This is a great quick weeknight dish that feels a lot more fancy than it is. It is from November Cooking Light (with a few tweaks).

Chicken Saltimbocca

4 chicken cutlets (I used two chicken breasts, which I cut with my knife parallel to the cutting board to make two pieces of the same size, but thinner)

salt and pepper to taste

12 fresh sage leaves

4 ounces thin proscuitto  – 8 slices (the recipe calls for 2 ounces, I used 4)

olive oil

1/3 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp cornstarch

Place two slices of prosciutto on a cutting board, next to each other. Place a chicken cutlet on top, intersecting the pieces. Lay 3 sage leaves on top of the cutlet. Wrap the prosciutto up onto the top of the cutlet. Repeat for all cutlets. Heat the pan with some olive oil. Season the cutlets with salt and pepper and place seam up in the pan. Cook about 5 minutes on medium heat, then flip. Continue cooking until they reach 165 degrees. Remove from pan. Mix chicken broth, lemon juice, and cornstarch together then pour into the hot pan, scraping up bits stuck to the pan. Stir until the sauce thickens then pour over the chicken.

The leftovers are fantastic the next day in a salad or on a sandwich. This would also be good with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard added into the sauce. It’s super simple, but looks really pretty with the sage leaves under the prosciutto.

 

This is a great quick weeknight dish that feels a lot more fancy than it is. It is from November Cooking Light (with a few tweaks). Chicken Saltimbocca 4 chicken cutlets (I used two chicken breasts, which I cut with my knife parallel to the cutting board to make two pieces of the same size, … Read more →

The only time I make beef Stroganoff is when I have leftover beef. It’s actually one of my husband’s favorite dishes. This version is so simple, easy, and quick, you won’t believe it!

Beef Stroganoff from Leftovers

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 tbsp olive oil

6-8 ounces sliced white or baby bella mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp flour

2 1/2 cups beef broth

10 ounces thinly sliced beef (I had leftover sirloin roast this time, but I have used strip steak, filet, and other cuts of meat: the key is to slice this as thinly as possible and cut off all fat and gristle)

1/4 cup light sour cream

pinch of nutmeg

Use a deep skillet for this recipe. Saute the onion in the olive oil over medium high heat until it softens and begins to brown. Add mushrooms and cook until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in 2 tbsp flour (I used gluten free flour and added 1 tsp cornstarch) and cook for one minute. Add beef broth and stir until combined. Cook for a few minutes, until it begins to thicken. Stir in the beef. Cook until heated through. Taste it for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream. Serve over cooked egg noodles (a 16 oz bag is right for this recipe). Note that I used fusilli this time because gluten free egg noodles do not seem to exist. This serves 4.

You can adjust this recipe a couple of ways:

– If you have leftover chicken, use that instead of beef and use chicken broth instead of beef broth.

– If you don’t have 10 ounces of beef, add in more mushrooms to compensate.

– If you don’t have sour cream (or don’t want to use it), stir in plain yogurt instead.

– If you have leftover cooked mushrooms, by all means, use those instead and just skip the step of cooking the mushrooms down.

– If this recipe creates leftovers, and you don’t want to reheat it (I find the beef gets a bit tough when reheated in the microwave), you can just freeze it. The next time you make beef stew, dump it in. You can also puree the leftovers and add to beef stew that way.

 

The only time I make beef Stroganoff is when I have leftover beef. It’s actually one of my husband’s favorite dishes. This version is so simple, easy, and quick, you won’t believe it! Beef Stroganoff from Leftovers 1/4 cup chopped onion 2 tbsp olive oil 6-8 ounces sliced white or baby bella mushrooms salt and … Read more →

Our project this month was chosen by Sara at Sassy Suppers and was in Oct Living – Orecchiette. I remember when the magazine came I paged past this and thought “yeah, right.” Then it was chosen as our project. And, as I posted last week, I learned I am gluten intolerant. I almost didn’t make it, but I decided that I really have to be brave when it comes to gluten-free substitutions, so I went for it. The recipe is really basic. It uses semolina flour, all purpose flour, salt and water. I thought long and hard about this and poked around on the internet to see how to make GF pasta at home. So I ended up substituting Bob’s Red Mill GF flour for the semolina. It’s a really yellow flour and has things like chickpea flour in it. I used Cup4Cup GF flour for the AP flour and I added an egg to the recipe to hold it all together (and reduced the water to compensate). It worked!

