Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Have I told you we LOVE cheese bread??


These are mine --->

This is the "Professional" bread :)
Well we do! We love it enough we bought a case of Chebe Bread Mix to keep on hand - I always double the batch to freeze individual servings - just pop in the oven and we can have cheese bread whenever we want.

Well... while stumbling on "Stumbleupon" I came across the blog "Simple Recipes." They have a really interesting "Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread" recipe that you make in a blender. Fascinating! I like that you can make it ahead and keep it in the fridge for a few days - cheese bread all week!

I have everything at home needed to make this - I just might try it tonight (or maybe tomorrow...)

5/3/10

Well I tried it! The Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread recipe. It was really easy to make. Just dump it all in the blender, pulse then pour. They were really good - could have used a bit more salt but a satisfying crispiness on the outside and a nice, soft, cheesiness on the inside - not to mention - they were HOLLOW! Way cool and completely unexpected. Something the hollowness does is make them light and airy - it also gives you an excuse to eat several!

Very different from the Chebe Bread mix we use. If you look at the picture of the breads in the Pampered Chef Mini Muffin Tin you can see the one muffin that was turned over has a little hole in it. Several came out this way. I can see a number of things to do with this - fill with herbed cream cheese, chicken salad, ham salad... the possibilities are endless! They are like cream puffs - but cheesy.

It could have used a little salt - I would add a couple of shakes from the shaker next time. Gracie prefers the Chebe Bread but also likes these. This will be something easy to whip up in a flash for dinner.

I made them last night and made a few then stuck the rest of the batter in the fridge. Today I pulled it out, gave it a quick pulse then cooked the rest. Really easy!

What I love about them is they are GOOD! What Gracie loves about them is they are bread - really good bread. Often she will eat them in the morning with her eggs while we have our biscuits. She is happy, we are happy and all is right with the world.

(In the voice of the narrator from Sponge Bob)
"20 seconds later..."

I had JUST pressed "send" when Troy and Gracie came in and said "We figured out what to do with the hole in the bottom! Squeeze Cheese!" Or as it is officially called "Kraft Easy Cheese" - the day glow cheese in a can (which is also gluten free!) They stuck the nozzle in and squeezed the day glow goodness inside. Heaven - or something like it... It was really good - not as good as the fancy herbed cheese stuff in my imagination :)


It is Potluck and Picnic time!


It is always hard to find things to take to picnics and potlucks that EVERYONE will enjoy but also that is gluten free. I came across a Jello recipe and thought "Jello!!" There are so many recipes that use Jello that are already GF and many others that can be easily altered to make them GF (instead of graham cracker crumbs use GF cookie crumbs...)


I posted a while ago about the Jello Cake we used to make back in the day and "Teela's Jello Salad." Here are a BUNCH of recipes from Jello website. Try something new and report back!


Monday, April 19, 2010

I just "Stumbled Upon" this one! One ingredient ice cream!





Troy has been a big fan of "StumbleUpon." You click on what you are interested in, push the "stumble" button and it will take you to random sites. This is how I found the cake below and how I found this delightful ice cream idea!!


One ingredient ice cream. That's right - ONE INGREDIENT! The recipe is on "The Kitchen" site. In a nutshell freeze bananas, blend and voila! Creamy ice cream. Dairy free, gluten free, sugar free... Nothing but bananas.

I think I will have to try this one.



Update 4/21/10

We tried the "ice cream" and it was GREAT! Surprisingly so.

I had three bananas that were "just turning." They were not brown but they were perfectly spotted which means sweet and delicious. I sliced them and put the in the freezer. Tonight I put them in my little "Oscar" - or small food processor - and beat the heck out of them! At first they were sort of crumbly and hard - almost like chopped nuts. Gracie and I tried it at this point and she thought they had the taste and texture of banana split Dippin Dots. I thought it was really good but thought Sam would probably prefer they be sweeter so I added about a teaspoon of honey and a few drops of good vanilla - then I beat the heck out of it again! My poor little Oscar! It had never worked so hard. It started to make a "hot" smell - a little concerning. Next time I will "chop them" until they are the chopped nut consistency then let it sit for a minute just so it can soften a bit - but not too much.

When it started moving from the chopped nut consistency to a smoother one it started "balling" up like bread dough might - then it let go and started getting a whipped consistency similar to semi frozen Cool Whip. It turns to a soft serve consistency. I assume you could put it in a container and freeze it solid.

It was yummy! Gracie LOVED it, Troy thought it would be good as a base for sundaes and Sam thought it was "OK" and added chocolate syrup (he is NOT a fruit eater :) I tried a little chocolate on mine and it took on a banana split flavor. We will be doing this again.

Of course many ice creams is gluten free but it is rarely this good, this healthy and dairy free!

PS: Needless to say the picture on top is mine!

The Master Baker - Gluten Free Cake




A friend had this on her Facebook page - I thought it was AWESOME! It uses pecans as the base instead of flour and egg whites to give it lift. Sadly Gracie doesn't like nuts in things but I think I might try this for myself some day.

Gesine Bullock Prado (Sandra Bullock's sister) is a baker, blogger and cookbook author. She shows how to make her Mom's cake - changing the name from (find out yourself :) to The Helga Cake! It looks fantastic. It is Gluten Free. What is not to love??

Even if I don't make the cake I am going to HAVE to try the icing - that looks fantastic. I love finding different - and yummy - things for Celiacs to have that are "normal" without the nastiness of gritty gluten free flours and ingredients we can't pronounce. Enjoy!


Saturday, April 17, 2010

Well - a lot has happened since we last spoke...

First off - for some reason my last two posts didn't "take" - it looks like I have been gone for a while but for some reason they got "stuck."


Second - we got Sam allergy tested. What a mixed blessing - stressful but exciting and helpful but sometimes ignorance is bliss.

He has HORRIBLE eczema. It is really bad. We were told it was dairy when he was a year old and always assumed that was the reason for it - turns out he is only "mildly" allergic to milk. He is "moderately" allergic to peanuts! You know - peanuts that peanut butter is made out of. The peanut butter that he had ALL THE TIME!!! Sigh. Thankfully he is not anaphylaxis (or get anaphylaxis?? - it is all new to me.) He just gets the horrible rash. Needless to say we are off peanuts. But peanuts - like gluten - is often hidden. More label reading.

Something else? He is mildly allergic to BAKERS YEAST!! That means two kids no bread! Or at least not his daily sandwich. He can have it about 3 times a week. Even though the doctor said it was a common allergy there is sadly LITTLE info on the web about Bakers Yeast allergies. Thankfully he can still have many crackers, tortillas etc. Sam said "Gracie! There is something else we both can't have - peanut butter sandwiches!" He thought that was cool. I love that kid.

We tried almond butter (also gluten free!) Blue Diamond Almond Butter to be exact. It was good - but a bit bland (has almonds and salt.) Sam liked it "OK" but didn't love it. We added a little local honey (good for allergies!) and he loved it! Thank goodness. Of course it is twice the price but a quick and easy protein.

He was SEVERELY - really allergic to cats and dust mites. That means no new cat and lots of new bedding. It also means we are looking into allergy shots. :(

This is all new to me. Growing up my sisters had grass allergies and my Mom was allergic to raw shrimp but other than that we just ate - and did - what we wanted. No label reading, no special meals, no nonsense. This must come from Troy's side of the family :)