May 10, 2015 | Baking, Nut Free
As someone with Celiac’s Disease, you know it’s difficult to have good bread. Luckily, this simple recipe makes great bread for just a snack and is awesome for French Toast. This recipe is great whether using Glutenized flour or GF flour – as always check your GF flour to ensure you the recipe works well. In some cases, you will need xantham gum, but if like me you use a good mix it’s either already included or you won’t need it.
Banana Loaf
1 cup (225 g) white sugar
1/2 cup (125 g) margarine melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
1 tsp (5 g) salt
1.5 cups (340 g) GF flour
3 mashed bananas
1 tsp (5 g) baking soda
- Mix everything in order while your oven pre-heats to 350 degrees.
This is a double batch.
- Bake in a greased pan for about an hour – if you’re using a convection oven, you need to watch the time or temp. Lower the temp 25 degrees or lower the time of cooking by 25 percent – one or the other and only if you are using a convection oven.
- Let it cool completely and enjoy!
If you’re like me and enjoy nuts, you can add about a half cup per recipe if you want.
Apr 26, 2015 | Entrees, Nut Free
Back in the day, I used to write a recipe column for a newspaper in North Dakota. At that time I was playing around with the idea for a Tex-Mex meatloaf that used salsa and Doritos for the wet and dry ingredients to add to the ground beef for bulk. Since that time, it’s gone through a couple iterations and other ideas have inspired this creation beyond just a simple Tex-Mex. Obviously AD, this had to be tweaked a bit more.
So it’s been enhanced with bacon and some killer barbecue sauce and stuffed with cheese! I love this version and it would make an awful tasty meatloaf sandwich – with GF bread of course!
Tex-Mex Meltdown Meatloaf
1/4 cup Tex-Mex Seasoning
1/2 lb. Pepper Jack Cheese (shred your own to be GF!)
1.5 lb. ground hamburger
1 cup crushed Doritos (I like Jalapeno & Cheddar)
2 large eggs
1 lb. bacon
1/2 cup to a cup of BBQ sauce of your choice
- Mix the all of the ingredients except for the bacon and the BBQ sauce while your oven preheats to 350 degrees.
- Layer your bacon in a loaf pan and then create your loaf inside the bacon so that you wrap it over the top. The best thing would be to create your loaf wrap it and then put the edges of the bacon on the bottom.
- Cook for about an hour – and remember this is for a convection oven. You would likely need about an hour and 15 before you added the BBQ sauce to the top and then cook it for another 10 minutes. The extra 10 is regardless of the convection or not!
- Enjoy!
Apr 26, 2015 | Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Sauces & Seasonings
I have never been a huge fan of smoky barbecue sauce or just straight up red BBQ sauce. So I developed a conglomeration that works in the interim … I may soon develop one from scratch but for now this one is GF and spicy, tangy, sweet and a lovely afterbite!
Bill’s BBQ Sauce
1 jar (298 g) Mr. Sauce Honey BBQ
2 tbsp (30 ml) Habanero Tabasco
1/2 cup (125 ml) spicy sweet mustard (a ground mustard is the best if possible)
1/2 cup (120 g) minced garlic
2 tsp (10 g) cilantro
Mix and enjoy!
Apr 12, 2015 | Baking, Entrees, Nut Free
We’re one layer of cheese away from the final bake – oh, man talk about full meal deal!
Yes, you read that right! Steak and potatoes or pizza – who said you needed to choose? While I love a good steak and potato dinner, putting it on pizza just put this whole thing over the top. As you might have guess from this site, I am a sucker for fusions of flavours. And one of my favourites has to be Italian with Cajun as with this pizza.
The only thing I have to warn you about is that it takes a bit of prep. But the results were oh so awesome!
Blackened Steak & Potato Pizza
1 recipe Brazilian Pizza Crust
8 oz (225 g) steak
1 large russet potato
Pepper Jack cheese (shredded by you – guaranteed GF that way!)
Provolone cheese (slices)
Cajun Seasoning
Olive Oil
Red Onion (optional) or Cola Cajun BBQ sauce
Chives
The first thing to do is make your Cajun Baked Tater …
These would be good even if they weren’t on the pizza!
- Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees while you start to slice your baker. You’ll want to make each slice about 1/8th of an inch thick but not all the way through on the bottom. Leave about a quarter of the potato on the bottom. You could use toothpicks to keep the sides together if you cut through the potato to the bottom (like me!).
- Drizzle the baker with olive oil and a healthy amount of the Cajun seasoning. Bake for about 50 minutes – remember, it will cook up a bit more on your pizza when it is in the oven.
Now to assemble the Cajun Steak & Potato Pizza – while the baker is in the oven you can start working on the other components …
- You might want to cook your steak before you start working on your pizza dough. The steak is best pan fried with lots of Cajun seasoning. And this is where you should make the choice of onions cooked with the steak or using the BBQ sauce for the base of the pizza.
