Butter Lettuce Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Over time every cook becomes known for at least one signature dish so delicious that it is requested by friends and family again and again. Whether it is your mom’s mouth-watering meat loaf or best friend Sam’s handmade ravioli, all cooks have something they do 'best'.

My husband H is a masterful cook and can take credit for many unbelievably tasty recipes. He is known far and wide in our community for his own signature work, a butter leaf lettuce salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Every time we are invited to a barbecue, dinner party or picnic and ask what we can bring, the reply is the same: "We’d love some of that great salad H makes!"

Luckily for me, balsamic vinegar is rated by Celiac.Com as gluten free. There are also many varieties of blue cheese now verified to be gluten free (although you need to carefully check each brand as some are still started with bread mold*). Happily this means that I can still enjoy H’s famous salad… and now so can you!!!


Butter Lettuce Salad with
Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing


What You’ll Need:

Salad for 4:

14 oz (approx 2 bags) mixed butter lettuce and radicchio
(European blend of baby greens may be substituted for equal excellence)
1 large avocado sliced into small pieces (approx 1 inch long, ¼ inch wide)
1 large vine ripened tomato
1 to 2 oz bleu cheese crumbles

Dressing:

Organic extra virgin Olive Oil
High quality balsamic vinegar
Fresh ground black pepper

Proportions: 50% oil 50% vinegar...
This means approx 3 tbsp oil, 3 tbsp vinegar for a salad to serve 4 people.
Approx ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper (to taste)


How It Works:

After thoroughly washing and spinning lettuce and radicchio mix, pour it into a large salad bowl. With clean hands, rip each piece of lettuce into thirds.

Next, slice avocado lengthwise into strips and then make perpendicular cuts throughout each long strip so that you have many small pieces approximately 1 inch long and ¼ inch wide.


Scatter these pieces around salad. Chop your fresh ripe tomato into pieces approximately the same size as those of the avocado.

Scatter 1 – 2 oz of gluten free bleu cheese on top of your salad.

Now it is time to create the piece de la resistance of this recipe... the balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

The most important thing to remember when making this tangy dressing is proportions. No matter how large of a quantity of dressing H is preparing, he always uses 50% extra virgin olive oil to 50% high quality balsamic vinegar.


For a dinner party of 4 people, H recommends creating a little more than 1/3 cup dressing for the salad. This means you will need approximately 3 tbsp of oil coupled with 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, poured into a serving implement made out of glass. (H prefers to make his dressing in a standard glass measuring cup.)

Now add your fresh ground pepper and begin to mix all ingredients together. In order to maximize its potential, this dressing must be stirred with a fork very vigorously and applied onto the salad before the oil and vinegar can separate.

Once your dressing is upon the greens, toss the salad very well. Don’t be afraid to use some force… even breaking apart the salad a little. H feels this allows the flavors to penetrate the greens, and mixes the avocado and bleu cheese well.



Last step, serve and enjoy immediately!

*For a great explanation about the history of gluten in bleu cheese, read this article by Alison of Sure Foods Living. (This recommendation comes from one of my all time favorite authorities on gluten, A Gluten Free Guide.)

Wonderful Wahoo's!

Flame Grilled Wahoo Bowl with Black Beans and Rice

I was doing some last minute shopping today for the dinner I am throwing tomorrow to celebrate my brother’s upcoming wedding… (yes, a gluten free celebration!) when my infant son began to yell, "BA, BA, BA!" In his language, this means: "Mommy, you’d better feed me within the next three minutes or I am going to get REALLY cranky and then you’ll be sorry!"

As I’ve discussed before on this blog, locating inexpensive and tasty food that is also gluten free can be a real challenge when you are away from your house or favorite grocery store, especially when you need to find it fast.


This is why I was so relieved to realize that we were only a few blocks away from Wahoo's Fish Taco. We don’t live very close to their local restaurants, so it hadn’t occurred to me to try and find gluten free food there since I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance last December. Still... fish and rice sounded like excellent protein for my son, despite his abiding love of hamburgers. There wasn’t enough time to second-guess myself so we gave it a whirl.



