It's all gouda

BBQ Buffalo Pasta

2010-06-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I heard about combining spaghetti and bbq’d meat. My initial reaction was, well, picture me wrinkling my nose and shrugging one shoulder as if to say "eh". Even so, I’ve never stopped thinking about it. Yesterday, as I stood at my kitchen counter praying for divine menu guidance as to what to do with the ground buffalo before me, the thought of making a quick bbq came to mind. The only problem was that a) I didn’t have any buns, and b) I only had a mere 1.25 lbs of meat. That’s when I thought of at long last giving the bbq pasta plan a green light.

Oh, why did I wait so long? This was ridiculously easy to prepare, was on the table in just over 30 minutes, and was really very good. Even my picky eaters ate it, including my son who won’t eat sauce on his pasta ... ever. I served mine over gluten free rotini (spiral) pasta, but use whatever floats your boat. This meaty, thick, smokey sauce will hold it’s own quite nicely with a hearty pasta like rigatoni as well as a delicate one like angel hair. (Mmm ... angel hair!)

I used ground buffalo, but use whatever ground meat you’ve got (preferably grass fed). There is minimal shrinkage with buffalo (and I mean zip, zilcho shrinkage), so plan accordingly if you use ground beef. This fed five people.

1.25 lbs ground buffalo
Salt, Pepper, Seasoned salt
1 teaspoon dried minced onion (can substitute fresh minced onions)
1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Scant ¼ cup smoked paprika (the smokey flavor is essential here)
Generous ½ cup ketchup
Heaping tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
3 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce (homemade if you’ve got it)
1 lb spiral pasta (I used gluten free. Use whatever you like best!)
Shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, season the ground buffalo with salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and dried onion. Brown in a nonstick dutch oven, breaking it up into small bits with a spoon as it cooks. There was no fat in the bottom to drain at all. If you use beef, drain the meat after browning and return to the pan. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and stir around to start carmelizing the meat, maybe 1-2 minutes at the most. Stir in the ketchup, mustard, and worchestershire sauce. Stir in the smoked paprika. Now add the spaghetti sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer until it thickens up a bit ... about 10 minutes. Note that this is a really thick sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Add the drained pasta to the meat mixture and stir to combine. Serve. Garnish each serving with a small handful of shredded cheddar cheese. Enjoy!

This was really very, very good. Quick and easy, too. The balance of meat to pasta was pleasing, and the smokey tanginess of the sauce held it’s own over the pasta without being overpowering. The cheese added a creamy component that I enjoyed. Ya know, this is a case where simple is best. While I wouldn’t balk at adding, let’s say, green pepper, it’s really not missed. You could, however, ramp up the spicy heat index according to your own tastes.

I imagine this would be incredible, too, if made with grilled BBQ pork that simmered all day. So ... do you think you’d give bbq pasta a try? You’ll be glad you did.

Birthday Pancakes! - aka Bob's Red Mill Pancake Mix (gluten free)

2010-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today is an extra special day at It's All Gouda. My youngest, my baby, my littlest gal, my wee sous chef turns 11 years old. What makes this birthday uber special is this: Birthday girl turns 11 at 11:11 am. Get it? 11 - 11:11!!! I'm such a number geek, but hey, you've gotta admit that's a pretty cool anomaly!

In honor of her special triple-double-double digit day, we made gluten free pancakes this morning. Now, you gluten eaters stay with me, since this is basically a review of a pancake mix.

Oregon's beloved Bob's Red Mill cranks out many gluten free flours and products, including this one: Gluten Free Pancake Mix. You can find it at most grocery stores in Oregon or mail order.

Here's the ingredients if you want to check it out. Nothing weird. Those flours and starches are pretty much par for the gluten-free course.

Gluten free products have taken off lately, almost in fad like fashion, and that's fine with me since we follow a gluten free diet because of my daughter's wheat intolerance. Yep, I said intolerance. For most people following a gluten free diet, the condition they deal with is an intolerance NOT an allergy. Stomach aches, indigestion, bloating, headaches, skin issues, feeling blah ... it's not fun. We can chat about that another time. Today's recipe IS fun, and really quite delicious, too!

While I prefer to make stuff from scratch, this mix is uber convenient especially since I've not dived into making my own gluten free mixes (will be doing that soon). Since this is a pre-made mix, only a few additional ingredients are required: an egg, milk (we used part milk/part buttermilk), and oil. Wisk it all together, and you're good to go.

As you can see here, the batter is kind of freckly. (Is that the correct spelling: freckle + ly?) These cook in a similar fashion to "regular" pancakes except the bubbles you look for to know when to flip are bigger. See that one looming in the upper left corner? Time to flip!

I'm not a leavening expert, so I don't know if it's due to the buttermilk addition or if this is how it always is, but these puppies really puff up! They aren't dense either ... nice and fully light, and they reheat beautifully. We've made these several times, and have gotten a bit creative along the way.

You can add chocolate chips! Just sprinkle a few (dozen) on right before flipping.

See how light and puffy these are? Um, how about a little pancake to go with the whipped cream and strawberries there, babe?

My birthday girl is a cherry fanatic ... please excuse the excess of whipped cream.

No matter how you serve them, they are finger lickin good! Don't you love my b-day girls new Buddy Holly style glasses? Just picked those up yesterday. She looks so much older now. I, of course, haven't aged a bit (eh, cough cough).

This mix gets two birthday thumbs up in our household. I can totally see me bringing this camping or travelling, as it's so easy to make. And, for those of you who have gluten-free eating loved ones, this would make a great gift pack especially for someone new to the whole gluten-free thing. It made a wonderful birthday breakfast here. Along with a pint of whipped cream. And an orchard of berries. Just kidding. Well, not really, but you know what I mean.

What do you like to eat for breakfast on your birthday?

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Pork

2010-05-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of living in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest is the abundant diversity of world cultures. Fortunately, much of this diversity makes its way into the food chain and from there into my own kitchen. One of my most favorite cuisines is Vietnamese food. Truth be told, I love all Asian inspired dishes, and one of the first that I ever had was an uber-delicious (don't you say "uber" too? Yeah, I thought so.) rice noodle salad with flame broiled pork. It's called Bun Thit Nuong (according to the Saigon Grill's take out menu), and it is the most amazing combination of textures and flavors. It's loaded with crunchy raw veggies, al dente warm rice noodle vermicelli, hot off the grill pork, and drizzled with an Asian sweet/sour/salty/spicy dressing. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life.

Today's recipe is my attempt to recreate this delicacy at home. Let me be up front about the prep time: it involves a LOT of chopping. Lots and lots and lots of chopping. And then more chopping. Did I mention you will spend time chopping? This is the recipe to go to when you have something you want to work out of your system, or as in my case, when you want to ponder over a situation. Since it took me a good 15 minutes to gather, peel, and chop everything (and I'm pretty good with a knife), I had a lot of time to run through various scenarios of said situation in my head. Plus, it's a good thing to get me to slow down a bit and enjoy the process, not just the end result. Ahem. But I digress. Back to the recipe. Once you have finished prepping everything, it comes together toot-sweet.

I like this recipe because it fits in with my plan to eat more veggies and less meat. Notice I said "less" meat, not "no" meat. We are carnivores in this family. I didn't grill the pork because it was monsooning outside. This turned out great just pan frying the meat. This is equally good with chicken as well as shrimp.

Here we go:

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Pork

1 pkg Asian Rice Noodles - thin, vermicelli style

3 boneless pork chops, 1 inch thick, sliced ultra thin against the grain
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
garlic powder
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil

5 cups chopped romaine lettuce
4 carrots, sliced matchstick thin (I used one of those serrated veggie peelers)
2 cucumbers, peeled, sliced in thin 1/2 rounds
1 cup bean sprouts
2 green onions - chopped thin
1/4 cup white onion, sliced in thin 1/2 rounds (optional)
1/4 cup cilantro - chopped
1/2 cup salted cocktail style peanuts, chopped

Dressing:
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice or lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons rice vinegar, or use cider vinegar is you don't have the rice one
6 tablespoons fish sauce (called Nouc Cham) (It's stinky, but tastes better than it smells)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 chili chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
6 tablespoons water

On a cutting board, toss the pork strips with the soy sauce, ginger, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oil. Let sit and marinate while you chop the bazillion veggies.

Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat. If necessary, add a tablespoon of oil (like canola) and stir fry the pork strips until they are golden brown.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I've always wanted to say that. Plus, just wanted to see if you were still with me. hehe Anyway, meanwhile, prepare the rice noodles according to package directions. NOTE: The noodles cook really quickly; take care not to over cook them. Drain and keep warm.

Prepare the dressing by combining all the incredients. Now it's time to assemble! You will need large individual serving bowls. I used pasta bowls and they worked perfectly. In each bowl, place a generous serving of the warm noodles. Artfully, surround the noodles with individual mounds of lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts, your choice of onions, cilantro, and meat. Drizzle with the dressing. Garnish with peanuts. (I took the pictures before adding the peanuts. Oops!)

Surprisingly, this is a hit in my family. My daughters love this, served without the dressing. My son ate his, but I did serve his on a large plate and didn't have the food touching salad style. My husband ate two huge salads and rolled away from the table. An added bonus is that it's gluten free, too. Yeah!

This is an interesting salad in that it is sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. It's also crunchy, soft, and chewy. Let's not forget that it has warm (noodles), hot (meat), and cold (veggies) taking place, too. Somehow, and I'm not quite sure why that is, it all works together beautifully. Plus, it's lovely to look at. It's great all year long, but I particularly like it in the spring and summer. It's a non-traditional salad (for us that is), and I love it.

What's your favorite non-traditional salad? Do share!

Homeschool update: Youngest daughter is REALLY into Science these days. Here's a shot of her latest science/art combo project. Volcano! In honor of the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's (which you can easily see from the Portland area), she created her own eruption. She gave a terrific presentation on the various types of volcanos, and then performed an eruption. It was so COOL!!! Tomorrow we are off to the Mt. Hood Community College Planetarium for a field trip! I love homeschooling!

TBS: Tuna and Bean Salad!

2010-05-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Now that warmer weather is at long last blasting it's way through the Pacific Northwest cloud cover, it's time to initiate the summer salad routine. Here's one that I've loved for years. It's kind of peasant fare, but tends to get rave reviews as if it were made of more regal stuff. I bet 9 out of 10 of you have the ingredients in your pantry and fridge.

Bean and Tuna Salad

1 6oz can tuna packed in olive oil
1 15 oz can small white beans, drained and rinsed
2 T green pepper, chopped
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 T red onion, small diced
2 T chopped parsley

Dressing:Whisk together:
1 small garlic clove, minced
Olive oil - 2 parts
Vinegar - 1 part
Salt
Pepper
1/2 teaspoon - dijon style mustard
favorite herbs - such as basil, oregano

In a large mixing bowl, combine tuna, beans, pepper,tomatoes, and onion. Toss with a small amount of dressing, adding more to suit your taste. Serve immediately. Keeps very well, too; the beans tend to really absorb the longer it sits.

This salad is easily a meal in and of itself. The beans have a delicate flavor that pairs wonderfully with the tuna. I've also had this with grilled tuna, and that's over-the-moon good. The peppers add a nice crunch, and the tomatoes provide sweetness. Take care with the onion ... you just want it for a nice flavor addition. The dressing, which is basically a viniagrette, is tangy and garlicy. You could punch this up with some diced jalepeno peppers if you like heat, or some olives or capers if you like those flavors. I like it all! :-)

There you have it. In about 5 minutes, you can create a yummilicous salad that's perfect for the warmer days on the horizon. This holds up very well for potlucks and picnics, and it is gluten free, too. What's your favorite tuna salad?

New Look!

2010-05-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Playing around with templates today. What do you think of this look? It's kind of fun messing around with different templates!

MOM Chicken: Mandarin Orange Marmalade Chicken (gluten free, too)

2010-05-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there. This dish is named for you. MOM Chicken! Mandarin Orange Marmalade Chicken, that is!

Sometimes, the best recipes are the simplest ones. Especially when you discover them without too much forethought. Take today's recipe. With just a couple pantry staple ingredients, regular ol' chicken becomes something really special. Even better the entire meal was on the table in less than 30 minutes. Works for moi!

Basically, and I mean that word literally, all this dish entails is sauteing chicken strips, adding a little marmalade and butter, and voilla .. you have chicken ala mandarin. Toss on a few crispy onion frizzles and you find yourself emitting little moans of culinary pleasure.

This was really good. I used this delightfully sweet mandarin orange marmalade. Please don't harp on me that it's imported. I so very rarely treat myself to something, and this is what I choose to spend my dollars on. I enjoyed every sinful bite. Yes, I try to purchase local food to lessen my global footprint. No, I don't purchase everything local. I most definitely recycled the glass jar it came in, if that makes you feel better. Anyway, this would work with any type of marmalade and be equally delicious.I've not shown amounts because I eyeballed everything. I threw this together so quickly, that I didn't pay attention to measurements. Sorry 'bout that. No worries, though, it's really easy to do.

Ingredients:

White Onion, halved, sliced thin (you dont' want to use a sweet onion here)
1 tablespoon Olive oil

Chicken breasts cut into thin strips
Seasoned salt
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
Butter pat
Marmalade
Butter pat (again)

Heat oil in a fry pan. Add the onions, and fry them until crispy. You are going for texture as well as flavor here. Keep warm. In a large saute pan, heat oil over med high heat.

Season the chicken strips with seasoned salt or your favorite seasoning. Add to the pan, and saute until golden. Add a butter pat to the pan and spinkle with couple shakes Worcestershire sauce.

Meanwhile, heat the marmalade in microwave until melted. You don't need very much, I used about 1/4 cup for 5 servings. Once heated, stir in a butter pat, and pour over chicken in pan. It will bubble up deliciously. Be sure to stir up all the browned bits that are in the pan. The end result is a glaze/sauce that is out of this world good. Simple, yes. Good, absolutely! Sprinkle with the crispy onions, and serve immediately.

Wasn't that easy? So simple, and sooooo good. We paired this with rice, spinach, and a fruit salad. It was superb. S.U.P.E.R.B. You could fancy this up with green onions, ginger, and a splash of soy sauce, but I kept it simple.

I like simple. I like easy. Most of all, I like good food! Bonus: It's gluten free, too!

Speaking of good things, Happy Mother's Day to all you magnificent mom's out there. Also, happy Teachers Appreciation Month to all you terrific teachers out there, both the traditional and homeschool varieties. Mom's and Teachers ... two of the most positive, loving, influential forces on the planet. For all you do, big and small, seen and unseen, I thank you for your dedication. You are loved and appreciated!

Days Gone By Loosemeat Sandwich

2010-05-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

I've been on an "old time recipe" kick lately. I've been reading about meals from the turn of the century (uh, that would be from 1899-1900, not 1999-2000). Does anyone else find it fascinating to learn how folks used to eat? How about all the meal terminology? Depending of where you live, what I call lunch would have been called dinner, and what I call dinner would have been called supper. Let's not forget the whole what time did they eat? thing as well as what was the most important meal of the day. In years past, the mid-day meal was considered the most important meal of the day. Nowadays, we're taught that breakfast is king. One cookbook from the 1800's frowned upon eating any type of meat for breakfast. It went on to say that if you absolutely had no other choice than to eat meat at the start of the day, be sure that it was served cold, and it was preferable that it had been prepared the day before. Alrighty then! One thing that made me a little nostalgic was all the write-ups on what used to be termed "Sunday Dinner". While I'm fortunate that we always eat as a family, if I were honest (and I am ... can't you see my halo?), I'd have to say that we don't make a big deal out of our Sunday meal. I think I may change that and see how it goes.

I was reading about meals from the Midwest and heartland of the US, and I came across a delightful recipe for something called a loosemeat sandwich. This recipe is off of the internet, recipezaar to be exact, and is titled The Blue Mill Tavern Loosemeat Sandwich. According to the write-up that accompanied the recipe, loosemeat was created in 1924 in Sioux City, Iowas at Ye Old Tavern. I just love the "Ye" in the name! I remember seeing something on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives that talked about loosemeat, and so I just had to give it a shot.

A loosemeat sandwich is like a "dry" sloppy joe. There is no sauce or tomato in this, but it's messy just like a sloppy joe is. It is incredibly TENDER and juicy and has the best flavor. Although it is not saucy, it is far from dry. Give this a try. Here's the link for the recipe. The Blue Mill Tavern Loosemeat Sandwich.

NOTES:

1) I used 1/2 an onion because my onions are behemoth sized.
2) I used ground turkey because that's what I had. When I say I used ground turkey, I don't mean the bland breast only stuff.
3) I did prepare it in a cast iron skillet, and I absolutely, positively DID use lard. Because I used ground turkey, there were no drippings to drain at all. In fact, my pan was dry! :-)
4) The recipe is gluten free ... the buns shown in the pictures are not.

TIP: These are great on steamed buns. An easy peasy way to steam buns is to do it in your microwave. Loosely wrap you buns in papertowels and microwave 10-30 seconds depending on how many you need as well as how powerful your micro is.

My husband really enjoyed this (without mustard and pickles). I, of course, had the m & p on my serving. My youngest daughter, the gluten free child, devoured hers without the bun. When I say devoured, I mean that she ate more than my husband and I put together. I had planned to serve hers over rice, but she just wanted it plain. Works for me!

Speaking of youngest daughter, this past Saturday she ran her first 3K at the CYO track meet. She prefers to run distance, and wanted to see if she could do it. For those of us who still need a guide to translate the metric system, 3K is equal to 1.86411358 miles or 7.5 times around a full sized track. She ran a steady pace throughout the race, and then sprinted the last 200 meters. Not only did she do it, she came in first for the girls in her age group! :-)

Creamy Clam and Smoked Sausage Chowder (Gluten Free)

2010-04-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Springtime weather in the Pacific Northwest is kind of schizophrenic. One day, you’re reaching for sunglasses to shield your eyes from the brilliant sunshine, and the next day you’re donning your parka to brave the driving wind and rain. Yesterday, we had sun, rain, wind, hail, then more sun, rain, wind, and hail. Mother Nature is a mystery out here, that’s for sure.

On a gastronomic level, that mystery means that one day you could be craving salad and lemonade, and the next day steaming bowls of soup and hot cider. I’m a year round soup girl anyway, so with the bizarre weather of late, I’ve been enjoying lots of soup.

Chowders are such a great genre of soup. Hearty enough to stand alone as a meal, they are super choice to eat when you want something filling, but not heavy ... if you know what I mean.

Since we are gluten free here, I prepare chowder without flour. I actually find that chowders taste significantly better when not weighted down with flour. A little bit of cornstarch along with real cream provides clean flavors along with a gorgeous consistency.

Today’s recipe is the result of using up some pantry and fridge items I had, including some leftover grilled smoked sausage. The end result was so good. My littlest clam lover ate two huge bowls in a single sitting.

See how creamy it is? Take a look and let me know what you think:

Creamy Clam and Smoked Sausage Chowder (Gluten Free)

3 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup onion, chopped
3 large, all purpose potatoes, peeled and diced small (about 2 heaping cups)
Seasoned Salt
½ cup cooked smoked sausage, cubed (ham would be good, too)
3 slices cooked bacon, broken in big pieces
1 8oz bottle clam juice
2 cans chopped clams (not minced)
1 cup cream
½ cup whole or 2% milk
1 scant tbsp corn starch

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over med high heat. Add onions and sausage. Cook gently until onions just start to soften. Next, add the potatoes. Season with seasoned salt.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are just starting to turn golden, not quite 5 minutes. Add the bacon, and cook for another minute. Add the clam juice, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 – 20 minutes. Stir in the clams (undrained) and cream. In a measuring cup, whisk the milk and corn starch together, then add to the pot. Continue simmering the chowder for another 5 minutes or until it has thickened up.

Enjoy. Make yummy noises. By the way, this tastes even better the next day.

Creamy, Crunchy, Chewy, Curried Chicken Salad (Gluten Free, too!)

2010-04-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Join me in the following chant: Creamy, crunchy, chewy, yeah! Creamy, crunchy, chewy, yeah! Those three alliteration-worthy descriptor words quite successfully boast the goodness of this wonderful curried chicken salad. I adored this beautiful golden-hued salad and so did my youngest daughter.

We made it together, actually, and she did most of the work. (Doesn't everyone wish they had a red panda shirt like my little gal?) Now that she's homeschooled, we are spending more time together in the kitchen. (Not just cooking either ... today we made invisible ink to write coded messages like the Patriot's did in the American Revolution! Um, then we, um, proceeded to make secret coded messages for the entire family. hehe) Okay, back to the recipe.

For those of you who are wrinkling your brow wondering if you're ready to venture into the curry-flavors of the world, let me assure you that this is the recipe for you. It is not spicy at all, but does explode with terrific texture ... creamy, crunchy, and chewy, yeah! Plus, it calls for curry powder as opposed to assembling multiple spices that are par for the course when actually making a curry. Make sense?

Anywhoooo ... this couldn't be simpler, is delicious the moment it's made, and tastes outstanding the next day. It would feel right at home as part of a luncheon menu to serve to guests as well as everday lunch fare. Little curry girl and I ate ours right off the plate. I even licked the serving spoon and was tempted to lick my plate, as well.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup sliced almonds (or chopped peanuts or cashews)

3 cups cooked chicken, cubed

Scant 1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup plain yogurt (Greek style is AWESOME!)

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup red grapes, sliced in half

1/4 cup raisins (or diced dried apricots)

1 Tbsp snipped cilantro

In a saucepan over medium heat, carefully toast almonds. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large mixing bowl, whip yogurt, mayo, curry powder, and cilantro until creamy. Fold in chicken, almonds, and raisins. Carefully fold in grapes. Serve. Tastes even better the next day. Can be served as is, over lettuce greens, or as a sandwich filling. YUM! And obviously, this is gluten free all the way, baby!

