Pancake Mix and Baked Pancakes

I used to make pancake mix and then didn't for awhile which is how things are in our house - I go through cycles. The last pancake mix we had was Mama's Gluten Free Mix which was a great pancake mix. I had 2 bags of her almond blend to use up and thought replacing the pancake mix was a great way to do so. Mama's Gluten Free Almond Blend is the only gluten free flour I have used to make this pancake mix - this is not a gluten free recipe but can easily be altered.
If using gluten free flours - add 1-2 teaspoons of xanthum or guar gum (I use guar gum because it's half the cost of xanthum gum).
I have made this mix with soy milk powder and powdered milk - you can not tell the difference except in the mix its self (soy milk powder is softer than powdered milk).

Pancake mix
8 cup flour
2 cups milk powder
½ cup sugar
2 tb + 2 teas baking powder
4 teas baking soda
Mix together and store in an airtight container

To make pancakes:
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup water
1/3 cup oil or butter
2 ½ cups mix

This weekend, my son had his cousin spend the night. They wanted pancakes for breakfast and requested cinnamon to be added to the batter. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use up some of the bananas in my freezer, especially since we are currently out of eggs. I freeze bananas in their peels so I don't have to really think about them. To peel them, I run them under hot water and remove the peels. Sometime the inside of the peel sticks to the banana and I use a knife to scrap it off. Because the bananas were frozen I stuck them in the microwave to thaw them after peeling.
So the recipe:
3 bananas
1 1/3 cups or so water
1/3 cup oil
2 1/2 cups mix
1 teas cinnamon
Mash the bananas, add 1 cup water and the oil. Mix in the pancake mix and cinnamon. Add remaining water a little at a time to make a pourable batter.
Now here comes the tricky part - I could not get the batter not to stick to my pan. To matter what I did the pancakes would not turn out. We were running out of time to eat breakfast before church so I turned the oven onto 400 degrees and poured the batter into a non-stick baking sheet that I rubbed with butter. About 10 minutes later I changed the oven to broil and let the top get a little golden. I'm not sure the broiling really made a difference.
Then I rubbed butter on the top before cutting into pancake sized squares. We ate them with peanut butter to find these were the best pancakes ever made. Each serving was perfectly cooked. I did slightly miss the crispy edge of fried pancakes but they were so good. So much so that my family asked me to continue baking them every time.

Pancake Cookies

This is one of those recipes that we developed in our house from pancake mix. My mother found a multigrain pancake mix and for a few years these cookies were our standard treat. We gave them up when we went gluten free because we just didn't think about purchasing gluten free pancake mix until we reached the end of our GF diet. The other day my son asked about these cookies because he missed them. At this point in time we have homemade gluten free pancake mix that should go well with this recipe especially since we've been making so many applesauce treats. I apologize for the vagueness of this recipe but it's really easy - everything goes in the bowl and you mix it until it's all smooth (unless you add nuts or chocolate chips which you should wait until the batter is smooth before adding). This is so basic that you can experiment with all sorts of flavors. Tonight I am making these with some leftover apple pie filling that needs to be used up.

Cookies
2 cups pancake mix
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 egg or 1/2 cup oil or 1 cup peanut butter (or to taste)
1 tbs. molasses
1 teas vanilla
Goodies
Bake @ 350 for 10-15 minutes

Egg Fu Yung

For me, Egg Fu Yung is not really a recipe but more a concoction. It's an asian inspired omelet that is served with a sauce. I use almond sauce and add a little more soy sauce to taste. The sauce is salty which goes well with the eggs and veggies. You can make the omelets in pancake form or like scrambled eggs depending on your mood.

Egg Fu Yung

2 eggs per person
vegetables - bean sprouts, onions, peas, corn, carrots - whatever (canned, fresh or frozen).

Scramble eggs in a bowl. Pour a pancake sized amount into hot oiled skillet. Top with veggies and let cook until partially set. Flip and cook until completely set and browned.
Serve with sauce.

I like sauted onions so I sauted the onions. Mixed six eggs with 1/3 of a can of peas and 1/3 can of corn (drained). When the onions were how I liked them then I poured over the eggs and scrambled the whole thing. The flavor is nearly the same but it's not firm while the pancake method actually makes something that can be eaten by hand.

