Martha's Got Her Gluten Free On

image from Martha Stewart.com

I was flipping through my latest issue of Martha Stewart Living, which came to me with darling Easter eggs on the cover, and what should I find in the food section in the back? Gluten Free recipes!Woot to Martha for getting with the times! One recipe was for Rice-Chex crusted Salmon and another was for Banana Nut Muffins. If you search"gluten free" on her website, they actually have a lot of gluten free articles and recipes already. Most of them are from Body+Soul, which I don't subscribe to, or else I would have alerted everyone sooner. Hmm, maybe a subscription is in order.

As always, I applaud any mainstreaming of gluten free recipes and ingredients. It seems so simple to me, as a consumer, that all manufacturers and restaurants and magazines have to do is add two simple words to their tagline or menu or labels to cement their relationships with customers: gluten free. I know it's much more complicated than that, since they need experts and test kitchens and people who read labels and whatnot, and the added ink cost for those two extra words, but still. One can dream. I read an interesting blog post about gluten free labeling here, at Gluten Free Living's blog. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about it. Thanks to Martha, not only for teaching me how to be a homemaker for all these years, but for being willing to give up a little page space for the rest of us.

Happy reading!

P.F. Chang's Deliciously Delectable Gluten Free Offerings

Since it's the weekend and all, I thought I'd share the fabulous eating-out experience I had this week. Before you start reading this post, let me be clear: I did not eat all this food by myself! Just in case anyone is wondering if I'm a closet gorger, let me reassure you. I shared all of these lovely entrees and dessert with my good friend Joyce, who owns Grandpa's Kitchen. We get together on occasion and critique the gluten free lunchtime offerings at local restaurants. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right?

To be honest, I hadn't ever eaten at P.F. Chang's until this Tuesday. Which happened to be great timing for me, because they had just added five--count 'em---five new beef dishes to their gluten free menu on Monday. I felt like one of those fans who camps out overnight to get tickets for KISS or something. Their gluten free menu is now included on the back of their regular menus. It used to be separate so you had to ask for one when you were seated, but now they are right with everything else. How's that for making us feel normal? I tried the Mongolian Beef, and it was so perfect. I can't even think of a better word to describe it. It's a little spicy and sweet, and the sauce is caramelized onto the beef medallions making it a delicious combination of candied protein that I couldn't stop shoveling in my mouth.

Then I tried the Lemon Chicken, which was chicken battered in cornstarch to make it crispy and then a slightly sweet and sour lemon citrus sauce. Divine. This one was also being shoveled. I liked that the chicken was served with broccoli, one of my favorite vegetables.

We began our meal with the Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and we were so hungry they had to bring us extra lettuce (!) to finish off our chicken. These were good, the filling was pretty standard, but the fun part was the sauce we dipped them in. It's pretty amazing that they brought us gluten free soy sauce on the spot so we could do the three sauce mixing-thing they've got going on over there. If you don't know about the dipping sauce, it's chili paste and hot mustard mixed into soy sauce...mmmm. Yum.

And the perfect ending to the meal was this:

The Dome of Chocolate. I'm not kidding. That's really what it's called! It's a chocolate truffle-type dessert with berries and raspberry sauce. You could really die from a calorie coma after this one. This is one dessert that's definitely shareable.

The best part of eating out at P.F. Chang's was that when we asked about our gluten free food our server and the person who delivered the food (I don't know what their title is, but they're all over restaurants nowadays) knew exactly what was gluten free and what was available to us. There is a part of their kitchen that is dedicated to gluten free preparation, so we had no worries about cross-contamination. And the food was really, really good to boot. Since I never cook Asian food at home unless I have to, this was a great relief to me. Now if I want great Asian food, I'm minutes away from a delicious overload that is worth every last bite. Thank you, P.F. Chang's!

Happy eating!

P.F. Chang

Perfect Gluten Free Meat Loaf

Let me begin by sharing with all of you the long and winding road I have taken with this recipe. My childhood was one where good meatloaf was always readily available. My mom made a great meatloaf recipe that was kid friendly: no crunchy onions or peppers and not too spicy. I would always ask her to make it and I think she liked that it was a one-bowl preparation and a one-pan cleanup, a huge plus for a working mom. As I grew up I used her recipe and even converted my husband to liking meatloaf. However, once I started eating gluten free foods the quality of my meat loaf went south. I just couldn't find the right substitute for the saltine cracker crumbs that went into the meat loaf. I've tried everything, from tortilla chip crumbs to parmesan cheese to almond crackers. Nothing seemed to do the trick. Many, many meatloafs have been thrown down the disposal after coming out too greasy, or too dry or too tough or too moist. I know, too moist? That's the big problem with meat loaf isn't it? Keeping it moist is a big deal, but sadly it can be too moist. I am pleased to report that after years of trial and error, I have finally recreated a moist and delicious meat loaf reminiscent of my childhood. As much as I am a proponent of using readily available ingredients from a neighborhood grocery store, I have to break with tradition and recommend an internet product. These are Dr. Schar's Bread Crumbs, available from the Gluten Free Mall. I find that when I am ordering things on the internet, I order several to make it worth my while to pay for shipping. Go big or go home is my motto. Anyway, these are a great texture and don't have much of an overpowering flavor to detract from the flavors you are putting in to your meat loaf. They hold the moisture well and keep the meat loaf from being crumbly. This recipe is an easy one-dish dinner, and I always make it even easier by adding some potatoes right into the oven with the meat loaf, so it all cooks at the same time.