In case anyone is wondering where I've been lately, here's a hint. First, Blogger has changed how to post things and I get so many error messages when I try to post that I'm seriously considering moving the blog. Second, now that I'm homeschooling two out of three kids, spare time goes to shuttling all three to track practices and meets. Here's proof: Check out my 14 year old son running at the meet this past weekend. It's stunning how much a kid can change in just a couple of months. Click on the photo to enlarge it. We call him the "man-child"! :-)

Homeschooling – 5th grade U.S. American History

2010-04-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Although this blog is mostly about food (ah, food – glorious food!), I frequently get emails regarding homeschooling. You’ll note that my side bar hints at our homeschooling journey, and so I thought I’d share a little bit of what we do ‘round here during the day.

This is our fourth consecutive year homeschooling, and I am presently teaching 8th and 5th grades. Over the years, I’ve used accredited complete curriculums such as Calvert (grades 5-7 in the past) and Connections Academy (currently using for Gr 8), and can’t say enough good things about them. For my current 5th grader, I’ve actually assembled my own curriculum and it’s going amazingly well.

Today’s post focuses on 5th grade, specifically highlighting what we are currently studying in US History: The American Revolution. My youngest daughter’s learning style leans towards projects, and so, with a little help from the Evan-Moor publication shown below, we are completing our first “History Pocket”.

History Pockets are focused theme lessons that enable students to engage the material via hands on projects. The end result is a compilation of mini-lessons/projects in a series of homemade binder “pockets” that allows students to experience information outside of traditional textbooks. By the way, I’m not a textbook basher. I was the type of kid who liked to read encyclopedias (HEY! I heard that! Don’t judge me! :-)), but my youngest really thrives in a more multi-presentation approach, hence our attraction to History Pockets. An added bonus, too, is that this can be placed in her homeschool portfolio should I ever be asked to provide samples of her work. Oregon is actually a homeschool friendly state, but I like to have all my bases covered, if you know what I mean. These books may be available at your local library; however, they are pretty popular and might require you to request them on a hold list.

In addition to the History Pocket, we are also incorporating information found in the book titled The Complete Book of United States History by American Education Publishing.

This little gem of a book is a great information companion that provides attractive information such as details about Women Heroines of the Revolution plus attention-grabbing tidbits like how to properly fold the flag.

Do you know how to fold a flag? I’m sure I learned in Brownies at some point, but have long since forgotten.

We are also reading the novel titled My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. Now, don’t be put off by the slightly, uh, morbid title. This is an award winning novel that really gives a well rounded perspective of how families are affected by their differing political views, how they deal with change, how government actions affect day to day living, and the utter devastation that comes with war. Hmm ... does anyone besides me see the parallels to today’s political climate? Another good choice for reading is the great classic, Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, which my 8th grade son read this year for his American History studies. Both books can be easily found at your local library. (Homeschool hint: Check out two copies of the book from your library, and you can your child can easily take turns reading out loud without having to pass the book back and forth!)

Anyway, we will be wrapping up the American Revolution this week. This has been a great hands on project, and best of all, has really “clicked” with my student. Her retention is skyrocketing, and I've enjoyed the hands-on project approach, too. And, yeah, I do refer to her as my student from time to time (In my heart, she’s my youngest baby. Shhh ... don’t tell her I said that!) .

I do have one more thing I’d like to add to our lessons, and that would be to have her learn to cook something from this time period. If anyone has any recommendations, I’m all ears, or as in this cyber environment, all eyes. Remember, bread items are not an option as we can’t do anything requiring wheat. Other than that, it’s fair game. Send me your ideas, please!

For anyone considering homeschooling, I can only say that it’s been an amazing journey that I wouldn’t trade for anything. There are good days and not so great ones, but the majority are so positively rich and rewarding. I love it. I. LOVE. IT.

(By the way, the publishers mentioned in this post have no idea that I exist let alone use their products. I get no royalties from mentioning them here. However, if a publisher would like to send me their stuff for free, I’m willing to give it a go!)

Almond Crusted Chicken Tenders - Another Gluten Free Goodie!

2010-04-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Recently, the culinary blogsphere has been boasting the exploits of cooking with almond meal instead of traditional flour. So, I thought “why not give it a try?” Years ago, I used to prepare this awesome Asian recipe for Walnut Coated Chicken Bites. It was an outstanding recipe, but was a bit labor intensive requiring marinating, dipping in egg, etc. This new recipe, though, comes together in a snap!

(Oh ... by the way, I’m now homeschooling my littlest chicken tender, too! I’m in heaven with 2 out of 3 of my brood here during the day. Homeschooling rocks!)

Back to our regularly programmed chicken story ...I already knew that the walnut recipe was fantastic, and so it was a natural leap of faith to experiment making chicken tenders using almond meal. I wanted to keep it really simple though, so I didn’t go through the steps of marinating and egging, et al.The results were really good! As you know, homemade chicken tenders far, far, far outshine anything you could buy pre-made. This almond meal coating approach keeps the recipe gluten free, and is super-d-duper simple to prepare. I made a TON of these using multiple pans because I wanted to have leftovers for lunch the next day. I turned the left overs into chicken parmesan, and let me tell ya folks, that was GOOD EATS!I didn’t measure out the ingredients, but it’s so easy that even a first time cook could do this with ease. I’m guess-timating pared down volumes for you here.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup almond meal (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand – it’s gluten free. You could finely grind your own blanched almonds if you wanted to. Your food processor may enjoy the workout! Your ears may not appreciate the noise level, though!)
- Your favorite seasonings: I used Lawry’s seasoned salt, garlic salt, and black pepper.
- Olive Oil – to coat the pan
- Chicken tenders – about a dozen

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and drizzle with olive oil. Brush oil around to evenly coat the baking surface. Combine the almond meal and the seasonings in a bag. Drop the tenders into the bag and shake vigorously to coat. Place on the baking sheet taking care not to crowd the pieces. Keep those molecules apart people! It’s better to use two pans than shove them close together on one pan. Place in the oven and bake for around 8 – 10 minutes. Flip the tenders over, and bake for another 8-10 minutes. Take out of the oven and let sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Carefully remove and serve.Um, does uh anybody else besides moi like to nibble on the crusty parts left on the foil? hehe Oh come on, don’t judge me!These were really tasty! The almond meal actually is very mild allowing the chicken flavor to easily dominate. I served these with a super yummy sour cream dill dip (which my children didn’t touch – hubbyman liked it though).

For the day two recipe, I used the left over tenders, topped them with marinara sauce and mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and had a terrific new taste sensation. Praise be to who ever first came up with that tasty combo.Best of all, chicken tenders prepared this way are ridiculously easy to prepare, full of flavor, and gluten free. My picky eaters club members snarfed them down and demanded more. They even choked down the lonely couple of green beans on their plates so they could present a clean platform for round 2.I’ll be trying out more ways to use the almond meal as a coating. YUM!

Tofu for You-oo (aka Baked Tofu with Tamari Soy Sauce - Gluten Free)

2010-04-03T00:42:00.001-07:00

Can anyone come up with a word that rhymes with tofu? I’m drawing a big blank on this one, hence the “you-oo” in today’s title.

I love tofu. I know not everybody starts twirling cartwheels when it comes to consuming the bland white brick, but this recipe is really good. Really. Years ago, when I used to earn my keep in downtown Portland, my girlfriends and I would meet for lunch at the Georgian Room housed in the old Meier and Frank department store. This chandeliered establishment graced the upper floors of the eight story building, and was a hold out from when women used to meet for tea and cakes while sitting properly with straight backs and gracefully positioning their parallel ankles off to the side. When I ate there, they served a loyal clientele, many of whom came to feast on the 4” high beer rolls and the amazing salad bar which boasted all sorts of freshly prepared goodies. It was at that salad bar that I fell in love with tofu as they served a marinated tofu that I couldn’t get enough of.

Fast forward to today. Meier and Frank is long gone, yet another family business absorbed by Macy’s, and the Georgian Room is no more. Luckily, though, I can prepare tofu recipes at home, and this one’s a winner.

I first saw this on Kalyn’s website and was immediately smitten. She got the recipe out of Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook, which I immediately snagged from my local library.This is so ridiculously easy and inexpensive to prepare, and tastes terrific. I gave it a go today and loved every bite. The soy sauce, tamari in my case, gives it just the right amount of salty goodness. My littlest gal, who’s graduated to a pureed AND soft diet, tentatively tried a bite and proceeded to snarf down the extra bit I had planned to eat tomorrow. (You know ... cook once, eat twice. Seems like no matter how much I cook, there’s never any left. I guess that’s a good thing.) Anyway, it’s great, full of calcium, gluten free, and really hits the spot. We ate ours sans accompaniment, but it would be terrific on a salad or with rice or rice noodles. My tofu snarfing gal asked me to make it again tomorrow as part of a stir fry. Um, that’s a terrific idea. Except, um, she can’t chew yet. *sigh* Still, I repeat, that would be a great recipe.

Anyway, for you tofu-phobes, this is a great way to give it a try. I love it and can’t wait to try this again. Next time I think I’ll spice it up a bit with some chili oil. Mmm, mmm, good.

Here we go:

1 pkg FIRM tofu
Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce (or the regular stuff if you don’t worry about gluten)
Garnishes: Green onion or toasted sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350. Drain, rinse, and drain again the tofu.Pat dry. (Boy, it’s hard to photograph white food!)I opted to cut the tofu brick in half horizontally. Um, I know this looks like a vertical cut, but I flipped it upright so I could slice it easier. You'll see what I mean in the next photo.Ta-da! Pat all the surfaces dry. Don’t go overboard drying it, just give it a good pat-down.Here’s what I use for soy sauce. It’s gluten free and called Tamari. LOVE it.Next, simply pour soy sauce over the tofu, coating all the surfaces. I didn’t measure but I’m guessing it was a couple tablespoons. I used a spoon to coat all surfaces, but a brush would work, too. Tofu acts like a sponge, and after a minute or two, it absorbed all the soy sauce. Place in a baking dish, do NOT cover, and bake for 1 hour. Serve immediately.See how it looks here? The texture firms up quite pleasantly while baking.
It’s kind of like a very firm egg custard. Those edges are amazing: crispy and a great contrast to the interior. Yum!See how firm it is on the fork? Don’t you just love that little green onion bit that is lassoed on one of the tines? I think this would taste great basted with other sauces, too, such as teriyaki. This is gluten free, too.

So, who’s game to give it a try?

Bavarian Crème Jello Salad – aka Orange Jello with Peaches and Cream Dessert

2010-03-26T19:10:00.001-07:00

Um. I’m hopeful that no one will ask me what makes this recipe “Bavarian” because I have no clue why it’s named as such. What I do know, though, is that this is a delightful refreshing jello dessert.

Coming up with uber-soft recipes for my littlest gal’s healing mouth and throat has not been all that difficult, especially when it comes to cool treats. I found this recipe on the internet, and it caught my attention right away. It’s both cool and creamy, and very pretty to behold, too.

This is super easy to make, and requires basic pantry ingredients. As written, it feeds an army filling a 9 x 13 cake pan; next time I’ll make ½ a recipe. Here it is in its entirety. Let’s give it a go, shall we?

2 6 oz boxes of orange jello
1 can slice peaches, drained
1 cup whipping cream

In a large pot, prepare the jello as directed on the box. Pour into a 9 x 13 dish and set aside to cool for about ½ hour. After it has lost most of its heat, put it in the fridge to chill and set up just a bit, let’s call it semi-set, for about an hour.

Take out of the fridge, stir it up a bit, and set aside. Puree the drained peaches in a blender. Whip the whipped cream until it forms soft peaks. FYI: I whipped it stiff and had a darn good time blending it. Learn from the error of my ways! Anyway ... fold both the pureed peaches and the whipped cream into the semi-set jello. I started off with a spoon and switched to a whisk to blend it together. Put it back in the fridge to firm up, which takes at least a couple of hours or overnight.Serve with whipped cream. I shaved some chocolate on top ‘cuz I wanted to! Don’t you want to snag that stray choc curl there?Check out the gorgeous color and texture! This is very cool and refreshing. It would be great during those hot summer months when your palate just begs for something cold and tangy. It would be great, too, to bring to a potluck. The orange, peach, and cream flavors are just lovely together, in both taste and appearance, and I think this would work well with other jello flavors, too.Here have a bite. YUM! Of course, this is gluten-free which makes it a double bonus in my household!

Arepas = South of the Border Pure Bliss Sammie

2010-03-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s certainly been a long while, huh? Thanks for the well wishes for my little lass. She’s hanging in there. Lots on the dental horizon for her including two appointments this week. Did you know there are cookbooks out there for folks who can’t chew? There’s lots to choose from, including cookbooks for kids with braces! While most of the contents are common sense stuff, there are some really good ideas, too. My girl has not turned up her nose at the pureed meals I’ve made, so that has made the eating part of her recovery smoother.

Ain't she sweet? This was taken about 2 weeks ago. Despite the health woes these past few months, we’ve actually been eating quite well. Here’s something that I particularly enjoy for lunch. *Arepas* If you were to stop by my house, this is something that I could whip up for us to much on while we socialize.

I first learned about Arepas about a year ago while watching the cooking show called Throwdown With Bobby Flay. About the size of an English Muffin, Arepas are a popular treat in South America. I find them to be simply wonderful. Aren’t most simple foods pure pleasure? An added plus here is that they are also gluten free. I’ve made them a handful of times now, and each time my teeth sink into their crusty shells, my eyes roll backward in pure bliss.

Traditional arepas do not contain season salt; however, I really like the little extra “umph” that a simply shake of Lawry’s provides. For an even better description that what I’m putting forth, there are lots of YouTube videos that have great Arepa tutorials. YouTube isn’t just for the kiddos, ya know!

Ingredients
• 1 1/2 cups arepa flour, see note
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Dash of Seasoned Salt (could use onion or garlic salt)
• 1 1/2 cups very hot water
• 1 teaspoon canola oil, plus extra for cooking arepas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the arepa flour and salt. Pour in water and mix with a your hands until the dough comes together. Smooth out any lumps you find. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. Remove dough from bowl and knead for about 5 minutes moistening your hands if necessary, until the dough is very smooth and not sticky.Form into disks about the size of English muffins, approx. 3-inches around and 1/2-inch thick.Add the oil to a non-stick pan over medium heat and cook arepas on each side just until a they turn golden and a crust forms.Transfer to a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until the arepas make a hollow sound when tapped. Slice in half and stuff like a sandwich. Or you can cut a slit part-way through, and fill like a pita pocket.Arepas can be stuffed with your favorite filling. They are delicious for breakfast stuffed with eggs or even plain with a little butter. Drizzle on some honey for a sweet treat. When lunchtime rolls around, fill them something substantial for a mid-day fuel stop.

Note: Arepa flour is a precooked corn flour and should not be confused with masa harina or corn meal. Arepa flour is sold as masarepa, harina precocida, or masa al instante. It can be found in Latin American groceries. I’m lucky to have several Hispanic groceries at my disposal. If you want this, but can’t find it at your grocers, you can easily order it on Amazon. I used the brand with the word PAN in bold on the front.Doesn’t this looks scrumptious! Gluten free eating is second nature to me now. With recipes like this, I don’t miss sliced bread. I filled mine with carnitas, shredded cabbage, pickled onions, cotija cheese, and a crèma sauce. I made yummy noises. Lots and lots of yummy noises. What filling would you like?

Surgery Update

2010-03-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the warm wishes for my little leprechaun. Her surgery did not go as well as expected as there was a complication. The removal of the adnoids and tonsils went just fine, but somehow -- and I’m not repeating this very eloquently – the bone above her front teeth fractured/chipped and her front, permanent, top two teeth fell out. Luckily, the surgeon captured them. To make a long story short, a trauma dental guy was brought in and he “reseated” her teeth. They are being held on with a wire; she kind of looks like she has braces. Hopefully, the bone will heal around the teeth. We will be pursuing all treatment options as we realize this may not be a long term fix.

Let me just say that I’ll never forget the feeling that came over me when the surgeon entered the waiting room and asked us to step inside a consultation room. Both my husband and I are very good in crisis mode, and were able to stay focused during the discussion. Our surgeon asked a pediatric dentist on call to join us. I was not impressed. He projected the opinion of NOT trying to save the teeth. Obviously, the man has never loved a child. Who would expect a child to just deal with it. Also, he’s never met me. Ever hear of how a mama grisly bear behaves when her cub is threatened? Well, mama grisly bears cower before me. I don’t scream and yell or stomp my feet, but I am gifted with being able to project my insistence in such a way that there is no further discusson.

I made it crystal clear that my 10 year old daughter was going to wake up with her teeth in her mouth. I don’t care if you, sir, don’t think it will work. I understand it might not be a long term fix. I. Get. It. This is my daughter. My decision. I know my daughter. We will try to save the teeth. I asked my surgeon to assemble a team who is capable of getting it done. He did. He found a great trauma dental specialist on staff in the emergency room who came right over and got it done. His response was more to my liking in that you at least have to try to save the teeth. Ironically, he had lost his own front teeth in high school, and so he totally understoond our decision to try.

So, my littlest gal had to be under anesthesia way longer than planned. Her poor little mouth is all bruised and swollen. But ... her attitude is terrific. I swear she is actually an angel. A real, true, live angel sent down to make the world a better place. Everyone she meets is completely captivated by how amazing she is. Lordy, I sure do love that little gal.

When she woke up in recovery, I shared with her what was going on. She took the news with grace beyond her years. When I told her that we decided to try to save her teeth, her response was “good choice, mom”. Then she motioned for her dad to lean in close, and in her raspy, whisper like voice she asked him for a dog. A Boston Terrier to be specific. Gotta love how she worked the system!

Our next steps include having her heal from surgery, and then figure out a short and long term dental plan for her. She has to be on a soft diet until the bone heals. You’ll be amazed at the wonders of jello that I’ve come up with.

Send all your positive, encouraging, healing thoughts her way. We shall persevere onward! And smile big, bold, teethy smiles!

Surgery Day!

2010-03-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Heading off to the hospital with youngest daughter for her surgery. Join us as we say bid adieu to those pesky tonsils and adnoids. Surgery on St. Patrick's Day has to be lucky, right?

Germ Fest 2010

2010-02-16T12:33:00.001-08:00

Lordy, it's been a while since I've blogged. Littlest gouda girl has relapsed TWICE. Poor little mite has been through the wringer with these sinus related illnesses. Still fighting off strep throat and tonsillitis. After two trips to the Emergency Room and days on end in bed, she's on the mend. I tell ya, Swine Flu was less vicious than this. Bottom line ... once she's better, she'll be getting her tonsils and adnoids removed. She just gets ill wayyyyy tooooo oftennnn. Luckily for her, she's healthy otherwise. Oh, and did I mention that I caught it. And so did my husband. And so did my son. Welcome to Germ Fest 2010!!!

Have tons of recipes to share, and it's nearing that time of year again ... Gardening Time!

Hope to be back to blogging sometime soon. Miss You All!

I'm still here :-)

2010-01-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone ... I'm still around but unable to post and visit due to caring for my sick wee one. Littlest gouda girl is very ill with strep throat. They also suspect she has viral meningitis. My poor baby (okay she's 10 but she'll always be my baby) feels miserable. She's a tough cookie, though, and I hope to hear her laughing again in just a couple more days.

Keep coming back and I promise lots of yummy recipes to share. I'll get over to visit all of you very soon, too. See you soon! xoxo, Paula

Fabulous Fish Tacos - Part 1 of 2 (gluten free, too)

2010-01-20T23:49:00.000-08:00

Mmm ... Fish tacos. There’s something uber awesome about fish tacos. All those fab flavors sharing the same real-estate makes me sigh with pleasure. There are zillions of versions of fish tacos out there. I tend to favor the Baja style ones, but I truly love all varieties. I’m completely hooked on the crunch and tang of the cabbage slaw, the creamy coolness of the crema, the ocean goodness of the fish, the flavor punch-up of the pickled onions, and the earthy warmth of the tortilla. Heaven in every bite if you asked me.

In my on-going quest to incorporate more pickled goodies in my diet, I zeroed in on fish tacos. What do fish tacos have to do with pickled goodies? Well, it’s the toppings that make the difference. First, no lettuce and cheddar cheese grace these fish tacos. Instead, a lovely cabbage slaw, while not truly pickled, is marinated in a zesty vinaigrette and spooned on top.Next, how about some “Cebollas Yucatecas” which are Yucatan-style pickled onions. Those little guys are refreshing and outstanding. Rounding out the flavors is a lovely crema, some left over baked salmon, and I threw in some avocado, too. Mmm, mmm, mmm ... street food at it’s finest.

In addition to those toppers and fixin’s, guess what really gives these tacos two thumbs up? Come on, come on, guess! I’m so giddy with culinary success right now. Are you ready? Here it is: I conquered making homemade corn tortillas. Now, before you go ... Uh, that’s, uh, well dandy (notice the lack of exclamation here?), keep in mind that gluten free households tend to go through towers of tortillas on a regular basis.

While I’m lucky to have a plethora of corn tortillas available for purchase at my mega mart, I’m also well acquainted with how much better the made-from-scratch ones are. Think of it this way ... if given the choice, would you want to eat a store bought, wrapped in plastic chocolate chip cookie or a homemade, fresh and warm one? I’m guessin’ most of you will pass by the former and gobble up the latter.

So, since I use corn tortillas frequently for a whole variety of recipes (not just Mexican), I really wanted to tackle it myself. The end result? Let me just say that my days of buying tortillas are over.

These come together so fast. It only took me a mere 25 minutes, start to finish, to make 16 of these babies. I’m sure I’ll shave minutes off of there the more proficient I get. The recipe states that they will keep for a week in the fridge. Mine didn’t even last an hour. But when another batch is no more that 25 minutes away, who’s complaining? That’s a no-brainer for me ... make more. Plus, this is a great way to get friends and kidlin's in the kitchen to help out. Taking turns rolling and pressing, everyone could have a dandy time making tortillas.

Anywho ... without further ado, here’s how to make corn tortillas from scratch.