I made half a batch and had no problems working with the dough at all. I made this on a Sunday morning. I was so sure it would be a disaster, I didn’t save the pasta for dinner and had about half of it myself for lunch. I made a simple preparation to dress it: I cooked one piece of chopped bacon. I removed the cooked bacon and added one chopped scallion, salt and pepper, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1/4 cup peas to it. I had some leftover cooked winter squash, so I scooped out a couple of tablespoons of that and mixed it in. I tossed it with the pasta and added Parmesan cheese. It was really, really, really good!

I have made fresh pasta myself only once (see Pici of You Know Whatti) and it was a total disaster. This was easy and I can actually see making it again in the future!

December’s project was chosen by Pru and is Golden Pear Cream Puffs.

Our project this month was chosen by Sara at Sassy Suppers and was in Oct Living – Orecchiette. I remember when the magazine came I paged past this and thought “yeah, right.” Then it was chosen as our project. And, as I posted last week, I learned I am gluten intolerant. I almost didn’t make … Read more →

We first had bison (also called buffalo) burgers on a trip to Colorado. We really loved the taste. My grocery store has been carrying ground bison for a while, so I decided to make them myself.  The bison I bought is uncertified organic (which means they follow standards, but have not yet been certified).  Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol, but higher in protein than beef.

I made bison burgers with the bison from our grocery store. It looks almost exactly like hamburger. The taste is very close as well, but it tastes a tiny bit gamier, has a cleaner flavor, and also it always seems to have a hint of grassiness to that I notice when I buy milk from grass-fed cows. I like both of those flavors as do others in my family. We will likely be buying more bison in the future.

Have you tried bison?

We first had bison (also called buffalo) burgers on a trip to Colorado. We really loved the taste. My grocery store has been carrying ground bison for a while, so I decided to make them myself.  The bison I bought is uncertified organic (which means they follow standards, but have not yet been certified).  Bison … Read more →

I have tons and tons of carrots from our CSA. So, I’ve been looking for new ways to use them. When I felt as though I could not eat plain carrots, raw carrots, roasted carrots, or carrot ginger soup one more time, I came up with this recipe.

Crunchy Carrot Casserole

6 cups carrots sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsp heavy cream

2 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp brown sugar

dash nutmeg

1 cup crushed Rice Chex cereal

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9 inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Boil the carrots until they are almost tender enough to eat. Drain. Add back to the pot and mix in all ingredients except the cereal. Stir to mix completely. Place in baking dish. Sprinkle the cereal on top and spray the top with cooking spray. Bake for about 20 minutes until the topping starts to brown.

I love the flavor of the mustard with the carrots and the brown sugar gives it a tiny hint of sweetness. The topping gives it a nice crunch (and is gluten free). You can assemble this ahead if you like and pop it in the oven 20 minutes before you want to eat, which makes it great for the holidays.

I have tons and tons of carrots from our CSA. So, I’ve been looking for new ways to use them. When I felt as though I could not eat plain carrots, raw carrots, roasted carrots, or carrot ginger soup one more time, I came up with this recipe. Crunchy Carrot Casserole 6 cups carrots sliced … Read more →

I’ve had good news and bad news recently. The good news is that some health issues that had been plaguing me for a long time have finally been solved and eliminated. The bad news is that it turns out I am gluten and lactose intolerant. Now these two things are not the end of the world and it’s great to be able to heal myself by changing what I’m putting in my mouth. (And I have to credit my acupuncturist who is also trained in Oriental medicine for getting me to go gluten and lactose free, when my gastroenterologist was dismissive of my symptoms. She suggested it to me over and over for months and I finally wisened up and did what she suggested and got immediate relief.)