Almond Sauce
2 tbs. butter
1 cup milk
1 tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. onion powder
Almonds, chopped
Melt butter in sauce pan. Add cornstarch to cold milk. Add to butter with other ingredients except almonds. Heat until thick over medium heat. Top with almonds.

(Omit the almonds if desired for the eggs)

Peaches and Cornbread

This wasn't a perfect experiment but it used the last of my peaches making it difficult to try it again. The taste was really good but the cooking was difficult. However, I thought I'd share the idea for those who want to continue experimenting. I believe my biggest problem was using the entire batch of cornbread, cutting it in half would have saved a lot of headache.
I've shared cornbread recipes before so I won't give you the instructions here - I just used the recipe on the back of the cornmeal bag.

Peaches and cornbread
1 batch of cornbread batter (use recipe on back of cornmeal but double sugar and use 1 stick butter)
Peaches - about 2 pounds frozen
1 cup sugar
2 teas cinnamon

Melt stick of butter in a casserole dish (I used a 9" round dish). Swish butter around pan and pour remaining in cornbread batter. Layer peaches over butter, sprinkle on sugar and cinnamon. Mix in bowl.
Spoon 1/2 of cornbread batter on peaches (full batter was far too much). Bake at 350 for up to an hour.
(I baked this at 450 and it nearly burnt the outside and left the inside doughy so a lower temperature would have faired better.)
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I know that I usually hold off my experiments until I have them nearly perfected but this recipe was really tasty once I removed the top half of the cornbread. The cornbread absorbs a good deal of peach juice which makes it moist and tasty but the peaches were still moist. This was not a good fruit year here in Washington so there wasn't extra peaches. I may try this with canned fruit and share again. However I loved the idea behind this experiment. Cornbread can easily be made gluten-free and accented the peaches perfectly.

Chex Mix

Figured I'd round out my Thanksgiving week with a holiday favorite - chex mix. I know the recipe is often included on the box and easy to access but I hate the whole multiple open box problem so I figured out a recipe using the entire box (just 1 box) of cereal. Growing up my parents made chex mix the "proper" way with 1/3 wheat, 1/3 corn and 1/3 rice cereals. We always picked out the wheat because it was harder than the corn or rice. Eventually my mom stopped using the wheat chex. Now I just buy rice chex (or a generic version like crispy hexagons). I make it in the oven. I tried the microwave version once and didn't like the way it cooked.
Often times I skip the nuts and when we were gluten free I found this a great way to stretch a bag of pretzals (a bag of GF pretzals makes 2 batches of chex mix).

Chex Mix
1 box chex cereal
1 stick butter
2-3 cups pretzels
2-3 cups nuts
2 T Worcheshire sauce
1 ½ teas seasoning salt
¾ teas garlic powder
½ teas onion powder
Melt butter in glass measuring cup. In large bowl, combine chex cereal with pretzels and nuts. Add remaining ingredients to butter and pour over cereal and pretzels. Spread out in baking dish. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Oven S'mores

There is something about S'mores that I love. We were a little disappointed when we made s'mores with our homemade graham crackers and homemade marshmallows. The graham crackers were far to flavorful and completely overwhelmed the marshmallows and chocolate. We tried roasting the marshmallows but their square shape didn't work as well (they're more rectangular and slightly thin). We made the first batch in the oven and I realized it wouldn't take much to make graham cracker-less s'mores the same way. I will give you both directions since they are quite similar. When cooled you can store them in a ziplock bag so they are available any time.

Oven S'mores
12 small squares of graham crackers (for store bought 6 crackers broken in half, gf graham crackers are 12)
Chocolate chips or chocolate bars
6 marshmallows
non-stick baking sheet

Preheat broiler in oven.
Place 6 graham crackers on baking sheet. Top with a square of chocolate that leaves about 1/2" of space from edge of cracker or place a single layer pile of chocolate chips (again leaving about 1/2 inch of space around the chocolate). Top with a marshmallow.
Put baking sheet in oven. Your oven rack should be in the second slot or 6-8 inches away (depending on oven). Broiler for 2-3 minutes. Remove when the marshmallows are golden but not too puffy (if they expand greatly, you over cooked them and they will be a sticky mess which is not bad tasting at all but tough to remove from pan). Top with remaining graham crackers and eat.

