Cookbooks not relevant?? Really?

Well it is fall and I am back to cooking in the crockpot or the stove.. so I brought out some cookbooks to get the recipes.

(What happened?? I was typing along and puff most of it disappeared..wow! Must be the ghosts?I am getting ahead of myself, again.)

Anyway, Eric got his own apartment this year. ( Yes, I know, my baby sharing an apartment with 3 other guys and paying rent and utilities etc. Scary!) Back to the story, he called and asked for some thing that didn't fit in the CRV when I brought him downstate. Girl friend's parents were going there and could bring them. ( Yes, same gf since freshman in high school)

Anyway, I packed what he wanted, sort of, he asked for spices and I texted him a link to penzeys.com. Much better than I could do, but not free. But I packed him a cookbook. It was a basic Betty Crocker's  cookbook that my mother owned. I thought he would find it useful and after all it was his grandma's.

I have a cookbook from my grandma, a settlement cookbook - do they make these anymore? Somethings are funny,  how times have changed and some are useful. But it was my grandma's book and has her handwriting in it, and in between the pages are letters to my mom with recipes. Yep, she wrote and sent her recipes. My mother was a new bride at Ft Leonard wood, MO, and her mother and my Dad's mom sent her recipes. Didn't email, text, send her a link but wrote letters with news from home and sent recipes. ( Sigh)

I still have the book and at times just look at it, hold it in my hands and read it to feel close to her.


So I thought ( silly me) that Eric would like a cookbook from his grandma. But no!
He was polite and said the right things but the end result was that he could get anything he needed from the Internet.
I realized he was in kindergarten when my mom had a stroke, which brought on Parkinson's  and never cooked again. So he didn't have the same feeling I do..but still.

 Every Thanksgiving I make her recipe for Strawberry Jello Mold. It makes me feel good, but I think my kids think of it as mine not hers. Yet she was the one that won a contest with that mold. When she was still alive, she would smile as I brought it out and my Dad would have seconds or third and take some home. My sister associates my mom with the jello mold too.

I realized that I just belong to another generation. Books are special!

I have cookbooks, some can say I collect cookbooks. I just look at the pretty pictures, read the recipes, and thought about making some, actually tried some over the years. Some recipes were good and I make them again and others not so much once was enough. But some cookbooks I have used over and over again. For example, my Beard on Bread..( I know most have never heard of it, much less used it. Except me and Norene. ) anyway, it has spills and crumbs and dogeared pages. It falls open to banana bread..I used it just yesterday to make apple bread. Yes, gluten free apple bread with Jules all purpose flour. It was beautiful .. it was supposed to sit for 24 hours to get the apple flavor meshed in it, but no, it was gone in less than 24 minutes by Geoff and Scott and me. It was good and it has been so hot all summer, I haven't baked.
Wonder if I can gluten free bake on the Weber?

 Thankfully the weather has turned a bit cooler so I can bake again.

Back to the story, I always thought that I would hand my cookbooks to my kids to use but now I realize that they will look at them and say "nice, pitch them or give them away". I thought about my nephew's wife but I think not! She has her own cookbooks. Anyone have a daughter that may want them?


So what could I do?? Well,  I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought another cookbook!

It is hard to believe that it is been a month since I last told you about my journey..

Well the weather has been grand and I have done a lot of BBQ..naturally gluten free..
Using GF BBQ sauce like Two Fat Guys..love this sauce. I can get it at Mariano's http://www.ilovetwofatguys.com/

But wait..the big news was Geoff graduated college... it was wonderful.

but back to food.. I did try some newish recipes..The latest one was Pineapple - Lemon Chicken, it was good and easy!

4 chicken breast halves
1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. ( I had a real pineapple and was gonna substitute, but when i cutted it, it had a small amount of mold. So I tossed it and went to Dominick's for a can.)
1 small lemon ( i forgot this and added a small amount of lemon juice)
1/3 cup catsup
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp bottle minced garlic ( 2 cloves)
1 tsp salt ( didn't add)
1/4 tsp dried rosemary, crushed ( forgot)
1 tsp cornstarch

Put the boneless, skinless chicken breast is a large Ziploc bag in a shallow dish. Why in a dish? It leaks some if like me you don't close it right) Mix in a medium bowl all the stuff but the cornstarch. Then add to the Ziploc bag, shake and let it sit for 2 - 24 hours.

Set up grill for indirect heating and add drip pan. When coals are medium hot,  Put chicken over the pan brush on some marinade that the chicken sat in, and cook covered 50 to 60 minutes. Turn chicken about 1/2 way in cooking and brush on more marinade.  When done take off the grill and put on a platter.

