Let's Catch Up

Mothers Day Rhymes with Parfait

I think it's about time for us to catch up, considering it's been a few days since I've posted.

Thursday night we had our weekly dinner, and that went quite nicely. We had the Hawaiian Style Chili. It contained both local beef, and local portuguese sausage. We really have to be careful when buying sausages as they often contain some sort of gluten as a filler, and if dairy is an issue too then that's something else to watch out for in the ingredients list as well. If you're still unsure, try contacting the company. The brand I've been eating without any problems is Gouveas, but I've received no response to the e-mail I sent to the company in which I asked about whether or not their sausage contains gluten. This may be a company I need to call. As I said though, I've experienced no symptoms after eating the product, but this is something I need to get better about. I admit it. Sometimes I do take small risks, but I would never cheat purposely.

I read over at Gluten Free in Georgia and Florida that in her book "The G-Free Diet" Elisabeth Hasselback takes cheating very lightly, and in no way do I want to be associated with that kind of thinking.

Channa Masala

Friday night the Nerd and I dined at home on some delicious chickpea curry. It's based on a recipe for Channa Masala on Seriouseats.com. I couldn't find Garam Masala at Foodland or Pukalani Superette, but I do know that it is available in the bulk spices at Mana Foods. However, I think this dish is quite delicious with Madras Curry powder. This dish has a very spicy, comfort food quality that I can't get enough of. Because there is a little lemon juice, the dish also has just a hint of sourness that enhances all of the spices coating every inch of the chickpeas and that have soaked into the rice. Served alongside a nice salad, or some steamed vegetables, this is a delicious and healthy well balanced meal. I do suggest bringing a large pitcher of water to the table, you might need it.

A Delicious Hot Breakfast for Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day. My moms aren't here with me, but I was able to honor the Nerd's mother by getting up early to make a big, beautiful, and scrumptious brunch. I really only needed 2 hours to prepare everything for this breakfast. The Nerd's brother, the Hunter, and his wife CJ came over for brunch as well. CJ brought me a beautiful jade plant, and they presented his mother with a lovely bouquet.

The Hunter said that he normally needs to put ketchup on his scrambled eggs, partly because of how bland and dry they are, but he felt no need to do that with the eggs I whipped up. I made scrambled eggs that I found the recipe for through Food.com and the recipe is from Foodandwine.com. I had never made scrambled eggs over a double boiler, but I think it is now the only way I will do it. I left out the truffle oil and brioche rolls(of course).

Whisk your eggs up in a bowl with some water while bringing a pot of water up to a simmer. Once the water reachers a good simmer, place a metal bowl on top of the pot and add in a little butter or margarine. Let the butter melt and then add the whisked eggs. Drop the temperature just a bit, and use a heat resistant rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl as the eggs cook. Just before they are completely set up, add some more butter. Keep scraping and stirring. The eggs should come together in a curd like consistency. Cook the eggs to the firmness you like, and then remove the bowl from the pot and turn off the heat. Add in your seasonings at this point.

Roasted zucchini, onions, and garlic were also a delicious hit. With a little salt and pepper, they were a nice addition to a savory hot breakfast.

I followed a recipe for buttermilk biscuits from Bobsredmill.com, but they didn't turn out as they should have. I may have rolled the dough too thin, but if I hadn't then I don't believe the recipe would have yielded as many biscuits as it says it will. Despite being thin, I think they worked well with the amount of food served. We topped these biscuits with Poha jam. Pohas are berries that are also known as Cape Gooseberries, Goldenberries, and some other names. I found out from CJ that she's been eating some berries called Incan Goldenberries, and they are highly nutritious and full of antioxidants. She was excited to learn that they are also Poha berries and grow wild here on the island. The jam slightly reminds me of very sweet gold cherry tomatoes with sugar. I will happily eat some more.

It was worth a second shot!

Finally, we had a breakfast "dessert" of strawberry, blueberry, and banana yogurt parfaits. These caused some "Oo's" and "Ah's" from the family. Deliciousness was inspired by the local fruits available at the farm stand. The strawberries, bananas, and blueberries were all local. The yogurt was organic. Mary, at Kula Country Farms, let me run in and buy 2 boxes of berries on Saturday while they were closing up. Thank you for the berries Mary!

