flashtopian: May 2008

May's Gluten-Free Recipe Rodeo

Easy, Fresh and Fast Yellow Tomato Salad

As promised in early May, here is a round-up of summer fresh gluten-free recipes, hand selected in the spirit of Celiac Awareness Month. So grab a glass of lemonade, park your carcass and kick your boots off, Honey. There are some mighty fine and tasty gluten-free recipes out there.

My theme? Grilling, picnic food, and dining al fresco. You'll find recipes for omnivores, vegans, ovo-lacto vegetarians and pescatarians. Enjoy!

Fresh Strawberry Margaritas For Two at Pinch My Salt
Amy Sherman's Curry Deviled Eggs
Nicole's Homemade Mayonnaise at Pinch My Salt
Carrot Mint Salad at Cookthink
Parmesan Crisps with Roasted Tomato Salsa from Karina
Bea's lovely savory tarts
Elise's Asparagus Frittata at Simply Recipes
Food Blogga's Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Fresh Pineapple Chutney
Curry Burgers and Southeast Asian Grilled Veggies from Rambling Spoon
Elise's Curry Rice Salad at Simply Recipes
Grilled Lime and Chile Chicken at Kalyn's Kitchen
Salmon Burgers from Wheat-Free Meat-Free
Book of Yum's Pesto Grilled Veggie Pizza

Sesame Chicken Salad from Coconut & Lime
Quinoa Salad with Shrimp, Cucumber, Mango & Mint from Hedonia
Texas Caviar Pasta Salad from Sugar Magnolia
Amy Sherman's Warm Steak and Orange Salad
Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad from Karina's Kitchen

Grilled Eggplant with Balsamic Honey Syrup from Alanna at A Veggie Venture
Grilled Nectarines with Honey Balsamic Glaze from MattBites
Goat Cheese Potato Gratin from Ilva at Lucullian Delights
Gluten-Free Bay's Quick and Easy Cilantro-Lime Broccoli Slaw
Kalyn's Kitchen Mango Salsa with Red Bell Pepper
My Calabasitas

Nami-Nami's No Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream
Ilva's Chocolate Cookies
Go Dairy Free's Brownie Bites
Nami-Nami's Coconut Cream with Poached Rhubarb
Oatmeal Date Chocolate Cookies a Heart Smart recipe from Mrs. GF
My Dark Chocolate Brownies

Food Blogs Now Featuring a Gluten-Free Category:

Cookthink
La Tartine Gourmande
Nami-Nami
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
101 Cookbooks
Go Dairy-Free
Hogwash

If you have a gluten-free label or section on your food blog- I'm sorry I missed you! Please feel free to leave your link in Comments below and I'll add it in (and thanks for thinking of us gluten-free folks!).

For a list of Gluten-Free Blogs- see the I Blog Gluten-Free Bloggers List.

And what about that luscious looking yellow tomato salad featured at the top of this round-up post?

So easy it's scary.

Yellow Tomato Salad

Pick the most ripe and juicy tomatoes you can find and you won't need to fuss.

5-6 medium sized vine-ripe yellow tomatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons good fruity extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Fresh chopped parsley or basil, as needed
Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Tip: If it's hot out, chill your serving plate first.

Arrange the sliced yellow tomatoes on a chilled salad plate. Drzzle with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Dust with fresh herbs. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Serves 4.

Gluten-Free Mint Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Mint chocolate cookies and a glass of ice cold hemp milk.

I'll say it up front. For all those perceptive Readers out there. This post? It's a redux slash revamp of a previous chocolate cookie recipe. Why? Because Darling, we are always tweaking and gently nudging recipes toward perfection around here. Though as you and I well know, perfection is unattainable (in the gluten-free vegan baking world, that is). But we can come close. Very close.

And with this latest peppermint chocolate chip incarnation we are a good nibble closer to the best chocolate cookie yet. So of course, I had to tweak and share. These remind me of those Girl Scout cookies called Thin Mints. Except they're chubby (though I suppose one could flatten them a bit if one was so inclined).

These peppermint laced fudgy sweethearts are crisp chocolate goodness.

We freeze ours and serve them slightly chilled. Those of you more adept at fancy baking could try creating heart shapes. (I never have the patience to fuss with dough. I'm more of rustic make a mess in the kitchen blasting Neil Finn kind of baker than a precise "mis en place" to Sarah Brightman kind of gal. But if cookie cutters are your middle name? Knock yourself out.)

