The Holistic Chef

The latest birthday cake

2011-10-14T11:30:00.001-04:00

My girlfriend just recently celebrated her birthday. I will spare her the public announcement of how many years. Although, she is the first to announce her age to anyone, anywhere, much to MY public embarrassment. And I quickly shy away lest people figure out that I am just a few years behind her!

This is the cake I made her last year...

Those flowers were store bought. This year I wanted to do something a little different and more handmade. I had some free time the day before her party so I decided to make my own decorations. I looked through some of the cake books I have at home including "pretty party cakes" to get some ideas. This cake caught my eye and ended up inspiring the flowers I made.

I knew I wanted to make the flowers really stand out so I planned to ganache the cake. I thought pale pink flowers would look great with a dark, chocolate brown background. I made up some royal icing, tinted it with a tiny bit of pink, picked a piping tip and got started.

Working on flowers like these really are a labor of love as they are made one at a time. My icing was just a little thin so as I piped each flower I had to put the piping bag down, pick up a bamboo stick and make slight corrections to each flower. Or perhaps I didn't "have" to do that, but I wanted every flower to be perfect. They would eventually look like this on the cake...

I just love how they look on the chocolate. The cake inside is my chocolate, gluten free cake that my friend just happens to love. Recipe is posted here.

And one more glamour shot...

I had so much royal icing left that I continued to make flowers until I ran out. I can always use them for future projects as they keep really well. These ones are white and a little smaller. So cute.

The Royal Icing recipe I used is out of the book "The Icing on the Cake".

2 egg whites
3 cups powdered sugar

1. Whip egg whites with an electric mixer
2. As they start to frost and turn white, add powdered sugar
3. Whip for 5 to 10 minutes, until stiff peaks form.

I found that my icing never formed really "stiff" peaks and I eventually just went ahead and started using it. My flowers were a little harder to make as their shape continued to move and relax as I piped them. I am still really happy with the result, but next time I will try out a different recipe.

This Week's CSA Box

2011-10-13T09:30:00.083-04:00

I have been getting a weekly CSA box for almost 2 months now and I am seriously addicted. I love having the opportunity to get fruit from close by and it helps me stay in touch with what is really in season here in California. The fruit I get each week is far superior than anything I have bought at the grocery store. A great benefit to getting the box is that I find myself eating fruit way more often than I ever did before. And even better, whenever I cut up a pear, my fiance' finds his way over and snags a few pieces too, (that guy never eats fruit).

I pick up my box at a house a few miles from my home which is super convenient. There are usually at least 8 other boxes there with mine, I would love to see it grow to more.

As soon as I get my box home I open it up to see what I have. This box included 2 kinds of pears, Warren and Hosui, and Fuji apples. The Warren Pears are sweet and slightly crunchy and not at all mealy which is how I used to think pears were. The smaller Hosui pears have more crunch, almost like an apple, and are less sweet.

This might be too much of one kind of fruit for some people. I haven't had a problem with anything going bad yet and these pears are just THAT good. Back when I was getting boxes full of peaches, I sliced many of them up and put them in the freezer to use in smoothies. I can do the same thing with the apples and pears and use them later for muffins. I got a great pointer from Jeff at the farm about how to know when a pear is ripe. The skin right around the stem will get slightly wrinkly. So even if the rest of the pear is nice and firm, those wrinkles mean it is ready to eat.

The best way I used my pears this week was to make a fruity red Sangria. My favorite Sangria is made with red wine, although you can make it with white or a rose'. This is not the time to use an expensive wine. You are just going to add sugar and fruit and we are not looking for the best vintage. The $4.99 bottles at Trader Joe's are perfect. Here is my recipe.

2 bottles dry, red wine
1/2 cup sugar, or slightly more if you like it a little sweeter
1 small apple, chopped small
1 nectarine, chopped small
1 large pear, chopped small
1 orange
1/2 cup sugar, or slightly more if you like a sweeter wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup triple sec, grand marnier or a fruit brandy

Pour wine into large pitcher. Add 1/2 cup sugar and stir until dissolved. Add chopped apple, nectarine and pear. Cut 4 thin slices from the orange, and add to pitcher. Take the remaining orange and squeeze juice into the pitcher. Discard. Add cinnamon stick and triple sec. Stir again.

Place pitcher in refrigerator overnight so all the flavors can fully develop. Your sangria is going to taste much better the next day after the fruit has had time to soak. If you want to add more sugar or anything else at this point go ahead.

Pour into glasses with some ice and enjoy!

The Cake Maker

2011-10-12T11:00:00.008-04:00

Creating birthday cakes for friends and family is becoming a trend for me. I was just looking through pictures on my laptop and realized just how many I have done over the last few years. When I was younger, my Mom and I always made cakes from scratch for birthdays and special occasions. They weren't always the prettiest cakes, but they were made with love. I can remember a certain Roland Electric Piano my Mom made for my 12th birthday. Maybe the cake gene has been laying dormant all these years.

The first elaborate cake I was asked to do was the "Race Car" cake for my friend's five year old son. I blogged about it here. I am not a big fan of fondant and have never used it even though you can create the most amazing cakes with it. I prefer to stick to simpler ingredients. I discovered I could make a "fun" cake pretty easily as long as I had some time to set aside and lots of online inspiration to get me started. The following summer that little boy's sister asked for a "Castle Cake" which led me to create this:

And then this year that same little girl asked for a "castle" cake again, but this time it had to be The Little Mermaid's castle. I was stumped for a long time as to how to pull this off, and again went to the Internet to look for pictures of what other people have done just so I could find a starting point. I ended up with this as my final creation...

I haven't blogged this cake yet as honestly, I am not entirely satisfied with how it came out. I love the details, and there were a lot of details, like these molded chocolate starfish, and the green seaweed that had to be made the day ahead...

I think it is the overall color that I just don't like. The blue is way too fake blue. If I had to do it over, I would definitely work on that.

Both of those cakes were not my usual style, as I tend to stick to simple colors, straight lines. The cake below was my first cake after culinary school and the first time I played around with ganache. I found an amazing peanut butter chocolate cake by Smitten Kitchen, whose blog I still regularly check out. I continue to LOVE using ganache as a way to finish a cake.

And while we are on firsts, I made this cake for my fiance's parents' anniversary party. These were some of the first cake flowers I ever made and I really needed a lot more practice. They look more like an older, fading rose than the tight buds you would find at the store. I still like them.

Next up, the cake I just made for one of my best girlfriend's birthday.

To Do Lists

2011-10-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

I am a list maker. You can fit people into so many categories and List Makers vs Non is one of them. I don't know very many people who write them like I do, and I wonder how they keep everything together. Perhaps I love keeping lists because my memory isn't as good as it used to be. Or maybe I just have so many great ideas and plans and I don't want to chance forgetting them. (I think is has more to do with my failing memory).

I have used a series of mini notebooks for years now and just rotate them out as they get full. You could almost look at the old ones as a diary of sorts. Notes I made a year ago giving me a glimpse back into what was important to me at the time.

Top of my list right now is recipe testing and blogging. Two things that could go hand in hand. Ideally I would recipe test, take pictures along the way and then blog my creation. Easy, right? The first part has been going GREAT. Working on many recipes right now and enjoying lots of new foods. The blogging part, not so much. Still working on fitting writing into my schedule.

Some projects I have been working on lately include Sangria.....

Grilled cheese sandwiches with pears... this one is with brie...

And this one has bacon and white cheddar. Still working on getting the best picture.

Food may dominate most of my life, but I also have a huge "to do" list for my upcoming wedding. Good thing I actually like event planning, but still, this is overwhelming. I recently made progress in the area of flowers. I spent time with a florist browsing through over 10 albums full of other weddings she has done. I think this bouquet is pretty fabulous.....

And we have our location, a peaceful garden tucked into a quiet neighborhood close by. More on that another time. Now back to getting things done, like making today's grocery list.

What to do with all these peaches

2011-09-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

I recently joined a CSA and started receiving a box of fruit every week from a local farm. Last week my box included the peaches and nectarines above. This is so much better than getting fruit at my local grocery store as the fruit is so much fresher and seasonal. How the CSA works is that I sign up with a farm like Frog Hollow and then pick a local site near me where I want to pick up my shipment each week. I go there every Wednesday and a beautiful box is waiting for me.

There is an average of 14 pieces of fruit in each box. There are only 2 of us in my household which means 2 pieces of fruit each per day. That's pretty good. But if we dont keep up with it I could end up with too much really ripe fruit at once and then I need to do something with all of it so it doesnt go to waste.

I cut up some of the fruit and froze it for smoothies which we have been enjoying almost every morning. Then I got to work testing out some gluten free recipes I have been meaning to try. Since I had so many peaches I thought a pie and a cobbler would be perfect. The peaches were so beautiful once peeled and sliced. I am in awe of their bright orange color and red accents.

Baking with gluten free flours can be tricky and hard to adapt from a regular wheat recipe. I have many GF cookbooks at home and looked through them to see if any recipes popped out. There is a Traditional Pie Crust recipe in Annalise's book "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" that looked good. I didnt follow her recipe exactly but the main parts stayed the same. I did substitute earth balance instead of butter as I have a dairy allergy.

Once the crust was made and parbaked for 10 minutes, it looked like any other pie crust. I prepped the peaches with some arrowroot, a little orange juice and just a sprinkle of brown sugar as the peaches were already so sweet. Then I lined them in the pie crust as neatly as possible and put it in the oven.

The pie looked great although next time I want to get that glossy look instead of the muted color I got from the arrowroot. And the crust was good, but not as good as I think it could be. So I will try again. If you want the recipe I used just check out Annalise's book. I will post my final recipe once I do a little more testing. I just hope I have enough peaches!

Peaches & Tango..... a Dinner in the Orchard

2011-08-01T17:13:00.169-04:00

Peaches & Tango was an event created by the amazing folks at Frog Hollow Farm. This dinner was designed so that guests could dine surrounded by fruit trees while raising money for The Edible Schoolyard.

I was lucky enough to become friends with the farm before this event came to fruition and I happily jumped on board to help. My role for this farm to table event was to help source ingredients, be one of the Chefs for the evening as well as get the kitchen ready for the guest Chef, Richard Blais. I snapped this picture earlier in the day while Farmer Al was tasting the pork belly that would be part of the night's dinner. He was extremely pleased.

Here is how the field looked earlier in the day.

The white tent below would turn into an outdoor kitchen set up near the tables so guests could watch the chefs create each dish as the evening went on. And see those large silver tanks off to the left?

Yeah, those are liquid nitrogen.

Late in the afternoon I snuck out to the orchard again to see how the set up was going and was amazed at the transformation.

We did a lot of prep during the day and part of that included creating horseradish pearls that would go on top of the oysters. This meant dropping a horseradish cream into a bucket of liquid nitrogen, which instantly froze it into drops.

We had never worked with liquid nitrogen before but Amy jumped right in and got it going.

As the sun began to set, the guests started to arrive and really brought the dinner to life. The evening started with passed hors d'oeuvres of Hog Island Oysters, Pimento Cheese Sandwiches and Beet tar tare.

Then the guests sat down, the Tango started to play and we moved into the heart of the menu.

Here are the courses that were served:

Course One - Chilled Hiramasa with fried chicken skin, smoked aioli and pickled radishes

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

Course Two - Cutlet of Petrale with cherry tomato and raisin butter

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

Course Three - Grilled Pork Belly with cauliflower and peaches

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

And then for dessert, we made a Frog Hollow plum ice cream scooped into cones by Ici in Berkeley.

I heard from so many people about how great the dinner was and how much they enjoyed being at the farm by candlelight.

And everyone enjoyed meeting Chef Richard Blais. He was truly gracious with every request for a picture and questions about his time on Top Chef. He was a pleasure to work with. And even at the end of a very long day when we all were so tired, he stopped for a picture with me as well.

I am really looking forward to the next event, who knows, it could be Pears & Salsa or Olives & Mambo. Whatever it is, I want to be there.

A Drive Out to the Farm

2011-07-22T10:44:00.042-04:00

My friend Michelle belongs to a couple CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) and occasionally shares her weekly bounty with me. Through her I was introduced to the folks at Frog Hollow Farm which is a certified organic 133-acre farm in Brentwood, California. She receives a box from them every week full of fruit that was just recently picked. By eating this fresh and seasonal fruit I have really come to understand just how superior it is to eating fruit purchased at the grocery store that may have been picked weeks ago, while it was unripe.

Michelle and I took a drive out to the farm to see it in person and hang out with Jeff Bordes, the Director of Sales and Marketing. During our visit we got a tour through the orchard by Farmer Al where we learned about their over 20 varieties of peaches, cherries, nectarines, apricots, pluots and pears. I was so impressed by Farmer Al's passion for his trees which he planted himself over 30 years ago, that I now appreciate their fruit even more.

We also heard about their plans for the "Dinner in the Orchard" which Jeff was very excited about and we visited the spot where it would be. He described their vision to transform part of the orchard into an area to welcome guests and create an event where they could dine amongst the fruit trees.

This open field above is used to sun-dry fruit which gets packaged and sold. The fresh fruit is spread out wood planks and left out in the sun to naturally dry locking in all the flavor. Jeff knew this would make a perfect spot for the event. Farmer Al always imagined having live tango music at the farm and thus "Peaches & Tango" was created.

I was on board to help out with this event from the first time I was asked, and then I found out they were asking Top Chef winner, Richard Blais to head up the menu. Imagine my excitement to work with such a talented and well-known Chef. Blais was my pick to win when I first saw him in Season 4. I was so happy to see him come back in Season 8 and win the All-Stars! And now I was about to work with him to bring this Farm to Table event into creation.

The menu was designed "around Frog Hollow Farm’s legendary peaches along with seasonal offerings from our other favorite local farms and ranches. This unique dining experience highlights the talents of Chef Richard Blais while fostering a connection to organic, sustainable foods." Chef Blais created a menu using local ingredients like oysters from Hog Island, chicken from Soul Food Farms and Peaches from Frog Hollow.

And what would the dinner be without a little flashy liquid nitrogen, which Blais frequently used on Top Chef. Imagine the surprise to everyone on the farm when these huge tanks arrived.

I will show you highlights from the event in my next post including the amazing menu.

Cooking for a Living

2011-06-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

Some jobs are just payment in themselves. I am thankful every day (well, almost) that I get to play with food for a living and feed those that I love. I have had some very interesting jobs since I left the corporate world to become a Chef, full of variety and new challenges. One of my favorites has been at Hidden Villa, in the Los Altos Hills. I have cooked there for the last three summers, feeding over 150 campers and staff every day during the summer camp program.

Back in October 2010 I got to go back to the farm to cook for a week-long retreat. Since it was only going to be me and an assistant in the kitchen we were given a cabin to stay in for the week so that we could be close by during those long 14-hour days. This was the view out our door.

A typical breakfast of fruits, yogurt, granola and bagels are a favorite up on the farm.

Dinner awaits while the group comes together outside to reflect and prepare for their evening meal.

For one of the lunches we made pizza dough and took it down to the CSA farm where the participants got to make their own pizzas.

There is an outdoor brick oven there where you can "bake" (or seriously fry/burn your food if it gets too hot) many foods like pizza. Notice the fire extinguisher close by.

Many evenings were spent by the fire while the group sang and played music. I made sure they had some evening snacks like popcorn and smores.

For the last morning, I recruited my fiance to be the grill man and make everyone fresh pancakes.

While I was there I also got to visit some new piglets that were just born a few weeks prior.

Once this summer is over at Summer Camp, I will be moving on to other projects just like the rest of the migratory camp staff. Looking forward to what that brings for me.

San Francisco Food Blogger Bake Sale

2011-05-09T20:09:00.000-04:00

The Bake Sale is this weekend! Come stop by 18 Reasons or Kiehl's to sample and purchase baked goods from local bloggers. I will be helping out at the Kiehl's location on Fillmore Street from 3pm to 4pm.

Here is a snippet from the Official Press Release:

"Foodies from around the Bay Area are invited to attend the second annual National Food Bloggers Bake Sale on May 14th from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. at two locations. 18 Reasons has generously donated the use of their space on Guerrero and 18th Street as well as Kiehl’s over in the Pacific Heights at 2360 Fillmore Street. Food bloggers from all over the city will feature and sell their favorite baked goods from their blogs to benefit national non-profit Share our Strength. Baked goods will include an assortment of baked goods such as Blueberry hand pies, macaron pops, cinnamon oreos, mochi, salted caramels, gluten free lemon poppyseed loaves, mango mousse cake and whoopee pies.

