I took a break after my incredibly sad month to refocus, to heal. To breathe. (Something I often forget to do). I needed to grapple with sudden heartache and cancer’s grip stealing people, and I needed to do it in private. Read more
Category: Recipes
Gratitude, a doughnut debt & a recipe
I have some pretty amazing friends (I have probably told you that before), and I am certain that is an understatement. The thing is, they are all easily bribed. Learning how to bribe fairly compensate show gratitude for your friends will get you far in life. Offering food in exchange for advice helped me land my current job.
A cocktail for that heartbreak
I try to keep this blog all about the food. But today is one of those days where I cannot ignore real life. Most days real life is designing websites and working with cool people. It is brewing beer with coworkers and grabbing drinks with friends.
Today’s real life was filled with heart break. Blondie ended our 3 and a half year relationship. I am going to go to bed for the first time in almost 4 years without talking to him before I go to sleep. We will hopefully be friends. But today I can’t be. Today, I need to be sad. In real life and blog life. (side note – please do not bash Blondie or tell him what he is missing, he is still a good person with a big heart and a smile that can light up a room. Just because our time together is over doesn’t mean he deserves any ill-wishes).
I am trying to “smile because it happend, not cry because it’s over”. But I think that is going to take time. Right now, I need to escape. I need to escape to where I have control and no one can make me sad. I need to take some time in the kitchen.
When I am in the kitchen, my brain quiets, the world slips away. The hum of old faithful is hypnotizing. The motions of baking are calming. When my world starts to crumble, I can find refuge in my kitchen. Worries and stress melt away. There are no clients to please or deadlines to hit. There are no time budgets to watch.
It is just me, old faithful and some kitchen magic.
I just hope there is enough magic in the kitchen in the coming days. I have never had to cook away a broken heart before.
People have suggested wine and chocolate. But I know I just need a hug and a bourbon. Ok, I need an endless supply of hugs, someone to squeeze my hand and tell me that I can conquer this too, and an endless supply of homemade ginger ale to go with my bourbon.
You also might notice that this is not mexican fruit salad and grilled fish. I felt the need to live on ice cream. (Project info is after the recipe).
| Homemade ginger ale with a kick |
|
Print
|
Recipe Type: Beverage
Author:
Prep time: 2 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 32 mins
Serves: 8
Ginger ale is probably my all time favorite soda. It is spicy, not too sweet and goes well with bourbon. This version calls for a little extra kick to give it that special something extra. It is best served with a squeeze of lime. Adapted from Joy the Baker.
Ingredients
- 250 grams (2 cups) coarsely chopped ginger You don’t need to peel it)
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 400 grams (2 cups) granulated sugar
- 6 cups (1 1/2 Liters) water
Instructions
- Place ginger into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times. You want to get maximum surface area.
- In a medium to large sauce pot, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, let the pot boil away, uncovered and undisturbed for about an hour and a half. You want to have about 2 cups of liquid.
- Once the syrup has reduced by half, strain out the ginger by pouring the syrup through a fine strainer.
- To use this to make soda, add 2-4 tablespoons to 12 ounces of sparkling water (I used my soda stream to make it). Finish with a slice of lime and, if you are in need of a cocktail, a shot of bourbon.
WordPress Recipe Plugin and Microformatting by EasyRecipe
2.2.6
This post is part of the Food Matters Project, a cooking collaboration from a wide range of food bloggers. Each week, I will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating. Follow along with us! My posts for this project can be found here. This month’s host is Sarah who posted the original recipe and you can see all the other brilliant salsas on this week’s roundup (check the comments).
Whole Grain Brunch: Gluten-free Strawberry Frangipane Tart
When I come home from work, I feel like I get pastry super powers. I get to work at being someone who gets to throw around terms like frangipane and galette and genoise. I get to put my French degree to work because I understand recipes and histories of pastries wrtitten in French (because we all know that the French invented pastry). I want to invite you to my gluten-free pastry super-power club. Today you are going to learn how to make frangipane and you are going to be astounded by the fact that it takes 3 minutes to make (after you measure out your ingredients). You are also going to be able to throw around the term frangipane in normal conversation.
Food Matters: Strawberry Blueberry Salsa
This post is part of the Food Matters Project, a cooking collaboration from a wide range of food bloggers. Each week, I will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating. Follow along with us! My posts for this project can be found here. This month’s host is Alissa who posted the original recipe and you can see all the other brilliant salsas on this week’s roundup (check the comments).
Ratio Rally: Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Bombs
This post is part of the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally, a group of gluten-free bloggers inspired and empowered by Ruhlman‘s Ratio. We get together each month and post many different takes on the same theme. This month that theme is Gluten-Free Bagels and the rally is being hosted by Morri from Meals with Morri
I cannot believe that it is May, much less that it isMay 2nd and that it is Ratio Rally day. Because April was one ca-razy busy month.
There was a blogging conference and a gluten-free expo. There was a gluten-free cookie ebook to write. There were high school musicals and there was a design conference and a pastry demo at the French Pastry School.