These are lovely warm from the oven with an ice cold glass of vanilla hemp milk (pictured is Hemp Dream).

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Lime Chicken Taco Fun

Fast + delicious- lime chicken tacos.

Grilling season is upon us. But don't you worry, Sweetcakes. This particular gluten-free goddess is not going to waste a heartbeat lamenting hot dog buns. And I'm not going to spend hours in the kitchen trying to replicate hamburger rolls, that even in their wheat loaded incarnation were more of a starchy dry-as-dirt nuisance. Something invented to hold the all fixins' together, but that, when push came to shove, I ended up tearing off piece by piece, peeling around the edges to get to the good stuff.

This was ages before the California In N Out protein style burger was invented (which was, in my humble, wheat-free opinion, sheer, utter low carb genius). Who knew a burger wrapped in lettuce leaves would be so darn tasty? But I digress. Let's get back to the barbecue question.

Are you going to pine for long lost spongy buns?

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Tostada Nueva- an easy gluten-free lunch

The tostada- made fresh + light

The recent summer weather has nudged me out of my primavera surliness and ignited my desire to paint again. I suddenly feel energized. Focused. Turned on. I've been toning wood and masonite panels left, right and upside down, laying on thick and juicy strokes of pigmented Gesso in rose, peach and ocher- warmth as a foil to my preferred palette for brushy skies and abstractions.

This is a welcome turn. As many of you know, it's been a somewhat weird and challenging seven months. It feels good to be back in my tiny studio again, blasting music and standing upright, paint brush in hand.

And what have I been eating this hot and breezy week, you ask?

Have I got a quick and easy solution for those sultry summer nights when it's too damn hot to turn on the oven. I'm calling the recipe Tostada Nueva. This is not your typical fried corn tortilla topped with shredded iceberg lettuce, red tomatoes and ground beef. Nope. It's light and fresh and snappy. And it's dairy-free (translation- cheese-less) so you can serve it to your GFCF Sweethearts.

I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice Tortillas (thanks to a Fabulous Reader who turned me on to TJ's new gluten-free brown rice wraps) for the tostada base. The rice tortillas cooked up flaky and just crisp enough. I fried them briefly in my iron skillet with a splash of light olive oil.

Tostada Nueva

I topped my brown rice tostada with slices of Applegate Farms Honey and Maple Turkey Breast and pieces of cooked and crispy (nitrate free!) Sunday Bacon, but you could use any of your favorite deli meat. The heirloom yellow tomatoes are bright and citrusy- perfect for summer.

For each person you'll need:

1 brown rice tortilla-wrap
Olive oil, as needed
3 slices of Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey
2-3 pieces of crispy cooked Applegate Farms Sunday Bacon
A handful of organic baby greens
1 smallish yellow tomato, sliced

Honey Mustard Dressing

Whisk together, per person-

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey mustard
1 small clove garlic, finely minced
1 dab of agave nectar
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

If you are making dressing for four servings, I might quadruple all the ingredients listed except for the garlic- one clove is probably enough.

Assemble your ingredients.

Just before you are ready to eat, heat a little olive oil in a medium hot skillet. Fry the brown rice tortilla on both sides, briefly, until it is slightly golden and crisp. Remove with tongs and place the hot tortilla on a serving plate. (Drain it on a paper towel first, if you like.)

Top with the turkey, fresh baby greens, yellow tomato slices and cooked bacon. Drizzle with the Honey Mustard Dressing. Season with more sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Boom. Dinner is done.

Does it get any easier?

Serve with a side of my Easy Guacamole with Lime. Or how about some of my Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad?

Note: I like Applegate Farms because their products are organic, nitrate and antibiotic free, as well as gluten and casein free. Not to mention, delicious.

Thank you, thank you very much!

I am a big fan of thank you cookies! The latest were for my son's faith formation teachers...you have to love the people that volunteer their time every week to teach, they are amazing, and they make it fun! (Instructions for these cookiesbelow.)

I love the little hearts on these. When I worked at a preschool, one of my students was from Japan, and whenever her mother sent a note to school, the a's, o's and g's all had little hearts inside them. I thought that was the cutest thing...I loved getting notes from that mom and she inspired the hearts on these cookies.

These were for a thank-you gift for a friend's OB and staff after her baby was born. I think they are my favorite.