Organized by Gaby Dalkin of WhatsGabyCooking.com, The National Food Bloggers Bake Sale features food bloggers from across the U.S., uniting to support the cause by holding bake sales in their states on the same day. Readers will have the opportunity to taste baked goods from favorite food blogs at bake sale locations. For other National Food Bloggers Bake Sale locations, visit WhatsGabyCooking.com/bake-sale."

I will be donating my Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread, a couple Chocolate 2 layer Cakes and Decorated Sugar Cookies. Come help support us!

Ode to the Ronco Rotisserie

2011-04-25T19:14:00.000-04:00

A few years ago my fiance' asked for a Rotisserie for Christmas. Everyone thought he was crazy. I wasn't even sure where he came up with the idea, but figured it was his gift, I didn't care.

As soon as we roasted our first whole chicken, I was hooked. I had no idea how easy it was to use a rotisserie and how AMAZING the chicken tasted. It is naturally a gluten free and low fat method of cooking. The chicken constantly rotates as it cooks which allows for the chicken's own juices and fat to literally baste itself while it roasts.

And I already mentioned how easy it is to use. Once you purchase the chicken, clean and tie it up, the 1 hour cooking time is hassle free. You can go do other things while your dinner is cooking.

So here is how it starts.

I usually purchase a 2.5 to 3 pound chicken, rinse and remove any giblets that may be in the cavity. Get the rotisserie prongs ready and my butchers twine. With the prongs sitting upright, slide the chicken down letting the prongs pass through the open cavity and piercing the chicken until they pop out the top as seen below.

Then place the chicken into the rotisserie. This is usually when I secure the chicken with the twine because I can get a better sense of how much it needs to be tied so that it doesn't flop around as the wheels turn.

My Ronco Rotisserie has cook time guidelines on the side which makes cooking times easy to figure out if you are not sure.

So once the chicken is secured, set the timer and let it go. The chicken will eventually look like this.

And then it will look like this... YUM!

Once my family has devoured the chicken I save all the bones to make chicken stock. I will be posting how I make chicken and vegetable stock next.

San Francisco's Food Blogger Bake Sale

2011-04-11T09:51:00.000-04:00

I am really excited to participate in this year's Food Blogger Bake Sale. It being held Saturday, May 14 from 10am to 6pm at the 18 Reasons building, 3674 18th St, San Francisco. This is an event where local food bloggers bake their favorite recipes, come together for a day and make money for a really good cause. All the money raised from the bake sale will be going to "Share Our Strength", a group dedicated to ending childhood hunger.

To see which food bloggers in the San Francisco area have signed up to help, check out the Bake Sale home page. I will be there with a couple gluten free chocolate layer cakes, mini zucchini breads (also gluten free) and some hand painted sugar cookies.

Here is some info from the website: "The 2nd annual National Food Bloggers Bake Sale, will be held on May 14th 2011 from 10am to 6pm. Organized and spearheaded by Gaby Dalkin of What’s Gaby Cooking, food bloggers from across the US will unite to help end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their cities. Fans and readers will have an opportunity to taste the baked goods from their favorite food blogs as well as support a great cause."

If you are not in the San Francisco Bay Area, click here to find a Bake Sale happening near you.

Chocolate Truffles (dairy free)

2011-04-09T10:00:00.080-04:00

A friend of mine makes amazing chocolate truffles. Whenever they are around, I try to limit myself because they contain dairy, which I am definitely allergic to. I have been thinking about how to make a rich and creamy truffle without dairy and found this recipe at Nourished Kitchen. I love that the recipe contains coconut milk and the truffles don't have to be formed into perfect little balls. These are more rustic. I had all the ingredients so I decided to give this recipe a try. (See the link above for all the ingredients and their amounts).

The recipe from Nourished starts with 10 oz of 85% dark chocolate. I wanted to try it for the first time with a slightly less dark chocolate and I really like Scharffen Berger's 70%. So first, I chopped up the chocolate.

Then placed all the chocolate pieces in a large glass bowl, added the spices... orange zest, cinnamon, chipotle powder, vanilla bean and sea salt.

Heated the coconut milk and oil together on the stove.

Then poured the milk over the chocolate, and stirred. I really didn't think all the chocolate was going to melt and I was ready to make a double boiler, but I was patient and kept stirring.

Eventually, it all melted and became smooth and glossy.

The recipe from Nourished instructs to put the melted chocolate mixture on a plate lined with parchment and try to form into a log. I thought my mixture was too thin to pour onto a plate so I used a bowl instead.

Then I placed the bowl in the fridge to cool and harden.

The Nourished recipe says to leave the chocolate in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours. I left mine overnight, although it was ready to cut after about 6 to 8 hours. I then took the chocolate brick off the parchment and placed it on a cutting board. It was easy to cut the chocolate into squares. In fact I had a hard time making mine look as imperfect as the ones in her original blog pictures. Mine came out as more regular squares. They looked really nice though. I coated some of them in cocoa powder and some in palm sugar. I don't have any good pictures of the finished product, but I plan to make these again. Next time I want to leave out the chipotle powder. While I think this is a great flavor combination with the orange and cinnamon, I just don't like the chipotle aftertaste with my chocolate. I want a pure chocolate only experience when I eat truffles.

I highly recommend this recipe for any of you that love chocolate, coconut milk and a "Mexican" chocolate type flavor.

Princess Castle Cake ... anything for the birthday girl

2011-04-06T11:00:00.080-04:00

Last Spring, my girlfriend began planning her daughter's 4th birthday. When asked what she wanted for her cake, she replied "a Princess Cake!" My girlfriend then called me up asking if I would be willing to create a cake for the birthday party. Of course I replied yes, and immediately got online and typed "princess party cake" into my Google search. I was surprised to find so many cakes other people had made in the theme of princess and prince, and primarily in the shape of a castle. I found so many pictures of castle cakes online that I felt confident I could create something of my own.

I printed out the pictures of the cakes I liked the most and made notes on what tips the bakers mentioned on their sites that helped to make their cake successful. What better way to tackle something new than to learn from other people's mistakes (thank you internet!). Then I went over to my friend's house to start looking through her edible decorating stash. She had these wonderful gems from fancyflours.com

After many trips to local gourmet candy stores for inspiration, I got started on getting all my supplies together....

I had all kinds of plans for this cake like a draw bridge made with cookies and licorice rope, flowers and vines and painted windows. Some of those ideas were abandoned because they were too complicated, or I found something better as I went through the creation process.

First, I began by creating the cake which made up the main castle building. (I have to admit using boxed cake mix as I just didn't have time to also get all the ingredients together. Plus it was a really good, organic cake mix with sprinkles inside!) I made 4 layers of cake and then cut them down to the size I wanted, frosted and stacked them all together.

Then I created the castle towers or turrets from ice cream cones. Those were also covered in frosting to help them stick together.

I used regular cake cones for the base and then sugar cones on top. The sugar cones were covered in icing and rolled in pink sugar. When turned upside down they fit perfectly into the opening of the cake cones.

Once I had the base of the cake done I started on the embellishments. I put the cake on a large piece of cardboard so I could make a moat around the base.

The moat was made with blue gel icing. It has a few gummy sharks to guard the castle from invasion. The edge of the moat was made with chocolate covered raisins. And see those blue and green jewels in the side of the cake? I loved those so much that they took the place of drawing on windows.

And here is the completed cake at the party, with two Royal Knights standing guard.

I have already heard that the birthday girl who will be turning 5 this year wants something Ariel themed (The Little Mermaid). I started coming up with ideas of an underwater theme with mermaids and fish. Then I heard she wants another castle, Ariel's castle. I may have set the bar too high for myself on this one. Not sure how I can outdo this castle, especially having to recreate Ariel's underwater castle. We will see.....

Oh, and here is the cake after we completely devoured it.

An Afternoon Tea

2011-04-05T20:44:00.000-04:00

It feels like I have been working on creating this "Mommy and Me" Tea Party for months now. The idea came from a friend who is part of a local parents club. She wanted to create a fun event for the parents and their children to do together and after a little brainstorming, the Tea Party was born.

I had almost no equipment to set up an elegant English tea, so I started searching the best place to find discarded treasures, the Goodwill. I visited every Goodwill up and down the Peninsula hoping to discover full sets of dainty tea cups, saucers and tea pots, and to my surprise, I did! I am sure all of these lovely tea cups were treasured by their past owners and now they would be put to good use again. I am not sure which part of this whole process I enjoyed more, creating the food, or putting the table settings together.

We reserved the fireside room at the Lucie Stern Community Center, which was the perfect location, complete with a beautiful garden area right outside.

Once each table was set up, the room was transformed into a lovely place for an afternoon tea.

The menu for the afternoon:

Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches

Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches

Cookies: Raspberry Thumbprint, Mini Chocolate Chip, Early Grey and Orange Tea Biscuits

Strawberry Lemonade (for the non-tea drinkers)

Earl Grey Tea

Cream

Sugar

Once our guests arrived, the party was complete. The Tea Party provided a fun atmosphere for parents and children to drink from "adult" tea cups while practicing their manners, saying "please" and "thank you" while also enjoying tea sandwiches and cookies. It was really nice to walk out into the room and see so many smiling faces.

During the Tea Party, we had a visit from a representative from Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, CA. He brought fresh fruit and pastries to share with our guests. Frog Hollow has a CSA that provides fresh, locally grown fruit to all of the Bay Area.

They are famously known for their homemade conserves and baked goods made with fruits from the farm.

As a parting gift, all of the guests left with a decorated sugar cookie that I hand painted over the few days preceding the party.

Here is what they looked like before being bagged.

I definitely plan to do this again, possibly for smaller groups in their homes. An Afternoon Tea Party would make a great birthday party or bridal shower. Next time I might even be able to include more dress up items like hats and white gloves. Ta ta for now!

Carrot Cake made Gluten Free!

2011-02-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in another post how I have been thinking about carrot cake a lot lately. It just happens to be my fiance's favorite kind of cake as well. It doesnt make an appearance in our house very often as I have only made it with regular flour (which means I cant eat it)... until now! I pulled out a cake recipe from my culinary school days and decided that was a great place to start with testing out a conversion to gluten free flours. I am happy to report that after one or two trys, it is perfect. So now I am sharing the recipe with you.

INGREDIENTS:

Dry

1 1/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup potato starch

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

2 1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp cardamom

Wet

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups canola or grapeseed oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups finely shredded carrot, packed

1/2 cup yellow/golden raisins

PROCEDURE:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two 8" cake pans with cooking spray and line with parchment. Or place 12 muffin cups into muffin tin.

Measure out all dry ingredients into a medium size bowl and wisk to mix. Set aside.

Place all of the wet ingredients except the carrot and raisins in a separate larger bowl and using a handmixer or stand mixer, beat on a low to medium setting until well incorporated.

Add the dry mix to the wet and beat again until the batter just comes together.

Add carrot and raisins and stir to mix with a rubber spatula.

Pour batter into cake pans or muffin cups and bake for 35 minutes. Cupcakes reduce time to 20 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Did you say Carrot Cake?

2011-01-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

I have been hearing a lot of talk about carrot cake lately, and it has made me want some, badly. All I need is to hear a mention of a food once, and it gets me thinking about it, especially if it is something I havent had in awhile. Then if another person mentions that food too, well, then I am on a mission to get some. That is just how strange cravings can be. So, I could either go out and try and find one at a store that is gluten free, or try to make it myself. I lean more towards making it myself because anything fresh is going to beat what is in the freezer section.

I remembered the carrot cake I made during culinary school being really good. I was gluten free back then, but still had to go along with the majority of the curiculum and make my cake with regular flour. I still have all my recipes from school so I decided that was a good place to start. I dug it out along with the picture I took of my creation (because I was just that organized and even then understood the value of capturing everything I made).

I took a look at the recipe and began my notes for conversion. The original recipe called for 3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour. I created a blend of brown rice, potato, tapioca and sorghum flours to equal 3 cups including a tsp or two of xantham gum (for better binding). Then I left everything else in the recipe the same. I love how the school's recipe suggests coconut oil or canola, so I used coconut. I just happened to have some, and I thought it would really complement everything else in the recipe.

40 minutes later and I had a beautiful set of carrot cupcakes. I found them to be a little crumbly so I will be making a second round with a few tweaks. I read recently that sweet rice flour helps to reduce the crumbliness of gluten free baked goods so I am thinking about adding that into my flour mix. I will post my recipe once I get out the kinks. This batch is definitely worthy of eating and sharing so I decided I should dress them up a bit. I didnt have any cream cheese in the house (I cant eat cheese either) so I put together a vegan buttercream made of spectrum vegetable shortening, earth balance margarine, powdered sugar and some vanilla. It actually tastes better than it sounds. Cream Cheese would have been perfect, but this frosting looked really nice too.

Then, they still needed a little something extra so I shredded some carrot and toasted it in the oven. I also toasted some coconut, added that to my toasted carrots and sprinkled the mixture over the cupcakes.

Perfect!

My Favorite Spice Shop

2010-09-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

If you do a lot of cooking at home it is likely that your spice cabinet is jammed packed like mine. Every couple months I rearrange some of the jars and put ones I havent been using towards the back and bring others to the front. Most of the time I have to move things around because I come home with a new jar (more like jars, plural) and have to find room for them.

My favorite place to get spices and herbs is Penzeys Spices in Menlo Park. I first heard of Penzeys when I used to go to my friend's house back in Pennsylvania. When we would cook together I would pull out this huge box of herbs and spices from her cabinet and go through all the bags and jars. Back then I had no idea of what they all were, or how to use them, but I was in awe of her collection. Then I moved to New York City to attend culinary school and found the Penzeys kiosk inside Grand Central Station. I felt like I had found Meca and went back frequently to build up my spice collection.

Penzeys is known for high quality and fresh products. They have whole and ground spices, herbs, blends, salts and liquid extracts. Each item has different size packages to choose from as well as a display jar that you can open and smell. This is the best part of going into the store. How do you know what it is going to taste like if you cant smell it?!

Their pre-made blends are really helpful if you want more depth in a dish, but are not sure which spices would go well together. They have so much more than just curry or taco mixes. There is a small town feel to this store even though they started in Milwaukee and have stores all over the country. I am thankful that out of only 2 stores that exist in California, that I happen to be less than 10 miles from this one.

"Love to cook - cook to love"

Mexican Cacao Smoothie... aka the best "healthy" chocolate shake ever

2010-09-19T14:00:00.006-04:00

I have been meaning to share this amazing smoothie with you for a very long time. It fits right in with my philosophy of cooking with whole, not fractured or processed foods as it features raw chocolate. I got this recipe from a friend and colleague who is a Health Practitioner back in DC. She introduced me to the wonderful world of the cacao bean.

This smoothie is chocolaty and delicious, but also gives me a lot of energy. If you get an afternoon slump, then this could be a fun way to give you a little boost instead of grabbing a candy bar or triple latte. Cacao beans or nibs are the bean that chocolate is made from, but still in its raw and whole nature. Cacao beans have been called brain food, a mood enhancer and are as old as the Aztecs.

This recipe is dairy and refined sugar free. It is quite flexible so you can substitute milks and sweeteners with what you have in the house. This recipe serves two, or one really big glass. It is best made in a Vitamix but another high powered blender will work.

Mexican Cacao Smoothie
(adapted from forkbytes.com, used by permission)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain hazelnut milk (almond, hemp or soy milk are ok, but hazelnut is best)

3 tablespoons cacao nibs

2 tablespoons agave nectar

pinch sea salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 medium frozen banana

10 ice cubes

Combine nut milk, cacao, agave, sea salt, vanilla, cinnamon and banana in a blender and process until completely smooth (I blend for 2 minutes to get the cacao as smooth as possible). Taste and adjust ingredients if you want it more sweet, or more cinnamon, etc. You get the idea. Add ice cubes and blend again until smooth and frosty (about 30 seconds). Pour into glasses and enjoy immediately.

*The one ingredient I left out of the picture above is the vanilla. There are always a couple bottles of vanilla extract in my house as I bake a lot and don't want to run out. Lately though, I have fallen in love with vanilla bean paste.

