rutabaga (yellow turnip)

Start with a single ingredient.

Something inexpensive & plentiful. Something in season.  Sometimes something ugly.  Like a turnip.

Build a recipe around it.  It’s easy peasy.

More on this later….

Polenta Pizza

Combine these Ingredients in a medium saucepan & boil:
2 1/2 cups stock or milk or water
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp. kosher salt

Lower heat to a simmer.

Add this ingredient slowly, whisking constantly:
1 1/4 cups cornmeal

It will come together suddenly.  It’s polenta!  Remove from heat.  Spread polenta on bottom of a greased 9″ springform pan, pushing into edges to create a raised edge.

Cover polenta with some tomato sauce & some cheese, and whatever else you like.

Bake at 400 degrees until the crust is a bit browned, the cheese melted.  It cools quickly.  Pop the sides, slice into wedges and….

Sit Down And Feed, As You Like It.

I would like to post on glutenfreeonashoestring.com, but it is not ready yet.  Michael, the web designer, is trying to understand what I would like you to see on the site, and we’re slogging through it.   It will take a bit of time.

I plan to talk about how I went through much of my life not having a healthy relationship with food, and how having children, learning to cook for them, having a sick baby and learning to cook for him has at times been glorious and at times been unmitigated HELL.  Food food food.

Food writers seem to looooooove to talk about food, and I picture them rolling ’round the pork-strewn floor of their kitchens, really living their lives.  Me?  Most days, I struggle with issues with food, issues with eating, issues with feeding my family.  And sometimes I wish we could just eat M&Ms all day long.  They’re gluten free, anyhow.  I could feed them to everyone but the dog, Friday, since it would kill him rather quickly.  The rest of us would survive for quite a while on M&Ms.

Has anyone seem my website?  Can I train it to come when I call it?

CHOPPED CARROTS & CHOPPED CELERY, to use as a base for soups and stews.  The carrots are less than $1/bag, and the celery is $1 for a whole mess of it.  If you need to make vegetable stock in a pinch, just boil some carrots and celery, with some salt & pepper, maybe an onion, for 30 minutes and voila.

5 CUPS OF BROWN RICE, cooked with salt, pepper & a few tbsp. of butter.  Add it to soups to thicken them and make them more satisfying.  Give it to your children with eggs for a hearty breakfast.

POTATOES (any kind – whatever is on sale that week), roasted with salt, pepper and oil (olive or canola), at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Reheat them in the pan after making eggs, and you have a balanced breakfast.

DRY PANCAKE MIX, 3 recipes worth, to use 2 cups of dry mix at a time + 2 eggs + 2 cups butter milk + 4 tbsp. melted butter.  I bake PANCAKE CUPCAKES in the oven in muffin cups rather than making individual pancakes, and they cost about $4 for more than a dozen pancake cupcakes.  I make BREAKFAST FOR DINNER sometimes, and serve pancakes with some homemade APPLE SAUCE or BAKED APPLES when apples are inexpensive.

TOPPING
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup. granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup Four Flour Bean Mix
scant 3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

DO THIS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 9″ pie plate.
Combine FILLING ingredients & place in prepared pie plate, piled toward middle of the plate.
Mix TOPPING ingredients together until just combined, in order listed in ingredient list.  Mixture will be thick.
Cover apples with topping evenly.

BAKE until golden brown for approximately 45 minutes.  Check about 30 mins. in and tent with foil if topping is starting to burn.

Enjoy!

This afternoon we are all going to the Westchester Celiac Sprue Support Group meeting at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Westchester, New York.  Here’s their site:  http://westchesterceliacs.org/   We’re coming.  In full force.  The whole lot of us.  Well, except the dog.  Although he is gluten free, but still he is uninvited.  Sorry, Friday.

Four Flour Bean Mix
FORMULA
2/3 part garfava bean flour
1/2 part sorghum flour
1 part cornstarch
1 part tapioca flour

FOR NINE CUPS
2 cups garfava bean flour
1 cup sorghum flour
3 cups cornstarch
3 cups tapioca

I thank my lucky stars for Bette Hagman’s Four Flour Bean Mix & xanthan gum.  It, like the truth, will set you free……………

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…………….

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup warm water (just turn the faucet on its hottest & wait a moment)
1 envelope active dry yeast

2 cups 4 flour bean mix
scant 1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. olive oil

DO THIS
YEAST MIXTURE
Combine 3/4 cup. warm water & the yeast into a small bowl.  Let stand until yeast dissolves and starts to bubble (5 minutes). If it doesn’t bubble, it’s not active (sometimes yeast dies before its time).  Try again. 

FLOUR MIXTURE
Combine 2 cups flour mix, xanthan gum, sugar & salt (with whisk, or just with a fork).

Add YEAST MIXTURE and 3 tbsp. olive oil to FLOUR MIXTURE.  Either pulse in a food processor or mix in a bowl with a spoon or fork to combine.  If in a food processor, pulse until a ball starts to form (will happen suddenly).  If in a bowl, until mixture starts to come together.  If it seems super sticky, add some more flour mix a tbsp. at a time until it seems reasonable to stop.  Now it’s dough.

KNEAD dough on a lightly floured surface with the heel of your hand until smooth.  Pull it apart in a few spots & check it out.  Once it seems relatively shiny, stop.

OLIVE OIL a large bowl and place dough inside, turning it to coat with oil (so a crust doesn’t form on the dough while it is rising).  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm-ish area to RISE until doubled in volume (about 1 hour).

PUNCH down dough & knead again a bit.  Just a little. 

REFER back to the use it/freeze instructions above.  Enjoy.

FIRST:  Heat large (nonstick) saucepan of sorts and add eggs, swirling to coat pan with thin layer of eggs.  Cook 30 seconds.

THEN:  Add rice & fry, stirring, until heated through (3 minutes).  Stirring rice should break up & distribute layer of mostly cooked egg.  Add oil, then vinegar & soy sauce (to taste), stirring to coat & stir fry until liquid is evaporated. 

FINALLY:  Stir in scallions & spinach until heated through (2 minutes).  Salt if necessary.

How easy was that?

3 tbsp. oil (olive or vegetable)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

VEGETABLES
1 medium onion, chopped
2-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 large idaho potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 28 oz. can (the big ones) whole peeled tomatoes, you chop ‘em
10 or so cups homemade vegetable stock (recipe around the corner)
1 lb. lentils

FIRST
Sweat the VEGETABLES, all of them, together with salt & pepper and the oil in a large pot with the top on.   That means to close them up in there together with the flame on low & let ‘em sweat.  About 10 mins. until they’re all soft-ish and fragrant.  Then add the canned tomatoes and all their juices.  Stir. 

SECOND
Add the broth and lentils to the large pot, and stir to combine.  Cook over medium heat until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes or so.  If you like a thicker soup, either let the soup cook longer so it reduces and becomes more concentrated, or stick an immersion blender into the pot and puree some of it, or a combo of the two method, until you reach desired consistency.

IF YOU LIKE
Top with finely grated parmesan cheese.  Or not.  I usually don’t.

Enjoy. Rinse & repeat.  Your minions will love you.  This time for realz.