It was very hard to accept this initially, however. To think I can never buy a croissant, have dumplings at a Chinese restaurant, quickly grab a sandwich while on the go, eat fried chicken in a restaurant, eat Christmas cookies at a party, have a slice of birthday cake at someone’s house, enjoy a peanut cream donut from my favorite donut shop, sample things at bakeries, or have a pretzel at the mall was really hard to accept. I also felt like I had personally lost part of my heritage. Cooking and baking are important parts of who I am and my connection with my parents and grandparents. I cherish my grandmothers’ recipes and feel so in touch with them when I bake with them. Those recipes will never be quite the same for me now. This also makes it hard to eat at other people’s houses. I’ll have to explain in advance, be suspicious of how well they understand what gluten is (it’s in lots of things you wouldn’t expect and isn’t always called wheat or gluten), and find ways to eat without being rude, while keeping myself from getting sick.

I can handle certain dairy products with the help of Lactaid, so that’s a pretty easy work-around. However, there is no quick fix for gluten, other than avoiding it and substituting for it. So, I’m looking at this as an opportunity to spread my wings. I have been trying different gluten-free flours and I’ve also brought home lots of gluten free products. Some are horrible. Some are really good. Some are just ok. Cooking with gluten free flour mixes is a challenge. Recipes never turn out quite the way you are used to. I made blond brownies and they cooked much faster than they should. Same thing with Yorkshire pudding (family style popovers, essentially). And when I made a pie the crust was really hard to work with and burned a bit on the top. So, I’m learning.

Since I do not have an actual allergy (i.e. celiac disease), and since tiny amounts of gluten do not seem to bother me, I am hopeful that in time I will be able to eat some gluten again. But for now, it’s cold turkey.

There is tons and tons of info online about eating gluten free and I don’t pretend to be an expert yet. What I can do is share my experiences as I work through this new paradigm.

Here are some recent gluten free experiences:

Flours:

Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour: I initially wasn’t thrilled with this flour since it is yellowish, but it was the easiest to use in making pie crust – much less crumbly than the other brands. When I made spaetzle with it however, the dough was goopier than with other brands.

Cup4Cup Flour: This new flour was developed in the kitchens of Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. I was not happy to discover that the ingredients include milk powder, but it does not seem to have enough lactose in it to bother me. This is a nice flour, very close to real flour in color and texture. I’m alternating between it and Bob’s as my flour of choice.

Kind Arthur GF Flour: This is a pretty good substitute but has a bit of a grainy feel to it.

Products:

Pamela’s Cookies: These are crumbly, but taste great. It’s a luxury to be able to buy packaged cookies now and this is a great treat for me.

Wegmans Store Brand Brownie Mix: HEAVEN. This was just like real brownies. Wegmans makes other baking mixes, but I would rather use my own recipes with modifications.

Wegmans GF pasta: LOVE these. They are made with corn, but I swear you wouldn’t know. My family ate it without complaint. I’ve stocked up on every style they have.

Conte’s Gnocchi: I did not notice a difference with this product at all. A definite winner!

Chex cereals: Rice and Corn Chex (and associated store brands) are GF and delicious.

Annie’s Chocolate and Vanilla Rabbits: These are like Teddy Grahams. My son can’t get enough of them. I think they are great when I just need a little bite of something. And it satisfies my chocolate craving.

Mi-Del Arrowroot Cookies: Love these. They are  like animal crackers.

Udi’s Bagels: The whole grain bagels are very close to real bagels. I did not care for the plain white ones.

Udi’s Bread: I’ve tried several kinds that were just horrid (Schar’s white bread is awful), but the whole grain version of Udi’s is fantastic. GF bread products are always better toasted, by the way.

Foods by George English Muffins: I have tried the No-Rye Rye and the plain. I love the plain – they are really like biscuits more than English muffins, but are fluffy and delish.

Tamari sauce: Most people don’t know soy sauce contains gluten. I can handle small amounts of it, but I use this instead of soy sauce now in cooking. Tamari is basically a stronger soy sauce and I prefer the taste.

