Spicy Sweet Potato Rounds

I have to give credit The Good Eatah for planting the seeds of this side dish

1 sweet potato or yam, sliced as thinly as possible
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
Light oil for frying





•Arrange sweet potato on a plate or tray and season both sides of slices with salt and pepper.

•Let stand for10-15 minutes

•Oil and heat a skillet until very hot

•Fry sweet potato slices until they are cooked through

•Remove to a paper towel to stand.

Apple Vitti

You might ask: what is Apple Vitti?

Vitti is the nick name my uncle gave me, it's the gangster diminutive for guys named Vittorio.

When I was in middle school I amended and Apple Brown Betty recipe for my Home Ec class. My dad was converted from apple pie and my mother dubbed it Apple Vitti. This is my father's favorite dessert and there is almost always one in the house.

I used to make it as a treat, but since I moved out my mother has allowed it to become a staple.

When I got home I wanted to make one that I could enjoy too. We had tried it with gluten free flour only, and it wasn't quite the same. So this is the newly modified version.

Apple Vitti

Topping:
1/2c. Smart Balance, butter or margarine
2 tbsp flax meal
1/2c. brown sugar
2/3c. agave nectar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2c. teff flour, or other gluten free flour
1 cup quinoa flakes
1/2c. chopped pecans

Filling:
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
5 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
3/4c. orange juice


Heat oven to 350 F. Place apple in an appropriate size baking dish. Cover with foil and cook for 50-60 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together. Using a spoon or fork until blended but still crumbly. Spoon over cooked apples. Replace in oven and bake another 20-25 minutes, until topping is golden brown.

Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. We eat it alone, with vanilla frozen yogurt or with whipped cream.

My dad preferred this to any type of birthday cake I could have made him.

Blueberry Tart

Every year a family that lives near us hosts a neighborhood Fourth of July Picnic. They've got a lot of property and plenty of room for the kids to play, the adults to talk, and the men to grill. They always supply burgers, snacks and drinks, but always suggest that we bring a dish to share as well.

I can only remember attending the picnic once before, and that ended in a trip to the ER when my mom ate a Hawaiian Burger, and swallowed the partially charred toothpick that held it together. That was a memorable Fourth!

We got our annual invitation, and since I was home visiting my parents I thought it would be nice to catch up with some of the neighbors I haven't seen in eight years or more. Besides, I found this great Blueberry Tart recipe I wanted try. Picnics are always great places to test run recipes that you don't want to eat all by yourself.

Blueberry Tart
(adapted from Eatting Well August 2008)

Crust:
1/2 c. walnuts, lightly toasted
1 c. gluten free (Mi-Del) ginger snaps
1 large egg white
1 tbsp Smart Balance, melted

Filling:
8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. reduced-fat sour cream
1/4 c. maple syrup
2 c. fresh blueberries

To prepare crust: Preheat oven to 325 F. Coarsely chop walnuts in a food processor. Add ginger snaps and process until the mixture is fine crumbs. Whisk egg white in a medium bowl until frothy. Add the crumb mixture and butter, toss to combine. Press the mixture into the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 9-inch removable bottom tart pan (or pie pan). Set the pan on a baking sheet. Bake until dry and slightly darker around the edges, about 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

T prepare filling: Beat cream cheese, sour cream and 1/4 c. maple syrup in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth. When the crust is cool, spread the filling evenly into it, being careful not to break it up. Arrange blueberries on the filling, pressing lightly to set in. Chill for at least 1 hour to firm up.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

When I was planning my visit home, I asked my mom to get a bag of gluten free oats. I have been wanting to test my sensitivity to gluten free oats, and my dad's favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin. I thought I could make the cookies, try a few, and leave the rest for him to enjoy.