This paste is from Singing Dog and just recently showed up on the shelves at my local Whole Foods. It has really good flavor and a thick, gooey texture. It already has some sugar in it, so just be aware when you use it, but I haven't found that it is enough to change the sweetness of the products I have used it in.

I also just learned that Singing Dog vanilla extract (not pictured) is made with corn-based alcohol and has been certified safe for Celiacs. I have not really worried about the possible gluten from the alcohol in baking extracts, but this does make me love their products even more.

Black Bean Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

2010-09-16T15:05:00.000-04:00

I used to make this salad a lot, especially when I was cooking for vegetarians. It is full of protein for energy and healthy fat which helps to make you feel full and satiated. I love the combination of the beans, avocado and citrus. I make this salad at home and have it as a quick snack in the middle of the day.

Serve as a side dish on top a bed of lettuce or as a dip for tortilla chips. Increase the amount of jalapeno peppers if you favor it a little hotter. During the summer replace the canned corn with fresh grilled corn off the cob to give it a smokier, outdoor flavor.

Ingredients:
1 can (15-ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained
½ firm-ripe avocado, peeled, cut into small cubes
¼ red bell pepper, chopped
½ small red onion, small dice (about ¼ cup)
½ cup sweet yellow corn
1 small tomato, chopped
1 small jalapeno, minced
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped, more for garnish
1 tsp honey
½ tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Place beans, avocado, bell pepper, onion, corn, tomato and jalapeno in a large bowl.

2. In a small bowl mix lime juice, oil, cilantro, honey, salt and pepper with a whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour vinaigrette over the bean mixture and stir to mix. Taste and adjust the seasonings as desired. Top salad with extra cilantro leaves and let chill before serving.

The Black Bean Salad will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks. The avocado may brown if making the salad more than a day before eating so hold off on cutting up the avocado and add it on the day it is being served.

I have canned black beans here which are easy to use if you are short on time. If you have more time then using dried black beans are really nice and have better flavor since they are fresh. To use dried black beans, place 2 cups dried black (turtle) beans in a bowl big enough to handle the beans once they double in size. Cover with water about 4 inches above the level of the beans. Let beans soak for at least 8 hours, overnight is better. When you are ready to cook them, drain the soaking water and place beans in a pot. Pour in new water about 4 - 5 inches above the level of the beans. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Once the beans are boiling, turn down heat until beans are gently bouncing around in the water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Taste a couple to see if they are done, add more time if they are still hard. Drain, cool and enjoy!

When I cook beans from scratch I also add other ingredients to the pot depending on what kind of dish the beans will eventually go into. I always add chopped onion, bay leaf, couple garlic cloves and chopped tomatoes or a little tomato paste.

Enjoy!

Chewy Wonder Bars

2010-08-05T16:20:00.007-04:00

These bars are a wonderful and filling snack. They are naturally gluten, dairy, egg and soy free. I have made them with both Almond and Cashew Butter and love them equally. The seeds and nuts provide lots of protein and energy as you go about your busy day. All of these ingredients can be found at your local health food store or Whole Foods Market. I purchased the nuts, seeds and quinoa from the bulk bins. I used red Quinoa in this recipe which adds more color to the bars and I think has a slightly stronger flavor than the white quinoa when toasted.

The recipe orginally comes from a cookbook by Blossoming Lotus. I have tried to find the book online but I think the cover has changed since my copy. The original recipe was also raw where this version is baked.

Makes 1 sheet pan

Ingredients:
3 cups raw cashew butter or almond butter (1½ jars)
1 cup brown rice syrup
1 cup maple syrup
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 cup quinoa, toasted, red or white
1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1½ cups pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 cup pecans, toasted and then chopped
½ cup hemp seeds

Procedure:

Heat oven to 330 degrees. Oil a regular cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with a little olive or coconut oil. Can also spray pan with aerosol oil. If you have parchment paper, then line greased pan with parchment. The sheet pan should have sides to it. Do not use the flat cookie sheets.

Mix all wet ingredients in a large bowl. Add cinnamon and cardamom and mix well.

In a separate smaller bowl mix all of the dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well.

Place bar mixture into prepared pan and smooth with hand or a spatula.

The mix will be sticky. It helps to rub some oil onto your hand or spatula and then smooth out the batter. If you have any disposable rubber gloves around, those work even better!

Place pan into preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes. Rotate pan and bake for another 8 minutes. Batter will turn a dark golden brown and may bubble slightly. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Toasting Seeds and Nuts:
*To toast the seeds and nuts before making this recipe place each ingredient on a separate cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at 350o for 8 minutes or until the seed starts to turn golden brown. Let cool.

Toasting Quinoa
* First place the quinoa in a fine strainer and rinse under cold water. Drain and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350o for 8-10 minutes. Quinoa should be crunchy when eaten. Put a couple grains in your mouth and chew, if it doesn’t crunch a little, leave in the oven for 3 to 4 more minutes.

Serving Up Fresh Farm Food for the Campers at Hidden Villa

2010-08-01T08:11:00.002-04:00

How would you describe your ideal working environment? Would it be in an office or out on the street, in a big city or somewhere more remote? Would you work alone or as part of a group? I have often thought about this and have tried to imagine exactly the kind of place I want to spend my working life at. Where I am right now is pretty close.

I am currently managing the kitchen at Hidden Villa. Those of you who are from the Bay Area, or have raised children here probably know about this place. "Hidden Villa is a nonprofit educational organization that uses its organic farm, wilderness, and community to teach and provide opportunities to learn about the environment and social justice. Hidden Villa stretches over 1600 acres of open space in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Our mission is to inspire a just and sustainable future through our programs, land and legacy"

They have an extensive summer camp program with many of the kids staying overnight for 2 weeks, some in Tipi's, other kids hike from the bay to the ocean while the younger ones just come for the day. Some days I am there at 6:00am starting up the grill to make hundreds of pancakes while other days I help the dinner shift and where we make spaghetti for almost 200 people. It has been an extremely satisfying summer.

Part of the benefits of working on a farm is that I get to go out and pick fresh vegetables from the garden, like the green beans above. I picked those in the afternoon and then served them that night for dinner.

The property is full of trails, some of which wind all the way to the top of the mountain where I enjoyed this amazing view below.

Sadly, the summer season is coming to a close soon and I will no longer enjoy the drive into the mountains each morning. I look forward to sharing more about the food we have been making for the campers and staff.

Finding the time

2010-07-31T19:55:00.003-04:00

Hello my dear blogosphere. I have missed you.

I am sitting here at the computer right now thinking about all the things I need to do, but somehow cannot pull myself away from the computer. See, I just got home and have 5 bags of groceries sitting on the kitchen counter, but for some reason I walked over here to the desk, thinking I would just check email real quick, and suddenly I am at my blog page surfing other bloggers. Does this happen to anyone else?

I am reminded of how many interesting bloggers are out there but I haven't been making the time to follow them. They are like all the really interesting cookbooks I have sitting on the bookshelf waiting to be opened. I need to make the time....

Back to my own blog, I have a long list of recipes I have been working on that I have been meaning to post. So much has been happening this summer that I do not spend much time here at the computer. I have been managing the kitchen at a Summer Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains all summer which takes up most of my time. It is truly a beautiful place to work and I am starting to feel the sadness come on whenever I think about how quickly it is coming to an end.

I haven't yet announced on the blog that I spent a year working in the kitchens on the Google Corporate Campus here in Mountain View. I really want to share some of my experiences with you.

And, I have a new client that I am assisting remotely with recipes that are gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut and cane sugar free. So anyone out there that shares these allergies, you are in luck. I will start posting the recipes I have created for her very soon.

For all of us that find ourselves deep in the art of "multi-tasking", how about we walk away for the computer for a few minutes, take a deep breath, and perhaps spend some time in the kitchen cooking something delicious and satisfying. Oh, and go put those groceries away.

Allergy Awareness Wear

2010-07-29T20:34:00.004-04:00

Have you heard of Jeeto? A new client made me aware of this website and I am excited to share it with you. I would love to get a t-shirt displaying a proud "gluten free" banner, but the shirts are only in childrens' sizes at this time. They also have patches and stickers.

If you have a child that is peanut, soy, dairy, gluten or egg free perhaps a t-shirt or patch would be helpful when they are away from home. I currently work at a summer camp in California and we deal with campers with all kinds of allergies. Seeing a child wearing one of these t-shirts could help the staff to remember their special needs. It is also a great way to help make the public more aware of how common these allergies are becoming.

Check it out!

Rediscovering Sandwiches

2010-04-18T16:23:00.006-04:00

How simple is the basic sandwich. Two pieces of bread, some mayo and mustard, lunch meat, lettuce, tomato. Even better, slather your bread with peanut butter and jelly for the reliable lunch since you went to school carrying a brown paper bag. I never realized how I took sandwiches for granted until I could no longer eat them. Since I first went gluten free over 7 years ago I have tried many gluten free breads. Some are better than others as many of you know.

Most of the time I don't really think about bread. But lately I have been missing it a lot. I get frustrated when we are going out for the day and want to have some easy snacks packed in the car. I cant just make a sandwich like my boyfriend can. And then last weekend I needed breadcrumbs for a recipe. I must have stood in front of the GF freezer section for 10 minutes trying to pick out the best loaf of bread. I wanted to find the one that would come out the most like regular bread crumbs. I picked up three different brands figuring that I would toast all of them and then choose the best looking one.

One of the products I picked up was Udi's Gluten Free breads.

Most gluten free breads are just ok straight out of the bag. They get a lot better once they have been toasted. Udi's white sandwich bread is light and fluffy and toasting is not necessary. Someone at Udi's knows exactly what I am talking about because this is on the back of the package: "Our delicious recipe makes it possible for you to enjoy gluten free bread without having to toast or microwave it". See below how great this bread looks...

The only downside is all the holes created by the yeast. This could make for a messy sandwich. I compensated for the holes by putting the lettuce on the bread first and then spreading the mustard on the lettuce. I havent tried the whole grain version yet.

The white bread made great breadcrumbs which I used on a Cauliflower Gratin I made last week...

Oh how I wish I lived in Denver where Udi's Artisan breads are made fresh daily and available at 5 bakeries around Colorado. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area now you can find Udi's at Draeger's and Whole Foods.

Crispy Zucchini Cakes

2010-04-07T17:00:00.003-04:00

This is a recipe I posted a couple years ago after I made them for my boyfriend's parents. I made them again today for a potential client and have made some changes to the original recipe. I originally used spelt bread for the bread crumbs because I could tolerate spelt back then. I no longer can so I used Udi's white bread. I have also made these with glutino's basic tapioca bread.

I adapted this recipe from "small bites" a fun cookbook I picked up on a whim. There is something about attractively arranged small foods that just appeals to me. They are best eaten immediately after frying as they lose some crispyness after sitting. Serve these with Yogurt Dill Sauce.

Ingredients:
1# zucchini (about 3 medium zucchinis)

1 tbsp salt

1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs*

2 green onions

2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

salt and ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup rice flour

about 2 cups coconut oil or olive oil

Procedure:

Grate zucchini, place in a colander and sprinkle with the salt. This will help to remove excess moisture from the zucchini. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Set aside 8 tbsp of breadcrumbs and spread the remaining on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 5 minutes, stir and then bake for another 5 minutes until golden and crisp. Let cool.

Rinse zucchini and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands. Pat dry with paper towels. Mix zucchini with onions, eggs, feta, reserved 8 tbsp breadcrumbs, mint and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.

Dust hands with rice flour and then form round 2-inch wide patties with the zucchini mix. Roll patties in toasted breadcrumbs making sure they are completely coated and lay on a cookie sheet.

Heat oil in large frying pan with high sides over medium-high heat. Use enough oil so that each patty is submerged half way. Fry the patties for about 3 minutes, then flip over and fry on the other side, until crisp and golden color. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

Serve immediately with Yogurt Dill Sauce (recipe below).

Dill Yogurt Sauce
1 14 oz container plain, whole yogurt (I used Fage)
2 tbsp fresh dill
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper

2 tbsp lemon juice

Place a piece of cheesecloth over a mesh strainer and then place strainer over a bowl. Pour the yogurt into the strainer on top of the cheesecloth and let sit a couple hours or overnight in the refrigerator so that excess moisture drips through. This will help to make the sauce thicker. You do not need to do this if you use Fage whole fat yogurt.

Pour yogurt into a small bowl and stir until smooth. Chop dill into small pieces and then add to yogurt along with the salt, pepper and lemon juice. Stir to mix and then place into serving bowl. Serve.

Notes:

For the breadcrumbs I took a loaf of gluten free bread, spread it out on a cookie sheet and left it to dry out for a couple hours. I then placed the cookie sheet in an oven at 350 degrees to further dry out the bread and toast them. Once they are lightly toasted, place in bowl of food processor and blend until broken up into breadcrumbs. It is ok to have well processed crumbs for this recipe. If the crumbs are still pale and do not look toasted enough, pour the breadcrumbs onto the cookie sheet and place back in the oven for 8 minutes. After they are toasted here, you can skip the toasting step in the above directions.

New Gluten Free Bakery in Philadelphia!

2010-03-04T08:50:00.001-05:00

I am excited to share the opening of the Sweet Freedom Bakery, "Baking You Happy" in Philadelphia. This is Philadelphia's first and only completely gluten-free and vegan bakery. Their products are "allergen-friendly" which means no dairy, casein (milk protein), egg or gluten. Sweet Freedom Bakery also avoids using corn, wheat, peanuts, and soy. The only sweeteners they use are natural and unrefined like coconut sugar, agave and maple syrup. Their goal is to provide delicious and satisfying sweet treats for those people with food allergies that have been deprived of their favorite cupcake or cookie, but also to provide a satisfying treat to those who are not on a restricted diet.

For those of you who have Celiac and are extremely sensitive to gluten, Sweet Freedom is a dedicated gluten-free facility. This came straight from their website: "The bakery has been built from scratch, with no gluten-containing products present in the bakery or on our equipment. We do not use any grains, such as spelt, that contain gluten."

The bakery has a large range of baked goods available every day including cupcakes, cookies, muffins and magic bars, Other treat like the Thumbprints pictured below are available as weekly specials. Check out their daily offerings here.

Heather, one of the owners, and I were in a class together at the Natural Gourmet in New York City. Every weekend she brought in another version of a cupcake or cookie that she was trying to perfect. For those of you who have tried gluten-free baking know it can be frustrating to duplicate the texture and taste of regular baked good. Everything I tried was delicious and satisfying. Clearly she has found the right combinations and now has a great venue to show off her delicious sweets.

I wish I still lived in the area so that I could visit and enjoy the fresh baked cupcakes and cookies. That is something I really miss since I have gone gluten free. The people in the Philadelphia area are very lucky to have this place. And now they are offering local delivery in selected zip codes for a small fee. More info on delivery here.

Check out their Facebook for the latest news and become a fan!

Here are the details:

The Bakery is located at 1424 South Street, Philadelphia, PA (between Broad and 15th)

Open Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 7pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm. Closed Mondays.

Contact them at 215-545-1899 or sweetfreedombakery@gmail.com

(Photographs by Noelle Roberts)

My first guest publication!

2010-03-03T20:50:00.001-05:00

Oh the excitement of seeing my name in a book, even if it isn't my own. Early last year I was asked to contribute to a companion cookbook for the IBS for Dummies book. The main focus of my cooking is whole and healing foods so this seemed like a perfect partnership. I sent the authors some of my favorite recipes and then waited to see if they would use any of them. The book finally published recently and I was delighted to find eight of my recipes made the cut! A big thank you to Dr. Carolyn Dean for including me.

In the book, IBS Cookbook for Dummies, the authors break down how food and food preparation can both trigger and help manage IBS symptoms. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder characterized by cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. IBS causes a great deal of discomfort and distress, but it does not permanently harm the intestines like Celiac Disease does. In each section of the book they outline causes and symptoms of IBS followed by recipes that contains ingredients that help reduce those symptoms.

A specific cause for IBS has not been determined but it is widely thought that these symptoms may be due to a colon, or large intestine that is particularly sensitive and reactive to certain foods and stress. The immune system, which fights infection, may also be involved. After reading through this book I realized just how similar IBS is to Celiac and gluten intollerance. This book could help a wide range of people, including me!

