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Five minute sauce

This is a go-to answer for dinner chez moi. I am frequently not home until after 7pm and by then, I am usually so hungry that any bag of chips in my apartment is not safe. And there are nights I want a real meal and I just have to rush out the door. Since I eschew (mom, be proud that the education you paid for causes me to use pretentious vocabulary) food that comes already prepared this sauce is key. I tried buying some jars of sauce this winter because I was so busy and I was so disappointed. All of them were missing something. And I will be frank, spending $8-$12 to get my hands on a decent jar of sauce just doesn’t make my budget happy.

It can be adapted to what you have on hand and it cooks while your pasta is boiling. This sauce makes it so that I do not ever have to buy sauce in a jar ever again. Even when all I have time for is boiling noodles.

 

Five minute sauce
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Recipe Type: Sauce
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 2 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 7 mins
Serves: 4
A sauce that cooks while your pasta boils.
Ingredients
  • 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 red chili
  • 1/4 cup dried basil*
  • 1 large sweet pepper
  • 1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
  • Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Boil water.
  2. Peel & chop your clove of garlic. Chop your chili & remove the seeds. Dice your pepper.
  3. In a second pot, over medium heat, pour in the olive oil.
  4. Add the garlic and let it cook until it is aromatic (about one minute).
  5. Add the chili and the basil*. Cook for 30 seconds.
  6. Add the can of tomatoes (using all the liquid) and the pepper.
  7. Add salt & pepper to taste.
  8. Cook over medium-low heat until pasta is ready.
  9. Drain pasta and toss with sauce.
Notes

If you have fresh basil, use about 1 cup chopped. Chop the stems too, but keep them separate. Toss the stems and about 1/4 of the leaves in where I indicated adding the basil and stir the rest in about 30 seconds before the sauce is finished.

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Sweet Pepper Pesto Grilled Chees

Sweet Pepper Pesto

Sweet Pepper Pesto Grilled CheesAfter the Gluten Free Expo, I went straight to Whole Foods and bought a loaf of Rudi’s Gluten Free Multigrain Bread. I really hate gluten free bread. And I mean, I really hate it. I refuse to eat sandwiches any more because of my intense dislike of it. I don’t even like the popcorn bread that my dad makes that every one raves about. Maybe it is all in my head, but I digress. I had a grilled cheese sample at the expo and I was sold.

There is this great little restaurant in town that makes an awesome grilled swiss with pesto sandwich that I remember from my glutinous days. It was simply delicious. I wanted to recreate that experience tonight. But, the basil plants that I have are not doing so well because it is too wet and I was out of roasted red peppers. So, a pesto recipe was born.

I then used it to make a grilled cheese sandwich. I have to say, this might be my favorite discovery from the Expo.

Sweet Pepper Pesto Grilled Cheese
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Recipe Type: Sauce
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 2
Sweet peppers, sweet onion and italian herbs make this fresh pesto delectable.
Ingredients
  • 4 small sweet peppers or 1 large
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon dried basil or 10-12 leaves fresh basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
  • salt to taste
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 slices Rudi’s Gluten Free Multi-grain bread
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 2 Tablespoons soft butter
Instructions
  1. Chop onion into quarters. Peel garlic. Remove stem ends and seeds from peppers. Combine in food processor or manual chopper along with herbs. Pulse until ingredients are finely chopped. Add olive oil and pulse until desired consistency is reached. I like mine chunky, but some people prefer theirs to have a finer dice.
  2. Heat a skillet over medium heat and butter one side of each slice of bread. Put 2 slices butter side down in the heated skillet and sprinkle on enough cheese to cover the slice (I used about 1/8 cup per slice). Spread pesto on top of cheese. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and top with the second slice of bread, butter side up. Place a heavy frying pan on top and cook for about 4 minutes. Remove frying pan, flip sandwiches and put the frying pan back on top. After about 4 more minutes, the bread should be golden and toasted. The cheese should be melty and gooey. Remove from skillet, cut in half on the diagonal and enjoy.
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GFAF Expo Recap