For graham cracker-less s'mores, omit the graham crackers and lay the chocolate directly on the baking sheet. Make sure your chocolate chips all touch the marshmallow if not using bar chocolate. Broil in oven (same as above). Because you do not have the graham cracker to hold together all the gooey goodness, you have to place the baking sheet in the freezer for several minutes. Don't let sit too long because the delicate flavor of the marshmallows will absorb freezer flavors. Use a stiff spatula (I use a cake frosting spatula) to pop the candies from the baking sheet. Enjoy.
This is a great way to eat the homemade marshmallows but can be done with storebought marshmallows as well.

Coconut Rum Pie

It was a crazy four days. I helped my aunt move for two of them and was so tired and had so many errands after that my remaining two days didn't give me much time for pie experiments. However, I managed to make 2 really good pies. The first was a banana cream pie that I mashed together using two different recipes and the second was this coconut rum pie. I have to get the banana cream pie recipe sorted out to share.
This coconut rum pie is based on the recipe of my Irish Whiskey Pie which is a family favorite. Irish Whiskey pie is full of quick ingredients like Cool-whip and a pre-made crust. I wanted something that was all natural from start to finish. It also turned out to be gluten free - which works for so many people. It's not dairy free so be aware.
The coconut I used in the crust is a finely shredded organic unsweetened coconut. If you use a less fine shred, you may need more than what I used.

Coconut Rum Pie
Crust:
2 oz chocolate chips
4 oz butter
1 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
Melt chocolate and butter in a glass dish in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and return to the microwave for another 30 seconds if not melted. Stir until smooth. Slowly add the coconut, stirring after every 1/2 cup. Add more if necessary to make a thick paste. Press into the bottom of pie pan to make a bottom crust. Set in refrigerator to harden while making the filling.
Filling:
1 package unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
2 eggs, separated
2/3 cup whole milk
1-2 cups sweetened whipped cream (I had some left over from the banana cream pie so I can't say how much liquid whipping cream it takes or how much sugar I used)
Combine gelatin and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small to medium sauce pan. Add milk, egg yolks and rum. Stir and set on medium-high heat. Stir constantly and let heat until thickened. Set in refrigerator until completely thick (jello/pudding consistency). Beat egg whites until they reach soft peaks, add remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Beat thick filling in pan until somewhat smooth (I have never gotten it really smooth and no one seemed to mind a lumpy pie). Fold in egg whites and whipped cream. Gently fill crust and chill until completely firm. Let sit out for up to 2 hours to soften enough to cut (okay I don't think our pies have ever sat out that long and I cut into them just fine, you can speed this up by using the freezer to set the filling before adding egg whites and whipped cream and then after to set up for serving because I never start making this pie early enough).

Always use fresh eggs for this pie. The alcohol in the rum helps kill germs in the egg whites. I have heard you can use pasturized eggs but I have never tried them. No one I know of has gotten sick from the whiskey pie and I wouldn't guess that they would from this version.

Coconut Pancakes

I was looking over the blog and couldn't believe how much I have missed this month. My husband has started a new cooking endevour and has taken over my kitchen (he's currently working on a cookbook/website idea). It's been great but I can't really share his recipes since he's doing them for more professional reasons. It's nice not to cook but I am running out of ideas to share. I thought I'd go through some of my recipes to see what I haven't shared (I prefer to actually make the recipe within the week before posting just so I don't overlook anything).
This pancake recipe is gluten free. I found it on Swanson's Vitamins website. I have made it for years so I can't say if this is the actual recipe on their website or if I've altered it. The batter is thinner than normal pancake batter and makes thinner pancakes. It's really tasty with that hint of coconut. It's not overly sweet. I often dig out the solid lump in the canned coconut milk and use that as the coconut oil. It's really a combination of coconut oil and milk but easier to work with and doesn't need to be melted since it's already very soft.

Coconut Pancakes
3 eggs, medium sized
3 tablespoons Coconut oil, melted
3 tablespoons coconut milk
1-1/2 teaspoons Honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
In a large bowl, mix together eggs, coconut oil, coconut milk, honey and salt. In a separate bowl, combine coconut flour, baking powder and cinnamon, and thoroughly mix into batter. Coat frying pan with non-stick spray and heat on medium-high. Spoon batter (approximately 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons) onto hot pan making pancakes about 3 inches in diameter. Flip when batter begins to bubble. Makes approx 8 pancakes.

