American Whitney

One week ago exactly, I was talking to the triage nurse and being admitted to the ER. I have no idea what my hemoglobin level is at today, but I feel comfortable saying it must be pretty good.

I have no idea what the future brings, except that it looks unlikely like I’ll have to stay on a gluten-free diet. But since I had a lot of really satisfying meals on my gluten-free diet (which was mostly an unprocessed diet, and I think that had a bigger effect on my health than removing gluten), I think I’m going to keep with the spirit.

I also liked being able to eat the same thing as the Little Kidlet- so I’m going to keep throwing myself into allergen-free baking and make delicious tasty things so that he can enjoy the same foods as me. While he doesn’t “know what he’s missing” (as a lot of people worry he does), he’s eager to try new things, and I want to keep him curious about food- while keeping him safe.

Thursday I meet with my GI doctor again and we’ll set up my next batch of testing. Until then, I just have to stick with my pill regimen (so. much. iron.) and eat as healthy as possible.

Which reminds me, while I was scrounging in the fridge I managed to come up with a great recipe- that’s extremely versatile.

Artichoke sauce over polenta cakes, for one
gluten-free, dairy-free

Ingredients
Some sort of “protein” (I’ve used: 1/4 lb ground turkey, 1 sweet italian precooked sausage removed from the casing and diced, 1/4 container sliced mushrooms)
Jarred artichoke spread
Chicken/vegetable stock (so long as the vegetable stock isn’t tomato based)
Tube of prepared polenta

In a skillet, cook your protein. Saute mushrooms in a little olive oil, brown ground turkey or diced cooked sausage.

Heat a non-stick pan/cast iron pan on medium.

In the skillet with the mushrooms/turkey/whatever… drain off any excess oil/fat. You only don’t need more than a 1/2 Tbsp.

Add in about 3 Tbsp of the artichoke spread and stir to combine. Add 1/2 cup stock to the hot pan and let it simmer until it reduces (it won’t take long). Season with salt & pepper at this point.

In the hot pan, add about 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Cut off two 1″ slices from the polenta round and add it to the pan, and cook 2-3 minutes per side.

Plate the polenta rounds and top with the sauce. Enjoy!

Note: Prepared polenta is one of my favorite cooking shortcuts. It’s cheap and FAST to prepare. The leftovers can go back in the fridge in a plastic bag and last about 5 days.

Like Ramen, but want something a little healthier? Or, if you’re like me and gluten-free, do you miss the comfort of a bowl of noodles?

That’s when you make yourself this easy recipe. Promise you, it’ll only take a few more minutes than making yourself ramen, and it’s so much more flavorful!

Noodle Bowl for one.

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp flavorless oil, like vegetable oil or canola oil
1/4 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp minced garlic (or more if you’re like me)
pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 cup mushrooms
1 cup good quality broth (I used beef)
noodles (you can use ramen noodles or a serving of your favorite pasta)
1/4 cup frozen broccoli
soy sauce (gf substitution: Bragg’s Amino) to taste
dash of sesame oil
salt & pepper to taste
some green onions, chopped

Heat your saucepan on medium-low, and add the oil. Add in the garlic, ginger and chili flakes- let the garlic & ginger soften, and then add in the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms saute a little, and then remove them from the saucepan.

Add in the broth, a dash of sesame oil and season with soy sauce (probably about 2 Tbsp), and bring to a boil. Add in the noodles/pasta (and broccoli) and cook until the noodles are finished. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper- garnish with the green onions. And voila! You have a yummy noodle soup with veggies & no MSG.

All in all, it took me about 15 minutes to make- the longest part was waiting for the noodles to cook.

Day 3 of NaBloPoMo

In the past few weeks, I’ve fallen into a pattern where I wasn’t trying anything new, food-wise. I am a decent cook, but there are a lot of things I don’t make on a regular basis. Chicken is one of them. So I decided to challenge myself to making one new thing a week. I figure it gives me a couple days of wiggle room in making them- which is key when you’re a stay at home mom to two kids 5 and under. They just don’t give you the time you need. Chicken Katsu was a dish that immediately popped into my head.

After I left Disneyland, I started working in the front office for an oral surgeon in Orange County. The office manager was a girl not much older than me, and once a week when the doctor was out for a long lunch, we’d try to take a long lunch ourselves. We’d go to a little Japanese curry house that was sort of nearby, and she’d urge me to try various items from the menu. Most often I’d get the chicken katsu.

I always wanted to take TheBoy, but things never worked out. The curry house had odd hours, and combined with our odd work hours- we could never get there. So I pledged to learn to make my own katsu.

