Like a Kid in a... Produce Shop

Is it normal that my heart flutters a little bit at the thought of parsnips? Or that the sight of fresh blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries lifts my spirits to a new elevation? Maybe it's the pregnancy, but when I cross the threshold at Top of the Hill produce market, it's like crossing a threshold into sensory euphoria. And today, I take Jane with me.
We walk through the whole shop, which isn't hard since you can see the entire store from wherever you stand. Eight kinds of apples, exotic carrots, tantalizing herbs...they all line up before us in brightly colored rows. Jane embraces the opportunity to show off her knowledge of all the colors of the rainbow. "Red apple! Green apple. Yellow. Orange?" It also proves a prime moment to practice different voice inflections.
I quickly cross items off our list, and seek Jane's opinion on some kind of snack fruit. "Would you eat pears?" I ask her. She shakes her head and says, "No." her face completes the negatory response. We move on in our search.
I turn my back for a second and when I look at Jane again, she holds a brussels sprout. "Do you want to try some of those?" I ask her. She doesn't really answer, but I decide to take advantage of her initial interest and put a few in a bag. I've been wanting to try them for some time myself.
We pass by the onions and garlic, and Jane spots a pint-sized basket of cherry tomatoes. "Me tomatoes," she informs me. The price is right and they look good, so we pick up a basket. "Me hold it," Jane says. I let her, despite my first instinct. She picks one out of the basket, but I ask her to wait until we've bought them before she eats it. "Okay, mommy," she says in her usual cooperative tone. She then pretends to eat the tomato instead. "Mmm, yummy," she says.
We end up walking around the store a few minutes longer, and Jane manages to hold the tomatoes steady until we are walking between two other people and their carts and I'm holding a pineapple in one hand and about seven cherry tomatoes spill onto the orange tile floor. I do my best to brush them aside so that they don't squish under other people's shoes.
As we pay for our produce, Jane still holds the tomato she pretended to eat. "You've been so good! You can eat that tomato now," I tell her. Juice and seeds trickle down her chin, down her shirt. The tomato bursts with flavor too, I assume, because Jane says, "Mmm, dat's good!" She sums up our visit perfectly.

Thanksgiving: A Cook's (and Celiac's) Holiday

If you love to cook you don't really need an excuse to prepare a feast. But Thanksgiving is different, at least for us. It's the one time of year when Brad is sure to eat stuffing, pies, and sandwiches, all guilt-and-gluten-free. This year I had been looking forward to going all out in our own Seattle kitchen, holing up to bake and cook and eat dips and watch movies. I even had the food preparation laid out over a three day schedule. But family things came up and family comes first, so we've postponed and greatly diminished our Thanksgiving meal. More to come on that in a couple weeks.
I have to pay tribute to my amazing mother-in-law and her mother, who made the traditional glutenous/gluten-free feast in Heber of which we were able to partake. Singley-Dayton Thanksgivings are all about a different coming together: gluten-free and wheat-infested food.
Gluten-free is some work, but with my mother-in-law's tasty recipes, even the gluten-challenged can enjoy the traditional fare. Here is what we ate in Heber (sorry no picture, but it did look great, I promise).

Turkey and cranberry sauce
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green bean and bacon casserole
yams
candied yams
green salad
raspberry jell-o salad
3 pumpkin pies
1 apple pie
1 cherry pie
(wheat) rolls

This was the first year I've just shown up for dinner without helping at all, and it was strange. I'm not sure I like showing up just to eat, then leaving shortly after. I'm grateful we were able to eat such a great meal without doing any work, especially since we were driving until 3AM the night before, but there is something so rewarding about preparing the turkey and all its accompaniments--ah yes, leftovers. We were sent home with more than we felt was fair, but it's not quite the same. I will feel better when I see Brad bite into a hot leftovers sandwich.

I will post more recipes, even though Thanksgiving has passed, since some of us eat the same type of feast for Christmas. Or maybe, if you're gluten-free, seeing recipes for these foods you may not have eaten for a while will be cause for a whole new holiday.
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Turkey Stuffing Singley style
2 onions,
4 stalks of celery
1 cube of butter
Grind the celery and onions and save the juice
Chopping the onions works almost as well but Clare swears it is better
when they are ground. Put in deep frying pan and simmer in butter for
about an hour. Stir occasionally. Make sure it doesn't get brown,
just cooked. It is on very low heat.

Cube a loaf of bread* into cubes about 1/2 inch square. Put in huge
bowl or pan. Set aside.
Have ready but do not mix together:
2 cups of chicken broth or boullion or turkey broth.
1/2 cup dried parsley
Salt.

Add Celery and onion mixture to the bread cubes. Stir. Add some of
the broth and stir it in. Do not let it get too wet. Add more broth
if it needs it. Add parsley and then add the salt a little at a time
as you taste it. Once it is the right consistency and saltiness...
Add:
2 beaten eggs

Roll balls that resemble cheese balls and place them on cookie sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

*the bread works better if it's not fresh from the oven, so try to make it a day or two ahead.
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Here's a good bread recipe, also courtesy of my mother-in-law Susan. It takes some time, but it's mostly hands-off time.

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Rice Bread
3 cups rice flour OR 1½ cups rice flour, 1½ cups sorghum flour
¼ cup sugar
1 package or 1 Tablespoon dry active yeast
3½ teaspoons xanthan gum
1½ teaspoons salt
2 cups lukewarm water
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs

1. Combine flour(s), sugar, yeast, xanthan gum, and salt in mixing bowl. Blend well.
2. Add the lukewarm water (water that is too warm will kill the yeast) and the vegetable oil. Blend well.
3. Add the eggs. Mix at highest speed of mixer for 2 minutes.
4. Bread dough should be wetter than cookie dough and stiffer than cake dough.
5. Add water till correct consistency. Usually only needs ¼ more at the most.
6. Pour dough into greased bread pan. Let rise until slightly above pans.
7. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

Note: Take slightly less time for baking 2 small loaves instead of 1 large.

Sugar Cookies for Cassie

Back in good old Utah my sister-in-law Cassie and I had some grand baking adventures. One treat that eluded us in our Gluten-free baking: sugar cookies. You might even call it our holy grail. There are recipes out there, sure, but they are impossible to roll out let alone cut out in fun shapes, and their texture is tragically coarse. Read: you cannot eat a cookie without a fork or spoon. Diana's sugar cookies were so soft, I thought she might hold a key for good gluten-free cookies: cream cheese.* These may not be perfect, but so far, this is the best gluten-free sugar cookie Brad and I have tried.
For this experiment I didn't use the sweet potato, although that would make them more tender and somewhat healthy. That will be the next phase of the experiment.
Cassie, these cookies are for you. With ginger frosting on top.

1pkg (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup (1and a 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla
2 1/4 cups rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat cream cheese, butter, granulated sugar, vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium-low speed until well blended. Add flour, xanthan, and baking soda: mix well.

Roll dough or flatten with your hand to 1/4-in. thickness on parchment or wax paper. Cut into
assorted shapes using 3-in. cookie cutters. Place on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes; they will not brown on top. Let cool on sheet for a few minutes, then transfer cookies to wire rack; cool completely before icing.