2 cups Masa Flour (not corn meal)
1 tsp sea salt
1 ¼ cups water or chicken broth (I used broth), hot
1 tsp lard (or shortening) (Hey my blogging peeps ... don’t get on me about the lard. Please read Real Food by Nina Planck.)
3 tablespoons hot waterGather your ingredients. Be sure to use masa flour.This is a tortilla press. It comes in very handy for this process. I covered mine with plastic sandwich bags for ease in removing the flattened tortillas. It worked perfectly.It’s gluten free, too!
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Masa flour and the sea salt. Dissolve the lard in the hot broth. Pour into the mixing bowl.With a fork, combine the masa flour mixture with the liquid. It will be very crumbly.When the mixture is cool enough to handle, use your hands to work it into a large ball. Add the additional hot water if necessary. I used about 2 additional tablespoons. Let it sit for a few minutes.Roll golf ball sized ball portions.Place said little ball on the tortilla press, just outside of center.Close the lid
Press the handle downOpen it up ... voila!Heat both sides in a dry skillet, flipping when the edges start to look dry. Cast iron is best but a non-stick skillet will work, too. Place in a tortilla keeper or cover with a towel to keep warm.

These babies are outstanding. I mean really, really good. You’ll never want a store bought corn tortilla again.And, like most things at It's All Gouda, these are gluten free all the way, baby! Yummmmm-eee! That's curly cabbage, by the way, not lettuce. Anyone want to come over and make another batch with me? Tune in next time when we’ll make the terrific toppings for these lovely babies. YUM!

Tantalizing and Tangy – Ground Beef and Sauerkraut Soup (It's Gluten Free, too!)

2010-01-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

Part of my re-education on eating good food includes incorporating fermented and pickled vegetables into my diet. I’m on a quest to learn how to make my own fermented cabbage, kimchi, and sauerkraut. As comfortable as I am in the kitchen, I know ZIP about fermenting and pickling. And I mean Zippo, Zero, Zilch! I’m an eager student, though, and would welcome any and all help from you as to how to proceed. Please ... someone ... anyone? Anyone else interested in dabbling in pickling? We could learn together! Hmmm ... there is always YouTube!

In the meantime, I found this awesomely awesome ground beef and sauerkraut soup recipe at Kalyn’s Kitchen. If you’ve not visited Kalyn before, please take a moment to do so now. She authors an amazing blog full of really terrific recipes. I’ve made many a dish from her repertoire, and I’m always satisfied with the results. This bowl of goodness is no exception. As we all do with each other’s recipes, I tweaked this just a bit by adding some rice and modifying the procedures. The final product was so terrific, so tantalizing and tangy, that I’ll be adding this super soup to my regular weekly homemade soup rotation.I used my new "go to" meat ... ground beef from grass fed/pasture raised beef ... and jarred sauerkraut. The end result was like a tangy cabbage roll. Have you ever made Italian Beef using jarred pepperocini? You know how the pepperocini brine adds a certain somethin’-somethin’ to it? Well, the sauerkraut does the same thing here. While plain chopped cabbage would make a wonderful soup, the sauerkraut kicks it up a notch or two with additional depth of flavor. I just adore it.

Here’s the recipe adapted from Kalyn’s. In addition to slightly altering the ingredients, I modified the cooking procedure, too. I think you'll love it. Like many recipes here at It's All Gouda, this is gluten-free, all the way, baby!

Ground Beef and Sauerkraut Soup

1 lb. very grass fed/pasture raised ground beef
3 tsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups homemade chicken stock
2 14 oz. cans beef broth (Note: I didn’t have any beef broth, so I used 3 cups chix broth and 1 cup water)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
1/2 14 oz. jar sauerkraut with juice
1 additional cup water
1 T brown sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
3 dried bay leaves
3 T minced parsley
1 tsp. rubbed sage
1 cup cooked rice
fresh ground black pepper to taste
Seasoned salt (if desired)

In large dutch oven, heat the olive oil, adding ground beef breaking into small pieces with turner. When almost done browning, add the onion and garlic. Saute just a couple of minutes to soften. Drain if needed (I didn’t have any fat in the pan). Next, add the chicken and beef stocks, canned tomatoes, sauerkraut, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, parsley and sage. Bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to a low simmer, and cook for one hour. After 1 hour, add additional water. Cook for an additional hour. Add the cooked rice about ½ hour or so before the soup is done. Season with pepper and seasoned salt if desired.Isn’t it pretty? Are you tantalized? Um, I won’t ask if you’re tangy. Too much information. Back to the soup ... I love how it smells! I love how it tastes! I find the two hour simmering really breaks down the meat in a very favorable way. I enjoy the ratio of broth to filling here, too. All in all, a very tangy tummy tantalizer!

PS: On another subject, it’s CYO basketball season here at It’s All Gouda. My youngest daughter has decided to leap into the frenzy this year. Although her first love is soccer, she’s having a great time playing hoops.Uh, sweetie, this is what we call a foul. Yep, that’s my daughter, #4, enthusiastically wrapping all 55 lbs of herself around the player in possession of the ball. Yeh, the refs called it. After the game, she told me that she fouled her on purpose to stop the play. I’d say she succeeded. :-) Love it! Oh, and she doesn't just dish it out ... she takes it, too.Check out the forearm to her back! The coaches are really good about correcting both of these moves. This is 5th grade, recreational level play, and the kids are all learning how to play. It's SO MUCH FUN watching them spread their wings! They are having a great time on the court!

Pop this tart! Savory Corn Torilla Tarts (gluten free)

2010-01-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

Hellooooooo blogland! Happy New Year! Oh, how I’ve missed visiting with all of you! Did you have a great holiday? Are you refreshed and recharged for a glorious 2010? Speaking of which, let’s take a quick opinion poll. How many of you refer to our new year as “two thousand and ten”? How many of you say “twenty-ten”? I think I fall into the latter camp on that one.

Lots and lots of changes taking place here in the Gouda kitchen since we last talked. During my blogging hiatus, I’ve been educating myself on what good food means to my family. After viewing two films, Food Inc. and King Corn, my meal planning on what I will and will not feed my family has changed. My menus will reflect some of those changes. See my side bar for a link about both of these!

I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say, those two shows have changed my life. Changed. My. Life. I’m not easily swayed either, and no one could ever accuse me of being the type to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. Nevertheless, I encourage you to borrow these two videos from your local library and decide for yourself. I sat in stunned silence, particularly after the Food, Inc. program. Then I had my dad and sister watch it. They, too, sat stunned during the program. Anyway ... it my mission to spread the word about those shows. Some stuff in it won’t surprise you ... other stuff will blow your mind. Blow. Your. Mind. Yep, it will. Even if you only incorporate one change in your diet based on what you see, like only eating grass fed/pasture raised beef, you’ll be making a dramatically positive impact on your health. Go on. See for yourself.Here’s a gluten free recipe that will blow you away with its yumminess. It’s for little corn tortilla savory tarts, and I just love them. They are gluten free and infinitely versatile. Why feed your family an overprocessed globby filled poptart for breakfast, when these babies are available. Easy to assemble and store, they are a great addition to your breakfast or lunch menu when you want something quick and tasty. They are also quite transportable, for those days when you have to eat and run. These are adapted from a recipe I saw in Gluten Free and Easy.

Here’s all you need. Feel free to vary the fillings.

Soft corn tortillas
¼ cup milk
½ cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
seasoned salt
red pepper and any other of your favorite spices
2 chopped green onions or 2 tablespoons diced onion
½ cup grated cheddar cheese

¼ cup diced green chilies, green peppers, or red peppers (or your fav cooked veggies)
¼ cup corn kernels
.
olive oil to grease muffin tins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the tortillas on a plate, cover with a papertowel, and heat in microwave for about a minute until they are warm and soft. Dab a little olive oil on the paper towel you used to warm the tortillas, and use it to grease OVERSIZED, deep muffin tins.Gently press a warm tortillas into each muffin tin.Spoon the cheese, peppers, corn, and green onions over the base of each tortilla. In a bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, milk sour cream, cilantro, season salt, red pepper and spices. Be sure to season liberally.Pour the egg mixture into the tortilla shells, filling as high as you can. No worries if there are some leaks. Bake in the over for 30 minutes or until puffed and brown. Let the tarts cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, them remove and serve. Leftovers store and reheat nicely.Viola! Look at how puffy they are! Gluten free savory tarts. The contrast of the crunchy corn along with the quiche like filling was very palate pleasing.These are great for breakfast as well as lunch. I served mine with salsa. Yum, yum!Here, make yummy noises with me. What do you think?

Seasons Greetings!

2009-12-15T19:13:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings!

I'm taking some time off to enjoy my family during the holiday season. I bid you the most wonderful, heart felt seasons greetings from my house to yours. See you after the New Year! xoxo, Paula

PS: You can always email me at: goudapaula at gmail dot com.

Clean Plate Club - Baked Salmon

2009-11-14T15:28:00.001-08:00

Hellooooo! Inch by inch, hand over hand, I’m summitting the mountain above the valley of the various viruses. Thanks for your warm wishes and messages during my blogging absence. All of my children officially rejoined the land of the living today, having recovered either from the dreaded H1N1 virus or nasty sinus infections. Recovery has been complicated by the resurfacing of my man-child’s seizures. He’s hanging in there, and so are we. Man-child? What's that, you ask? That’s what we call my 14 year old ... the man-child. Not only is he tall and handsome, he also looks much older than he is. He’s had a rough couple of weeks, but let me tell you, that kid has amazing strength of character. He’s the real deal, folks; an amazing young man. So say some prayers or send your positive thoughts his way.

I’m recovering as well. I managed to skirt the flu, but ended up experiencing the thrills of having a cracked molar extracted. Which promptly became infected. Then fate decided to bestow a dry socket on my healing crater. And just for grins, I got to relish the joys of having a bone stick through my gum which of course required another trip to the dentist to get filed down. As you can see, it’s been a festival here at Gouda central.Nevertheless, it’s not been all bad. I’m always telling my kids to try to look for the good in every situation. Here’s my good ... my clothes are much looser on me these days. Being restricted to liquids for a couple of weeks has that effect. Perfect timing before the holidays if you ask me!

Last night, my growling stomach cried out for something a bit more substantial than pureed mush, so I thought a nice, flavorful salmon fillet would be perfect. Now, I typically grill my salmon, however, last night I thought I’d fire up the oven to do double duty ... cook my meal as well as heat up the house. Like Alton Brown, I love multi-taskers!The results were terrific. After dinner, every single plate in my household was completely and totally clean. I mean they all but picked up their plates and licked them. My son, the man-child, had thirds and still wanted more. I served this with amazing oven browned, mashed potato croquettes and also some creamed spinach (only I had the spinach). I guess I’ll be making this again.

The trick to baking salmon is to not over-do it. The rule of thumb for baking time is 10 minutes per inch. Well, most salmon fillets that I’m familiar with are never more than an inch, so 10 minutes at 375 is all that's needed to provide you with a moist, tender, flaky result. You know how salmon fillets tend to be thick on one side and thin on the other? Well, this baking preparation does not require you to trim your pieces according to thickness. In fact, I just cut mine into hand sized pieces without trying to cut/sort by thickness. Now, preparing your salmon this way will not bless you with the crispy skin or edges that you get on the grill (which are so yummy); however, this perfectly prepared salmon is a great way to quickly get your meal on the table and definitely still provide a “wow” taste-bud factor.

Quick and easy is the name of the game, here. No marinades, no basting, no saucing, and no flipping. When I said easy, I meant E.A.S.Y.! In fact, the potatoes and spinach I made required more prep work and took longer to make than the fish did. Here we go ...

Baked Salmon
Fresh salmon fillet, skin on one side, cut into hand sized pieces. (I used 1-1/2 filets for 5 people)
Canola Oil
Salt
Pepper
Softened butter, about a heaping teaspoon per number of fish pieces
Herbs to season the butter. I used season salt, ginger, old bay seasoning, garlic salt, onion powder, and Spike.

Heat your oven to 375 degrees, and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Rub oil on both sides of your fish, and season the skin side with salt and pepper. Place skin side down on the foil. Prepare your seasoned butter by mixing your favorite herbs and spices with the softened butter. Smear a heaping teaspoon on top of each piece of fish. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let sit for a couple minutes before plating.Take a bite. Mmm, mmm, mmm! See how beautiful it looks. Isn’t it perfect? Just the right blend of spice, salt, and butter. Plus, it's gluten free, too. Baked salmon is now one of my favorites, and reigns supreme in the clean plate club category. Yum! So tell me, what recipes do you make that qualify for the clean plate club?

The Plot Thickens

2009-11-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone one of you for your encouraging comments here as well as your kind email messages. My daughter has recovered from H1N1 virus, and returned to school yesterday. While she does have quite a bit of school work to catch up on, it's not too, too bad because soooo many kids are out with H1N1 that the teachers have slowed down their instruction pace.

Did you ever see the old Peanut's (Charlie Brown) cartoons where the character Pig Pen always has a cloud of dusty dirt floating around him? That's how I picture this virus ... it's just a nasty cloud gleefully dusting it's parasite particles all over everything.

On second thought, it's more like a tornado. Strikes here and there with intense ferocity, causes more damage in some areas than others, and leaves a huge mess in it's wake. I suggest we change the name to Tornado Flu. I'm just sayin' ...

Anyway, my blogging friends, the plot thickens. My youngest daughter is home sick with a sinus infection, and I'm watching her carefully for signs that, in her weakened state, it does not progress into H1N1. My son woke up at 12:15 am this morning with a raging fever and all the symptoms of H1N1. Not one to be left out, my husband is also home sick. I'm doing my best to personally boost the stock price of Kleenex, hand sanitizer, and Lysol.

Plus, I'm putting all chickens on alert ... my stew pot is ready to make another batch of the golden elixir ... and I thank you for your service.

So ... it will be a few more days before I'm back to blogging. The good news is that I'll have so much fun catching up on reading all of your past posts!

Looking forward to seeing you soon .... xoxo, Paula

PS: Did I mention that in the midst of all this I cracked a molar (my back tooth) in half vertically? And I mean the sucker is completely split open like a hot dog bun. Yeah, I like to go for the gusto like that. Luckily, the tooth was already root canaled, so the pain isn't off the charts. The dentist won't touch it, and the tooth specialist can't see me until Thursday. My cup of joy runneth over. :-)

Houston We Have a Problem -- Swine Flu has landed

2009-10-25T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hi All ~

The H1N1 virus, aka swine flu, has arrived in my home. Our first, and hopefully only victim, is my oldest daughter. As there are so many kids out sick at her school, I knew it was only a matter of time before one of my kids served as host.

The bottom line ... she's doing okay. She's definitely sick, but she is not experiencing the gloom and doom scenario broadcast across every media medium in the country. So far, the rest of us are hanging in there. I've stocked up on juice and a homeopathic product that combats the flu like symptoms. It's really helped my girl a lot. The weather, thankfully, was gorgeous on Saturday, so I was able to "air out" the house. I've disinfected door knobs, etc. and she's worn a face mask that she coughs into, but we can't live in a bubble. As with all things, we'll just do the best we can and enjoy our extra time together. My silver lining here, and I know this sounds weird, is that I no longer have to worry about her "catching it". She's caught it! That girl has always been an over-achiever!!!

Here's what she has experienced, in case you are on the lookout yourself:

- symptoms come on suddenly
- sustained fever of 100+
- body aches
- sore throat (and ears)
- cough
- bad headache
- fatigue
- slight dizziness when standing
- slight nausea, but no vomiting (whew)

So, I'll be taking a couple days off blogging to take care of my oldest daughter (who just so happened to have been my littlest baby). My youngest daughter complained of a bad headache at bedtime, my son was coughing, and I've started coughing. If we are all going to get it, I'd just as soon we get it all at once and be done with it. Even so, send all your healthy thoughts our way.

I've got lots to share when I return, including a lovely back to basics, step by step, mashed potatoes recipe. With the U.S. Thanksgiving right around the corner, plus the holiday season gearing up, mashed potatoes are a great side dish to serve yourself and your loved ones. YUM!

See you in a couple of days!

It Needs a New Name: Homemade Chicken and Rice Noodle Soup!

2009-10-22T00:45:00.000-07:00

If you could have your dream job, what would it be? No limits here, let’s just assume that you have every quality and skill bestowed upon man. What job would you pick? Would you go for a high profile job? A behind the scenes job? Would you be an action hero? An artist? A rock star? A painter? A writer? An Accountant? An Olympic Athlete? A hair stylist? A cabinet maker? A farmer? A rancher? A park ranger? Adog trainer? A scientist? An archeologist? A musician? An actress? A preacher? A teacher? A ... A ... ???

Did you answer right away? Or are you leaning your head to the side, index finger tap tapping your chin, emanating lots of “hmms” as you mentally scroll through the possibilities? I always thought it would be fun to be in the travel industry, tooling around the world ranking hotels, restaurants, cruises, beaches, etc. Then again, I’ve also often wondered who names things? That’s a cool gig. For example, who picks the moniker for the latest and greatest crayon color? And what brainy person picked the illustrious name, H1N1, for the latest flu bug? Did the first guy who called it swine flu get dismissed? Was there a flu naming show down? Will there be a film at 11 about this?

With two girls in school, I’m being inundated with flu prevention notices from school. That nasty H1N1 is getting closer and closer to home and I’m sure it’s just a matter of minutes before some poor student at our school gets it and shares the love with the entire student body. The school has upped it’s prevention tactics by installing hand sanitizer dispensers about every 2 feet, and parents have been advised to keep their kids home if they show anything other than perfect health. My homeschooled son, who you’d think would be at lesser risk than my girls, has actually been exposed to the virus because 2 boys on his soccer team have confirmed cases of it, plus 1 boy who is sick but hasn’t gone to the doctor as of yet. A sibling of a gal in my youngest’s class has a confirmed case, too. The phrase “you can run, but you can’t hide” comes to mind. My older daughter’s class had 6 kids absent today, and my youngest one’s class had 5 out. G.R.E.A.T.

My wee one was one of the five absent. Said sickie woke up at 6:45 am this morning complaining of a sore throat, aches and pains, and extreme fatigue. So, back to sleep she went, and she stayed asleep until 12:04 pm. So, what’s a mama bear to do? Well, feed her the age old cure all ... homemade chicken soup.What makes today’s soup post-worthy is that it’s made with rice noodles. While I LOVE homemade noodles, especially the thick ones, I’ve found that these rice babies are actually easier to digest particularly when dealing with upset tummies and overall malaise. While I like chicken and rice soup, there’s something special about eating noodles. This is a very easy soup to prepare, especially because it involves just 3 steps: Step one: Making the liquid part of the soup; Step two: Deboning the cooked chicken; and Step three: Making and adding the rice noodles. It’s really easy.

I implore you to give this a try. It’s good for the soul. It’s good for the tummy. It’s good for the taste buds. It’s ... well, it’s good! Now I just need to come up with a good name for it. Something really witty. Any suggestions?

Ingredients:

2 generous tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken thighs
½ large onion, chopped medium dice
2 large carrots, sliced medium thin
1 ½ quarts chicken stock
1 quart water
2 teaspoons chicken base (I used Better than Bouillon brand, organic)
1 garlic clove, sliced super-d-duper thin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon dill
½ teaspoon celery salt (I was out of celery so I tried this ... yum!)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 package Asian rice noodles, vermicelli style

In a large stock pot, turn the heat to medium high. When the pan just starts to get hot, add the oil, onion and carrots. Remember, hot pan – cold oil – food won’t stick. Let those veggies start to wilt just a bit, about 2 minutes, then add the chicken, skin side down. Try to make four wells in the veggies so that the chicken skin comes in contact with the bottom of the pan. Let those sit for a minute or two. Then add the broth, water, chicken base, garlic, parlsey, dill, celery salt, and ginger. Stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover tightly, and simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours. Remove the four pieces of chicken to a bowl and let cool slightly. Start to make the noodles according to package directions.

Let’s talk about those noodles for a second. This is the one that I use. You can find rice noodles in the Asian section of your grocery store.That they are gluten free is an added bonus.See what they look like? White in color, but sort of translucent, too. They are very brittle in this dried form, and near impossible to pull apart.Once they hit the hot water, though, it’s barely 8 minutes until they are ready to eat. Do NOT overcook these babies.Since the noodles are super long, I just take my shears and cut them up right in the water. Easy peasy. I do recommend draining and rinsing these babies, as the water is starchy. Be sure to use a mesh strainer because these noodles are so thin that they will slide right through a traditional strainer.

While the noodles are getting ready, debone and de-skin (is that a word?) the chix thighs. Put the meat right back into the pot, along with any juices that accumulated in the bowl. When I was a kid, my Italian grandma used to put the skin back in the soup, too. Everyone slurped it up without a second thought, and no one had any cholesterol problems. Of course, the birdies of today are a far cry from the chickens of my youth. Did your grandma have any cooking habits that are now a thing of the past?Stir the strained noodles right into the pot. The soup is now finished. You’ll note that I didn’t add any salt. The soup gets all the sodium it needs from the soup base.The broth is a gorgeous golden color and very full flavored. This will taste even better the next day.Here’s my little sickie poo eating her soup. Um, doesn’t everyone eat their soup in pasta bowls? Yeah, that’s what I thought. She perked right up after filling her tummy with two large bowls of the noodley goodness.Isn’t this a pretty soup? It’s not fancy, but my gosh it is so good. Not too strong flavored and not too bland, it’s perfectly seasoned which is nice if you’re feeling under the weather. It’s got all the healing and comforting properties of soup, and really hits the spot.

So, now it just needs a really snazzy name. Help me think of one, will you? Perhaps I need to rethink that dream job again. Wait, I have it already. It’s called “mom” and the pay is great! (You saw that coming, right? ... Yeah, I know you were thinking "rock star" for me, but this mom stuff is a pretty good gig!)

Redemption Recipe: AuGratin Muffin Tin Potatoes

2009-10-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

Oh geez. Please tell me I am not standing alone on the blog blunder podium. I just made a huge typing error when commenting on another blog. I'm not talking about transposing a couple of letters. Ooooh nooo, that would be too easy. No, I went for the gusto. I left out a word that completely changes the meaning of what I was ineptly trying to convey. I left out the word “not”, so now my comment appears to say one thing when I meant to say the exact opposite. Argh!!! Why. Is. There. No. Edit/Erase/Delete Button on Wordpress? Picture me with my face buried in my hands. Perhaps the blog owner will edit it for me. If she’s still speaking to me. So I now just look like a flaming idiot. Don’t you just LOVE it when that happens. Um, I don't mean ... I don’t want you to enjoy my flaming moment. What I mean to say is, oh never mind, forget it. Obviously, I’m continuing to experience a communication malfunction.