Bob’s Red Mill GF oats: Most people don’t know oats and oatmeal have gluten  – usually small amounts from processing. I have eaten the occasional packet of prepared oatmeal without trouble, but I buy these for baking and for making my own oatmeal (which I prefer anyhow).

Wholly Wholesome Pie Shells: These are GF and vegan as well. I used them to make a chicken pot pie and everyone gave it the thumbs up.

GF breadcrumbs: These are convenient and work just as well as regular.

Eating Out: 

This is where things get tricky, because you have to ask what things are made with. When I go to a restaurant I first scope out the things I know are GF, like salads (no croutons! and oil and vinegar dressing is always safe), grilled meat (but you have to ask about sauces), and sides like steamed or grilled veggies, baked potatoes or French fries (fortunately I’m not bothered by things that are cooked in the same oil as things with gluten – French fries and onion rings are usually made in the same oil). Then I identify things on the menu that MIGHT be GF and I ask. At a recent dinner out there were 4 fish dishes that seemed to have no breading or flour based sauces. I asked if they were GF or could be made GF. The waitress was clueless and asked the chef. All 4 could be GF. Score! I now always look at a menu online before I go to be sure there will be something I can eat. And if we intend to go someplace special, I will call ahead and alert the chef so that there will be definite options for me.

We recently went to a local restaurant called Merge, that has GF, vegan (i.e. lactose free) and raw foods on the menu, all clearly marked. It was like heaven for me. I wish more restaurants would do that! It made it all so easy, and many of the dishes could be prepared with or without gluten or dairy if you specified.

We’ve identified several pizza places that have GF pizza near us. There is also a local bakery that only makes GF food. I’ve been in once and will be back. Their Italian bread was nearly identical to regular. Their donuts were an epic fail. Their coffee cake wasn’t bad. I’ll try more products the next time.

Another trick I have up my sleeve is to bring a GF roll with me if I know I am going to a place that serves burgers or hot dogs. I can order it without a bun and pop it onto mine.

Eating out now takes work and forces me to speak up and ask questions, but it’s definitely doable. It’s still hard to see others at the table enjoying mac and cheese, breaded cutlets, and gravies. But I remind myself I can make any of that GF at home.

Managing Family Meals

This has had surprisingly little impact on our family meals. I’ve been making lots of potatoes and rice and the GF products I’ve served (bread, tacos, recipes made with GF flour) have passed muster without a peep from anyone. I use GF flour in sauces, soups, and recipes. Lactose free milk goes into recipes as well without anyone noticing at all. It is surprisingly easy to work around this at home. Baking is a bigger challenge, however. My GF apple pie was ok, but I need to work on my pie crust some more. And I have yet to try out a lot of my family baking recipes, which will likely need tweaking.

Searching for

What I am desperately still looking for includes:

GF puff pastry

GF wonton wrappers (so I can make my own potstickers and dumplings and wonton soup)

GF filo dough

GF croissants

good GF donuts

GF egg noodles

GF hot pretzels

Lactose Free Products:

I’m still trying to work out what works for me and doesn’t. Lactose-free milk has become a staple in my cooking and on my cereal. It is slightly sweeter than regular milk. Lactose free yogurt does not work for me for some reason. I can eat small amounts of hard cheeses. Lactose free American cheese works well for me. I’ve also sampled every frozen dessert option my store has that is LF. The coconut milk ice cream has the best texture, but I can’t get past the coconut taste. I did not like the rice milk ice cream or the soy milk ice cream. The almond milk ice cream is pretty good, but it all does have an almond flavor. None of it is perfect. So far I have been ok using small amounts of sour cream in cooking. Butter does not bother me, but we use a lot of Olivio instead. And I’ve always cooked with olive oil when possible, instead of butter.

Moving Forward

I will be cooking with GF flours and products from now on, but I don’t anticipate this having much of an impact on my blogging. There are many, many foods that don’t involve gluten in any way, and if I do make a GF substitute in a recipe, I’ll tell you. I will still be sharing my love of cooking and baking with you.

