Martha Stewart Made Me Lazy

Greetings friends!  I keep promising to post the back log I have, and what better way to get rid of the eyeball pie, then to tell you a very true and sad fact.  Martha Stewart made me lazy.  I know, I know, the crafty g-ddess herself should actually elevate you to new levels of domesticity.  After all, she's quite the perfectionist.  And she uses fancy things like doilies.  Surely a woman of her caliber would only push me to work harder towards a culinary standard than anyone else.  But nope.  She made me lazy.  And this is why:

I love risotto, which stands to reason as rice is my favorite food.  I could probably eat risotto every day (I've occasionally tested this theory and know it to be true) and I welcome the bites of beautifully cooked arborio rice on my tongue.  But I work.  A lot.  I usually only cook one day a week for the rest of my week, and I was feeling particularly useless at that moment when I looked up a recipe for a simple baked risotto.  Yes, I was really so tired that stirring rice around for 25 minutes didn't sound doable, but I really wanted a fresh made risotto.

Enter a recipe I found on Martha Stewart Living here.  As you know, its in my genetic make-up that I can't follow a recipe as is, so instead of onion I used lots of yummy shallots, and further added diced butternut squash and thyme to make a rich, fresh and bright flavor.

Result?  It was okay.  The flavors worked very nicely and it was beautifully fragrant, but I found the rice to be much softer than I prefer it.  I don't like mushy risotto, and that's what happens when you oven bake it apparently (which I should have guessed.)  Also, I think that in the end, it would've taken about the same amount of time for me to actually prep and stir regular risotto.  I'm not sure this recipe saved me so much obvious time that I would go for this version instead of my regular go to. Especially when my go-to allows for a bit more of an al dente texture on the rice.

But, if you don't mind a softer rice and you need to step away from the stove for 30 minutes, by all means, be lazy.  If Martha says it's okay, then it has to be ;)

Um, This is Embarrassing...

What I'm about to share with you dear reader is a little secret that I know you'll keep just between us:  sometimes, no matter how good your intentions are you occasionally make an eyeball.

Yes, I said eyeball.  At this moment in time, you've stopped to say, Suz, what the hell are you talking about.  Well I'll show you-

See.  Eyeball.

This occular disaster is unfortunately my horrific contribution to this month's challenge for You Want Pies With That?  Now I have no one good excuse, just a lot of little ones that really don't make up for the above picture.  You see, I had the honor of choosing the theme with my wonderful co-winner Sara of Cupcake Muffin.  We chose a pie inspired by your favorite frozen drink to sip at the beach.  And even though I specifically threw in the clause that the pie itself did not have to be frozen, I did not heed my own warning.

You see, I made another frozen pie for one of these challenges, and it was probably the most annoying/trickiest pie I've ever made.  Until now.  I should just stop making frozen pies because really I have no knack for it!

I made a pie inspired by a blueberry margarita.  Although not the first flavor of margarita you'd expect to find, I love the smooth sweetness with the tang of tequila.  Plus I love freshly muddled blueberries in any cocktail really.  And even though the result of my pie tastes really delicious, I tell you, what an ugly duckling it turned out to look like.

I made individual pies, because drinks come individually.  The crust, you can't see because it froze in the glass recepticle its sitting in.  Then the white layer is vanilla ice cream blended with salt and lime, to mimic the salted rim of a margarita and lime wedge.  The inside is a homemade blueberry granita that mimics the texture of a frozen blended drink.  Actually, I love the flavor combo and I LOVE the granita; I think I'll make it much more often than I do now.

Due to the fact that this didn't work at all in the process of making it even look that good and construct it, I'm not really going to instruct you on how to make it.  Let's just say it involved an attempt at constructing a parchment paper structure to make the center freeze round (it didn't work), softening a lot of ice cream, cutting myself with a knife trying to pry out the crust, which just made a hole around the crust for the softened (ahem melted) ice cream to freeze over, ruining the entire structural integrity of said pie.  Oh, and my fingers turned blue :)  But that part didn't bother me, go figure!

So sometimes you aspire to greatness, and other times you make an eyeball.  Oh well.  Who doesn't like eyeballs?

Please be gentle with your comments ;)

Pizza, Pie?

First of all, I'd like to start this post by saying WOOHOO!  YOU WANT PIES WITH THAT IS BACK, BABY!  You think I'm excited about that?  That doesn't even compare to the excitement I harbored for this month's challenge:  Pizza Pie.  Now whether you believe a pizza is technically a pie or not is not the point here folks.  The point is that Erin from Milk & Honey finally chose a theme that encourages the savory (though sweet and creative pizzas are also encouraged.)  Some of my favorite pies are savory ones, so I welcomed this theme with open arms (and open mouth.)  And I mean, I have an excuse to make pizza!!

