Chili and Cornbread {Gluten Free}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... everywhere is snow! When it's chilly outside, our family loves to eat chili. We recently served chili at our church, and there were no complaints. This chili appeals to the masses with its milder flavor.

Chili Ingredients:

plain chili, before anything else is added

1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 (14 ounces) cans of diced tomatoes-- if, early in fall, we have any garden tomatoes on hand, we peel 'em and cut 'em and throw 'em in the pot.
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander
1 cup tomato juice
1 Tablespoon honey
1 (16 ounces) can of navy or Great Northern Beans

From Drab to Doily

All credit goes to my creative mother on this one. I am merely the messenger telling you what she did for this easy, DIY furniture refashion.

I do not have a picture of the original, bare wood bookshelf, so you will have to imagine it. It  was a very reddish stain, and it did not go with anything. The first step in the bookshelf's transformation was a black bath. It looked so much better painted black, but it was rather plain. My mom decided to dress it up with some doily designs.
She repainted the top of the bookshelf tan, as well as the very top of the sides. ("Sauteed mushroom" is the official name of the color, in Lowe's Valspar latex enamel interior/exterior paint) and it's the same as the neighboring walls. She also bought paper doilies from Wal-Mart and used them like stencils. Sticking them in place with tightwad's double-stick tape-- single-sided masking tape rolled into a double-stick loop-- she eyeballed the placement of the doilies. On each end of the bookcase half a doily hung over the edge. The other half, of course, was on the horizontal top surface.
Next, using a foam paint brush, she painted around the doily edge, and in all the little holes.

 

The paper plate you see in the picture is where she kept her paint. This was one of those on-a-whim late night projects, so I am excited that I have all these pictures of the process. Most, if not all, of the 'during' pictures were taken by my talented sister. Can you tell she loves close-ups?

Pinterest

I created a Pinterest for this blog, but I'm technically challenged, so bear with me while I try to set up a "Follow me on Pinterest" button to link you to my boards. Simply searching Left and Write on Pinterest brings up too many results which are not me. Try this link: http://www.pinterest.com/source/writingleftandwrite.blogspot.com/

The Outback Steakhouse: Restaurant Review

First of all, The Outback Steakhouse did not pay me to review their restaurant. Several days ago I went there of my own free will and curiosity.

I knew from looking it up online that The Outback has a gluten-free menu. If you want you can take a look at it here. At the restaurant, I requested and received the gluten-free menu without any hiccups. The menu has most of the items that are on the regular menu, with details about what is and is not gluten-free. Next to the salads, it advises, "ask for no croutons." The Outback does not offer gluten-free bread or buns, so if you want a burger, ask for no bun. The main dish I ordered was also on the regular menu, and by default came with Aussie fries. The gluten-free menu alerted me that Aussie fries are not gluten free. I am not sure if the fries themselves have gluten, or if the fries are fried in the same oil as battered-and-fried foods. Either way, I opted for a different side. When I ordered, the waitress asked, "Are you the gluten-free one?" I said yes, and she made some note on her paper. I suspect that cook took some precautions with my food. See if you can guess what I ordered from the picture:

Carrot Cake {Gluten Free}

September is always busy, but every year I seem to forget that fact, and am surprised how quickly it passes. The 15th was my grandpa’s 80^th birthday, but it’s the first day of October as I am finally posting about it! We celebrated with extended family and gluten-free cakes.

I was surprised the carrot cake was more of a hit than the chocolate cake.

We found the recipe on Elana’s Pantry, a paleo blog. (For some of you who don’t know what the paleo diet is, it excludes all grains, so it is even more restrictive than eating gluten-free. Many of Elana’s recipes are almond-flour or coconut-flour based, rather than using rice flour.)

We followed the carrot cake recipe to the letter. Not. I’m always giving my mom a hard time for modifying recipes before she even tries them.

Crunchy-edged Crepes {Gluten Free}

My mom made these for my birthday. Today is my birthday. It does not seem real. It takes me about ten months to get used to my age and then two months later I have to start all over again.

But about the crepes. 

They are crunchy around the edges but soft and spongy on the inside.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk**

2 eggs

 ½ teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1 ½ cups Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix

Multi-name, Multi-fame Pancakes {Gluten Free}

As the title implies, this recipe has many names. It's fame has been passed around in my family. Many times I have heard the story of my late Great-grandmother,"Grandma Willow," making silver-dollar size pancakes for her grandsons Mark and Tim. Those boys are now my Uncles and proud grandparents in their own right. I have a fifty-fifty chance of remembering correctly which one would win those pancake eating contests. I do know for sure the recipe I am going to share is an adaptation of Uncle Tim's pancake recipe.
So why not call it Tim's pancake recipe? My dad acquired this dish, and tweaked it, adding more eggs, among other things. The most recent adjustment made it gluten free. Another name for this recipe could also be buttermilk blueberry pancakes. These are not flat, flavorless pancakes. They are hearty, stick-to your-ribs oat pancakes.
Call these pancakes whatever you want, except late for breakfast!
Directions: Mix together

1 ½ cups rolled oats

2 cups buttermilk

Beat in ½ cup Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix *be sure there are no lumps*

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten

2 bananas, mashed

 Fry up on the griddle. 
Yield: Approximately 25. It depends on how large you make the pancakes. My dad's pancakes are more typical in size, not like the silver dollar ones my Great-grandma cooked up so long ago.