Perfect Gluten Free Meat Loaf

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1/2 cup Dr. Schar's gluten free bread crumbs

1/4 cup Kraft parmesan cheese

1 egg

1 can tomato sauce

2 T minced onion

pinch salt

pinch pepper

pinch garlic powder

1/4 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and pierce 6-8 potatoes, set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except meat and ketchup until well blended. Add hamburger and mix gently with your hands. (Combining the seasonings and bread crumbs first makes it so you don't overwork your meat and make it tough.) Spread batter into a greased loaf pan and pat down so it's even. Cover top of meat loaf with ketchup and place in oven with potatoes surrounding loaf pan. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with a spatula and a salad or vegetable.

Happy eating!

What to do with Udi's Gluten Free Bread: Tuna Melt

I love a good tuna sandwich just as much as the next gal, (or guy) but to be honest the last few years tuna sandwiches have lost their appeal to me. It's all about the bread. When you have gluten free bread that is not so great, you'd rather eat your sandwich fillings on anything but bread for a while. This Whole Grain Gluten Free bread from Udi's is the perfect hearty sandwich bread, and the other day I took a crack at a tuna melt. Here's the surprising ingredient that saved the day: extra virgin olive oil.

Usually when I make a grilled anything I just spread butter on it and throw it on the griddle, but this time I drizzled extra virgin olive oil on the outsides of my sandwich to see if it would do anything different. The crust came out perfectly golden and crunchy. It was so worth the price of good olive oil to get a nice, crunchy tuna melt. I've never used it on sandwiches before, so this was, I think, a great flash of inspiration.

I filled my sandwich with the things I like to have on tuna: one can of tuna, 1/4 cup mayonnaisse, 1 T sweet pickle relish, and one slice of havarti cheese. It turned out to be a great light dinner and I served it with a spinach salad. Delectable. Mmmm, thank you, Udi's, for the hearty gluten free sandwich bread that makes comfort food actually comfortable.

Happy eating!

America's Golden Boy

Sometimes you go along doing your jobs, and nothing special ever happens. Other times you go along, doing your jobs, and you happen to be in the right place at the right time for something amazing to come your way. Today I was minding my business in the KJZZ kitchen getting ready for my monthly TV segment, when this unassuming guy walked in and asked me what I was cooking. We chatted for a minute and when I asked him his name, he said, "I'm Billy." I had heard the Olympics mentioned and asked him if he had just come back from Vancouver. He nodded and someone said, "He's a gold medalist!" Well, didn't I feel about two inches high. I'd been chatting with Billy Demong, gold and silver medalist in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. He immediately pulled out his medals and let me hold them. No pretenses, no posturing, he just pulled them out and let me hold them. I had a moment of pride I've never felt before, being able to touch Olympic gold won by someone who represented USA in one of the toughest sports out there. And Billy Demong is about the nicest guy I have ever met. He was so down-to-earth and real, it was almost unreal. You expect someone who has achieved something like that to be walking around with an ego inflated to the size of Soldier Field, but Billy was about as regular as you get. He was genuinely interested in what I was doing and took the time to talk to everyone who wanted to talk to him. He took this picture of me in the kitchen to upload onto his Twitter page, and also because he "really liked the kitchen and was going to re-do" his own kitchen and needed an inspiration shot. In case you missed him at the Olympics this year, Billy was the first American ever to win gold in the individual combined Nordic skiing event, which is a hybrid sport of both ski jumping and cross-country skiing, and also won a silver in the team competition. He also carried the flag for Team USA in the closing ceremonies. All this came after competing in four Olympic games. Four! So much work, so much time, for a life lived in pursuit of a dream. But isn't that who we all are, deep down? He has said that he thinks "American athletes are just like anybody else. We work real hard for a real long time to earn the victories." That translates to the rest of us, I think. We all work hard. We all do the best we can with what we've got. For celiacs, we do the best we can with what we can eat, and try every day to keep a positive attitude about how we eat and invest in our health victories. That's what it's all about, isn't it? That and meeting America's Golden Boy while doing my jobs.

Happy eating!

Let's Talk About Crostini (Gluten-Free, of course)

Every time I turn around on a cooking show they are making crostini, a fancyItalian word for toast. Do they not realize how easy they've got it with their french bread and baguettes? Simply slice away, drizzle with olive oil, and toast or broil. Spread with some sort of topping and...voila! Instant elegance on a plate. Humph. Just thinking of slicing into nice crusty baguettes makes me roll my eyes so far back in my head I can see my brain. Not out of anger, mind you, but out of jealousy! I may never eat that great of a bread again, but I sure can try to imitate it.

And while we're at it, let's not talk about my low-budget choices of crostini toppings. I think at the time when I made these I hadn't grocery shopped for a few days so the pickings were slim. But here is a great recipe from Smitten Kitchen for an Artichoke-Olive Spread to go on top of your crostini. It looks so yummy. Anyways, I started by making a loaf with this mix for pizza and foccacia bread from Blue Chip Bakers. I actually got a nice looking loaf out of it and since the dough is made for Italian eating, it had a nice flavor and a light texture, just like pizza dough. I sliced it when it had cooled, so it didn't crumble apart (ahem, love those gluten free flours) and drizzled it with olive oil and toasted it on both sides in my grill pan until nice and golden. And it looks like I toasted it a little bit too long, doesn't it? Never mind that, I think I'll blame that on the camera. Do as I say, not as I do, people. Then you can top the crostini with whatever you want to, like olive tapenade and vinegared tomatoes for bruschetta, hummus, cheese and veggies, or a spread made from cannellini beans and garlic sprinkled with chives. Of course I had to give the gorgonzola a try. Delish. These will be great to make in the summer when my tomato crop kicks into high gear and I'm drowning in tomatoes, don't you think? The point is, don't despair when your favorite old-days foods show up, create them yourself! It may take a few tries, but you'll be glad you didn't give up on finding a delicious substitute.

Happy eating!