The tastes of  fall are always some of my favorites.  I can’t help it!  I love apples, pears, sage, squash, pumpkin….my tongue has become addicted to these autumn flavors.  I know it is almost spring, but I wanted to share my roasted pear recipe with you.  It is so easy to make and when you get that fall craving this will help you satisfy it.

Ingredients:

4-5 bosc pears

2T olive oil

2T chopped thyme

2 T crumbled blue cheese

2 T chopped pecans

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400F.  Split pears in half and scoop out seeds and core with a spoon.  Brush pears with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle thyme leaves over pears and roast for about 15 minutes.  Top pears with cheese and nuts and cook for another 5-7 minutes until fork tender.

There are some days when I just don’t feel like cooking.  Some days when I’m not feeling well or I know I have a jammed packed day and will be too tired when it’s time to start making dinner.  Luckily these days are few and far between, but on those days my trusty slow cooker is my friend.  This is one of those recipes that doesn’t take a  lot of preparation and will certainly satisfy.  This recipe is courtesy of Sandra Lee.

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken (meat shredded)

15 oz can cream style corn

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

14 oz jar gluten-free marinara sauce

14 oz chicken broth

1 1/2 c frozen lima beans

1 c diced ham

1 c chopped onion (fresh or frozen)

1/2 tsp liquid smoke

salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a slow cooker and stir.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours and then serve.  I made some gluten-free cornbread muffins with this stew and it was delicious.

One of my coworkers was out at lunch yesterday and happened to notice this little gluten-free bakery that opened 2/14/12 in Roswell, Georgia.    They specialize in gluten-free, dye free, peanut free and soy free baking.  Most of their menu items are also vegan and dairy free.  My coworker was kind enough to bring back a cute pink cupcake for me to try.  It was beautifully packaged in a little box and had a cute paper cupcake liner. 

Now, I will admit that I have never had any baked goods that are dairy free and vegan.  The vanilla cake was more moist than most of the gluten-free baked goods I have tried in the past.  I loved the strawberry filling inside the cupcake.  The frosting had a different taste and texture than what I am used to having, but it was light and not too sweet.  I absolutely hate overly sweet frosting…YUCK!  All in all it was a yummy little treat. 

They have lots of flavors to choose from on their menu like The Southern Bell which is a tea infused lemon cake, lemon zest and lemon faux buttercream frosting.  If you don’t like that one, how about The Devil Went Down to Georgia which is chocolate cake, chocolate ganache center and chocolate frosting.  They also have cake pops and whoopie pies.

If you are in the area please check out Gluten Free Cutie and give them your support.  They will have a ribbon cutting ceremony on March 2nd at 12:00 p.m.

Do you want to make lighter cupcakes that don’t taste like they are gluten-free?  If you answered yes, pick up a free copy of this kindle book and add it to your kitchen bookshelf.  There are 24 delicious recipes inside including recipes for grasshopper cupcakes, ginger cupcakes and banana and chocolate cupcakes.  Get your copy of this book now!

Another yummy quick bread recipe that tastes absolutely delicious.  Serve each slice with butter or honey and treat your tastebuds.  This bread is perfect for a breakfast on the go served with a glass of cold almond milk.  Yum!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 c granulated sugar

2 tsp gluten-free vanilla

1 1/2 c shredded zucchini

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 c all purpose gluten-free flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F.  Beat eggs, sugar and oil in large bowl with an electric mixer.  Add vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and xanthan gum.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir by hand to mix well.  Add zucchini and nuts and stir to combine.  Pour into a greased 9X5 loaf pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I was watching an episode of Chopped the other night on the Foodnetwork and one of the contestants made this amazing root vegetable risotto.  I have never attempted to do a risotto before.  Something about it just always intimidated me.  I decided that I must forge ahead despite my low self esteem and this was my creation.   It was creamy and chock full of yummy hidden veggies that my kids gobbled up.  I was very pleased with myself and my confidence was definitely boosted.  Pay no attention to the stuffed pork chop on this plate because the risotto was the star of the show.  I will be making many more risotto creations in the future.  You can bet on that!