Since my father had heart surgery a year ago, I wanted to try something that was at least slightly more healthy than the standard recipe. However, while I was in the middle of making the batter, the power went out, so I had to finish in the dark with a little LED headlamp on. I refrigerated the dough and baked them when the power came back on.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2c. Smart Balance
2/3c. flax meal
1/2c. packed brown sugar
1/2c. molasses
1/2c. agave nectar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4c. teff flour
3/4c. quinoa flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
3c. gluten free oats
1c. raisins

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.


Bake 15 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered (if any last that long).

Now, I had heard that some celiacs also react to the protein in oats, since they are very similar. I am one of those. My reaction wasn't as bad as if I had been glutened, but it wasn't pleasant either. I will simply have to leave these cookies to my dad and those of you who can enjoy them.

By the way, my dad said they were fantastic!

Citrus Soy Sea Bass and a Pamelo

It’s been quite a buys week for me. It’s been a busy week, between work and home; I’ve hardly had a minute to relax. Our company is going to be showing at trade show in Las Vegas, and it’s me job to get all the goods ready for it. Throw in a last minute buying trip and you’ve got chaos, as well as me working both the Saturday before and Memorial Day. (Don’t worry; I’ll be getting well compensated in July)

I did some cooking and baking this week, as well as fitting in a few reviews, which I have yet to write. I’ll start with the Citrus Soy Sea Bass that I made last Sunday and I’ll try to follow up quickly with Glutino’s wafer cookies and Pamela’s chocolate chunk cookies.


Last week Whole Foods had a special on Chilean Sea Bass, intrigued, I ran a little search on Epicurious and found an interesting cirtusy ginger marinade for sea bass. It sounded great to me, although I wasn’t sure how my boyfriend would like it. So, after my trip to the Green Market I got down to business, making the marinade and then preparing his turkey burgers and my hamburguesas de tres carnes.

Rather than spending more money on ingredients that I didn’t have I decided to substitute a pamelo that one of our contractors had given me to try. He claims that they are the original grapefruit, and opening this thing up was an adventure. The skin is super thick, and the fruit itself was about the size of a softball. One section alone was bigger than my ear. Opening it was exciting but the fruit itself was a little disappointing; it was dried out and crumbly and not very good eating. It did however serve very well in the recipe, where I substituted it for orange.

The bass turned out wonderfully, soft and flaky, almost as though I had cooked it in butter. I loved the bold, spicy, ginger pineapple sauce. My boyfriend ate the fish but proclaimed the sauce “too spicy”. I had suspected he might, but he told me to fix what I wanted, so I did. I’ll just have to save this recipe for folk with less delicate tastes. However, if you choose to accept the challenge, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Citrus Soy Sea Bass

½ c. pineapple chunks
½ c. grapefruit sections

¼ c. soy sauce, gluten free of course
3 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp sesame or other oil
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1- large bass steak, or other cut of bass

Put all ingredients, except bass, in the blender and puree. Place bass and marinade in a glass container, make sure the fish is covered, stir occasionally, let sit for at least two hours.

Heat a pan, cover the bottom with marinade, put in fish and cover with the rest of the marinade. Cover and steam until the bass is white and cooked all the way through. Time depends on how thick the bass cut is.

Remove the fish when it’s done. Cook down the marinade until it is caramelized.

Serve and enjoy.

Beyond Rice Cakes

When you learned that you could no longer eat gluten, did visions of rice cakes pass before your eyes? I think at one time another us celiacs, and many dieters have thought we’d only be able to eat rice cakes. But really, they’re not that bad, with a little work the lowly rice cake can make for a great meal.

While staying with my cousins on short notice I faced with this rice cake only prospect. After searching the kitchen for safe foods I found an unopened bottle of Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter, Quaker Rice Cakes and a pear. The result was fantastic! Quick and easy: 1 rice cake smothered in peanut butter and topped with sliced pear. All the bases covered, carbs, protein and fresh fruit. And I wasn’t hungry till the afternoon.

Another recipe to be filed away for when I’m stuck in a place that doesn’t have all my usual food.

**Note: not all Quaker rice cake products are gluten free**