To decorate "thank you" cookies as shown at the top:

Using a #2 or #3 tip, outline cookies in white royal icing.
Thin royal icing with water in the background color to the consistency of thick syrup, cover with a damp towel and let sit several minutes. (AmeriColor Avocado)
Stir gently using a rubber spatula to break any bubbles that have formed on the surface and pour icing into a squeeze bottle.
Fill in cookies with the flood icing, using a toothpick to spread into corners.
Let dry at least 1 hour.
Using a #1 or #2 tip (test your writing on a plate first to see which looks best and which you are more comfortable with), pipe "thank you" on the cookies in white icing. (I start from the middle letter in the middle of the cookies and work my way out.)
Using a #1 tip, pipe hearts (a fat "v") in the center of the a and o and for the exclamation point. (for the salmon-y hearts above, I used just a bit of AmeriColor Super Red.)

Red Potato Salad with Horseradish

Serve this horseradish spiked red potato salad warm or cold

Ready for some spud love? Here's one of my favorite potato salad recipes. And just in time. Summer has arrived almost instantaneously here in the desert north of Santa Fe. Last week I was layering t-shirts and hoodies to keep warm. I stood shivering at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market (wind always makes me cranky). It felt more like March than May. This weekend? It was quintessential summer weather. Hot bright sun. Dry air. An almost too-warm casita. We turned on the ceiling fans.

On weekends like this you kick off your shoes and peel off your long sleeved black jersey, opting instead for the lime green tank top. You feel your bones begin to knit as you soak up the longer daylight and linger by the roadside during post-dinner walks in the rose hued sun. You smile at the young jackrabbits and their impossibly erect ears. And your thoughts turn to dining al fresco, sitting beneath the dappled shade of the portal with a chilled glass of white and a zesty potato salad. Life in the slow lane.

Last night's Twitter:

Cheap thrills in the desert: S is making animal sounds to alarm a jackrabbit. The sound that makes it freeze in terror? A chicken cluck.

Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad Recipe

If you really, really prefer sour cream or mayonnaise in your red potato salad- by all means, Babycakes, add some in. But if you've never tried a mayo-free dairy-free version of this popular summer side dish, why not give my vegan potato salad a whirl? You might even make some new friends at your next barbecue. Those vegans? Sprouting up everywhere these days.

2 to 2 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
Sea salt
1/4 cup fruity tasting extra virgin olive oil, as needed
4-6 tablespoons apple cider or rice vinegar, to taste
1 smallish red onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish- I used Bubbies
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1-2 teaspoons dill, to taste
1 teaspoon caraway seeds- optional

Wash and cut up the red potatoes, toss them into a pot of salted fresh water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain well.

Pour the cooked potatoes into a large bowl. While the potatoes are still warm, sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. Toss to coat and to soften the edges of the potatoes pieces a bit. Add the diced onion, horseradish and toss to distribute. Taste and season with more sea salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Add the chopped parsley, dill and caraway; mix.

Taste test. Add more olive oil or vinegar, sea salt or herbs.

Serve warm (so yummy!) or cover and chill.

Remember that chilling the potato salad will subdue its flavor considerably. I always season my potato salad more vigorously if I am going to serve it chilled. Taste test after chilling it and add more seasoning if it needs it.

Serves 6 to 8.

Printer-friendly recipe

Karina's Notes:

This a food allergy friendly recipe- it is gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free, dairy-free.

If you're not a fan of horseradish try my Champagne Vinegar Potato Salad recipe.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Gluten-free blueberry oat muffins.

We woke to the sound of water. It is raining in the desert this morning. The overflow is spilling over the edges of the canales, splashing onto the wedges of flagstone scattered in the sand around our casita. It feels like we are living inside a Zen fountain- waterfalls on all sides. The mesa is hidden in mist. The air is heavy with the scent of juniper and wet bark. I am deeply comforted by all of this.

Moisture is a rare commodity here.

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LIVESTRONG with a Taste of Yellow ~ roundup

Today is LiveSTRONG Day. Winos and Foodies has posted all of the 179 entries from bloggers received for LiveSTRONG with a Taste of Yellow event. You can find the posts here and here. All of the contributions look really amazing. I love that Barbara of Winos and Foodies commented on each and every entry! My wonderful family even got a mention...it made me cry all over again! My entry of Yellow Rose Sugar Cookies is here.

Pork Roast with Mushrooms and Brown Sugar Apricot-Pomegranate Sauce

Slow cooker pork roast with apricot jam.

