Archives for “Thanksgiving”

Recycled Food–Croutons (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

January 11, 2010 · Filed Under Slightly Indulgent, Tempt My Tummy, Thanksgiving, What can I eat ..., bread, dairy free, easy, gluten free, leftovers, recipe, sugar free ·28 Comments

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, What can I eat that’s gluten free?, and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

I hate to waste food, but sometimes I do … and then I feel badly. I’m thrilled food that I can’t use any other way (sharing with co-workers, relatives, etc.) can even be made into bird or squirrel food, but I’d rather not have any food that doesn’t get put to its best use. If I can recycle food from its first run into something creative and delicious, I’m even more thrilled.

When we were “stuffing’d out” after Thanksgiving, I still had a good amount of Surprise Stuffing left over. (Be sure to check out that recipe if you didn’t catch it the first time around.) Ever notice how leftover stuffing seems to congeal? I looked at that half pan of congealed stuffing and an idea suddenly occurred to me. Croutons. Why not dice the congealed stuffing and make croutons? So I did.

I removed the congealed mass from the baking pan and placed it on the cutting board. I scored the surface in each direction to create crouton-sized squares. I lightly greased a baking sheet, drizzled a bit of olive oil over the squares, sprinkled some garlic powder over the squares, and broiled them until golden brown (just a few minutes, stirring half way through). I was going to save the croutons for my salad the next day, but when Mr. GFE saw them, he immediately thought that we should use them to top the Crab Norfolk we were having for dinner. So we did. No food wasted, and, these croutons were fabulous. While I don’t think I’ll be making stuffing just to have croutons, I won’t mind making the tasty stuffing periodically knowing that I’ll have croutons a day or two later. How about stuffing and Caesar salad—WITH croutons for a change—in the same week?

To be honest, before this happy experiment, I hadn’t had croutons since before I went gluten free in June 2003. Our crouton-topped Crab Norfolk seemed pretty well deserved all things considered! Enjoy!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: bread, dairy free, easy, GFE, gluten free, leftovers, recipe

Honey Cinnamon Grand Marnier Ice Cream (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

December 8, 2009 · Filed Under Progressive Dinner, Slightly Indulgent, Tempt My Tummy, Thanksgiving, What can I eat ..., dairy free, dessert, easy, gluten free, ice cream, recipe, treats ·45 Comments

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, What can I eat that’s gluten free?, and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

Gluten-Free-Progessive-Dinner-Party

Today is the second day of our Gluten-Free Progressive Dinner Party featuring desserts. Today’s specialties are frozen or chilled desserts. You’ll want to check out hostess Diane’s Chocolate Sorbet with Roasted Cocoa Nibs at her blog, The W.H.O.L.E. Gang. Did you see yesterday’s Baked Desserts? Ali made delicious Soft Molasses Cookies (Gluten Free and Vegan). Alison shared Grandma Anne’s Butterhorns (gluten free and dairy free) as a lovely tribute to her grandmother. Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef is offering up Cinnamon Rolls (I’m not turning those down!). Tomorrow, you can visit Karen at Cook4Seasons for her Raw Tri-Color Truffles and return to Ali’s Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen for Milk Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Agave Frosting—both in the Chocolate Desserts category. Thursday it will be No-Bake Desserts with Diane at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang—Cranberry Chocolate Nut Truffles— and perhaps another recipe from me. (I’m hopeful … read on.) Friday will be Favorite Desserts with Melissa from Gluten Free for Good (her version of Babycakes Brownies) and Jean of Gluten-Free Organics and More (her Ready-In-A-Week, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Fruitcake).

Not too long ago, I decided to give up the whipped topping that comes in a tub. A reader’s comment on Mark’s Daily Apple led me to a post on another blog that expanded on some of the ingredients used in whipped topping and some of the other uses of those ingredients, like polysorbate 60. (I’ll let you investigate on your own if you are interested, but the information was unsettling to me.) So, I told Mr. GFE that there would be no more whipped topping in our house unless I made it using whipping cream and a mixer—which is actually very easy to do. He sighed, but knew I wouldn’t leave him in the lurch. And, of course, we usually have pie with no topping at all and it’s more than sufficient.

