Thanksgiving Brunch and Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Thanksgiving Brunch in my house has always been a quick and easy, light meal so that we have room for the big meal later, but energy for a walk before "linner" (late lunch, early dinner) which also means less cooking for the chef/s. So last night I made the Pumpkin Dinner Rolls. Based off of this recipe: http://www.beyondkimchee.com/pumpkin-dinner-rolls/ which I altered to be whole wheat by substituting 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 3.5 cups whole wheat flour for the 5 cups of all purpose flour called for. The whole wheat flour tends to soak up liquids more easily, so I used less flour, and I also split my loaf into halves which I then split in half and then thirds so it made a total of 24 rolls instead of the halves and 15ths the original recipe called for, which made 30 smaller rolls. You could go either way, but this worked for me.

 Next time I would add some sweet potato (the orange/yam colored kind) in there as well, because it would add some natural sweetness, and it's bright orange color would make them more pumpkin like, as the originals look very cute with their orange pumpkin color. Normally I do not cook with yeast or egg, but I did with this recipe, because it was my first time changing it, and I've learned the hard way that it's best to only change ONE thing in a recipe at a time when your'e playing around with new recipes.

Thanksgiving Brunch,

Sliced in half so they're still cute pumpkin looking things, temporarily remove the nut/stem, spread each half with cream cheese (I used 1.5 tablespoons 1/3 fat cream cheese on each side) then add 1/2 a tablespoon (1.5 teaspoons) cherry preserves on each side, no nitrate happily raised turkey slices in the middle. I like to shop locally so the cherry preserves are from a local farmer, and are basically cherry and sugar. SO GOOD. Put the sliced turkey in the middle, close it like a sandwhich and for extra OCD bakers, line up the pumpkin's creases so they still match. Tastes (and looks) like Martha Stewart visited our kitchen.

Now back to the kitchen to make some butternut squash soup and orange cranberry sweet potatoes.

My first attempt at gluten-free scones

Found this old post sitting in the unpublished drafts section:

Inspired by the Gluten-Free Guru and memories of lemon scones made in college with a loved one, I absolutely had to try to make gluten-free lemon scones for breakfast. Besides, I had the rest of that lemon from the lemon oil cookies to use up! So here's my first attempt at gluten-free scones. 

12 oz GF flour mix
4 tsp guar gum powder
2 plentiful pinches of sea salt
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 oz of unsalted butter
4 oz mixed, dried fruit
2 large eggs
4 fl oz of fat free plain yogurt 
2 tablespoons myer lemon oil
zest of 1/2 lemon 


1 Preheat the oven to 375 f (190c)

2. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl

3. Using a fork, cut in the butter so that the mix resembles fine bread crumbs

4. With a wooden spoon, stir in the dried fruit

5. Whisk together eggs and yogurt

6. Make a well in the center of the dry mix and pour in the yogurt, egg and lemon juice

7. Turn out onto a floured surface and lightly kneed until the dough comes together and is smooth in texture.

8. Roll the dough out so that it is 1 1/2 inches thick, cut out with a small glass or cookie cutter

9. Place on a floured baking tray and cook in the oven for 10 minutes or so, or until brown and slightly risen.

Jelly-In-The-Middle Muffins - Vegan, Whole Wheat

Here in Laveen, we have quite a wonderful gardening group. If you are on Facebook you can find us there (https://www.facebook.com/groups/161227934003355/) talking about everything from desert native plants to exotic food plants, and occasionally recipes we make with them. We often share the food we grow, and although so far this season my garden has not has a lot of luck, I have high hopes for next season. And in the mean time, some of my neighbors sell or give away their locally produced foods. Today Patch made these awesome muffins and at my request she used the strawberry jam one neighbor gave me, and another kind from another, and locally produced cherry & fig preserves as well. They are SO GOOD!

