Cookie Time...

Well, most of the baking has been done and here is a sampling of the yummy cookies that I've baked. My friends and family have been eating gluten free, vegan cookies and it doesn't seem to make any difference to them at all. Of course, I try not to advertise it to too many people, because words sometimes freak people out. But they have to know something is up when they see me eating them too.

I didn't take pictures of the ugly and not wonderful quinoa raisin cookies I tried, but the rest are included on this plate.

• Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Squares


• Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies


• Pistaschio Rosewater Cookies


• Sparkling Ginger Cookies


• Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies

I don't know if I have them all perfectly to the originals as I've never had the non-gluten free versions (they were already all vegan). But aren't they pretty?

I'll try to post the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Squares and the flour subs for the other four tomorrow.

Instant Meal with a little whine

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. I'm such a slacker. I've tried a few more cookie recipes and a new dip, which I'll get posted this week.

But, in all the business of trying new recipes, wrapping gifts and working for over 3 hours on the non-working lights on my pre-lit Christmas tree, I've discovered something. This may not be news to anyone but me. But to be sure there is at least one person out there who is as oblivious to the obvious as I am. My new favorite at work lunch...

Insta-chili

1 can black beans
1 can fireroasted diced tomatoes (regular diced tomotoes would be good too, but the fireroasted gives an extra little somethin')

Drain both and put in a bowl. Microwave. Texas Pete to taste.

And I like to eat it with baked blue corn tortilla chips.

I haven't bothered with pictures because after all it's a can of black beans and a can of tomatoes. But if you just have to see it, let me know and I'll take a pic next time.

And my whine. I ordered a couple more new cookbooks. The Gluten Free Vegan is on backorder. Wah...

More cookies!

My sister would probably hate these. I don't really know what's wrong with her, but she doesn't like amaretto coffee, amaretto cheesecake or anything else with an almond taste, except almonds. I'm glad she would probably hate them...more for me!

I tried "Terry's favorite almond cookies" from Veganomicon last night. The original recipe is a crispy one like those little crunchy things topped with sliced almonds that you see on buffets at Chinese restaurants. I call them "things" because I don't think most of them qualify as cookies. Terry's cookies on the other hand are perfectly almond. I of course tried to make them gluten free. Mine are a little chewy and puffy rather than crunchy, but I have done some research and hope to quickly remedy that with a change in flour ratio. When/if I get it, I'll post the flour sub. I also used a mixture of agave and maple syrup because I didn't have any brown rice syrup. So mine are a little dark. And I didn't have any sliced almonds so I left them off the top. At what point do these stop being Terry's cookies?

The first ones looked a little puffy so I flattened the second pan little more. The first part of the batch is soft with a crispy bottom. The second part is crispy and chewy.

But overall they are successful. They don't look like or have the consistency of the original recipe. But they are a yummy cookie that I can share.


1st part of batch...







2nd part of batch...





More cookies to come. I need to make a catch-up post of some pumpkin chocolate chip bars I made over the weekend. I'm hoping to make another run of the ginger cookies and the almond cookies. Others I'm hoping to try: Pistachio-Rosewater and Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

When the holidays are over, I'll have to put away the cookie recipes til later. My 15th college reunion is coming up in May and I want a great dress. It's not about impressing anybody, I just want to find a dress I love. And my weight's been at a stand still long enough. Well, I've lost 5 pounds in the last 3 months since changing to a vegan diet - and considering what I've eaten, I'm pretty happy with that. My doctor would probably feel different about that, eh? It's time to feed my body fewer cookies and more veggies!

Christmas Silliness

This post has absolutely nothing to do with food. It is gluten-free and soy-free, but not Elf-free!

Here's a part of my family (including me) dancing as Christmas Elves.

Cracker Barrel's got nothing on this.

I was reading where Bottle and Ball made grits. The variety that caught my immediate attention was the one she mixed with nutritional yeast and hot sauce. I've had cheese grits many times in my life, and I must admit that while reading about her grits, I lamented the fact that I never thought of topping them with Texas Pete. How had I survived my 36 years? This was to be remedied immediately.

My mom didn't grow up eating grits, so while we ate packs of instant grits at home, when I think of real grits I think of Cracker Barrel. And then I think of cinnamon apples. This was quickly becoming dinner.