Everyone loved my frannycakes tshirts! Although, everyone thought that I owned a bakery. Maybe someday, once I have become internet famous and have written a cookbook with my mom. I founnd so many new treats to eat, some new flour blends to try and loads of new brands to keep my eye on. I got to meet the editor of Living Without magazine, “The Pamela” of Pamela’s Products and a woman who is starting up a gluten-free deal site (similar to Groupon). I have to say that even though I was only able to be there for a few hours Saturday morning, I had a blast and learned a lot.

Allergy-friendly eating is a big deal in our family. Dad, the food allergy king, is allergic to wheat, oats, teff, pork, beans, peanuts and cashews. Mom can’t have gluten or teff. My sister is hugely allergic to nuts. I have wheat and shellfish allergies for sure and have an allergist appointment coming up to find out the true extent of mine. My poor boyfriend recently found out that he is lactose intolerant and has IBS. Needless to say, we easily get stuck in ruts because we eat what we know.

Saturday I brought my parents to the Gluten Free Allergen Free Expo put on by Jen Cafferty. I went last year with my boyfriend (from here on out, he will be refered to as Blondie – the name my girlfriends gave him when we first started dating). Blondie and I went on the Sunday afternoon last year and were completely overwhelmed by the shear awesomeness of the event. Naturally, as soon as the date for this year’s expo was released, I made plans with my cooking partner in crime (my mom) to go. We donned franncakes tshirts and brought along the boys for a ride.

My entourage and I spent 3 hours eating and shopping my way through the event. There were new products from some of our favorite brands and lots of new brands that I had never heard of before. We all had different missions for the event. My mission was to scope out gluten free flours and talk to companies about how they got their start in the Gluten Free market place. My mom’s mission was to wear a frannycakes shirt (it was her idea to order them) and try as many different foods as possible. Blondie’s mission was to taste everything and make sure it tasted good to a normal palate. My dad’s mission was the most specific: find gluten free soft pretzels.

Pretzels are one of those things that are not too difficult to make at home, but it is just my mom and dad now, so making a batch homemade isn’t always the most practical option. Needless to say, dad did not wait long to accomplish his mission. The father son team at Allerenergy had him with one of their pretzel bites. Our group’s first purchase was at the third table in the door and it couldn’t have been from better people.

We passed a few more tables and there were chicken nuggets. Immediately  after that were gluten free doughnuts (and gluten free sandwich cookies. We were drinking Woodchuck and Magner’s Irish Cider before noon. We found a perfect substitute for Ho-Hos. I found out that Costco sells a fantastic gluten free cracker. My favorite gluten free baguette manufacturer now has ready-made frozen pizzas. I FINALLY got to try Rudi’s gluten free bread. I got sour gummy bears (made with pectin) for my vegetarian cousin. I saw a couple of iphone/ ipad apps that look promising.

I will review individual products over the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are links to the companies that impressed me at this year’s expo and what product it was that caught my attention.

 

Spaetzle with Lentils

Spaetzle mit Linsen

Spaetzle and lentils in a white bowlI have been fascinated by spaetzle since my mom made with with a nifty device perched on a pot of boiling water. If you have never had spaetzle, you are living a life of deprivation. They are what I might consider a perfect food. Tender, noodly, carby goodness. And they go with everything. You can eat them with cheese (Kasespaetzle). You can eat them with schnitzle. You can eat them with a brat. Or, you can eat them all alone, pan fried with some herbs and salt.

Today, as this is a meatless Monday post, I am eating my spaetzle with lentils. Red lentils to be exact. Most of the recipes I saw on the internet called for brown lentils – but I think brown lentils are ugly. And, in my kitchen are red lentils.  This dinner includes the use of one of the few processed foods that I keep around – bouillon. You can use bouillon cubes or stock, but your water needs to be seasoned, or the lentils will taste flat.