Originally the recipe came from an old cookbook we have in the cupboard called Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, but we altered it to be vegan since I'm allergic to eggs and milk doesn't seem to be reacting well with my stomach again these days. Right now Patch is also making a version with cheese and Jalepenos which I bet Milo could easily make vegan by using his Treese. I don't know if that's the right spelling, but it's a vegan "cheese" product he really likes :) Check out his Vegan Meal Adventures (https://www.facebook.com/keepingvegan) some time for some awesome recipes using it. In the mean time, here is the Vegan Jelly-In-The-Middle Muffin recipe Patch and I came up with:

Tips:
Start the chia seeds soaking before you do anything else, that way they are ready when you get to them in the recipe
Do not use baking cups on your muffin tin with these, spread veggie oil or veggie shortening (like the thick coconut oil) in the tin instead

Ingredients:
Egg Replacer:
3 Tablespoons water & 1 Tablespoon Chia seeds

Dry Ingredients:
1 & 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 & 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

Liquids:
3/4 cup Almond Milk (or your favorite milk replacement)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Jelly:
12 teaspoons of your favorite jelly

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Mix 3 Tablespoons water with 1 Tablespoon Chia seeds in small bowl and set aside for about 10 to 15 minutes to soak which will replace 1 egg (ground flax seeds can also be used for this)
Mix dry ingredients (1 & 3/4 cups whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 & 1/4 teaspoons baking soda) and make a well in the middle
Mix egg replacer after it holds together in a consistency much like egg with 3/4 cup Almond Milk (or your favorite milk replacement) and 1/4 cup vegetable oil and pour all at once into the well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
Stir until mixture is just moistened (Do not over stir, batter will still be lumpy)
Lightly grease muffin tin (coconut oil might work for this, we use walnut oil,
Pour into muffin tin
Place 1 teaspoon of jelly on top in the center of each muffin, and it will sink inside as it bakes
Bake in a 400 degree oven about 20 minutes or until golden brown

Makes 1 dozen medium sized muffins (not the bite sized but not the large over sized ones either)
Edit: The butter you see out was used to grease the tin for the original batch which Patch made following the original recipe. Later, I helped her edit the recipe to make it vegan, and after that, she made a 3rd batch with jalepeno and cheese to have later with dinner.

GF PB Zucchini Bread - Take 2

Although the last batch was delicious, it was more like Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blondies than zucchini bread.
It was more of a dessert. I wanted a more substancial, slightly more peanut buttery zucchini bread that would be good at breakfast.  So this time I decided to try again with a slightly different recipe and it's looking good so far.

Tips:
If the dough doesn't seem wet enough you can add a bit more coconut milk.
Walnuts or peanuts would be delicious in this if you wish to add them remember to adjust your calories
After grating zucchini, press with paper towels to reduce water then fluff with a fork before adding to mix
If you don't have an egg allergy like me, feel free to use 1 egg in place of the ground flax seed meal to get brown sugar loosely packed, use the 1/2 cup to scoop the brown sugar out of the container. when brown sugar is dumped out of container it should fall apart a bit, not be in one hard lump

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Grated Zucchini
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ground flax seed meal
1/2 cup Polenta (Ground Corn Meal)
1/2 cup Steel Cut Oats
1/2 cup Almond Flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
1/2 teaspoon salt (fine, not the coarse sea salt kind)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup smooth organic peanut butter
1/4 cup peanut butter chips (organic, no sugar added)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare bread pan (if it is not a non stick pan, lightly coat sides and bottom with oil or cooking spray)

Boil 1/2 cup water (see tips if in microwave) In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup ground flax seed meal, 1/2 cup polenta, and 1/2 cup  steel cut oats, add boiling water, stir, and set aside.

Grate Zucchini and press between 2 paper towels, fluff with a fork, then set aside

Mix 1/2 cup Almond Flour, 1/2 cup rice flour,  2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, then add 1/2 cup brown sugar (loosely packed) and mix till there are no lumps.


Add small bowl of damp flax, polenta and oats mixture and stir until there are no large lumps. Add 1 1/2 cup zucchini and mix well.