I am not sure how I got so much done in a month! All I know is that I am beat. And it is Ratio Rally day. And I am hoping and praying that these “bagel bombs” turn out swell.
5 Essentials for better gluten-free baking
Happy almost Celiac Awareness Month.
I am going to start this off with a plug for my gluten-free baking mini e-book series! My first one comes out on Tuesday!!!! It is all wrapped up and I am just finishing up the functionality so that you can buy it here on FrannyCakes.com 🙂 If you don’t have a free download card (I passed out 1,000 of them!), sign up for my newsletter so that you can still get a discount on the ebook! The price is set at $3, and I think you are going to love it! Read more
Gluten-free Blueberry Pie with a Ginger Streusel Topping
You’ve just gotta have faith in me. There are a lot of things in this recipe that you have to take my word for. Mammacakes didn’t trust me on the pie crust recipe, and when she made it, she added double the water and the crust was tough (and it shrank). She was also doubting that blueberry and ginger work together.
Food Matters Project | Roasted Garlic & Red Pepper Gluten-Free Pizza
This post is part of the Food Matters Project, a cooking collaboration from a wide range of food bloggers. Each week, I will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating. Follow along with us! My posts for this project can be found here.
Food really does matter. For millions of people in this country, it matters in a different way. Some foods are poison for them. In my case gluten and shellfish are my poisons. For some, like Blondie when he listens to his body, it is dairy. For others it is peanuts. And hundreds more types of foods can be poison to people.
I spent the weekend with people with all different sorts of food allergies or sensitivities or moral oppositions. I hung out with the girls who run Crave Bakeshop in Portland (the only gluten-free bakeshop to win Cupcake Wars). I met Mrs. Alaska, Brandy Wendler and stole her crown for a minute. I got to see old friends like Amy & the Bronskis. I got to eat with Silvana and Cybele. I barely got to talk to one of my favorites, Laura Russell (if you like asian food, you need her cookbook).
But all of these people have something in common – they all have food that they can’t eat. Yet, you won’t find a more joyful group of people anywhere. We get together and it is like no time has passed at all. Then everyone goes home and it is like Kyra from Crave tweeted this morning, it feels like the end of summer camp and all your friends are a thousand miles away.
Our combined inability to different foods has spurred all of us on to write cook books and blogs, Cybele is even launching a cookie line (I threatened to follow her around in hopes that some cookies would fall out of her bag they were that good). Food matters to all of these people in a different way than just making sure we eat better. We all need to nourish our bodies and keep them free of a different kind of poison.
In honor of my friends (new and old), I am sharing a pizza with you. One packed full of flavor and topped with (mostly) good for you ingredients.
This week’s recipe was Whole Wheat Pizza and topping the pizza the food matters way. I steered clear of the crust recipe for obvious reasons, but used the toppings list as a guide to make this delicious gluten-free variety. You can view the original recipe at Nikki’s site and you can see how everyone else interpreted the recipe in the comments of the link up post on the Food Matters Project.
This recipe is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.
| Food Matters Project | Roasted Garlic & Red Pepper Gluten-Free Pizza |
|
Print
|
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author:
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 recipe pizza crust (choose your favorite, or use my favorite from [url href=”http://www.easyeats.com/recipes/1111-pear-pizza”] Easy Eats Magazine[/url] you have to be a subscriber to see the recipe)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Williams-Sonoma Pizza Seasoning
- 2 heads of garlic, roasted and squeezed from the cloves
- 1/2 cup diced sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
- 1 12oz jar of roasted red peppers, cut into strips
- 6 ounces of chèvre frays (or any goat cheese or whatever your diet allows)
- 1 adult handful of shredded mozzarella (or any non-dairy substitute you prefer)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (if you have a pizza stone, put it in a cold oven and let it heat up with the oven. Mix the pizza seasoning into your pizza crust and let rise (if your crust needs to).
- Divide the crust into four and roll out the individual portions. on a flat cookie sheet or pizza peel, sprinkle corn meal and place the crusts on top.
- Brush the crusts with the oil from the sun dried tomatoes and then spread with the roasted garlic.
- Divide the peppers and the sun dried tomatoes evenly between the pizzas.
- Sprinkle the cheeses over the pizzas and smash the toppings down a little if you feel like you have mounds of toppings.
- Transfer the pizzas to the pizza stone and bake for 15-20 minutes. (I had to bake my pizzas 2 at a time because of the size of my pizza stone). let the pizzas cool a few minutes before you cut them or eat them because they will be HOT!)
WordPress Recipe Plugin and Microformatting by EasyRecipe
2.2.6
Food Matters | Broccoli Quinoa Salad
This post is part of the Food Matters Project, a cooking collaboration from a wide range of food bloggers. Each week, I will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating. Follow along with us! My posts for this project can be found here.
Today is a Food Matters day.
One problem, I quite dislike the main component for the recipe for this week’s post.