I’m so glad we did! My son and I each enjoyed a Wahoo’s Bowl with Flame Grilled Fish, with a side of their ahi rice and black beans. The man taking our order assured me that no gluten ingredients were used in this particular preparation of fish, and that he felt positive that our meal was gluten free. He even checked with the kitchen!

Wahoo's Green Salad... delicious!

Imagine my joy then, to return home and discover on a reputable gluten free website (Gluten Free In SD) that Wahoo’s has already been vetted by Celiac friendly organizations in Southern California and it truly is known for its gluten free fare! To see a list of all menu items confirmed to be gluten free by Wahoo’s in 2007, please click here.

It’s too bad that my family doesn’t live closer to a Wahoo’s Fish Taco restaurant… and depending on which state you live in, there are probably a lot of other readers to this blog who don’t have access to their food either. However, I do have three ideas about this:

• Encourage your favorite local restaurant to add a gluten free fish taco to their repertoire, using all corn tortillas, black beans, gluten free guacamole and delicious white fish,


• Check back with this blog over the next few weeks, I am going to try to develop a gluten free fish taco recipe to share with you, or best of all...


• Contact Wahoo’s to encourage them to open a new franchise near you! (It can’t hurt to ask!) If you’ve been considering opening a gluten free restaurant, this could be your golden opportunity...

Meanwhile, despite the ever-increasing cost of gasoline I will be conspiring to bring my family back soon to enjoy another delicious meal at Wahoo’s!

Garlicky Goat Cheese Pizza with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil

Ever since I posted my Calm That Pizza Craving recipe on this blog a month ago, I have been yearning to experiment further and improve upon it.

Here are three reasons why I love pizza:

(a) It's quick to make -- a real bonus when cooking for hungry children,
(b) Pizza is physically and emotionally satisfying to eat... and,
(c) You can eat it with your hands!

With such delicious crusts from Kinnikinnick to work with, I plan to create a whole variety of pizza recipes to satisfy everyone in my family. For example, my husband is a huge pepperoni pizza lover while our children prefer straight cheese... and I myself have been hankering for a vegetarian pizza to love. I think I’ve found it!

The secret to the seasoning here is: light on the tomato sauce, fresh with the greens. Unfortunately, canned spinach and dry basil just aren’t going to give you the same incredible taste.

Before making this pizza recipe you should know that it is deliciously rich, thanks to the goat cheese and fresh mozzarella. If you are preparing it as a main course, I would suggest complementing each pizza with a fresh green salad on the side and perhaps offering your guests a light sorbet for dessert.


Garlicky Goat Cheese Pizza with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil


What You’ll Need:

Two 7-inch Kinnikinnick pizza crusts
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves, minced
½ cup sun dried tomatoes, minced
2 fresh vine ripened tomatoes (medium size)
2 oz fresh mozzarella
4 – 5 oz fresh goat cheese
10 fresh basil leaves (mince 8 of them)
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 – 4 tbsp olive oil
4 oz tomato sauce
Salt and fresh ground black pepper



How It Works:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

In a small sauté pan, heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil at medium temperature until hot but not smoking. Add minced garlic and sauté for 1 - 2 minutes until fragrant but not browned. Set aside.

Using a sharp knife or small food processor, mince your spinach, sun dried tomatoes and basil – but do each separately so that they are not all in the processor at the same time. Once these ingredients are very finely chopped, pour them all into a large mixing bowl. Add sautéed garlic and mix with a wooden spoon or fork.

Next, add your goat cheese to the mixture and blend it all together very thoroughly. The end result will be a paste that is slightly funny looking – a bit brownish and greenish, but oh my goodness it is delicious! (Once the pizza cooks, these ingredients will once again look lovely.)

In the same pan you used for the garlic warm the tomato sauce, Italian seasoning and oregano at low medium temperature until it begins to bubble like this:


Place your Kinnikinnick pizza crusts on a stainless steel baking tray and douse each one with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Using a butter knife, spread the olive oil evenly across the top of the crust.