Add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, 1/4 cup coconut milk, and 1/2 cup smooth organic no sugar added peanut butter. Mix well. If bread mixture is too dry and not sticking together, add a bit more coconut milk until damp enough to hold together well.

Pour dough into bread pan, pour 1/4 cup peanut butter chips over top, and place on center rack of the oven at 350  for 60 minutes (check with toothpick to see when done)

Zucchini Bread Update

I've tried several zucchini bread recipes recently. Some are gluten free, some are not. Some are lower carb than others. Just felt the need to test out a variety of recipes and see what we like best. All of them had their good points.

A few things I learned. Zucchini bread freezes well. We defrosted it and then heated it a bit in the oven.  Came out really great. Blueberries and dark chocolate actually go well with zucchini bread. So do walnuts, almonds, or peanuts and thus not surprisingly, peanut butter or almond butter work well also. All were vegetarian and egg free. Some recipes are vegan and all could easily be altered to be vegan. This is not because I'm vegan, if anything I'm a flexitarian and avoid eggs due to allergies. Baking eggless is simpler if starting from a vegan recipe as I mentioned in a previous post. I eat a little bit of all the food groups. But I mention it since many of my friends are either vegan or vegetarian.

So far my 2 favorites were the peanut butter zucchini blondies and blueberry walnut zucchini bread. The blondies happen to be gluten free, and everyone who ate them loved them. Good times!

Zucchini Bread 2 Ways

Patch recently made a request for zucchini bread, and some neighbors who own Amadio Ranch had offered a free HUGE zucchini to each of our garden club members, so I decided to ride "Sunny" my electric power assist recumbent trike over there. I mentioned this a couple posts ago and a picture of the delicious organic apricots I purchased while there. We will be returning to the ranch tomorrow for eggs, blueberries, apricots if we're lucky and hopefully some MORE Zucchini, because we so enjoyed the last one.

I have been rather ill so this post is actually a bit late, but hopefully you all will enjoy the recipe anyway. Our friend Jen aka LoveJen came over (we know many people named Jennifer so most have nick names) has been our friend and extended family member for some time now. She once lived in our spare room for a much too brief time, and if we could pick anyone to start a sustainable living community with, it would be her. So we are always happy when she visits. And usually Jen and I make use of our visits to bake, because we are both lovers of baked goods who have foods we try to avoid. Jen knew about the zucchini which we did not want to spoil, and came prepared to bake bread. I however was just starting to get over the flu, so spent most of the time laying on the lazy boy chair in the video game space next to the kitchen.

We made two loaves of bread based on a Vegan Zucchini Bread recipe, and added dark chocolate chips to one, making it eggless, but not vegan. None of us are vegan, but I mention this here for my vegan friends, please feel free to add your own favorite dark chocolate replacement. These breads are also lower in sugar, and higher in fiber. And if you like black walnuts, would be delicious with some of those in there as well.  I have some specific food issues. I avoid sugar so reduced that and have allergies: egg and vanilla, so replaced those. I like it better and it didn't make me sick, so best of both worlds! But if I hadn't mentioned it you would not know this bread is eggless, or that the sugar is reduced. Give it a try and let me know what you think, Patch loved it so much we're going to have to make more. If you like dark chocolate, (Jen insists it is health food)  then you will LOVE this bread so you may want to freeze a loaf to make it harder to over indulge.

The yum-ness which resulted from Jen's efforts are worthy of food porn, but due to my feeling sick, I did not get out the good camera and have only a cell phone photo to offer. I actually forgot to take a photo of the Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread till the next day, when it was almost gone since we sent 1/2 home with Jen in gratitude for her efforts, and ate most of the rest that night, because it's that good. So here's the lone picture of the Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. I had this for breakfast with some red jiggly gelatin dessert from Fresh and Easy.