- Cook the steak to a little below the rareness that you like – it will cook up as it sits as well as in the oven (like the potatoes). Cut the steak into slices about a quarter inch thick.
- After you’ve done your first bake to set the dough, layer in the following order: Provolone slices, BBQ sauce and then steak or steak and onions, potato slices and then topped with Pepper Jack. Then into the oven for the final bake.
- Top with chives and serve immediately!
Apr 1, 2015 | Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Sauces & Seasonings
The jar on the left is Habanero Jelly and on the right is the Jalapeno Jelly. The jelly should last for quite awhile – this jalapeno jelly was still good after three years. Be careful about preparation and sanitation though if you plan on keeping it that long.
When I was a young warthog, er, when I was a young boy, I loved Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. Grape was my favourite flavour. As I got older, it was a guilty pleasure at times, but of course that was all BCD. So as a guilty pleasure goes, it went out the window.
Of course PBJs are not the only way to enjoy jelly. And it definitely is not a great way to enjoy Pepper Jelly. This spicy sweet goodness goes amazingly well with cream cheese and bagels or a personal favourite is with cheese ball and crackers – obviously both the bagel and crackers would be GF!
Pepper Jelly
2 pounds (900 g) peppers (Habanero for really hot jelly or Jalapeno for a milder jelly)
2.5 cups (625 ml) apple cider vinegar
2 – 1.75 ounce (100 g) packages powdered pectin
10 cups (2.2 kg) sugar
- Wearing rubber gloves, take the stem off the top of peppers and puree the peppers as fine as possible in a food processor.
- Combine the puree and 4 cups water in a large non-corrodible pot and place over medium heat. When the liquid comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Pour the hot puree into a jelly bag or a strainer lined with a dampened cheesecloth. Let the juice drip for an hour, stirring occasionally.
This would be the straining process. I didn’t bother with a cheesecloth because in this case I have a fine mesh colander that works just as well.
- Pour the strained juice into a non-corrodible pot; there should be approximately 4 cups. Add water equal to this amount. Add the vinegar and pectin, stir well.
- Bring to a full boil and add the sugar. Bring the contents to a boil that cannot be stirred down and stir for 1 minute.
- Immediately ladle the hot liquid into hot sterilized jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace, and seal. Refrigerate any jars that do not seal and use within 2 weeks. Note – if you don’t like the colour, you can add a little food colouring. That won’t alter the taste or texture.
Precautions:
Mar 11, 2015 | Desserts
Warning: This recipe takes awhile and may not be worth sharing with others depending on what flavours you use. They wouldn’t like it – it would likely only be for you. Why would you share it? Why do I have to share it? You can’t make me share … Shut up you and give them the recipe! All right, fine!
Now that my inner chocolate demon is done arguing with my kind sharing, er, angel, I’ll give you what is one of the most versatile recipes for an ice cream cake. I’ve used this recipe a number of times including for a few friends of mine who wanted two of them as their wedding cakes. The one I did most recently (and shared) prompted another friend to tell me that I could make one of them for her wedding as well!
Once you pick your flavours and make your cookies it’s then all about the assembly, which will likely take a day or two. Without further digression …
Death by Ice Cream Cake
1 recipe GF cookie (such as Creamed Coffee Cookies)
1 recipe Bailey’s Ganache
1 tub GF ice cream (such as Peanut Butter Cup ice cream)
- Bake one half of your cookie dough into one giant cookie at the bottom of a spring form pan (I used an 8″ form). You should line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper so that you can undo the mold and lift the baked cookie right off.
- Bake the second half immediately. For this one you don’t need the parchment paper unless you want to take the cake of the bottom to put it on a nice platter for serving.
- While both cookies cool, make your ganache and let it cool a bit. Pull out your ice cream so that it’s not extremely stiff when you start the assembly.
- Now you can start assembling the first layer with the form still on the pan. Layer about half of the ice cream onto the bottom cookie so it’s relatively flat; using a spatula to even the top works best. Pour a layer of ganache over the ice cream, again try to make it even.
- Put it in the freezer for a few hours to let the ice cream get cool again since it should be a bit melty and soft.
- Repeat Steps 4 & 5 with the parchment paper off the middle layer cookie.
- You may have to heat your ganache a bit to ensure you can pour it over the sides. Not to hot though or it won’t stick. Warning: this is the messiest part of the assembly as you take the form off the layers and then pour/frost the side of the ice cream cake. Try using a long frosting knife to coat the sides of the cake – you’ll have to work quick and then get the cake back in the freezer to keep the ganache on the side as it will likely try to melt down.
- Once it’s frozen, you should be ready to serve it! And remember it’s OK to share it!
As someone with Celiac’s Disease, you know it’s difficult to have good bread. Luckily, this simple recipe makes great bread for just a snack and is awesome for French Toast. This recipe is great whether using Glutenized flour or GF flour – as always check your GF flour to ensure you the recipe works well. In some cases, you will need xantham gum, but if like me you use a good mix it’s either already included or you won’t need it.