Indian Chicken Bites

I love Indian food. The food is so rich in texture and flavor that one falls in love with it. This recipe is an Indian inspired chicken nugget. There is no breading and can easily be made gluten free. The sauce does not and did not sound appealing to me but it complimented the chicken nicely. Here is the recipe as it was written, my changes are after.

Indian Chicken Bites
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon Sesame Seed Oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
3 boneless chicken breasts (8 ounces each), trimmed and cut
into 36 cubes
1/4 cup Sun Butter
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 – 2 teaspoons hot sauce
Combine molasses, soy sauce, garlic powder, sesame oil, vinegar, cumin and coriander in a small bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the marinade in a medium bowl. Place chicken in a large sealable plastic bag. Pour the remaining marinade into the bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. Add Sun Butter, water, ketchup and hot sauce to taste to the reserved marinade and whisk to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use. After chicken is done marinating, place them on a broiler pan that has been lined with tinfoil or on a non-stick cookie sheet. Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the broiler. Broil the chicken bites until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Remove from oven and place a toothpick in each piece. Serve with the reserved Sun Butter sauce for dipping and your favorite raw vegetables.

2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon Sesame Seed Oil
1 tablespoon rice wine (still out of rice vinegar at the house)
1 tbs. garam masala
3 boneless chicken breasts (8 ounces each), trimmed and cut
into 36 cubes
1/4 cup Peanut butter
2 tablespoons ketchup

I created the marinade in a gallon zip-lock back and dropped in all the chicken without reserving any marinade. I let the chicken set for about 30 minutes, turning the chicken every so often. Using a slotted spoon, I removed the chicken and put it on my baking sheet. While the chicken was baking, I poured the marinade into a saucepan and let it come to a boil. I, then, added the peanut butter and let melt. After removing the sauce from the heat I added the ketchup to taste. I had actually scooped out a spoonful of the sauce and added a drop of ketchup for everyone to taste before I added the ketchup - everyone preferred the ketchup added.
I served the chicken with rice and hot veggies.

Sweet and Sour Meat

I opted to title this Sweet and Sour Meat because I make this with pork or chicken. You really could use any meat (or no meat) if you desired. Long ago I used to bread and fry chicken nuggets to serve with this sauce but I really prefer the meat unbreaded and made into the sauce so it absorbs some of the great sweet and sour flavor.
This is one of those recipes that my mom got from the ladies group at church when I was a kid. It was one she made on occassion at home but it was a lot of work frying the chicken (another reason why I don't make little nuggets). Somehow I got the little photocopied booklet and created my own version.
I made this last night with chunk pineapple since the store was out of crushed and it worked nicely. I can't remember the exact size of the can but it's what I would consider a normal sized can (maybe around 14 oz). Also I have found that reducing the vinegar to 1 cup helps cut the bite that my family is not so fond of. I use plain white vinegar but this could be good with rice vinegar.
I serve it over rice with extra soy sauce.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
1-2 pounds chicken or pork, cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1-2 green peppers, diced
1 can crushed pineapple with juice
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/3 cup vinegar
4 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
4 tbs. cornstarch
1 cup cool water
1 cup ketchup
In a deep skillet or large saucepan (not huge but at about 12 inches across and 5-6 inches deep), heat enough oil to cover bottom of pan. Add meat and brown. Add onions and green peppers. Saute until just tender. Mix cornstarch with cool water until all the starch is dissolved. Add to pot with remaining ingredients. Stir until well mixed and begins to thicken. Remove and serve over rice.