Towards the end of April, I made a vow to start working on bread products with the two allergen free flour mixes I'v been perfecting.  So far I've made rolls, a double-crust pie, and now, a pizza dough!  I used the recipe that the genius Jeanne of Four Chickens adapted and it worked insanely well.  I've been trying to find or make Gluten-Free pizza since 2007 folks, and this is the first time I really felt, damn, that's finally pizza, free of everything I can't eat.


But where would a pizza be without it's toppings?  For this Pizza Pie Challenge, I decided to go all out and make a pizza that would make my toes curl, my eyes roll and my tongue dance with delight, and I have three letters for you all: B.L.T.

This B.L.T. pizza is a mix of the sweet, salty, and savory that I love so much.  It's a twist on a classic, as instead of lettuce I used leeks (yum!)  The fresh bacon, leeks, and tomatoes along with perfect spices on this amazingly stable and allergen free crust totally rocked my world.  I can't wait to see what the other awesome creatives came up with here!

B.L.T. Pizza

(Bacon, Leek, and Tomato)

Ingredients:

1 allergen-free crust prepared via Four Chickens blog or your own favorite

2 slices bacon or turkey bacon

1/2 pint of fresh grape tomatoes, rinsed, drained, and cut into small circles

1 stalk of leeks, just the steam cut into slices and quartered

3 cloves of garlic chopped or diced (I like smelly pizza, feel free to reduce)

a few oz shaved fresh parmesan cheese

a few oz Kerrygold vintage cheddar cheese

thyme, basil, black truffle salt, pepper to taste

olive oil

Directions:

Prepare crust according to recipe.

While par-baking the crust prepare toppings as follows:

Fry bacon in olive oil until desired crispiness, remove and drain on paper towels. Tear bacon into pieces.

Throw leeks and garlic into bacony oil and saute until soft.  Remove leeks/garlic and drain.

(stacking process)

Remove par-baked crust and brush lightly with olive oil.

Arrange grape tomatoes on crust followed by leeks/garlic, bacon, desired amount of parmesan and slices of cheddar.

Sprinkle to taste with fresh thyme, basil, black truffle salt and pepper.

Put in the oven and cook for 6-8 more minutes and remove.

Cry tears of joy in anticipation of eating something so good you may just foodgasm.

Of course, even though the crust is allergen free, the dairy and meat I chose to put on the pizza compromises the allergy status of it, but there's no reason you couldn't tailer it to your own needs.  Now stop looking at my pizza and go be creative!

Food Allergy Awareness Week

Marked by the joyous celebration of Mother's Day, us food allergics rang in Food Allergy Awareness Week.  FAAW which is taking place right now (5/9-5/15), is an opportunity to examine your communities in a different light.  I'm guessing that some of you who already read my blog are allergics yourself.  But what if you're not an allergic?  Maybe an allergic-curious?  There's an angle for you!  The FAI's suggested giving up a food for the week.  This sacrifice is I believe, is the FAI's way of getting you to feel what it might be like to be an allergic for a small portion of time.  Maybe those who don't understand or can't imagine what it would be like without mentioned food will become more sympathetic to others.

I think that having people give up a food for a week in support of the allergic community is a good idea, but I would go one step further and suggest people give up one of the top 8 allergens instead.  The top 8 allergens are: Wheat, Milk, Fish, Shellfish, Eggs, Soy, Tree Nuts, and Peanuts.

As someone who is not able to eat 6 of the top 8 allergens, and is now having to limit my intake of eggs (thanks to the chickens pumped full of soy), I feel I can comprehend a great deal on the topic of sacrificing a common food.  Its not just the sacrifice of not eating a food though.  For me, eating one of my allergens quickly becomes a dangerous situation.  I've had horrifying allergic reactions, including losing consciousness.  Last year, someone accidentally put a pine nut in my salad and I was deathly ill for 3 days straight with my body doing some very unpleasant things which I will spare you from reading the details of.

I love the idea of someone trying to give up one of the 8 allergens for one week's time.  It encourages support and empathy and a special compassion for those suffering from food allergies.  But if one of the participants are accidentally fed the ingredient they are avoiding, what will happen to them?  Nothing.  So on top of asking you readers to give up a top 8 allergens, I ask you to really get to know your allergic family members, friends, teachers, community leaders, and bloggers.  Ask them what its really like to live with food allergies on a daily basis.  Read about food allergies and try eating out once while trying to avoid one of the top 8.  Educate yourselves and others and taper back from judging the mother of a peanut allergic child who is begging you not to pack a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for your child (a small inconvenience to you can save her child's life.)  If you work in the restaurant industry, learn about proper allergy safety, cross contamination, and sanitation.  Remember to be sensitive instead of snippy to those with special food needs.

