Meringues with a kick

The pasilla chile softening on the comal is a traditional start to a Mexican meal. And next the next step, perhaps, would be grilling tomatoes, onions, and garlic to make the perfect base for a savoury sauce. Well not in this case. This was the start of dessert for last night's dinner. Part 1 of the pudding was to be chocolate-chile ice cream.

Next step is creating a chile and cream infusion as the base to the ice cream. Just steep the softened chile in the cream.  Then you waz it up in a blender, then strain out the bits of chile (which if  you've blended it well, there shouldn't be much of).

While that's all going on, there was chocolate being chopped. Using the good stuff makes a big difference. Then the chile infusion gets mixed together with this lovely chocolate and is well on its way to becoming the custard base for the ice cream.

Add the chile-chocolate-cream mixture to a bowl full of egg yolks and sugar. Now you're ready for cooking the custard.

The custard has to thicken over a double boiler so there's a bit of arm-building whisking action involved. Although it's a lot less arduous than say, making mayonnaise.  And because there's no shortage of steps in this ice cream making process, once it's all up to the right temperature and thickened up, then the custard has to be cooled. So stick it in an ice bath and whisk some more.

At this point, I was wondering if this whole process was ever going to end, but having an array of delicious ingredients, I cracked on with it. A little vanilla, some heavy cream, and a bit of chocolate liquer. Then into the ice cream maker it all goes.

Once this final step is complete, it can go into the freezer for a few hours or overnight to harden up and for the flavours to really marry together.

And since the ice cream only used the egg yolks, and I don't like to waste, I thought I'd try my hand at making some meringues. Last weekend I made a pavlova, which was very delicious but the meringue base was not quite right. So this time, I used the basic recipe for the Joy of Cooking. The trick to the nice stiff peaks: cream of tartar. Conveniently I had some in the pantry, so stiff ones all around.

My initial dessert plan had been to have the chocolate-chile ice cream with grilled pineapple, which I still made, but with the meringues (which I have to say came out pretty freaking perfectly), it was perhaps one of the best desserts I've ever put together. I gave myself quite a few pats on the back.

And, I'm also happy to report, J and our dinner guests enjoyed it. And that's reallly what all the time and effort is about, seeing the clean plates in front of everyone.

Babycakes (or in my house, $@!cakes.

Yesterday morning started well. I went to the store while G was playing soccer, spending my children's inheritance on ingredients for Babycakes' carrot cupcakes. As I said before, I had those cakes at the bakery itself and they were unbelievably good, so I was very eager to give it a try.

I found all the stuff, going to a few different stores to get all the necessary ingredients, and then came home and started making cupcakes. They smelled great while baking. And then they were finished. And we tried one, and it was gross. Not at all sweet, extremely cakey, just not good. We thought, well, we'll ice them and that will up the sweetness. Except the babycakes icing I made didn't turn out at all. So G, with her family gathered in the next room for her birthday, whipped up some regular frosting. And thank heavens she did, it was the only edible thing on those g-d-forsaken cupcakes.

I know that with baking, sometimes you have to keep trying, but with the exorbitant costs of the ingredients in those little cakes, I doubt I will try again soon. The one bright spot, our niece A said last night, "I don't blame you, J. I blame the cupcakes." Sigh. I blame them, too.

Taking a Bite Out of Big Apple Delights.

New York City. I love going to NYC to visit, and this past four day trip was no exception. While I did fall way off my no-wheat regime (thank heavens for only being gluten intolerant!), I also got to take in some of the more virtuous gluten-free offerings.

First up, Babycakes Bakery. Of course, as an eschewer of all things wheaty, I was very familiar with the Babycakes phenom and recently bought the cookbook (and will be making my first g-free treats from it tomorrow for G's birthday!). I was so excited to be going to NY and to having the opportunity to try the bakery that we went the very first day we were there!!

For those of you who don't know, Babycakes is a vegan mostly sugar and gluten free bakery in NYC. It's received a ton of press, including winning NY's best cupcake a few years back. There have been some complaints that she uses too much spelt, etc., but she's upfront about not having celiac, etc., and I think (as someone in the same position) that you make the best you can out of the situation and her cookbook offers something for a wide-range of people suffering from a wide-range of food intolerances.