Corn Dogs

A year ago (or so) my husband bought me a corn dog maker for about $20 at Shopko. I still see these around and highly recommend them. They look like waffle makers with six depressions to make the corn dogs. They are not big enough for a whole hot dog but if you buy the bun size hot dogs and cut them in half - it's about perfect. I have bought regular sized dogs and cut off the excess and then used the little pieces in a corn dog and it worked out fine.
I have noticed that pretty much any corn bread recipe will work. We use the recipe that I shared in an October 2009 post (I'm not savvy enough to know how to link that to here).
You start with oiling the compartments and putting a spoonful of corn bread batter in. You can spread the batter evenly or press a hot dog into the batter to spread it. Top with a little more batter and close the machine. After about 5-6 minutes the corn dogs are cooked. It does take some trial and error to get it right but they are a great treat.
I have even put cake batter in the maker and made a version of "Twinkies". I sliced a line down the cakes and put vanilla frosting in the center and then frosted the top over the split. They tasted great but Chocolate versions get a lot of jokes which made me really not want to do that again.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would share a favorite chocolate recipe. This was actually a recipe from the Two Fat Ladies called Adult Chocolate Cake. I don't know if I have altered it in any way since I've had it in my files for many years. This was a wonderful recipe I discovered before going gluten free but was a nice recipe to have when flour was a no-no. It's a really rich dessert. It should be refrigerated overnight but we've eaten it pretty fresh out of the oven and it was still good. Feel free to use semi-sweet or dark chocolate since they are similar in texture to bittersweet (I haven't tried milk chocolate so I don't know how it would alter the recipe).

Flourless Chocolate Cake
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter, soft
1 1/2 cup sugar
5 eggs
Grease 8" - 9" cake pan. Break chocolate into bowl. Set over saucepan of barely simmering water and melt chocolate. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Cut butter into little pieces and beat into chocolate. Add sugar and blend well. In other bowl, beat eggs until very frothy, then gently fold into mixture. Pour into cake pan and place in roasting pan. Add water to roasting pan - 1 inch up side of cake pan. Bake in a preheat oven at 350 for 1 hour, then let cool completely in roasting pan. When cold, remove from water and chill in refrigerator overnight.

Stroganoff

Stroganoff has been a family favorite all my life. It's a mix of sour cream, mushrooms and beef that is heavenly. My mother developed this recipe as a way to stretch the sauce to feed our family of eaters. I will include a method to make this gluten free but alas it's full of dairy (you can use say alternatives but it's not really the same).

Boil a bag of egg noodles. A pound should feed 4 people but don't count on it.

Ingredients:
1 pound beef steak (any cut desired, cubed
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped (optional)
16 oz sour cream
1/2 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
2-4 cups milk
au jus seasoning
oil or more butter for browning beef
Brown beef in a deep skillet or in saucepan that has a fine layer of oil. Make sure not to crowd the beef or it won't brown. Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to do this in shifts. Remove the beef to a bowl. Saute onions and mushrooms, add to bowl of beef. Melt butter in pan (be careful not to burn your drippings). Add flour and mix with whisk until all the flour is wet. Pour in 1/2-1 cup milk and whisk until the milk has turned into a paste. Repeat until you have a thick gravy. Add au jus seasoning (if you bought it in a packet, add about half and taste. In a container, add about 1-2 TB and taste). The gravy should be slightly overseasoned at this point. When the gravy is slightly more thick then you would like it, remove from heat. Add sour cream (this will thin the gravy some). Add beef and veggies.
Serve over hot and buttered egg noodles.

For a Gluten Free variety - Mix 1 TB corn starch for every 1 cup cold milk (1 cup milk equals about 1 serving). When they are well combined add to hot butter in pan. Add au jus seasoning and sour cream. Add meat and veggies. Tip: do not taste the gravy and then return the utensil to the gravy. Saliva breaks down corn starch. Always taste a cornstarch gravy with a clean utensil (or finger).

I rarely measure anything when I am making this recipe. I find a nice inexpensive steak and use the entire thing. I use about 1/2 stick of butter and enough flour to make a wet paste. If there is too much flour I add a little more butter. I pour the milk in gradually until I get a gravy that is thick and not pasty. Over the years we added onion because my son loves sauteed onions and any opportunity to add them is great. I have made this without beef and I have made it with hamburger (even without mushrooms) so it's a nice fall back recipe. Feel free to serve it over other things - rice, potatoes, toast.

