A Busy Day of GF Cooking

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Pancakes, GF Millet & Oat Bread, AND Meatloaf!

[NOTE: This post from yesterday never got published, because in the midst of writing it I discovered a bunch of my other sites had been hacked. Spent the past 24 hours fixing that mess. Even more exhausted now than when I wrote this post about how busy yesterday had been—little did I know it had only just begun!]

Not sure what got into me today, but it’s been a busy day of cooking and blogging (with some napping and Twins Baseball thrown in for good measure 🙂

I started the day making GF pancakes (using sorghum flour, millet flour, potato starch, and almond meal).

Later I baked a loaf of GF Millet & Oatmeal Bread and wrote it up in the Bread Diary.

I also researched stand mixers (after mine broke trying to mix the Millet & Oatmeal Bread). I’m leaning toward the Kitchen Aid Artisan, but I’m open to suggestions . . . I’ll need to save my pennies for a while before I invest in one.

Finally, I’ve now got My Favorite Meatloaf in the oven . . . which is my mother’s recipe, but using GF Breadcrumbs and soymilk. Looking at it in the oven, I’m not sure the GF Breadcrumbs work quite the same way (as binder with the egg) as the traditional breadcrumbs, but we’ll see.

GF Meatloaf

Mix together:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 c. seasoned GF breadcrumbs (if your breadcrumbs are unseasoned, add 1/2 tsp Italian Herb Seasoning Mix—oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary)
1 egg
1/4 – 1/2 c. soymilk (or other “milk”)
salt & pepper
dash celery salt
1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce
finely chopped onion (trace amt up to 1/2 c.)
dash garlic powder
1/4 c. tomato sauce

Form into loaf and place in 9″x13″ pan (DO NOT use loaf pan). Combine an additional 1/4 c. tomato sauce with 1/4 c. water and pour over loaf.

Bake at 350° for 1 to 1-1/4 hour. [I usually cover it for the first 45 minutes and then uncover for the last half hour.]

NOTE: I haven’t had much luck finding corn-free tomato sauce, so I often mix a couple of Tbls tomato paste (the concentrate that comes in a tube is usually JUST tomatoes) with an equal amount of water to make the tomato sauce for this recipe. I mixed about 4 Tbls tomato paste and 4 Tbls water and put HALF of this mixture in the meatloaf and then diluted the remaining half as indicated above to pour over the loaf. Because I wasn’t certain how this loaf would respond to/absorb the moisture, I only added half the tomato/water mixture before putting it in the oven, then checked it and added the rest after 30 minutes. I think it would be okay to add it all before baking.

I served the meatloaf with baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli. Other than needing a bit more salt, it tasted great!!

GF Pancake Redux

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

After my Shrove Tuesday Pancake debacle, I really wanted to try GF pancakes again . . . with a more successful recipe! I ended up combining two recipes I found online:

http://glutenfreehomemakerrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/gluten-free-pancakes.html
and
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Gluten-Free-Pancakes

Here’s what I came up with this morning. They were pretty good!

Gluten-Free Pancakes

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup almond meal
1 Tbls sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls baking powder
2 eggs
2 Tbls oil
1 cup soymilk (or whatever “milk” you prefer)
butter/oil/shortening for greasing pan (I use Spectrum Organics Palm Shortening)

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl (I actually use an old tupperware plastic pitcher to make pouring easier). Whisk until everything is evenly combined. Add eggs, oil, and milk. Stir and scrape bowl until everything is combined. Check consistency of batter—it should be relatively thick, but pourable. (I had to add a couple of tablespoons of rice flour to get the thickness I wanted, so starting with a bit less milk would have been a good idea.)

Heat griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Grease pan lightly. For each pancake, ladle 1/4 cup batter onto the hot skillet. Cook until the top is almost dry and small bubbles have formed. Flip. Cook for a couple more minutes or until done.

Makes 10 pancakes about 4-5″ in diameter.

Notes

I use relatively low heat and longer cooking time, 2-3 minutes for the first side and 2 minutes for the second, because in the past I’ve ended up with burnt-on-the-outside/raw-in-the-middle pancakes. Your own cooking times will depend on your pan, your stove, and your patience.
You’ll also notice that I cook one pancake at a time. Also due to past experience where I couldn’t get even cooking. Do whatever works for you.

Strange Bedfellows

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Okay, so the really big “Gay News” of the day was that Martina Navratilova will be appearing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars!! Mark your calendars, Live 2-hour Premiere Event on Monday, March 19, 8/7c. And no, she will not get to dance with a girl . . . that would be too much to hope for on live prime time TV.

But that’s not what I’ve been thinking about today . . . (well just a little).

