It was so easy! Thanks to Amy’s very detailed email after Shirley assured me I was capable of doing this, I think I will Adopt a Blogger again in the future. The only bad news is that my picture of my very delicious bread didn’t turn out so well. But, other than that, it was lots of fun and I tried a great new recipe I wouldn’t have made otherwise.  Shirley’s August Adopt A Blogger post can be found here.  It turns out you don’t even need to be a blogger to Adopt A Blogger!  You can join in on the fun too – and Shirley is so nice, I bet she’ll help you figure it out if you are like me and lost at this sort of thing!

My Adopt A Blogger entry is for Kelly Brozyna’s Banana Fruit Bread. If you haven’t seen Kelly’s site, The Spunky Coconut, you should check it out.  I learned about all kinds of coconut based products that I have never heard of before (such as coconut sugar).  Then when I was at Whole Foods I found even more coconut based products that I had not ever noticed – like the rich and beautiful coconut nectar (it seems to work like agave nectar as a sugar substitute).

When I was growing up my mother had three rules of the kitchen.  1.  Make sure you have all the ingredients you will need for your recipe.  2.  Start with a clean kitchen.  3.  End with a clean kitchen.  I broke rule #1 when making my banana fruit bread.  I didn’t have some of the ingredients and I couldn’t find the coconut sugar in the store.

I followed Kelly’s recipe for Banana Fruit Bread but made these modifications.  Instead of 2 chopped uncooked apples I used one diced peach.  I used lemon olive oil instead of the coconut oil.  I added 3/4 cups dried cherries.  I replaced the coconut sugar with coconut nectar.

On a side note:  I purchased the vanilla creme liquid stevia that the recipe called for and made the mistake of tasting a drop on my finger.  I have never used liquid stevia before and was shocked at the terrible taste!  What was amazing was that it worked well in the recipe and didn’t have the bitter aftertaste that my sample did.  I’ll have to research stevia more and see why we used it in the recipe and why the bitterness doesn’t transfer to the recipe.

Overall, my Banana Fruit Bread Adopt a Blogger attempt went well.  The final product was absolutely delicious and a great way to use up those leftover bananas!  The recipe seems to be fairly forgiving since I was able to replace many of the ingredients with alternative ones.   Thanks for a great recipe Kelly!  And thanks to Shirley and Amy for encouraging me to Adopt a Blogger!

This morning we made fruit smoothies with 1 cup So Delicious Coconut Kefir, a fresh banana, fresh berries, an orange and POM pomegranate juice.  Plus, I added a Tablespoon of ground hemp seed for some added fiber and some heart-healthy ground cinnamon.

If you don’t feel like eating fruit fresh from the garden or market (learn how to wash produce here), make a smoothie or a fruit kebab.  Kids love fruit kebabs in their lunch at school.  My kids devour their fruit kebabs, especially when I send a cup of yogurt of kefir and they can dip the fruit in the creamy dip.  Their all-time favorite is watermelon, strawberry, pineapple kebabs dipped in strawberry kefir.

I make my flatbread wraps using Breads from Anna Yeast-Free Bread Mix.  I also have a flatbread maker which makes the whole process so easy.  It takes me less than three minutes to make the batter and then I make the flatbread while I am preparing the rest of our dinner.  You can find flatbread makers here.

I follow the directions on the Breads from Anna website for the flatbread.

Add these wet ingredients to the dry flour blend:

• 3 whole eggs
• 1 3/4 cups of water, milk or non-dairy drink
• 1/3 cup oil (canola, olive, coconut, butter or any other oil you like using)

Directions:

1. Blend well until all lumps are smooth.
2. Spoon out 3-4 tablespoons of dough and place onto center of Flatbread maker.
3. Close lid and let sit about 2 minutes.
4. Place handle down over lid and press down adding pressure to flatten out bread.
5. Repeat this 2-3 times in quick succession while adding pressure; you need to do this downward pressure to allow steam to escape.

One package of mix will make approximately 20 pieces of flatbread/wraps.
Dough can be stored in refrigerator for 24 hours and used incrementally.

©2009 Breads From Anna. All rights reserved.

It is a rare occasion that I make my pie crusts from scratch.  They aren’t actually that hard to make but time seems to be my enemy and I want my crust to be ready when I am ready to bake.   The Whole Foods Market Gluten Free Pie Crust (located in the freezer section at Whole Foods) is a perfect blend of ingredients.  The only downfall is that it contains dairy, so if you can’t have dairy you need to go another route.  For those that need a GFCF crust, try Breads From Anna’s Pie Crust Mix.  You just mix it in a bowl with a few ingredients and press it in your pie tin.  No rolling needed!  Bake it and you are ready to go.

Prepare a pie crust so it is ready to be filled with filling and refrigerated.  Most crusts will have directions on the package for how long to bake a crust that will be filled and not baked again.

If you are just making pudding and not a pie, you obviously don’t need to prepare a crust!  Just get some cute glasses or ramekins together to serve your pudding when ready.

Chocolate Pudding and Pie Filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup arrowroot
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
1 cup coconut cream (the top of the coconut milk can)
2 cups cashew cream**
1 1/2 teaspoons GF vanilla

Combine sugar, arrowroot, cocoa and salt in a heavy saucepan.
In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, coconut milk and cashew cream.  Add to the saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture has thickened and boils, about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Pour into a precooked pie crust.
Refrigerate 4-5 hours or overnight.