Then with the same knife, spread a thin layer of your goat cheese mixture evenly across each pizza. Keep in mind that the thicker you make this layer of cheese, the richer your pizza will be.

Spoon half of your warm tomato sauce into the center of each pizza. Then, as shown in this picture (below) add several small slices of fresh mozzarella in the center of each pizza, so that it begins to resemble the center of a flower:



Slice your fresh tomatoes into thin round slices and then cut each one in half lengthwise. Arrange the slices around your pizza so that they look like the petals of the flower:


Dust with salt and fresh ground black pepper according to your own preference.

Place pizzas on tray in your preheated oven and bake for approx 10 – 12 minutes (checking to make sure it does not burn) until the mozzarella in the center is fully melted and the pizza crust is crispy but not overly browned.

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as an appetizer.

Flourless Chocolate Cake Celebration

This recipe is a celebration of many things for our family. First, my husband loves chocolate more than any food (or beverage) in the world – other than a chilled bottle of his favorite Sierra Nevada beer. And while he has been very patient with a wide variety of my gluten free brownie mixes, H never really loves any sweet dessert made without white flour – so it has been an important challenge to me to invent or adapt something chocolate-y and gluten free that would really knock his socks off.

The great news? The cake is moist, rich and ideal for dark chocolate lovers. Best of all, H loves it. A direct quote after he took his first bite... "Oh honey, you now truly hold all of the strings to my heart!"

Next, I have discovered that my body really can’t take processed sugar any more. I have all kinds of uncomfortable physical and mental reactions to it – ranging from racing pulse and sudden sweating to mild depression, anxiety and problems with yeast overgrowth. Sadly for me, many of my favorite gluten free chefs like to use white and brown sugar in their recipes, sometimes in large quantities. So sweet foods and baked goods have been tough to make from scratch.

I can do maple sugar or maple syrup in very small quantities, but no honey. H hates the taste of stevia, so that’s out… hence, my options have been limited. A few weeks ago my mother mentioned that she seems to do very well with blue agave nectar and I figured – "Hey, it’s all in the genes, right?" so when planning this flourless chocolate treat I decided to give agave a shot. The result? Victory! So far, I haven’t had any adverse reactions to it and I am very happy that the flavor (while very sweet) is also mild and subtle. It doesn’t drown out the chocolate or cocoa in this recipe at all!

Lastly, as you can see we are celebrating a new member of our family - the Nikon D40 camera that I will be using from now on to photograph the food you see on this blog. I’m going to take a class on how to use it… but already the image quality is so much better! I am thrilled that as I become a better photographer my readers will be able to experience the true beauty of these gluten free recipes… just the way they appear on our dining table!


Flourless Chocolate Cake Celebration!!!


What You’ll Need:

For Cake

6 oz semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate
2/3 cup butter
4 eggs
¾ cup and 1 tbsp organic blue agave nectar
1 cup unsweetened Ghirardelli cocoa powder

For Glaze

2 oz semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate
3 tbsp butter
¼ tsp gluten free vanilla
2/3 tablespoon organic blue agave nectar
1 tbsp milk


How It Works:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

With butter, grease a round 9 inch baking pan. Lay a circular piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, and then (odd as it may sound) grease the top of the parchment as well. Set baking pan aside.

For cake, melt chocolate and butter at medium low temperature stirring constantly until they are thoroughly combined and smooth. Remove from heat and transfer with scraper into a fairly large bowl (or the bowl of your kitchen mixer).

Slowly pour in blue agave nectar, mixing well. Next, add eggs (one at a time) and use either a hand mixer or a whisk to make sure they are fully blended into the batter. Finally, spoon the cup of unsweetened cocoa in and again use hand mixer or whisk to blend. Make sure there are no larger chunks of cocoa powder clumping together. I used our Kitchen Aid mixer to ensure the absence of clumps.

Pour your gorgeous chocolate mixture into the greased cake pan. Bake in oven approximately 40 minutes (check between 30 and 35 minutes to make sure it is not burning if your oven tends to run hot). When perfectly baked the top will have a crust the consistency of chilled pudding and may fracture a bit. Don’t worry – the fissures will be unnoticeable when cooled and besides, you are actually looking at the cake’s bottom!