I was not disappointed. I had an idea of what was on the menu because I had read the cookbook and persued the website...and I pretty much knew what I was going to be eating long before I opened the door. And there they were... beautiful cupcakes...

Oh yes!!! YES YES YES!

In the back, we have an amazing chocolate cupcake with a wondrous vanilla frosting. So chocolatey that you could hardly stand it! But in the front. OH MY WORD FOLKS. The front cupcake was amazing. It was a carrot cake with vanilla frosting. And I could eat my weight in them. It was so amazing.

The cupcakes are light, moist, not at all crazy crumbly like the g-free cupcakes I've made. There was absolutely no weird g-free flour flavour or anything of the sort. It was all kinds of good. Delish.

So what are two girls to do after g-free cupcakes?

RICE PUDDING at RICE TO RICHES of course!!!

Yum!!!! (Terrible terrible terrible picture coming up.)


Man-made mascarpone rice pudding. I dream about this stuff. G and I shared this massive bowl of the good stuff. And then waddled our way to do some shopping. Rooster table mats and a new purse! Good times were had by all. VIVA LA NEW YORK!

Chinese Takeaway? No way!

I know I've mentioned it, but I am addicted to food magazines. Particularly British food magazines. But I confess that I don't cook out of them as often as I should. I am trying to change that, making at least one thing from each magazine that I buy (not necessarily the ones I subscribe to, that's asking too much). From Delicious Magazine, I made the following:


Cashew beef with broccoli and egg fried rice!

It was super easy to make. We used some of our CSA meat (top sirloin), sliced it (too thickly), then you brown it in the pan. Take it out, mix three tablespoons of chili sauce with two tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of ketchup and some water in a separate container. In the pan, fry garlic and cashews for a minute, then add in the sauce. Let it thicken for a second, put the beef in the pan with some broccoli (I left a few big pieces for G and then chopped the rest of teensy for me). Let it heat through and you're laughing!

For the rice, we just cooked some rice and let it cool. We cooked some green onion, peas and garlic scapes in some oil and then added the rice to coat it. You make a hole in the center of the pan, put in two beaten eggs and scramble it lightly, then mix it all together with some g-free soy sauce. It couldn't be easier!

It wa a great meal. Controlled g-free, which was excellent when I a watching my wheat, delicious and FULL of vegetables. It made four good sized servings. G absolutely loved the rice and said she'd eat that on it's own anytime! That's good because we frequently have leftover chicken and stuff, and that's a great way to use it all up. So woo hoo Delicious Magazine! What a great easy dinner!

Muffins for Breakfast? Oh alright!

My previous post describes my new-found love of the very very few Whole Foods Bakehouse items that we get here in super lovely Toronto. And just look at that blueberry muffin. It also has no weird smell or taste, just lovely rich blueberry muffin flavour. I find the secret is to microwave the muffin for about 20 seconds. It takes the chill off and softens the whole thing up. I often eat it with a fork or spoon (if I am having yogurt with it). They are the most amazing gluten-free muffins. I don't know how they do it, but I am glad they do. Yorkville Whole Foods... Keep it coming!

Pizza Heaven.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. When I was a kid, and I was a little kid, mind you, I could easily polish off an entire medium pizza by myself. I'd feel sick after, but my love of pizza knew no bounds. Ken's pepperoni pizza. Heaven.

Probably one of the hardest things for me with giving up wheat has been giving up pizza. I posted earlier about the kinnikinnik crust, which while good, is not the real thing. It tastes like a substitute. Which is fine. Or it was fine until yesterday.


Do you see that? Hunh? Do you see that delicious pizza? Oh yeah. I found the secret. And you can find it too!

Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse.

Be still my freaking beating heart.

I had dabbled with this product line while visiting family in the US and was miffed that there didn't seem to be much product available in my local Toronto Whole Foods. I wrote to the store, they said it was a problem with the bilingual labeling requirements. But then, one day, as I was walking around the store gawking at all the products, I spotted the brown label. There were blueberry muffins (which rule, but more on that in a minute) and pizza crusts. They looked a little doughy, cost an arm and a leg, but seemed to be calling my name.