My first pork roast recipe- ever. And it's a home run. I apologize for the sports metaphor but I've been sitting at my desk for an hour. And not a single sentence has been birthed. Even after one hot mother of a mug of coffee (and a decaf peppermint green tea that really doesn't count because, well, it's tea), I'm still in a post Sunday fog today, basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent with friends. We ate and drank our way through six hours of non-stop conversation. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. And I'm more than a little tempted to wax poetic about friendship and how we choose our true family and what a head banging blue-in-the-face relief it is to sit at a table with soulful people who wrestle with big questions and hunger for authenticity and integrity while also making you laugh out loud without covering your teeth and feel proud of your mayo-free potato salad.

But I won't. I'll tell you about my first pork roast instead.

I'll say it up front. It took decades to get me here- to ease into a place in my life where I might actually, finally, consider buying a hunk of pork and roasting it. I started off slowly, slyly, trying turkey bacon ten years ago. Then I graduated to the real deal roughly six years ago. Organic Sunday smoked bacon. Nitrate-free, of course. And when my body did not protest and the world as I knew it did not go up in a hellish ball of blistering flames, I decided to move on to the hard stuff. I was ready.

It was finally time to roast a pork loin. And Dear Reader- was I intimidated. You know it. In fact yours truly was almost quaking in her Rocket Dogs. Well, maybe not quaking. More like, shivery-nervous. So I decided two things.

First- that I would use my trusty slow cooker. Simple. Familiar. Not too much to screw up. Second- that I would make a sauce with pomegranate juice and a jar of apricot jam. It just seemed like a good fit.

And guess what? Tender, juicy, tangy-sweet deliciousness ensued.

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Pomegranate Smoothie - Dairy-Free

Pomegranate smoothie- dairy-free bliss.

I'm delirious. I could blame it on the wind. There is a loco spring wind here in New Mexico, you know. And it can make you, well. Crazy. It rough rides up the Chama River like nobody's business and bitch slaps the mesa behind us. It buffets the casita absolutely senseless and whips tumbleweeds into missiles. I'm not kidding. There are moments when you wonder if the roof will lift off.

You start looking out the window for flying monkeys.

So you hunker down and pull out pots and pans to conjure mashed potatoes into colcannon just to cope. You bake comforting Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. You feel like whipping up your own brand of frenzy.

In the gentle guise of a vegan smoothie.

Because you crave pomegranate. We all know deep and vibrant hued fruits are good for us. You've read about all those studies, right? How all those yummy antioxidants and goodies like anthocyanin feed our brains and keep us sharp, on the edge, where we need to be?

Psychology Today reports that preliminary results indicate that people who eat a cup of blueberries a day perform 5 percent to 6 percent better than a control group on tests of motor skills. I'm not good at math (will blueberries help?) so I'm unsure if "5 to 6 percent better" is a huge deal, but, Hey. For the sake of my asymmetrical motor skills (I was the Aspie geek who was never- ever- picked for any team in school) I'm willing to eat a few more blueberries, pomegranates and cranberries. Not because I harbor hopes of better motor skills.

But because they taste so good.

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Pesto Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Wraps- Gluten & Wheat Free

Brown rice tortillas wrap it all up.

Flour tortillas and sandwich wraps have always been a favorite around here. How simple can you get? Throw some deli, salad greens, tomatoes, avocado and dressing onto a soft flaky tortilla and boom. You've got a meal. A portable meal, in fact. Perfect for picnics. Customizable. Accommodating. And tasty as all get out. What could be easier? It's clear why America has gone wrap crazy.

You lovely and talented wheat-eaters out there get all kinds of choices- whole grain lavash, flax and spinach wraps, low carb, garlic herb, and classic flour tortillas. But a gluten-free wrap is tough to come by. Your intrepid goddess at large has been mourning her wraps and lime infused burritos for quite a few sad and wrapless years now. And I'm sorry- those teff wraps you can sometimes find in the health food store? Please don't e-mail me about them. They smell so funky- like a gym sock used yesterday in some unspeakable act- although they do roll around a tube of fresh ingredients with a flexibility akin to the flour tortillas I vaguely recall. I might even try them again- if I can just get past the smell. Perhaps I could pinch my nose while munching.