Some of the recipes I wrote for the book include: Creamy Vegan Stroganoff with Caramelized Onions, Asian Tempeh Kabobs, Red Lentil and Coconut Soup, Cauliflower Salad with Dill Dressing and my popular chocolate cake. The Rich and Moist Chocolate Cake (gluten free) made it into the center color picture section (pictured right) as did my Pressed Salad.

If you think you might have IBS check out this really good description of symptoms on About.com and then get a copy of the cookbook. Please let me know if you do as I would love your feedback on how it helped you.

(photographs by T.J. Hine Photography Inc.)

The Opportunity of a New Year

2010-03-01T19:15:00.006-05:00

There is something about January 1st that gets all of us thinking about all those goals we set for ourselves the year before. The start of a new year can be filled with opportunities for a fresh start. On December 31st we declare that this year will be different, this year I will finally get back to the gym, lose 20 pounds, look for a new job....etc. But how long does that declaration last? Does it make any lasting affect on our daily lives and routines? How many of those goals did we actually follow through on?

Now that it is March 1st, I am thinking about that inspiration I was feeling back on January 1st. I pledged to myself back in January that I would start taking better care of my health because a healthy me means I will be better in all aspects of my life. I want to be a better girlfriend, better cook, a better friend... you get the idea. If I take better care of myself, then the rest of my lofty personal goals will naturally fall into place. So what has happened in the last two months? Naturally, like most people, I lost my way and have stopped working towards those goals. I cannot pinpoint the exact moment it happened, but my ingrained bad habits have taken control again.

So what to do now. Every day is a new day and offers a new opportunity to correct one's course. Today I can remind myself of what those goals were and why I was so inspired by them. I will do at least one thing that moves me forward instead of standing still. You with me?

So in the spirit of being inspired and trying new things here are some things that I have been meaning to write about....

There are so many foodie events lately that I have wanted to share. There was the Gluten Free Meetup at Draeger's in San Mateo. I found this event on Meetup.com. Draeger's is like a Whole Foods combined with Williams Sonoma. They have so many great gourmet foods and the upstairs has fabulous kitchen gadgets and tablewares. One could easily spend a fortune here. This store has put a lot of effort into stocking GF items. More about that soon.

I will also be sharing with you the new book that just came out featuring some recipes that I wrote, the IBS Cookbook for Dummies.

And then there are all those new products I have tried lately like GF raviolis and pizza....

Happy March! See you again soon.

REALLY Good Tempeh

2010-01-01T17:21:00.001-05:00

I have some coworkers that have never liked the flavor of tempeh. As soon as I heard that I was determined to make my version for them and show them how good it could be.

The key to really good tempeh is all in the marinade. Frying the tempeh first creates a crunchier texture and the marinade gives it a rich meaty flavor. Make extra of the marinade and save it in the refrigerator for quick meal prep later, or use it to marinate beef for a stir fry. Serve over a bed of rice with the Pressed Salad and Carrot Ginger Soup. Having a barbeque? Make the skewers up to 2 days ahead of time and then put them on the grill for about 5 minutes to reheat.

Ingredients

Marinade:
¼ cup tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons rice syrup, honey or agave syrup
1 teaspoon ginger juice, or small piece of ginger peeled and grated
1 tablespoon garlic (2-3 cloves in a garlic press or minced)

Kabobs
1 package tempeh
3 tablespoon olive oil or high heat safflower oil
6 6-inch skewers

Procedure:
In a small bowl, mix tamari, vinegar, rice syrup, ginger juice, and garlic until rice syrup has dissolved. Set aside.

Cut tempeh into 1 inch cubes. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat. Add tempeh and cook until browned on each side, about 2 minutes per side, turning over with tongs.

Pour marinade into frying pan and simmer, about 8 minutes, turning tempeh occasionally so that they soak up the marinade evenly. Remove from heat. Place tempeh cubes onto skewers, 4 to 5 cubes on each, and place on serving dish. Drizzle remaining liquid from the pan over the skewers and serve.

Variations:
Add 2 teaspoons chopped lemongrass to marinade for a thai influence
Add ¼ cup pineapple or orange juice to marinade along with ½ tsp lemon zest
For a richer bacon-like flavor add a little worsteshire sauce and smoky paprika

Will stay in the refrigerator for 1 ½ weeks

Reheat: Place skewers in a medium frying pan with a little oil over medium heat turning once until evenly heated through, about 5 minutes. If tempeh is too dry, sprinkle with some tamari or soy sauce.

Creating a Tasty Cornbread

2009-09-06T08:46:00.003-04:00

I have wanted to try my hand at cornbread for awhile now. Every time I venture up to Napa Valley and have lunch at the Rutherford Grill I am reminded of how great cornbread can be. Of course theirs is full of fat, cheese, wheat flour (which I shouldn't have)yummy grilled green chili peppers, and served in an iron skillet. After my last meal there I searched the internet hoping they might have a recipe published somewhere. All I found were other people like me, hoping to find it as well, but coming up with nothing. So I did what I usually do when wanting to try a new recipe.... I did a search for cornbread on the internet, read through recipes on a variety of websites, printed out the three best looking ones and then got to work in the kitchen.

The first recipe I tried was from "grouprecipes.com" for cheesy-jalapeno-cornbread. That is the tray above to the right. It browned beautifully and was nice and crusty on the edges. I created a double batch and left out some of the ingredients as I did not have them on hand (and the author did not include them in the instructions). It took twice the time to cook as in their recipe (partly because I made such a large batch).

Then I tried a recipe for buttermilk cornbread from "about.com" under southern food. That is the tray on the left in the picture above. It came out a lot paler than the first. After tasting both I decided the first recipe tasted much better so I then made a third batch using the first recipe again.

In all the trial batches I left out the wheat flour as I cannot eat it and I wouldnt be able to evaluate the recipes for flavor if I used it. The cornbread comes out more crumbly without wheat flour, but I could still get a good sense of the flavor without it and then decide how to proceed from there.

Here is what I used:

Cheesy, Roasted Green Chili Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup corn flour (masa harina)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter room temperature
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, or 1 cup heavy cream or milk and 1/4 cup liquid from canned corn if using
3 tbsp sour cream
1 can roasted green chilis, 4oz
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar (pepperjack could be good here too)
1 cup fresh cooked corn, or canned corn

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Lightly grease a brownie size pan, and line with parchment paper if you have it.

3. Combine all dry ingredients from cornmeal to the salt in a large bowl. Stir to mix well.

4. Cut butter into small pieces and add to the cornmeal mixture, stir. (Here is where I had some trouble with the original recipe. The pieces of butter were way too big and created pockets when baked. I let my butter get really soft so it mushed and melted into the batter as I was mixing it before it even got to the oven).

5. In a small bowl whip eggs then blend in milk, sour cream, and chilis. Add wet mixture to the dry and stir to mix. Fold in cheese and corn.

6. Pour into prepared pan and bake until top is golden and the middle no longer jiggles, about 25 minutes. Rotate pan mid way.

Let cool and then cut and serve.

This recipe is gluten free and does crumble a little. It is best a day old, refrigerated overnight which helps all the components to gell together. Bring it out the next day and warm it in the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.

I also made a dairy free version of this recipe for a group that was vegan (but they still ate eggs). I used Earth Balance margarine instead of butter, soy milk instead of buttermilk and I just left out the sour cream and cheese. This one needed a lot more of the green chilis to add flavor and it did not need to bake as long. Still came out great!

I would like to add a little heat to this bread next time and will try using some fresh or canned jalapenos.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust, Thanks Bob!

2009-09-05T16:57:00.006-04:00

I bought this Pizza Crust mix a couple months ago as a back up just in case my own gf pizza crust did not turn out. I have had great success with other Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free products and I hoped this one would not let me down. My recipe came out really well so this package has been sitting in the back of my pantry. Until last night....

The mix is really easy to use and has a relatively short list of ingredients. I like that it has no dairy and no additives I never heard of. Once you get all the ingredients mixed together, leave the dough in the bowl to rise for 20 minutes.

I covered mine with plastic wrap and set it near the pre-heating oven.

Once the dough had risen I took half of it and smoothed it out onto a greased cookie sheet. I had to keep wetting my hands so that the dough wouldnt stick to my fingers. Once my hands were wet the dough spread really easily. I tried to get the crust as thin as possible. Then the instructions said to bake the dough for 7 minutes first before adding any toppings.

After it baked, I topped half with tomato sauce, thinly sliced zucchini, salami, spinach and sausage.

On the other half I spread pesto, crumbled goat cheese and steamed broccoli. The pizza baked for the full amount of time on the package and came out looking like this.

The edges of the crust were golden brown and the bottom of the crust got a little crispy too. This pizza was so good that I finished half of it before I got the second one topped and into the oven. The crust had both crispyness along the edges as well as being soft and doughy in the middle. It has enough moisture and flavor that it did not need cheese.

I have tried many gluten free crusts both from restaurants and from the freezer section of the grocery store. This crust tasted better than most of all those. My boyfriend and I wrote about our visit to Pie Zanos in Phoenix, AZ here, which was the best gluten free pizza crust I have had to date at a restaurant.

I will absolutely use this mix again. I think I will keep one on hand for those impromptu too tired to cook "let's order pizza" kind of nights. While my boyfriend is out getting his regular pizza, I can whip this together for me. I still intend on writing up how I made my own gluten free pizza crust and posting here. Maybe you can decide which one is better.

Happy, and healthy eating!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes reworked

2009-09-04T15:48:00.006-04:00

This is my favorite gluten free chocolate cake recipe and I continue to rework it, trying to make it better. I have posted it here before, but it has been awhile since the last time. I have made a couple changes and added a creaming method for the butter and sugar which I think helps with keeping the cake from being too moist. Yes, I said too moist. That is usually not a description you use when talking about gluten free baked goods. Most of them are dry and gritty. The combination of flours and cocoa powder make this cake spongy and moist.

And maybe my favorite part is how they get these cracks in the surface while they bake. They are just beautiful.

I have used this recipe for multiple occasions where I am the only gluten free eater. No one complained a bit about having this as the dessert, in fact, most of the them have told me this is the best cake they have ever had. This is what I brought to a recent BBQ at a friend's house. I used whipped cream for the frosting and added strawberries and blueberries.

So on to the recipe:

Ingredients:
½ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup sorghum flour
¼ cup potato starch
¼ cup tapioca flour
½ cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup Earth Balance margarine, room temperature
1 cup sugar ( ½ cup organic white sugar, ¼ cup sucanat, ¼ cup brown sugar)
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup almond or soy milk
¾ cup coffee, room temp

Procedure:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch round cake pan with margarine or coconut oil or line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix with a fork.

In a separate bowl cream margarine with a hand mixer. Add sugar and continue blending. Add egg, and blend again.

Add dry ingredients, vanilla and milk to the bowl and mix on low speed. (This is where I set aside the hand mixer and start stirring with a spatula, you can do it either way). Batter will be thick like brownie batter. Add coffee and blend again until mixed. Batter will still be thick but smooth.

Pour batter into cake pans and smooth out the top. Place in oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, turning pan half way through baking time. Remove from oven when a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove and set on a rack.

Cupcakes: makes 12 cupcakes, reduce baking time to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Fun with flour and sugar

2009-08-23T20:23:00.014-04:00

This has nothing to do with whole foods or organics, but it does have a lot to do with fun and making a five-year-old boy very very happy. My good friend's son had a birthday last week and I happily volunteered to make a cake. He wanted a race car theme which meant... a race car cake! I immediately went to the internet for help and found this great website:

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/

All of the cakes on this website are homemade. All of the entries contain a picture and description of how they made the cake and decorations. There were a few different cakes I really liked and I ended up using ideas from 2 or 3 of them.

I started with four rectangular chocolate cakes. Trimmed the sides to make them fit nice and snug and frosted with vanilla buttercream.

Once I got the entire cake covered, I outlined the race track with the tip of a bamboo skewer.

Then I added some cocoa to the buttercreme to darken it and some black food coloring to make it look more like pavement. The color came out perfect, but I regret the black food coloring did not taste very good. Even though I started the coloring process with cocoa (quite delicious), the food coloring still left its mark (not so tasty).

I added some M&M's to the border of the track, both inside and outside.

Then I put a single layer of Oreo cookies around the base of the cake (this was a HUGE hit with the kiddies). I made the grass by putting a grass tip on some store bought green decorator icing (I think tip # 233).

I added 4 matchbox cars to the track after refrigerating it for awhile to firm up the frosting. I made a start line, added two flag toothpicks to each corner and the Happy Birthday candles.

Here is the finished product.

Happy Birthday Kevin! Looking forward to seeing what kind of cake you want next year!

Picture of the Day

2009-07-31T13:18:00.002-04:00

Amaranth, a relatively unused grain here in the states. This particular plant is growing as a weed in the garden at the farm. It is such a beautiful weed, growing as tall as the sunflowers behind it. The flowers that contain the edible seeds are a brilliant, deep purple. Amaranth was a staple food of the Aztecs and is currently grown mostly in Mexico. It is high in protein and well balanced in amino acids.

You can find the grain at health food stores and makes a great warm breakfast cereal when cooked like cream of wheat. It can be ground into a flour is also a common ingredient in cereals along with other grains. Here is a link to recipes for pancakes and grits made with Amaranth.

Picture of the Day

2009-07-29T14:12:00.005-04:00

I currently have the pleasure of working on an organic farm. I spend my entire day in the kitchen so unfortunately I do not get to enjoy the nature all around me. Last week's schedule was a lot slower and I was able to get out of the kitchen and spend some time in the garden every day. This is my absolute dream... being able to go out into the garden and pick something that I can make for dinner that night. I picked green beans one day, carrots and beets another day. Squash blossoms became the table centerpiece during the week as well which I will post later.

Thank you Mother Nature!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Treats

2009-07-10T22:00:00.003-04:00

Oh, and what a treat they are! I first tried these at a class at the Natural Gourmet in New York City and thought they were wonderful. The beauty of this recipe is how flexible it is. You can make the crispy treats more chocolaty or if you really love peanut butter, just add more of that and less chocolate. The class instructor added as a side note that she sometimes adds coconut flakes. I thought that sounded like a great idea and I plan to try that next time.

The original recipe calls for:

creamy, salted peanut butter

unsweetened chocolate

agave syrup

crispy brown rice cereal

I ended up using:

1/2 cup unsweetened, salted peanut butter (whole foods brand)

1 cup dark chocolate, unsweetened (Rapunzel Organic Baking Chocolate Chips 55% cocoa)

1-2 tbsp agave

2 cups crispy brown rice cereal (Erewhon)

First place the peanut butter in a pot over medium heat. Stir as it melts. Add the chocolate and continue stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and incorporated into the peanut butter (see picture above). You can take the pot off the heat and continue stirring as the heat from the contents of the pot will melt the newly added chocolate. Do not let your peanut butter mixture burn.

Now this is where I started tasting to see if I liked the balance of flavors. I added about triple the amount of chocolate from what the original recipe had.

Add the agave if you like it a little sweeter.

Take the pot off the heat and add the rice crispy cereal. Stir to coat.

Using a clean spoon, drop the cereal into small piles or balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I used a rectangular cake pan. Place the pan in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once they have set in the freezer you can pull them off the parchment paper and place them in whatever container you like. Store them in the freezer or refrigerator.

When serving, they are best eaten as soon as you take them out of the refrigerator as they do get a little messy on your fingers. I do not remember the ones I tried in class melting so quickly in my hands, so it is possible the instructor did something a little different than what is written in her recipe.

This recipe is gluten, corn and dairy free and not lacking in any richness or flavor. If you want to make this for a gluten-sensitive person, make sure to read the ingredients on the rice cereal box. Some of them may say "wheat free" but contain barley malt which does contain a small amount of gluten.

I plan on taking these in to work with me in the morning for one of our kitchen staff's birthday. I also made a gluten-free pumpkin bread that I will top with a cream cheese brown sugar frosting. I hope he likes them both!

Good Eats at The Cove

2009-07-09T12:22:00.003-04:00

My boyfriend and I stopped at The Cove in San Antonio, Texas during our 6-week cross country trip this Spring. I saw this place on Diners, Drive-Ins' and Dives with Guy Fieri. I am so glad I happened to catch that show because these are the best fish tacos I have ever had. So here's a small part of the menu...

I ordered a fish taco and a shrimp taco. The fish taco had freshly grilled, juicy mahi mahi topped with cabbage and a spicy jalapeno mayo sauce on it. Just the right amount of heat and citrus.