Remove cake from oven and allow to sit undisturbed for about 12 minutes. Place your lovely cake plate over the top of your pan and then invert the plate and cake so that you are now looking at the bottom of your cake pan resting on top of your cake plate. Gently remove pan from cake, and carefully peel away the top layer of parchment paper.


Glaze: Combine chocolate and butter in saucepan at medium low temperature, stirring constantly until fully blended. Add vanilla, milk and blue agave nectar and continue stirring. When all ingredients are perfectly integrated, set aside until you are ready to glaze your cooled cake.

Slowly pour or spoon glaze onto cooled cake, and use your soft scraper or a soft spatula to spread it evenly across the top of the cake. It will drip down the sides in an artistic way. Chill your cake in the refrigerator between 20 – 30 minutes before serving.


Strawberries make an excellent garnish, but really this rich chocolate treasure is a celebration in itself.

Serves 8.

Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Goat Cheese, Spinach and Sun Dried Tomatoes

My husband and I went out for a special dinner last Friday at a fancy French restaurant. I’ve had good experiences with their kitchen in the past, with servers and a chef who were all sensitive to my gluten free dining needs. While scanning their menu, my eye caught upon an entrée comprised of chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese, spinach and sun dried tomatoes. Our server checked with the chef to make sure it could be prepared without any ingredients containing gluten. He agreed to make a wine butter sauce without flour. I was so excited!

Imagine my disappointment then, when the chicken was tough, dry and lacking in flavor. It was even difficult to carve with a knife. After sharing a bite of my dinner, H said "Honey, I think you could make this recipe taste a lot better for a lot less money!"

Inspired by the challenge, I have now come up with my own version… which I hope you’ll love! (We did. Hurray!)


Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Goat Cheese, Spinach and Sun Dried Tomatoes


What You’ll Need:

4 boneless chicken breasts (sliced thickly)
½ cup sun dried tomatoes (packed or rehydrated in oil)
½ bag baby spinach (3 oz)
6 oz goat’s milk cheese (we used Chavrie, 5.3 oz)
1 tbsp basil
1 small yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 tbsp butter

Optional: handful of toasted pine nuts


How It Works:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Mince onion and garlic and set aside.

Mince basil, spinach and sun dried tomatoes. I used a mini food processor to do this, but it would work just as well by hand. Combine in a new bowl with goat cheese, adding sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Stir until thoroughly blended, don’t be surprised if you can’t see the sun dried tomatoes in the mixture (the taste is definitely there). Your mixture should look something like this:



Next, take a sharp knife and cut a slit (between 1 – 2 inches wide) in the width of each chicken breast, inserting the blade slowly and widening the slit so that you have created an opening in the middle of the chicken breast that looks like an envelope.

Fill the “pocket” inside of each chicken breast with your goat cheese – sun dried tomato – spinach – basil mixture. It is fine if you get some on the outside of the chicken breast while stuffing them. Salt and pepper each side of your chicken breast.

Heat approx 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a heavy sauté pan at medium temperature. When it is hot but not smoking, add onions and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent.

Add all 4 stuffed chicken breasts to the sautéed onions and garlic. Cook at medium temperature approx 1.5 to 2 minutes, then turn over in pan and do the other side for the same amount of time. If there is any remaining filling, feel free to smooth it on top of your chicken breasts.



Finally, place the heavy sauté pan inside of your preheated oven and bake for 8 – 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through (it took 9 minutes in my oven which runs hot).

Remove your masterpiece and serve while still steaming hot! The filling should have turned into a deliciously creamy and bubbly affair. My husband suggests garnishing your stuffed chicken breast with some toasted pine nuts. This dish goes well with a side of rice pasta dusted with a little parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.



Mmmmmmmm..... how could a recipe containing Chavrie be anything other than decadent!

