Book of Yum

This month’s Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger Event was a smashing success, and I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of the participants. I discovered many new and delicious gluten-free recipes thanks to their reviews and can’t wait to try many of them. I hope that you feel the same when you read this roundup!

Amy of Our Peep Show adopted Stephanie O’Dea of A Year of SlowCooking and made her Cream Cheese, Sausage and Rotel Dip. She described the recipe as “very-not-good-for-you-but-insanely-yummy-and-perfect-for-the-big-game”. Well put, Amy!

Recipe:
A Year of SlowCooking Cream Cheese, Sausage and Rotel Dip

Heather of Celiac Family adopted Kate of Gluten Free Gobsmacked and made her Pao de Chejo (aka “Chebe Bread”) and Jalapeno-Popper Dip. She found the chebe bread “much easier to make than [she] thought it would be,” only taking thirty minutes to make and bake. “They smelled fabulous and tasted just as good. My husband ate one of the rolls as they were cooling down on racks. He said he was just going to have a taste, but it was so good had to finish it off.” Don’t you love when that happens? She also loved the dip, but used it on her burger for a fabulous burger. It also tasted great on steamed veggies, and she thought it would go over very well for a Super Bowl Party, too.

Recipes:
Gluten Free Gobsmacked Pao de chejo (aka “Chebe Bread”)
Gluten Free Gobsmacked Jalapeno-Popper Dip

Maggie from She Let Them Eat Cake adopted Heather from Life, Gluten Free and made her Chocolate Fudge with Sunbutter Swirls. She called them a “tasty and healthy treat for all of us” that reminded her of a chocolate bar. Sounds good to me!

Recipe:
Life Gluten-Free Chocolate Fudge with Sunbutter Swirls


Thomas of The GFCF Experience adopted the Celiac Teen and made her Gluten-free Lemon Cake. He told us a little about this mature and inspiring Canadian teen, and then got down to the cake (which he made dairy-free). He found it to be “a moist cake that tastes just as a lemon cake should. And the cream cheese buttercream frosting is the perfect complement to the cake. The kids absolutely loved it – in fact, my son said it is the best cake he has ever had.” It sounds like one very tasty cake!

Recipe:
Celiac Teen Gluten-free Lemon Cake


Karen of the adorably titled blog, The Mini-Chef & His Melting Mom (formerly known as Muffin Fixation), adopted The Baking Beauties and made her Taco Fries and her Easy and Delicious Ranch-Parmesan Chicken. The taco fries actually ended up taco Tater Tots due to an unexpected absence of fries in the house, but it was just as tasty as fries would have been. She found the chicken was perfectly tender and and her son “didn’t even have to be prodded to keep eating”. Great!

Recipes:
Baking Beauties Taco Fries recipe(the photo of the bowl)
Baking Beauties Easy and Delicious Ranch-Parmesan Chicken (the photo with the kid)

She of the mysterious and lovely name and a blog of the same title, Lady Fire-Eyes, adopted Karen over at The Marvellous Adventures of The Mini-Chef & His Melting Mom and made Johny’s Favourite Yellow Cupcakes. Despite initial worries over fallen dough, this recipe won over the whole household with its good light vanilla flavor and absence of an after taste. As she said, “my son ate a third of it before the night was done.” Sounds like a winner!

Recipe:
The Marvellous Adventures of The Mini-Chef & His Melting Mom Johny’s Favourite Yellow Cupcakes

Cheryl of GF Goodness adopted Amy of Simply Gluten and Sugar free and made her Chewy granola bars that were published in an e-book to benefit St. Jude’s. She introduced Amy, a culinary school trained chef, who gives to St. Jude’s regularly and recently walked in St. Jude’s 7th annual “Give thanks. Walk.” Amy has an inspiring voice in the gluten-free community and I’m so glad Cheryl introduced her to us. But how were the granola bars? Happily, they were a big hit. According to Cheryl, they “were study and flavorful . . . kept well for weeks in a sealed container . . . and most importantly, they passed the picky husband test.” The first time she made them Cheryl substituted hazelnuts for walnuts and the second time she used cherries, chopped uncrystallized ginger and orange zest. Sounds great!

Recipe:
Simply Gluten and Sugar Free Chewy Granola Bars

Manda of Asparagus Thin adopted Karina the Gluten-free Goddess and made her Skillet Cornbread with Green Chilis and Cinnamon. She did leave out the jalapeños in order to have a more versatile bread that could be used as a sweet or savory element. Cornbread in a skillet won this adventurous chef over big time- she said she might never make cornbread in anything but a skillet every again, because “it was just that awesome.” Sounds yummy to me!