Pork and Rice

One of the few things my father made as we were growing up is a Kraft recipe for Pork Chops and Rice. Things have changed but we still love this concotion. My father's original recipe uses regular rice and bakes in the oven. I found a new version of this recipe that makes it on the stove with minute rice. The original recipe also calls for creamed soup but it is not gluten or dairy free.
Here is how we revamped the recipe for last nights dinner.
4 pork chops
2 cups minute brown rice
2-3 cups liquid (we used a combination of soy milk and water)
1/2 stick Nucoa
1 onion chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
1 package instant dry soup mix (we used onion and later realized it had barley yeast - which I have no idea what that is but we are not sure it's gluten free. There are plenty of soup mixes out there that are though)
Melt Nucoa in a deep frying pan (we have something called a chicken pan which is a cast iron skillet-like pan that is about 3 inches deep with a lid). Brown pork chops in Nucoa. Remove pork chops and place in an oven at 300 - 350 to keep warm and cook more of the center. Fry onion and celery until tender. Add liquid and bring to a boil. Add soup mix and rice. Top with pork chops from oven (it seemed like it took awhile for the veggies to saute but then we were cooking slowly). Cover with lid and cook until rice is tender. Serves 4 very comfortably.
Using the brown rice does mean it needs to cook slightly longer than white rice and requires more liquid.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe is an adaptation of yesterdays peanut butter cookie.
2 sticks nucoa
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups peanut butter (again I use a whole jar of 15-18oz peanut butter)
2 eggs
2 teas baking soda
1 teas vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
1-2 cups chocolate chips
Cream nucoa, sugars and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mix thoroughly. Add baking soda and vanilla. I did all this in a mixer which made the batter really light.(if using remove bowl from mixer at this point and stir rest by hand). Mix in oatmeal. Add chocolate chips. I have made this with 1 cup chocolate chips and in thinking about it - it could really use more.
Drop by tablespoonful onto baking sheet (I always use a silpat). This is a really sticky dough so you may need to use the two spoon method (scoop dough with one spoon and push it onto baking sheet with other spoon). Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. These are really good cookies and have a more oatmeal feel to them than peanut butter. I am considering making them with dried cranberries and a little cinnamon next time to see how they come out.

Peanut Butter Cookies plus variations

I found a cookbook at the library that was something like 50 cookies from the same cookie dough. It got me thinking - is there a way I could make 50 different cookies from my peanut butter cookie recipe since it's a family favorite and a super easy gluten free cookie. I have played with a few ideas and made them yesterday.
The basic recipe is what I call the 2 peanut butter cookie (this is not original to me but I have made it for so long I can't tell you who originally made the cookie).
This particular recipe I found when I had a hospice client tell me her last helper would make her peanut butter cookies but they weren't like anyone else's. I found this recipe in a cooking for kids cookbook (something like One Bite Won't Kill You). She didn't think they were the right cookies but my family really liked them. So when the time came to make cookies for a family reunion - I offered to make these. My aunt complained that I wasn't going to make the right cookies so I ended up making 2 batches - these and the traditional peanut butter cookies. The traditional cookies were left practically uneaten.

Peanut Butter Cookies
2 cups peanut butter (I use an entire 16-18 oz jar because it's just over 2 cups)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teas baking soda
1 teas vanilla
Cream peanut butter and sugar together. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Add baking soda and vanilla. Mix until everything is smooth and creamy. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Flatten on baking sheet - these spread so you want to keep a good inch or so all around them. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. I always bake my cookies on a silpat lined baking sheet. They will come out of the oven really soft so be careful to not over bake. Let cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing. If they absolutely fall apart while transferring then they need to be cooked a little longer (it's fine to put them back in the oven at this point so long as you didn't let them sit too long). They should be firm but crumbly.

This weekend I tried making them into thumbprint cookies. The cookies don't really hold their shape so they were not cute thumbprints but the raspberry jam was a great compliment to the peanut butter cookie. What I did was made an impression in each cookie prior to baking and filled it with about 1/2 teas jam. A full teaspoon might be fine since the cookies spread.
Another variation and one we use often is to mix in chocolate chips. This time I made the cookies as I would normally and pressed chocolate chips into the dough after laying it out on the cookie sheet.
This is the first 2 variations I made without changing the dough. I will post soon the oatmeal peanut butter cookies I created - so good.

Honey Soy Nuggets

I got this recipe in my email the other day. The recipe is for chicken nuggets but last night I tried the recipe with Sea Bass and it was wonderful. As always, I altered the recipe slightly. This is a great meal for lunches since it was just as good cold as it was hot and it was easy to make a large amount.

