For those of you in the Southeast who would like some intensive study on cooking and baking with food restrictions, I’m holding a retreat in early November in the North GA mountains. You can see more about that here: www.tilthforhealth.com/retreats

Meanwhile, the 60in60 blog is going to come down in the next few days. So if you’re RSSing this or have it bookmarked, switch over to the new locale!

It was on my trip with my girlfriends that I started thinking deeply about my need for community and connection with work. (Funny how a few days in a different place can free your mind.) I threw myself into researching various ways to integrate this blog’s type of work–recipe development, help with food restrictions–into a business built on nourishing connections with other people. In the end, I came to a decision that pulls together various things I’d been doing. I’ll be unveiling my website and giving out more information in the next few days.

In the course of the changes, I’m going to be utilizing this blog as my new work blog. If you’re subscribed with an interest in the 60 days, it’s highly likely you’ll want to stick around for what’s coming on here (including more recipes). I’m going to try to move the blog in such a way that I retain feed-based readers, but I’ll also post links at Aprovechar when the time comes.

Excited to share more with you in a few days!

Sorry for no warning about my absence this past week, y’all.  I got a deal on a last-minute ticket to fly up to San Francisco.  There, I met up with my girl Lori (who flew in from Alaska) and a few of her friends to have a grand, silly time . . . and find Lori the perfect wedding dress for her Irish castle wedding.

(This one isn’t it–I’m not giving away a girl’s wedding dress choice on my blog!–but Lori looked great in every dress she tried on, even if my iPhone photos didn’t do her justice.)

Overall, the trip was fantastic girl time, photography time, and food inspiration time. (AND I got to cook on our swank condo’s Viking range.)  In the next week, I’ll be offering

• gluten-free, vegan, cane-sugar-free cupcakes that my husband’s omnivorous, gluten-consuming co-workers gobbled up;
• an easy chicken dish;
• another gluten-free, allergen-free makeover of a popular Chinese food dish;
• a Passover cookie recipe (attending a friend’s Seder tonight!)
• and more.

Plus, I’ll be hosting another giveaway of gluten-free, allergen-free, vegan goodies in a week! So keep popping in to see what’s up–and please report back if/when you try the recipes I post here.

And now for the winnnnnnnner of Ricki Heller’s Sweet Freedom, a sugar-free, vegan, and partly gluten-free cookbook of tasty treats!  I used random.org to draw today from nearly 90 entrants, and the winner is Erin at Edayem! Congratulations, Erin! I’ll be getting in touch with you and Ricki to connect you for the prize.

For those of you who were hoping to win but did not:  word on the street has it that Ricki may be running low on this printing of her cookbook, so if you’re going to buy it and you can squeeze a few bucks out of your budget this month, I’d recommend going ahead and getting it so that you, too, can start experimenting with pear and pecan scones and sugarless chocolate pate.  Mmmm.

See you tomorrow when we’ll pick back up with a recipe post each day!

Quite frankly, sometimes I get tired of social networking sites and ponder quitting them all. I regularly get invitations to join new ones, but I think Flickr-Facebook-Twitter-LinkedIn is enough . . . if not too much.  Especially when you add in the daily onslaught of email (which I love reading, but boy, am I often bad about responding) and blogging (where I always wish I got more comments and often wonder who’s reading or caring, even when I can see the number of readers).

But sometimes they are worthwhile.  Sometimes I make a connection or reconnection on one of them, and I think, “Ah, this is why I do this.” That happened recently when Carrie (also known as Ginger Lemon Girl) and I chatted on Twitter about her idea for a savory cookie recipe.  When she created one, she ended up making it not only gluten-free but also dairy-free and egg-free to be sure I would be able to try it after her.  Then she emailed me the recipe to get my thoughts. I was, of course, very flattered, and I made the ‘cookies’ that night–with a few adjustments based on her notes.  I emailed her my notes, and we emailed further about other changes we would make.  It was all quite satisfying–the kind of exchange that answers, for me at least, whether purely online interaction can build community. (What, you haven’t been having that conversation? Hmmm, maybe your particular brand of geekdom hasn’t involved double-majoring in sociology and anthropology.)

