Leaving Las Vegas, with S'mores

Once again, I've disappeared for a bit. But you'll forgive me, won't you? This time it was so that I could move back to Alaska, which has been loads of work, but is inspiring all over again. Instead of sweating my buns off in Vegas, ruing the thought of even approaching the oven, now I get beachside campfires, glorious wild berries, a monthly local market to bake for and old friends to share with. In short, I have more motivation to bake and create than ever.

This month I've come up with one more cookie recipe for the Holiday book, no dairy, low fructose pudding, and have two great cake recipes in the works which just need some refining. My favorite achievement though has been polishing my recipe for truly nummy Graham Crackers. Yay! (Except that I can't stop eating them.) They're destined for the summer section of the forthcoming holiday book, right next to the corn syrup free marshmallows I perfected just before leaving Las Vegas. 

I've also tested a nut free version of my beloved chocolate chip cookies with truly glorious results. I might be persuaded to post that one here for everyone if there was enough interest... Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean?

Till then, I'm off to dive head first into a patch of red huckleberries. God, I love them! I think red huckleberries deserve their own dessert. Don't you? For anyone Ketchikan way the first Saturday in August, I will be at the Blueberry Festival, possibly selling some miraculous new recipe full of glorious red huckleberries, selling and signing books and even peddling some baked goods. See you there!

I Want to Eat the Easter Bunny

Spring is in the air.
Well, at least it is here in Vegas. My poor husband is working in Minot and currently getting snowed on. Sorry babe! But down here it's different. I am warming up, watching the flowers bloom and nibbling away at beloved holiday figures. Can you blame me? I mean, who doesn't want to eat the easter bunny, or at least some sweet, edible effigy of the mythical creature? Right now the stores are full of bunnies made from chocolate, marshmallow, mint cream, gummies, you name it. Walking through target requires carrying a napkin to catch the oh-yum-I-wish-I-could-eat-that drool. Low carb living somehow starts to loose its appeal around major holidays.
So, to indulge? Or to diet? As usual, instead I choose to-the-kitchen!
This is one of my simple answers to sweets cravings - so simple you can hardly call it a recipe. But make it anyway. It's yummy. It's a little bit filling. And it won't give you a sugar crash, or destroy any dietary good intentions.

Coconut Cream Gelatin Bunnies
Yields about 36 small bunnies or similar shapes

Set the kettle on to boil some water
In a large bowl, pour out
1 Can (12oz/354mL) Stevia Sweetened Soda (I recommend Blue Sky Zero Ginger Ale, or any flavor that sounds good with a hint of coconut)
Sprinkle over the top of the soda
2 Tb Powdered Gelatin
Once your water is boiling, add to the soda
1/2 C (120mL) Boiling Water
Stir well and constantly until all of the gelatin is dissolved, then add
3/4 C (180mL) Coconut Cream
Again, stir until well combined
Pour into shaped molds or a large baking dish and chill for 3 hours or more to set
Once set, remove gently from molds, using a thin, butter knife to help if needed, or slice into servings if molds were not used
Store chilled in an airtight container

This recipe contains about 1g effective carbohydrate per 4 bunnies and should be safe for most diabetics and low carb dieters, but please know your own body and make your own judgement call.

Bunny nibbled. Mission accomplished.

Happy Birthday, Holy Grail!

Pound Cake, recipe from Holy Grail

Today is the day that started it all. 

If you're one of the 6 whole people who read the author's note in my book, then you already know the story, so I'll keep it short.

Today is Monkey 1's birthday. It was 4 years ago today that, in a fit of pre-party insanity, I started throwing random flours into a bowl with no rhyme, reason or recipe and through some kind of divine intervention, ended up with miraculously good vanilla cupcakes and my first GF recipe.

That recipe was the spark that ignited enough passion to create good foods and then, a good book. After a minor revision or two, it also became the vanilla butter cake recipe in my Holy Grail, and we still love it. It was shocking when Monkey 1 requested pound cake this year with extreme German chocolate for the party this weekend, because he's still forever begging for that first vanilla cake. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. Celebrate with us this week. We'll make it an official, GF holiday, the birth of the Holy Grail of Gluten Free.