As a very food allergic person, every day there's a sense of danger where there should be a sense of normalcy.  Please take a moment to think about how a food allergy can affect someone's life this week.  After all, awareness of each others' needs allows for the danger to turn into normalcy one day.

Keep Your Eyes on the Pies

"Anyone can cook!"  Perhaps my favorite line in a Pixar pic, said exuberantly by Chef Gusteau in the brilliant movie, Ratatouille.  Those of you who think "cartoons" are for "children" might want to take a minute and stop strangling your inner child and examine that Ratatouille is a movie that shares the shear joy of cooking with everyone- big, small or rat.  I've cheesily repeated that line to myself while meditating over quite a few experiments in the kitchen.  In fact, I have a stuffed Little Chef in my kitchen to remind me to keep on keeping on, even when allergen free goods seem impossible to compose.

Now I'm no rat, but when I started baking Gluten Free, a lot of weird things started happening.  Huge failings.  Hard as rock rolls.  Cookies and cakes that never cooked all the way through.  I-guess-you-could-call-them-muffins muffins.  I had given up on conventional, traditional baked goods for a time.  I experimented with other baked goods and alternative ways of creating traditional goods.  For example, I abandoned the usual pie crusts, and tried using fudge, cookie dough, GF crumbs, hash browns and mashed cauliflower (for the savory.) 

I secretly missed double crusted pies.  I mean, making pie was one of my favorite things to do pre-GF.  My favorite was fresh apple pie in the fall, and without that regular crust, it just didn't taste the same.  Well one day not too long ago, Shauna of the Gluten Free Girl tweeted about the amazing Jeanne at Four Chickens.  I saw that Jeanne had made a pie crust, and not only did it look beautiful, it looked too easy to make.  It seemed so simple to me that I figured, how can this possibly work?  Well, it worked!  And it worked like a charm.  Jeanne actually has many recipes for all the bready, baked goods I haven't been able to crack yet with no recipe, including choux pastry and pizza crust.  Her blog is amazing and I urge you to go check it out! 

It's time to recognize that many talented bloggers have joined the ranks of Little Chef who inspires me to strive for greatness each time I set foot in my kitchen.  If they can make magic in their GF kitchens, I can certainly make magic in mine.  Remember, anyone can cook.  And anyone means you too.

What's better than making inspiring food?  How about making it for someone who inspires you?  Like on Mother's Day.  This would be the perfect, bright addition to any Mother's Day feast.

Double-Berry, Double-Crust Pie

No nuts, soy, gluten, eggs, or dairy-

can you believe it?

Crust Ingredients:
Pie Crust as prepared using Four Chickens blog (note: I used my own allergen free flour mix instead)

Filling Ingredients:
2 pints of blackberries, washed and drained well
1 pint of strawberries, washed, drained well and quartered
1/2 cup of fair trade sugar
2 tbs tapioca starch

Directions:
Click on the link above and follow Jeanne's directions. 
When it's time to make the filling, combine all filling ingredients and set aside while making crust.

Complete pie crust according to directions.  *Make sure when rolling it out use lots of tapioca starch so the dough does not stick to the rolling board, rolling pin, or you!
Before pouring the filling in the bottom crust, drain the extra liquid from the filling thats formed so your pie is not soupy.
Bake for about 35 minutes and let cool.
Refridgerate for a 30 minutes to set the fruit juices in the pie.
Remove and set to room temperature to serve.
Cut and serve, maybe even a la mode :)

Some notes about the above recipe:

• It doesn't contain eggs unless you make an egg wash, and you can use a non-dairy shortening to make it egg and dairy free!
• The pie crust had to be rolled very thin in order to cover my Emile Henry 9" pie plate.  There was no leftover crust; it had to be used to cover everything.
• The crust will be very sticky while you're rolling it out.  I put the note above about using tapioca starch in order to reduce this.  I covered my hands with the starch and the ball of crust that I was rolling out.  I also rolled it out in between two pieces of parchment paper; this helped a lot.
• The flour I used to make the crust was a combination of white rice, tapioca and arrowroot.  This mix held up and I'm guessing any all purpose GF flour would too.
• I sprinkled some extra sugar on top of the crust before I put the pie in the oven.  The crust isn't really sweet or flavorful by itself, so make sure your filling is robust!
• If you cut into a berry pie and see a soupy mess, cheat!  Take a ladle and try to dry it up a bit.  But I highly recommend drinking the soupy mess.  It's usually delicious.