My boyfriend ordered one of the burgers. We noticed this sign on the wall about where their meat comes from. Nice touch. They serve grass-fed beef, bison, lamb and chicken and all from farms in Texas. No antibiotics, no hormones and the greens are all organic.

I still compare every taco I have to the ones I ate here. If you are in the area, definitely check this place out.

Life less Gluten in San Antonio

2009-04-08T08:19:00.004-04:00

Day 14 of our cross-country trip and we are having a blast. We are currently in Austin, Texas taking a break from driving and actually staying in one place for 4 days. After all this travelling through the South, I have been more than ready for a meal that I know is gluten free. We visited The Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe while we were in San Antonio a couple days ago. I ordered the Big Bloke Sandwich with Roast Beef, which I think was actually roasted brisket. It tasted delicious.

Michael ordered the Lasagna with tomatoes, spinach, cheese and a bechamel sauce. I think it had a little pesto in it too. It tasted great, but was more like a macaroni bake because they used elbow macaroni instead of lasagna sheets.
We really enjoyed our meal, and I liked the bread so much that I bought a loaf of the House Bread to take on the road with us. The only major downside was that everything was reheated in a microwave. So my sandwich was nice and warm, which made the bread even better, but it had that slight chewiness that the microwave gives to things. We also purchased some desserts to go. 2 chocolate cupcakes and a slice of the apple spice cake. They were a little dry, as gluten-free baked goods can get, but the flavors were fantastic. I could tell that if they were freshly made that I would have loved them. So if you stop by, try to get the baked goods on the day they are made.

Road Trip!

2009-03-31T06:27:00.008-04:00

I am currently in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of the first week of a 6-week cross country trip. We left New Jersey on Wednesday the 25th and have driven through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, N Carolina, S Carolina and Georgia. Today we plan to head back north to N Carolina so that we can cross over the Smoky Mountains into Tennessee tomorrow.

If you would like to follow along check out my blog for the trip On The Road.

I did a lot of research for this trip before we left and have pages of notes from websites like roadfood.com, roadsideamerica.com and of course, I checked out all the gluten free sites I could to find food along the way. I really want to experience the local food and I know that means I am taking my chances with wheat exposure. And let me tell you, everything down here in the south is fried even if it doesnt say so on the menu.

Last night we found this place in Atlanta:

It was absolutely worth the multiple wrong turns to find it out in a suburb of the city. The Real Chow Baby is a make-it-yourself stir fry restaurant. You add ingredients to your bowl and then top it with sauce and seasonings and then you give it to the grill guy. He cooks everything for you on this massive round, flat grill and then your bowl is brought to your table. Here is the sauce menu and notice the sugar free, vegan and gluten free indications.

These are the bowl we created with our rice and veggies. I topped mine with the coconut curry and red thai curry sauces.

Then the finished (cooked) product was delivered to our table. Both of our creations were absolutely delicious! The wait staff were friendly and helpful. A really terrific experience all around. I am just so sad that there are only 2 of these places and they are in Atlanta.

Book Review: 1,000 Gluten Free Recipes

2009-03-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

I love buying cookbooks. Sometimes I pick them off a store shelf the same way I pick a bottle of wine, by how the label or cover looks. This doesn't always pan out when trying a new wine, but most of the time it turns out well. I have cookbooks in my bookshelf that I have never opened. I get intrigued by the possibilities that lie inside when I first see the book in the store, and I fall in love with the pictures and then when I get it home... it sits. I always eventually get to them. There will be a time when I am looking for an idea and that book will have exactly what I am looking for.
I received a copy of Carol Fenster's new book, "1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes" a couple months ago. I was hoping to dig in immediately, but have only been able to make one recipe from it so far. I made the basic brownies. They came out just ok. She warns that they may remain gooey in the middle as if they are not cooked enough, but not to cook them too long. Mine definitely did not seem cooked enough in the middle. The ones around the edges looked great though, see picture below.

I will have to give this recipe another try once I rescue the book from the huge pile of boxes located in my living room. We are in the process of packing up the house in southern new jersey and then leaving for a 6 week trek across the united states, which could end in a relocation to California! More to come....

Train With the Professionals...

2009-02-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Culinary Institute of America is has Gluten Free Baking Classes! Yes, it is true. I have been cooking gluten free for about 5 years now and I think I have a good sense of what works and what doesn't, but there is still so much to learn. It is a great opportunity to train with a Chef that has the resources of one of the largest culinary schools in the world. Just imagine the recipe testing he has been able to do with no worries of how many batches come out poorly. And hurray for the CIA, creating a class to train chef's and home cooks on how to work with gf ingredients. This is indeed a good sign.

There are 2 classes coming up at the Hyde Park, NY location, February 28th and March 14th. The class costs $325.00 and you will receive a signed copy of Chef Richard Coppedge's cookbook, "Gluten-Free Baking". The class will cover yeast-raised breads and pastries, cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, quiche and pizza. The day will also include a light breakfast and lunch, lecture, hands-on-baking and a specially prepared GF dinner at one of the campus restaurants. I am signed up for the Feb 28th class, so if you do not get to go, I will let you all know how it went.

Read more about the class and register here.

Here is a review of the class in the NY Daily News, which is also where I borrowed the image above from.

Absence makes the blogger grow...

2009-02-15T11:00:00.004-05:00

...spiritually and professionally, (not in size... I hope)

Poor, poor neglected blog. I have been so busy with other projects that I have not stopped by here in awhile and everything is all dusty. My absence here doesn't mean I have not been cooking, on the contrary. I have been cooking up a storm, or should I say baking. So I am back, have cleaned off the dust from the ol' blog, and am ready for some exciting typing adventures.

I have already posted two gluten free product reviews over the last two days. I know these are not meals I made from scratch, and I do prefer making things myself, but I also like to check what is out there in the marketplace for us non-wheat-eating-foodies.

The major project I have been working on is fulfilling special orders for my gluten and dairy free baked goods, specifically Zucchini Bread, Pumpkin Bread and Chocolate Cupcakes. Grapevine Natural Grocery, a health food store in Newtown, PA is helping to get these goodies to customers, and they are moving quickly. The breads come in two sizes, a small 3oz loaf perfect for a kid's lunch and an 8 or 10oz loaf. The chocolate cupcakes come in a 6-pack container, or a 12-pack mini-cupcake container. (The picture above is of the small pumpkin loaves still in the pan).

They are all made in small batches and from mostly organic ingredients. Ingredients for each of the loaves can be found here. If you live in the area, you can pick them up at Grapevine, or contact me for individual orders. This is a special passion of mine as I love to bake, and it is so fulfilling when I can help people enjoy baked goods again. Even those who do not have food allergies are ordering them, which is a great complement!

I also had the pleasure of working with Chef Joanne Weir again, this time at the annual fundraising event, Connoisseur's Dinner, benefiting Penn State's radio and tv station, WPSU. The event included a 5-course dinner featuring Joanne's recipes as well as a cooking demo earlier in the day. I will write more about this wonderful event soon.

So, thank you for joining me on my culinary journeys. I have a backlog of great recipies to share which I will be getting to soon. Many exciting food adventures are to come in 2009, including a road trip across the southern United States. What tasty bites can we find there?!

The Grapevine Natural Grocery is located at 5 N. State Street, Newtown, PA 18940 phone: 215-860-8878

Gluten Free Pancakes by Maple Grove Farms

2009-02-14T09:29:00.007-05:00

What do you do when you wake up and have a pancake craving, but you cannot eat wheat? You pull out the box of gluten free pancake mix from the pantry that you have been meaning to try.

The product is by Maple Grove Farms in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. They are known as a maple syrup producer and have been around since 1915. They have other product lines including pancake mixes, fruit syrups, maple candy, salad dressings, organic and gluten free products. I tried to find some information on their site about why they included gluten free, but I could not find much other than this... "over the years, we have developed products at the request of consumers, which respond to a variety of dietary concerns. fat free, sugar free, gluten free, all natural, and dairy free are among some of our product attributes."

I do remember stopping by their booth at the Natural Foods Expo East in Boston back in October. They were passing out freshly made samples of this gf pancake mix and they tasted great. As we chatted, the spokesperson told me I might have to cook the batter just a little longer than regular pancake mixes. The ingredients are: rice flour, soy flour, dextrose, leavening (monocalcium phosphate, baking soda), salt, corn starch, natural flavor, xanthan gum. The only ingredient that concerns me is the "natural flavor". That many times can contain wheat, but the product is labeled "gluten free" so I am trusting that the company sourced this additive properly. If you are super-sensitive to wheat, it would be worth a call to the company to check. Also, this product is made in the same facility where their regular pancake mix is made.

So on to my breakfast.... I mixed up the batter according to the package directions and it was really thick, so I added some extra liquid. For the liquid I used part water and part almond milk. They spread nicely in the pan and as you can see in the picture above, they turned a beautiful golden brown. I wanted to do something a little special to our breakfast, so I added sliced bananas and a couple chocolate chips per pancake.

The lighting over my stove is really poor, but you get the idea. I added the sliced bananas and chocolate chips to the batter after I poured it into the pan, waited 2 minutes and then flipped. They were delicious! And very filling. One cup of mix made 6 smallish pancakes. I was only able to eat one and a half and my boyfriend made it through most of his 3. By the way, the boyfriend is NOT gluten free, so if he enjoyed his breakfast with me, then that is a good sign.

They may look big below, but that is a salad-size plate they are sitting on. The browner ones in the front of the picture are the top of the pancake, the side that cooked first. The lighter ones in the back are the bottom, or second side that cooked where you can see the banana slices and chocolate chips.

Product Review: Crispy Battered Gluten Free Cod

2009-02-13T16:58:00.011-05:00

This package caught our eye on a recent trip to Whole Foods. I am always game to try a new GF product out on the market, but I do hate wasting money on ones that disappoint. This is a frozen box of "Crispy Battered Gluten Free Cod" made by Starfish, Inc. The picture on the box makes the fish sticks look great, but we all know that doesn't mean much in the GF world. So first, I checked out the ingredient list: cod, water, yellow corn, rice flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate), garlic powder, onion powder, xanthan gum, guar gum, canola oil. The first good sign is there is no sugar, and cod is the first ingredient. I decided to throw it in my cart and give it a try.

I have been busy on the computer all day and suddenly realized
how hungry I was around 2pm. I needed a quick lunch so I grabbed this box out of the freezer and started up the oven. It has instructions for either Oven Bake or Deep Fry, I opted for the oven. As you can see here, the pieces are small, about the size of a large chicken nugget. I left them in a little longer than the package said to make sure they got nice and golden.

And now for the first bite....the fish was flaky and the breading tasted very similar to other wheat-containing battered fish. I could taste the corn in the breading and it was nice and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I think the oven method worked just fine and frying wasnt needed. I also made a little homemade tartar sauce for the occasion. I highly recommend this product and will definitely buy it again.

Viva Daisy! Cooking Show on The Food Network

2009-01-11T16:25:00.003-05:00

I sat on my couch Saturday morning anxiously anticipating the start of Daisy Martinez's show on The Food Network. The show is called "Viva Daisy!" and airs on Saturdays at 9:30am. She has done other cooking shows but they have aired on public stations. I have to admit that I have not seen any of her other shows. I do not usually watch cooking shows, but I have a particular interest in this one. I worked behind the scenes on the filming with a fantastic culinary crew.

This is the second time I have worked on a cooking show and I have to say... it has been one of my favorite jobs since graduating from culinary school. There is something about the pressure to perform that I enjoy as well as being part of a talented team all working towards a common goal. No one person on the team can succeed without the others.

Daisy's food has a Puerto Rican flair so there is lots of color and spice (not necessarily heat) in her dishes. I have made many of the recipes from the show since the filming and have loved them all, especially the Eggs A La Poloma and the Green Rice. For the first episode she made skirt steak with a chimichirri sauce, potato salad with roasted red peppers and hard boiled eggs and a coconut panna cotta topped with kiwi, papaya and mango. Delicious!

Check it out and enjoy.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Lava

2009-01-04T19:30:00.002-05:00

A couple months ago I was looking for an extra special cake and came across this on smittenkitchen's blog. Her photographs gripped me.... I must make this cake! Well, at the time I was only looking to make a small cake, something unimposing, but attractive and I came up with this.

Then her recipe sat in my bookcase.... waiting.... and every once and awhile I found it again and said to myself "I must make this!" Well the time finally came....my boyfriend's 40th birthday. I nervously followed all of her steps, changing little things here and there. I got the cake done and into the refrigerator to firm up, then worked on the peanut butter frosting

I got the cake frosted successfully...

And then came time to make the chocolate ganache. The first time around I seized the chocolate. Adding a cold liquid to warm melted chocolate is not good. It is important to know that you should warm the half and half before adding it to the melted chocolate. You can have it in a saucepan on the stove over low heat while you melt the chocolate and peanut butter. And voila, here is the beautiful creation....

I could not bring myself to write anything on the cake for fear of ruining the shiny chocolate glaze. What if I accidentally dripped something on it! So I just put some candles on it before singing for the birthday boy.

This version was made following the original recipe using AP Flour, which you can find on her original post. I have since made it with my own gluten free chocolate cake and it was even better. If you want more information about that recipe let me know.

Joanne Weir Cooking Class Season 2

2009-01-02T09:26:00.002-05:00

I am excited to announce that the two cooking shows I worked on in 2008 are going to start airing in January! Now you will NOT see me on camera in any of these shows but what you will see are all the dishes I painstakingly washed and dried, the vegetables that I shopped for and cleaned, the water I started boiling and so on.

One of the shows I worked on was Season 2 of "Joanne Weir's Cooking Class". It will air on local public channels like PBS, KQED (San Francisco), WHYY (Philadelphia) and NJN (New Jersey) beginning this Saturday January 3rd. The first season of her show is still airing in some areas so the name of the first show of the second season is "Stuffed Chicken Breasts & Fava Fennel Salad (#201)". It looks like it airs on Saturday, 1/10 at 12noon in San Francisco and 12:30pm in Philadelphia. To find it on a local channel near you go here.

To find it on a station near you:

http://www.alacartetv.com/html/station/station.htm

I find this show to be one of the best food shows on TV. Joanne has such a positive and fun energy that comes through and the food on the show is delicious. Here is the description of the first episode:

Episode #201: Stuffed Chicken Breasts & Fava Fennel Salad
Description: Joanne teaches her student Geoff a new way to prepare chicken using some of his favorite ingredients, and shows him how with a little work he can create a vibrant, fragrant salad.Recipes: (1) CHICKEN BREASTS STUFFED WITH GOAT CHEESE AND OLIVES (2) FAVA BEAN, FENNEL, AND PARSLEY SALAD Student: Geoff Rubendall - Civil Engineer

Here is the crew that worked on the show produced by A La Carte Communications. Thank you to Allie for the picture of Joanne above.

Polar Bear Plunge 2009

2009-01-01T15:35:00.018-05:00

It all started as a light conversation with a friend last month....

Us: "what are you doing New Year's Eve?"
Her:"oh nothing, why dont you guys come over"
Us: "ok great, let us know what we should bring over"
Her: "I am going to do the Polar Bear thing New Year's Day, you want to come? You can just stay over."
Us: "Uh....... sure.......

Flash forward to 7am this morning when we woke up, heads slightly fuzzy, realizing that we had to get up soon, get dressed and actually go...... IN ...... TO ...... THE ....... OCEAN!!! I grabbed the remote and turned on the weather channel, hoping for some good news..... 20 degrees outside with a wind speed of 20mph!! The doubt quickly set in. What, are we crazy? Can we actually get hypothermia? How many layers of clothing can I swim in?

But we had committed. We had given our word last night that we would be there. I made a pact with Gaby that if I went in, she would go in and if she went in, I would go in. And really, maybe its not that bad? All those other people do it... they cant ALL be crazy. So we got our suits on, planned the layering, grabbed the sandals and towels and the comfy robe and out the door we went.

We drove up to Robert's Place in Margate, NJ around 10am and parked the car. When we walked into Robert's there were not that many people. I caught a glimpse of a couple guys in robes, fish hats and polar bear hats. Then it was getting close to the time of the march to the beach so we walked outside....

While we had been standing inside enjoying the warmth and getting caught up in the rising energy of the crowd, I had no idea so many people had gathered outside. All sizes and ages, some decked out in polar bear themed garb and others who looked ready for a weekend in the snow. Remember... 20 degrees out! At least it was a clear and sunny day, we at least had that going for us.