*Update* All is well in my world again. The blog owner mercifully corrected my mistake. I can go out in public again. Whew!Well, I hope today's recipe will offer me redemption. At least I can still cook without sticking my foot in my mouth. Give me time, though, and I’m sure I can dazzle the masses with a faux pax here, too. Luckily, today’s recipe is a real show stopper, in a good way. It’s homemade augratin potatoes that are prepared in muffin tins. Did any of you see The Next Food Network Star program where the lady, Melissa, who ended up winning, prepared muffin tin augratin potatoes as part of her final competition? I thought it was a brilliant idea.

I’ve made this a few times since then, each time tweaking it more and more. You can find the original recipe posted on the Food Network website, but mine is a little different. To be honest, I’ve enjoyed every variation so far. This is a no brainer recipe. It’s not fast though. It takes a bit of time to prep everything and then requires 40 minutes to bake plus 10 minutes to sit, so keep that in mind.
Making this in tins is pure fun, and there is an advantage to it as well. If you have picky eaters, everyone can play sous chef by customizing their own little cubicle. Let’s say you like onions, but your kids don’t. If you were making this in a casserole dish, you’d either have to a) leave out your yummy onions or b) put in your beloved onions but have your kids turn up their onion-free-zone nose. With the tins, you can customize each one, and then everyone walks away happy. Plus, it will teach those up-and-coming sous chefs how to cook this marvelous dish.It’s so simple. All the basic recipe contains is: ultra thinly sliced potatoes, seasoned salt, shredded cheese, butter, and cream. That’s it. That’s all I put in my kids “pots” as they call them. Hubbyman and I like a little more zip, so I put some crispy fried onions in ours. Oh, I’ve also made this in regular size muffin pans as well as the jumbo ones. The results of both are magnificent. Also, fyi, my muffin tins are heavy duty, non stick. If you use regular tins, you might want to grease them first.

To fill a 12 cup regular tin, or a 6 cup jumbo one, you will need:

5 good sized russet potatoes, peeled
about 1 ½ cups shredded cheese, divided (I used CoJack, Sharp, and Medium cheddar cheeses)
Heavy cream – about 2 generous tablespoons per tin
2 scant tablespoons butter, melted
Seasoned Salt
Optional: Crispy Fried Onions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a mandolin, slice your potatoes ultra thin.See how thin they are? Place in your largest mixing bowl.Here are those crispy onions I was talking about. YUM!Toss with melted butter, ½ the cheese, seasoned salt, and onions if using. Spoon into the muffin tins.Really pile them in because they will settle and compact down during cooking. Top with a bit more cheese.Pour 2 tablespoons of cream over each one. Be patient, it will soak in. Uh, yeah, I know the photo above this one already shows the cream in it. Well, let's just say I'm keeping the momentum moving forward on my faux pax's today. Cover with foil and place the muffin tray onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place both in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let sit at least 10 minutes. The longer you let them sit, the more likely they will hold their shape when removed. Serve and garnish as desired.I just love crispy edges! And that color speaks for itself!Just look at these layers! It really packs down as it bakes.I love the different strata going on here.Here you go, try a bite. Oh, don't you just love that golden, crunchy bottom? This makes a great main course for a luncheon or a side course for dinner. This dish plays well with others ... beef, chicken, pork, and fish.I like it paired with a vinaigrette laced salad. Naturally, this is gluten free, all the way. YUM! (And thanks for putting up with me, faults and all!)

Move over Starbucks, it's Mocha time!

2009-10-17T00:16:00.001-07:00

Before we get to today’s yummy recipe, let’s stir the pot a bit, shall we? Ooooo ... controversy a-brewin here at It’s All Gouda. A couple days ago, an article ran in the local newspaper that one of the local high schools has banned the use of student cell phones inside the school. Students violating the policy will have their phone confiscated and their parents have to pick up the phone during school hours if they want it back.

Halleluiah was my reaction. Actually, my first reaction was that I thought cell phone use was already a no-no in the classroom. Keep in mind, my blogging buds, that the bulk of my professional career was spent in the cellular phone industry, so it's not the phones themselves or even the technology that makes my eyes roll. In addition, I love my little antiquated, dinosaur of a cell phone. I keep it with me, and in the years that I’ve carried it, I’ve been reached four times for serious emergencies and used it twice myself to call for assistance. When used properly, it's an awesome tool. But cell phones in school ... in the classroom? Nah, I don’t think so.

The root issue here revolves more around texting, not talking, on the phone. I’m not put off by kids using cellular devices after school. But in the classroom? All access all the time? Can you imagine the teacher’s frustration trying to present a lesson while kids are texting back and forth, phones are buzzing, pictures being taken, etc.? Does anyone else find this, well, downright rude? I mean really, really unacceptable?

Texting is the current hot communication medium. Do you remember the hand signal for “call me”? You know ... you make a fist but extend your pinky and thumb while holding said hand next to your head? I imagine prior to that, it was "write me" with someone making writing motions with their hands. So what’s the gesture for “text me”? Do you wiggle your thumbs or something?

What's happening to face to face communication? Get this ... I’ve been told by many carpooling moms that the kids INSIDE the car are texting the other kids INSIDE THE SAME CAR! One mom was so flabbergasted that she told the kids no phone use in her car. It’s a kind of addiction of sorts. School bullying has taken on a whole new life with instant messaging at students’ disposal. And that’s scary in a whole new way.

So, my blogging friends, what do you think about this whole thing? Speak your peace (or is that piece?) Is this just a phase? Are kids at risk? Pros? Cons? Some parents are very upset that the high school mentioned above has banned phones. What would your reaction be if this was your kid’s high school policy?On a more upbeat note, another thing that kids like to do, and I’m referring to young teens, is walk to Starbucks with friends and get mochas. Where I live, there are Starbuck coffee houses about every 3 feet, and they are usually packed with people of all ages just hanging out and talking. While I’m not crazy about the Starbucks part, I do remember what it was like to be a young teen and wanting to venture out on my own with friends. When I was growing up in small town middle America, the cool thing to do was walk downtown and hang out at the A&W Rootbeer Stand. I had a lot of fun in those days. So, when my 14 year old teenage (sob!) daughter asked if she and the neighbor girl could walk to Starbucks, I gave her the okay.

She had a blast. She loved it. She loved the experience of going off on her own. She loved ordering at the counter. She loved using her own money. She loved finding a seat to share. She loved hanging out and feeling cool. And ... she loved her mocha.

I mean the child really loved her mocha. It’s all I heard about for days. I know how to take a hint; time to learn to make mochas. This could be tricky, because you may recall that coffee rarely passes my lips. I don’t know how to make coffee. Not to be deterred, I set out to make my mocha bigger, better, and more affordable than Starbucks. The end results, well let’s just say it’s time to restock my mocha pantry ingredients. Move over Starbucks; it's Mocha time!

My youngest daughter, who naturally wants to do everything her older siblings do, of course wanted to try a mocha.Here’s the first sip. So far, so good.Oops, a bit of cream on the nose ... we’ve all been there, babe.Yeah, it’s right there.Go ahead and take another sip.I’m not too close am I?Yes, to answer your question, I will blog about this.Okay, I’ll give you some personal space.

This is so easy. Really, really, REALLY easy. Let’s do a check and see how many times I’ve used the word ‘really’ in this post. Really, let’s do it.

1 cup hot coffee (I used decaf)
2 cups prepared sweetened hot chocolate
¼ cup cream
¼ cup chocolate caramel liquid coffee creamer (gross I know, but hey I’m bad)
¼ scant teaspoon pure vanilla extract - optional(hey, at least I used the real stuff here)
whipping cream
shaved chocolate (I put my veggie peeler to work on a chocolate bar)Combine the hot coffee, hot chocolate, cream, creamer, and vanilla extract. Pour into mugs, top with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. To shave the chocolate, just get a chocolate bar, any kind will do, and using your veggie peeler, just push it against the chocolate as if you were peeling a carrot.

Oh, it's so good. Rich and creamy and chocolatey! It's very smooth going down, and pleasantly slightly sweet. All three of my kids love, love, love these. Even my husband, who can't stand coffee, enjoyed this.Sip. Sigh. Repeat.

Pork Bliss! Sweet and Sour Pork Stir Fry (gluten free)

2009-10-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

I get asked gluten free questions often, especially from folks who have just started to embrace a gluten free diet. I’m a newbie at this as well, and my motivation comes straight from my heart ... my littlest chow hound. I’ll climb any mountain, cross any sea, forge any storm to help my kidlins, and since my wee one can’t eat wheat, a gluten free lifestyle has become my best friend.

One question that I get asked often is, “What CAN you eat?” The answer is lots of stuff. Lots and lots and LOTS of stuff. Think meat, fish, veggies, dairy, nuts, rice, and potatoes. There are lots of grains, too, such as quinoa and gluten free oats, that pack a whopping flavor punch into our diet. As I get more experience under my belt, converting recipes is becoming easier and easier, too. So you can see that we aren’t withering away to nothingness, gnashing our teeth, or sobbing in despair. Nor are we really missing wheat in our tummies. Our gluten free lifestyle is, well just good food! No special requirements here, all that’s needed is a hungry tummy to fill.

Take last night’s dinner for example. Sweet and sour pork stir fry. This was a quick, easy, colorful meal that came together in less than 30 minutes. Most of the time was spent on prep work and cooking the rice. I based this recipe on one found in the 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes cookbook by Carol Fenster. I tweaked it just a bit and was pleased with the results. This serves 4-5.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 onion, cut vertically in ¼ inch slices
1 carrot, sliced super thin on the bias
1 red pepper, seeded, and chopped into larger sized squares
1 green pepper, seeded, and chopped into larger sized squares
2.5 lbs thick pork chops, sliced into strips (I prefer strips, but you can cube these)
1 20 oz can pineapple chunks in juice, including the juice
1/3 scant cup cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons wheat free tamari soy sauce (I used San-J brand)
1 teaspoon powdered ginger (can use fresh – I was out)
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons cold water until smooth
Hot cooked rice

In a wok or very large skillet, heat 1.5 tablespoons of the oil over medium high heat.Cook the onion, carrot, and red and green bell peppers, stirring frequently, until they are just start to loose their raw-ness and the onion starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Make sure you leave the veggies somewhat crunchy. Transfer the veggies to a plate.Add the remaining oil and stir fry the pork strips, until cooked through and nicely browned. Season with white pepper.

Add the pineapple chunks, including the juice, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic and simmer 2 to 3 minutes. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the skillet, continuing to stir until the mixture thickens slightly. Return the vegetables to the work, bring to serving temperature, and serve over hot cooked rice.Now, I will point out that when I served my older children, aka Members of the Foods Should Not Touch Club, I placed it next to the rice. Actually, I tried to segregate the food before placing it on their plates. Hey, although it gets old doing that, most of the time I don’t mind and they actually eat that way. I pick my battles, and food is not one of them. I remind myself that there are foods that I don’t care for, and since I wouldn’t appreciate someone trying to force me, well, I won’t force them. I don’t want any bad Karma. These are the same children, after all, who just might be in charge of me when I’m a little, ancient, toothless woman. Ew, let’s skip the toothless part, shall we. I can handle little and ancient, but I’d like to keep my chompers.On a more pleasant note, this dish is delightful for anyone’s chompers. Lots of texture at work here. The crunchiness of the veggies pairs wonderfully with the chewiness of the pork and rice. I find stir fried pork to be pure bliss. The pineapple adds a nice bit of zing, and plays nicely with the saltiness of the soy sauce. I think a garnish of green onion would be nice here, but I was out.

I served my starving family and while they started to chow down, I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple pics to share with you. My youngest daughter was fascinated with the chop sticks, and asked if she could use them, too. I have to admit, they make meal time fun. Usually my kids set them down about half way through the meal, and revert back to silverware. Hmm ... I wonder if kids who usually eat with chopsticks ever ask their mom’s if they could try silverware?With or without chopsticks, this is a great gluten free meal to be enjoyed by the entire family. Quicker and cheaper than ordering take-out, this is perfect for those busy weeknights when you are tired and want to pull something nutritious together quickly. YUM!

What do you like to make on those nights when you want something quick and easy?

Enchilpaula’s – Chicken Enchilada Casserole (Gluten Free)

2009-10-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hola! It’s enchilada day here at It’s All Gouda! Well, actually, today’s recipe is kind of an enchilada wanna-be, but it’s a taste bud pleaser nonetheless. Actually, I had planned to post a different recipe (Hot Mocha Beverage), but was so pleased with the results of this baby that I changed plans mid stream. The Mocha will be posted later.Yesterday, I was craving Mexican food. I am so fortunate to have many wonderful Mexican taquerias near my home. We’re not talking Taco Bell here. I’m referring to the little mom and pop restaurants that offer addictive fixin’s that are beyond compare. Dark rich moles (mole-lays) and tangy verdes (vare days), spicy salsas and home made tortillas that elicit dreamy smiles on the patrons. Mmm, mmm. mmm. Since going out to eat is not an option on a school night, I thought I’d whip up something using ingredients I had at home. I had just made chicken broth, so I used some of the chicken from that process to complete this recipe.Now, let me be up front here. My recipe today can’t compare with the genius that comes with authentic Mexican cooking. I chose to stick with tried and true flavor combos, and based on the stunning number of servings that my hubby had of my wanna-be creation, I think it was a hit.My plan manifested into a casserole of sorts. Instead of rolling each enchilada individually, I layered corn tortillas and other ingredients lasagna fashion. Now I know I’m not the first person to discover this method, but I just went with my gut, and the rest is history. Don’t you just love it when you throw something together and it is a success? This is gluten free all the way, too.Just look at the top of this baby! Alrighty then ... enough chatter from me. Lots of photos today to help demonstrate how to assemble this goody. Let’s begin, shall we!

Ingredients,

1 package corn tortillas (I use pure corn tortillas to keep it gluten free)
1 can La Victoria Green Enchilada Sauce, Mild
½ jar Trader Joes Salsa Verde (Medium – more tangy than hot)
½ cup chicken broth
½ cup sour cream
2 cups (approximate) cooked chicken
1 can whole green roasted and peeled chiles, mild (I like La Victoria brand)
1 lb Mont. Jack cheese, shredded
½ cup Cotija (Co Tee Ya) or Ranchero Cheese (can substitute parmesan)
1/3 brick Cream Cheese, softened

Preheat oven to 350.
Here’s the chicken that I made when making soup! If you get out your magnifying glass, you can see little bits of orange in there ~ that's the carrot bits from the broth. In a large bowl, whip the Enchilada Sauce, Salsa Verde, chix broth, and sour cream together until smooth.
Here’s the brand I used. No, they don’t know me, but I wouldn’t say no if they offered to send me some of their yummy products.I like Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde. Any type of green salsa will do. Drain the canned whole chiles and dice fairly large. Note: I recommend buying the chiles whole. The ones that come diced, I find, are tough and not appealing. I get the feeling that they are the bits and pieces left over during processing. Ick. Time to assemble. Ladle about a 1/3 cup of your sauce mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish.Cover completely with one layer of corn tortillas, tearing some pieces to make it fit.Layer chicken, green chiles, and cotija cheese. Try not to take a nibble. I nibbled. *sigh*Now put on a nice layer of shredded Mont. Jack. Try not to take a nibble. I nibbled. Don’t judge me.Add some sauce, not a lot, just to keep it moist. Repeat the layers, adding the cream cheese this time. Try not to nibble. I nibbled. Hey, if anything, I’m consistent.End with a layer of tortillas. Squish down firmly. Uh, what’s up with the pink skin? Somebody, get me some moisturizer!Ladle some sauce and then the remainder of your cheeses. Try not to nibble. Do I even need to add that, oh yeah, I nibbled?

Cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes.Remove the foil. See how yummy and gooey it is? I suppose you could serve it now and have it be an uber-cheesy event. I like the word uber. Try to use it in a sentence today, 'kay?But it’s not done yet. Return the pan uncovered to the oven, crank up the broiler, and broil until golden brown ... less than 5 minutes.See how puffy it gets? I like puffy. Do you like puffy?
I also love this golden brown spot. I claim this piece.This was really terrific. I served this with additional salsa and some of the sauce. This was soo full flavored. The texture was wonderful with the chicken, chiles, and tortillas. The flavors bursting forth from this reminded me not only of enchiladas, but also of tamale’s.The cream cheese just about sent me over the moon.Mmm, take a bite and see for yourself! You’ll note that I didn’t layer in any onions or peppers. Knock yourself out and add them. They would be a great addition. Actually, corn would be great, too, and maybe even some grilled zucchini. There’s always next time. I had just a little left over today, and it reheated beautifully. If anything, the flavors were even better after sitting over night.YUM! And it’s gluten free!

NOTE to all my readers: I’m so happy that you come to visit, and take the time to leave a comment or send an email. I read each and every comment you send my way, and marvel at how lucky I am to have “met” people all over the world. Who would have thought that I’d connect with so many wonderful friends this way. Thanks for stopping by!

Mega Mighty Meatballs (yep, they’re gluten free, too!)

2009-10-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, I say, curiously tapping my fingers against my chin. The inquisitive recesses of my brain are questioning who gets credit for being the first daring cook to grab a scoopful of ground meat, mix it with seasoning stuff, roll it into a ball, and cook it. Was this done on purpose? Was it an accident? Could this culinary genius in actuality be a prehistoric caveman sitting around the campfire with a kabob gone wrong experiment? That’s such a funny word – prehistoric. Do we all not agree that the word history inherently implies the past? Meaning, you know, uh, everything prior to the present? History is history. Why do we need the “pre” part?

Anywhooo, who ever thought this up, whether it be a nomad in the dessert craving a hot meal or a grey haired grandma being frugal, meatball recipes have found their way into just about every cuisine. I’ve even seen vegetarian “meatballs.” (Um, that’s just wrong. They need to come up with a new name, ya know?)Italians are known for their meatballs. My grandma's, for example, were spectacularly stellar. We’re talkin’ serious meatball magic, folks. Grandma’s version boasted gloriously large rounds of beef that were just shy of tennis ball size. They were always poached in tomato sauce, never browned in a skillet or oven, and always served mounded high in a bowl. Meatballs were never ON the pasta. The steaming serving bowls could be next to each other, but never mixed. In fact, most meat and pasta were served separately, the exception being if a meat sauce was prepared.

My kids and husband love meatballs. Littlest girl, though, cannot eat traditional meatballs that contain bread crumbs. I’ve come up with many gluten free substitutions for the crumb, and they work great, but this time I borrowed a brilliant idea put forth by Marjie of Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet.

When Marjie makes meatballs for a crowd, actually she makes everything for a crowd, but in terms of meatballs, when she’s preparing them, she uses no filler at all. They are MEATballs, afterall.

These are so easy to prepare. One word of caution: since no filler is used, you need more meat than you are used to using to prepare the same amount of meatballs. I used just under 3 lbs of ground chuck, and that made 24 good sized meatballs. You’ll note I didn’t add fresh onion or garlic to these puppies. It’s a texture issue with my clan, so I left them out and used onion salt in its stead.Onward I plunged, rolling ball after ball of the mainly singular ingredient. Let’s take a vote. How many of you get the “icks” when touching raw ground meat? Sometimes touching raw meat bugs me, and sometimes it doesn’t. It didn’t this time. I’ve made them twice now and they are a hit! This latest time I merged Marjie’s meat idea along with grandma’s process of poaching them in sauce. The result? Well, see for yourself!

Mega Mighty Meatballs (makes giant meatballs)

Poaching Liquid:
2 quarts spaghetti sauce
1 quart water

Meatballs: (Use your favorite seasonings; this works for my bunch)
3 lbs ground beef (I’m sure turkey would work fine)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon Lawry’s Season Salt
1 teaspoon onion salt or powder, your choice
Sea Salt to taste
Ground Black Pepper

Bring 2 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 1 quart of water to a boil in a large stock pot. Meanwhile, combine all meatball ingredients trying to not overhandle the meat (that makes for a dense meatball). Take about 3 tablespoons of the meat mixture, and roll into a ball. Repeat until all the meat is used. Carefully place the meatballs, one by one, into the boiling sauce. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the meatballs are done. Meatballs can be served with pasta, as a hoagie filling, as a main dish, etc.I served mine with Monterey Jack Polenta. Mmm, mmm, good.See how juicy they are?That is the correct term, right?These guys are very beefy flavored. Mmm ... beef.I don’t know who first came up with the meatball concept, but I’m eternally thankful to them. And to Marjie, too, for the great idea. I think next time I’ll roll them smaller and make sweet and sour meatballs. And because these rolly rounds contain no breadcrumbs, they are gluten free! Yippee!

What’s your favorite meatball recipe?

SCIBS: Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

2009-10-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

SCIBS. How’s that for an acronym! Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you are familiar with the phrase “chat speak”? You know what I’m talking about: the indulgent substitution of acronyms for an entire glossary of phrases. There are the obvious ones that we see all the time in blog comments, such as LOL, which is short for Laughing Out Loud. Homeschooling blogs are clogged with DH, DS, DD, DC which represents Darling/Dear Husband, Darling Son, Darling Daughter, and Darling Children. Alrighty then!

Since I'm the somewhat conservative yet open-minded parent of twin teens and a "tween" 10 year old, plus I joyfully fulfill the role of carpool driver to a never ending sea of kids, I’ve made a special effort to decipher the chat code of today's youth. Actually, it's not just the kiddos who are using this. College students and adults of all ages, young and elderly, are adopting this newfangled way of communicating. What started with xoxo signing a card has come a looong way, baby.