Put the rest of the marinade in a medium sauce pan and add the cornstarch. It will thicken quickly. Cook for 2 minutes. Spoon over chicken.

I made risotto and salad to go with it. You could make plain rice too.

Just finished the chicken, it made a great salad. ( cat liked it)

Tonight I am going to grill burgers, turkey burgers actually, and salad. Nothing fancy!

Chinese that is low fat and gluten free

I went to Indian Trails Public Library last week and attended a lecture/tasting by Esther Moy from the Golden Chef in Wheeling Ill. Fantastic!!!

She made a Chinese dish that was out of this world.. so
last night I tried to make the same thing.. her recipe was:

chicken ( trimmed breast meat)
Pea Pods (peeled) from Guatemala
Red Pepper ( from CA)
Ginger ( from Brazil)
onion ( from Wisconsin)
Garlic peeled ( from China)
Rice Flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill)

Notice  - no amounts.. Season to taste!! LOL

Her homemade chicken broth used chicken, ginger, water. She also has it available to buy if you choose not to make it. I bought Imagine Soups Chicken broth.

She emphasized FRESH ingredients.

She steamed the chicken chunks for 3 minutes..I chunked 2 breasts of chicken, sans skin, and chunked up then onion into small pieces placed them into the wok.
I added 1/2 onion . ( it was a really big onion, if normal size ,I would use the whole onion.)
I skipped the garlic as Scott and garlic don't agree..

But i cooked the chicken and onion until the chicken was cooked, without oil. I was amazed!

For years ,I have  been  making stir fry, and adding tons of olive oil to brown the chicken and make the onion translucent..but the chicken and onion browned up..Although I did watch it closely.

I added pea pods ( about 2 cups) and red pepper chunks to the wok.

then I added 1/2 chicken soup..and covered for 3 minutes.

Once it was done, I mixed 1 TBS of rice flour and 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Mixed them well, and it was murky.

I added this "gravy" to the wok, stirred it up to included the chicken, etc..and cooked for an additional 2 minutes.
 Put it over brown rice.. It was a bit bland, so I added some orange sauce ..

YUM! I am gonna make that again..

OMG it was so good! Smack my lips good!! I made Tilapia!

Tonight I ventured off the path, so to speak and I am REALLY glad I did.

I brought Scott home some tuna salad with potato salad from Meals on Wheels today ( for those that forgot, I work there) . So when I went to Mariano's  (the grocery store)  for some salad stuff, I thought to pick up some fish for me and the cat.

I got 1 Tilapia. I never tried to make it before, I usually stick with salmon, halibut, Lake Superior White Fish. But the price was right and I remember I had seen a recipe for Tilapia. so i was good to go.

I got home and found my printout of the recipe. So I tried it. The recipe was simple..

3 Tilapia fillets
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of melted butter
3 TBS of Mayo or Miracle Whip
plus season to taste.. with some basil, pepper, salt, and onion powder.

I don't have real butter in the house, so I used Smart Balance original flavor. I dug it out and put it in the microwave to melt. I preheated the broiler, lined my broiler pan with foil, popping out the holes. I started on the fish sauce.

The cat at this point was jumping up and down, doing her best to look cute and very hungry.
She seemed to convey " i am hungry, you don't need to heat up my fish. I like it "natural". Plain, no sauce just raw and ready for me to eat. YUM!" then she looked at me with her head tilted and maintained her begging pose. Needless to say, I shared!

After I gave the cat some raw fish, I  put the plain fish in the broiler for 3 minutes on each side.

I mixed the stuff..sort of.. in the bowl I put:

The Parmesan cheese I had was grated and came in a jar, to get 1/2 cup was easy. Plop..
The butter substitute was melted in the microwave, and I added that.
The 3 TBS of mayo was not as simple. I started to pour it out, and nothing came! I shook, patted, etc but nothing happened.  So i took of the easy pour top, shook and got some in the TBS. But it wasn't coming out. Pulled out my knife and added some mayo.. How much did I add?? Beats me!! It just plopped out.. could be more than 3 TBS or less?? I really had no idea. Since I like mayo,  i added a bit more, another swipe of the knife around the rim of the mayo jar.

Mixed the ingredients, it was a light yellow color. Having never made this before,  had no idea if it was too stiff, too watery, or just right!

So I assumed it was just right.

After 3 minutes per side, I pulled out the broiler pan and covered the fish with the sauce. I used the whole thing on my 1 Tilapia. Overkill but .... ( she smiles sheepishly)

I then put the fish back in the broiler for about 3 more minutes.