I’m very comfortable shallow frying in a pan, so when I found a recipe for chicken katsu that wasn’t deep fried… I was excited. While the curry recipes looked a little time intensive, I had tried tonkatsu sauce before, and found a recipe that looked easy enough to make.

I’m going to share the gluten free version. All the ingredients are easy enough to find, so it shouldn’t be difficult.

Tonkatsu sauce (adapted from this recipe)

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce (Lee & Perrins in the US is gluten-free)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Bragg’s amino (this was originally soy sauce- but most soy sauces aren’t gf. Bragg’s has a similar flavor profile and is also made from soy. It’s also a lot easier to find in stores than tamari or a gf soy sauce)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon smooth dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients but the dijon mustard and all-spice. Using a whisk, make sure the ingredients are combined well (make sure that the sugar dissolves and the ketchup seems to vanish into it). Stir it regularly until the sauce reduces by about 20%. Add the mustard and allspice and whisk until it’s well combined. Pour it into another container (it’ll help it cool faster) and set it aside.

Chicken Katsu (adapted from this recipe, All Recipes)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons GF all-purpose flour (use your favorite mix)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup GF panko bread crumbs (or toast your favorite GF bread and make breadcrumbs)
vegetable oil

Now, the traditional dish is tonkatsu, which uses pork. But chicken is pretty common here in the states.

First, let your chicken breasts come a little closer to room temperature. I then got out a Ziploc freezer bag, which is important because you want the thicker plastic. Put a chicken breast half in the bag and flatten it out with a meat hammer (the flat side) or a heavy pan until it’s 1/2″ thick. If you thought half a chicken breast wouldn’t ever feed an adult, now you can see why- it flattens out to a pretty decent size.

Now, set up your dredging stations. You’ll need three dishes/plates that have some depth to them (pie pans work well). In one, put your gluten free flour. If you’re worried it isn’t enough, just put a little more in there. In another, crack in your egg and whisk it thoroughly. In the third, pour the breadcrumbs. Take some salt & pepper and season the breadcrumbs well. I use white pepper (if you do, use a little less than you’d use of black paper) so that you can’t see the pepper.

Get a cookie sheet and line it with paper towels, and get tongs ready. Now, fill your skillet (I use my cast iron pan for shallow frying) with about 1/4″ of oil and heat it on medium, medium-high heat… depending on how hot your range is. While the oil heats up, you can start with two of the chicken breast halves.

Making fried anything is easy. You just need to be smart about it. When dredging, try to use one hand for dipping in the flour, and the other hand for egg & breadcrumbs so that things don’t get too messy. First, coat the chicken in the flour- front, back and sides. Tap the chicken in the plate to get off any excess flour (the flour is necessary to make the egg stick). Then, put the floured chicken into the egg and coat it thoroughly. From there, put the eggy chicken into the breadcrumbs and make sure it’s covered. When you have two, gently slide them into the hot oil.

How will you know the oil is ready? If you look at it, it’ll have a slight shimmer to it. And as the original recipe mentioned, if you put a chopstick into it, bubbles will form around the chopstick.

Now, sliding. Don’t drop the breasts in, otherwise you’ll splatter yourself. So lead with one edge of the chicken breast and sort of push it across the pan, lowering the rest of the chicken breast into the oil. Repeat with the other chicken breast. It’ll take about 3-4 minutes per side- flip when its nicely golden (mine were a little bit more brown, which I expect was the breadcrumb- it didn’t taste burnt). Use a pair of tongs and remove the chicken to the paper towel lined cookie sheet and let it drain. Repeat with the other two pieces.

Serve with the tonkatsu sauce over rice.

A bit wordy, I know, but my recipe posts are for people like myself who are learning to cook from recipes and/or watching cooking shows. If you try this, let me know how it turns out!

I admit it. If it can be fried, odds are I’ll fry it. I’ve already promised my mom to draw the line at frying butter, so don’t worry people. I won’t be installing a deep fryer here either.

Saturday night, I was the lone adult in the house, and while I had food for the kidlets covered, I’d completely forgotten about dinner for myself. So I looked up a couple recipes and winged fried mozzarella sticks. I learned a valuable lesson- when they mention that you can use a skillet, but need the oil to be able to cover the sticks… there’s a reason why. Mine weren’t perfect, but they were good.

Also over the weekend, I’d been chatting with my friend Bryan about my upcoming trip to Vegas. He sent me a link to the Tropicana’s website, so that I could see their updated decor and that’s when I saw this beauty…

Lamb tacos, using fried eggplant for the shell! I have no real idea how big they are, but I was immediately thinking of making an Italian version, with a meat sauce inside the shell.

