martha Stewart. I’m sorry, I just don’t! There’s just something about her I just don’t like…

But her recipes are the BOM! One day, my mom wanted a recipe for a quick Chili con Carne. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. I suggested Martha’s web. She didn’t think she would find anything but went anyways. And lo and behold, bam, there it was: “Quick Chili con Carne.” When in doubt, Martha Stewart will figure it out.

Not crazy about her but you gota hand it to the woman, she’s got this whole foodie network thing figured out. You may think, “Well, yeeeah duuhh…She’s Martha Stewart...” I have no comment in response to that. I mention Martha because we’re going to be using one of her recipes for Sweet Potato Pie :-) 





http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pie But I’m here to share a GF DF version with you. Just an FYI moment: My pie crust is completely different from hers. Good Stuff.

GF DF Sweet Potato Pie

Crust

-1 ½ cup GF All-purposed Flour (use something with neutral flavors) ***
-1/2 tsp xanthan gum
-1/4 cup sugar
-9 tbsp Earth Balance (cold)
-2 Egg Yolks
-2 tbsp Almond Milk

Filling

-2 large Sweet Potatoes (or canned in light syrup 29oz.)
-1/2 cup Earth Balance room temp
-2 Eggs
-1/2 tsp Allspice
-1 tsp ground Cinnamon
-1/2 freshly ground Nutmeg
-2 tsp Vanilla Extract
-juice of half a Lemon

Preheat oven to 375. In a food processor combine flour and sugar until blended. Add butter and blend until it becomes a coarse consistency. Add yolks, process for 30 seconds and then add milk. Process until it just becomes smooth. Spread into a 9 inch pie pan. Poke with fork to allow venting. Bake until the pie shell is firm. Approximately 20 min. or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

If you actually bought the whole, raw sweet potato I wouldn’t waste my time with the entire steaming process. Just zap them in the microwave. Once cooked or from the can, in a mixer beat until they’re well mashed and the stringy fibers have wrapped around the attachment. Clean attachment. On low speed add the butter until combined and slightly cooled. Slowly add sugar. Once combined add spices, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Pour into crust and bake for 45-50 min. or until the center has set.

***If you use the Trader Joe’s Pancake Mix don’t add xanathan gum. It already has it.

Can you do me a favor?

You know what I feel like I’m lacking? Inspiration. If feel like this has all been done before. Well, I know it has all been done before. I feel like I’m lacking ummff. I’m in the kitchen all the time but I don’t feel challenged.


Could you do me a favor? Please :-). Challenge me. Send me pictures of things that you want to see created. Tell me things that you want to be made. Really, anything, please. I don’t just bake. I cook too. If you want soul food, I can hook you up with some cornbread and ribs. French? I’ll whip up some ratatouille. Italian, etc. I could go on and on.

Actually…soul food doesn’t sound too bad… As a matter of fact, I’ve been hankerin for some fried catfish, collard greens and sweet potato pie. Yum :-).

I think what my problem is, is that I don’t know what to make. To a certain extent I do, or otherwise I wouldn’t be here. But I want to get out of the norm. I need some inspiration.

So all of you who know me or read this blog, please let me know you’re out there. My creative food artistic ability is now resting within your hands. No pressure ;-).