Tonight, I give you two version of the savory cookies.  One involves ground pork sausage–preferably hot sausage, definitely from non-factory-farmed pigs.  (It’s not just about the pigs, but also about your health and the health of the communities where the pigs are grown.  Read this article if you’re not yet up on what I’m talking about. It will change you.) The version with sausage reminds of sausage balls, which normally are (if you are not Southern, you may not know?) balls of wheat flour, eggs, sausage, herbs, and cheese–baked up and served at functions from weddings to holiday dinners to wakes.  They are crunchy, salty, savory globes of tastiness, and I have missed them.  This version, of course, contains no egg, cheese, or gluten.

The vegan version (simply sans sausage + more salt) is in line with Carrie’s original concept of a savory walnut/rosemary cookie.

Either way, the cookies make a good breakfast or snack food.  I’ve frozen the ones I made and have enjoyed reheated ones with hot tea. I’m grateful to Carrie for inventing the basic recipe for these tasty treats!

Savory Cookies or Sausage Balls
Gluten-Free, Casein-Free, Egg-Free, Soy-Free

Wet Ingredients:
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds mixed with 6 tbsp. hot water
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup coconut oil

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup gluten-free oats
1/3 cup sorghum flour
2/3 cup potato starch or arrowroot starch
2/3 cup millet flour
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt (3/4 teaspoon salt if vegan)
1-2 tablespoons of water, as needed

Add-Ins:
1/2 pound ground sausage, cooked and drained
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried, crushed rosemary or 1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl mix ground flax seeds and hot water and set aside to gel.

In a large bowl, mix whisk together all dry ingredients. Add the coconut oil into the dry ingredients and “cut in” as you would for pastry, until the mixture resembles small peas and is thoroughly mixed with the dry ingredients.

Mix applesauce with ground flaxseed gel and fold into dry ingredients. Mix together for several minutes until you a wet and slightly sticky dough. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water, as needed, if dough is too dry to mix well.  Stir in add-ins until well-mixed.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat, and drop by tablespoons 1-2″ apart on cookie sheet. (I had 16 cookies per pan). Using a fork, flatten cookies just slightly as you would for peanut butter cookies.  (Cookies won’t spread much, if at all. For true sausage balls, leave cookies rounder and extend baking time.) If needed, with your fingers, shape the flattened cookies into a circle.

Bake for 17-25 minutes, until cookies are golden brown on the bottom and sides. Let cool on wire racks and serve, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer once cool. (Reheat at 350 for 5 minutes.)

My friend Karen is one of the people I’ve met by happenstance.  She worked for a little while with a friend of mine at a bookstore (a stop-gap measure in employment in both of their lives), and she and her husband came to a party Dan and I were also attending.  Karen and I connected there, but her sweet husband had a migraine and they left early.  When we reconnected at the next party, well, that was kinda it.  We became fast friends with many mutual interests and beliefs–among them, a desire to eat healthfully and to support local agriculture.

Then Dan and I moved across the country  . . . less than a year later.  Karen was one of the people I was saddest to leave behind, and we both got teary talking about it a couple of times before my moving day arrived.  So I committed to myself that I would not lose touch with Karen.  I talk to her on the phone about once a week–which is saying something, because I generally hate talking on the phone.  With Karen, time on the phone just flies by as we dig into this topic and that one.

Another way we’re keeping in touch is by sharing recipe suggestions over email.  We have some food allergens in common, we’re both trying to control the impact of sugar on our lives, and we both enjoy cooking and baking.  The recipe I altered today started with one that Karen wrote up and emailed to me after making it herself.  Karen got the (wheat-based) recipe from the cookbook Vegan Brunch.  I believe her version had bananas and chocolate chips, and I went another route using local blueberries and marmalade.  But I knew the base of the recipe was good, because I trust Karen’s judgment.

When I converted this recipe, I was taking a sugary recipe and replacing the sugar with maple syrup.  I increased the amount of flour to compensate, but I didn’t thoroughly consider the effect of the fruit-juice-sweetened citrus marmalade on the liquid part of my ingredients.  So even though this cake baked up where a toothpick came out clean, in the end, it was still softer than I wanted on the bottom layer. (The top crunch layer is golden; it’s perfect.) My husband gobbled up a piece and said the effect was like a delicious, cake-y version of cobbler.  Nonetheless, the next time I make it, I’m going to reduce the marmalade to 1/4 cup (I thought 1/2 cup over-sweetened the cake, but then, I haven’t been eating sugar) and also increase the flours by 1/3 to 1/2 cup. (I’m publishing the recipe as I originally made it, though. Make changes where you will, or go for cakey cobbler.) I was going to send the cake to work with my husband to have his coworkers test it before I published it here.  Instead, when I ran out of the house for a few minutes to the farmer’s market, our dog Lily found the cake, which I’d left covered on our dining table, to be an irresistible temptation.  So–there you have it.  It’s doggie approved, if nothing else.