I don’t think I’ve ever typed LOL before. I have, however, scralled "xoxo" when signing cards to my kids. Does that count? Here's a taste of some of the most common new text messaging abbreviations. There’s IDK for I Don’t Know, JK for Just Kidding, LMK for Let Me Know, NM Never Mind, B/C Because, BRB Be Right Back, and SUP What’s Up. Believe me folks, there are a zillion of them (some more than a tad shocking) and I don’t see any end in sight. While most of these little gems sprang to life to save the millions of calluses forming on thumbs during the texting, instant messaging, and on-line chatting craze presently taking place around the globe, many a kid and adult actually speak this way in regular conversation.

It drives my oldest daughter nuts when her classmates talk in acronyms all day long. She says it’s okey-dokey for emails and such, but not for face to face communication. Actually, my daughter doesn’t say okey-dokey. Ever. She’s is the epitome of articulate. Her mother, of course, has been known to say it. Okey-dokey. Oh, and you out there with young kids who don’t even use the computer yet, don’t think your wee ones aren’t exposed to this. It doesn’t matter where you live, who your friends are, etc. This chat speak has a life of its own. Of course, if you never set foot outside, never speak to anyone, never turn on the TV, radio, or computer, then, yes, chances are you’ve not experienced chat speak. Um, but if you’re reading this, well then, you know it’s EVERWHERE all over the globe. I’m just saying. It’s the technological version of cultural diffusion.
Today’s recipe represents culinary cultural diffusion. It’s a lovely Italian Beef recipe that’s made with Greek Peperocini, and served French style with an au jus of sorts. Just doing my part to bring the world a little closer.

Now that we are full swing into school and soccer, I dusted off ye ole crockpot, and whipped up a lovely Italian Beef recipe. Um, but I totally spaced taking pictures of it. Sorry. I remembered as I was washing the dinner dishes. Oops. However, I have hopefully redeemed myself by using the leftovers for Italian Beef Sandwiches. Note: I made the beef one day, and the sammies another day.

Slow Cooker Italian Beef (This portion of the recipe is Gluten Free)

3.5 lbs chuck roast, left whole
2 packages dry Italian Salad Dressing mix
1 cup water
½ 16 oz jar Peperocini

Place your roast into your slow cooker and sprinkle all sides with the salad dressing. Pour water over, cover, and cook on high for 6-7 hours. An hour before it is finished, pour the ½ jar of peperocini and it’s liquid into the slow cooker. When finished, shred the meat with two forks, discarding any fat. We ate ours with mashed potatoes and zucchini. Store the left over meat in the broth (au jus), in the fridge. The fat will rise to the top and harden. Discard. This is even better the next day.Italian Beef Sandwiches (This portion of the recipe is not gluten free due to the bread)

Ciabatta sandwich rolls or any crusty hoagie
Garlic Olive Oil
Left over Italian beef, reheated and drained
Italian Beef Au Jus, reheated
Sauteed onion slivers
Sauteed red, green, yellow peppers
Peperocini if desired
Thinly sliced mozzarella cheese

Prepare the Garlic Olive Oil.In a small, heavy saucepan, pour about a ¼ cup of olive oil and add 6-7 peeled garlic cloves.Heat gently over low heat for about 20 minutes or until the garlic is soft and carmel colored. The cloves will taste just like roasted garlic, and the oil is perfumed wonderfully with a mellow garlic flavor.

Heat your oven to 350.Cut the ciabatta rolls in half, and spread with the garlic oil. I also mashed a little bit of the roasted cloves into the bread, too. Pop in the oven until warm, about 5 minutes.Remove from oven, and top with roast beef.Next comes the onions.Remember the peppers. Leave these off if peppers don’t float your boat.You can add more pepperocini, too. (UM, you all date your jars, too, right?) They add a great tang to the sandwich. Now add the mozzarella cheese. Top with the top half of the ciabatta roll. Place back in the oven and warm it until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Serve with the au jus for dipping.

Oh now stop. I know some of you don’t like to get your bread wet. Just skip it if you don’t approve.I approve, so I slurped mine right up. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm! WFM (Works For Me)!!NOTE: The Italian Beef recipe is Gluten Free. The sandwich, obviously, is not. My g/f daughter just eats her servings without the bread. So, my peeps, LMK (Let Me Know) your favorite Italian Beef recipe. SYL (See You Later)! THX!

Great Eggs-pectations! Bacon and Cheddar Deviled Eggs!

2009-10-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

You didn’t think a long time would pass without me singing the praises of the glorious white orb (or brown orb depending on your preference) did you? I think not.

Eggs are a big part of my diet. Not only do I love their flavor, but they are just so accommodating in the recipe department. Don’t you love it when your ingredients cooperate with you?Take today’s recipe for example. I love deviled eggs. I’ve posted about them. I’ve read your posts about them. Is there such a thing as a bad deviled egg? Not in my house, there isn’t. Okay, okay so my kids won’t touch them. Hubbyman and I more than make up for the non-eggers' lack of enthusiasm.

Actually, the yummy stuffed egg recipe I’m sharing with you today is a good one to serve to those a little shy about eating deviled eggs. This recipe does NOT have any vinegar in it, so it’s milder than traditional deviled eggs. Plus it contains cheese and bacon. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like cheese and bacon? Um, besides my children, that is. Oh, they like cheese and bacon and eggs, they just prefer that all parties remain in their respective, designated, separated areas on a plate. *sigh*Anywhooo, these are super simple, and really do taste great. These little stuffed gems are a fun twist on the traditional omelet. They would be perfect at a tailgate party, football buffet, or holiday gathering.

Bacon and Cheddar Deviled Eggs

6 Hard boiled eggs, peeled and split in half
3 Tablespoons Mayo
1 heaping teaspoon grainy, Dijon, or regular mustard
2 Tablespoons grated Cheddar cheese (grate it yourself!)
4 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Salt to taste
White pepper
2 green onions, sliced both white and green parts

Separate the hard boiled yolks from the eggs,
and place the yolks in a large mixing bowl. Place the egg whites, cut side up on a plate. I usually put a paper towel down on the plate first ~ it keeps the whites from sliding around while you stuff them.Mash the yolks with a fork. Add the mayo and mustard, and stir well.I like this kind of mustard, but Dijon would work great, too. Regular mustard would be just fine as well. Stir in the cheese, parsley, salt, white pepper, and most of the bacon. Keep a bit of bacon to garnish with later. Using a small spoon, fill each half of the egg whites, really mounding it high. A spoon works better than a pastry bag because the bacon would clog the tip. Garnish with the reserved bacon and the green onions.Eat. Devour. Make yummy noises. Protect your portion from your egg stealing hubby. So, what great eggs-pectations have you created lately?

PS: Naturally, these are gluten free, too!

Oops, I did it again! Oven Cured Tomatoes

2009-09-28T21:51:00.001-07:00

I have a confession. Again. Oh yes, my peeps, we’ve been down this road before. Here goes ...

(Insert a deep breathe here) I made an entire oven tray’s worth of Oven Cured Tomatoes and I .... I ... ate them. Right. Off. The. Tray. I've done this before. Oh super, I'm a serial cured tomato stealer.

Why do I do this? Why? I’m a responsible person. I strive for good manners, healthy living, exercising good judgement, etc. So what is it about these blasted oven cured tomatoes that causes me to completely loose control.

Well, *sigh*, it’s simple. They are heavenly. Way, way, WAY better than store bought sun dried tomatoes. Someday, I vow, in my lifetime, I will make these and not devour them straight from the oven.

For those of you who have mastered your self control far better than I, let me assure you that these are super easy to make. One caution, though. They take hours to cure. Some folks like to put them in the oven before going to bed at night, but I’m not fly with the idea of having something cooking, albeit at a low temp, in the oven whilst I sleep. I just pop them in the oven first thing in the morning, and let them do their thing for about 7 hours.

Ideally, these should be made with roma tomatoes. Romas are a meaty variety, and dehydrate to a lovely, chewy, tangy texture. Today, I wanted to use up the last of my tomato garden bounty which was just regular ole toms.I sliced them up into medium thin wedges, slathered them with high quality extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt, onion powder, garlic salt, and black pepper. I don’t add herbs to mine so that I can use them in various recipes. Use them, that is, if they could ever make it to the storage jar.Spread the oiled up ruby gems on a rimmed baking sheet and pop them into a preheated 400 degree oven. Immediately, turn the oven down to 200 degrees and leave them alone for 6-8 hours. Today’s batch took 7 hours.

One side note, let’s say you want to make these but about half way through the curing process, your aunt mabel calls to remind you that you promised to bring her dinner tonight. No worries. Just pull these babies out of the oven, combine with some pasta and herbs, top with grated cheese and you're good to go.Here’s what they look like at the half way mark. Lovely. Come to mama. Even half way done, they would make an awesome, awesome roasted tomato sauce.

That said, if aunt mabel does not call, let them cure the full amount and you will have the most delectable, addictive cured tomatoes ever. EVER. Oh, and obviously, these are gluten free.Just look at this perfection. Here, here ... just try one. You’ll be hooked. Forever. I wonder if this was how it was for Adam with Eve in the Garden. Perhaps it wasn't an apple afterall ... perhaps it was a cured tomato. They are both red, you know. And lots of stuff gets lost in translation. *sigh* I'm in big trouble now.

On a different and less blasphemous note, here are some pics of my boy. He has no trouble refraining from eating the oven cured toms. In fact, he won’t touch them. He grew this big on meat and potatoes, baby. And corn. The boy loves his corn.

Anyway ... my young fella played in a soccer tournament this past weekend. It was a soccer extravaganza on Saturday and Sunday. Our weather was gorgeous both days; in fact, we are all a little sun kissed after being out and about at the games.Can you see the outline of magnificent Mt. Hood in the background? I just had to throw in this shot so you all could take in the spendor of mother nature's Mt. Hood and the adorableness of my mountain of a boy. It seems really strange to not see snow on the mountain. Every summer, there is less and less. However, the rainy season is supposed to return this week which means rain here in the valley and snow up at the mountain. With luck, this time next week, Mt. Hood will be covered with snow.Whew, it was hot that afternoon. Lordy, when did this kid grow up? Isn’t he my little fella that used to fall asleep on my shoulder? Those days are long gone, but fresh in my memory. This is game 2 on Saturday. A real nail biter, it ended in a tie. By the way, Saturday marked my 47th birthday! Happy birthday to me!

Cookie Review: Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookie Mix

2009-09-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Do you cook everything from scratch? Everything? I actually consider myself to be somewhat of a “cooking from scratch” type of cook. There are times when I will, of course, take full advantage of short cuts, namely using canned goods like chicken stock and dried pasta, but for the most part -- say 93.86% -- I will cook from scratch.

Baking, however, is a different story. While I know how to whip up a cake from scratch, I happen to be quite satisfied with Ms. Betty Crocker or Mr. Duncan Hines. Cookies, though, have ALWAYS been made from scratch. Always. Always. Always.

Always, that is until the past year. As you are all aware by now, the littlest member of the gouda family follows a, say it with me, gluten free diet. Whipping up a scratch batch of chocolate chip cookies is a thing of the past for us. For those not familiar with non-wheat flours, you can’t substitute just any old gluten free flour for wheat flour. Even the gluten free all-purpose flour doesn’t perform the same as regular old flour.

This presents challenges, then, when making chocolate chip cookies. I like to send a homemade treat in with my girls’ lunches, and so we’ve been experimenting with different cookie mixes. Our favorite so far is Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookie Mix.This cookie mix runs around $5-6/bag and can be found at most grocery stores around here. It’s a complete mix needing only ½ cup of room temp butter, 1 egg, and 2 T of water. One bag makes 24 cookies, which works out great for a week’s worth of lunch treats.Look at the ingredients. While there is nothing overprocessed here, you will see something surprising. Do you see it? The main “flour” is garbanzo bean flour! Indeedlydo, this raw dough definitely has a “beany” and vanilla-y odor. Not bad, mind you, just not, shall we say, traditional. Thankfully, the baked product does NOT taste beany at all.

Cooking with “alternative” flours is very different from traditional wheat flour. Even after combining with the butter, egg, and water, the cookie mix remains very crumbly.See what I mean? To form the cookies, all you have to do is squeeze the dough together into a ball.Despite starting off crumbly, once in a ball shape, it holds together perfectly. It does spread out while baking, and doesn’t fall apart afterward.

In fact, the texture is quite good. Don’t they kind of look like oatmeal cookies? No oatmeal here, though.They spread and bake to a wonderful thickness. Not too thick, not too thin. Crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, these baked goodies have a nice balance of vanilla and butter flavor.The bottoms turn a lovely golden brown, too. While I could definitely taste chocolate, it would benefit from a few more chips in the mix.

The best thing – my daughter likes them. In fact the entire family likes them. I have to label these “FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES ONLY” because they disappear so quickly.

So, for those of you following a gluten free diet, or for those of you wanting to move away from processed wheat flour, I’d rank these cookies a 4 out of 5.

Our next g/f cookie mix to try is called Pamela’s. I’ve heard good things about her cake mix, so we’ll see how the cookie mix is. I'd love, truly and sincerely, to hear about any cookies that you make that do not contain traditional flour. Send them my way!What do you think? Would you eat this cookie? Come on over, I’ll pour the milk.

Butt Ugly 13 Bean Soup – It’s Yummy!

2009-09-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

Yep, you read that title correctly. Based on the title alone, I bet you just want to dig in and eat this don't you? There’s no getting around the fact that this soup will not win any beauty contests. It will, however, sweep yummy bowl awards for terrific taste. It’s gluten free, too.

A few weeks ago, while visiting Bob’s Red Mill store, I was seduced ... yes SEDUCED by all the lovely bags of beans they offered for sale.This particular bag caught my eye. Have you ever bought a bag of multi-type beans before? When I saw this, I thought it might be a great $ saver because I wouldn’t have to purchase larger quantities of individual bean bags. All that was in the bag was legumes ... no spice packet, no dehydrated this or that, no additives of any kind. While I liked that it was simply legumes, my little voice urged me to proceed with caution. I ignored my little voice. Bad, Paula. Bad, bad, bad. What can I say, I’m weak.But how could I resist them? Just look at them! As you can see, they look terrific. They looked great in the bag, but even better on my tray. Despite purchasing them from a quality company, I still manually looked over the beans just in case a pebble or two snuck into the bag during processing. No rocks in this batch. After sorting, I rinsed them thoroughly, and let them sit soak in water overnight.See the difference in size after soaking? These can’t be eaten yet though. They still require cooking.

While I really loved the concept of having multiple beans in a one-stop-shop-bag, my excitement faded once the cooking process began. First of all, since these legume babies are all different shapes and sizes, they cook at different rates. DUH! I knew it, I knew it, but I didn’t pay attention to my little voice. Get’s me in trouble EVERY time.

What happened next is simply chemistry. The beans cooked at different rates. The lentils, for example, completely disintegrated by the time the kidney beans were done. But all was not lost, the flavor is wonderful. I mean really, really good. It just looks butt ugly.In fact, when I went to take the photos, I placed a rosemary sprig on top for garnish first. My daughter told me to give it up, there was nothing I could do to make the soup look better. Little stinker. Of course, she was shoveling soup in her mouth at the time, and then requested seconds, so I choose to overlook her critique. I’ll spare you her descriptive word interpretation of the color of this soup. Of course, if you care to guess her choice of vocabulary, I won’t stop you. Hint: It also begins with a ‘b’.13 Bean Soup

2 cups dried beans, picked over, rinsed, soaked overnight, then rinsed and drained (you’ll end up with a ton of beans – don’t be fooled, most of them melt away into the broth)
3 T olive oil
1 lb smoked sauced – diced
4 carrots - diced
1 onion – diced
2 garlic cloves – minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
2 T dried parsley
1 fresh sprig rosemary
2 large sage leaves
1 can chicken broth
8 cups water
½ teaspoon black pepper
hearty shake red pepper
seasoned salt
salt

In a large stock pot, heat the oil over med high heat. Add the sausage and sauté until browned. Add the carrots and onions, stirring up any browned bits in the pan, and sauté for about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute, taking care not to burn it. Add the broth, water, thyme, ginger, parsley, rosemary, sage, black pepper, and red pepper. Cook for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until beans are tender. Season with seasoned salt and salt. Remove rosemary stem (the leaves will have come off) and the sage leaves. Serve hot. This is a hearty soup great for Fall weather (Of course, it's 96 here today. Hello? Why is Summer landing on the first day of Fall?)

Despite all the asthetic strikes against it, it really is absolutely delicious. Are there any foods you eat that look awful but taste great? Let’s hear about them!

Beef Vegetable Soup and Pasta (It’s gluten free, too!)

2009-09-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Mmm ... soup. Now that the crisp morning air is kissing our noses, it’s time to transition to “warm me up” foods. In the Gouda household, that means soup time! Mmm, mmm, mmm. Soupy, soupy, soupy! I love the stuff and at the risk of sounding morbid, am pretty confident that Soup Maker could serve as my epitaph. I make a lot of soup. A lotta soup a lot.

For those of us navigating our way through the new world of eating gluten free, we find ourselves revamping tried and true recipes. Now you gluten eaters stay with me, cuz this is really good. Take today’s recipe, for example. Beef vegetable soup over pasta. In our gluten eating days, I would have floured the beef, browned it, etc. as part of the recipe.Now a days, I skip the flouring part and stick with direct, clean flavors. I’m really, really pleased with the end result. Even more so, so is my souper girl who can’t eat wheat. When I made this yesterday, I was after a beefy flavored soup that would be complimented with yet not usurped by vegetables. You’ll not see either peas or green beans in this version. While I LOVE those Kermit colored veggies in my soup, their flavors are more prominent than what I shooting for. I also used V8 juice instead of tomatoes because my littlest doesn’t really enjoy bits of tomato in her soup. Silly girl. I ended up topping my portion with a lovely roasted tomato relish I made a couple days ago. No photo, though, sorry. Next, my older kids were clamoring for pasta, specifically the rice pasta that we enjoy around here. So, I decided to combine the two. Voila ... successful flavor marriage.Let’s make some soup, shall we!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 lbs of beef, cubed (I made mine smallish, around ½ to ¾”)
1 onion, diced medium
4 long carrots, sliced ¼ in rounds
1 clove garlic minced
1 celery stalk, sliced thin
1 cans beef broth (I used Swanson’s)
2 cans chicken broth (I used Swanson’s)
2/3 cup V8 juice
1 additional can of beef broth
3 cups of diced potatoes (from my garden garbage-can-potatoes!)
1/2 cup corn
Seasoned salt
Pepper
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
Cooked shaped pasta, buttered and splashed with a little olive oil – I used gluten free rice pasta - fusilli shapeHeat a large stock pot over medium high heat, and add the oil. Immediately add the beef cubes taking care not to crowd them. Season the beef with seasoned salt and pepper, and saute the beef for a few minutes making sure to brown on all sides. Add the onion, stir to scrape up any fond on the bottom, and sauté for about a minute. Add the carrot and sauté for another minute or two. Stir in the garlic, then the celery. You should be able to smell the garlic right away. Add the 1 can of beef broth, 2 cans of chicken broth, and V8 juice. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours. After 2 hours, add another can of broth and bring back to a boil. Add the potatoes, corn, and seasonings, and cook for another ½ hour.
Place cooked pasta in a large soup bowl. Spoon soup on top. Make yummy noises.

What foods are you making now that Fall is in the air?

Keep It Organized - Egg Muffin Sandwiches

2009-09-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Care to gander a guess what I did the other day? Huh, huh? Anyone, anyone? All in the name of organization, I decided to sort out my backlog email messages, both the read and unread varieties. Of course, I was multitasking at the time (that’s your first foreshadowing clue) in the hopes of barreling through my to-do list. In my divided-attention haste, I ended up deleting the entire que of messages. Every. Message. The read ones. The un-read ones. From family. From school. With pictures. With due dates. UGH! The sad thing is that the computer even asked me to verify that I did, in fact, want to do such an idiotic procedure, and I blindly clicked yes. As soon my finger released off the key, I realized what I had done. Guess I get the village idiot award.To make matters worse, when I turned on the “main” computer that houses my actual email account, it wouldn’t work. My son ever so casually mentioned that he saw light wafts of smoke coming out of it. G.R.R.R.E.A.T. Do I live in a cartoon, now? Is Wiley Coyote going to pop up with his Acme kit?

On the bright side, I’m able to access my incoming messages, so I’ve not gone completely mad. I can even send messages, but I don’t have the addresses because my address book is in the computer doing its toaster imitation. Can you feel my pain? Hubbyman, being the computer genius that he is, said that he might be able to salvage the hard drive and retrieve my info, but won’t be able to get to it until this weekend. My cup of joy overfloweth.

Whenever I get hammered like this, it’s usually because I’m not following my own advice of how to tackle a to-do list. The law of attraction definitely plays prominent in my life. Anyway, if I slow down just a bit and use the organizational skills lurking in the deep recesses of my brain cells, all tends to go well. Time to think positive. Forge ahead. Look for the good. Yeah, I'm sappy that way.

Take, for example, planning breakfasts. My morning routine is greatly smoothed out by just a little forethought. I like to give my girls a hot breakfast before shipping them off to school. Being that I also prepare hot lunches for them to take as well, the stove and microwave are at full throttle at 6:30 am. Now, now ... don’t judge me. I’m well aware that my kids are capable of pulling together nourishment to feed their sleepy faces, but geez, I like cooking, like providing for them, my youngest has gluten issues, and I’m making breakfast anyway. Plus, the little most-of-the-time darlings always say, “thanks, mom” both before and after they eat. I know it sounds hokey, but my grandma and mom took such pride in feeding the family, that I feel like I’m honoring their memory by doing this, too. Plus, I prefer our mornings to be calm. Well, relatively calm anyway, and me at the kitchen wheel tends to be the path with least resistance.