Spaetzle with Linsen
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Recipe Type: Entree
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 2
Gluten free German dumplings with a lentil stew and crispy shallots, sage and brown butter.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup gluten free flour blend
  • 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum (if not in your mix)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/8 cup milk
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 2 cups stock or water and a bouillon cube
  • 1 tablespoon sage
  • 2 shallots
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Whisk flour and xantham gum together.
  2. Make a well in the flour and crack eggs into it.
  3. Pour in milk and mix.
  4. Cover and put in the fridge for an hour or overnight.
  5. When it is time to cook, cook the lentils in the stock as directed on the package. It should be thick, but still liquid. The lentils should have started to break down but should not be completely disintegrated.
  6. Now, if you don’t have a spaetzle maker use a colander and a spatula to push the batter through the holes into a pot of boiling water. Boil the dumplings in batches.
  7. Once the spaetzle is cooked, fry the sage and shallots in the butter.
  8. Remove the sage and shallots from the frying pan and drain the butter.
  9. Sautee the spaetzle in the greased frying pan.
  10. Top with cooked lentils, a drizzle of the browned butter and fried sage and crispy shallots.
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This actually made 3 servings for me, but I eat small, measured portions.

top view of Raspberry Filled Yellow Cupcakes

Raspberry Surprise

top view of Raspberry Filled Yellow CupcakesI have a bad habit, and that bad habit is baking. Where so many people open a pint of ice cream or pour a glass of wine to unwind, I find a comfort in pulling flours from the cabinet, fitting a mixer with the paddle & bowl and whipping up a batch of something warm and soft. I have always known exactly where I got it. My mother. I went home for Easter this weekend and my mom made quite a spread. She wouldn’t let me cook at all (she says I am a messy cook, I say I was a messy cook when I was a kid) but, she made these fantastic cupcakes. She even said I could share her recipe.

Raspberry Surprise
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 24
Gluten free yellow cupcakes with a raspberry filling adapted from <a href=”http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-yellow-cake-recipe” title=”Yellow Cake Recipe from King Arthur Flour”>King Arthur Flour</a>
Ingredients
  • 3 cups Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour Blend
  • 2 teaspoon xanthan gum (if not already in your blend)
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon gluten-free raspberry liqueur
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup milk, at room temperature
  • Raspberry jam for filling (about 1 teaspoon per cupcake)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Using an electric mixer beat together the sugar, butter, salt, liqueur and baking powder till smooth. Add 1 egg, and beat for several minutes, until fluffy.
  3. Add the remaining eggs, one at a time, scraping between each egg.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and xantham gum (if needed).
  5. In the bowl of the mixer, beat in the milk alternately with the dry ingredients, adding about 1/3 of each at a time, and ending with the dry ingredients.
  6. Measure batter into prepared cupcake pan. Bake for 18-25 minutes, and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  7. Remove from the oven, and cool for 5 to 10 minutes before turning out of the pan to cool on a rack.
  8. Once the cupcakes are cooled, use a pastry bag fitted with a filling tip, squeeze a teaspoon of jam into each cupcake.
  9. Frost with raspberry cream cheese frosting.

Mom frosted them with a cream cheese frosting (here is a similar one from King Arthur Flour). This time she replaced the vanilla and some of the milk with the raspberry liqueur, adjusting liquids and sugar as she went until she got the consistency that she wanted. The liqueur added a hint of raspberry flavor and a pink tint. The butter in this recipe keeps the frosting from the full amount of tang you get with normal cream cheese frosting.

Meatless Monday: Onion Gallette

Let me qualify this recipe by saying that I really hate food that comes in packages, already mixed up. But, when you are sick, you just need easy. So, I cheated. I used a mix. I have a cold and I didn’t want to slave away over the stove. I wanted to assemble and toss in the oven. This recipe is the result of one of those I have nothing to eat but lots of food moments.