Blueberry Crunch Cake
Adapted from a recipe from Vegan Brunch

Ingredients:
Topping:
1/2 cup potato starch/arrowroot/corn starch
1/2 cup almond meal/superfine brown rice flour
1/3 cup maple sugar–pulsed in food processor if in large chunks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled, plus 1-2 extra tbsp. if needed

Cake:
3/4 cup hemp milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of one lemon or orange
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons potato starch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh blueberries (or use frozen)
1/2 cup all-fruit marmalade (sugar-free)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease an 8 inch x 8 inch pan.

Measure out the hemp milk and add the vinegar.  Set aside.

Make the topping: mix all the dry ingredients and drizzle in the oil.  Mix, and add more oil if it seems to dry; you’re looking for nice big crumbs.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the hemp milk mixture, maple, oil, vanilla, and zest.  Sift in the dry ingredients, and mix until smooth.  Gently fold in the blueberries.

Pour the cake batter into the pan.  Dot the pan with all-fruit jam, and swirl it in with a knife.  Pour the topping mixture on top, patting down slightly.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool at least 30 before trying to eat, or it’ll fall apart.

We were visiting my husband’s uncle’s house last weekend when we noticed his lime tree was surrounded by fallen, uber-ripe, yellow limes.  It’s common in Southern California for people with citrus trees to simply let the fruit ripen and rot without utilizing it.  I can’t fathom that mindset–free, local food! while grocery bills climb! while food pantries go wanting!–so we gathered up the fallen limes and brought them home.

Kristen asked for a recipe with six or fewer ingredients, designed for busy moms.  As I was sipping my invented cocktail tonight pondering what I could make that would fit her guidelines, I laughed to think maybe the drink would qualify (though the ginger does take a minute of work).  So–until I get back to Kristen with an actual meal recipe–drink up and enjoy!

This drink was actually a co-invention of me and my husband.  My friends and I call him a master mixologist.  He occasionally hits a wrong note with his creations (and is happy to make corrections at those times), but 95% of the drinks he makes are amazing.  So once I suggested, today, that we add gin to ginger and lime, he came up with the actual method and amounts.  It’s a peppery, sweet, kicky little cocktail–great for sipping after a stressful day.  So pretty, too!

Mother’s Little Helper

First, make gingered gin. Grate a 2″ piece of unpeeled ginger (easier to grate when frozen). Put the ginger in a mortar. Add gin to fill the mortar halfway. Grind the ginger with a pestle for a few seconds. Pour the gin and ginger through 4 layers of cheesecloth to strain out the ginger. (You can reuse that ginger in the mortar to make more drinks.)

Fill a cocktail shaker to the top with ice cubes. Pour in 1 1/2 oz. gin (we like Hendrick’s), 1 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons gingered gin, and 1 tablespoon agave syrup. Shake well. Pour through the strainer into a martini glass. Sip and savor.

But these ‘butterscotch’ blondie brownies–they are good.  Dan’s non-allergic and sometimes picky family members ate the whole pan in less than 24 hours.

The recipe is one I adapted from Ricki Heller’s cookbook.  Are you familiar with Ricki? She’s a Registered Holistic Nutritionist who writes the lovely blog Diet, Dessert, & Dogs, where she talks about her life, health, and sweet pups while also providing vegan and often Anti-Candida Diet recipes.  Ricki created her cookbook, Sweet Freedom, to provide people with delicious dessert recipes that are free of wheat, eggs, dairy, and refined sugar.  Ricki’s cookbook is one of those cookbooks you just want to sit and read; it starts out with a chunk of information about how to make substitutions in recipes.  Only about 25% of the recipes in it are gluten-free, but I find gluten-free conversion of already vegan recipes to be pretty easy on those of us who are multiply allergic. (If you are confounded by that process, with Ricki’s recipes you can usually simply replace the glutenous flour with a gluten-free flour mix + 1 teaspoon xanthan gum and bake it up.) From corn pancakes to scones, Ricki’s got baked goods and sweets covered in this cookbook.