Anyway, my oldest daughter discovered that she, too, likes eggs for breakfast. In the past, she's tended to be a sleepy eater. Therefore, I like to have her breakfast ready super quick. To help facilitate that, I tend to cook up a bunch of hash browns or sausage patties on Sunday, and then reheat them during the week. Eggs are made fresh. My gal usually prefers her food to not touch; however, lately she’s been trying nibbles of mingled food. An example of this is her beloved breakfast sandwich, my homemade version of a McMuffin.On Sunday, I fry up a pounds worth of sausage patties. I like to use ground Italian sausage, as it has such great flavor. Of course, regular breakfast style sausage is great too.Once they are cool, I place all of them in a Ziploc bag, and into the fridge they go. To reheat, simply remove a patty, sprinkle a little water on it (I just place it under the faucet for a millionth of a second), and then heat on high for 30 seconds. Done! Great sausage for breakfast in 30 seconds instead of 20 minutes.

To make my daughter’s favorite breakfast Sammie, start off by slicing some super thin slices of cheese (I also slice these up in batches, too). Over medium/low heat, fry up an egg (or scramble it) taking care to cook the yolk all the way through ... you don’t want to drip yoke on your school uniform. When the egg is almost done, split and toast an English muffin.

Assembly time!Place half of the toasted English muffin on a plate, cut side up.Top with yummy cheese, then savory sausage that you've reheated,Next comes the egg,and top with the other half of the muffin. Now here’s the tip for the day: squash the sandwich.Yep, just put your weight into it and press down. I put a papertowel on it first. Consider it your morning exercise routine. For you see, if you don’t squish it, the sandwich will, in fact, fall apart. However, once squished, all the ingredients adhere to themselves.How's this for keepin' it organized? This entire meal, with some prep work namely the sausage preparation, took under 5 minutes. Clean up is a snap! (envision me snapping my fingers.) Way better, cheaper, and more convenient than its drive through counterpart, these sandwiches are actually quite delish. You can use whatever cheese you like. I used co-jack here, but cheddar and munster have also graced our plates with much success. I like to put sliced tomato or roasted red peppers on mine, but there’s no way my girl will entertain that ... at least not yet.

Oh, and for you gluten free eaters, you can easily create this using those gluten free “cream biscuits” that Whole Foods sells (or make your biscuits using g/f mix). One word of caution, make sure that the sausage you buy is gluten free ... you’d be surprised at how many brands actually put wheat in their sausage. When in doubt, simply substitute a slice of baked ham, Canadian bacon, or bacon!

So ... how do you keep your weekday morning breakfast routine organized?

Garden Tuesday – 09/15/09 The Wind Down

2009-09-15T08:13:00.001-07:00

Happy Garden Tuesday! Well, the bulk of sunny summer days are behind me now, and the garden is showing signs, uh make that "shouting out" signs, of winding down. There are a few stragglers though, and I’m happy as a clam for them. Happy as a clam? Where did that phrase come from? Did someone actually talk to said clams to determine their emotional status?Speaking of emotional status, I’m walking on air at the sight of these babies. The tomatoes just keep on coming and to my delight still have wonderful flavor. While I totally miss being able to go pick lettuce for my lunchtime sammie, I’m still able to grab a garden fresh tomato to adorn whatever is inbetween the bread slices. I’m going to make a roasted cherry tomato sauce today in an attempt to make a dent in this abundant cherry tomato harvest. Who knew that one cherry tomato plant would kick out so much fruit!While my basil and oregano are toast at this point, in fact I ripped them out this past weekend, some of the herbs like sage, rosemary, and parsley are growing like gang busters. What an expression ... gang busters. I don’t think I want to know the origins of that little phrase.Downey mildew or powdery mildew, I don’t know which is which as I'm not up to speed on various species of mildew, destroyed my fully loaded zucchini plants. I was not a happy girl.This didn’t float my boat.And now, drum roll please, the moment you’ve all been waiting for ... I harvested the garbage can potatoes. The verdict on this growing method? Lots of SMALL potatoes. The potatoes themselves look and taste great. As you can see, not one is tarnished in any way. Not one. No disease, no distress, no problems at all. I was a bit bummed at the diminutive size of these famine fighters, and my best guess is that although the plants kick out lots and lots of tots, the weight of the dirt in the deep cans prevents the taters from getting large. Despite not tamping the dirt down, you’d be surprised at how the dirt packs down tight in the cans. I didn’t count the potatoes, but I figure I got about 5 generous meals worth out of each can. The best part about this was getting the kids involved. So, if you want lots of little potatoes ... use the can. If you want fewer large ones, stick to the garden.All these tomato pictures are of three different bowls of the red harvest. I tell ya, I got these red orbs everywhere. What’s going on in your gardens? Are you winding down for Fall? I didn’t grow any pumpkins, but would love to hear if any of you have! Tune in next time for Fall garden transitioning time.

Muffin Me Up! Almond Tres Leches Muffins

2009-09-08T23:04:00.000-07:00

Don’t faint, now. I really do bake sometimes. I’m not a baker, per se. Unlike cooking, I’ve never really felt drawn to baking. Oh, I can do it; I just rarely do. Whenever I do don my baker’s hat, I’m usually pleased with the results. Take today’s muffin for example.

I recently stayed at a resort that offered a breakfast buffet. In addition to the homemade potatoes, scrambled eggs, made-to-order omelets, thick crisp bacon, glorious belgain waffles, etc., they also had a large baked goods table.

It was a tiered set up with various kinds of baked goodies. I passed by on the first morning, as I’m not only not a baker, I’m not much of a sweet eater either. The second morning, as I passed by the baked set up, I caught a glimpse of a lovely almondy-blonde looking muffin. I swear that thing all but sprouted arms and waved and uttered, “Psssst, lady, try me!”Since I’m a fan of Marjie’s blog, and she always has baked goodies including a recent post on almond pound cake, I thought maybe I should give this little baked gem a try. Well, well, well. Let me just say that I think I now know what all the fuss is about! The little muffin was delightful! Very moist, almost creamy if that’s possible, with a full almond flavor that I just love. It reminded me of a moist pudding pound cake, and I think my eyes might have rolled back in blissful maneuver a couple times while I devoured, I mean nibbled, on the pint sized creature.

After we got home, I decided to try to recreate the muffin masterpiece. But where to begin? I don’t know enough about baking to pinpoint its ingredients. All I knew was that it was almond flavored, very moist, and 100% good.I searched the internet, found this recipe, and got out my mixing bowl. Alas, it’s not the recipe of the muffin I had on vacation. On the bright side, though, it’s very good and easy to make. Plus, last night I was up late and had on Alton Brown’s Good Eats. His show was on successful muffin making techniques. Fate was on my side!

Without futher ado, and with complements to Recipezaar.com, here’s Almond Tres Leches Muffins.

½ cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour (sorry, this is not gluten free)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (from a 14 oz can)
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup milk
½ cup slivered almonds (I omitted as I didn't want almonds IN the muffin)
¼ cup sliced almonds to go on top (I used less)
¼ cup additional sweetened condensed milk

Serves 12

Preheat oven to 390F (yep that’s 390 – see note below). Grease 12 regular size muffin cups with shortening or line with paper cups. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth. Beat in almond extract and eggs. With wooden spoon, stir in flour, baking power, 1/3 cup condensed milk, whipping cream, milk, and ½ cup of the almonds just until combined (about 14 strokes – don’t over mix leave it lumpy).Divide batter evenly among muffin cups about ¾ full. Sprinkle ¼ cup sliced almonds evenly over batter. Put in oven, and turn up the heat to the full 400F degrees. Bake 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 10 minutes, and drizzle each with 1 tsp of the additional condensed milk. Serve warm. Make yummy noises.

NOTE: Alton Brown suggests preheating your oven just slightly below the desired temperature. Then, when you place the muffins in the oven, crank up the heat to the full desired temperature. His reasoning is that ovens cycle on and off, and if you put your muffins in during the off cycle, your muffins won’t rise properly. By turning up the temperature when you place the muffins in the oven, you guarantee that you are hitting the “on” cycle, and it takes very little time to heat up. Alton has spoken. All I know is that the muffins turned out beautifully. If your muffin method works for you, then I wouldn’t change anything. But if you’ve had problems with flat or spreading muffin tops, give this method a whirl.
These are really good. To be honest, I like the other ones that I had at the resort much better, but these come in a solid second place. They are easy to make, look gorgeous, and taste good. Mr. It’s All Gouda was pleased.Do you have a favorite muffin? What about muffin technique? Paper muffin cups or sans cups? Oh, and do you have any ideas what the name of the muffin I’m after is called? Remember ... it’s almondy, extremely moist like a pound cake, and blonde. I really can’t call the resort to inquire for the recipe because they had like millions of different kinds of muffins ... there’s no way I could decode it enough to figure it out. Man, I wish I really DID know the muffin man!

Fearlessly Fourteen Birthday Twins

2009-09-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

It completely blows my mind that I became a mother FOURTEEN years ago tonight! On September 7, 1995 at 8:21 pm and then again at 8:22 pm, my life forever changed for the better. Want to hear something twilight-zone-ish? Their original due date was MY birthday, but these two decided to fearlessly join the earth's population three weeks early.

Man, I love these kids. From the moment I found out I was pregnant with them, I was completely, hopelessly, and forever smitten. Even now, with their teenage bizarro-ness coupled with the fact that from a vertical standpoint, my daughter now sees eye to eye with me, and my son passed me in height inches and inches ago, they will forever and always be my babies!Check out how the boy towers over his twin ... uh that would be the one on the far right, not the one in the middle. That’s no optical illusion. Check out the size of his mitts compared to his littlest sister’s. Don't you just love how my oldest girls eyes form that lovely crescent-moon shape when she smiles? Her eyelashes are about a mile long!

Happy 14th Birthday! May this year bring you endless joy and wonderful memories! Love ya, Mom

Shrimpilicious ... Quick and Tasty Sauteed Shrimp

2009-09-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

It’s official. My youngest daughter is a shrimp fiend. FIEND, I tell you! Who knew that someone so petite could chow down on so many of the little crustaceans.

Our story begins right before lunchtime. I had some more shrimp in the fridge that were just begging to be cooked. My youngest was just begging to be fed something quick and tasty. Hmm ...what to do, what to do. (Picture me, fingers tapping my cheek, eyes shifting from the shrimp to the child and back again.)Do you remember the blackened seasoning I posted about recently? I thought it might taste good on the shrimp. It did. Now you’ll notice that nothing looks actually, um, blackened, in the photos. I opted to sauté the wee creatures instead of high-heat sear/blackening them. A little bit of butter, some white wine, some shrimp, some seasoning was all it took to give this creation life. (Hey that reminds me of the scene from Young Frankenstein when Gene Wilder cries out, “LIFE ... give my creation LIFE!” Did any of you see that show? Oh man, those old Mel Brooks shows where something else.)Anyway, where were we ... ah yes, I remember now.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Raw Shrimp – medium sized, I used about a lb or so.
Blackened Seasoning – A good tablespoon
Butter – About 3 tablespoons (come on, loose your fear of butter)
White Wine – About a ½ cup
Chopped fresh parsley
Chopped fresh chives

Shell, devein, and rinse your shrimp. Let’s talk about that for a second. While it is convenient to purchase already shelled shrimp, I’d discourage you from doing that unless you have no other option. Most shrimp, unless you live near the ocean, has been frozen first and the shells really help protect the flavor of the little guys. Removing the shells and the deveining process only take a few minutes, and believe me, you’ll love the difference in flavor.I shell, devein, and rinse my shrimp right in a colander in the sink. I also remove the entire shell including the tail piece as I don't like to see people sucking on tails and them putting said shells in a pile on their plate for me to dispose of anyway. Ewww. Plus, there's meat in "them thar" tails. Ahem. Let's move on, shall we. Pat the shrimpies dry. Sprinkle the seasoning right on the shrimp and toss to distribute the spices evenly.
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the shrimp, keeping them in a single layer.As soon as they start to look opaque on the bottom, less than 2 minutes, turn them over. Let sauté another 2 minutes, taking care not to over cook the beasties. Remove the shrimp from the pan onto a platter. Return the pan to the burner and add the white wine, scraping up any bits on the bottom. Cook until reduced by half, stir in the parsley and chives. Pour the sauce over the shrimp. Garnish with additional parsley and chives if desired.This was really super. Of course, it would pair nicely on top of a crisp salad, or with rice or polenta or even savory style grits. The blackened seasoning worked really well with the shrimp, but the real beauty of this recipe is the cooking process. Truthfully, any type of seasoning would work well here ... salt and pepper ... garlic ... etc.Mmm ... here’s a quick bite for you!See my little fiend at work here? She looks like she's in some sort of shrimp trance. (If you look just over her shoulder, you can see my ripening tomatoes in the backyard. Please ignore the hose that needs put away. Thank you.) The quick cooking process provides you with marvelously textured shrimp. Nice and snappy, if you know what I mean.See how wonderful they are? I just love their curves! So, if you know of any shrimp fiends, or if you are the fiend, give this a try! Your tastebuds will thank you.

Steak Diane with Red Wine Risotto

2009-09-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

No need to adjust your monitors, folks. Oh yeah, you’re seeing purple! Or, as Elmer Fudd would say, “poy-pull”.

Today’s recipe is a lovely steak and risotto dish that’s sure to please, including its color serving as a conversation starter. Those steak strips you see are succulent morsels prepared “Steak Diane” fashion. The risotto gets its royal color via red wine. Individually, these two dishes are wonderful. Together, they are outstanding.

Spare me the Barney jokes, please! Truth be told, I was a little owl-eyed at the color of the risotto at first. I mean, I knew that it wouldn't actually be the same shade of red that the wine was, but still I wasn't expecting it to turn quite so lavender looking. I tentatively took a bite, and all my color fears were laid to rest. It's so good, I couldn't care what color it sported.
Steak Diane is traditionally served using tenderloin steaks. I’m, however, serving five people including a teenage son that carries around a bottomless pit for a stomach. Tenderloin, while incrediably yummy, isn’t really a viable option for a weeknight dinner. I substituted the more affordable sirloin, but you use whatever floats your boat, trips your trigger, colors your rainbow, rocks your world, etc. I also opted to cut the steak into THIN strips. I get more servings out of one steak that way. In addition, I like the texture of steak strips that are moderately seared on all sides. *drool*

The important thing about my modified version of this elegant dish is that the tang in the sauce really and truly pairs beautifully with the rich, creaminess of the risotto. I love things that pair together. Chocolate and peanut butter, for example. Scones and tea. Biscotti and coffee. Cookies and milk. Diamonds and my fingers. (I threw that in there just in case Mr. It’s All Gouda sneaks in a read here. My birthday is coming up, hubbyman. hehe)Back to the recipe ...

It’s really easy to make, including the risotto. I actually made the purple people eater first, and then the steak afterward. Have all your ingredients ready to go before you begin. I found the risotto recipe on the Boston Globe website. The original recipe calls for Merlot (I used Pinot Noir as this is Oregon, and Pinot Noir is what helped successfully launch the Oregon Wine Industry!)

Red Wine Risotto (from the Boston Globe)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped (I used onion)
2 cups Arborio rice
2 cups merlot or other dry red wine (I used Pinot Noir)
4 ½ cups chicken stock, heated
½ cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parley
Salt and Pepper to tasteIn a heavy 4-quart saucepan, non stick it you’ve got it, over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and the oil. Add the shallots or onions and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until they begin to soften. Take care not to brown them. Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute to coat the grains with the butter mixture.

Add the wine 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When all the wine has been added, add the hot broth 1/2 cup at a time. Wait until the rice has absorbed each addition before adding more. Reserve 1/4 cup of the broth.
After about 20 minutes of stirring, when the rice is tender but firm, add the remaining 1/4 cup broth, the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, the cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir well. This made double of what I actually needed.

Steak Diane (modified from Barbara Swain’s Cookery for One or Two)

1-1/2 lb steak, ½ inch thick,
Salt and Pepper
2 generous tablespoons clarified butter
½ generous teaspoons dry mustard
2 generous tablespoons minced onions or shallots
2 more generous tablespoons butter
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 generous tablespoon fresh lemon juice (yep, lemon juice)
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh chivesPound steak to tenderize and flatten slightly. Cut into thin strips. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat evenly. In your largest skillet, combine 2 generous tablespoons of clarified butter and the dry mustard. Cook over medium heat until sizzling. Add the onion and sauté for about 2 minutes or until just starting to look translucent. Add the steak strips and fry to your desired doneness. Quickly add 2 more tablespoons of butter (come on people, don’t be afraid of butter. It’s the fake stuff you should avoid!), Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice to the pan. Stir and cook for about a minute or so. Stir in the parsley and chives. Serve immediately over the risotto.MMMmmm ... this was really good. Just look at that steak (if you aren't blinded by the risotto!) This is my favorite level of "done-ness" on a steak. What do you call this level? Medium? Medium-Well? The risotto is, in a lovely way, VERY creamy and the wine flavor is actually subtle. It is very rich and comforting. As soon as you put it in your mouth, the yummy noises start. The steak, as I mentioned, was cooked to perfection, and the lemon in the sauce really balanced out the richness of the risotto. Oh, and like most things here at It's All Gouda, this is gluten-free, all the way, baby!

So, would you care for some poypull goodness? What are some of the colors you’ve seen on your plate lately?

Campy Shrimp Scampi

2009-08-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I combined two titles into one that rhymes. Hey ... we resumed homeschooling in my neck of the woods today, so it’s back to rummy rhymes and amplified alliteration.

Today’s post is actually about my son’s camping trip (you'll notice that my blog title does actually mention "a little about life and family in the Pacific Northwest") as well as that succulent gift from the sea .. shrimp scampi.

Ah, shrimp scampi. How I love you. This, my blogging friends, is the dish that could quite possibly bring about world peace. It’s so wonderful, so fragrant, sooo utterly delicious that I think it ranks as one of the natural wonders of the world. Who could be grumpy eating scampi? It’s not possible, I tell you! I never get tired of eating scampi no matter where I am ...at home or when traveling.

Speaking of traveling, we just returned from our annual summer trip to Washington. (Mr. It’s All Gouda and the littlest Gouda Girl having fun on the pier. Uh, no, that's not our boat. We don't have one. I will, however, accept one as a gift. Anyone? Anyone? *sigh*)

Hmmm ... annual summer trip. Doesn’t that sound so, I don’t know, like I’m from some old, old established family that spends its summers abroad. Truth be told, this was only our second annual trip to Washington. My soon to be 14 year old son attends a summer camp for kids with seizures up there in our neighbor state, and the rest of us hang out in Washington while he has fun at camp.(My camper is the one right underneath the plaque, wearing a dark jacket and sporting the mop of hair. Little bit tall, isn't he? Can you believe he's the youngest of that group of boys standing there? He's even taller than the camp counselors!)

Did you attend camp as a kid? I was way toooo shy to even consider hauling out the ol sleeping bag. Luckily, my kid didn't inherit his mother's hermit disposition. This camp is utterly amazing. It is the brainchild of Epilepsy NW, which is part of the National Epilepsy Foundation.

Every summer, kids in the Pacific Northwest partake in an all inclusive summer camp. The camp is staffed by adults well versed with seizures, many of them former campers themselves, plus they have nurses at camp to administer daily medications and take care of any seizure related occurances. My son attended for the first time last year and has looked forward all year long to attending again. Last year, I was so paranoid letting him attend. First of all, it is held out of our home state, about 4 hours away to be exact, in a remote area of Washington. Next, while he’d only be gone for 4 days, I’d not be able to contact him unless it’s an emergency, and even then it would be difficult. Lastly, I didn’t know ANY of the counselors or anyone attending. Still, my son's desire to participate outweighed my fears.

If you recall, this is the boy who defied the odds surviving a horrible illness 2 years ago. Coming that close to real peril changes one's overall outlook on life as well as parenting. Some things you hold onto closer like time together as a family, and other things you are more willing to try and take on. We do not sweat the small stuff any longer. Letting him truly "carpe diem" is paramount in my priority outlook. He really wanted to go to camp, and so off he went. I’ll never forget leaving him there last year. He barely waved goodbye to his “paranoid yet acting happy because she didn’t want him to know she was trying not to freak out” mother as he was already having fun getting to know his fellow campers. That's just how it should be ... that is, him being comfortable, not me trying not to freak out!

The camp really fostered his independence, and drove home what his mother has told him ... he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to. Fast forward to this year, I was not as crazed saying goodbye because his health has dramatically improved (only one small seizure since attending camp last year), I loved the positive impact it had on him, and I knew what to expect. Sure enough, when we arrived, I got a quick hug goodbye and then he pretty much took off to hang out with the other kids, some of whom he had hung out with last year. The four days passed by very quickly, and when we picked him up at camp, he started talking about attending next year. I just about burst with pride when he told me that he’d like to pursue being a volunteer counselor there when he is 18. Ah, the boy matures. Plus, thank God, his health is terrific. For that alone, I'm a very happy camper. Hey ... clever pun!

He's always been a really good kid ... thoughtful, mature, smart. Being at camp reinforces his good qualities ... friendly, good attitude, and positive minded. Plus, where else does he get to go rock climbing, hiking, ride some giant swing thing (I can't think of what that's called), and partake in archery lessons?He didn’t mind the rustic cabins, Spartan bathroom set up, remote location, or the fact that his mother wasn’t there to cater to his culinary likes and dislikes. He ate what was served and cleaned up afterward. Hmm ... let’s keep that theme going at home, shall we!(My oldest Gouda Girl ... twin to the camper and soon to be 14)

In contrast to his accommodations, the girls and I, along with Mr. It’s All Gouda, stayed at a lovely hotel complete with cookies in the lobby and restaurants in town. Granted, it was a small town, but lovely nonetheless. It was right on the harbor, and so we feasted on fresh, local seafood. My littlest gal loves shrimp, and I promised her on the ride home yesterday that I’d make her shrimp scampi for dinner tonight. I always keep my promises.Without further ado, here’s the scampi (loosely based on Ina Garten’s recipe ... love her food!) Oh, and this is gluten-free, too!