At the store today, we picked up an eggplant, but as soon as I started to slice into it I realized that those would be some tiny tiny tacos. So I decided to simply go with fried eggplant…

Ingredients

1 eggplant
2 eggs
cornstarch
1 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used gluten-free)
salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil

vegetable oil

Before you even think of heating the oil, set up your dredging stations. You’ll need three pans, as well as a papertowel covered wire rack for your eggplant to wait before being fried.

In the first plate, pour out your cornstarch. I think it was about 1 cup. Spread it into a nice flat layer. In the second plate, crack your two eggs and whisk until they’re nicely mixed up. Season with a good pinch of salt. In the third plate, mix the breadcrumbs and dried basil, and season with pepper (and any other seasonings you want. Garlic powder? Cayenne pepper?).

Now, pour the oil into a heavy bottomed skillet (about 1″ deep) and heat the oil over medium until it gets up to about 375.

Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices.

While you’re waiting for the oil to come to temperature, start dredging. Coat the eggplant first in the cornstarch, shaking off any excess. Then put it in the egg, and use a fork to flip it over to make sure it’s coated thoroughly in the egg. From there, drop it with one hand into the breadcrumbs and use another fork to make sure it gets covered in breadcrumbs. When a slice is done, put it on the paper towel lined wire rack and move on to the next one. (Tip: try to keep one hand for using the cornstarch plate and another for once it’s wet- it’ll make things a lot less gunky) Finish them all before you start frying.

Put 2 eggplant into the oil, and when the bottom is golden brown, flip it over using tongs (it won’t take very long, probably about a minute). Move to a paper towel lined plate when the second side is done, and repeat until done. Avoid the temptation to crowd the pan – any more than two pieces at a time, and it’ll cause your oil to drop in temperature and you’ll wind up with greasy eggplant. But really, it goes so quickly that it won’t take you long at all to work in batches of two.

You can have it as a meal or as an appetizer, topped/dipped with/in your favorite marinara sauce.

I know I haven’t posted much about our Christmas dinner. I’ll just say this. The food rocked. I plan on making all the dishes again, so the recipes will pop up here anyways.

The first recipe that I made is this layered “torta” that my mom put together for Christmas. The other appetizers I was doing were a bit more labor intensive, so she wanted something that was quick, easy- and delicious.

Goat Cheese, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato Torta

via Bake Space (from “The Bride and Groom’s First Cookbook”)

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz goat cheese, softened
2/3 cup pesto – store-bought or homemade, but it should be on the thicker side
3/4 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped
basil leaves or pine nuts for garnish

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese and goat cheese and season with salt and pepper.
Combine 1/4 cup cheese mixture with sundried tomatoes in another bowl and mix well.
Line a 2-cup ramekin with plastic wrap, letting ends hang over.
Spray plastic wrap with cooking spray.
Carefully spread half of cheese mixture in bottom of ramekin, followed by pesto, sundried tomato mixture, and remaining cheese.
Carefully pull on plastic wrap as you go to create smooth layers.
When finished, wrap ends of plastic wrap over top and chill for at least one hour.
When ready to serve, unwrap the top, and invert onto a plate.
Remove dish and plastic wrap.

**

You can serve it with crackers, or as my mom (and I) did, with some crostini. Just slice a french baguette, brush a little olive oil on the slices and toast in a preheated 375 degree oven until they’re nice and crisp. The recipe makes plenty of dip, so make sure you have enough crackers or crostini to go around!

TheBoy loved this so much that it was the one appetizer I made for New Year’s Eve. Since I added a food processor to my kitchen arsenal, I even made the pesto! Definitely great, since it looks impressive- it comes together pretty quickly (for Christmas we used Trader Joe’s pesto) and it’s something you make ahead. As a matter of fact, the toughest part will probably be tearing off the cling wrap to line the bowl with.

You know, it isn’t very often that I see a recipe, say that I’m going to make it and then actually make it. I am lazy. I’ll bookmark recipes and never get around to them. So in a week where the temperature suddenly spiked to 95 degrees and I had a cranky 3 year old, if I was compelled to make something- you know that I thought it must be good.

Pumpkin Cheesecake via Brown Eyed Baker. I won’t even post the recipe here, or try to win you over with my sad pictures. Her post is really all you need to get you excited about adding this to your Thanksgiving dinner. Or earlier.

All I read was Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Gingersnap crust, and I knew that I had to make this. I mentioned it to TheBoy, who informed me that I needed to make this right away. You know, just to make sure that it would be okay to serve for Thanksgiving.

I made it, and the consensus is that this is amazing and a worthy replacement for pumpkin pie (and my in-laws are not ones to change up their holiday meal lineup). You might think that cheesecakes are tricky- but honestly, with a water bath you get a great cheesecake. You just have to overcome your fear of sloshing around hot water when you pull the cheesecake out. But it’s worth the pay off!