Authentic Fish and Chips

I can’t take any credit for the sumptuous feast you see pictured here, other than to share my very simple recipe for homemade chips. I found this incredible gluten free fish and chips recipe from the website of a very talented Canadian gluten free chef named Trina Astor-Stewart and it knocked our socks off! What a joy to be able to enjoy fried breaded fish and beer, for the first time in eight months! As I progress in my own cooking ability I will definitely try to make homemade salmon and chips from my own original recipe, and then post it to share with my readers… so stay tuned and for now, dive into a luxurious greasy basket of these!



p.s. It seems a little bit blasphemous for a Californian to try and create fish and chips as delicious as those made in Britain or Canada but…with respect… I’ll sure try!


Crispy Homemade Potato Chips Recipe
(to accompany Trina’s amazing fish)

What You’ll Need:

2.5 lbs small russet potatoes
Canola oil
Fresh ground black pepper
Sea salt
Cayenne pepper

How It Works:

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Slice your potatoes in very thin rounds (as thin as a sharp knife will let you – no more than 1/8 inch thick). Heat canola oil in a wok or actual fryer until a drop of water sizzles (but does not smoke) when flicked on top of the oil. Fry potatoes for 6 – 8 minutes until golden brown on both sides, turning them over half way through to make sure they are fried evenly.



When fried, place them on a stainless steel cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and dust on both sides with sea salt, fresh milled black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste. Place in your preheated oven to keep warm until time to serve.

Striving Chef’s Modifications to Trina’s Outstanding Fish Recipe…

In addition to the original salt and peppering of the fish, we added an additional dusting of garlic powder to both sides before dredging it in the flour mixture.

In lieu of Herbs Provencal we used ½ tsp rosemary, ½ tsp basil and ½ tsp thyme. Yum!

For maximum satisfaction, serve fish and chips with a nice cold gluten free Redbridge Beer!

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Andouille Sausage

The ingredient which really makes this soup is definitely its chili powder, especially when coupled with the relatively cooler flavors of fresh cilantro, cumin, garlic and oregano. Andouille sausage and fresh basil from our kitchen garden also added something special.

Still, the memorable difference between this spicy, satisfying soup and other more run-of-the-mill black bean soups is definitely its kick! From the first taste you will feel warmth begin to emanate throughout your body. While the spicing isn’t hot enough to bring tears to your eyes, it is definitely vibrant enough to put a genuine smile on your face.

To make sure that each of your guests enjoys the perfect amount of seasoning to match their individual preference, serve this black bean soup with a topping of sliced avocado, sharp cheddar cheese and/or sour cream. This works well either added directly to individual portions or (more casually) passed around the dinner table. Sour cream will often entice timid souls who are wary of hot foods - enhancing their enjoyment without diminishing the zesty essence of your delicious dinner.



Spicy Black Bean Soup with Andouille Sausage


What You’ll Need:

Olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp minced fresh cilantro
2 tsp fresh basil, minced
1 tsp oregano
2 cans black beans (15 oz each)
3 tsp chicken bouillon ( = 3 cubes)
3 cups water
2 stalks celery, minced
12 ounces gluten free Andouille sausage (Wellshire Farms)
3 large fresh tomatoes ( = 2 cups chopped)
½ lime (juice only)
2 tbsp tomato paste
Grated sharp cheddar cheese
Thinly sliced avocado
Organic sour cream
Sea salt (to taste)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste)

How It Works:

Pour approx 2 tbsp olive oil in bottom of a stainless steel 3 quart pot, heat at medium temp. Add chopped onions, stir occasionally. Cook until translucent (a few minutes). Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano, black pepper, cilantro and basil and sauté until garlic and herbs are fragrant – somewhere between 90 seconds and 2 minutes. Add chicken bouillon, water and black beans and cook partially covered between 15 and 20 minutes.


Slice Andouille sausage thinly and sauté in a separate pan with olive oil and minced celery. Add sausage, celery, lime juice, salt and pepper to the black bean mixture and turn down heat to low. Simmer for another 10 – 15 minutes or so.

After you ladle your soup into bowls, top with the aforementioned avocado, tomatoes, grated cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Serves 6. We enjoyed golden brown polenta on the side.