Soy Vey!

How can I be getting sick from eating plain chicken and rice pasta?  This question riddled me for the past 2 months.  I paired down all of my eating and creative recipes (to the detriment of my blog, sorry followers) to lots of plain chicken, rice pasta, Food for Life english muffins (yum!), cheese, and turkey bacon.  I did this to figure out how the heck I was still getting so ill.  I kept thinking I was under-cooking the chicken, giving myself continuous food poisoning.  Then I over-cooked the chicken on purpose and still got super sick.  Then after one particularly awful night, I stopped cooking chicken completely.  Had I become allergic to chicken all of a sudden?  Oh no, please don't take away my chicken, body!  But I wasn't always getting sick when I ordered chicken at a restaurant.  What gives?  So I checked with the butcher at my market.  What are they feeding the chickens?  Now they feed them soy, exclusively.

Oh.

Apparently I'm so allergic to soy these days that now I have to switch chicken providers somehow.  While I search for a new way to find safe poultry that I can cook, I'll be trying to manage the fact that chicken's always been my safe and healthy choice.  I have to except that if I choose to eat chicken out, that I'm rolling the dice depending on where the chicken is from.

Though this presents an obviously annoying challenge, new opportunity comes with it.  Opportunities to try new things, things I might not have tried before.  And after a lovely discussion with a very friendly butcher, I will be making my first buffalo burger tonight.  I've never eaten, let alone cooked buffalo, though it can't be difficult as you cook it as you would beef, just subtract some time for the leanness.

I'm excited to try a new meat, but I know that its still red meat.  And yes, its lower in cholesterol and naturally a better choice, but I still shouldn't eat red meat every day.  In the meantime, the poultry products from Applegate Farms have not started bothering me yet, so I'll supplement some meals with turkey hot dogs and turkey bacon from them.  Of course, I will be eating more dairy to keep my protein as high up there as I can.  I'm not sure what will happen to my cholesterol in the long run.  I can't imagine this will be very good for it, but I have to consciously and unfortunately make that choice now.  I choose to make my calories so I can keep my energy up and hopefully my cholesterol won't get much higher in the process.

In the meantime, soy-free feed for chickens any one?

I don't know why this never occured to me before, reader.  I'm so careful with my choice of foods.  I know that not all feed translates into the meat that hits the table, so they must be feeding these chickens a crazy amount of soy.  I guess this just teaches me that you have to think of everything.  I must admit, since I cut out that chicken, I've been feeling 50% better.  That's a big deal for someone like me who hasn't reached 100% in a few years.  If you've been having mystery problems too, maybe you're just like me and this will help you too.

It makes me sad of course that this company is now pumping their chickens full of one of the top 8 allergens in the US.  I'm not for canabalistic feeding, but there's probably other answers out there.  I gather those answers aren't as cheap as soy nor as beneficial to American farmers.  It's not that I don't see how great soy can be for non-allergics, but how can non-allergics not see what soy does to a big chunk of the population?

Soy vey indeed.

Suz's Guide to Sick Food

While children believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy, I'd like to think there's a special imaginary being out there for those of us who suffer from digestive issues.  I like to call this being, the Tummy Ache Fairy.  Since getting back from London (which was both fantastic and uncomfortably cold), I have had another visit from the Tummy Ache Fairy.  My fairy, like myself, is strong and forceful and so, my aches are of the aggressive nature.

You may be thinking, "Has our dear blogger Suz finally lost her mind?  Has all this health hockey finally tossed her over the deep end, now that she's seeing imaginary creatures?"

I would answer to that, "I never said I saw them, silly!"

But it dawned on me that those who are plagued with their own Tummy Ache Fairies and Digestive Elves of all kinds might also have the common problems that come with feeling sick in that area:  What do you eat?  How do you eat?  If you're constantly feeling this way, you can't avoid eating forever, can you?  How can you get calories in you?  

Now I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor or a nurse.  I'm just a woman recommending 5 of my favorite calm, easy, and sensitive products that have helped me in times of sickness.  After all whether your body wants to admit it or not, it needs food and the calories it provides to function.

1) Imagine Broth

What's the one thing you can always have when you're feeling crappy?  That's right folks, soup.  And even more simply, broth.  Sometimes you need to start small and sip your way back into eating.  And broth is also a clear liquid, for those of you having digestive related procedures that require you to ditch solid foods for a day.  

