Archives for “camping”

Flourless Sparkling Chocolate Cookies

February 12, 2010 · Filed Under Suite of Sweets, camping, dessert, easy, flourless, gluten free, recipe, treats ·44 Comments

This post is linked to Ellen’s Valentine’s Day roundup at I Am Gluten Free.

Today is the final day of SSS—A Suite of Sweets for Sweethearts. (I know it’s sad, but not to worry . . . we’re never short of treats here at gfe.) Chocolate is often synonymous with Valentine’s Day, and, well, love … quite honestly. Gosh, I can’t imagine why that would be, can you? (Okay, this is one of those times where a sarcasm font would sure come in handy!) I have only included a small amount of chocolate in the SSS roundup so far … the mini chocolate chips in Monday’s recipe—Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. So I’m here today to share two lovely chocolate treats.

As you all have figured out, I love to bake. I especially love to bake cookies. Well, we’ve gone all week without a cookie recipe, so let’s fix that right now by giving you a rich, “make-you-fall-in-love” chocolate cookie recipe. I’m not talking about falling in love with another person. I’m talking about falling in love with this cookie. Is it really so wrong to love a cookie? There’s no need to buy a card or send flowers after all. Of course, if someone bakes these cookies and presents them to you for Valentine’s Day, you may actually fall in love with that person, and not the cookies. But, it could be a close call. An important note: The batter has to be refrigerated overnight. I don’t want you to go to make these on Valentine’s Day and find out you have to wait until the next day to enjoy them.

Flourless Sparkling Chocolate Cookies
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp butter, room temperature or softened (but not melted)
2 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar (plus more for “decorating”)
3/4 cup ground almonds (I used Honeyville Blanched almond flour)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt chocolate in double boiler and stir in butter.

Beat eggs and add sugar gradually.

Continue beating until eggs are very light. Gently stir into the chocolate-butter mixture.

Add ground almonds, combining well, but gently.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Form into 1-inch balls and roll in bowl of granulated sugar as shown.

Place on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set.

Makes about 3 dozen.

From Canadian Celiac Association (CCA)

Shirley’s Notes: This recipe appears to be an adaptation of Thomas Haas’ (the famous “chocolatier”) Chocolate Sparkle Cookies. His cookies were billed as the world’s best cookie by Saveur magazine a few years back. His original recipe has a few more ingredients as I understand, including gourmet chocolate, honey, and coarse sugar (for rolling). Haas sells his version at his Vancouver gourmet chocolate shop. I’d love to try them one day. But, this version from CCA is simpler and much less expensive to make, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I take these cookies with us when we’re having guests join us to camp on our mountain/river property. The recipe makes 2 – 3 dozen (depending upon how large you make the balls before you bake them). That’s plenty as they fit in a smallish cookie tin and take up less room when packing—always a plus when camping. And, really, folks are extremely satisfied after just eating a few.

Can you tell that I just love doilies? (And, not just for Valentine’s Day. I love all kinds of doilies, for all seasons, and when I taught elementary school, many projects involved doilies. Mr. GFE and I host a big Valentine’s Day party every other year as a gift to ourselves and our friends. Tomorrow would be the night if we were having it. However, this is an “off” year and while I’m grateful that we don’t have to worry about hosting with snow and limited parking, I will miss the anticipation and excitement.

As the bonus recipe, I’m also sharing a chocolate version of the POMerdoodle ice cream recipe. It’s gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free. You can view that recipe with more photos here on my Out and About page.

Here’s the complete SSS–Suite of Sweets for Sweethearts roundup:

~Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

~Cinnamon-Sugar Crusted Almond Popovers

~Perfect Pound Cake

~Pleasing Pecan Pie

~Flourless Sparkling Chocolate Cookies (this post)

~Chocolate POMerdoodle Ice Cream

Off to have one of these Flourless Sparkling Chocolate Cookies to brighten my Valentine’s Day weekend … hope you have a great one!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: chocolate, cookies, easy, GFE, gluten free, peanut butter, recipe, Valentine's Day

A Canoe with a View

September 17, 2009 · Filed Under camping, easy, entree, gluten free, potato, recipe ·24 Comments

We squeezed in a stop at our mountain property over Labor Day weekend. Monday morning we slept late, had a very light breakfast, and then headed out in the canoe. The Shenandoah River flows north. It’s one of the few rivers in the world that does. We headed south—paddling against the flow—weaving our way between the rocks (this section of the river is called the maze) and leaving as little of our canoe’s “hide” behind as we possibly could while doing so. We paddled as far south as we could (we don’t portage for such outings) and then crossed the river and turned north, to float back to our property. Around each bend of the river was another postcard view … the river itself, mountains, wildlife, and many other sights–scenes that are always comfortingly familiar, yet always surprising us, too.