Here is the recipe, which includes the walnuts and chocolate chips. If you wish, you can add steel cut oats and you can use use raisins (or a vegan chocolate subsitute) instead of dark chocolate chips for a slightly sweeter and vegan recipe. As is, this recipe is vegetarian, not vegan.

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose white flour

2 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons almond extract (can use vanilla which is slightly sweeter and less nutty)

2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

1 bag dark chocolate chips (optional)

1/2 cup chopped black walnuts (optional)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350
Mix 3 tablespoons flax  seeds with 6 tablespoons water and set aside (becomes gooey like eggs)

Grate 2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini and set aside

Mix dry ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour with 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup steal cut oats, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Mix wet ingredients:
2 tablespoons agave nectar, 1 cup apple sauce, flax seed mixture, and 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine zucchini with wet ingredients, then mix with dry ingredients, pour into 2 bread pans  
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick can be removed dry. 
Let bread cool on cooling rack. 
Add 1 bag dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped black walnuts if desired. 


Tips: 
If you lay the bread across the rack so that the bars of the rack lay vertically across the width of the bread, it marks it easily into nicely portioned servings 
When adding walnuts and dark chocolate chips only do so in one loaf if you want the other one vegan. If doing so, cut the chocolate chips in 1/2, it really is plenty for one loaf.
When it comes to nuts and chocolate, you really have to eyeball it based on your personal preference, but we added 1/2 a bag choc chips per loaf, and about a 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
Using dark chocolate chips does cut down on the sweetness compared to semi sweet chocolate chips or 


This was truly delicious bread the first time we made it. The second time we forgot the almond extract and I must say, it was not at all the same. It was especially delicious with the dark chocolate chips. Thanks for the idea Jen! 


If you don't tell people, they won't even realize it's vegan. We do not use eggs or vanilla in our recipes because of my allergies, and I find I actually like the almond extract flavor better, and if cooked properly, you don't even notice the lack of eggs. Since I am diabetic and do not want to be on tons of diabetes medication, we cut the sugar down as well. We used the 2 tablespoons of agave and 1 cup of apple sauce to add sweetness. In this case, the flax seed and apple sauce replace the eggs. The 3 also add liquid, but the steel cut oats balance that out. 


Patch is not a fan of vegan food but loves this so much she requested more, so tomorrow she'll be taking me to Amadio Ranch and we'll see if we can get some more of that delicious zucchini. Although the recipe only used 1/3 of the huge zucchini, we preserved the rest in small chunks which we blanched and froze. I will be using it in baked zucchini and eggplant. So I thought a fresh zucchini was in order since it seems so plentiful this time of year anyway, and the frozen zucchini will last for quite some time.


Edit on June 7, 2012: Patch loved this so much she wants still more. So we got more zucchini, and are making 4 more loaves. this way we can freeze some. this bread does freeze pretty well in my experience. We are hoping to have some left later in the year when zucchini is out of season, and that way we will not need to shop for zucchini that is carted in from long distances. In the past this bread was divided between 4 adults and went too fast to bother freezing either loaf.  I suspect the bread in the freezer will not last that long because people will probably defrost it before it's time and eat it all up, but we will see.

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PB&J Banana Bread

I probably should have taken a picture of this... maybe next time. I would definitely make PB&J Banana Bread again. We used Bob's Red Mill biscuit and baking mix plus 2 bananas, about a cup of peanut butter chips, and 3/4 cup dried cranberries. We also thought about dried apricots, but Jenn opted for the dried cranberries. I love baking with friends, and this recipe happened to be gluten free. So just follow the recipe for banana bread on the back of the bag, and instead of raisins add dried cranberries, and instead of  nuts the peanut butter chips. We made sure to get gluten free peanut butter chips (which should be gluten-free anyway, but we checked to be sure) I suspect this would also be great with dark chocolate chips, but I can't eat chocolate as it triggers my migraines.