However, I decided some homemade Honey Cinnamon ice cream would be very lovely atop any of my Thanksgiving pies (crustless versions of pumpkin, coconut, and pecan). This ice cream would contain real ingredients: honey (from our happy bees), cinnamon, and coconut milk. The latter would ensure that my dairy-free friends could enjoy this recipe as well. There weren’t any of those friends present for Thanksgiving, but I’ve also found I enjoy using coconut milk in recipes. Both the texture and flavor are great. And, by flavor I don’t mean a strong coconut taste. Seriously, nobody ever says “I taste coconut!” when they eat anything I’ve made with coconut milk. It just adds a slight sweetness, but also provides a creamy texture without dairy. In fact, I think the creaminess is superior to that provided by dairy.

So my plans were set … until I saw Melissa’s blog post over at Gluten Free for Good. She had just made Pumpkin Maple Grand Marnier ice cream. (It looked and sounded heavenly.) Grand Marnier … now that was a brilliant idea! Although Melissa will be the first to tell you that she got the idea from David Lebovitz. He added Grand Marnier to his pumpkin ice cream recently. After seeing Melissa’s post, my plans quickly changed to include Grand Marnier liqueur in my recipe. Plus, I decided to add a tiny bit of salt to balance out all the sweetness. The resulting ice cream was quite nice. Everyone enjoyed the recipe, and appreciated the Grand Marnier undertones. Not one person asked for whipped topping instead. Two of Melissa’s readers and fellow gluten-free bloggers, Stephanie and Naomi, commented that adding alcohol to ice cream ensures that ice crystals won’t form and the ice cream will stay nice and scoopable. Great information and it certainly seemed to be true when I made this recipe.

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I got one quick photo of the ice cream topping my coconut pie and pecan pie combo, but I decided to make some more this morning before heading to work. I wanted to have it made and I wanted to get a photo in nice morning light. (I even tweeted about it! “You might be a food blogger if you make ice cream in the morning to take a photo in nice light.” I asked others to join in on “You might be a food blogger if …” and they did! Follow me on Twitter @Shirleygfe.)

One reason I wanted to make ice cream again is that I’m planning on making a raw pie on Thursday. (If all goes well, it will be a last-minute entry to the Gluten- Free Desserts Progressive Dinner Party, in the No-Bake category. I didn’t commit to it initially because I wasn’t sure I could get the dates I needed. Remember my grocery store is limited in produce availability and knowledge.) But, it looks like my dear mom will pick some up for me in town. I won’t give away any more details on the raw pie, except to say that I knew this ice cream recipe would also complement the flavors of the pie. I also decided to tweak the ice cream recipe a tiny bit from the first time I made it. I liked the last variation of this ice cream even better … the cinnamon was not as strong and the Grand Marnier flavoring was more subtle. Of course, you can simply omit the Grand Marnier if you like, which would also make the recipe refined sugar free. (It’s possible that there is no refined sugar in Grand Marnier, but I don’t know that.) Finally, you don’t have to use this ice cream as topping; you can just enjoy it by itself. It’s delicious and satisfying. One small bowl will suffice nicely.

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Honey Cinnamon Grand Marnier Ice Cream (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

2 2/3 cups full-fat coconut milk, chilled

½ cup honey

2 tsp cinnamon (first version used Penzey’s Extra Fancy; second version used Penzey’s Strong—your more basic “every day” variety)

1/4 tsp sea salt

4 tsp – 2 tbsp Grand Marnier liqueur (optional)

Blend all together in blender or in a mixing bowl with mixer.

Pour into already frozen container of the ice cream maker. Churn for 25-30 minutes. The ice cream will still be fairly soft at the end of churning, so you may want to freeze it for an additional amount of time in the freezer. Incidentally, I’ve found that if I wrap my ice cream container in a towel and leave it on the counter for a few minutes, it will actually freeze a little more on its own just from the frozen container. So if you don’t want it to freeze too much more, that might be an option. Enjoy!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: dairy free, GFE, gluten free, recipe

Easy Crustless Gluten-Free Pecan Pie

December 5, 2009 · Filed Under Friday Foodie Fix, Holiday Food Fest, Progressive Dinner, Thanksgiving, breakfast, crustless, dairy free, dessert, easy, flourless, gluten free, recipe ·32 Comments

This post is linked to Diane’s Friday Foodie Fix—Pecans. Check out the other recipes there and add one of your own. FYI—Diane’s secret ingredient next week is chocolate. You know you won’t want to miss that one for sure!