I might need therapy after this confession, I live in NC and I had no idea whatsoever how to make real grits. So I turned to the handy dandy "How to Cook a Grain" section in Veganomicon. Knowing that Isa and Terry live in New York, I was a little skeptical about the consistency of the grits they might make. Especially since they consider "grits" an insulting term for the grain also known as polenta. Ha Ha...I find it interesting that grits isn't showing up on my spell checker right now, but polenta is...but I digress. I don't like runny grits and I don't like thick sticky grits. These were perfect. They were thick enough to eat with a fork without it running through the tines, but not so thick that you felt like you should really chew them. Way to go, girls! (The instructions in the book say that this recipe wouldn't be thick enough to make the polenta patties, but mine look pretty thick after cooling and mold pretty well, so I might try that with some of the leftovers.) BTW, I've never eaten yellow grits before, unless they were that color from butter. For hesitant Carolinians - they taste the same.

I can't use the Earth Balance that Bottle and Ball suggested because there's soy in it. But these grits were good even without it. I mixed in nutritional yeast, Texas Pete and salt. Spicy cheezy grits...yummy!

I microwaved a cut up apple with some cinnamon and a tiny tiny bit of nutmeg. I skipped any oily stuff, so I added a little water so the apple would get a little soft. This probably would have been better in the oven, but I was hungry and didn't plan very well for when the apple should have gone in the oven.

I also had a leftover black bean burger. I'd made them pretty bland so any seasoning I added would overpower it. So I decided to make a black bean "sausage" patty. I mixed a little olive oil, liquid smoke, parsley, crushed red pepper, salt, sage and fennel and brushed it on both sides of the burger and heated it up in a frying pan. With a little whole grain Dijon/maple dip, this was a perfect sausage substitute.

Other than trying to walk through a thousand people looking at old fashioned candy and apple shaped teapots, I no longer miss Cracker Barrel. Wait a minute. I hate trying to walk through a thousand people looking at old fashioned candy and apple shaped teapots. So I guess this was better. Maybe I need to buy a Stewart's Root Beer and put a rocking chair on the porch.

Failure isn't always bad

Earlier this week I must have been channeling June Cleaver. I was wearing a dress and got the sudden urge to throw on an apron and bake cookies! I attempted to make sparkling ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I hadn't used this recipe before, and I was trying to convert to gluten free. So I didn't really know what I was going to come up with. The dough was too wet and gooey to make into balls as the recipe says, so I just dropped them by the spoonful on the pan and they spread out pretty nicely. I was getting ready to put them in the oven and it hit me...I forgot the guar or xanthan gum! I figured right then that it was going to be an utter disaster.
At this point it was too late to do anything but bake them anyway. The cookies spread out so much. They were huge cookies. I put two pans in at once and evidently the heat in my oven is pretty uneven. The top pan of cookies was soft and gooey and the bottom pan was crispy. The soft ones, because of their size and lack of gum were impossible to keep in one piece, but they were delicious. The crispy ones were gigantoid ginger snaps. Believe it or not, one of the cookies I've most wanted to figure out is ginger snaps. I'll need to make them a little smaller next time and I would like to get the recipe "right."

June probably never had less than perfect cookies. But she probably never had to make gluten-free vegan cookies. Of course she probably never wore a leopard print dress either. And how was her apron not absolutely covered in flour? Ok, so I guess I'm nothing like her...I just wanted to bake! Either way, I had a ginger snap (or two or three...) and did my happy dance. This batch of cookies was not hard to give away.

Sweet Rice

Last month, I said there was a sweet rice dish I wanted to try (original post). Ta-da!!!



Sweet Rice

2 cups rice (I used brown, the restaurant used white)
4 cups of water
2 carrots (I used a peeler to get those thin slices - actually only used the equiv of 1 carrot, because I quit peeling when the carrot got awkward. Bonus carrot stick snack! Be a little heavy handed with the peeler to keep from having ultra thin carrots. )
1/2 cup of raisins (I used the big Chilean flame raisins, but the restaurant used the smaller ones.)
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp Agave nectar
Dash ginger
Dash nutmeg

Put all ingredients in a large pot that has a lid. Bring all to a boil. Turn heat low and cover. Simmer 40-50 minutes or until water is soaked up.