If you choose to make this, let me know how it turns out! I think my vegan friends can easily alter this recipe but let me know if I'm wrong, and at first glance it seems to fit vegetarian restrictions, but as I'm not myself a vegetarian again, please clue me in if it's not. And more specifically, if you are a friend of mine and have food restrictions, please let me know if this is on your edible list as I might just make some for you some time!

We loved it best warm. I've been enjoying this as a breakfast treat. It has grain, protein, fruit and sugar, what more could you want in a breakfast!? Whenever I eat a slice I heat it up with some buttery type product on it. DEEEEEELISH!

Cornbread Muffins with Local Toppings

Patch made a Pamela's Products mix of gluten free cornbread muffins the other day. They turned out to be a great texture, but not as much flavor as I was expecting.  They're great with toppings.

So far we've tried both Cactus Jelly by the Cactus Candy Company, and local honey from the Fruit and Bread Basket store down the street. I love prickly pear anything, so the jelly is a big hit and great on the cornbread muffins. You can find versions of cactus jelly at lots of stores in the area. Whole Foods, or the little store we like to stop at on the way home are my two favorite places to find it. I'll take pictures next time we stop by the Fruit and Bread Basket or whatever it's called and I'll do an entry highlighting the place. Next time I'm there I plan on trying Orange Prickly Pear  Marmalade. Sounds delicious. But toppings like these are a bit more expensive and I tend to use them slowly over time, so for now it's local honey and cactus jelly.

The local honey comes in a variety of flavors. Mesquite, orange blossom, lemon blossom, etc. I like trying the various flavors so we have a few different kinds in the cupboard. I've found the lighter flavors go well with the cornbread muffins. The bonus of eating local honey is that it is said to help you develop resistance to local allergens. Handy! Maybe nature knows something we don't.

Cranberry Citrus Muffins

It seems to be that I notice I have most of the ingredients for some recipe or other, and by the time I get the rest, something has been eaten. Or in this case, drunk as the orange juice seems to have disappeared between our recent shopping trip and baking these. The muffins I made turned out to be good, but a little lacking in flavor and sweetness. Good texture tho. Light and fluffy!  I altered the recipe off the back of the Bob's Red Mill biscuit and baking mix a bit, but it's really good with topping. I was not expecting these to rise as much as they did since I have heard horror stories about baking gluten-free, nor to be as fluffy as they are. I was pleasantly surprised.

2 cups Bobs biscuit and baking mix
2 tblspn Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
1 heaping cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 lemon
1/2 cup cranberry apple juice
1/2 cup lemon-lime soda
1 heaping cup dried cranberries

Whisk oil, egg, sugar and vanilla. Continue whisking while slowly adding juice of 1 lemon, cran-apple juice, and lemon lime soda. Slowly stir in biscuit and baking mix until fully mixed, then add extra lemon-lime soda as needed until the consistency matches a slightly thick muffin mix.

Next time I'm going to replace 1/2 the sugar with something less fattening like apple sauce, and I'll use orange juice instead of the cran-apple, but I figured I was already replacing something in this recipe, why mess with it more. By the way, if you're watching your weight, you may want to use diet soda. I can't use most diet sodas for this trick as they usually have sugar replacements which trigger or worsen my migraines, but I'm keeping my eyes open. Suggestions?

Carlie helped me bake these, because running around the kitchen to get ingredients and then mixing them up is still a bit beyond my abilities, especially after a week of lab tests which have left me feeling drained. No pun intended. I'm glad Carlie likes baking with me on her days off, because I was feeling the need for bread in my life this morning and ended up deciding to turn a cranberry orange bread recipe into the slightly altered muffin recipe above. I figured I can portion out muffins better than I can a loaf of bread. Plus I was curious to see how the trick of adding soda to the recipe would lighten things up. Considering how yummy these are warm, with some margarine and orange marmalade, I think I may need to freeze some up to make sure we don't eat too many at once. We'll see how they hold up to the freezer.

Bread and Pancakes? Oh my!