Make a marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
2 TB fructose
1/4 teas garlic powder
1 TB louisiana hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot to taste)
2 TB ginger (the recipe doesn't say ground or fresh - I used about 1 TB ginger juice instead)

Add cubed chicken or fish (the recipe calls for 3 chicken breast at 8 oz each, I used about 6 filets but I couldn't tell you what they weighed). I added the fish to all the marinade, the recipe has you marinate in 1/3 cup of the sauce and then brush the rest on while cooking.

With fish you don't have to marinate long because it just soaks up the sauce, chicken you want to marinate a couple of hours before cooking. Drain and pat the meat dry.
Put 3/4 cup of coconut flour in a bag. Add dried meat to the bag. Shake until all the meat is fully covered.
Bake at 400 degrees.
The fish took about 15 minutes to fully cook in my oven but may take less time in yours. Check a thick piece before removing from oven.
The recipe says for chicken - bake 15 minutes and then brush with glaze (marinade), cook an additional 15 minutes brushing with glaze often. When done transfer hot chicken to bowl and pour over remaining glaze and toss until fully covered.
Personally I can't see me doing this since the fish came out so flavorful. The coconut gives it a nice tropical taste and I fear that the glaze would take away the coconut flavor but who knows - I let you know when I try this with chicken.

Asian Inspired Chicken Legs

Tonight I threw together a rather tasty asian inspired marinade for chicken legs. In equal parts I mixed together dark brown sugar, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce in a gallon freezer bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag and roll the bag gently to marinate the chicken. If you have more time - let it sit and turn it over now and again. Bake at 425 until the chicken reaches 170 degrees (about 30-45 minutes).

With the chicken we served dill cornbread (not gf but from a mix) and candied carrots. To make the carrots - drain 2 cans of sliced carrots (can use fresh, just add to the sauce before heating). In saucepan, add about 2 cups apple juice, 1 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup or more of honey, 1/2 tea cinnamon, 1/2 teas ginger juice. Heat sauce to boil and let simmer until reduced about 1/3 (or until carrots are tender). Add canned carrots just before taking off the burner to heat the carrots.

Pork and Mushrooms

This was a neat little experiment that came out really good. My meat didn't brown the way I would have preferred but it didn't come out tough.

Melt 1/2 cube of nucoa in a deep skillet. Saute 1 chopped onion, 1-2 pounds cubed pork (I had purchased pork stew meat so I am not positive what cut it was), and sliced mushrooms (I buy mine pre-sliced since it's the same price as whole mushrooms - I think it's 8 oz). Cook until the onions are translucent and the pork is cooked thoroughly. Mix 2 TBs cornstarch into 2 cups milk (I used soy just fine). Pour over meat and veggies. Stir carefully until the sauce is thick. Season with gluten-free soy sauce and serve over rice. It wasn't overly saucey so if you want more sauce add 1 TB cornstarch to each cup of milk and mix together before adding to pan.

Tator Tot Casserole

We love Tator Tot Casserole but hadn't eaten it since I went Gluten Free. Traditionally I would make the casserole with Cream of Mushroom soup which had wheat as a thickener. Add to that problem - my husband is dairy free and we just gave up on a favorite (happens all too often). I had a brainstorm this past week and came up with an idea.
I used a modified Almond Sauce as the base and made the casserole. It's a little different and doesn't have that mushroom flavor (which my son was grateful to have gone). It's a bit more time consuming that the traditional version but still fairly simple. I am using dairy ingredients in this version of the recipe - substitute non-dairy any way you'd like (I used Nucoa and Soy Milk).

To make the sauce:
2-4 tbs butter
2 cups milk
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tsp onion powder (or to taste)
2 TBs soy sauce
Melt butter in saucepan. Measure 1 cup milk and add 1 tsp cornstarch. Mix well and pour into saucepan. Repeat with 2nd cup of milk. Add seasonings and cook until starting to get thick (it will continue getting thick when you bake the casserole).

Brown 1 pound or so of ground beef. Feel free to drain the fat off - I don't because I am a little lazy. Add sauce. Add vegetables (usually I use a can of green beans that has been drained but tonight I used 1/2 pound of frozen mix veggies). Pour into casserole dish and top with tator tots. I like to lay them out in rows. Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes or until the tator tots are fully cooked.