It really started to bake, and make all sorts of cooking noises.

When i took it out, the sauce was now a golden color, some of the butter had melted some more and surrounded the fish, the edges were golden brown, the top was fluffy and was golden with some golden brown parts..

It looked good! Rich but good! And it tasted divine! Mmmmmm

BTW i did find the recipe online..my copy didn't have a url or any identify mark. So I googled the gluten free Tilapia recipes and found it. It came from Gluten Free Mom at http://conqueringcelic.blogspot.com..

ANOTHER BANANA BREAD

Eric was in last weekend, so to celebrate I baked GF Banana Bread. I used the same recipe as before from Beard on Bread, but made some changes..

That is  -I  used Hodgson Mills Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour, and Blue Diamond Almond Milk Vanilla unsweetened..

Eric said he could taste that it was GF. but it was still good. Also, the bread when it cooled was crumbly. I put the other loaf in the freezer ( the one from last time) now I am wondering if it will be crumbly too.

The unsweetened "milk" was better than the sweet one and adjusted the taste more to my liking.( not as sweet), I needed to add more flour to the batter to adjust and so the bread wouldn't be unbaked and wet in the middle.

Well, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. I was in Puebla, Mexico many, many years ago on this date and saw the parade.. anyway, I search the Internet for some recipes to make a Gluten Free treat..
I decided against making my own tortillas..( way to complicated for me)

 I did have a taste for enchiladas..or flautes..or nachos..

I found several recipes and bought some corn tortillas.

Gluten Freely glutenfreely.com/recipes/dinner had a nachos recipe. Scott wanted me to do this one since it didn't use the oven. I think I"ll file it away for another day. ( when it is uber hot out)

I found several recipes for enchiladas.

Nicole at Gluten Free on a Shoestring glutenfreeonashoestring.com/enchiladas-saucy-smokin  had a great sounding enchilada sauce.


Gluten Free Goddess had a GF chicken enchilada recipe glutenfreepromise.com/gluten-free-recipe-gluten-free-chicken-enchiladas/  as did AllRecipes.com.

So being who I am, I am gonna combine parts of them all and make the enchiladas tomorrow..I may substitute cream cheese ( which I have) for sour cream ( which i don't have) but it probably alter the taste to much..  decisions, decisions..

Lusting after Banana Bread

I was in Eurofresh the other day, I needed fresh beans sprouts and pea pods for the Pad Thai, and I saw they had bananas on clearance - 12 bananas for $ 0.99 - good deal!  I was sad for a minute but moved on. In my former life, I would have bought the bananas: they were brown and mushy, perfect for banana bread. I would have made 2 loaves of banana bread - one to eat and 1 for the freezer for Eric next weekend. Sigh! But not this time!! I was so sad!

I love banana bread! My whole family loves the banana bread. Every time I ask my kids or spouse , what they want me to bake - they want banana bread. My Mom made banana bread, and so did my Grandma. I made banana bread before kids and even before spouse. I really love MY banana bread. The kids get a package from me, or come home from college for a few days, they get a banana bread to eat and one for the dorm. Their friends love banana bread, too

So I was sad that the banana bread part of my life was over. Or was it???

I forgot about it that night as I made the Pad Thai, but later in bed, I kept thinking about banana bread.

The next day, I talked with Scott. Prefaced it by saying, I had gotten the dinner thing to a reasonable level, but never tried baking. ( As much as I love my cooking, and I do, I LOVE my baking ) before I got the next words out, he said why don' t you make GF banana bread??  That clinched it.. I was gonna try baking and make banana bread.

I decided to have a banana bread bake off.. where i would try different recipes to find one that worked gluten free.

I pulled out my much loved and worn old cookbook by James Beard called "Beard on Bread" and it opened to the right page. LOL The recipe had splotches of stuff on it, so one could tell it was used over and over again. BTW they still sell it on Amazon. WOW! After all this time! It was pre bread machine, etc too.

Anyway the 1 loaf  recipe went like this:


2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs ( room temp)
1 cup mashed , very ripe bananas
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar
1/2 cups chopped nuts

Sift the flour with soda and salt in a mixing bowl.
In a larger bowl, Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar. Add eggs and bananas, blend thoroughly. In a small cups , combine the milk and lemon juice; it will curdle.