Most nights I go to sleep listening to the audio podcast of the night’s The Rachel Maddow Show . . . no cable here, so that’s how I “watch”. If something catches my ear, sometimes I’ll watch the video clip the next day via the interwebs.

Last night’s show was a gem . . . in a very thought-provoking way. Two segments dealt with prominent/rich GOP supporters who also support gay rights.

The interview with Frank Rich (the second clip above) was so good that this morning I looked up his piece “Whitewashing Gay History” in New York Magazine. Turns out the article is much less about unexpected GOP support for gay marriage and gay rights (Rich sends us to this NYTimes article from May 2011 for much of that). Rather, the article details how our “liberal” supporters haven’t been consistent in their support . . . which only serves as a reminder that you/we really don’t know who might support us (even based on their past actions).

I also was reminded of the Civil Discourse Training “Talking About the MN Marriage Amendment” I attended at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church last month. One of the main points was to be brave enough to talk to people who disagree with you or who haven’t decided yet. Afterall, these are the votes we need the most if we are going to defeat the amendment! (There were many other excellent points made in the presentation, but this is the one most related to the discussion above. Listen to the podcast of the event if you get a chance. Or this excerpt at the Episcopal Story Project)

SO, all of the above is just my way of saying that I’m still thinking about the Ash Wednesday call to be “repairers of the breach” . . .

Pork Chops & Applesauce

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

My GF Breadcrumbs project got rather involved . . . but I WAS able to make the Breaded Pork Chops a L’Orange I was craving.

As mentioned in the previous post, to make these you take thin cut pork chops/cutlets, dip them in beaten egg, and then in breadcrumbs. (I first sprinkle the chops with salt & pepper & garlic powder, but you can add those later if you like. I also sprinkle some Italian Herb Blend—oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram—into the breadcrumbs, but that is also optional.)

The breaded chops are then browned in oil for a few minutes on each side.

Then a mixture of 1/2 cup OJ and 1/4 cup water is added to the pan, the heat is lowered, the pan is covered, and the chops are simmered for 45-75 minutes. I turn them every 10-15 minutes or so. Sometimes I have to add more OJ.

I serve these with rice and a green vegetable . . . and applesauce, of course!

And in case you missed it . . . this is what I think of when I have “Pork Chops & Applesauce”:

Breadcrumb Bread

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

This odd looking loaf is from a recipe designed exclusively to turn into gluten-free breadcrumbs. The loaf is mostly potato starch and arrowroot starch (substituted for the cornstarch in the original recipe) and contains both quick-rise yeast AND baking powder. Apparently the yeast is “just for flavor” because there is no rise time at all.

Anyway, I’m hoping to use the resulting breadcrumbs to make “Pork Cutlets a l’Orange” (aka breaded pork cutlets cooked in orange juice). When my mom makes them, they melt in your mouth. Mine never seem to get that tender, but they are still good. Thin sliced pork cutlets sprinkled with S&P+garlic powder are dipped in egg and then in breadcrumbs, browned quickly in butter & oil (which for me will be just oil), and then simmered gently in diluted orange juice for 45-75 minutes (depending on whether you follow my sister’s version of the recipe or my mother’s; mom cooks them longer). My sister adds a drizzle of honey after the browning. Either way, they are yummy!

Not sure why I have a taste for these, but it’s probably because after the “gum incident” the other day, I was on a diet of rice, poached chicken, and applesauce for a few days . . . so I have this big jar of Unsweetened Organic Applesauce (I love that the ingredient list is: organic apples 🙂 . . . so I thought “Pork Chops . . . and Applesauce”.

Oh and yeah, pork chops were on sale when I went to buy groceries yesterday. Will add a pic of them after I make them.

Enjoy!

[Update: While I was writing the above, and the bread was cooling . . . the loaf collapsed. Not likely to get the 8 cups of breadcrumbs predicted from the recipe, but should get enough to make the pork chops. Next time I’ll use some more substantial flour, rather than just the two starches, and maybe let it rise a bit to give yeast a chance to work and the gum time to rehydrate (which apparently it needs to do to provide any structure) . . . Live and learn!!]

[Update#2: Slicing revealed that much of this bread was “gum/paste” . . . I had to carve off the bad parts before turning what was left into breadcrumbs. To do that I sliced the bread and let it “dry out” for a few hours, then I tore the slices into smaller pieces and used the food processor to pulse them into crumbs (this took several batches), finally I toasted the breadcrumbs in a 325°F oven for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.]

Toasted Bread Crumbs . . . Gluten Free!!

NOTE: This post got rather long, so I will post the Pork Chop pics in a separate post.