Aaaaaaand Ricki’s graciously provided a copy of Sweet Freedom for a giveaway on my blog, so if you want to win it, here’s how you can:

1) Leave a comment here telling about one of your favorite childhood desserts and what you think of it now (1 entry).

2) Write a blog post or tweet that includes info about, and provides a link to, this giveaway (3 entries). (If you use Twitter, make sure you include me @sallyjpa so I record your entry.)

I’ll do a random drawing for the winner on April 2nd.

In the meantime, I recommend making some blondies . . . and then sharing them with a group so you’re not tempted to eat the whole pan.

Butterscotch Blondies With Chocolate Chips
Adapted from Ricki Heller’s cookbook Sweet Freedom

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup mesquite flour
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/3 cup sunflower or other light-tasting oil, preferably organic
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rum or 1/4 teaspoon gf, vegan butterscotch flavoring
1/2 cup (100 g) non-dairy chocolate chips
1/2 cup salted pecans

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line an 8” (20 cm) square pan with parchment paper, or grease well and then flour the pan. (Parchment or flouring is essential, as the blondies tend to stick to the bottom of the pan without the parchment).

In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the brown rice syrup, maple syrup, oil, vanilla and rum until well blended. Gently stir in the chips and pecans.

Pour the dry mixture over the wet and stir to blend. You will have a fairly thick and sticky batter. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, rotating pan about halfway through, until a tester inserted in the center comes out nearly clean (a moist crumb or two is fine). Take care not to overbake, or these will dry out! The batter will fall a little as it cools; this is as it should be. Allow to cool completely in pan before cutting into squares. Makes 16 squares. May be frozen.

I got glutened last night, big time, at a restaurant–despite going back and forth, back and forth with the kitchen about what I could eat. (All I can guess is some heinous cross-contamination.) That’s the sickest stomach I have had in a long time, and it still feels shaky today, so I’m taking a day off from blogging and nearly everything else.  But I’ll be back tomorrow morning with an official Day 8 post, and it will include a blondie brownie recipe along with a giveaway of a great cookbook!

Till then–I am taking requests still.  Is there a gluten-free or allergen-free food you haven’t been able to figure out how to create? Is there a particular type of cuisine you’d like me to write about? I have about ten suggestions from readers in my queue, but I’m open for more.

And if you’ve made any of these recipes since I posted them, will you report back on the affiliated post about how it’s gone?

Sally

P.S. I know a good number of you are reading (I can see you on my Google Analytics!), and I appreciate that. I also really appreciate those of you who have forwarded the link to this blog; commented on this blog; emailed or FBed me or tweeted me supportive messages (or retweeted for me); or posted my links on sites like Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon.  This blog is about me sharing what I love while also making myself vulnerable as I try to figure out what comes next, and to have that appreciated by others is very rewarding for me. So thanks!

A friend requested on Facebook that I include a cracker recipe as one of my 60in60.  Gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free crackers are hard to come by in the grocery store, and most of the ones that exist taste like cardboard.  Fortunately, crackers are actually pretty easy to make, and boy howdy, are people impressed when you make them from scratch. When I’ve served homemade crackers at parties, people have inevitably oohed and ahhed over just how very homemade-chic I am to have bothered to make something so basic from scratch.  It’s all rather hilarious.

In part because of flavor, and perhaps in part because of texture, gluten-free crackers tend to be heavy on the nuts.  I’ve done a lot of nut-based postings lately, so I thought I would switch it up and offer a nut-free cracker recipe. I like the flavor of chickpea flour in Indian flatbreads, so I started with chickpea flour and then added what I wanted to taste/feel in them.  I don’t consider this recipe perfected, but the crackers are downright tasty (and my husband says they’re simply great).  I’ve changed up the recipe I’m including here from the one I used to shift the seasonings how I will when I make them next time.  Feel free to change up the seasonings to suit your own cravings.

Crackers
This recipe makes a small batch of crackers. (I made about two dozen.)  For a party, double or triple the recipe.

Wet:
3 tablespoons flax meal mixed with 1/3 cup hot water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons honey or agave
Additional water as needed

Dry:
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup certified gluten-free oats, ground in a blender or food processor
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Seasonings:
1 1/2 teaspoons minced onion flakes
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  (If you have a convection option, this is one time I would use the convection at 325 degrees instead.)