The best gluten-free wrap I've tried is Food for Life's (and Trader Joe's) brown rice tortillas. If you nab a package when they are piping fresh and pliable, you're in for a treat. The problem is, they turn stale faster than Madonna's reinventions. And far too often you tear open (what you thought was) a fresh package from your local Whole Foods only to cry slow tears of salty frustration when your much anticipated wrap falls apart and splits into an unappetizing melange du jour you sullenly eat with a fork.

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More monograms...

A few more monogrammed cookies to go along with the last post...

These monogrammed wedding cakes are probably my favorite. I made them for a bridal shower with the couple's first initials.

Monogramming

Monogramming a cookie is an easy way to make a plain design look special. Here's a way to make all of your monograms look the same, which is really helpful if you don't love your handwriting or are a little shaky with an icing bag.

First, go to the computer and find a font that you like. (This can be done in Word or Publisher and I'm sure other programs as well.) View the letter at 100% (this option should be in the top toolbar on your screen). Now, what I do...and it seems a little silly....is hold my cookie cutter up to the screen and see what the letter size will look like on the cookies. If it's not right, go into the font settings and change the letter size.

When the letter is the right size, copy and paste the letter to put several on one sheet and print.

Now time to head to the kitchen. On an upside-down cookie sheet, place your monogram template and top it with a sheet of waxed paper.

Using a plain icing tip (I use a #2 or #3, a #1 tip will give a very fragile letter), trace the letters in icing on the wax paper. Continue this process until you have at least double the amount that you will need (you'll see why in a minute).

Let these harden on the cookie sheets for at least 24 hours.

Very carefully, use a thin, flexible cookie spatula to slide underneath the letter to loosen and remove onto a plate. Expect to break a fair amount....or at least, I do.

After icing the cookies, gently place a letter on the wet flood icing. If it looks off-center, guide it along with a toothpick. Sometimes, you may have to use a broken letter; just piece it together on the cookie and it will probably only be noticeable to you. :)

May Brings More Than Flowers- it brings celiac awareness!

May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. Around this little casita, that's no big deal. After all, we live with celiac disease 24/7 (and have been gluten-free- in our various kitchens- since December 19, 2001). Living gluten-free- to us- is second nature. But what about the over two million and several hundred thousand other celiac citizens- the vast sea of the Undiagnosed? You're out there. Somewhere. Swimming in gluten. And you don't even know it's wreaking havoc.

This post's for you.

Throughout the month of May, Gluten-Free Goddess will be spotlighting gluten-free recipes that pop up in sweet and unexpected places- especially food and cooking blogs, and sites that don't necessarily focus on gluten-free cooking. Spotting and tagging safe recipes for celiac disease in a blogging community with a passion for taste, fresh ingredients and style will be not only fun- but help to raise awareness for celiac disease.

Read on for the first fabulous find.

The first tempting recipe find is this sexy Warm Steak and Orange Salad posted by food writer and recipe developer Amy Sherman at Glam Dish- tasty morsels served with style. It's impossible to feel deprived when you can dig into a dish like this. Get more Amy at her Cooking With Amy blog, too. She's got some tasty gluten-free recipes to share- like these delightful crepes.

Fellow bloggers and food lovers- if you have a particular gluten-free recipe you'd like to share this month, please e-mail me at the contact link in the top navigation bar, and I will do my best to include it. Check back each week for more delicious recipes around the web.

Find out more at Celiac Central: The NFCA

Roasted Vegetable Magic

Fresh veggies chopped and tossed with garlic and olive oil.

What do you throw together for dinner when you're just too tired to cook?

That is my question to you, Dear Readers. Chances are you've been there. I know you have. Dog weary. Emotionally spent. A tad cranky. Blood sugar perilously low. It's way past time to eat. The kids have been munching cereal straight from the box. And there you are, staring into the pantry without a trace of culinary passion and only the scantiest clad hint of inspiration.

What you really want to do is strip off the remains of the day and sink into a welcoming tub with a chilled glass of Riesling and hope that dinner will magically appear in an hour.

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Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes

My best gluten-free dessert recipes.

Looking for gluten-free dessert recipes for your celiac sweet tooth? Here is my collection of truly tasty gluten-free treats- from buckwheat chocolate chip cookies to dairy-free pumpkin pie, from rich chocolate brownies and cupcakes, to easy fruit crisps and coconut carrot cake. All my dessert recipes are wheat and gluten-free, and many are egg-free and dairy-free, as well.

Make today delicious. xox Karina