Now you can have your bread and eat it too! That gluten free pancake and baking mix I mentioned turns out to be very versatile and delicious. Apologies in advance for the poor quality cell phone photos of my creations. Next time I'll try to get out my good camera and at least get photos that more accurately represent the food. These just don't do justice to the scrumptious fluffy nature of these two "bready" delights.

First I decided to use it to try and make gluten free Irish Soda Bread for St Patty's day. The recipe I had called for specific measurements of various gluten free flours and gums, but I had a premix to work with, so I made adjustments and ran into some problems to hurdle along the way. At first it was too much liquid so that the batter looked like oatmeal, not like bread. I suspected it might work out if I poured the mixture into a muffin tin, but instead I set aside some of the semi liquid batter placing it in a sealed container in the fridge hoping to use it the next morning for gluten-free buttermilk pancakes.  I then adjusted the recipe by adding more of the pancake and baking mix to the remaining batter. Soon it took on the texture of sticky bread dough, and I decided to give it a shot.

I was pleasantly surprised by some friends who called asking to drop by providing me with more taste testers! The bread turned out so good that even my friends and loved ones who are meat and potato type people went back for seconds. These weren't vegans, vegetarians, or granola/healthy type people, they were card carrying junk food addicted carnivores like me. OK, there's not really a carnivore card, but there IS a bumper sticker and t-shirt! All joking aside, the bread was soft, tender, and had that Irish Soda Bread flavor I was craving.

Below is the recipe I ended up with for these Mini Soda Bread Biscuits. Be forewarned, they do include milk and eggs. I mistakenly left out a couple of very important binding agents from the original method, so these did not have the perfect soda bread texture I was expecting, instead they were much more moist and tender, which ended up being a wonderful thing if you're expecting it. I am planning to create a vegan version next time Milo can come over, because these were too delicious not to try and share with my vegan friends. This recipe was inspired by Gluten-Free Girl and her Irish Soda Bread Buns. I would eventually like to get all the ingredients and try it her way...but since I was working with what was in my pantry, I came up with this version instead:

Mini Soda Bread Biscuits:

20 ounces gluten-free flours (I used Pamela's Gluten-free Pancake and Baking Mix)
2 1/2 ounces (1/4 cup) sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (you can also melt some later to cross on top if you'd like)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (I actually made my own buttermilk from an online recipe)
2 eggs
1 cup dried fruit (this was made with Craisens, but currants are traditional)

Get out butter and other ingredients first, this gives the butter time to soften. Mix flower, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using a fork, mix in 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter. You can also use your hands, but this melts the butter a bit and I prefer mine with small balls of butter covered in flour and find the fork works best. Continue until the mixture looks grainy or as Gluten Free Girl said, like course meal.

Make a well in the flour and butter mixture. Set aside half the buttermilk, and mix 2 eggs into the half you are about to use. Pour half in and mix until evenly spread through the flour. Add th rest of the milk gradually until the dough is the correct texture. I found the full amount of liquid to be too much. I would have preferred a thicker mixture with a slight amount of flour making it easier to portion out into 8 to 16 segments. I found about 1/4 cup made for 16 biscuits. Mix in whatever dry fruit you wish.

Preheat oven to 400 and place mixture on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Put biscuits in over for 5 minutes. (thank the powers that be for oven timers!)

5 minutes into cooking time pull them from the oven. Using a tablespoon or so of melted butter if you so desire, dip a knife into the butter and make an x on the top of the biscuit. I found this part to be a lot of fun. And the butter kept the knife from becoming covered with bread dough. Replace in over and cook for 15 minutes or until slightly golden brown. These are AMAZING fresh out of the oven.

Today, I brought the leftover batter out and found it had risen a bit while in the fridge. I'll have to remember that trick for when I try to make muffins. But this time I added a bit more milk and it stirred up into the perfect pancake batter consistency which turned out to make for buttermilk pancakes that I believe anyone would like to eat. The recipe is the same as above, but with more liquid. Rice milk and lemon juice or vinegar could replace buttermilk. My first two spread further than I expected, so pour sparingly and give it a chance to grow to it's full size before pouring another. These would make great silver dollar pancakes because of the slightly crispy outside and soft fluffy inside. Perhaps tomorrow when I'm cooking for friends I'll try pouring them silver dollar sized like Mom used to make.

