A week or so ago, I baked a loaf of bread from Bob's Red Mill bread mix. I'm very pleased! It was an easy recipe and came out much lighter and more ''airy' that most of the loaves I've made before, whether from a mix or recipe. I took a couple of photos too and will upload those when I'm finished with this post. I am also very pleased with the flavor and texture of this loaf. A lot more like regular bread. I think this is a mix I will user again!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter cookies without the Peanut Butter.

Judy Cameron, bless her heart, brought GF Peanut butter cookies to Kay's Christmas tea. They were to die for! And Major and Vince agreed. But, since peanuts are a bit iffy for me, I decided to try making them with Sun Butter instead. He recipe is dead easy! 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix it up, drop on the cookie sheet (I did spray mine), press down slightly with a fork and bake ca 20 minutes at 350*

So I didn't have all that much Sun Butter left, so I made a half batch using egg substitute. Ok, the texture is a bit different. But Sun Butter has a grainier texture than peanut butter. I think I might cut back on the sugar next time, and maybe use brown sugar instead of white, but I'd say they are pretty much a success. These are a bit drier than Judy's; not as chewy; but my oven tends to be wierd even tho the temp tests as correct at 350*. So next time I might try 325*.

I bet it would work with Cashew Butter too, but cashews don't have as much oil, so I might have to add 1/4 tsp of say, sesame oil.

How to make GF food I don't have to actually chew.

On 12/29, I topped off 2010 by having some pretty major oral surgery to place 8 dental implants in my upper jaw. This is in anticipation of having permanent bridgework added in about 4 months. The reason I needed the implants is because 1 1/2 years ago, while looking at a house in Ft Wayne that Kay's daughter was interested in renting; I caught my toe on worn carpet on the stairs, and fell. When I landed, my upper teeth collided with the absolutely gorgeous oak surround of the living room entry in this nice little 1930's Craftsman. The result was to snap off 4 of my front teeth at the root, necessitating their removal. If that had been all, there would have been a fairly simple addition of a couple of implants and a bridge. But: One of those teeth was the only thing on that side of my mouth supporting a partial denture. Without that tooth, I could no longer wear a partial - so they all came out.

So far, the owner's insurance company refuses to admit any fault; even though within a couple of days, the owner had a handyman over there nailing down the carpeting on the stair where I'd caught my toe. So I am pursuing the case to recoup at least some of the cost of replacing my front teeth.

And so, to my dilemma. I'm now trying to make tasty, nourishing meals that I don't necessarily have to chew. I have Kefir and yogurt, plus I'd made Vegetable soup in advance. I have eggs, and more soups, but I find myself wandering around my kitchen, opening the refrigerator, scanning the pantry shelf; and everything that looks appealing has to be chewed, or has nuts in it, or dry fruit. Something is definitely missing, but I can't figure it out. I've eaten icecream, but vanilla is not my fave, and the Butter pecan is out, and the mint choc chip has hard chunks of chocolate that I can't bite. Chocolate is pretty much out too, unless I let it dissolve in my mouth

Yesterday morning I made myself a smoothie with a banana, yogurt, pomegranate/blueberry juice & frozen blueberries. But that much cold that early in the morning tends to upset my stomach. Veggie soup for lunch, and for supper last night we had bratwurst that I simmered so they were tender, cottage cheese, and I had some Roasted red pepper & tomato soup as my vegetable. I made succotash for Vince. This morning I made Oatbran cereal with brown sugar & a little milk. More veggie soup for lunch and then tonight we had Turkey vegetable soup with fresh corn muffins. I'm pretty sick of soup!

Does it sound like I'm whining? Well, yes, I am. But it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to, whine if I want to, whine if I want to...You would whine too, if it happened to you... LOL

More another day.

Katz, again

I had the Wholesome bread slice and the White bread slice toasted with breakfast this morning. The white bread is like all of the others... pretty boring. The wholesome bread was better. I may, at some point, actually buy a loaf of that.

A couple of days ago I ate the chocolate cupcake, and it was pretty yummy! But then, chocolate can cover a multitude of sins - or flavors, in this case.