Happy birthday to the boy and the cake and the obsession. May all three flourish.

Five Years a Celiac

Today is the 5 year anniversary of my life as a diagnosed Celiac. It’s also my birthday. It’s also MLK day, and like him, I have a dream, but it’s more about taste equality, and lack of a fear of crumbs, than basic human rights, so I must concede that he earned the day far more than I did. But as I said, it’s my birthday, so perhaps you’ll indulge my slightly less altruistic reminiscence?

Five years ago today, I had a lot of lasts: my last taste of normal pasta, my last, soft nibble of my favorite herbed bread from a local, Alaskan restaurant, my last bite of gluten filled cake, my last night of not worrying whether going to a restaurant was too much like playing Russian roulette. Of course I did end up terribly ill that night. Knowing we were testing for Celiac, I loaded up. I went on one last gluten binge, and I paid dearly for it. I was so sick I didn’t even want the cake by the time it came out. I bloated so acutely that I couldn’t even button my stretchy pants to leave the restaurant with dignity. I was only saved from complete humiliation by a very long shirt. 

Fast forward nearly 5 years to last Friday night. As part of a sort of early celebration we stopped off for dinner at Chili’s while we were out. All of you seasoned Celiacs probably can hear the death knoll already can’t you? Go out on a Friday night? When it’s so busy and kitchens are messiest? Yeah. A smart move it was not. When there was a wait to get in I should have taken it as a sign and turned right around. But did I??? Nope. I was starving. And I had talked with one of the managers of this location before and they had served my well since, though admittedly never at such a busy hour. So in I went, ordered the same dish I always do after confirming it was still on the GF list, requested that kitchen managers be alerted, etc. And just like 5 years before, I found my self in utter agony, desperately unbuttoning previously comfy pants upon which I had assumed the buttons were merely decorative because I had never needed to use them before.

That night was the worst reaction I have ever had in my life. I ended up in the ER before the next morning, having nearly fainted a couple of times from severe dehydration. It felt like a perfect storm of glutening meets horrendous food poisoning, though my trooper of a hubby ate the last half of my meal to be sure and didn’t so much as get gassy, so maybe gluten meets virus? Either that or they supercharge their gluten at Chili's. At any rate, 2-3 days later, I’m not yet tolerating solid foods. They're too painful. There likely won't be cake this year thanks to that, even one of my good, GF ones. (And I had soooo been craving a rum cake! I’m seriously pouting over here.) Instead of cake this year, I just get to dream.

The cake I'm dreaming of today.

Maybe my dream is about human rights, after all. I think it’s a pretty basic human right to expect to be able to eat without fearing for your immediate health, or life, as with anaphylactic reactions. So I’m dreaming of a world where restaurants only publish GF menus when they really have the knowledge, training, space and equipment to actually provide GF foods, whether they're busy or not. I’d vastly prefer 1 or 2 safe options to 15, any one of which might be the next to poison me (related rant here). I’m dreaming of a world safer than 20 ppm for stuff that’s labeled GF. I’m dreaming of better research into cross-reactive foods. I’m dreaming of future birthdays, when I’ll actually get to eat and enjoy the cake.

So maybe it’s not as lofty as MLK’s dream, but it’s mine. 

Holiday Book is Progressing

The real reason it took me so long to get that last post up...

Carrot cake experiments! Ginger Orange Carrot for the win! This is one more for the forth coming holiday book. Look forward to it.

Pumpkidoodles? New Cookies in the Works!

A friend of mine posted the coolest thing the other day... a recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles. I was boggled. Combine my passion for pumpkin with my children's insatiable appetite for snickerdoodles? Could such family euphoria be possible?

Apparently it can. I went straight to the kitchen and came up with this first draft.

The texture is amazing just cooled, with a crispy sugared outside but satiny, melting but substantial interior. It was blissful! A day and more old, the initial crispness of the exterior faded, and the melting middle became slightly caky but still in a surprisingly smooth way. I cannot adequately describe it, but we're hooked! A few more drafts to fine tune the spice and flour combinations and these will absolutely be Holy Grail worthy.

Huzzah for another new, amazing, food experience!