Reader Mary C. wanted to convert Erin’s ($5 Dinners) Almond Pecan Pie to a crustless one the other day. (We had a discussion in comments on my Crustless Pumpkin Pie recipe post.) In my research for Mary, I came across this crustless pecan pie recipe at Cassandra’s blog, Delightfully Gluten Free. It didn’t call for any flour at all! Even though I hadn’t made pecan pie in years, I immediately added the recipe to my baking plans for Thanksgiving. (I adore pecans, but usually just snack on a few throughout the week.) This pie came out perfectly, so I thought you might enjoy adding this crustless version to your crustless pie repertoire.

Admittedly, this recipe does have a lot of sugar in the form of granulated sugar and the corn syrup. Frankly, I was surprised I even had corn syrup in the pantry, because I don’t remember the last time I used it. I used the last of it in this recipe and next time I’ll make the pie using honey and probably coconut oil instead of butter. I’ll let you know how it goes. This version is a crowd pleaser though—a classic pecan pie, just without the crust. Not a single Thanksgiving guest noticed there was no crust on this pie (or the other two I served). They are just so good; a crust is not needed and, of course, that makes them gfe.

Pecan Pie 026

Easy Crustless Pecan Pie
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
6 eggs
2 tbsp butter (or non-dairy substitute), melted
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans

Mix all ingredients in greased pie plate. Bake in a preheated 325-degree Fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes.

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Shirley’s Notes: Cassandra said her mother has been making this pie for years, but the source of the recipe is unknown. The original recipe said you could mix ingredients right in the pie plate, but I mixed all in a bowl and then poured into greased pie plate.

holiday-food-fest

Are you wondering what is going on next week? Well, there’s the Holiday Food Fest, which continues on next Thursday right here at gfe—at my new Out and About page. The theme is Holiday Dishes: Sides, Main Dishes, Soup … Anything Goes. I’m sure you’ll have something great that you’d like to contribute or just want to check back to get some new ideas that have already been kitchen tested by some of your favorite bloggers. If you’re still looking for holiday party ideas, be sure to check out last week’s roundup of Cocktails, Mocktails, and Appetizers (including awesome Honeyville giveaway!). My entries were Crab Ball and Reindeer Antlers Holiday Punch (note that the giveaway winners are up on that post!).

Gluten-Free-Progessive-Dinner-Party

Now, let’s talk dessert some more. Please join the Gluten-Free Progressive Dinner Party crew next week for some wonderful dessert ideas for the holidays (including my optional, but admittedly irresistible, topping for this pecan pie). Diane, our lovely and gracious host, has planned five different categories of desserts for us. Five days of desserts … now you know that will be good! Read below for the categories and the bloggers who will be participating. (Incidentally, if you’re still pondering your upcoming holiday meals, I suggest you check out our Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner Party for some ideas. You can find all the links within my post for that dinner party here.)

Monday, December 7, Baked Desserts—Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, Alison of Sure Foods Living, and Ali of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

Tuesday, December 8, Frozen or Chilled Desserts—That would be me, gfe, as well as Diane of The W.H.O.L.E. Gang.

Wednesday, December 9, Chocolate Desserts—Karen of Cook4Seasons and Ali of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

Thursday, December 10, No-Bake Desserts—Diane of The W.H.O.L.E. Gang.

Friday December 11, Favorite Desserts—Melissa of Gluten Free For Good.

It’s snowing here! I absolutely love snow. Now that my post is done, maybe I’ll get in some baking (Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies) and some holiday decorating while Mr. GFE and Huckleberry (one of our cats) both snooze away. Later, we’ll be heading out to attend a combination family birthday party/oyster roast. I’m taking some Reindeer Antlers to share. There’s probably just enough left of our latest batch for any who want to partake to have a small glass, so that will work out very well.

Holiday cheers to all!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!