If you are GF or LF I would love to hear from you!

 

I’ve had good news and bad news recently. The good news is that some health issues that had been plaguing me for a long time have finally been solved and eliminated. The bad news is that it turns out I am gluten and lactose intolerant. Now these two things are not the end of the … Read more →

I’m so happy to tell you about my new ebook, a project that is close to my heart. It’s called Cookie: A Love Story: Fun Facts, Delicious Stories, Fascinating History, Tasty Recipes, and More. It’s just been released and it comes after years of work, but is a true labor of love.

Who doesn’t love cookies? They are the treat we grow up loving and are such a huge part of our lives. Cookies are how we celebrate and console and reward ourselves. I wanted to know where cookies came from and when I realized there was no book about it, I wrote my own. The ebook includes so many fun things:

– Why we are physically and psychologically programmed to love cookies

– How cookies were invented and how they evolved

– How history has affected the development of cookies (the Industrial Revolution, colonization of America, world wars, and our changing dietary needs have all affected the cookie and been affected by it – an amazing interplay!)

– State cookies, official cookie days, the world’s biggest cookie, cookie stacking contests and other fun

– Heartwarming and thought provoking stories from real people about how cookies have had meaning in their lives

– The history of Girl Scout cookies, fortune cookies, Oreos, Fig Newtons, and more of your favorites

– Special recipes allow you to not only experience the changes cookies have undergone over time, but also to replicate some your store-bought favorites at home

– Bright and fun and photos

– Stories about the cookie characters who have made cookies a national past time, such as the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, Wally Amos, the woman behind Pepperidge Farms, and Betty Crocker

There’s so much more to be found in this ebook. You can either sit down and read it from cover to cover or skip around, reading tidbits are they grab you.

Links to buy as a Kindle, Nook, or PDF are here. Because it makes a great gift, we are offering gift certificates as well. You buy the gift certificate here and get a printable certificate with a unique gift code you can give. Your recipient redeems the code to download the ebook in any version.

This book is close to my heart and I hope you will enjoy it!

I’m so happy to tell you about my new ebook, a project that is close to my heart. It’s called Cookie: A Love Story: Fun Facts, Delicious Stories, Fascinating History, Tasty Recipes, and More. It’s just been released and it comes after years of work, but is a true labor of love. Who doesn’t love cookies? … Read more →

Apples are one of my favorite things about fall. I like them in desserts, but I also like them in savory dishes. I thought I would share some of my favorites:

Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Pork Tenderloin with Sauerkraut and Apples

Parsnips and Apples

Apple Crisp

Pork Chops with Sauerkraut and Apple

Fried Apples

Apple Cake

I’m not the only one who has lots of apple recipes. Here are some from my friend Melanie at Frugal Kiwi:

Apple Pie Moonshine

Autumn Honey Apple Barley Breakfast

Oven Crisp Apple Chips

 

and another blogger pal Kristin Gough at My Kids Eat Squid:

Savory Apple Pizza

And if you don’t feel like baking, you can buy apple pie flavored ice cream! I didn’t know such a thing existed until Perry’s Ice Cream sent me a free sample (Perry’s reached out to me as a Buffalo-area food blogger and asked me to sample some of their flavors without obligation or requirement that I write or post anything. They did not pay me or do anything other than send me samples). My son loved this ice cream and if you’ve got a craving, but don’t feel like baking an entire pie, it’s a nice substitute!

 

Apples are one of my favorite things about fall. I like them in desserts, but I also like them in savory dishes. I thought I would share some of my favorites: Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Apples Pork Tenderloin with Sauerkraut and Apples Parsnips and Apples Apple Crisp Pork Chops with Sauerkraut and Apple Fried … Read more →

We signed up for a CSA for the first time this year. The idea is you buy a “share” from the farmer and then each week you go and pick up your portion of that week’s harvest. I was lucky enough to find Root Down Farm, which is 15 minutes from my house and which grows everything organically. Now that the CSA season is ending, it’s time to evaluate it.