Recipe:
Gluten-free Goddess Skillet Cornbread with Green Chilies and Cinnamon




And speaking of the Gluten-free Goddess, I adopted her as well, and spent the month experimenting with her various sorghum and millet recipes. I started with her divine Caraway Seed Irish Soda bread that converted me to Irish Soda Bread after years of resistance. Then I moved to her swoon-inspiring and airy whole-grain Gluten-free English Muffins. I sweetened up my breakfasts with her Quinoa Breakfast Bars (spiked with chocolate chips, yum!). And, I tried her flatbread recipe, which didn’t quite work out this time but that I may try again. This was truly a tasty experiment, and thanks to Karina I’m thoroughly enjoying making sorghum, millet, and quinoa the staples of my diet.
PS After my adoption post was written, I also tried her Delicious Sorghum Bread Recipe, and found it was aptly named.

Recipes:
Gluten-free Goddess English Muffins
Gluten-free Goddess Irish Soda Bread
Gluten-free Goddess Quinoa Breakfast Brownies
Gluten-free Goddess Herbed Flatbread
Gluten-free Goddess Delicious Sorghum Bread

This month Thomas of the GFCF Experience will be hosting Adopt-a-gluten-free-Blogger. My hero, Thomas! I hope you will join him in adopting a new gluten-free blogger of your very own for the month of February. You can expect a sign up post to appear on his blog sometime around the 15th of February.

I can’t lie to you. Dealing with a gluten-free and top 8 allergen free diet plus some can be really tough. Gluten-free doesn’t even make me blink, but you start talking soy-free, egg-free, and even rice-free (my latest effort for Baby Yum), and some key dishes start getting to be a real challenge. Take sushi. There is nothing I love more than an avocado sushi roll, dipped in gluten-free soy sauce. But now both the sushi rice and the soy sauce are (temporarily) off the menu, what is a Japanese-food-loving girl to do? Get serious about thinking outside the box! I’ve been playing with the idea of a quinoa based sushi “rice” for a while now, but the soy sauce had me stumped. Usually I would sprinkle the sushi with sesame seeds and salt for a good soy sauce substitute for my soy-free friends… but right now I’m avoiding sesame seeds! Luckily I was in my local Cupertino Whole Foods the other day and found a miracle staring me right in the face- a bottle of gluten-free and soy-free soy sauce! This miracle potion is called Coconut Secret Raw Amino Acids and is compatible with a gluten-free as well as a raw foods diet. The price tag, unfortunately, is steep. In fact, I think I bought it in a delirious haze of joy and didn’t notice the price until later, at which point I gulped and felt (some) buyers remorse. But this stuff is so awesome and works perfectly in Japanese and Chinese recipes as a straight substitute for soy sauce that I didn’t feel bad for long. And it was the perfect partner to my quinoa sushi rolls! The week I made this, my father was visiting, and it passed the glutenoid test with flying colors. It’s not quite vegetarian sushi without rice, but this quinoa sushi satisfied my sushi craving nicely, and is a fun and new way to use a very healthful “grain.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

*If you don’t have nori you can make a chirashi “zushi” by sprinkling the filling over a nice bowl of the seasoned quinoa. Quick and easy, especially for leftover quinoa!

Gluten free Rice Free Quinoa Vegetarian Sushi Recipe Main Course  Alternative Grains  Japanese

Ingredients 2 cups quinoa 4 cups water sushi vinegar: 1/4 cup of neutral vinegar (i used a filtered apple vinegar) 1 tablespoon of sugar 1 teaspoon of sea salt 2 green onions, quartered horizontally 2 carrots, peeled,sliced into long pieces and blanched 1/2 avocado, sliced Unseasoned nori sheets *A large recipe- you will have enough leftover quinoa for several servings of quinoa “chirashi” with vegetables sprinkled on top, unless you are cooking for a large group very hungry for “sushi” rolls. Directions Toast quinoa in a skillet on medium low, stirring to prevent burning. When quinoa is nicely toasted, move to a fine wire strainer and rinse. Pour into pan with water and bring to boil. Cover and lower heat and leave for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pan on low and let the sugar and salt dissolve into the liquid. Put your quinoa in a large, glass bowl and drizzle your sushi vinegar mixture over the quinoa. Fold it in for even distribution. Once quinoa has cooled, you can begin to make your sushi. To prepare your sushi, get your nori sheet and place on a bamboo rolling mat. Cover the entire sheet with quinoa “sushi-rice” except for a horizontal strip at the bottom. Choose a line about 1 or two inches above the bare strip of nori and create a strip on top of the quinoa of filling ingredients. Make sure a small strip or two of green onions,blanched, thin carrot and a slice of avocado will be in every bite. Gently roll your nori together to form a cylinder and moisten the bare nori strip with water. Seal together and let rest while you make your desired number of sushi rolls. When ready to serve, gently slice cylinders into bite size rolls. You may want to cut a wider roll at the ends where the quinoa mixture is the loosest. Serve on a plate. If allergies don’t prohibit it, you can sprinkle the rolls with sesame seeds, but it is not necessary. Enjoy with your favorite wheat-free soy sauce or one of the new soy-free sauces on the market like Coconut Secret’s Raw Coconut Aminos. (Yummy!)

Rating:  8 Original Source:  The contents of my brain. Do not replicate without my permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1480 Added:  January 15, 2010 Last Modified:  February 6, 2010