Another funny tradition we had, which

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

I am going to switch from the chronological narrative of my last post in order to discuss the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or BEP for short.  Their ticket system is not logical, nor is it explained on their website.  It has government planning written all over it! I will spare you our confusing story, and stick to the fundamental facts.

D.C. Gluten Free

The primary focuses of this blog are eating gluten free, and writing, so I am going to combine the two and write about how I ate gluten free in Washington, D.C. I am also going to cover sights we saw, and things I wish I knew beforehand, and generally compile helpful tidbits from books, guides, maps, and websites I used.

We traveled to D.C. on Sunday, and got in to our hotel late in the evening. We stayed in Alexandria, Virginia (not to be confused with Arlington, VA, which is just to the north of Alexandria.)

On Monday, we took advantage of the free shuttle to the Van Dorn Street Metro. Several nearby hotels offer this service to their patrons.

Fried Rice {Gluten Free}

I realize I have been posting mostly dessert recipes, so I am going to post a main dish today. When my mom was describing this meal to someone, she called it “A marriage between Indian and Chinese rice.” The American melting pot would be more accurate! The seasonings are loosely based on Indian Biryani rice, but the dish is not spicy. At all. I have had rice at an actual Indian-family-from-India’s house, and they said they toned down the spices, but my mouth was still burning! There are also fried eggs mixed in this recipe, which is a Chinese thing. We generally refer to it as fried rice. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups rice

3 cups water

1 carrot

1 teaspoon salt

~1 cup raisins

~2 cups cooked chicken

1-2 beaten eggs

coconut oil

~1 cup frozen peas.

1 teaspoon coriander 

1 teaspoon turmeric

 ½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Measure 1 ½ cups rice and 3 cups water into a pan, and bring to a boil. 

While it is heating up, peel and slice a carrot. Once the pot is boiling, add the carrot, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. 

If you don’t have any leftover cooked chicken you can pull out of the fridge, now would be a good time to start cooking some chicken to serve with the rice. For our family of six, we need at least 2 cups. 

When the rice is almost done, fry one or 2 beaten eggs with coconut oil in a large fry pan, and add ~1

Blueberry Muffins {Gluten Free}

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have a thing for muffins. They are less messy because they are conveniently wrapped in their own personal muffin cup. I can grab one to go faster than, say, banana bread, because I don’t have to slice it, or get a napkin. Plus, I just feel that they are healthier.  This particular recipe is sugar-free, dairy-free, and packs some protein from almond flour, coconut flour, and eggs. (See the more detailed breakdown below) Here’s the blueberry muffin recipe:

Combine Dry Ingredients:

1 cup Pamela’s Artesian Flour Blend

1 cup almond four

½ cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking soda

Mix wet ingredients:

6 eggs

½ cup honey

¾ teaspoons vanilla

1 ripe banana 

Natural Mosquito Repellent

I love the internet, but I hate it.  As Abraham Lincoln so wisely pointed out, “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity.”

But seriously, we found this natural mosquito repellent recipe somewhere on the internet, and now I do not know which website it is originally from because this picture (left) and recipe are on

Mosquitoes and Wasps and Bites, Oh My!

The word “mosquitoes” brings other words to mind. Bugs. Blood-suckers. Real-life vampires. Disease-carriers. But for most of us in first-world countries, they’re just annoying. Itchy. Stop! Don’t scratch your

Banana Bread Brownies or Bars {Gluten Free}

These are delightfully moist due to the bananas and sour cream. We actually found this recipe on Facebook (looks like that content is not available anymore) but we had to modify it to make it gluten free, like almost everything, and we reduced the sugar. (While you’re at it, like my page, Left and Write.)

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

½ cup butter, softened

 2 eggs

1 ¾ cups or 4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

French Toast Strata, or Breakfast Casserole {Gluten Free}

How many times has this happened to you: you try out a new type of gluten free bread, and it flops. It tastes funny. It’s dry. It crumbles. You think to yourself, Now what am I going to do? That bread was expensive, and I’ve got to somehow choke it down, because I can’t let it go to waste!

You could just toast the bread in the toaster before you eat it, because all gluten free breads taste better toasted. It makes them moister somehow. Or, better yet, you could make French toast with the bread. But, when you have a whole loaf of unpleasant bread, the best thing to do is to make French toast strata in a 9x13 pan, and use it up in one fell swoop!

We love to make this dish the night before a big weekend, and/or when we have company so we don’t have to take time to make breakfast, we just have to bake breakfast.

(For more ways to save dry bread, try this stuffing recipe. If you are still looking for truly good gluten free bread, checkout some of the brands I've tried here.)