What I Didn’t Expect

Friends who use CSAs talk about what’s in their “CSA box” each week. We didn’t get a box. Instead, we went to a little covered hut and each week there was a white board telling us how much we could take. Usually there was one wall of vegetables and then one wall of greens, and then bins of tomatoes, squash or melons. Most weeks we could mix and match anything we wanted on the veggie wall to fill up a plastic grocery store shopping bag (I know: I’m still not over an organic CSA distributing plastic bags). So although there might be things on that wall I didn’t want (eggplant, hot peppers, kohlrabi), I could fill my bag with anything else, so I appreciated that flexibility.

What I Loved

I loved the freshness of the food. A bag of lettuce greens would last almost two weeks because it was so fresh. My kids were nuts about the carrots. I loved the potatoes. There were some greens I’d never heard of that I really liked: tat soi and vitamin greens.

I liked that this encouraged me to try new things. I always took things that were new to me to try at least once, something I would not do in a grocery store.

Everything tasted better to me because it was organic and it was super fresh. This made everyone more likely to eat it. I’ve never seen my children get excited about vegetables before, and every Monday they would come home and ask what we got at the CSA. There were squabbles over the carrots (who would get to take them in their lunch).

I loved the U-pick part of our CSA, particularly the cutting flowers section. They had a nice selection of herbs in U-pick as well, but I planted an herb garden this year, so I didn’t use those.

I felt as though the price I paid for the share was a good bargain.

What I Didn’t Love

There was some disorganization happening at times. My mom went to pick up my share when we were out of town and although I told the farmer this was happening, my mom still felt as though they were rude to her when she came and looked unfamiliar. There was also a mix-up about a payment that still bothers me.

It was at times hard to keep up with the food that came home. I was drowning in tomatoes and I threw out a lot of greens, which made me feel terrible.

I did not enjoy having to pick my own beans in the U-pick section. I would be happier if those were picked and part of the share.

Somehow I don’t feel as though my weekly grocery bills went down as much as I would have liked and I don’t quite know why that is.

I had to be sure to plan my grocery shopping around the CSA. If there was no lettuce that week and I had just been to the store and didn’t buy lettuce, then there was no salad! But if I bought lettuce at the store then went to the CSA and there was lettuce, I had another problem on my hands.

Will We Join Again?

The answer to that is a resounding yes. I plan to sign up again next year. I also signed up for a winter share, the details of which still has my husband twitching. For $100, we are getting 100 lbs of winter vegetables in one pick up in November, and it will include things like cabbage, squash, pumpkin, carrots (my kids will be happy), potatoes, beets, etc. I’ll post once we pick that up and figure out how the heck we will store it!

So, overall, the CSA experiment was a great success and I highly recommend it to everyone!

We signed up for a CSA for the first time this year. The idea is you buy a “share” from the farmer and then each week you go and pick up your portion of that week’s harvest. I was lucky enough to find Root Down Farm, which is 15 minutes from my house and which … Read more →

Everywhere we ate in Italy, our meals were accompanied by potatoes. Not just any potatoes. These were golden chunks of potatoes that were super crispy and flavorful on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. Like nothing I’ve eaten at home. So of course I was on a mission to figure out how to make them myself!

First of all, buy organic potatoes. I’ve used conventional potatoes for years and recently switched to organic and they taste much better!

Peel 4 organic russet potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Cut each slice into quarters. Parboil until cooked about halfway. Drain.

Place on a baking sheet and drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil on top. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs and 1/4 tsp garlic powder. Toss to coat. Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes, turning the pieces over about every 15 minutes.

Presto! Miraculous Italian potatoes. I’m thrilled to have this turn out! Next I’ve got to figure out the Sorrento lemon cake….

Everywhere we ate in Italy, our meals were accompanied by potatoes. Not just any potatoes. These were golden chunks of potatoes that were super crispy and flavorful on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. Like nothing I’ve eaten at home. So of course I was on a mission to figure out how … Read more →