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Sycamore in sepia …

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One of a pair of great blue herons … always just far enough away to avoid a great photo …

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There are caves at the top of this rock face … we love visiting them, especially with new folks.

Below, Mr. Green Heron on the hunt …

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This smallmouth bass only “visited” for a minute or two (we “catch and release”) and then he was off after bigger fish—hopefully, ones with no hooks …

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The turtles reappeared for the first time since spring …

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Shooting “our” rapid …

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And, then we enjoyed lunch … hash made from leftover ham and sweet corn from dinner the night before, and diced potatoes (skins on), to which I added a little olive oil, cayenne pepper, and onions. The burned bits are the onions. Clearly, I added them too early in the cooking process. I forgot how long the diced, but raw potatoes would take to cook. Usually, I use leftover potatoes that have already been baked in the campfire. Since we had a long trip from North Carolina and Mr. GFE’s college reunion the previous day, we had prepared a very simple meal the night before–grilled ham steaks and grilled corn on the cob; there had been no time to get an adequate bed of coals for baking potatoes. The burned onion bits weren’t bad (I often rather like that flavor–just a little beyond caramelized, if you will), but they weren’t exactly the most photoworthy. Hash like this is a great meal though … so easy to make. I don’t even use a pan. I just make mine on foil on the grill. How do you use your leftovers like these? Do you make ham hash, steak hash, or just great hash browns by themselves? Or maybe something else?

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We’re headed to our property again this weekend. It should be a lovely camping weekend given the weather forecast—70s during the day and high 40s at night. Some friends of ours, a couple, will be joining us. Each has a kayak, so we’ll all be out in the water doing a mini float. This trip might be our last camping for the season at our property because next weekend I’ll be heading to the BlogHer Food conference in San Francisco (which I’m really looking forward to, because I’ll be meeting so many of my online buddies in person!) and October is pretty unpredictable for mountain weather. But, we have had Indian Summers that allowed us to camp through October before. One year we even enjoyed a balmy Halloween weekend there—complete with a spooky jack-o-lantern!

Fall officially begins on Tuesday. I’m definitely ready. It’s my favorite time of year … that edge of coolness and freshness in the air, long-sleeved comfort, chasing away the overnight chill in the house by baking, building the first fire in the woodstove … that all just sounds so good. That last one, building the first fire in the woodstove is far from here yet, but it’s part of fall to me. I know we’ll certainly have a big campfire blazing tomorrow night in the mountains. Mr. GFE is already talking about his special “hot fire” wood that he has stashed at our property. I trust him, but I’m still taking a hat and gloves and the makings for hot cocoa … oh, and gotta have my alternative S’mores. That, of course, leads me back to baking. I’m making flourless chocolate cookies to use as a base this time, so maybe I’ll just skip adding more chocolate in between. Two rich chocolate cookies with a perfectly-roasted marshmallow in the middle … that sounds like a lovely S’more to me.

Hope you all have a great weekend planned!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: breakfast, camping, crockpot, dairy free, gluten free, ham, recipe

Going Green with Smoothies

August 16, 2009 · Filed Under beverage, breakfast, camping, dairy free, easy, hiking, pomegranate, recipe, vegetarian ·87 Comments

This post is linked to The W.H.O.L.E. Gang’s Friday Foodie Fix.

Green Smoothies

Life is full of surprises and, thankfully, most of them are good ones. I’ve mentioned before that for years my food choices were limited. And, I’m not talking about my choices being limited because of being gluten free. I’m talking about being a picky eater and being ”afraid” of foods, usually not even being willing to try anything new. Oh, I’d try all the new processed foods that came out—the ones that were advertised heavily on television and in magazines. But, I turned my nose up and frowned at real food (and recipes made using primarily real food) that was not already in my eating plan. However, over the last decade or so (boy, that sounds like a very long time), I’ve learned to enjoy, even love, many new foods and dishes. Still, if you’d told me six months ago that I would learn to love green smoothies, I would have laughed, scoffed, rolled my eyes, and told you flat out, “No way!” But, that’s exactly what has happened. I’ve been making the green smoothie creations of Ali Segersten and Tom Malterre of Whole Life Nutrition and their blog, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen for the last few months. I just can’t believe how much I love their taste and how much better these smoothies make me feel. They are delicious, satisfying, and energizing.