I put them in the freezer because there weren't plans to eat them any time soon. But the night before Canada Day seemed like a good idea. A fast fun dinner to get us through our Battlestar Galactica Season 2 viewing. When I got home from work, I fried some onion and mushroom to use as a topping. We'd also bought some butterball turkey pepperoni to use on top (this is the best pepperoni going in terms of leanness and deliciousness). We shredded a ball of moz and put the pizza in a super hot oven directly on the pizza stone.

And it was amazing. There was NO weird gluten-free taste. No funny smell, no strange after-taste, no weird sweetness. Just crunchy on the outside chewy on the inside pizza. We had a splurge...


I saw a nutrition specialist recently who suggested that the green salad and veg should take up half my plate, so I don't think this is what she had in mind! BUT I did eat TWO servings of salad with lots of veggies and a crazy amount of the delicious pizza. There was plenty leftover, which is very exciting! (Well, it might not be that exciting unless you are me, but for me, it's a total thrill.)

It's so nice to be home on a weekday. It's Canada Day here so we have the whole day off! I am sitting in the sun room, in the sun, with Beanie sitting next to me blazing hot from all the sunshine. It's so lovely. Every Wednesday should be a holiday.

Cake!

Of course, you try to stop eating wheat and move on to gluten-free pasta and bread, make the necessary switches to make it easier, and then what comes along but a fierce craving for pineapple upside down cake.


I have really disliked pineapple for my entire life. It's really only about in the last year that I have started liking pineapple. Imagine my shock at being in throes of a full pineapple upside down cake craving!

After a perusal of Bob's Red Mill's website and many blogs, I found a terrific use for the baking mix I bought...


Really good! I cannot for the life of me remember how I made it. I just remember that there was a considerable amount of butter and sugar used. It had that smell that gluten-free flour has. It's a sort of beany almost soury smell. I don't love the smell, but the taste doesn't seem to carry the smell over. The cake was delicious. I need to figure out how to make even smaller versions of the baked goods. I don't need tons of it, but it's nice to have a sweet treat ever so often...

Gluten-Free Pizza.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I knew I had to give it up, long before I thought about giving up wheat. It as necessary. Pizza really upsets my stomach as a general rule, and seems to have bad effects on G, as well. So we went form having lots of pizza to having no pizza. And it hurt me. Lots.

Giving up wheat made it that much more difficult. One evening while G was at a work function, I ordered a Pizza Nova gluten-free pizza. It was absolutely vile. I just ate the toppings. My fascination was peaked when I found Kinnikinnick frozen pizza bases.


The bases aren't perfect, it's true. They have a sweet aftertaste, BUT, made on the pizza stone in a super hot oven, they have a satisfying crunch, a chewy texture, and topped with an assortment of spinach, mushrooms and caramelized vidalia onions... it was terrific.

We've had these a couple of times. With wonderful Butterball Turkey Pepperoni, roasted red pepper, onion, black olives... so many combinations!

I am trying a new pizza crust this week. When I was visiting family in Oklahoma, I got to try a selection of gluten-free things from the Whole Foods Bakehouse. WOW! The biscuits were out of this world good. I wrote to our Whole Foods in Toronto to ask why they didn't carry the Bakehouse items. The store manager wrote me back and said that it is because of the whole French/English ingredients listing, etc. But then lo and behold, the next time I went in, there were a few Bakehouse items. So I bought some pizza bases, but I haven't tried them yet. I also bought the blueberry muffins. Very very good. I really enjoyed them and so I went and bought a new batch today.

Eating at home. The Simple Life.

Work and life has been pretty crazy lately so it's been necessary to just have some comfort foody quickness.

At the market, I bought some fantastic gluten-free hot dog buns. Well, they're a bit dense, but they aren't crazy sweet. Quite lovely. We also bought hot dogs at one of the meat stalls that were labelled gluten-free and were organic. They were fantastic, but the woman who sold them to me was rude. Anywho...


That's my hot dog with tomato chutney and mayo (don't start, it's a delicious combo) and sweet chili rice chips which are one of my most favorite things in the whole world. Goooooood times. It's easy and lovely and while not gourmet, it's also sometimes just what the doctor ordered.