Beginning with the flour mixture, stir in a bit and the add a bit of the milk mixture, repeat until all have been mixed. ( I do this but hand, i don't use a mixer for any of this.). Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Blend well after each addition. ( i tried once to put it all in at once, but it wasn't a good experiment) Stir in the nuts. ( I have never used nuts, so I skip this part)
Pour the batter into a lavishly buttered 9 x 5 x 3 in pan and bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour or so.


I have made this so many times,  and it has always turned out good. As an aside, before I had milk drinking kids, I used yogurt..it turned out fine!

Now I was gluten free, so I had to make some changes.

First and foremost, I checked my book and found that baking soda and baking powder was gluten free. ( just buy the right stuff) YEAH!! I was baking now!

So yesterday, it was cold and blustery in Chicago, so I made soup and banana bread. (I must have  channeled my inner Betty Crocker LOL) anyway I was positive that the bread would turn out, so I naturally doubled the recipe and made 2 leaves.


First I hit the store and bought the ingredients. then on to make the banana bread.

I used the following brands or substitutions:
King Arthur Gluten Free all purpose flour ( http://www.kingarthurflour.com/glutenfree/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand%20Plus&utm_content=King%20Arthur%20Flour%2dGluten%20Free&utm_term=king%20arthur%20gluten%20free%20flour&gclid=CLCR0L2lx68CFbMEQAodiw2PYg )

Arm and Hammer baking soda
Hain sea salt
Dominick's butter
Jewel Granulated sugar
egg beaters
Almond milk

Mixed according to the directions, but the batter was way to watery. So I added another cup of flour.

Next time I will use yogurt as the almond milk was the sweet kind and made the bread on the sweet side. Maybe I'll cut some sugar out too..HM I need to think on that!
Overall, it came out good!
Certainly smelled good in the oven and looked like real banana bread.

To put it succinctly,  the first loaf was gone in 1/2 hour of my pulling it out of the oven.
( Yes Scott helped me eat it)
and Scott felt it was a keeper and I should do it again and again and again.

I looked on the Internet, and will try some other GF recipes. There is one by stockpiling Moms and another by Musings of a housewife that I want to try, but I am open to others..

any suggestions??

After all I used 6 bananas and have the rest left over, so what is a "girl" to do but try another banana bread recipe! :-)

I cheated!

Yup, I cheated! In making Pad Thai I cheated!

So what did I do??

Well I decided that since Scott liked my Pad Thai so much, I would make it again.
I looked on the Internet for recipes.
I did find lots..

There is an easy Pad Thai recipe at About.com Thai
Food.
http://thaifood.about.com/od/quickeasythairecipes/r/onepagechickpad.htm.

but I have no patience..so I saw the list of ingredients and my eyes glaze over..
Said to self..next time I'll try this..but this time, I am gonna cheat..

So I went to Plan B.

Thai Kitchen has a gluten free ( yes, all Pad Thai is gluten free as they use rice noodles..)
called Thai Peanut Noodle kit.( thaikitchen.com)

I made the sauce as directed. ( 1/4 cup of water and seasoning kit).
I made some rice for Scott, as he likes rice with everything..

The noodles in the kit are fine but not enough for me, so I added a Thai Kitchen GF Rice Noodle stuff.. it was 14 oz..lots of noodles, so I used 1/2 ( 7 oz or so..I just grabbed about 1/2 the noodles in the box)  of this kit and added to the rice noodles from the other kit.
I followed the directions and heated water to boiling in a clear pot, added the rice noodles, took the pot off the flame and let the rice noodles stand 6-8 minutes for noodles to get soft; then I rinsed them with cold water and let them sit in the colander.

I used a lot more chicken then the recipe called for..it said 4 oz..seemed a little sparse to me, so I used 2 chicken breasts cut in pieces.  (Yes I gave some to the cat..she does love raw chicken)
Heated my wok, with olive oil..turned the heat to medium and added the chicken.

Once the chicken was cooked, I added the rice noodles and sauce, mixed them up and put on low heat for 4 minutes or so ( uncovered) .I didn't count as I was washing the snow peas, bean sprouts and peeling the zucchini.

I then added to the rice noodles and chicken:

 2 1/2 cups of  bean sprouts - love the bean sprouts.
snow peas - 2 cups or so..
water chestnuts
1 zucchini, chopped up and peeled.

I used what I had  on hand for veggies..could have added broccoli, or even asparagus.
Then I added the San J peanut sauce.san-j.com
How much??
 Well I just poured, until it looked okay..( you know the old season to taste routine).

I mixed all of the veggies, chicken and noodles and  cooked for about 5 more minutes, uncovered..

It was good!! But next time, I gonna try to not cheat and make the stuff from scratch.( famous last words)