I was very skeptical the first time I made them. It took a real leap of faith. I mean there are no added sweeteners and there’s a LOT of salad material in these babies. How could they taste good? Not to mention the fact that they come out green, very green. How green? Kermit the Frog green. Seriously. And, they even taste green. But, in this case, green tastes really, really good! I usually make a batch in my blender in the morning before work. I drink half that morning (usually en route to work) and half either that evening after I walk through the door or the next morning for breakfast. They taste especially great after they’ve been chilled in the refrigerator. I’ve done some experimenting using different ingredients like adding a little POM Wonderful (adds a nice zippy tartness—thanks to the POM Wonderful crew!) or substituting peaches for the pears (which makes them, well, peachy) and while I haven’t made a variation I dislike, the original recipe shown below is my favorite. If I accidentally omit an ingredient, I can tell right away and I’m back foraging in the refrigerator for the one that’s missing.

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In Ali and Tom’s book, this smoothie is called Tom’s Fruity Medicine Chest Smoothie. That name may do a disservice to this luscious, fresh, green smoothie, because personally, the medicine chest part makes me think of Vicks VapoRub, Luden’s Throat Drops, and hair tonic. However, it does communicate the healthy punch of these smoothies. Tom and Ali know their stuff regarding nutrition. (You can read more on their background here.) They state that these smoothies provide fiber, multiple vitamins (including C), antioxidants, phytochemicals, anti-inflammatories, and bioflavonoids—all the good stuff we hear so much about! Plus, if you have a hard time getting in enough servings of fruits and vegetables each day, these smoothies make that task so much easier for you. And, unlike, so many “health” beverages on the market these days, you know exactly what goes into these drinks, because you made them from the contents of your own refrigerator … and in just a few minutes. On our recent vacation, we ate extremely well, but I didn’t always get in enough fruits and veggies and some afternoons we were pretty hot and tired from the day’s ride—a few of these green smoothies would have nicely solved both problems. You can also see photos and Ali’s post on a variation, the Spring Green Smoothie (love that name!), here.

UPDATE: The giveaway mentioned below is closed, but you can still order The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook here, if you’d like. But, here’s the really great news … Tom and Ali have graciously offered a copy of their book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, as gfe’s first giveaway. Trust me—this is one you’ll want to have. They kindly provided a complimentary copy for my own use a few months back and I am still in awe of the amount of information and the terrific recipes presented. It’s far more than a cookbook. It’s also a resource book that offers guidance on: stocking your whole foods pantry with detailed nutritional and storage data, adding more vegetables to your diet, selecting and storing fresh produce, choosing the right cooking equipment, and applying different cooking techniques. The pages of my copy are already dog-eared, underlined, and flagged. I’ve learned so much from this book and I’m looking forward to making all the recipes. Thus far, in addition to the smoothie recipe, I’ve also made a version of the Home Style Chicken and Vegetable Stew—great comfort food and easy to make! All you need to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment here at gfe. If there’s a food or dish you’ve learned to love, please tell all of us about it. This giveaway will be open until the end of the month—midnight (EST) on August 31.

With Tom and Ali’s permission, here’s the recipe:

Tom’s Fruity Medicine Chest Smoothie
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

2 apples, cored and cut into chunks
2 ripe pears, cored and cut into chunks
1 to 2 cups water
2 lemons, juiced and seeds removed
1- to 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
5 kale leaves rinsed and torn
5 romaine lettuce leaves, spinach leaves, or collard greens, rinsed
1 cup coarsely chopped green cabbage, optional (Shirley’s note: I really like the smoothie with the cabbage. Sometimes I just use the 3-color cole slaw mix if I have that on hand instead of a head of cabbage, but a head of cabbage is far less expensive and keeps for a long time.)

Optional Additions:

POM Wonderful, a “glug” or two
1 to 2 kiwi fruit
1 handful of fresh parsley or mint leaves
2 to 3 tbsp flax seeds
½ cup soaked goji berries

Place the apple chunks, pear chunks, water, and lemon juice into a blender fitted with a sharp blade, a Blendtec, or a Vita-Mix and blend until smooth and creamy.

Add the ginger, kale, romaine (or spinach, or collard greens), and cabbage, and blend again until very smooth. Add more water for a thinner smoothie.

You can taste it now and if it is too “lettucy” for you, then add another pear and blend again. Add more water for a thinner consistency.

Recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre

Notes: If you use a standard-size blender, you will need to halve this recipe. Although my basic blender works okay for this recipe, I have to remember to add enough water and blend the smoothies long enough or they are too thick and still contain small particles of greens. If you have a Blendtec or a Vita-Mix, they will do a much better job of blending these smoothies.

I’m looking forward to your comments on foods you’ve learned to love and helping Ali and Tom share their “must have” book with one of the lucky gfe readers!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!