Ingredients:

2 c sliced fresh mushrooms (I used baby bellas)

1/2 c chopped onion

2 garlic cloves minced

2T olive oil

1 c arborio rice

3 c chicken or vegetable broth

3/4 c broccoli chopped into bite size pieces

1 tomato seeded and diced

1/4 c shredded carrot

1 c shredded fontina cheese

1/4 c grated parmesan cheese

3T fresh basil chopped or snipped

1 plum tomato sliced for garnish (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large saucepan heat oil over medium high heat and then add mushrooms, onion and garlic.  Season with salt and pepper and cook until onion is tender.  Stir in your rice and cook stirring constantly for 5 minutes.  Heat chicken or veggie stock in another saucepan and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer.  Slowly add 1c of hot broth to rice mixture stirring constantly.  Continue to cook until all liquid is absorbed.  Add 1/2 c broth and broccoli to rice stirring constantly.   Continue to cook until all liquid is absorbed.  Add 1/2 c more broth until absorbed and then add another 1/2 c broth until absorbed stirring constantly.  This should take 15-20 minutes.  Stir in tomato, carrot and remaining 1/2 c broth and cook until rice is slightly creamy and just tender.  Stir in fontina, parmesan and basil.  Serve with garnish of tomato slices.

Head over to Amazon to download this cookbook full of yummy gluten-free appetizers by Suzanne Leonard. Recipes included are Sausage and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, Sweet Mustard Chicken Wings, Warm Seafood Dip, and lots more!

This book is currently FREE on kindle so what are you waiting for?

Besides missing regular bread, pasta and crackers sometimes I miss a really good chewy cookie.  Sure, they make gluten free cookies and some of them are not too shabby.  I really wanted to make a homemade chew chocolate chip cookie so I searched the internet to find a recipe that was up to the task.  Leave it to Land O Lakes to come up a chewy cookie that received lots of rave reviews. 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c gluten-free flour blend (2c rice flour, 2/3 potato starch, 1/3 c tapioca flour and 1 tsp xanthan gum – mix and store)

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

3/4 c unsalted butter softened

3/4 firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp gluten-free vanilla

12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375F.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sat and xanthan gum in a medium bowl and set aside.  Combine butter and both sugars in a large bowl and beat on medium speed until creamy scraping often.  Add eggs and vanilla and continue beating scraping often.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mix until well blended.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 9-12 minutes until light golden brown.  Let stand 1-2 minutes and remove from pan.  DO NOT OVERBAKE.

I’m always looking for new ways to prepare pork chops because my daughter really loves them.  This time I decided to marinate them with some dijon mustard, chicken stock and herbs.  The result was a juicy flavorful chop that my daughter devoured in no time.

Ingredients:

4-5 pork chops

1/4 dijon mustard

3 stems of sage leaves

1 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 c of chicken stock divided

3 cloves of garlic roughly chopped

salt and pepper

2T olive oil

2T butter

Combine mustard, 3/4 c stock stock, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and 2 stems of sage leaves chopped in a ziploc bag.    Mix it in the bag and add your chops.  Marinate the chops for at least an hour or overnight.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet or dutch oven and brown the chops on both sides.  Remove the chops from the pan and place them in the oven.  In the same pan you browned the chops add remaining stock scraping up brown bits and simmer to reduce.  When your sauce has reached the desired consistency season with additional salt and pepper as needed and add butter at the end.  I cooked my chops in the oven for about 10 minutes or so until they were done, but my chops were pretty thin.

I fried the remaining sage leaves in some hot oil for few seconds and crumbled on top of the chops.  I served mine with latkes and sauteed apples with dried cranberries and chopped pecans.

I learned something about myself this weekend.  It was something I already knew, but I kept lying to myself hoping that if I didn’t give in to the truth that somehow my lie would become my reality.  Unfortunately this did not happen.  My truth is that I am not piping queen nor do I play one on t.v.   There I said it.  It feels good to get that off my chest and now I can embrace it.  I suck at frosting anything.  Cupcakes, cakes, cookies…it doesn’t matter what food item I am decorating it will turn into something that resembles a kindergarten craft project gone awry.  This is my story.

I decided to make some gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with a mocha frosting.  Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?  My cupcakes turned out well.  They were a little dry so I think I will continue to play with the recipe to increase the moist factor.  While making up my first batch of frosting I misread how much coffee to add so I put in double the amount needed by accident.  I ended up tossing that entire batch out because as much as I tried I couldn’t salvage it.

My next batch of frosting turned out beautifully and had just a hint of coffee flavor.  I decided to chill it and frost the cupcakes later.  In the meantime I made a piping bag out of wax paper since I couldn’t find my normal reusable plastic bag.  Big mistake!  My frosting was tearing the wax paper and I couldn’t even get much to come out of the end.  I quickly scrapped that idea and searched my entire kitchen until I found my plastic piping bag.  Eureka!  Now I can work a  masterpiece on these cupcakes.  Liar!  As I piped each one became more hideous than the first.  I tried taking more time while I piped, but this didn’t help at all.  Lastly, I grated some chocolate sprinkles on top thinking this finishing touch would help.  To quote Sarah Palin “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.”

Yes, I am no piping queen.  I don’t think I could even be a jester in the cupcakes’ court.