Then the bag piper started playing and led the procession down one block to the beach.

This Bloody Mary really made the walk a lot more bearable.

Hurray for the polar bear flannel pants

Arriving at the beach... notice the viking horns at the top of the stairs

Taking care of each other after coming out of the water

We actually did it, we survived our run into the water, but now I can't feel my toes!

And then the beach clears out.....

What other new challenges are we going to take on in 2009?

The NJ Polar Bear Plunges: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/287/story/360256.html

MyFoodMyHealth Website Launches!

2008-12-31T11:44:00.005-05:00

Take control of your health now!

MyFoodMyHealth is an exciting new online tool to help you manage your health concerns through a powerful instrument..... FOOD. It offers information on how to feel better naturally and empowers you to get back in the kitchen and create delicious and healthy meals.

The philosophy behind MyFoodMyHealth is "food plays a very important, life enhancing role in your health." The website is designed around the user picking a health condition they would like to improve and manage. They are then offered information about that condition, foods to avoid, good foods to eat and sample recipes that contains those beneficial foods.

There is a lot of information available on the site for free but the really cool stuff is available with a paid membership. With membership you gain access to hundreds of delicious recipes tailored to your health conditions. You can also add information about health concerns of your family members so that meal plans are customized for your household. MyFoodMyHealth also creates automated shopping lists, health and nutrition tips, and more.

Now here is where I come in.... along with many other talented chefs, I contributed recipes to MyFoodMyHealth. My recipes on the site are all good for those with Celiac and wheat-intollerance as well as vegetarian and dairy-free eaters. Some of my recipes include: "Asian Tempeh Kabobs", "Gluten Free Crabcakes", "Raw Ginger Carrot Soup" and my favorite Cream of Wheat replacement made with brown rice and millet.

Some of the other contributing chefs include Annemarie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Culinary Institute; Myra Kornfeld, popular Vegan cookbook author; Rebecca Katz, author of my favorite cookbook "One Bite at a Time". There is a video on the website of Rebecca making her powerful Magic Mineral Broth which I use as the base stock for all my soups and when cooking beans and grains. It is packed with nutrients and minerals as she designed it for those going through cancer treatments. Cancer patients frequently lose their appetite and need as much nutrition as possible. I like using the Magic Mineral Broth in my cooking because it adds so much flavor and nutrients to my dishes for my clients and my family.

I have spent some time navigating around MyFoodMyHealth and it is very easy to use. There are a lot of tasty sounding recipes on there with pictures and clear cooking instructions. The recipes are varied in style and flavor components so that you will not get tired of the same old foods. There is a lot of flexibility in the menu planning. The website creates a sample menu for you and then you can take out any recipes you may want to switch and replace with something else.

One last note, a message from the founder: "We look forward to helping you feel better and manage your health conditions through healthy eating."

Check it out here and let me know what you think.

Cool New Car Magnets by Vinyl Expressions

2008-12-16T15:55:00.003-05:00

I just had these great magnets made for my car by Vinyl Expressions in Egg Harbor Township. They are really nice to have displayed when when I am travelling to clients' houses and making deliveries. The owner spent some time with me to create the vegetables graphic which I think came out great. If you have any needs for car magnets yourself, or a new sign for your business I highly recommend this company. You can check out their website at http://www.vinyl-expressions.com/. They do all kinds of signs including those for your lawn (garage sales, advertise new landscaping) lighted signs and more. It is ok if you do not live in Atlantic County, they take orders over the web too.

Wonderful and Moist GF Pumpkin Bread!

2008-12-03T17:00:00.004-05:00

Now, this bread is gluten free, but you do not have to be gluten intolerant to enjoy it.

I was looking for a special dessert to bring to Thanksgiving dinner that I knew I could eat safely and wanted it to be something others could enjoy too. I also didn't want to do a pumpkin pie. I tried a couple recipes that I found online but none of them were quite right. This is what I ended up with and it is incredibly moist, almost too moist that it never felt completely baked. I have adjusted the liquid here to compensate.

I am not sure of how many standard loaf pans this recipe fills. I made one pan of 4 small loafs made by Wilson, see pic below. I think it will fill 2 to 3 regular size loaf pans.

The Ingredients . . .
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup maple crystals, 1/2 cup sucanat, 1/2 cup brown sugar)
1/2 cup grapeseed or canola oil
1 15 oz can organic pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups gluten free flour (I used 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 quinoa flour, 1/4 sorghum, 1/4 potato starch, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup millet flour)
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp sea salt

The Bread . . .
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your baking pans with a little olive or canola oil and then line with parchment paper.

Beat eggs in a medium mixing bowl with a hand mixer until a little frothy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Add the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla and stir together with a spatula.

In a separate bowl, stir to mix the remaining ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 minutes, rotating half way through. Test with a toothpick or wooden skewer for doneness. Cool on a wire rack.

** On my second and third tries with this recipe... I now think that it is perfect. I have adjusted the amounts on the ingredients above that needed to be tweaked. Like, I had 1/3 cup oil before and have changed that to 1/2 cup. This bread comes out delicious! I love it fresh out of the oven, but it gets even better the next day. Cover it with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator. It lasts for at least one week, perhaps longer, but I keep eating it all!

**It is also fantastic with a maple cream cheese frosting if you want to dress it up a little for company. I can post that separately. Happy eating!

Last Week's Menu of Gourmet Vegetarian Lunches

2008-12-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is what I made for clients for lunches a couple weeks ago which includes a new yummy looking chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

For the chocolate cake, I am working from a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen's blog but am converting to more natural ingredients. First, I am using organic spelt flour for the cake then substituting part of the sugar with Sucanat, and replacing the corn syrup with rice syrup. Cant wait to taste it when its done! The picture of this cake on her website looks incredibly delicious that I want to try it the way she made it as well. I made mine into small loaves so that they are better suited for individual portions.

Here is what we had that week:

Monday: Quinoa Vegetable Paella

Tuesday Wild Rice with Braised Tempeh and Garlicky Greens

Wednesday: Lentil Soup with Fresh Baked Honey Oat Bread

Thursday: Wheatberry Salad with Peas, Sundried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Friday: Hearty Three Bean Chili

Dessert:
Intense Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Ganache

Cauliflower Salad with Dairy-Free Dill Dressing

2008-12-01T13:00:00.002-05:00

I adapted this recipe from one in the New Soy Cookbook by Lorna Sass. I like this book and have found some inspiration from it on how to use the same ingredient in different ways. I use soy products sparingly when preparing vegetarian dishes as I like to have my protein come from legumes and beans. But variety is nice and when making dairy-free creamy dressings, silken tofu comes in handy. This is a great summer-time recipe and shows off the sweetness of the cauliflower. If you do not heat the ingredients over 118 degrees then this could also be considered "raw". Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 package silken tofu

1 medium clove garlic

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tsp sea salt
Fresh dill, chopped

1 large head cauliflower

1 medium red bell pepper, small dice
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1/4 tsp salt

4 turns fresh ground pepper

And on to the dressing:
Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add silken tofu and let water come back to a boil then simmer for 3 minutes. (This helps to make the tofu easier to digest and improves the flavor slightly as this is going to be eaten raw. ) Strain the tofu with a mesh strainer.

Place garlic in a food processor and finely chop. Add tofu, half of the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard and salt. Process until smooth. Taste and add more salt and lemon juice if needed. Pour into a bowl, stir in the fill and set aside to let the flavors develop.

Now the salad:
Cut out the stem of the cauliflower and cut into small florets. Place the cauliflower in a steamer basket. Heat some water in a medium pot and place the steamer over the boiling water. Steam cauliflower until slightly soft but still firm and crunchy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from steam and set aside to cool.

Place cauliflower in the bowl of a food processor. (Its ok if you didnt wash the processor bowl after making the dressing) Use the pulsing action until it is coarsley chopped. Pour into a medium mixing bowl. Cut any remaining large pieces with a knife. Add red bell pepper to the bowl along with the red onion, salt and pepper and enough dressing to coat. Adjust seasonings to taste.

**Reserve a little minced onion or bell pepper for garnishing

**Letting the dill dressing sit for awhile helps the flavors to gell. Once it has sat in the refrigerator for half an hour or a couple hours, it will be easier to know whether you want more lemon or salt or garlic.

Women's Wellness from Within Event

2008-11-07T08:30:00.010-05:00

I will be providing the food for this wellness event held at the Atco Family Chiropractic Center in Atco, New Jersey.

Come join me and other women for a day of pampering, wellness, coaching, shopping and workshops. Enjoy delicious hors d'oeuvres and tasty desserts; network and listen to workshops focusing on wellness and business; experience relaxing chair massages; enhance your natural beauty, try on the latest makeup trends; and shopping!

Date: Saturday, November 22nd
Time: 11:00am to 3:00pm
Location: 2129 Atco Avenue, Atco, NJ
Phone: 856-753-7225
Email: gethealthy@atcochiro.com
Cost: $10

For more information and to register for this event call Event Mood Corp at 609-518-1259 or send an email to the event organizer, Lavinia Awosanya at lavinia@eventmood.com.
Or call the Atco Chiropractic office at 856-753-7225.

Working on another a Food Show....

2008-11-02T15:34:00.010-05:00

I have been incredibly quiet and let a lot of time pass since my last post and I have a really good excuse.....

I just returned home from my latest job working on the filming for the newest Daisy Martinez cooking show. I was delighted to work with Culinary Producer Chris Styler again along with the amazing and talented culinary whirlwind known as Angie Spensieri.

This was my first experience with Daisy's cooking and everything was delicious as well as beautiful to look at. Looking forward to making some of these dishes in my own kitchen. More details to come!

Zucchini Bread, Whole Wheat and Gluten Free Versions

2008-09-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

We are full swing into the squash season here in Southern New Jersey and zucchini have been plentiful at the local farmer's markets. I took these pictures earlier this year in my friend's garden back in California. Most people have not seen the blossom that grows off the end of a squash before it matures and falls off. These squash blossoms are popular in restaurants during the summer and are often served stuffed and fried.

I wanted to make some sort of bread and thought about pumpkin, but it is not quite Fall yet so I decided to do zucchini! I love breads that are part healthy and part dessert. I could not help myself and just had to throw in a couple chocolate chips too, just to make them a little more fun. This bread came out beautifully and I wanted to taste it so badly that I ended up making a gluten free version as well a couple days later. I tell ya, it gets to you after awhile when everyone else is saying how good it tastes and you cannot taste it yourself.

So here is the regular bread recipe:

Zucchini Bread
makes 2 loaves

3 cups flour, (I used 2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup all purpose)
3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (a little less that 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil or grapeseed oil
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used part Sucanat and part organic white sugar)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1/4 to 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips by Sunspire

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Oil and flour 2 bread pans ( 8 x 3 1/2 or 4 inch). Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper to fit into the baking pans so that they lay over the sides. This will help in preventing the bread from sticking to the pans.

3. In a small bowl stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well mixed.

4. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and then stir in the oil, sugar and vanilla. Add zucchini and stir again.

5. Add the flour mix into the wet mix and stir well to combine. Add chocolate chips and stir again.

6. Pour mix into prepared baking pans and bake for 60 minutes, turning half way through cooking time. Test with a skewer in the center to make sure it comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool. Use the sides of the parchment paper to lift the bread from the baking pans. Enjoy!

These came out great as muffins as well, makes about 2 dozen.

And now here's the Gluten Free Conversion:

For the 3 cups of regular flour replace with:
1/4 cup Tapioca Starch
1/4 cup Potato Starch
1/4 cup Millet Flour
1 cup Brown Rice Flour
1 1/4 cups Sorghum Flour
1 1/2 tsp Zanthan Gum
Follow the procedure above using this mix for the 3 cups flour. Everything else stays the same. I had to leave this one about 5 to 8 minutes longer in the oven.

The bread came out moist and chewy, but just a little more crumbly than the wheat version. I like using a varied mixture of GF flours so that I get a texture as close to wheat as possible, and more nutrients. Tapioca and Potato Starches are high in carbs and low on fiber and vitamins, so I like to add Millet and Sorghum Flours which are higher in fiber, minerals and vitamins. Together they make for a more dense and nutritious product.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

2008-09-12T10:00:00.009-04:00

Quinoa is a valuable super food for vegetarians and vegans who are concerned about getting enough protein in their diets. It is the only grain that contains all nine essential amino acids which means less need for food combining. It is also high in lysine, an amino acid necessary for tissue growth and repair. Quinoa has a nutty flavor and is similar to rice in its texture and in the way it cooks. It is lumped in the grain category but it is actually the seed of a leafy plant, related to spinach and swiss chard. You can see what the quinoa plant and harvest looks like here. It comes in both the white version pictured below and red.

This is another recipe that is great for vegetarians in that quinoa is a starch as well as a complete protein. This salad can be enjoyed as a main course or a side dish. It keeps in the refrigerator for a week, but I would leave out the avocado if you plan to store it that long. The avocado will get brown and you could instead just add a little when you are ready to eat this dish.
Here is how you make it...
1 cup canned chickpeas or fresh
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and diced
2 large tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup green onions, sliced thinly
½ cup parsley, minced
¼ cup fresh mint, minced
¼ cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper, about 6 turns
1 ripe avocado, diced

Procedure
Place quinoa in a mesh strainer and rinse under cold water for a few seconds. Place in medium pot over high heat with the vegetable stock or water and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 18 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and set aside to cool with the cover off. (This recipe is best with quinoa that has not been overcooked and is still a little al dente.)

Once cool, place the quinoa, tomatoes, onion, parsley, mint, lime juice, oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl and lightly toss. Taste for seasoning and add more lime, salt or pepper to taste.
Add chickpeas and avocado and stir to mix again. Serve at room temperature or cold.
1 ½ cups quinoa
3 cups vegetable stock or water
½ tsp sea salt

This Week's Menu

2008-09-07T15:00:00.000-04:00

Been working hard on the next menu for my Gourmet Vegetarian Lunch Delivery Service. Everything is organic and homemade. Here's what we are having.....

Monday
Brown Rice with French Lentils and Caramelized Onions
Citrus Marinated, Pressed Cabbage Salad
(I just love this rice and lentil dish. I have made it with brown rice and green lentils, red rice with brown lentils and am now going to try out this 3rd version. French Lentils are prettier and smaller than the green/brown ones. They are speckled when raw and then lose the speckles and turn more green when cooked.)

Tuesday
Quinoa Salad with Local Jersey Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Corn
(I love working with quinoa, especially for vegans and vegetarians since it is a complete protein super food as it contains all nine essential amino acids. It tastes great warm or cold and will be complemented by our local produce. I am also going to use some beautiful heirloom tomatoes in this dish.)

Wednesday
Millet and Vegetable Croquettes
Crunchy Cauliflower Slaw with Dill Dressing
(the creaminess of the dill dressing on the cauliflower will go great with the crunchy, fried croquettes!)

Thursday
Double Sesame Skillet Red Rice with Baby Lima Beans and Greens
(the rich undertones of toasted sesame oil along with a topping of sesame seeds on the rice make up the "double" sesame theme for today. I am hoping to find fresh lima beans, but if not, dried will do just fine)

Friday
Zucchini Noodles with Cashew “Alfredo” Sauce
with Pan Fried Tofu Sticks
(This is a mainly raw dish. The spaghetti "noodles" are made on a saladaco, and then topped with the cashew sauce making it a raw version of fettuccine alfredo. It is a great summertime dish. The cashew sauce also goes well over real pasta!)

Dessert: Zucchini Bread with some organic chocolate chips thrown in.

For more information on the Vegetarian Lunch Delivery Service including how to order, click here.

FDA OKs Irradiated Lettuce and Spinach

2008-09-06T06:32:00.004-04:00

Rather than dealing with the problems inherent in a disease-ridden factory-farmed food system, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in mid-September it will allow the irradiation of lettuce and spinach.

Food irradiation is the controversial practice of bombarding food with high levels of x-rays (ionizing radiation) in order to destroy disease causing pathogens. Unfortunately, in the process of irradiation, other hazards arise, like the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and nutrient loss, and the formation of carcinogenic chemicals. A product bearing this green radura symbol above has been irradiated.