*Jedi Mind Trick* You will make this…

WARNING: This post contains pictures taken on a cameraphone. For those of you who require hi-res fancy pictures… sorrry! I should get a new camera for me and a cheap one for the Oldest Kidlet, who is quite the photographer- but rough on cameras.

I know, I’m the Queen of Make-It-From-Scratch. But you know… there are a few places that I take shortcuts. A few products out there that you can get quality goods without filling foods with preservatives.

I don’t use baking mixes anymore- making a cake from scratch really doesn’t take that much longer. Same with pancakes.

So where do I use my shortcuts? I used canned tomatoes almost exclusively, and keep a good jarred tomato sauce on hand. Nothing with HFCS as an ingredient- but something that’s essentially doing all the work I would have done if I was making it myself. I try to get something that’s as basic as it gets. Tomato with a little basil. And I always keep a jar of that on hand. That way, when I feel like having pasta, I can grab that and tweak the sauce the way I want to.

Read More…

I’m going to share a secret with you about cooking- it isn’t hard. Sure, there are some things that seem tricky and difficult… but honestly, anyone can cook. It just takes a little focus.

A lot of my friends think I’m pretty fancy. After all, I once made pierogies from scratch. I made creamed corn for a birthday party- and those mini quiche? I should just walk around with a tea cup and my pinky extended permanently, right?

Okay, I might be more willing to get down and dirty in the kitchen than most people. But that doesn’t mean that it’s hard.

Case in point, here’s my easy Roasted Asparagus in a Mustard Vinaigrette that’s sure to impress.

Ingredients

1 lb of asparagus
Olive oil
Dijon mustard
Red wine vinegar (or your favorite acid- lemon juice or sherry vinegar would do nicely)
Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and make sure the rack is in the middle.

Wash and trim your asparagus. Never trimmed it? It’s really easy- see, the bottom parts of asparagus are awfully woody and not the most fun to eat. Just take a stalk of asparagus and bend it until it snaps. Then, hold that stalk of asparagus against the rest of your asparagus and trim it. (If you want to make soups or whatever, you can save the stalks, but if you’re like me… you can toss it)

Line up the asparagus on the sheet tray in a single layer. Drizzle about 1 tbsp or so of olive oil on top and roll them a bit to coat them properly- then season with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for 10 minutes. You don’t even have to turn them.

While it roasts, it’s time to make the vinaigrette.

In a small bowl, measure out 1 tsp of dijon mustard, then 2 Tbsp of your vinegar. Using a fork, mix those two together. Then, slowly drizzle in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Taste, season with salt and pepper- and adjust the amounts of mustard, vinegar and oil until you’re happy.

Then, pull out the asparagus and toss it in the vinaigrette. And that’s it.

Note- I used red wine vinegar, because that’s what I had. But if you think that vinegar’s a bit too harsh, just use some lemon juice.

I must reiterate, I am a horrible foodie. When my camera was murdered by my oldest son (yes, he stole it from my purse and dropped it several times until the shutters were stuck permanently open and you couldn’t adjust to make it focus), I didn’t buy a new one. I am soldiering onward with my horrible camera phone. Why? I want an SLR, but know that I’ll have to wait for Christmas and my Birthday (as they’re only a month apart) to try for that.

The downside of relying on a cameraphone is that when you get busy, you set down the phone and promptly forget about taking pictures.

For yesterday’s birthday party, I made a Carrot Cake (with Cream Cheese Frosting, naturally) and a side of roasted asparagus in a mustard vinaigrette to go with the dinner. The rest of dinner was a Honey-baked Ham, some boiled red potatoes that were tossed in butter and parsley, a lovely salad and rolls. Mmm, rolls.

Carrot cake. I made this last year for my husband’s grandmother’s birthday, as it’s her favorite cake. I recall swearing up a storm and vowing to not make the cake until I got a food processor and food scale. Then, I decided to make it again. Apparently I had forgotten what a pain it is to grate carrots on a box grater when you have no upper body strength. Read More…

These were a last minute addition to my lineup. How last minute? I ran to the store the morning of the baby shower to buy a few ingredients.

Aside from my contributions, we had a lovely curry chicken salad made by the mother to be’s grandmother, fruit supplied by her mother, and two types of sandwiches made by the grandmother. However, she’d made them two days in advance! My mother-in-law and I were concerned that it was too soon and they might be soggy.

So I decided to make these- a double batch so that I could make 48 for the party no matter what, and another 48 if the sandwiches weren’t edible. Thanks to my mom, for emailing this the night before! Read More…