3 tablespoons clarified butter (can use regular unsalted butter)
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (I removed the tails, too)
1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
¼ cup minced fresh Italian parsley (save some for garnish)
½ lemon, zested plus the juice (save some zest for garnish)
½ cup white wine
buttered, cooked linguine
In a large, heavy bottomed pan (I used a dutch oven), heat the clarified butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, and sauté for about 1 minute. Be very careful to not let the garlic burn. Add the shrimp, salt, and black pepper. Saute until the shirpm just turn pink, stirring often. Add the wine and sauté for about 30 seconds longer. Remove from heat, add the parsley, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Toss to combine. Serve over buttered linguine, polenta, cous cous, etc. Mine is served over gluten free linguine.Sprinkle with extra parsley and zest if you’d like. I like! Make yummy noises. Preparation this way produces shrimp that has that wonderful snappy like crunch when you bite into it. We need to come up with an adjective that adequately defines that feel in your mouth when shrimp is cooked to perfection. Whatever you call it, it's all gouda to me! :-)

One last thing before I leave ...

I barked out laughing when I saw this sign. We were driving along on our trip, enjoying the gorgeous scenery, when I see this sign. Look closely, now.Certainly nothing to laugh at. But wait ... what’s this next one say .... Oh Lord. You’ve got to be kidding ...And there you have it folks ... another reason NOT to pick up hitchhikers! Eat scampi instead! :-) Hmm ... I wonder who made the sign?

Slurpin' Good Blackened Chicken Fettucini! (It's gluten free, too!)

2009-08-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Mmmm ... here you go! Open wide and take a bite! My husband did his ravenous bear impression and chowed down on this recipe. CHOWED DOWN. I can tell when he really likes something because a) he sets a world record at speed consumption of the food, and b) he gets up and serves himself seconds. I suspect he likes to refill his own plate because he can pile on more food than his loving wife who doesn’t want him to overeat. I’ve been instructed to place this recipe on his repeat list.Do you maintain a “repeat” list? You know what I mean ... the lofty list of recipes that the family will actually eat again with gusto. The problem here is that although my husband all but licked his plate clean twice, the children in my life were not so enthusiastic. My girls did eat it without complaint and actually asked for seconds of the chicken. My son, well, he told me he wasn’t very hungry. Yeah, like I’m gonna buy that one. (eye roll) My son is not a fan of sauce. He’s not a fan of food groups that touch. This recipe does both. Despite his displeasure, I have absolutely no leftovers of any aspect of dinner. Therefore, this will get made again ... I’ll just keep the boy’s portion separate.

Credit for this recipe goes to Guy Fierri from Food Network. It’s full flavored, creamy, and delicious. If you like creamy, delicious food, this one’s will make your repeat list, too! Like most of us do, I did modify it just a bit.Plus, I made mine gluten free by using Tinkyada brand rice fettucini. See how lovely the rice pasta cooks up? Of course, if gluten is your friend, you can always use regular fettucini. This recipe is easy to make, comes together really fast (so have everything ready first!), and would also qualify to serve company. YUM!

The ingredients call for Blackening Seasoning. Have you "blackened" anything before? I’ve never made anything blackened before. Truth be told, I don’t even know if this qualifies as blackened because I ended up grilling it. Uh oh, I can hear the sirens from the the seasoning police now. Hey, officer, it was hot inside and outside, so I opted for cooking outside. Perhaps I could bribe them with a bite of this. Back to the seasoning ... I decided to make my own rub! I’m so glad I did; it’s "money" as Guy says.

Ingredients
• 4 (5-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I brined mine first)
• 1 tablespoon of canola oil
• 1 cup blackening spice (I made my own and used less than called for)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 cup roughly chopped marinated sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2 baby zucchini, halved, grilled and sliced (my garden addition)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound cooked fettuccine (I used gluten free fettuccine – awesome!)
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions

Directions
Before you begin, make sure all the ingredients are chopped and ready to go as this recipe comes together rather quickly. Also note that I grilled the zucchini at the same time as the chicken. While preparing your chicken, cook your pasta according to package directions. I used gluten free rice fettuccine and loved it. It needs to boil for about 10 minutes.

Pat the breast dry and dredge them in the blackening spice. Drizzle with most of the canola oil, saving some for the zucchini, and rub it in. Set aside while you heat up the grill. Fire up your grill to medium high heat. Grill chicken for about 4 minutes on each side, place on a plate and cover with foil while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Halve your baby zucchini, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with the remaining canola oil, and grill about 5 minutes per side. Remove and let sit while the chicken is sitting. Slice into bite sized pieces. I grilled these at the same time as the chicken.

In a saute pan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Add garlic and lightly caramelize. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes. Slice your chicken on the bias into medallion sized slices, and add them along with the zucchini to the pan. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.Add the heavy cream, increase the heat to a simmer, and reduce the cream sauce by half. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan, salt, pepper, and pasta. Garnish with scallions and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.
Here is the recipe for the Blackening Seasoning. I LOVE this spice. It’s not too hot in the heat department, and it smells terrific. This would go great on fish, too. YUM. I found this recipe on About.com and I’m so pleased with it.

Ingredients:
• 2 teaspoons ground paprika (I used smoked paprika)
• 4 teaspoons dried leaf thyme
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, or to your taste
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preparation:
Combine ingredients. Put in a jar and store in a cool dark place. Shake jar well before each use.I just made a paper cone and spooned it into a recently empty spice jar. I love re-using jars in this way.Do you date your spices? I do. That way if something gets shoved to the back of the drawer, I know at a glance if it’s still palatable!

This mixture was, in my opinion, the star of this recipe. The aroma was so enticing, and the texture just blended right in ... no bits of unwanted texture anywhere. I really enjoyed concocting my own mixture. What’s your favorite spice mixture?

Garden Tuesday - Garden Notebook!

2009-08-25T11:50:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Garden Tuesday at It’s All Gouda. Today’s post is about starting and maintaining a garden notebook. Do you keep a gardening notebook? I’d love to hear about any type of gardening “record keeping” that you maintain.

I literally just started a garden notebook this week. In it, year after year, I plan to keep track of what I planted, how many I planted, where I planted them, the varieties that I liked, the ones that bombed, any soil amendments, diagrams of how-to’s, etc. My notebook is not fancy, but it will keep all my thoughts from jumbling around inside my brain. Plus, it will help me out as I slowly but surely become more and more forgetful! Another big bonus, at least I’d like to think it will be, is that I can pass this notebook onto my kids when they are gardening on their own.

I wish I had a gardening notebook from my grandma and mom, both of whom were amazing, amazing, AMAZING gardeners. Alas, I do not. The sad thing is that I know they would have written everything down for me, in deluxe detail, if I had shown interest when I was younger. Plus, in this day and age of electronic everything, I truly relish having things in their actual handwriting. But I digress ....So, all of you out there in garden land, let’s start keeping garden notebooks. To kick off this project, I simply drew a diagram of my garden, noting what I planted and where I planted it. That will help in several ways including planning “crop” rotation (ha, my little garden is hardly a crop, but you know what I mean) and staggered harvests as well as physical stuff like not planting tall bushy stuff in front of short hard to reach stuff.

I’m also just starting to save my own seeds. I openly admit that I don’t know what I’m doing. I am reading up on it, and am keeping notes on what I’ve done. Hopefully, when next spring comes around and I plant these saved seeds, I’ll be “wowed” that it worked. I. Hope.So far, I’ve only saved Bush Lake green bean seeds and curly leaf parsley seed. Oh, I was so excited when I shelled those dried beans. Did you ever see the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks? Do you remember the scene when he starts a fire for the first time, and thumping his chest and then raising his arms shouts out “I have made FIRE!!!”? Well, that’s how I felt when I shelled the beans. I mentally shouted out to all the neighborhood, “I have made beans!!!”I actually felt all warm and fuzzy inside, and my eyes might have teared up a bit. Yeah, I’m “special” that way.My favorite parsley plant took a beating this year when my hubby split it in half while yanking the hose to the other side of the yard. He duly apologized, and I did manage to keep the plant alive, but I knew it took a severe blow. I let it go to seed this summer, and thought I’d replant next spring. I basically just left it alone, letting it flower, and then dry up.Here I simply used my nail to “flick” out the seeds, and this is what I ended up with. I hope I did this correctly. I’ve got way more seeds than shown here.

The garden continues to do well. Many of the plants are now past their prime production days, but they are still producing food. It has been so wonderful to just step outside and gather what I need. I will miss seeing these things ...
Italia Sweet PepperZucchini BabeBusy Bee on BasilBaby Beans Keep on Comin’Year of the Sage

15 Seconds of Fame – TV Interview

2009-08-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

My husband bought a new car yesterday evening via the “cash for clunkers” program. While he was there, the local news station showed up and interviewed him and another guy. It was fun to see his face on the news last night, where they broadcast the actual interview with him. He did a great job in front of the camera.

This morning, the news station did a revised broadcast and it just shows him at the dealership ... no speaking part. I've attached the link to the video broadcast below. My husband is the one in the black shirt. Our “clunker” was the green van, and his new car is the red Scion. At one point, it shows my husband talking on his cell phone ... he’s talking to me, giving me directions on how to get to the dealership to sign the papers. I, too, was on the news .... but only from afar and am not in this particular clip. I literally stayed away from the camera man. I hadn’t planned on going to the dealership with my hubby as I was knee deep in cooking and chores. He called and asked me to meet him there to sign over the title and get my name on his new car. So I rushed down there with my hair askew, minimal make up, and overall looking like I belong standing over a cauldron. Doesn’t it always happen that the news crew wants to film you when you don’t look your best!!

Here’s the clip: KGW News Look for Mr. Its All Gouda in the black shirt. That’s my guy.

Pucker Up ... Old Fashioned Homemade Lemonade!

2009-08-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Summertime is almost over, but we still have many sunny days left before Fall’s crispness nips our noses. Are any of you like me in that you want to extend summer as long as possible? What better way to do that than to make a pitcher of that old time summertime beverage ... homemade lemonade.Have you ever sipped a cold glass of homemade lemonade? I love the smell of it, the taste of it, the look of it, and the feel of the cold, wet glass in my hand. YUM.

This summer, I’ve tried to instill in my kids that although we live in a fast paced world, we need to honor and take part in good nourishment for our bodies. Taking just a little extra time to made something from scratch not only keeps us connected with healthy food, but also keeps us connected to each other. Plus, my lemonade lovin’ friends, it just tastes better.My kids helped me make this. They helped pick out the lemons. They felt the dimply marking of the fruit. They smelled the rind as I zested it. They helped juice the lemons. And, most importantly, we talked to and laughed with each other while we were making it. Sure, it took less than five minutes, but it’s a memory that I hope they’ll hold onto long after they drained the last drop of lemonade out of their glass.

This is so easy to make, and only calls for 3 ingredients. Come on, give it a try. You’ll be glad you did!

Homemade Lemonade (Makes 1 quart)
3 large lemons, at room temperature
1 scant cup sugar
4+ cups of cold water
Ice (If desired)

Wash and dry your lemons.Zest if desired, freezing the zest for future use in another recipe.Roll the lemon back and forth, pressing slightly to maximize their juicing potential. Cut in half.Using a citrus juicer, firmly push the lemons against it twisting back and forth until all the juice is rendered. My little juicer fits right over the measuring cup. You want about ¾ cup of lemon juice.Perfect ... exactly ¾ cup! Strain if any seeds sneak through!
Save those shells to use as dessert cup holders for lemon mousse or jello or whatever moves you.

Pour the juice into a large pitcher. Add four cups of cold water. Stir in 1 cup of sugar. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the sugar dissolves. Add ice if desired. Done! Serve! Enjoy!Oh. My. Gosh! You guys are gonna love this! It’s not overly sweet at all, nor is it overly tart. The best word is REFRESHING. In a big way. You could dress it up by floating lemon slices in the pitcher, or even adding sliced strawberries. I like it straight up and plain.I like to drink lemonade (and iced tea) out of jars! Do you call these jelly jars? We used to call them Mason jars or even canning jars. Whatever you call them, they work great. This 1/2 pint size is perfect for kids' hands, and work great for adults, too.
See what’s missing here? No bizzarro neon yellow color! Real lemonade is a cloudy, clear color with just a hint of pale whitish yellow.So, before summer slips away, make a pitcher of lemonade for yourself and those you love. It will be a hit, I promise!

Garden Tuesday – 08/18/09 - Bean Bounty

2009-08-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Garden Tuesday! I’ve seen a big shift in my garden this week. Some of my items are now past peak, such as the peas and the lettuce. Other items are just coming into their own, such as the zucchini and tomatoes. Mmm ... garden ripe tomatoes. And yet other items just keep on keeping on, such as the herbs and the beans.Lordly, do I have a boatload of beans in my garden. I planted only two varieties: Pole Beans and Bush Beans. I’m most familiar with pole bean varieties, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that I like the bush beans better! I’m making an assumption that bush beans get their name from their shape ... they spread out low in the garden vs. climbing up a trellis. The ones I grew have great flavor and they were, to my surprise, stringless! I staggered my plantings, just by a couple weeks, and I’m so glad that I did that. I’ve been enjoying their greenie goodness for a while now.So, when it comes to bean preparation, are you a tail kind of person? I’m a tail person. I leave them on.Off with their heads! Obviously, though, I do snap the heads off. I spent many an hour snapping beans when I was a kid. I actually like snapping beans. It’s quick, easy, and not messy at all. If I close my eyes, I can transport myself back in time to sitting in the back yard of my childhood home, sitting in a lawn chair, and snapping bean after bean with my mom. I used to make her laugh by belting out spiritual songs while we worked. I can still hear her laughter. Sure do miss her. Maybe that’s why I like beans so much.

Anyway, when it comes to beans, I like simple preparations best. A quick toss with olive oil and garlic is enough for me. My family, however, likes a bit of butter with theirs, so I’ve adapted my tastes for them.Gather a meals worth of beans. I just use my colander when I pick them ... makes prep and cleaning that much easier. Snap off the stems and rinse thoroughly.Add to a boiling pot of water, and boil for about 6 minutes. I always put a little dollop of olive oil after adding the beans. I don’t know why ... my mother did it so I do it. It does seem to keep the veggies bright green that way. Alternately, you could steam them.

NOTE: Here’s an old wives tale tip for boiling veggies: If it grows above ground, add it to boiling water. If it grows below ground, add it to the water and then bring it to a boil! Works for me!While the beans are a’boilin’, in a sauté pan, sauté a thinly sliced, not minced, clove of garlic in a combo of olive oil and butter. Saute it just enough to take the bite out of the garlic.Remove from the heat, and toss in the cooked beans. Season with sea salt if desired.
Serve! Beans fresh out of the garden are a real treat. It goes without saying that these are gluten free (uh, I just said it though.) I could make an entire meal just out of beans! YUM!

The case of the mashed potato wannabe: Creamy Mashed Cauliflower Augratin

2009-08-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

I love finding new ways to cook familiar ingredients. Take the main ingredient in today’s recipe, for example: Cauliflower. The little white tree like vegetable that spends most of it’s culinary life on a relish tray next to the ranch dip. Ah, the potential for this lovely little veggie is enormous.

I love the little crunchy white things. They are most welcome on my plate in just about any form ... raw, broiled, boiled, steamed, fried, in soup, or, as in today’s recipe, mashed. Have you ever had mashed cauliflower? I had mashed cauliflower a long time ago and really liked it, and since I had a head of it in my fridge, I thought it would be fun to pair it with the zesty pork chops I shared with you in the prior post.
Off to the internet I went, and successfully pulled up about 700 bazillion recipes for mashed cauliflower. This type of mashed recipe enjoys a loyal following due to the “low carb” diets that came into fruition a few years ago, and continues to grace many a restaurant’s menu. They are a great substitute for mashed potatoes, and while they don’t taste anything like mashed potatoes, they provide a similar texture that pairs so magically with many meats. It’s easy to prepare, tastes great, and looks really pretty! So, if you are looking for ways to use up your cauliflower bounty, look no further than this yummy little recipe.

And, yes, before you gasp and roll your eyes, this does have some fat in it. We’ll have to have a chat sometime soon regarding the much beleaguered fat. I’ll have you know that after reintroducing certain fats into my diet a couple months ago, I’ve lost weight, my hair, skin and nails look better, and I feel loads better. No more low-fat substitutions for me, thank you. Now that doesn’t mean that I’m sitting at home scooping up spoonfuls of butter into my face. Rather, it’s a way of cooking using ingredients that my grandmother and great grandmother would recognize. We can talk more about that later. For now, here’s the recipe.

Ingredients
• 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
• ¾ brick of cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Description
1. Divide a head of cauliflower into florets.I achieve that by slicing the entire head in half, and then slicing off the individual florets off the center section.This is what you’re left with, a clean stalk.Steam cauliflower pieces over boiling water until the cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the cauliflower VERY WELL, pat dry, and set aside. NOTE: I highly recommend steaming the cauliflower and not boiling it. You don’t want the extra water content that comes with boiling veggies. It would make the end project too loose.
2. Preheat the broiler. In a food processor, whip up the remaining ingredients except the cheese until it is the consistency of a thick dip. Add the cauliflower and puree the cauliflower on high speed until smooth, but with some very small pieces of cauliflower remaining in the mix for just a bit of texture. I like mine a little chunky, but the rest of the family likes it smooth. Puree it to whatever texture you like best. Pulse in ½ of the cheese.
3. Pour pureed cauliflower into medium casserole dish (I didn’t grease mine). Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and pop under the broiler for about 5 minutes or until golden brown on top.Isn’t that golden color gorgeous? YUM! Makes about six side servings, and is gluten free.Mmm, mmm, mmm! I really liked this. The consistency was very smooth and creamy, and the cheese on top added a lovely nuttiness that I enjoy. See how similar the texture is to mashed potatoes? It was not as heavy as mashed potatoes, in fact, it was pretty light. This was a great accompaniment to the tangy sauce that was on the pork chops.

So what’s your favorite way to eat cauliflower? Do you think you’d like to try this version?

Oink! Zesty Southwest BBQ Pork Chops

2009-08-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Zesty! Isn’t that a fun word? I challenge you to use the word “zesty” at least three times today. For example, “My you’re lookin’ mighty “zesty” today!” Yeah, yeah ... I've warned you before about my deficiencies in the joke department. :-)

I found this recipe on-line at the Allrecipes website. It had favorable reviews, and so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m a big fan of pork, especially chops. In the past few years, however, the good old piggy population has been bred to crank out leaner and leaner oinkers. That equates to dryer, less flavorful meat. Think about it. The number one complaint about pork chops is that they turn out too dry. To combat this calamity, I’ve turned to brining the chops. It’s a very easy solution, but takes some time. All I do is make a salt water solution, sometimes adding sugar, and let the choppies soak in it for a couple of hours. The end result is always good. Still, I long for the chops of old ... pigs that were raised out in the barn yard with lots of good old fat marbling the meat. Back in my high school days, one of my good friends lived on a pig farm. Oh, the little piglets were sooo cute! Was it messy? Yes. Did it smell to high Heaven? Kinda. Did they taste good? Oooh yeah. Amazingly good! Come on folks, let's band together and demand pork to be raised in the same manner as from era's gone by.

Today’s recipe, does not involving banding together or brining, but it does involve marinating. It looked spectacular, smelled to high Heaven (in a good way this time), but the pork favor was just average. Not bad, not outstanding, just average. Why am I showing you average stuff? Well, first of all, we’ve all been there, and second of all, the rub and sauce that accompanies this really is very, very good. I suspect that I’ve love this on chicken, particularly boneless breasts (another meat that has become less and less flavorful).I served this with a wonderful whipped cauliflower. I don’t know whether to call it just whipped cauliflower or cauliflower gratin. It needs a really zesty name (did you catch that I used “zesty”) because it was absolutely wonderful. South Beach Dieters and Atkins dieters (I think) brought this dish to popularity as a substitute for mashed potatoes. I loved it! Look for it in the next post.

Onward, now, with today’s recipe. Here it is as adapted from Allrecipies. I’ve noted where I modified the ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons dried minced onion (I used 3)
2 teaspoons ground cumin (I used 1)
1 teaspoon cornstarch (I totally forgot to add it)
1 teaspoon chili power
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (I used powder)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (I didn’t use this)
½ teaspoon paprika (I used smoked paprika, yum!)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4” thick or so)
¼ cup barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the first eight ingredients, and rub over both sides of the pork chops. Place the pork chops in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour the barbeque sauce and lemon juice over the chops. Gently rub bag to distribute the sauce. (Note: One of the bones pierced my bag, so I simply double bagged it) Refrigerate 1-2 hours (I did about 4 hours.)

Grill the cops, covered, over medium heat or broil 6 in. from the heat for 6-8 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer read 160 degrees F.NOTE: I grilled mine differently than suggested. If I’d have left these on for 6-8 minutes per side, they’d have turned to cardboard. Instead, I grilled mine, covered, on medium heat (about 400 degrees) for 5 minutes per side. Then I placed them in a baking pan, covered them with foil, and let them sit for about not quite 10 minutes.They cooked perfectly.See how tender they are cooked that way? Also, because the marinade contains bbq sauce, which has sugar in it, watch carefully to prevent burning.

And there you have it. The sauce was really good. Sweet and spicy, and it really “clung” to the meat. The minced onion completely rehydrated, and despite the large amount of it, it did not overpower the other ingredients. Next time, I’ll make extra sauce to serve on the side. Actually, next time I think I’ll brine the meat as I always do, whip up a zesty sauce using all of the other ingredients listed, and then baste the zesty goodness on top.How do you keep your pork chops tender and juicy? (and zesty??? hehe) Speaking of zesty, I had asked my littlest pork chop to go out to the garden and bring me in a couple small leaves of basil for our tomato salad.Here’s what the imp brought me. Little stinker.

(One more thing, this is gluten free, too, as is the cauliflower recipe soon to come!)

Oh Crepe! Gluten Free Crepes with Crab Salad, Avocado Mayo, and Flavored Oils

2009-08-13T15:57:00.001-07:00

I’m baaaack! Hello everyone! Hopefully there will still be one or two of you checking in after my long hiatus from blogging. I’ve missed you all! How’s your summer going? I’m in denial that it’s August. I saw Halloween stuff at the store today. Uh, I’m still thinking about what to do next week let alone two months from now!