Oh, btw, I never made the pecan pie. I decided that I really didn't like the GF pie crust I'd made well enough to bother - and I certainly didn't need yet more pie! We have lots of apples in the fridge, so I think I'll pull out the Paula Reds and make a crisp with oatmeal on top. Much more to my taste - and better for my waistlne!

More about Katz GF and several kinds of Pie!

Today for lunch I made a sandwich of the Katz multigrain bread and the Challah bread slices from the trial pkg. Both were toasted lightly and I nibbled a corner before adding mayo & half a lamb patty left from Wednesday night dinner. I found both to be disappointingly bland. Do we detect a common thread here when it comes to GF breads??? It's called BLAND!

The chocolate cupcake was, on the other hand, delicious! Not grainy! I could not have distinguished between it and a regular chocolate cupcake made with wheat flour.

On another note, I baked a mincemeat pie yeasterdy with crust made from a recipe in this cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Every-Day-Cookbook/dp/0740778137/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291405114&sr=1-1. I doubled the flaky single piecrust recipe to make a two crust pie. The dough was too dry (my fault; probably should have added few drops more milk) to roll well, and impossible to get thin. I'm not a fan of thick piecrust, so was disappointed. It rolls out rather crumbly so it's difficult to handle, but I succeeded in getting the pie together. The filling was yummy. Of course it came out of a jar, so I already knew it would be. But the crust was thick, and quite grainy from the white rice flour. Oh! And I ended up with enough dough left over to fill another pie tin! So tomorrow I'll either make that up as a pre-baked crust and fill it with pudding, or fill it with apples and a crumb crust of some description. I think I like the apple pie idea best.... Oooooh! Or pecans! Oh yum! I looooove pecan pie!!!! Yup, that's it! Gluten free Pecan pie!

Katz Gluten Free and musings on baked goods and cravings...

Some time back I heard of another mailorder Gluten Free source. Katz: http://www.katzglutenfree.com/?gclid=CJfd_rOqzKUCFQS7KgodbCGJmA. They offer a free sample pack, which, of course, isn't really free since you have to pay for FedX shipping. But there's quite a lot in the sample pack. Several kinds of bread, a couple of muffins, Rugeleh, a dinner roll, a 3 pack of other rolls and a slice of marble cake.

I sampled the marble cake, which was a trifle bland, but ok. I had the dinner roll for dinner ;-), and it was also a trifle bland, but the texture was excellent. Very 'real bread' like, which seems to be quite rare in GF yeast breads. I ate the chocolate chip cookie, which was ok - but tiny, and the cinnamon & chocolate rugeleh samples. They were ok, but still a bit bland and grainy.

So, am I being too picky? I've had all of these years to become a fan of really GOOD bread and bakery. I think the thing I am most disappointed with Gluten free baked goods is a) lack of flavor, b) graininess and c) texture - often too moist. The graininess is from the rice flour I guess, which is not as smooth as wheat flour. The moistness is because GF bakery requires far more liquid and eggs than gluten containing bakery. But what happened to the flavor? So many of the commercially available things seem far too sweet, and often that's the only flavor that really comes through. Whole grain gluten flours taste better after baking, and definitely smell better while baking, but am I really asking too much of the GF baked goods? This is truly frustrating me.

I have all of my life had the problem that if I crave 'something', often not sure what that 'something' is; I will eat quantities of things trying to satisfy that craving. If the craving is not satisfied, I will continue to try different things attempting to find the 'right' thing. This has been one of the greatest contributors to my overweight. I am unfortunately finding myself in that craving mode for really GOOD GF bread and not finding it! Since I know what it is I crave, I have some control, but it still is very frustrating!

Restaurants NOT to bother with!

There's a place on Randall Rd. called The Nest Cafe. According to their website, I expected decent food. They had absolutely nothing Gluten Free. Even the kitchen couldn't tell the waitress what had no flour in it! I had hoped for soup & a salad. She brought me the salad - which was mostly head lettuce (booooooring!) and came back when I was half finished to say that the soups had flour in them. So I ordered an omelet. Sides offered were toast or pancakes... duh! I asked if I could get fruit and was told there was no fruit. So I got the pancakes for Jonathan (good thing he was with me).

If I had ordered an entree' it would have included soup and dessert for $11 and change. My bill for a lousy salad and an omelet with greasy, tasteless hash browns (no dessert) was $11 and change!