Imagine, which makes soups and broths of all kinds, could possibly be one of those companies I couldn't live without.  A wide variety (if not all) of their soups and broths are gluten-free.  They also have several flavors that are vegetarian, Kosher, and even low sodium if you have multiple diet restrictions.  I use their organic broths which have minimal, relevant ingredients, in several of my recipes to aid in the cooking of meat without adding unnecessary fats or marinades.  Broth adds flavor to otherwise bland dishes.  You can cook plain rice or quinoa in it instead of using water, and I sometimes use it as a substitute for tea (which I've been told to stay off of) when its cold outside and plain hot water won't cut it.

2)Tinkyada Pasta

I am very sad for you if your grocery store does not carry Tinkyada pasta, because it is the best substitution for glutenous pasta I've found.  When you need to eat something plain and easy to digest, pasta or rice is definitely a good option.  But when it's combined into rice pasta, you've got a winner!  In addition to all the awesome qualities and abilities of Tinkyada pasta, it's super easy to cook.

If you're sick, the last thing you want to do is slave over a stove.  With this pasta, all you have to do is boil water, then boil the pasta for 1-2 minutes and shut off the stove, keeping it covered for 20 mins.  Nothing is easier than that!  Result:  you have a perfectly good option to feed yourself without your stomach revolting against you.  

3)Lundberg Brown Rice Couscous

Those of you who knew me in college, know that for about 2 years of my life I ate nothing but couscous and cheese, beans or meat.  I loved couscous.  Aside from the fun of saying it, what isn't to love?  It is a delicious little grain that is delicious plain or doctored.  Plus it is cheap.  Plus it takes no time to make.  But alas, gluten lives in couscous, and so I said goodbye to it years ago.  

Lundberg is another one of those companies that continuously impresses me with their GF, rice products.  They make an excellent quick-fix boxed risotto, rice cakes, and a line of brown rice couscous!  The brown rice couscous is as easy to prepare as regular couscous, and has the wonderful fluffy texture that I missed from eating regular couscous, but without that pesky gluten getting in the way.  When the idea of eating is not making you happy, boil up some of this mild and easy to digest heaven.  It's a food that's sure to bind some of your troubles away and settle your tummy.

4) Hansen's Naturals Soda

Now I'm not one for sodas usually.  I've never loved carbonation, considering I'm usually already a little bloated myself.  But there are times, especially when I'm feeling sick, that I really, really crave that can of ginger ale or sprite.  Since I ditched corn for the most part a few months back, I haven't been partaking in soda, even when I've wanted it.  That is, until I saw Hansen's hanging out on the store shelf.  And then I instantly remembered- when I was a teenager, we bought Hansen's canned juice blends all the time (I think these blends have been discontinued but man they were good!).  Recognizing the brand, I then saw something else.  They use natural cane sugar instead of corn syrup to sweeten their sodas.  Now, I know that sugar is sugar folks, and you can argue for the pros and cons of it all you want.  But here's what I know.  I know when I read the ingredients on a can of Hansen's sodas I'm going to find ingredients I recognize, can pronounce, and regularly occur in nature.  I can't say the same for when I read any other soda label out there which is usually rife with corn syrup, 20 chemicals I don't recognize plus food coloring.

Hansen's doesn't have any preservatives, caffeine, or artificial elements to it.  And so I trust when I'm sick, it will make me feel better instead of worse.  Plus, the sugar really helps replace what you may be putting out, and helps with energy levels.

5)Applegate Farms Hot Dogs

Alright, up until now you probably thought I was giving really good suggestions for foods to eat when you don't feel well.  But hot dogs?  I may have lost you at hot dogs.  For some reason, don't ask me why, I often feel I can handle hot dogs when I'm having tummy aches or sick issues.  To me, there's something comforting about them.  Maybe they take me back to my childhood.  Whatever the reason, hot dogs are a good choice because they are a source of protein and fat which is good to get into your body when you're not eating a whole lot.  Another plus, is that although not super salty, they do have a salty flair to them which is very good for the sick.  Can't have saltines?  Who cares!  I'm having hot dogs.

Applegate Farms makes great organic beef, chicken and turkey dogs that are nitrate, casein, and gluten free.  The taste, however, is fully there, and they're a fantastic meal solution for someone who can't cook because they don't feel well.  Microwaves are not hard to operate even when you're not 100% folks.

I hope the above suggestions are helpful to any of my fellow frequently sickies and that you find they're also good suggestions for when you're well too.  Just as all of these foods are good plain, they're also great doctored up for when you're not needing to see a doctor.  And no, no one sent me free samples or paid me to tell you about how much I love these products and how much they help me when my diet is under construction.  I did that all on my own.