To make these tasty treats:

Hooray for Parfait!

AmandaonMaui

• 3-4 small bananas, sliced
• 1lb of strawberries, rinsed and diced
• 1 pint of blueberries, rinsed
• Nonfat vanilla yogurt

Layer 4 slices of banana on the bottom of the glass, top with a few tablespoons of yogurt, add in a couple tablespoons of strawberries, add more yogurt, add blueberries, add more yogurt, top with more strawberries and banana slices.

In fact, here's a list of the food in this breakfast that was local:

Eggs

Zucchini

Onions

Strawberries

Blueberries

Bananas

Poha Jam

Here's what was organic:

Butter

Soy Milk

Yogurt

Sugar

If not for the biscuits, then everything would have been local or organic. That's amazing, and inspiring!

Go out to your farmers market or farm stand and get inspired too!

3 Days Later

Zucchini-Broccoli Pizza

I'm sorry I haven't posted for 3 days. This is my final week of school, and then I will have my Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts. Everyone keeps asking what I'll do once I am done, but I don't know. There aren't many Bachelor's Degree offerings that appeal to me at the college here. Many people have told me to go to the college's culinary school. It is something I have considered. I've even spoken with the counselor for the program. However, I need to make some money and pay back the money I used for my A.A.. I also wonder how I would work going to culinary school with my issue with gluten. I certainly couldn't taste anything containing gluten, and I worry about being around too much flour floating around in the air. I don't have any skin issues with gluten, and I don't believe I have trouble with breathing it in, but it seems like I shouldn't chance it. I'd hate to spend the money to go to school, only to be made sick by it. I believe I've discussed this in a prior post.

It came to my mind this morning because of this being my last week of school, and because of a dream I had. If you can't eat certain foods you have probably had a dream in which all of the food available is food you can't eat. That was my dream last night.

In my dream I was in an airport with my mom, and we stopped to get some food at the food court. She quickly grabbed something to eat, and I told her that I'd go see if there appeared to be anything I could eat. Well, I wasn't having much luck until I spotted a sign at an Italian place. It looked like the sign said they offered brown rice pasta, but the letters were so small I couldn't tell. I actually climbed up onto the counter to read the words, and found disappointment. The letters spelled out something different entirely. So, I went and sat back down with my mom. I watched everyone around me eating. I was so hungry, but because of an awful idea that people thneed gluten on everything to be made happy, I was made angry and depressed.

Dining out is so difficult for people with food allergies, intolerances, and Celiac Disease(which is not an allergy, it is an autoimmune disorder). I can't even call up the pizza place and order a couple of pizzas. I have to make them myself. Which isn't all that bad you know. Homemade pizza has all of the things I like on it, it's delicious, and still hot. It doesn't take long if the sauce is pre-made, or if you have a quick sauce recipe. This was our dinner last night. We ate the pizza and watched Dune.

Now, I know I promised a post on eggs, but I swear that will be here soon enough. I just felt that I had to post this particular entry this morning. All in due time my dear readers.

Unbaked Pizza

Zucchini-Broccoli Pizza

• 1 small gluten-free pizza crust [from scratch and pre-baked(recipe follows), or frozen]
• 1/4 cup pre-made pizza sauce
• 1 cup Tillamook Vintage White Cheddar, shredded*
• 1/2 a large onion, julienned**
• 2 medium zucchini, yellow and green***, sliced into rounds
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Using a medium sized spoon, smooth out the sauce over the crust.

Top the sauced crust with the zucchini, starting on the outside, forming a ring, and working in. It's like laying pepperoni.

Place the broccoli as evenly as possible over the pizza.

Sprinkle the cheese on top of the veggies.

Bake in the preheated oven, on a baking sheet or pizza pan, until the cheese has melted and the onions are browning on the ends.

Serve with the crushed red pepper for a little spiciness.

*Note: I think goat cheese would taste delicious on this pizza.

**Note: Use less onion if you're not a big onion fan.

***Note: Feel free to use one large green zucchini. You're going to have more than enough for the pizza. Leftover zucchini is great in other dishes as well.

