Oatmeal is a Girl's Best Friend

Move over diamonds! Marilyn, you can cease your crooning. Oatmeal is the new best friend of gluten free girls everywhere. Grinding it for cookie flour, or topping fresh berries for a crisp. The options seem almost endless! :)

Google (runner up for girl's best friend) on a lazy Sunday afternoon can bring many facets of delight. This particular Sunday afternoon brought ideas for new vistas in gluten free baking, particularly flourless cookies.

As with most everything I cook, I glanced at a couple different recipes and then proceeded to make the cookies the way I wanted to. :) This way I can name them whatever I want. In this case >drum roll<

Autumn's Most Excellent Oatmeal Raisin Pecan Cookies

1 1/2 C gluten free oatmeal
1/2 C unsalted butter
3/4 C brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
fistful of raisins
half a fistful of nuts
cinnamon to taste (1/2 t ish)

Use your blender to blend 1 C of the oatmeal into a flour. Combine ground oatmeal, whole oatmeal, soda, cinnamon and salt in one bowl. Cream butter, then add brown sugar and cream. Add flour and stir. Add raisins and nuts, stir just until combined. If the mixture is too wet stir in more ground oat flour. Roll into balls and bake in a 325 oven for 10-15 min or until golden brown around the edges. Let cool and enjoy! :)

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A couple of weeks ago I had some fresh berries in the fridge and I wanted to make some type of a berry crisp. This was before I dared try any butter so I used olive oil and I was surprised at how good it was! I normally don't enjoy baking with olive oil.

1/2 - 2/3 C oatmeal
1/3 C gluten free flour
1/3 C sugar
2-3 T olive oil
5 C berries (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries etc)
sugar and cinnamon to taste

Mix oatmeal, flour and sugar together. Pour in olive oil and mix with your hands until the mixture is crumbly. Mix berries with sugar and cinnamon. Put berries in bottom of a 9 inch pan and top with the oatmeal mixture. Bake at 350 until bubbly and golden brown. If you can have dairy this is good served with ice cream.

 

Cooking Frenzy

After being in Maryland for 2 weeks for business, a return to my kitchen was enough to send me into a kitchen destroying, cooking frenzy! I had the chance to watch several cooking shows in the evenings that had given me some great ideas that I was excited to try.

I was also DYING for some type of a treat. Watching people eat dessert at lunch and dinner for 2 straight weeks had really started my hankering for some good, non lethal to me, treats.

Saturday morning found me in my kitchen, recipes in hand. Hours later, kitchen a disaster area, I was a happy girl. :) 

As anyone with food allergies/ intolerance can attest to, finding a GOOD recipe for something is cause for celebration in the streets! I for one favor a parade, with full band, down Main Street.

"Marilla is a famous cook. She is trying to teach me to cook but I assure you, Diana, it is uphill work. There's so little scope for imagination in cookery. You have to go by rules. The last time I made a cake I forgot to put the flour in and the cake was a dismal failure. Flour is so essential to cakes, you know.” (Anne of Green Gables)

Aha! But there IS scope for the imagination in cooking. :) And flour is not always essential to cakes, thank goodness!

The first recipe I tried was a flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting. Unlike poor Anne's, this cake was a smashing success!

Cake
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 C unsalted butter
1 C sugar
1/4 t salt
3 eggs
1/2 C dutch cocoa

Ganache  
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/4 C canned coconut milk (not the lite)
honey to taste


Melt the butter and chocolate, mix in the sugar and salt, stir in the eggs, mix the cocoa in just until combined. Pour into a greased, parchment paper lined 8 inch pan and smooth the top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate or serving dish and let cool.


For the ganache, stir together the melted chocolate, coconut milk and honey until smooth. Smooth over the cake and allow the ganache to cover the sides of the cake. Allow to cool and serve with fresh fruit!
Warning! this cake is VERY rich and you only need a very small slice. It is delicious with a cup of coffee.

I wish I were rich, and I could spend the whole summer at a hotel, eating ice cream and chicken salad.

(Diana Barry - Anne of Green Gables)

Being as how I just got done with 2 weeks in a hotel room I can't say I long for a whole summer there. But I do long for ice cream and chicken salad. And with my mayonnaise and ice cream recipes, my longing has become a reality!

Mayonnaise 

1 egg 

1/2 t salt

dash of chili powder (or cayenne if you have it)

1/2 t + 2 T lemon juice

1/2 t honey

1/2 C olive oil

1/2 C canola oil

1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar

First you want to make sure that all your ingredients are room temperature. Put the egg, salt, chili power, 1/2 t lemon juice and honey into your blender and blend on high until combined. With blender running, pour the olive oil in a slow stream into the blender. Turn off when completed. Mix the remaining 2 T lemon juice and the 1 1/2 T vinegar together in a cup with a spout. Turn the blender on high and alternate slow streams of the canola oil and the lemon/cider mixture until both are added in. The mixture should be very thick with a pretty yellow color about it.

Chicken salad always tastes like summer to me. Served with cantaloupe, tomato, and boiled egg it is the lightest of meals for those hot July days!

Last, but definitely not least, ICE CREAM! :) I loved Roe Ann chocolate soft serve and was very sad to lose that summer delight. Luckily, I found a recipe that matches it for flavor....and doesn't make me sick. Bonus round!

Chocolate Ice Cream

3 C unsweetened coconut milk (in the can, not lite)

2/3 C dutch cocoa

1/3 C honey

Stir mixture together and freeze according to your ice cream maker directions. I just stirred it together and put it in my freezer and gave it a stir every 15-20 minutes. Be warned, once it is totally frozen it is solid. Next time I will try using a real maker and eating it when it's finished for a more soft serve consistency.

I had a wonderful time cooking and recovering from two weeks of a kitchen-less nightmare. Though.....the dishes just aren't as much fun as the cooking. ;)

 (this is the first time I've cooked with any butter in the last 3 months. I thought I would give it a try...and so far so good!)

The Great Movie Dilemma

In my very sick past,  a movie always went hand in hand with a big bowl of popcorn and a tall icy glass of coke. Little did I know that as I was enjoying my movie, the snacks were enjoying ME!

Of course, when I discovered their dastardly little plan I determined to never participate in this lopsided party again! Well.....I mean since Sunday when I discovered that yes, the caramel coloring in Mexican coke is corn based >sigh<, but I digress.

I had invited my little sisters over to watch Tangled and it just seemed so wrong somehow to watch a movie with nary a munchie in sight. So I got to thinking and ransacking my fridge, and came up with a snack to accommodate even the most choosy of stomachs.

I took mango, strawberries, raspberries and kiwi and blended them into an icy, frothy drink. Then I took banana slices and topped them with natural peanut butter and raisins. A fresh strawberry, apple slices and a gluten free brownie made with applesauce in place of oil (olive oil is too strong for baked goods in my opinion).

Lights, camera, action! :)