**To make Cashew Cream:  Blend 1 cup raw cashews with 1 1/2 cups of water in a blender.  This makes slightly more than 2 cups of cashew cream.

Then something terrible happened to me and my dear pickles.  I was told I was pickle intolerant.  Have you ever heard of anything so crazy?  My nose would literally swell up if I ate pickles.  The good news is that the pickle intolerance is now behind me and I seem to be able to eat pickled foods in moderation.  Hallelujah!  Last week my husband brought home a beautiful jar of horseradish pickles from the farmers market near his office.  And pickled beets and carrots are now back on our menu at home.  But, I still have never pickled anything.

I longingly look at my Nourishing Traditions book by Sally Fallon and think about making pickles and saurkraut.  I have even discussed hosting fermenting classes in my home with a few of my gluten free friends in the hopes that it would kick start my fermenting and pickling process.  The dusty box of canning jars that were in my Mom’s garage are now in my garage staring at me every time I pull the car inside.  And I have even told myself if my friend Sueson would just let me have the Harsch Crock (a great device for making fermented foods) back that I would make a giant batch of saurkraut.  I always laugh thinking about my husband walking into our basement wondering what is bubbling away in the crock.

But still…I have yet to make pickles or saurkraut or anything fermented.  Until today!  Letty Kamperschroer Jocius (one of my Facebook Friends) sent me her grandmother’s 100 year old pickle recipe.  I am going to try it out and I encourage you to try it too.  Let me know how it goes.  Send me a picture of your pickles and we can have a pickle party.  Or if you have other pickle recipes you love, send them along too.  Let The Great Pickle Challenge begin!

P.S.  Yesterday I went to drop off the money for my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop.  The house had the most lovely vegetable garden along the driveway with huge cucumbers hanging off the vines.  My garden’s cucumbers seem to either rot or my kids eat them so fast we never get to have them in the house.  I must have looked really pathetic looking at these cucumbers because before I knew it I was offered two to take home.  Now I have the start to my pickles!  Thanks Jen R. for the cukes!

Grandma Boerger’s (pronounced Berger’s)Pleasantly Perfect Pickles

Here are my favorite links that I found last week and would like to share with you.

Basis for Celiac Disease Discovered

Suddenly Gluten Free:  Follow a gluten-free mom’s journey

Vegiac:  ListServ for Vegan Celiacs

Designer Medical Alert Bracelets: Perfect for kids in school or adults

Simply Gluten Free with Carol Kicinski:  Beautiful photos of her delicious and creative recipes

I hope you can find a few new resources, recipes and living tips from the sites.

Links for August 9th:

The Gluten Free Cosmetic Counter
Serious Eats:  Blueberry Cobbler
Cake and Commerce:  Gfree Whoopie Pies
The World’s Healthiest Foods:  Quinoa
Bloggin’ On the Yukon:  Gfree Sourdough Recipe

This week my tae kwon do teacher gave me a special gift.  I was given a korean squash from her garden.  I was told that it was a little past it’s prime and that the outer “skin” might be a little tough since it hung on the vine for too long.  The squash was a beautiful round shape and I plan on using the rest of it for dinner tonight.  I didn’t find the skin to be tough and I got to use my favorite new gadget – The Julienne Peeler from Hiroko’s Kitchen.  I bought mine at Flavour Cooking School in Forest Park, IL where I teach classes but you can purchase them online too from Hiroko’s Kitchen.  The price at Flavour was $15.95 and the price online was $19.95 (includes S&H).

As you know, zucchini is one of those vegetables that seems to arrive in an abundant state.  There is always too much for just one dish.  I tried to make a batch of zucchini muffins this morning from scratch without looking at a recipe.  I assumed I had the basic ingredients and ended up with these poppers instead.  They are slightly too moist and light to be considered a muffin.  The first batch needed a little more flavor and I ended up adding more cinnamon and the dried cherries.  I also realized I used a flour blend (Domata Flour) that already had xanthan gum and then added more xanthan gum.  This might be some of the issue with why the muffins don’t have the texture of “muffins.”  I also added one too many eggs.  But….I really like how they turned out and I’d make them again just the same way.  I guess this is how new ideas are born every day – a screw up from trying to create something traditional.

Dry Ingredients:
1 ½ cups gluten free flour blend
½ cup maple sugar crystals
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt

Other Ingredients:
2.5 ounce jar pureed prune baby food
1/3 cup oil
¼ cup orange juice
3 eggs1 cup shredded zucchini
½ cup dried cherries or cranberries, optional

Preheat oven to 400.  Spray a mini-muffin tin with spray oil.  In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Using a small scoop or tablespoon, fill each muffin tin to the top.  Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

If you have tomatoes from your garden or some delicious sweet tomatoes from the farmer’s market – this is a great way to prepare and eat them.  It would be beautiful if you have an array of various colored tomatoes.

Here is a picture of my last batch of Tomato Panzanella Salad we made.

Here is the recipe for the croutons.

Gluten Free Tomato Panzanella Salad

2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup minced red onion
3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice from one lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Panzanella Croutons (see link above)

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients, except the croutons, and combine.  Add the croutons and toss well.

Serve immediately.  You can refrigerate this if you have to but it is best when served right away.

1/4 cup shallots, minced
2 Tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together shallot, vinegar and mustard until well combined.  Slowly whisk in oil until combined.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.