I'm going to save the rest of the batter to share with friends who are coming over Friday and see if they even notice that a different type of flour was used. I was pleasantly surprised at the light and fluffy texture of warm buttermilk pancake almost melting on my tongue. They went wonderfully with the plump boysenberries I sprinkled on them. No added butter or syrup was needed as far as I'm concerned they were perfect with just the added sweetness of the fruit and the nuttiness of the peanut oil they were cooked in.  Again, these are gluten-free but not vegan. If I come up with a yummy vegan pancake mix once I start working from scratch with various gluten-free flours I will of course share it!

I haven't cooked in years, so all things considered I am very proud of myself. This gluten-free food prep isn't as hard as some people make it sound. Of course, the trick is going to be learning to eat nutritious foods at the same time. It's one thing to prepare foods that taste good, a whole other thing to also make sure they meet all of our dietary needs. That's the goal: better health through yumness!

You Can't Plan for Everything - change of plans

Today was supposed to be the day I spoke with my Dr about Celiac disease and hopefully got tested, but you can not plan for everything. Unfortunately at 1am I was woken up by a scorpion walking on my neck. Not being awake and not realizing what was going on, I moved to brush whatever was crawling around on me OFF of my neck and out of my bed. I don't like bugs. Of course as my hand touched the scorpion he reacted by defending himself and STUNG me in the neck. I guess I'm really an Arizonan now! I am sad to say my doctor has canceled my appointments until the scorpion's toxin is out of my system. I wish I hadn't mentioned it when confirming this afternoon's appointments at lab and office, but for all I knew it might shift my lab results and we wouldn't want that. At least now I don't have to spend the day fasting and baking at the same time! I always feel better about food I prepared if I get to taste it before serving it to others.

Needless to say, I will primarily be using the day to rest. We have seen a few scorpions since moving to Phoenix, but we know that if you keep your house closed up properly, they usually aren't inside the house. Unfortunately, this one found a way into my bedroom. For a moment as it's toxins spread through me during those first 6 hours, I missed the familiar natural disasters of California. Thankfully I turn out not to be allergic to them, and Banner Poison Control informed me that I will be fine, because it doesn't get any worse after the first 6 hours. It will take a few days to get out of my system, and until then I should try to rest and remain still as movement tends to make it hurt more. I can confirm this is true. Still, I am determined to make some gluten-free bread today.

I was really disappointed about not being able to get my lab tests today as I was hoping to start my gluten free life after the test. At first much frustrated venting ensued, but now I've got a plan. Instead of being frustrated that I still have to hold off on complete dietary changes, I am going to use the time to help Patch, Carlie and myself become used to shopping for gluten-free ingredients and start intentionally preparing some glulten-free meals that are delicious. It is my hope that this will  get us used to the idea of eating in this new way. Patch has never liked change, and this is a big one. So now instead of instantly shifting over, we'll mix them in here and there between our normally glutenous diet. This continued occasional gluten will insure that I won't risk a false negative on the upcoming tests, but we will start on the path towards new habits. Already Patch has begun making note when she finds something which says gluten-free, so we are heading in the right direction!

The first gluten-free premixed product I'll try will be the pancake and baking mix which Patch brought home from AJ's which apparently has a large gluten-free section. For those of you in Phoenix or Chandler areas, check it out: http://www.ajsfinefoods.com/ I'm excited to try this product and will first use it to make the gluten-free Irish Soda Bread which Gluten Free Girl posted on her blog today. Perhaps we can dip it in the gluten-free vegan corn chowder I plan to make tomorrow for lunch with a vegetarian friend.

Happy St Patty's day everyone, wish me luck on making my first gluten-free bread!