Ingredients:

(1) ~1 pound loaf of gluten free bread

(1) 8 ounce package of cream cheese, thawed to room temperature

6 Tablespoons melted butter
2 ½ cups milk

¼ cup maple syrup

8 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Black Raspberry Crisp {Gluten Free}

Donuts are to bagels what cupcakes are to muffins, or what store bought is to homemade- sugary and overrated versus wholesome and even healthy.

I propose another lovely switch for gluten free people: crisp in exchange for pie. Pies are already too time-consuming for me my mom to make, and it only gets worse when you add gluten-free dough! It sticks to everything but itself! It won’t hold its shape. Crisps are quick and obedient by comparison.

Filling:

5 cups black raspberries

½ cup sugar

¼ cup potato starch

½ teaspoon cinnamon

dash of cloves

Combine and dump in a greased 8 by 8 pan. We use coconut oil for grease.

Topping:

½ cup each of oats*, 

Hot Lemonade

Hee hee hee. Imagine deep, diabolical chuckling. Deep, because I woke up with a sore throat. Diabolical because I figured out how to transfer pictures from a camera to this blog. All by myself. Ok, so someone
showed me, but now I can do it all by myself.

Anyway, I woke up with a sore throat, so naturally I made myself some hot lemonade. It is our family’s go-to sore throat soothing hot drink, especially for the members of the family who do not like real tea. It has been around so long I’m not sure where we got the recipe. Most likely it came from my grandma.

What is the recipe? It’s simple.

Red, White, and Berry Gluten Free Muffins

These patriotic muffins have red raspberries, “white” bananas, and “blue” black raspberries. The batter has an almost biscuit-like consistency, light and fluffy, unlike any other dense gluten free muffin you’ve ever tasted! They are also sugar free, sweetened with bananas and honey.

Yield 2 dozen

Ingredients; Dry:

1 cup Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, (which is add-an-egg-and-oil-easy. It has flours, starches, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum)

1 ¾ cup Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend (flours, starches and guar gum)

1 cup almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

The Declaration of Independance

“When in the course of human events…” the famous document begins. What  made it so potent and transcendent? Thomas Jefferson, representing the thirteen colonies, penned the powerful declaration appealing to God’s authority, logic, and pathos.

Image from http://www.founding.com/the_declaration_of_i/
Read the full text of the Declaration there as well

Wisely, Jefferson based his case on the Solid
Rock. “They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” These rights are not removable because they come from God, not government. Thomas appeals to the “Supreme Judge of the world,” rather than King George, who has turned a deaf ear. Not surprisingly, God is also the author of Justice, order, and logic.

Continuing on, Jefferson piles up pillars of logic to frame his case. He explains that “Prudence… will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light… causes…” This is not a whimsical fancy. Thomas’ tone indicates he means business; he uses formal, serious words. Systematically, he lists the thirteen colonies’ complaints against the King. George III won’t listen to reason or representation. He set up puppet rulers and tore down proper ones. He required a standing army in peace time, forced colonists to quarter

What Keeps People Up at Night?

What keeps people up at night? Fears. Noises. Nothing in particular. Whether rational or laughable, strange things keep writers awake.

Everyone’s heard of writer’s block, where one cannot think of what to write about, or how to write it, but

Flourless Chocolate Cake {Gluten Free}

I love this recipe! Sometimes I have looked up a delicious dessert only to find it called for a type or brand of gluten free flour I had never heard of, did not have, or could not find in my area. Who wants to pay shipping and handling? I find it hard to justify buying and trying every gluten-free package out there. It is expensive, especially because gluten-free foods are not created equal! I never know if it is going to be dry, crumbly, and/or flavored funny!

This dish has none of those problems. It is a dense, moist chocolate cake, almost like a brownie. It is perfect for friends or relatives who are not gluten-free. There are no pricey, gluten-free flours and gums (xanthan gum or guar gum) in this dish. You or your friends do not have to buy a big bag of some ingredient that you will only use once to make a gluten free dish! This is also great for novices like my mom and I were when we found this recipe. 

You can make a basic chocolate cake, or a mint chocolate cake, or a cream cheese marble. Plus, you can make it dairy free if you use dairy free chocolate chips. I've used baking chocolate chips that are not "certified" df but don't have any dairy in the ingredients. 

Finally, you can make brownie bites in mini or standard size muffin cups! (Line the cups with paper and bake for less time.) Spooning batter into muffin tins takes more time so we usually just make the cake.

Batter:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or df chips).

*Variation: dark chocolate and mint chips (2 in 1 package from Nestle)

1/2 cup butter, or if you want to make it dairy free, coconut oil.

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs                

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

Directions:

To Blog, or Not to Blog, that is the Question

Obviously I decided to take the plunge, or more accurately, to dip my toe in and test the waters. I feel like just another fish in the sea. Why should anyone read my blog in the sea of countless others? Let me tell you. I plan on posting on a variety of topics, including eating gluten free, being a writer, and surprising subjects you will just have to keep watching for. I hope to make a splash, but I am also realistically concentrating on creating ripples before I make waves. Because I am just starting out, I will not be posting every single day. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please paddle back again soon.