I am calling this a gallette because it sounds fancy. It could have been a flat bread, a pizza or a tart. By calling it a gallette, I elevated it into more than a 5 minute sick meal. It became French.

Caramelized Onion & Ricotta Gallette

[box]I find that my pantry tends to have some items that many people don’t keep around – I caramelize onions in large batches and keep them in the fridge, I happened to have made ricotta last week with my mom and I have some decent size herb plants that I picked up last weekend. But, let this recipe serve as an inspiration to you, let it be an outline for how to throw together an easy dinner.[/box]

  • 1 package Chebe Pizza Crust
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1/8-1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup ricotta
  • 1 cup caramelized onions
  • 1 T chopped fresh sage
  • 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 400. Mix eggs, Chebe mix and oil. Add water until the dough comes together into a ball. The dough will stand up to rolling and will no longer be crumbly. I used 1/8 cup. Roll the dough out on a greased baking sheet into 1/4″ thick sheet and a round-ish shape. Perfection is unnecessary, that is where this recipe gets its charm.

Spread the ricotta in a nice thick layer, leaving about 2-inches around the edge. Next, spread a nice thick layer of caramelized onions. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and herbs. To finish, fold up the edges so that they overlap the filling.

Bake 20-30 minutes. The crust doesn’t get too golden looking, so when the cheese looks good and done the crust is probably done too.

Purple Rice Pudding

Ok, I am 5. I am quite ok with this. I just think purple food is more awesome. Purple cauliflower, purple potatoes and purple carrots are all way more awesome than their normal colored counter parts.

And then, there is purple sticky rice. More purple food? Send it my way. I found this in my mom’s cabinets when I was home. It comes from Williams-Sonoma. It says on the label that it was processed in a plant that handles wheat and tree nuts, but it is just rice. I swear there are no dies.

There is no better way to eat said rice than in a rice pudding that turns a color that you would assume is unnatural. Along the lines of blue ketchup unnatural (do you remember that stuff?). I am going to love the next week. Rice pudding for breakfast & desert. Every day. Want to come over and share?

Purple Rice Pudding

  • 1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2% – skim is for wimps. If you need dairy free, use a second can of coconut milk and then add in some of your favorite non-dairy milk to get the right volume)
  • 1 can coconut milk (the real stuff)
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom (or cinnamon & nutmeg)
  • 1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (you could use regular sugar, I just happen to have this around from testing recipes in Babycake’s new book).
  • 1/2-3/4 cups raisins
  • 2 cups cooked rice (I used purple sticky rice, but really you could use what ever rice you have – it just won’t be purple)

Heat up the milk to a simmer in a large pot over medium heat. Add the rice and return to a simmer. While that is heating, whisk salt, evaporated cane juice & cardamom together with the coconut milk. Add to your pot as soon as the pot simmers with the rice. Cook until the mixture simmers again and starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add raisins. Put in another bowl and cool until pudding is room temperature or cover and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

I think that it makes an excellent desert. And it is purple, which makes it even better.

Ricotta with my mamma

I really love going home. My mom’s kitchen is twice as big as mine and it is filled with exotic ingredients and fancy pots and a tool for everything. (Yes mom, it was me that took the purple sticky rice & the cranberry beans).

But more than the fancy kitchen is the sense of home and the fun that I get to have with my mom. Talking about ingredients, one upping each other with cupcake ideas & successes – she wins this round with lemon cupcakes with a lemoncello filling and lemon frosting with another dash of lemoncello. And no, she didn’t save any for me or give me the recipe.

Tonight, because I was only in town for one night, and because she has been bragging about this home made ricotta, we made cheese. We filled the house with the smell of buttermilk and whey and now have what looks like a science experiment in the fridge. But the little bit I was allowed to sample tastes divine. It is rich, slightly sweet and almost buttery tasting. It is home made, and it is real food. It has made it into the compendium of family recipes that my dad is compiling. One day I will sell out and get a cook book deal with all the deliciousness inside it. Until then, I will I will have to tide you over with the ricotta recipe. And pictures of it on this delicious crisp bread that I picked up at the local food coop last weekend.

