Farewell

I have decided to close out this blog. I am having a hard time keeping up with both Honey Pickles and A Gluten Free Journey. I will keep the blog open for awhile so you will have access to the recipes. I will post all new recipes, both gf and regular on Honey Pickles. Thanks for checking out this blog.

Family

This week has a been a very difficult week for our family. My mother-in-law, who bravely battled cancer, finally succumbed to that awful illness. It has been a week of lots of crying, planning, discovering new things about my mother-in-law and having lots of family around. We have been truly blessed by all the friends and family that have helped out and given there support. We were very fortunate to have our out of town family stay with us. The picture above is my husbands cousin, Jill with my oldest son. She stayed with us along with her parents from Chicago. Jill drove down from Oregon to attend my mil funeral. What wonderful people! It was truly a joy to have them stay with us. Jill's whole family is celiac. I was able to get some wonderful tips and tricks from her. What a wealth of information. I think once things settle down next week, I am going back to trying to convert my family to go fully gluten free.

Some Bumps In The Road

All has not gone well. I found out this week that my dear son, has in fact been eating gluten all week. At home I have made the transition, but at school I don't have that control. He is flat out refusing to give up all gluten. I am at my wits end. I had also given up gluten with him and reverted back to eating a piece of bread a few nights ago. I didn't think I was having a problem myself with gluten and was doing more in support with him, but boy did I not feel well the next two days. My stomach was not happy, nor did I sleep well. I don't know what that all means, but I went back off gluten just because. I think the tactic with my son will have to be educating him on why it will benefit him. In the meantime, I will keep cooking gluten free at home.

I made this really good Quinoa pasta salad. I added a little olive oil some chopped olives, tomatoes, Italian parsley and salt and pepper. Then I had some extra caramelized onions and added that in for good measure. Boy was is good. I am already thinking of all the neat flavor combos I can do with this pasta.

Sesame Chicken and More.

I was checking out a blog called Gluten Free Mommy and came across her sesame chicken recipe. I was thrilled. I really like her blog and her recipes look fantastic. I still have the memory of eating at Fats Bistro a few weeks ago and having there wonder sesame chicken. I wanted to be able to re-create that in my kitchen so my family could enjoy. I made it last night and my family devoured it. It was so good. Was is like Fats? No, but it was really good. I felt like it could have come from a Chinese restaurant. After dinner my gf son asked if it was really gluten free. The whole family enjoyed it, including hubby.

My friend Lisa is also going gf and shared this wonderful harvest muffin recipe. I made the muffins this weekend and my kids and hubby raved about them. They were really moist and tender and the recipe made a lot. I think this would also be good with some raisins or cranberries added in or even some chopped candied ginger. This would make a great after school snack.



Lisa's Harvest Muffins

1 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups gluten free baking mix (I use Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups grated zucchini (drained)
1 cup grated carrots
3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon (Yes, that really is tablespoons)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Drain zucchini in colander until dry. Mix all the ingredients; pour into muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Autumn Is In The Air

Are you hungry yet? The weather hear is beginning to change and that means soups, stews and chili's in my book. We have actually had some nice cool days, well cool here means low 80's and upper 70's, but cool nevertheless. I made chili last week and it turned out great. I had made this chili the first time for super bowl last year and it was a big hit. It's the Texas kind of chili with no beans. I found the original recipe on Recipezaar. The original recipe called for ground beef and Jimmy Deans breakfast sausage. While that is all good, I wanted to lighten the recipe a little and change up the meat. I used ground buffalo, which hardly has any fat and I used a roll of turkey breakfast sausage. The flavor did not suffer and my family thought it was a hit. The next day I used the leftovers to make chili cheese enchiladas. Yum!

Texas Style Chili (adapted from Recipezaar)

1 pound ground buffalo

1 pound roll turkey breakfast sausage

5 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

1 large white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

16 ounces water

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons masa harina

1/2 cup warm water

1. Brown meat together in a large 12 inch skillet.

2. Stir in tomato sauce and 16 ounces of water.

3. Add all ingredients except cayenne pepper and masa.

4. Simmer 30 minutes.

5. Add cayenne pepper. Mix masa and 1/2 cup of warm water. Add to chili and stir well.

6. Simmer 20 minutes. You can simmer for hours if you want, just stir every 30 minutes.

7. Serves 8.

A New Journey

Hello! This is my new blog dedicated to living and eating gluten free. We are new on this journey and so I thought it would be nice to have a place to share recipes and tell about how we fair though all of this change. We are new to living gluten free. One of our sons needs to eat gluten free and I felt it would be easier to change everyone instead of singling him out. I don't claim to be an expert, I am just a mom who is blogging about what our experiences are for our family. I like to cook and share recipes and I am learning a lot about all these new flours to use. I have another blog that is all about crafting and cooking traditional style, so if you have the time take a look. It's called Honey Pickles . I hope the ride will be smooth, but I am prepared for a few bumps in the road. Bon Appetit.