Gluten-free Gourmand

These gardening ideas might not be strictly new - but they were new to me this year, and my garden is happier for them!  They save my soil, my back, and my time.  This year my garden is better than ever.  Here is what worked for me: 1. I got a  long-handled trowel .

Due to popular demand, I am now revealing my new Pancetta Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Actually, I only had one vote on the matter in my last post , and it was from a fellow cookie-lover, Jenn from Cinnamon Quill. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or if you just love chocolate, please go straight to her vegan World Peace Cookie Recipe which looks amazing. If you're really into pancetta , stick around for this post or see my recipe for Pasta Carbonara or Pancetta-wrapped Scallops . As you can probably guess, I'm on a bit of a pancetta kick. While the rest of Portland is devouring bacon by the pound, I'm getting into the more subtle flavor that pancetta lends to a recipe. For something more intense, check out Pete's Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies . He candies the bacon before using. I went a different route with this recipe. I left the pancetta uncooked. Half of it I whipped into the butter to infuse the pancetta flavor throughout the batter. The other half o...

A couple of weeks ago I was grilling a steak and making my roasted vegetables for a friend when he made a confession to me: his doctor suspected that he might have a wheat or gluten sensitivity and recommended that he go on a gluten-free diet. I was overjoyed. I have to admit that I get a sense of schadenfreude when my friends have to go on a gluten-free diet. Selfishly, I want more people to commiserate with. More importantly, I want people to do what I did: to figure out what is making them feel bad, and find an elegant solution to their problem. In honor of my friend, I immortalize a few of my tips for those who are just starting on the gluten-free diet. Find a gluten-free friend. They will know where the safe places are to eat in your area, the good products to buy at your local store, and the the stuff to stay away from. Take it easy at first. You may have to cut out additional foods - don' t let that get you down. You may be able to re-introduce them later. ...

I wanted to write a quick note on how I have found a few store-bought breads that I like. I have a method that I employ in selecting a good loaf, and for avoiding the hard, virtually inedible bread that some well-meaning companies try to pass off as nutritious. Some of these tips can even be used for gluten-free and wheat-based breads alike! Here is a step-by step procedure on how to select the best loaf for you. 1) Pick up the bread. Note its weight. If it seems unusually heavy, it is probably a very dense bread. This can sometimes be a bad sign for gluten-free products, as it indicates that the dough hasn't risen much, a problem typical with GF products. In itself, heaviness is not always a deal-breaker. 2) Squeeze the loaf. It should be a little resilient. If the loaf is both very heavy and un-squeezable, you may have a coarse, hard bread on your hands. 3) Look at the ingredients. If there is only one type of grain in the bread, then it is probably fairly tasteless, an...

The first time I tried to make scones with a GF flour mix the dough smelled like salty beans. I looked at the ingredients on the store-bought package only to find - sure enough - garbanzo bean flour. After trying a few other pre-made mixes with similarly disastrous results, I decided I could do better on my own. Over the last year or two I've been experimenting with making my own gluten-free flour mixes. While I'm not quite ready to share this secret concoction with the world, I do want share what I've learned about the properties of some basic gluten-free flours. Brown rice flour : It gives your product lots of texture and flavor. However, it is not pliable enough to be used by itself in most recipes, and it produces a dense, heavy, whole-grain feel. White rice flour : This gives you a somewhat lighter and more pliable dough than brown rice flour, but without the benefit of the flavor of the whole grain. It is made from raw white rice. Glutinous rice flour (or stick...