While irradiated lettuce and spinach must be labeled in supermarkets, there are currently no labeling requirements whatsoever for restaurants, schools, hospitals, or nursing homes serving irradiated produce or other nuked foods such as beef. Over the past decade, OCA and our allies in the organic community have prevented corporate agribusiness and the nuclear industry from contaminating organic standards. Food irradiation is prohibited on any product labeled as "organic."

There is currently a 30 day comment period for the FDA's new rule. Make your voice heard! Click here to send the FDA a message during the 30-Day Comment Period

Article above is from the Organic Consumers Association.

My Favorite Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

2008-09-01T10:00:00.001-04:00

This gluten free chocolate cake recipe continues to impress. I made it for the first time here, but looking back I realized that I never posted the recipe. I adapted it from the Chocolate Cake recipe by Carol Fenster, Ph.D in her book "Special Diet Solutions". I have made it for a health fair that I worked at, and also a 40th Anniversary cake I did where only 2 people in the bunch were GF. Everyone there loved the cake and could not believe it was GF. It is so moist that the texture is almost fudge-like, but still springy and light. It is sweet enough that it does not have to be frosted.

Well, I needed something fun to take to a party Friday night and decided to make mini-cupcakes out of this recipe. That way people can take "just a bite" and not feel bad for eating an entire slice of cake. The only problem is when you forget just how many you have eaten.

The original recipe is for a 1 layer cake with an 8" or 9" pan. I am going to leave those instructions as is and then put some notes afterwards for using the mini cupcake pan. I have also tried different kinds of sugars and it always comes out fine. So if you need to substitute another sugar go ahead. When I use sucanat I put it through a coffee grinder first to make it finer as I find the sugar crystals are a little large and I want to make sure they dissolve with the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients:
½ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup millet or sorghum flour
¼ cup potato starch
¼ cup tapioca flour
½ cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 cup maple crystals, sucanat or regular sugar
¾ teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup almond, rice or soy milk
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 egg, lightly beaten
¾ cup coffee, room temp

Procedure:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch round cake pan with butter or coconut oil. If your pans tend to stick, cut a round piece of parchment paper and place in the bottom of the pan and then grease that as well.

Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix. Add vanilla, milk, butter and egg and mix on low speed with a hand mixer until smooth, about 1 minute. Add coffee and blend for another minute until coffee has been completely mixed in. Batter will be thicker than non-gluten-free batters.

Pour batter into cake pan and smooth out the top with a rubber spatula. Place in oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, turning pan half way through baking time. Remove from oven when a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove and set on a rack to cool completely. Finish with your favorite frosting.

Mini Cupcakes

This recipe makes 50 mini cupcakes. Fill holes halfway with batter. Reduce baking time to 11 minutes, turning halfway through cooking time if your oven heats unevenly. I topped mine with some cocoa butter cream frosting and then a single coffee bean at the peak of the frosting.

Regular Cupcakes

I have also made regular-sized cupcakes, but I don't remember how many the recipe yielded. The best part about them was the cracked Souffle look some of them had when they came out of the oven. I left those ones unfrosted.

The Omnivore's Hundred

2008-08-30T20:12:00.003-04:00

Found this poll while perusing food blogs today, and it peaked my curiosity. The Omnivore's Hundred was started by Andrew Wheeler, of the British food blog "Very Good Taste" two weeks ago. It has been so popular that he has 672 responses on his original posting alone. Wonder how many additional posts are on all those other blogs that posted their copy of his list?

Many other bloggers have jumped in for the challenge and have posted their results on their webpages, I found lists at: The Food of Love, Antics of a cycling cook, BitterSweet (who changed it to the "Vegan's Hundred", which I think was a nice touch), Chocolate and Zucchini and many more. Check out Andrew's FAQs about the list here if you want to know more.

So, on to the list..... Andrew says he was inspired to create a list of foods that he thinks every omnivore should try at least once in their life and then has invited all those out in cyberspace to take on the challenge of seeing how they rate against his list.

The rules are:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out (or mark in red) any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.

If you need to look something up, you can use Wikipedia.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (does alligator count?)
6. Black pudding (also called Blood Pudding)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba Ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (stinky cheese)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (how about Hagen Daas Dulce de Leche ice cream?)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (more points for doing it at Fisherman's Wharf in SF!)
33. Salted Lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (had them both separately)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (oh yeah, jello shots!)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal (not sure I could handle the heat...)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken Tikka Masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (ate it while still warm from the takeout window)
50. Sea urchin (yes, I ate it, but didnt like it)
51. Prickly pear/Nopales
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst
65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (eh, I'd rather not)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare/Rabbit
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (I am assuming this is damn good chocolate, I may not have had this kind, but I have had really good, expensive, amazing chocolate)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

My number is 65. #3 and #82 pictured above, enjoyed at Fred's Restaurant in New York City earlier this year. What is your number? I would love to hear what other's reactions to this list are, and what items you think are missing, My list would include:

Glass of expensive, reserve red wine enjoyed with chocolate truffles
Fresh Coconut Water
Scrapple (if Spam made the list then this East Coast gem should be on there too)
Cherry Tomatoes picked fresh from the vine
Warm Brie with a hazlenut or berry glaze

Please leave me a comment if you do the survey. If you don't have a blog, then you can paste the list into an email and then make your edits and send it back.

Red Lentil and Coconut Soup

2008-08-25T16:18:00.004-04:00

This is a favorite soup of mine to make, as well as a household favorite. This soup has a slight sweetness from the lentils as well as the coconut milk. I end up throwing other items in it like broccoli stalks, carrots and curry powder which give it multiple layers of flavor. Red lentils are low in fat and high in protein and fiber. Before cooking, always rinse lentils and pick out stones and other debris. Adding the lemon juice at the end makes all of the flavors come to life.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil, sesame oil or coconut oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1¾ cups red lentils, rinsed
4 cups vegetable stock
1 can coconut milk
4 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1½ tablespoons white miso paste

Alternative seasonings:
- 3 teaspoons grated ginger, or 2 tsp ginger juice
- 2 teaspoons cumin or curry powder

Procedure:
In large soup pot, heat oil over medium low heat. Add onion and carrot and sauté until onions are soft, about 2 minutes.

Add lentils, stock, coconut milk, garlic and salt to the pot and stir. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from heat once lentils are completely soft.

Pour half the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. If you do not want a chunky soup, make sure to capture all the bits of vegetables you have thrown in including the garlic cloves. Return soup to the pot, add lemon juice, miso and any additional seasonings desired and stir to mix. If soup gets too thick, add additional vegetable stock.

Pour into bowls and serve. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream, crème fraiche or greek yogurt. Goes great served with warm pieces of fresh whole grain bread.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
The soup will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week. It can be frozen but is best made fresh.
Reheating Instructions: Place soup into pot over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the soup has thickened add a little more vegetable stock or coconut milk.

Summer 2008 in Review

2008-08-25T14:32:00.018-04:00

I find myself without anyone to cook for today. I usually have clients that I cook for daily and everyone just happens to be away today. So I am using this time for much needed administrative projects, working on my website, cleaning off my hard drive, getting sidetracked...... My better half would chime in here with a strong commercial for just how easily distracted I am... but its all good right? Sometime you find great things while you were supposed to be doing other things....

I was looking through all the pictures I have taken lately and thinking about all the fun things that happened and the people I spent time with. Instead of keeping this contemplative mood to myself, I have created a slideshow of sorts, hope you enjoy....

early morning walk to the lake while camping in southern new jersey

trip to a friend's garden marveling at the beautiful things she is growing there

the joy of little feet given permission to get dirty and play in the mud

seeing the sunset over the ocean on the west coast

taking in the healing power of the ocean while enjoying a hot cup of coffee

enjoying a glass of california wine at the cabin in the pocono mountains

staying out on the porch at the cabin after dark

cooking for other people professionally and the validation of getting paid for it

spending time with childhood friends

A Day In The Life Of A Cooking Show

2008-08-20T11:33:00.003-04:00

I just returned home from working on the production of a cooking show in San Francisco. Now before you all ask when you are going to see me on TV, the answer is never. Well, at least not on this one. The job consisted of 15 days of hard work, long days, amazing food and really nice people. Oh, and stairs, lots of stairs. Carrying food up the stairs, carrying pots and pans down the stairs. Running another onion up the stairs, oh and can you get us more parsley.....back down the stairs. I am certainly not complaining seeing as how my legs are stronger than ever.

The show was for Joanne Weir. She has many books out, teaches classes in Italy, France and Spain, a cooking show on PBS and also conducts classes in her home.

There is a magic that happens on set which is hard to describe unless you are there to experience it. The moment when a group of talented people come together with a lot of cameras, lights and equipment, some raw ingredients and a little humor. The production company was A La Carte Communications which did the first season of Joanne Wier's Cooking Class series. They also produce the America's Test Kitchen TV show, Daisy Cooks and a series with Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. This was my first experience with a cooking show production company and in my opinion they were great to work for.

I worked in the secondary kitchen with the Culinary Producer, Chris Styler and my good friend Dorothy Kinne. We made sure that whatever Joanne needed, she got. I worked mostly as support to Chris and Dorothy taking care of things that did not need cooking. That meant cleaning a lot of dishes and doing inventory, amongst other things.

I would love to post all the amazing dishes we worked on but I think they are part of Joanne's new book which is not out yet. We will just have to wait until the show airs sometime in 2009. Stayed tuned for more updates!

Beluga Lentils with Wild Mushrooms and Herbs

2008-08-18T16:49:00.008-04:00

I was following a recipe from "The Low Fat Cookbook" today even though I wasn't cooking for someone that needed "low" fat. We all know that fat is flavor! I liked how the dish sounded so I thought I would give it a try. Well, I started changing things right from the beginning. The recipe called for baby lentils and I used beluga, mainly because I have a bunch of them already in my pantry. The recipe says to cook the onion and garlic in stock and red wine, which is a low fat method. I sauteed them in olive oil instead. I also added sauteed leeks, which made this dish even more beautiful. The colors were such a surprise and I just loved looking at the dish while I ate it. The bright green of the leeks and the deep purple of the onions play beautifully against the black lentils.

Here is the recipe, some things are approximate as I was creating as I went...

1 .05 oz package dried oyster or porcini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups warm water

2 cups beluga lentils

4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh oregano
1 tsp sea salt

4 cups vegetable stock, plus 1/4 cup
3 tbsps olive oil, divided
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 leek, thinly sliced

7 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

1/2 red onion in long slices
1/2 cup red wine
sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

1. Place dried mushrooms in small bowl. Pour warm water over mushrooms and let sit 30 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid. Chop mushrooms and set aside.

2. Rinse and pick through lentils to remove any grains or stones. Place in large pot with thyme, oregano, vegetable stock and mushroom soaking liquid. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer, uncovered, 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Remove from heat and drain if necessary. Place in a large bowl. Pull out herb sprigs, pull off any remaining leaves and put back in with lentils. Discard sprigs.

2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in medium frying pan and saute garlic and leeks over low heat until fragrant and soft, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup vegetable stock and let simmer until leeks are soft or until liquid is almost gone. Add chopped oyster mushrooms and saute another minute. Place in bowl with lentils.

3. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in same pan over medium low heat and saute shitake mushrooms until tender and a little browned, about 6 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

4. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil in same pan and saute onions until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Pour in red wine and heat until liquid is almost gone. Place in bowl with lentils.

5. Stir lentils. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in servings bowl and top with shitake mushrooms. Enjoy!

This is the pot with the lentils, stock and herbs. I thought it looked so pretty that I had to take a picture.

The World According to Monsanto

2008-08-15T12:37:00.000-04:00

Have you ever heard the term "Frankenstein foods"? Do you know what is being done to our vegetables in order to make them grocery store ready? Why do the local tomatoes grown at the nearby farm look so different from the perfect ruby red ones found at the chain grocery stores. Check out more about the main supplier of seeds and pesticides, Monsanto. You can read more about them on their website, which praises them as "helping farmers grow food more efficiently and in a more sustainable manner." Unfortunately this is done through science and changing the inherent characteristics of seeds. Changing them in such a way as to make them unusable after one crop, amongst other things.

The infamous company that has forced PCBs, Agent Orange, biotech crops and rBGH on the world has more control over global politics, laws and the future of food and water than most people realize. Watch this investigative video that analyzes the inner workings, history and scandalous secrets of one of the world's most powerful corporations--Monsanto.

WATCH: The World According to Monsanto

Read the Vanity Fair Article

Another interesting video to watch: GMO's and the Law, One Farmer's Battle with Monsanto
Percy Schmeiser is the Canadian canola farmer who was sued by Monsanto because his crop was contaminated with their GMO canola. He tells his story and gives an update on what has been going on in the recent months. Talk from November, 2006.

Blue Cheese & Bacon Potato Salad

2008-08-06T10:00:00.004-04:00

I have been taking a class on BBQ techniques at the local college, which has been a great summertime activity. One night a week I don't have to cook and we have been getting our fill of BBQ. Each Tuesday night the Chef has been showing us how to make dry rubs, wet rubs and various marinades for poultry, beef, pork and seafood. The last class of the series was about side salads in which we made this dish full of blue cheese and bacon fat. I loved it immediately and decided that when I got home I would try to make a "healthier" version. The original version in class had the standard grocery store bacon and blue cheese, buttermilk, white vinegar and refined sugar. My version will be all organic and made from more natural ingredients.

For my salad I purchased Applegate Farms Bacon without nitrates and a gourmet blue cheese. A gorgonzola blue would be fantastic in this as well if you can find it.

Ingredients:
5 to 6 red potatoes, cut into small cubes

5 strips bacon
1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 small red onion, minced
1 rib celery, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup mayo

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp rice milk
2 tsp rice syrup
2 tbsp stoneground mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes in pot of salted, boiling water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse potatoes under cold water to stop cooking, and place in large bowl. Cut bacon along the short side into strips. Place in a small frying pan over medium heat until cooked and a little crispy. Pour bacon and grease over potatoes. Add blue cheese, red onion, celery and green onion to the bowl with potatoes and stir to mix.

In a small bowl mix the remaining ingredients and then pour over potato mixture, stir to mix. Then taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking. I found that after I made this I wanted more salt and the bacon a little crispier. The blue cheese really makes this a rich dish and you dont need much mayo. I didnt have celery in mine because I didnt have any in the house but I really think this needs a little more crunch. Enjoy!

This is the blue I used, "Point Reyes Original Blue" by Farmstead Cheese Company.

The Flexitarian Table

2008-07-20T10:47:00.009-04:00

I purchased Peter's book "The Flexitarian Table" earlier this year and had opened it a couple times, perused the pages, but it mostly sat on my bookshelf taunting me, unused. I am familiar with Peter's cooking as I took a public class he taught at the Natural Gourmet last year in New York City. All of the dishes were amazing. I have thought many times of his Duck with Raspberry Frambroise, wanting to make it at home for my family. The title of his book refers to a term created a couple years ago for those that eat mainly a vegetarian diet but add animal protein occasionally. The recipes in the book all have a vegetarian option as well as how to make it with meat.

So finally I picked one of the summer menus from the book for last nights meal. I made "Grilled Shrimp in Harissa" and "Fresh Corn Polenta with Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes". Something about the picture by the recipe just jumped out and said delicious. It also happens to be one of the dishes he is holding on the cover.

First I worked on the Shrimp and Harissa. For the spice mixture, he recommends toasting the spices yourself and then crushing them in a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. I tried using the mortar and pestle but could not grind them fine enough for my liking. So I did end up using my coffee grinder that is reserved for non-coffee uses. Although, up til now I had only used it for grinding sugars. We will see if I can clean it well enough to rid it of the spice flavor, or I will have to get a new one for my desserts. The Harissa was extremely easy to make and then the shrimp cooked up quickly. The texture of the Harissa on the shrimp was like eating BBQ'd chicken with a dry rub. I found it to be delicious.

The polenta recipe called for adding fresh corn to the pot of corn grits. I loved the combination of creamy polenta with bits of crunchy sweet corn. It also went very well with the Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes which packed a lot of heat. I may have put in too many red pepper flakes for my boyfriend's taste, but I loved every bite. My polenta took far longer to cook than what Peter wrote in his recipe. Mine took about 25 minutes and I did add extra water and some vegetable stock.

I am looking forward to trying another recipe from his book, "Summer Bean Ratatouille" and the "Steak With Bread Crumb Salsa". My interest in this one may be because I finally saw the movie Ratatouille by Pixar. My bread crumb salsa will of course be, Gluten Free.