Options: Either put two pizza stones and/or large cast-iron skillets in the oven to preheat with the oven, or use cookie sheets that don’t go in the oven until the dough is on them. (I tried it both ways. The former method may make your crackers slightly more crisp.)

Combine flax meal and water, and fork-whisk it together. When it has gelled, whisk in the olive oil and honey.

Meanwhile, combine and mix together the dry ingredients and seasonings.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.  Mix using a spoon and then your hands.  Add additional water by the tablespoon, as needed, and mix to get the mixture moist (but not wet) and well-mixed.

Divide the dough into two balls.  Place one ball on a 2’-long pieces of parchment paper or a Silpat.  With a wet palm, pat the dough to spread it out.  Cover with another 2’-long piece of parchment paper.  Using a rolling pin (I use the nifty single-hand-held baker’s roller from Pampered Chef), roll out the dough until it is as thin as possible. (If you get it less than 1/8” thick, that’s great! . . . but you may want to reduce baking time.) Repeat with the second ball of dough.  Carefully remove the top sheets of parchment paper.  Score the dough into cracker shapes using a pizza cutter or knife, and, if desired, prick the crackers with a fork.

If using preheated stones/skillets, take them out of the oven.  Put the uncovered parchment sheets/Silpats on the pans.  Put the crackers in the oven.  Bake 15 minutes, or until firm and getting dark at the edges. Remove the parchment to a baker’s rack to cool.  After cooling, if the crackers are not yet completely crisp, or if you store them overnight and need to recrisp them, put them back in a 350-degree oven for five minutes.

Inspiring recipes:

Almond-Oat Crackers
Gluten-Free Herb Cracker Recipe
Spelt Everything Crackers (note: spelt is not gf)
Rosemary Fig Crackers
Gluten-Free Cracker Recipe
Sesame Rosemary Crackers
Chickpea Crackers ]]> http://www.sallyashbrook.com/60in60/day-7-herby-whole-grain-crackers-gluten-free-dairy-free-egg-free-soy-free-nut-free/feed/ 5 http://www.sallyashbrook.com/60in60/day-6-easy-dairy-free-soy-free-alfredo-sauce/ http://www.sallyashbrook.com/60in60/day-6-easy-dairy-free-soy-free-alfredo-sauce/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:20:36 +0000 Sally http://www.sallyashbrook.com/60in60/?p=37

I’m generally not good at making 20-minute meals. I tend to opt for dishes that have me working in the kitchen for an hour plus. But today’s recipe—a dairy-free, soy-free Alfredo sauce—made for one quick lunch yesterday.  I put asparagus in the oven to roast, and I put a covered, large pot of salted water on to boil for gluten-free pasta. While I waited on the water to boil, I washed spinach, peeled an orange, sliced an avocado, and made a mustard-citrus dressing for the salad.  When the water was boiling hard, I put the pasta in and stirred it around.  I flipped the roasting asparagus and then put the ingredients for the pasta sauce in the food processor.  When the pasta was cooked, I scooped out the pasta water I wanted for my sauce, I set the food processor running, and I drained and rinsed the pasta.  I tossed the pasta with the sauce, pulled the asparagus out of the oven, put tongs in the salad, and voila! Lunch in less than half an hour.

Oh, and this easy sauce was tasty enough that my non-gluten-free, non-allergic friend who was over for lunch got seconds.

Easy Dairy-Free, Soy-Free Alfredo Sauce
Serves 6-8.

Ingredients
6-8 servings of dried gf pasta
salted water for boiling

1 cup cashews, soaked at least 2 hours (I left mine on the counter in water overnight)
1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chickpea miso
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 to 1 cup hot pasta water

Directions
Put pasta in salted water that has come to a hard boil. Meanwhile, combine in the food processor or strong blender (e.g., Vitamix) all of the ingredients except the pasta water. Pulse to finely chop the ingredients, scraping down the sides of the processor with a spatula as necessary.

When the pasta has reached al dente, scoop out 1 cup of hot pasta water. Drain and rinse the pasta. Add 3/4 cup of the hot pasta water to the food processor, and process the sauce for several minutes, until nearly entirely smooth. Taste, and adjust seasonings or add additional water as desired. Reheat gently if sauce is no longer warm. Toss with pasta, and serve immediately.

Inspiring recipes:

Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Pasta
Raw Food Alfredo Sauce
Cashew Garlic Alfredo Sauce