Buttermilk Ricotta Cheese

  • 6 cups whole milk
  • 3 cups buttermilk
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar

Pour all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for a few minutes making sure that you have lots of little curds formed. Remove your pan from the heat and let it cool slowly (for about 20 minutes).

Strain the cheese through a cheesecloth lined strainer. This process takes a little while – you don’t want to put too much liquid in the strainer at any one time. If you think some curds have escaped, you can run the liquid through the strainer twice. Squeeze out the extra liquid.

Refrigerate in the strainer over night over a bowl to collect all the extra whey. The cheese will keep for about a week. Put the whey in a separate container and save to make something like my dad’s delicious english muffin bread.

I enjoyed my ricotta on a gluten free crisp bread with black berries from the food co-op and some University of Illinois Honey (as made famous on the Colbert Report). I might have died and gone to heaven. Now, go make your own ricotta and never buy it from a grocery store again.

bean salad in a mason jar

Three bean salad

bean salad in a mason jarBean salad is my go-to dish when I am out of other delicious things for lunch. You know, like leftovers. The bean salads that I make are usually random mixes of the beans in my cabinet and the first spices that I grab. This salad was no different.

I discovered, on a whim that I quite like fennel and rosemary. I only have fennel on hand because my mom always had fennel. I really had no idea what to do with it. But inspiration hit and I made this delicious bean salad.

Three Bean Salad with Fennel & Rosemary

  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1 can butter beans
  • 1 tablespoon dried or fresh rosemary
  • 1-2 teaspoons fennel
  • 6 small sweet peppers
  • 1 shallot
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Chop up peppers and shallot. Drain beans and rinse. Combine with peppers and shallot. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar & seasonings. Pour over beans, peppers & shallot. Refridgerate over night so that flavors develop.

This recipe keeps for about a week and makes a great lunch or side for a spring/summer dinner.

Gluten Free Pop Tarts

My experiment with gluten free breakfast pastries was a semi-success. You see, I quite dislike pie crust. I am not sure why I then thought that this would be a good choice for me to make, but they look so delicious when I see them on tastespotting and foodbuzz. So, I had to try them.

Here is a basic crust recipe that I used:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling out the dough – I used Jules’s flour)
  • 1/2 tsp. xantham gum (if not using Jules
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup shortening, cubed
  • 1/4 cup butter, cubed and at room temperature
  • 2-3 tablespoons cold water

Filling:

your favorite jam (I used my mom’s concord grape preserves).

Icing:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 T milk

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk together dry ingredients and then cut in butter until the mixture is cumbly like sand. Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time to get the right consistency.

Roll dough out into 1/4 inch thick sheets (much thinner and they will crack). Cut into 3×5 rectangles. Place half of the rectangles on a greased baking sheet. Put 2 T of filling on each and spread it out just a bit. Once all the bottom halves have filling, you are ready to put on the tops. Dip your finger in a bit of water and run it around the edge of one of your bottoms. Place a rectangle on top and crimp the edges with a fork. This will seal the edges. Repeat on all of your pastries. I sliced some vents in the top of mine out of pie-making habit.

Bake for 10ish minutes (until the pastries are golden brown).

Once the pastries are cool, whisk together powdered sugar and enough milk or water to make a thin paste. Dip the pastries in it or scoop it on top of them. You can color the icing any way you wish and add any flavoring you like. If you want sprinkles, now is the time to add them.

Now, I would like to say that these make a nice treat, but are a bit labor intensive for every day eating (and are not really a good breakfast anyway). But, I had fun making them and finished them all before my weekend guests arrived (they got stuck with gluten free Fruity Pebbles and Cinnamon Chex).