Gourmet Vegetarian Lunch Service

2008-07-18T10:47:00.010-04:00

At the request of a local office group I am now offering a vegetarian lunch delivery service. Meals will be created with organic, whole foods and offer a well-balanced blend of grains, vegetables and healthy proteins. Non-vegetarian options will be available if enough people ask for it. Lunches will be individually packaged and delivered 2 to 3 days per week. There will be a sweet baked item included with your meals once a week that can be enjoyed throughout the week. This may include a dozen cookies, small cake, sweet baked bread like pumpkin or zucchini or a fresh fruit tart.

All dishes can be adapted for food allergies and special dietary needs. I have seperate cookware to accomodate those with severe wheat allergies like Celiac. Please communicate any special needs to me.

Currently the delivery days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This could be revised to just Mondays and Thursdays. Delivery area includes Egg Harbor Township, Linwood and Northfield, New Jersey. If you live or work outside this area, a small delivery fee may apply. A sample weekly menu can be found at http://www.theholisticchef.com/Vegetarian_Lunch_Service.html. Please email me for more information.

Simple Picnic Food

2008-07-18T10:25:00.007-04:00

Having fun with simple picnic foods...... I realized yesterday that I have never made deviled eggs. I have eaten plenty of them at family bbq's, always enjoying that whipped, mayonaisey flavor, but have never done them myself. Perhaps its because there is always someone else that makes them, or that eating more than one person's share of eggs and mayo just cant be good for you.

I had some eggs that were getting close to the expiration date so I decided to boil a couple for our evening on the lawn at the Philadelphia Philharmonic concert last night at the Mann Center.

The recipe is really easy, boil some eggs however you know how to do them. I have seen so many different ways of boiling eggs and they all seem to work out fine. Then place them into a bowl of ice water. After a couple minutes, crack the eggs under water and let them sit there another minute. This helps to loosen the shell and makes it easier to peel.

Cut the egg in half lengthwise, scoop out the yolk with a spoon and place yolks in a small bowl. Add mayo, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and cayenne to your taste. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the white halves, sprinkle with paprika, done! I topped mine with a little Maldon salt which has large crunchy crystals. It has a flavor like no other and I just love it. Thanks to my best friend for turning me onto it.

Here is an article in The Ithica Journal about the history of the "deviled egg" which originated as a spicy dish, hence the name. What I have made above is considered more a "stuffed" egg.

In Production for Cooking Show in San Francisco

2008-06-22T07:00:00.006-04:00

I am in San Francisco this week to work on the production of a cooking show being filmed in a beautiful home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The house belongs to Joanne Weir, the star of the show. This is the second season of her "cooking class" style show where she works side by side with a guest student for each episode. So far we have been in set up mode, getting our pots and pans ready, knives sharpened and produce organized before shooting starts in a couple days. The lighting crew has been hard at work setting up the kitchen as well. That is my friend and coworker in the kitchen, Dorothy, adding notes to our shopping list. I will be posting more about our experiences as the production unfolds.

http://cookingclass.joanneweir.com/

Episodes can be seen in New Jersey on Saturdays at 11am on NJN, channel 50

Produced by A La Carte Communications http://www.alacartetv.com/index.htm

My Restaurant Tour of New York City

2008-06-09T16:00:00.002-04:00

My boyfriend, Michael, and I spent the Memorial Day weekend in New York City for my birthday. What a beautiful time to spend in New York, the weather was amazing. We took a bike ride through Central Park, saw some comedy, did a lot of walking, a little shopping and ate some delicious food. I was happy to find more restaurants with a gluten free menu than the last time I was there. I lived in New York for 8 months last year and found places like Slice and Risotteria. This time I found even more. Thank you to all those people blogging about restaurants with gluten free menus, that is where I found most of these places.

The first place we tried was S'MAC (short for Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese) in the East Village. I had been looking forward to trying this place since I first heard about it a year ago. Back then I had no idea they did GF, or perhaps they didn't until recently. It is close to the Peanut Butter and Jelly restaurant, which has a complete menu of PB&J themed foods. Only in New York! I ordered the "4 Cheese" nosh with GF pasta, GF breadcrumbs on top and added broccoli. Michael got the "Cheeseburger" nosh with regular pasta. They come to your table sizzling in your own personal cast iron pan. They both were delicious. I thought mine had way too much cheese on it and I left a pool of melted cheese in my cast iron pan when I was done, but Michael's was perfect.

The next place we tried to eat at was Good Enough To Eat on Amsterdam and 83rd. I had found many raving reviews of their breakfast online and figured I had to check it out. The line was ridiculous when we got there. Instead of waiting, we went across the street to Fred's whose motto is "Come! Sit! Stay!" What a fantastic find this was. We got a great table on the sidewalk in a little shade. I ordered the Huevos Rancheros and my boyfriend had the Eggs Benedict made with roasted pork instead of ham. His looked delicious from my view and the hollandaise was wonderful. I thought my breakfast was delicious, full of protein and all gluten free. Fred's is on Amsterdam at 83rd, and I think it was the best meal we had the entire trip. We tried to go back the next morning and were sadly disappointed to find they are only open for breakfasts on the weekends. So we did end up going to Good Enough To Eat that day, and I have to say, it was not as good as Fred's.

Another restaurant I read about was Sambuca, on 72nd right by Central Park. They have Southern Italian food and a separate gluten free menu. We happened to be close by when we were hungry and decided to stop in. The ambience was lovely, slightly dark and romantic. The waiters seemed knowledgeable about special dietary needs which always makes me feel better about eating out. I was given my own warm bread roll while we waited for our dinner. The roll was just ok, a little hard, but just to be given something while my fellow diners are eating their bread before the meal comes was enough to be delighted. We shared a family style plate of GF pasta with traditional marinara and a side of sauteed broccoli with garlic. Michael also ordered a plate of meatballs which he said were very good as well as being huge. The best part of our meal may have been the GF brownie for dessert. We were so full that we took it to go and ate it in the hotel later that night. It was very moist and rich, probably full of butter, and I was unable to finish it, even over a couple days. The only down side to this restaurant was that it was a bit expensive. Our meal was very simple and the bill was over $100. That did include a couple glasses of wine, but still, this is not a cheap restaurant.

No trip is complete without an ice cream sundae at Pure Food and Wine. They serve a completely raw menu which means everything is "live" and full of beneficial enzymes. I did an internship there last year and always try to go back for a meal when I am in New York. I have been in their kitchens and there is no dairy or wheat used in anything as they are not raw. All of the water in the building is filtered. The Chefs are innovative and love what they do which transfers into the food. Most of their desserts are made with coconut meat which gives their ice cream a rich creamy texture. I highly recommend the ice cream sundae and the Caesar Salad. A great place for vegetarians and those with dairy and wheat allergies.

For non food fun ...... we saw a great comedy show at the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village. It is less expensive than other comedy venues because there is no headliner. Most comedians go there to practice and work out new routines. We saw Jim Norton, Louis CK, Colin Quinn and a couple others. Did a bike tour of Central Park operated by Bite of the Apple Tours. The tour went for 2 hours and the guides were knowledgeable. We also took a sunset cruise by New York Water Taxi. The cruise was fun, views were great, but I am not sure I will ever go do it again. You have to board the water taxi at the South Street Seaport which I had never been to until this trip. It looks a lot like Pier 39 in San Francisco and is full of tourists. The dinner we had was awful and I wish we had eaten before we got down there. If you don't mind crowds, then check it out.

For our last meal of the trip we went to brgr, which is the best burger joint in the city in my opinion. The beef and turkey used for the burgers are free from steroids, growth hormones and antibiotics. They also use high quality milk for their milkshakes that has no hormones, antibiotics or additives. They used to have a sign on the wall stating that their meat was from Montana and the pickles were made by a local group. That sign was gone, so I am not sure if their practices have changed. Brgr has traditional toppings like tomato, lettuce and mustard but also more fun ones like herb mayonnaise, avocado, brie and applewood smoked bacon. I stopped by Whole Foods before going and bought some GF hamburger buns. I explained to the cashier at brgr that I couldn't eat wheat and asked if I could have my burger on the bun I brought. She said no problem and they accommodated me. The bun wasn't that great, but it was so nice to eat my lunch like everyone else instead of with a fork.

I may have left my heart in San Francisco, but New York just might have my stomach.

What to do about all this plastic...or ..... What do I drink my water out of now?

2008-05-28T10:44:00.003-04:00

I have noticed more and more products I buy are suddenly packaged in plastic. What happened to the juice I used to buy in glass jars?... plastic bottles. It is getting harder to find non-plastic containers at the grocery store. And what about recycling all this plastic. I feel like I am filling our recycling container at home to the top on a weekly basis. I would rather have glass containers that I could possibly reuse. And there is a recent buzz in the news about previously "safe" plastic bottles now being bad for you. What has changed since I last checked this out?

I recently found this article on the Organic Consumer's Association website:
Do You Know What Plastic Recycling Symbols Mean?
An easy guide to what each of the symbols mean, how they can be recycled, what they get recycled into and the probability of chemical leaching. The original source of the article is The Daily Green, May 3, 2008. The article explains the following plastics:

Number 1 -- PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate)
Number 2 -- HDPE (high density polyethylene)
Number 3 -- V (Vinyl) or PVC
Number 4 -- LDPE (low density polyethylene)
Number 5 -- PP (polypropylene)
Number 6 -- PS (polystyrene)
Number 7 -- Miscellaneous

I have been avoiding eating foods packaged in plastic since I read "Hormone Heresy" a few years ago by Sherrill Sellman. In it she describes plastics as giving off estrogen-mimicking chemicals and the dangers they pose to women. I have had bad PMS and problems with my reproductive organs for years. Could it have been an overload of estrogen in my body, was I overexposed to estrogen-like chemicals ? I am always willing to try out natural remedies instead of using drugs so I tried to remove as much plastic from my surroundings and food as possible. I found that my PMS symptoms lessened and my other reproductive problems got better. These results could have been from multiple changes I made like eating better, but I believe the lower exposure to plastic also helped.

So what to drink water out of now? My new favorite toy is this water bottle by SIGG, made in Switzerland. It is made from a single piece of impact extruded aluminum with no seams. I find it keeps my water cool, even in the car, and I end up drinking more throughout the day. You can find them at many stores, including REI and Whole Foods and they run about $21. I have also heard good things about KleanKanteen stainless steel bottles. I do still use convenience foods like bottled water when travelling, but I try to keep it to a minimum.

Other resources for info about plastic:
http://www.earthodyssey.com/symbols.html#recyclable
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/may/18-the-dirty-truth-about-plastic
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1565564,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plastic.html

Raw Flax Crackers

2008-05-23T12:00:00.012-04:00

Another raw creation, Herbed Flax Crackers made in my Excalibur dehydrator. The basic recipe comes from a class I took from Renee Loux about 4 years ago in New York City at the Natural Gourmet Culinary Institute. These crackers come out crisp and take on any flavor you want to add. They stay in the dehydrator for 15 to 20 hours and the prep is very easy.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flax seeds
4 cups filtered water
2 teaspoons sea salt
*seasonings of choice, mine had minced onions, fresh thyme, salt and pepper

Soak flax seeds in water for 1 to 2 hours. The flax will absorb the water and create a thick gooey liquid similar to egg whites.

In a Vitamix or high power blender, grind flax seeds and sea salt in several batches. If the flax is too thick to process in the blender, add more water until mixture moves freely. Blend until flax seeds are completely broken. Add seasonings* and blend for another 30 seconds to thoroughly mix.

Spread mixture in a thin layer to the edges of a teflex sheet on top of a dehydrator tray. Use a rubber spatula for easy spreading. Recipe should cover 3 or 4 trays. For a thicker cracker, spread in a slightly thicker layer. Dehydrate at 108 degrees for 15 to 20 hours or until mostly dry. Peel the flax off the teflex sheet and cut into whatever shape of cracker you want. I broke mine roughly with my hands to get uneven shapes. Place crackers back onto dehydrator tray without the teflex sheet and dry for a couple more hours until crispy. Store in a cool dry place.

*Add these to make more Flavor Variations:
Grated Ginger, Sesame Seeds, Sesame Oil, Tamari
Basil, Olive Oil, Sea Salt, Garlic
Lime Juice, Lime Zest, Chili Powder, Black Pepper
Thyme, Rosemary, Sunflower Seeds
Cumin, Coriander

Alternative Flours Explained

2008-05-19T14:17:00.011-04:00

There are a lot of flours out there besides wheat but most people do not know what to do with them. Reading the label of a gluten free bread can also be a little confusing when you see ingredients like sorghum and xathan gum. Just what are they? Below is a list of flours and baking ingredients with descriptions of what they are made from and how they can be used.

Almond Flour - made by grinding blanched almonds into a fine powder (skins removed). The consistency is more like corn meal than wheat flour. You can find extra fine Italian Almond Flour which has more flavor, but can be very pricey. Baking with almond flour requires using more eggs to provide more structure. Use it in cakes, cookies, and other sweet baked goods. You can make it yourself by placing blanched almonds in a Vitamix or high power blender.

Brown Rice Flour - made from stone ground brown rice. Used in gluten free baked goods as a replacement for wheat. Can also be used to thicken soups and stews. I prefer to use this instead of white rice as it contains more fiber and therefore has a higher nutritional value. The higher fiber content will contribute to a heavier product than recipes made with white rice flour. Can also produce a gritty product when used alone and is best when combined with other flours like sorghum, potato flour and tapioca starch.

Coconut Flour - delicious alternative to wheat and other grain flours. It is very high in fiber, low in digestible carbohydrates and a good source of protein. It gives baked goods a rich, springy texture but needs a lot more liquid than other flours. Replace up to 20% of the flour called for in a recipe with Coconut Flour, adding an equivalent amount of additional liquid to the recipe. You will not need as much sugar when using this flour as the coconut has a natural sweetness.

Millet Flour - adds a subtle flavor, creamy color, and more vitamins and minerals than other grains Substitute 1/4 cup millet flour for an equal amount of unbleached white flour in any baked good. Can be a little gritty, like rice flour and contains no gluten, so is best to substitute around a 1/4 millet flour for other flours when baking.

Potato Flour - made from dehydrated potatoes. Used in bread, pancake and waffle recipes and as a thickener for sauces, gravies and soups. It adds smoothness and moisture in gluten free baking. It is high in carbohydrates and lacks fiber which makes it necessary to use it along with other flours as a mixture.

Quinoa Flour - made by grinding quinoa (keen-wah) to a powder. Highly nutritious, containing more protein, calcium and iron than other grains. It has a light nutty flavor. Not recommended to use alone as it does not contain any gluten. Best when substituting 1/4 cup for another flour.

Sorghum Flour - is an annual grass originating in Africa and a popular cereal crop worldwide. It has a higher protein content than corn and about equal to wheat. It is neutral in flavor which allows it to absorb other flavors well.

Tapioca Flour - made from the cassava root. Once ground it takes the form of a light, soft, fine white flour. It is starchy, slightly sweet and adds chewiness to baking and is a good thickener. Use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup per recipe to lighten and sweeten breads made with heavier flours like brown rice and millet.

Xanthan Gum - is a natural, complex carbohydrate made from a tiny microorganism called Xanthomonas campestris. Using about 1/4 tsp in bread and other gluten-free baked goods adds volume and viscosity which usually comes from the gluten in wheat. It is also used as a thickener and emulsifier in dairy products, salad dressings, and other foods.

**My favorite blend for gluten free baking is 1 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 cup potato flour, 3/4 cup sorghum flour. Mix flours and keep in an airtight container and replace for an equal amount of flour in your recipe of choice. Sometimes I add a little quinoa or millet flour as well. These flours come out best when there are eggs in the recipe and do not come out as good with egg replacers.

I am starting to see products using Navy Bean Flour as well like the Performance Blend by Heartland's Finest. I really like the texture of this flour and it adds more protein and fiber than the other flours listed above. This is something to be aware of for people with gluten allergy as GF baked goods are high in the glycemic index and could end up being just as health compromising as those foods containing gluten. I just tried their Macaroni and Cheese and give it a thumbs up.

For ideas of what to do with Coconut and Almond Flours, check out Elana's Pantry. She uses them exclusively because of their higher protein content. The recipes that I have tried from her blog so far have been delicious!

Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods produces all of the flours above in a plant dedicated gluten free.