Anywhoooo, here’s a fantastic recipe for you all to try. It’s gluten free, but you gluten eaters will love it, too. While I was in Illinois this summer, my sister treated me to brunch at a lovely place called Egg Harbor. I fell in love with Egg Harbor. I know that comes as no surprise to you as you all know how I covet eggs. Needless to say, I want to scoop the entire place up from its foundation and move it out here to Oregon.

I ordered their lovely, lovely, lovely lobster salad crepes. Talk about heaven on a plate! It consisted of a large crepe stuffed with lobster salad, smothered in hollandaise sauce, topped with asparagus, and popped under the broiler. I think I may have moaned when I ate it. I’m pretty sure I did. Do you ever moan when you eat something delectible? Behave, now.

I’ve been thinking about those crepes for weeks now, and wanted to figure out a gluten free version. Praise be to eggs, I think I’ve done it! While I adore the wonderful recipe that I enjoyed at Egg Harbor, I’ve come up with another crepe dish that is just so spectacular that I can’t wait to share it with you. In fact, just come on over and I'll make some for everybody. They are that good! Mine uses crab because I can easily get it here, but shrimp or lobster would be awesome, too. Plus, it doesn’t require any broiler time, which is important while the weather is still saying “summer”!

Okay, let’s get going. Oh, one more thing, this is the first time I’ve made crepes. They are EASY to do! I was thinking they would give me fits, but I had no problems. In fact, I think these are way easier than pancakes. I’m sure that a professional chef would crank out some really awesome crepes, but I stand behind these puppies.

Gluten-Free Crepes

1 heaping cup gluten free all purpose flour blend (I used Bob’s Red Mill) You gluten eaters could use regular flour.
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1-1/3 cup milk
1 Tbls butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with a whisk. Whisk in the milk. Sift flour and salt. Slowly add the flour to the egg/milk mixture. Beat until smooth. Stir in melted butter. Pour about ¼ cup of batter into a lightly greased skillet and immediately swirl the pan around so the batter covers the entire bottom of the pan. I used an 8” non-stick pan over medium heat (#7-8 on my stove). Flip once the edges start to look cooked and the top begins to bubble. See the edges here?This is what they look like flipped.Make one at a time, and stack on a plate separating each crepe with parchment paper. Makes 12 crepes, this recipe only needs 4. Freeze the rest for another day!

Crab Salad
1 generous cup cooked crab (Note: Gluten Free eaters ... don’t eat the imitation stuff; it has wheat in it!)
2 tablespoons mayo
¼ cup sliced celery

Mix together in a bowl. Done.

Avocado Mayo
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
½ cup olive oil
Juice of ½ a lemon
Pinch of Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons mayo (Optional)
Red Pepper – couple shakes

Mix in a food processor. Try not to eat all of it in one sitting. Seriously.

Optional Oils: Note: I wanted a punch of heat in my dish, so I used these oils liberally. You could easily omit these, and dollop some more of the Avocado Mayo on top.
Chili Oil: In a blender, puree ½ cup olive oil, 1 T chili powder, ½ teaspoon red pepper, couple grinds of salt and pepper.

Chive Oil: In a blender, puree a large handful of chives, ½ cup olive oil, and a couple grinds of salt. Strain and serve.

Assembly:

Lay one crepe out flat on a plate. Spread with the yummy avocado mayo. Spoon some crab salad down the middle of the crepe.Roll up and plate seam-side down.

Top with chili oil and chive oil. Serve with a crunchy side salad. I paired mine with a tomato, cucumber, and green onion toss. YUM!Mmm, mmm, mmm! Just look at how gorgeous this is!

These crepes are sooo good. The texture is chewy yet light. They have the perfect flexibility required for rolling, and didn’t get soggy AT ALL when filled. You know what the real surprise was in this? The Avocado Mayo! Oh my gosh, folks, this stuff is unbelievably AWESOME! I'll be using this on all sandwiches in the future.

If you prefer a sweet crepe, like my kidlins, go ahead and add a scant teaspoon of sugar to the batter. Fill with Nutella and sliced bananas, or with whipped cream and berries! Sprinkle with some powdered sugar, and prepare for an onslaught of yummy noises!
So, what type of crepe eater will you be ... sweet or savory? Either way, this recipe will make it happen for you ... in a good way!

Tarzan Hot!

2009-07-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

We've returned back to the Pacific Northwest from our vacation to be greeted by scalding hot, Tarzan worthy temperatures. It was 108 on Monday. That's 1-0-8. It was 108 yesterday. Again, let me clarify, 1-0-8. Today, it is supposed to be even hotter. Did I ever mention that we don't have central air conditioning? Oh, we have a little window unit that's been chugging it's little heart out, but there are repeated power outages due to the heat. Mother Nature doesn't cool off at night either. It was 98 degrees at 10:30 pm on Monday, and 88 degrees at 11:30 last night. To follow the temperature along with me, check out the Weather widget on the right side bar of my blog. It's half-way down the page, right above the clock widget. I love the word widget. Say it with me. Isn't it a fun word? (ahem)

Anywhoooo ... depending on where you are at (if you are in North America, that is), you are either soggy with rain or sweltering in the heat. Either way, I bid you personal comfort.

I'll not be posting this week, as it's just a) too hot, and b) we are keeping all electronics turned off to save both on energy and heat. I look forward to getting caught up on everyone's blogs next week when weather sanity will hopefully return.

Miss you all! Remember me!

xoxo,
Paula

AMENDED 6:25 pm: It's 116 degrees right now and my air conditioner died. Sweat city here we come!

Garden Tuesday – The good, the bad, and the ugly!

2009-07-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

The title of today’s post says it all. Maintaining a pesticide free, chemical free, organic garden means facing challenges along the way. Your efforts will reward you with some magnificent produce, some downright failures, and lots of stuff in-between. It’s an interesting trifecta for sure.

My garden has become my fourth child. I nurture it, I talk to it, I try to keep it from harm, and I let it run its paces. Unlike the picture perfect produce gracing the pages of gardening magazines, my produce is what I refer to as Practically Perfect. Some of the bounty is blemish free, a few have been covertly nibbled upon by creatures, and some unfortunate souls are failing to thrive. All three conditions, however, are welcome in my novice garden.Here’s why. In much the same way as observing your kids to know what’s going on with them, my plants are teaching me what they need. I started off with excellent soil and a willingness to learn. My hands-on education has taught me that different veggies need different things out of the soil. For example, I’ve learned that some veggie varieties like to be planted near other varieties. Native Americans knew this and practiced complementary growing for centuries. With the delightful practice of growing “the three sisters”, they would plant corn, beans, and squash together. Working like a fine tuned team, those three plants compliment each other’s needs as well as the needs of the soil. The beans climb up the corn stalk for support while the squash spreads out lower to the ground suppressing weeds. Isn’t that brilliant? Nutritionally, these items work well together, too, providing essential amino acids, vitamins, fiber and fat. YUM! I’d like to give this growing method a try in the future.In my present day garden, I continue to learn what’s working and what isn’t. It’s really not rocket science, just good sense. In much the same way that certain people just “click” together, some plants do, too.

The reverse of that is true, also. Some plants varieties do not get along. Of course, I learned that too late this year. One small section of my beets are planted right next to my peas. I read about that unfortunate fopaux after the little darlings were well established. Oops. They seem to be okay, but I’ll refrain from planting them together again. Also to consider is crop rotation. Of course, my garden is waaaayyyy toooo smallll to even be considered a “crop”, but I’ll be sure to pay attention to where I plant what next season.

Here’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of It’s All Gouda’s Garden:

The Good.
Thankfully, the majority of the garden is doing swimmingly. Due to the nature of a square foot garden, weeds are pretty rare. I've had more this year than last, but there is very little open space for them to grow.

Some items in the garden are picture pefect.My version of Beanie Babies. Just look at these green beans. Mmm, I can already taste how wonderful these will be on my plate. Grow, babies, grow!How about this baby pea? These are just starting to show up. My youngest is impatient for them to fill her tummy. She likes to pick them, shell them, and pop them right in her mouth. Um, she learned that from her mother. heheThis particular cucumber plant has been a wonderful surprise this year. It is already sporting multiple little cukes, as well as many new flowers. I love how prickly fresh cucumbers are.This is part of what's left of my favorite parsley plant. It was an amazing producer, and survived the winter and being transplanted, but took an almost mortal blow after an unfortunate incident between my hubby and the plant that broke it’s main stem right off. *sigh* It’s still alive, but I let it flower in hopes of replanting a new generation. It’s at the end of its life cycle now, and I want to save its seed. This is what’s left after it flowered. Does anyone know how to save this seed to replant?

The Bad.
My cilantro plants immediately bolted this year. I don’t get it. I mean, seriously, they grew like they were on steroids and then the whole thing burst into flowers. I felt like I was watching a movie in fast-forward. I’m really disappointed.
Bugs are part of nature. I’ve accepted it. *shiver* In a weird way, knowing that a bug will survive after nibbling around in my garden, I get the green light that the produce is safe for me to eat, too. Luckily, I don’t have too, too many pests to deal with. Some bugs are welcome in the garden. The lady bugs will always find the welcome mat rolled out for them. Thankfully, I had way more bees and bumblebees this year than last year. I hope to see more next year. I’ve also had some yellow jackets hanging around, but mercifully they haven’t been bothersome at all. The butterflies have been a hoot to watch. They mostly just flit around. I’ve got some daddy long legs that are keeping the other bugs at bay.This little winged-bugger is unknown to me. What is this thing? A week or so ago there were lots of them around, but not so much anymore. Any idea what this is?

One pest that I really, really, REALLY detest is slugs. I’ve seen their slimy slug trails, but thankfully they actually haven’t been too bad. Their activity really declined when I put down the coffee grounds. Coincidence? I think not.

The Ugly.
One thing that just baffles me is “disease”. Some plants just seem to tank overnight. Of course, that’s most likely not the case here. It was probably weakened to begin with. Still, every plant in a small garden is important.One of my cucumber plants is really stuggling. Now for those of you with enormous gardens, you may not sweat the loss of a plant. For me, though, with only two cucumber mounds, I’m concerned. Bless its proverbial heart, the little guy just keeps hanging on despite some serious damage to it’s leaves.It is now sporting healthy, large leaves on top, several of them actually, but I don’t know what this is or what caused it to begin with. Is it an irreparable condition? Will these good leaves go bad, too? Is this something it “caught” in the garden? Is it common to this type of plant? All questions that I don’t know the answer to. Thankfully, the other plant is the picture of health. I’ll be saving seeds from the healthy one.

To summarize, overall, the garden is just doing fantastic. The garbage can potatoes are almost ready to harvest. I snuck a sneak peak into the soil, and it’s just loaded with gorgeous, healthy potatoes. I think I found my calling in growing lettuce. I’m soooo spoiled picking fresh lettuce EVERY day for sandwiches and salads.

For future consideration.
One thing that I want to do is start keeping a garden notebook/log book. I first heard about this from Nita at Throwback at Trapper Creek, and I’ve read about doing so on other blogs, too. Nothing fancy, just a method of keeping track what was planted when and where, as well as problems and triumphs. Especially with a little garden, it will help me figure out crop rotation as well as soil amendments. Who would have thought that a city girl like myself, with a major spider phobia, would take to gardening! My hubbyman, who pretty much leaves the gardening to me, sure likes showing off the garden and is saying stuff like, “Next year you should plant this or that.” Sure babe (eyeroll), bring it on.

Sooo, do you have any good, bad, and ugly garden stories to share? :-)

NOTE: The Gouda crew is going on vacation! I’ll be out of commission until the last week in July. Remember to come back and visit me! (Yep, I have someone taking care of the garden, cats, and house.) See you in about 2 weeks!

Eggstra , Eggstra – Scrambled Egg Egg-Salad (Yep, It’s Gluten Free, too)

2009-07-11T17:13:00.001-07:00

Do you ever have left over scrambled eggs? Ah, what a sad state of affairs. A lonely little portion left all alone in the frying pan just wondering what’s its fate will be.Oh, such circumstances make me shudder. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t eat all of their portion? We’re taking EGGS! Especially these gorgeous ones with their dark yolks. Mmmmm!

Well, such blasphamy occasionally occurs in my household as my children don’t always eat all of their breakfast. Let me clarify, they most definitely DO eat breakfast. Just sometimes not all of it.

I found myself with a portion of left over scrambled eggs yesterday, but didn’t want to toss them. No, no, no! So guess what I did instead? Guess! Huh, huh, huh? Come on, guess! I made scrambed egg egg-salad! Ha! (Hey, its acronym is a palindrome! S.E.E.S!!! Yeah, I'm a few yolks off when it comes to "word" issues!)

I’ve done this before, and the results are just wonderful. In fact, when you are crunched for time, and the clock shouts at you that you don’t have enough minutes to allow for the hardboiling/cooling/shelling ritual, this method works beautifully.

Here’s what I did. It’s so simple, I wonder why I even bother with the boiling method. Anywhooo ... take your left over scrambled eggs (or scramble them on purpose just for this) and break them apart with a fork into bits.If not already cool, they will be quickly. Now, transfer them to a mixing bowl and proceed as you would for regular egg salad.I added just mayo as my scrambled eggs were already seasoned. Go ahead and add whatever your little tastebuds cry out for.Then, assemble your sandwich or stuff your tomato or scoop it on a plate and serve. I opted to use it as a sandwich filling along with some wee red tomatoes and my gorgeous garden lettuce. (NOTE: This is a wheat free bread we are trying for my gluten free daughter. So far, so good. It does have “sprouted wheat”, but doesn’t contain traditional flour. I really like it. What’s more, it allows her to enjoy a sandwich every now and then.)The scrambled egg egg-salad was terrific. The texture was very similar to traditional egg salad, yet it took just minutes to make. I made yummy noises as I took the first bite. Then again when I took a second bite. Then again. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

So do you think you would like to give this a try? What do you do with your left over eggs?

Summer Stuffed Zucchini (it’s gluten free, too!)

2009-07-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Did anyone besides me get a kick out of Wednesday's numerical date: 07/08/09? My kids were telling me the corny joke: Why did number 6 fear number 7? Because 7 "ate" 9. Yeah, I know. It did make me laugh though.

Any-who, movin' on ... I’m getting a jump-start on the plethora of zucchini soon to be making it’s annual summertime appearance. I love zucchini. My favorites are the baby or small sized green goodies; however, I’m not picky at all when it come to the preparation method. I’ll eat it sauteed with garlic and cheese; I’ll eat it au gratin if you please. I would eat it in my house, I would eat it with my spouse. I would eat it with green eggs and ham; I would eat it with Sam I Am! Uh, I’m hoping you are all familiar with Dr. Seuss ... you know ... green eggs ... ham ... Sam.Just look at that golden crisp top! I bet every Dr. Seuss character would love love this. This recipe is a keeper for sure. Its origins are Northern Italian, and I got it out of a cookbook by Biba Caggiano years ago. You may recall that I’m Southern Italian. There is a big difference between those two regions; however, I love all Italian food and this recipe is no exception.

I’ve tweaked the original recipe to be gluten free. It’s easy. It uses regular ingredients. And it’s very filling. You will love it. Love. It. This baby is *company-serving-worthy*, too. Your guests will love it, and will love you for making it! Love. You. Yep, lots of love in this recipe. This recipe is easily doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc.

Let’s begin!

2 small zucchini
Alfredo sauce – see below
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ cup cooked ham, chopped (don’t use a sweet ham)
½ cup rice or corn Chex, crushed fine (corn Chex are now gluten free, too!)
NOTE: You can substitute fresh breadcrumbs for the Chex.
Seasoned Salt
Ground Pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

Alfredo Sauce (Makes more than you need)
1 stick butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup 2% milk
1 cup cream
¼ teaspoon white pepper
½ cup parmesan cheese
¾ cup Mozzerella cheese, freshly shredded

Make the sauce first. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, and swirl around in the butter for about 20 seconds. Add the milk, cream, and white pepper all at once, stir, and bring to a low simmer. Add the parm cheese. Stir. When it is incorporated, add the Mozz cheese. Turn heat to low and simmer for about 7-8 minutes or until thickened. It will thicken even more as it sits.

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a baking dish. Prepare zucchini by washing it. Fill a large pan 2/3rds full with salted water and bring it to a boil. Add zucchini. Cook for about 5 minutes for really small zucchini, or a couple minutes longer if your zucc’s are medium sized. The zucchini should be barely tender. Rinse under cold water, then pat dry. Trim ends off zucchini and slice zucchini in half lengthwise.Scoop out the pulp using a melon baller or small spoon, and place the zucchini cut side down on paper towels to drain. Place the pulp in a mixing bowl, and roughly mash the pulp with a fork or two knives. Stir in the chopped ham.How are your chopping skills? I give myself a B+. I’m pretty good with this particular knife, but I’m not going to enter a chopping competition. Now, if we were talking about shredding or peeling ... I’m your girl. I can peel carrots and potatoes at the speed of light, and dispense pounds of shredded cheese in mere minutes. Um, sorry ... let’s get back to the recipe. After you add your ham, add the parsley, Chex, seasoned salt, and pepper. Fold in about ¼ cup of sauce.Filling should be the consistency of a bread stuffing. Taste and adjust seasoning. My youngest loved the filling right out of the bowl. Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture – really mound it high. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Put the stuffed zucc’s in a buttered baking dish.Bake 20 minutes, crank up the broiler and broil for about 5 minutes or until the top is golden brown.Mmm, mmm, good! These are deceptively filling, and are the main dish – definitely not a side dish. It pairs perfectly with a summer green salad tossed with a light vinaigrette. Just look at how great these are!The ham is so delicate in the filling, but definitely is an important component of the overall dish. The alfredo sauce made with just one garlic clove is the perfect binder for the filling. The Chex perform outstandingly as they provide great body in the filling.So, when your garden is overflowing with zucch’s, give this recipe a try. What’s your favorite way to prepare this green goody?

PS: Follow the link to Mediterranean Kiwi's blog titled Organically Cooked -- she's posted a great zucchini recipe (dated 07/08/09) served with veal! YUM!

Garden Tuesday – The Babies are Here!

2009-07-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Cucumber tendril

Well, after a few days of glorious sunshine and slathering the children in sunscreen, we are back to overcast skies and cool temperatures. *sigh* I was hoping to say goodbye to my Casper look. Come back, sun, I need you! So does the garden!

The wee garden really flourished with both the heat and sun last week, and, as a result, we’ve got lots of baby veggies making their first appearances.

Baby Cherry Tomatoes. This is the first time I’ve grown the cherry variety, and I’m hoping to get a bumper crop.

Green Pepper buds. My little green pepper plants are just that. Little. I don’t quite know what’s going on here. I talk to them. I encourage them. I water them. They look healthy, but just are not growing. They are easily the smallest plants in the garden. Still, it looks like there will be a couple peppers ... although they will probably be the size of marbles.

I’ve got two cucumber mounds. This one is sporting several baby cuke’s. My oldest gal will be thrilled. She would survive on cucumbers alone if I’d let her.
I just love how the cucumbers send out these tendrils. Isn’t it cool how they curl around the trellis? Don't they kind of remind you of telephone cords? Does anyone remember what telephone cords look like? Hmm, I wonder if my kids know what a telephone cord is!

Speaking of curling, check out how Mother Nature drives these beanies to climb up this trellis!

Lots little baby beans bouncing around in the garden, too.

Any babies showing up in your gardens?

Crunchy-licious Waldorf Salad!

2009-07-03T11:12:00.001-07:00

Yeah! It’s Friday! Even better, my husband has the day off (or so he says). My husband works very looooong hours, but thankfully we still recognize each other when we see each other. It will be nice to tackle some of the chores waiting in the queue to finally get done, as well as get in some quality play time. Now, before you go thinking that I tax him with chores on his day off, the main thing that needs to get done is building the shed that HE wants.

After working in the hot sun that has at long last arrived in our neck of the woods, he’ll need a cool refreshing salad to go along with his lunch. Enter in the Waldorf Salad! Have you ever had a Waldorf Salad? Ooooh, you are in for a real treat with this one. There are many, many versions of this salad floating around including making some with mayo, using grapes, adding onion, etc. I like something much different, and this one with it’s cool sour cream and honey dressing is my all time favorite.

It’s so simple, yet is always a bit hit. This recipe prepares two servings, and is very easily multiplied to serve more. Talk about easy to prepare .... it’s a total snap!

Waldorf Salad (Makes 2 servings but is easily doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc.!)

1 large crisp apple, chopped or sliced into bite sized pieces. Leave the skin on. (I used a Fugi, but use whatever you’ve got)
¼ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon, heaping of honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ - 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sliced celeryIn a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, honey, lemon juice, and zest. Stir in the apple, walnuts, and celery. Serve immediately, or put in the fridge for up to two days. You can, if you’d like, stir in some raisins, craisins, or slice grapes. I prefer to add either raisins or craisins, as I like the contrast of the crunchy apple with chewiness of the raisins/craisins. Oh, and of course, this is gluten free!

On another note, my hubby celebrated his 48th birthday this week.Isn’t this gift box a total hoot? It’s a pop up box that you place the gift inside, and then seal it up. The recipient has pull tabs that they use to open the box. It’s from Hallmark and we loved it!My kids always make cards. I love what they put together. What about you? Do you like homemade cards or store bought ones? Some of the store bought ones are a hysterical!, but I love the stuff the kidlin’s make, too. For the cake, my husband said he wanted a chocolate cake, and so my youngest daughter really, really, REALLY wanted to decorate his cake. Did I mention that she wanted to decorate his cake? REALLY wanted to? This was her first time decorating (beyond spreading frosting), and I gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted. I showed her how to use the frosting tip to write with, and then left her alone.She called for me a short time later, her face fallen, moaning that her lettering looked bad, that she didn’t like how it turned out, and how could we fix it. I took one look at her cake and told her that I absolutely loved it and so would her daddy. Assuring her that her cake with its homemade look would mean wayyyyy more to her dad than anything that a store bought baker could produce, her frown turned upside down, and we set out the cake. When her dad came home and saw the cake, he made a big deal out of how much it meant to him that she decorated it herself. Ah, times like that make me remember why I fell in love with that man!

Happy Fourth of July wishes to you all, and best wishes that you all have a lovely and safe holiday weekend!