This month the Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger Event was hosted by Kalinda of Wheat-free Meat-free. I adopted Hero Beth from the deliciously entitled blog, Tasty Yummies, after her entry in my gluten-free vegetarian thanksgiving event brought her blog to my attention. She had so many recipes that I had a hard time picking and ended up making a Pinterest board of my favorite Tasty Yummies. Things have been a tad stressful at the House of Yum, with me trying to start Toddler Yum at daycare and get some serious work done on my dissertation. I needed to spend a little time in the kitchen to expend some nervous energy, and I started by making her Gluten-free Butternut Squash Enchiladas. I was intrigued by Hero Beth’s frequent usage of butternut squash in her recipes, and I loved the idea of the simple but homemade accompanying tomatillo sauce.
I served the enchiladas as one of the first sit-down-at-the-table meals we’d had in ages. We all enjoyed it, and the DH gave it a thumbs up. I made a dairy-free version for my mom, and a plain cheese quesadilla for toddler yum, who found the tomatillo “spicy.” I’d make this recipe again. The only thing I would change would be my poor choice of tortilla. I accidentally bought extra-thin mission corn tortillas, and found extra-thin was code for extra-likely-to-fall-apart. It looks like Hero Beth picked a far better tortilla for her version, and my usual Sonoma organic corn tortillas would be a good choice as well.
My favorite recipe that i found at Hero Beth’s site has to be this one for Spicy Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpeas with Pine Nuts Recipe. Of the recipes that I selected, I found this to be one of the her most original, taking two ordinary favorites and combining them with a very special addition. I also loved the Indian flavor of the spices added. I could eat this dish every day for a month and not get tired of it!
I must have been in the mood for beans, because that same night I also made her White Bean and Chive Veggie Patty Recipe. I loved the chives and crunchy cornmeal. But I wished I knew what kind of white bean Hero Beth used. I had both white kidney and small white beans in my pantry and didn’t know which would go better. The patties were tasty but needed a little something, so I added a dab of mayonnaise and it complimented them perfectly.
I also made a pumpkin pasta casserole with gobs of cheese and fresh pumpkin puree. I liked it, but I was out of parmesan regianno and could only use the gruyere, which made it a little more plain than the original. I added srirachi hot sauce to mine to kick it up a notch, and added generous servings of pepper and it was pretty tasty. The DH said it was his favorite of all the recipes from the Tasty Yummies blog that I tried. The pasta pictured here is brown rice penne, but I also made some batches with the new gluten-free corn pasta at (west coast) Trader Joe’s. I really like this new jumbo-sized corn penne, but brown rice pasta does look prettier for this recipe.
This was a very fun adoption month and I really enjoyed trying the recipes at Tasty Yummies. The next time I have some brussels sprouts I might have to try Hero Beth’s Shredded Brussels Sprouts with toasted walnuts and dried currants or serve a Gluten-free Vegan Apple Cobbler. Why don’t you check out the amazing recipes and great photos at her site?
This month Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger will be hosted back here at the Book of Yum. It has been a very relaxing two month vacation, and I really appreciate my friends who stepped in to help host for me.* This month, I’ll hope to see you all back here to adopt your own gluten-free blogger.
*If you have a gluten-free blog and would like to host Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger, just let me know in the comments and we can schedule you in!