For the pizza I used the recipe for gluten-free pizza crust in The Gluten-Free Vegan, as well as the sauce recipe. I made up the sauce a few months ago and froze half of it.

I'm still trying to understand the copyright laws for posting recipes. I've posted a few without any problems, and I contacted the author of The Gluten-Free Vegan but received no response. Since many of you are probably looking for a good gluten-free pizza crust recipe I'll go ahead and post it in my own words, since it seems that the directions are the most protected part, and if I get a take down notice I'll remove the recipe.

Pizza Crust

adapted from The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien

• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
• 1/4 cup potato flour*
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• Egg replace for 1 egg**
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 1/2 cup milk replacer (soy works well, but so would hemp or perhaps another)
• 1/8 cup grapeseed oil or canola oil

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Grease a pizza pan or baking sheet with a little vegetable oil.

Combine the dry ingredients, but not the egg replacer or the ingredients listed below. Whisk it together.

Mix the egg replacer together, and add to it the agave, the milk, and the oil. Whisk this well.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir it together with a rice paddle, a flat wood spatula, or a spoon.

Form into a ball. It may look crumbly, but once it is brought into a ball form it will hold. If not, add a little more milk or oil.

Set the dough ball onto the baking sheet and flatten it down by hand.

Place a piece of wax paper, or parchment, or saran wrap over the dough. Roll the dough into the desired shape(circle or rectangle). Remove the paper/parchment/wrap.

Using your fingers, push down at the edges and push against the side of the dough and form a raised crust.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the crust.

Top with your favorite toppings!

Note: The author tops the pizza crust with the toppings before baking it, but I've never found the inside of the dough to be completely cooked when I follow her directions as was the case last night. I've made the recipe in 2 ovens, and haven't had success in getting the dough to be fully baked through. That is why I suggest pre-baking the crust. If you worry about the edges getting too brown, treat it like a pie and cover the edges with aluminum foil.

*If you don't have potato flour, buy some instant mashed potatoes and processes 1/3 cup of them in a blender or food processor until they reach a more flour like consistency. This is my own suggestion, not the suggestion of Susan O'Brien.

**O'Brien uses Ener-G, but I use 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal mixed 3 tablespoons of warm water.

Oh, and we used our zucchini leftovers for breakfast. Pan roasted and topped with poached eggs. Fresh made orange juice too!

Monday's Breakfast

Eggs and Pan Roasted Zucchini with Balsamic Vinegar

I'm wanting to get back into working out again, and so I thought to start the day off right I'd make the Nerd and I fruit smoothies with kale hidden in them. Well, let me tell you, that kale wasn't hiding anything. Down the drain it had to go. I made it through a 1/4 of a glass, but the Nerd only managed two sips while making "disgusted cat" faces about the salad like taste.

Breakfast instead became something quite beautiful and delicious, and pretty healthy too.

Last night for dinner I whipped up two pan and oven roasted chicken breasts with butter, rosemary, thyme and the old alae sea salt and pepper. I slightly overcooked them because I was off dealing with the zucchini, but they were still moist enough and delicious. It's a good thing though that they were a little dry, because the zucchini was not.

I pan roasted the zucchini while following a recipe in Think Like a Chef. The zucchini took quite a while because I could only do it in one layer at a time, and I was using 4 jumbo zucchinis from the farm stand. They were 3 for $1, how could I pass up that deal? So, I made a ton of pan roasted zucchini. It's very good, seriously. The flavors of the olive oil, sea salt, and pepper mix together so beautifully. They're all such simple flavors, and make simple flavors, but pairing them with the zucchini makes my mouth think it is dining on something rather expensive. I'm learning that it's all in the techniques.

So, after the major "Fail" on the smoothie front, I reheated some leftover zucchini and topped it with a fried egg and some balsamic vinegar (the good stuff, not the stuff I hide in spaghetti sauce). I think it would have been worthy of an elegant breakfast had I made poached eggs, but I didn't think about it until afterward when I saw the zucchini piled on the plate.

This was a beautiful, and very ono breakfast.