Green Tomato & Onion Turnovers

I seems like ages ago when my husband and I tilled up a large area of grass in our backyard and transplanted our tiny seedlings into a barren patch of dirt.  We tended to each little plant with love and waited all summer long to reap the fruits of our labor. Now, our garden is brimming with peppers, okra, cabbage, kale, cucumbers, herbs, and tomatoes.

Green tomatoes, that is. They are taking their sweet time in ripening; and, although I love nothing more than a ripe garden fresh tomato- a bit of impatience culinary nerve came over me.

In all the years I have grown tomatoes, I had never once considered eating the fruit before it ripened.  So early yesterday morning, I decided I should create something delicious with my still green and crunchy tomatoes.

I knew I wanted to try a more unorthodox approach than simply frying them up, so I created these delicious turnovers.

Let me just state that I am extremely impressed with these things. In fact, my husband and I were both so enamored with the taste and texture, that we are already planning on making them again. Soon.

Like, maybe tonight.

The thinly sliced tomatoes and onions melded with the nutritional yeast and cumin inside the crispy pocket to create a treat that smells absolutely wonderful while baking in the oven.

And, they tasted so damned good.

Try them… if you’ve never eaten green tomatoes, this is a great intro recipe. Other fillings can be added or subbed in for the ingredients listed, but I really love the flavor of this exact recipe. Perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Now I wonder if my tomatoes will last long enough to ripen to red?  At this point, I couldn’t care less.

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Blackberry Brownies

This is more or less a simple brownie recipe with some blackberries sprinkled on top- but what a humdinger of a simple recipe it is!

It’s somewhere in between a “cakey” brownie and a “chewy” brownie.  And, while I admit that I generally prefer the chewy variety to the cakey variety… these are right up there with the best chewy brownies I have ever had. They’re soft and moist on the inside, while chewy and slightly crispy on the outside.

The blackberries are optional, but they add a really nice touch.

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Rustic Peach Bread

This delicious bread is mostly savory with just a touch of sweetness from the peaches. It’s a little dense, but man, does it ever hit the spot for anyone with a hankerin’ for a good (and not obviously Gluten Free, like the crappy ones in the freezer section of the grocery store [blech!]) piece of bread.

It’s really crusty too…

…in a good way!!

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Blackberry Cobbler

Holy yummy, people… have I got a recipe for you!

It’s not particularly healthy… but it’s a cobbler.  And, it’s delicious!

If I didn’t have to share, I would love to eat this whole thing myself.  In fact, it is very rare when a creation of mine does not survive past its photo shoot.  But, I had to call this one short due to my lack of self restraint.

Many people have a different idea of what a cobbler should taste like. Just for the record, this one has a coffecake-biscuity like topping, and the berries on the bottom definitely resemble a deliciously sticky pie filling.  And, of course, there’s crumble topping on top of the topping. So, it’s less like a “buckle”, and more like a “grunt”, but most perfectly described as just “cobbler”.

Are you all still with me? :)

Fruity and wonderful, please enjoy this recipe for gluten free (but certainly not sugar or fat free!) blackberry cobbler.

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Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hiya all!  I’m back.

Well, truthfully I hadn’t gone anywhere. I have been sitting on my computer for the last week and a half trying my damn-dist to get this blog all fixed up. Unfortunately, my former webhost  had some  issues and both of my websites with that host were hacked. Fun.

It occurred while I was on my super fun mini vacation. My family enjoyed a quick getaway with my long time BFF from Philly and her fams.  It was a blast. Good eats, fireworks, my favorite people all in one place, swimming pools, and dogs galore.

But coming home to my website spewing out maliciousness was pretty horrible. :)

Needless to say, I had to do some major cleaning up, and I had to switch hosts… and it took a bit of time to do so.

But, no worries.  Everything is happy and secure and fresh and new, and I’ve brought along some extra chocolatey chip cookies. Or, at least the recipe.

It feels so good to be back up.

Whew.

Thank goodness for BFF’s from Philly who know how to fix broken websites. Thank goodness for my supportive hubs who spent all hours of every day working hard and freaking out along side of me, but doing a much better job of keeping his cool than I.  Thank goodness for puppies… for just being so darn cute and snuggly when I needed it the most.

And thank goodness for you understanding and wonderful readers. ♥

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Chocolate Raspberry Cake with “Anniversary” Glaze

raspberry-chocolate-anniversary-cake-5

My hubs and I just celebrated our wedding anniversary ♥.  I made this raspberry chocolate cake for us to indulge in, along with a bottle of wine from our wedding. The cake (which has since been completely polished off) had a delicate crumb and fragrant ribbon of fresh raspberries and preserves in the middle of each slice. The “anniversary” glaze, a simple mix of red wine, confectioner’s sugar & coconut oil, made the cake extra special.

It turned out to be a really good cake.

Alright, it was better than good. It was amazing.

Flavorful. Excellent. Almost gourmet-ish.

My husband and I were devouring the leftovers of the glaze straight from the bowl. Even as I am writing this post, we keep talking about how stupid good that cake was. Maybe we are biased because it was our anniversary cake… but I have my doubts. :)

If anything, try using the just the glaze on something else: a cookie or scone, strawberries, a piece of toast, a spoon, anything! I recommend a shiraz or tempranillo blend (because I love them), but wine of any sort would be pretty good… even the super cheap stuff. The result of combining confectioner’ s sugar with wine creates a sweet (but tart) and classy coating that compliments the chocolate and raspberries with the utmost generosity.

I only managed to jot down my measurements for the cake. So, use your best judgment when making the filling and the glaze. The filling should be the consistency of a thick jam, and the glaze should be the consistency (before hardening) of Elmer’s glue. Yes, I’m serious.


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Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (GF)

vegan-and-gluten-free-muffins-4

Sometime last week, as I opened up my Google reader, I was greeted by this.

Is that not the most wonderful and genius muffin ever? It made me mad with muffin envy. Those bad boys just looked so damn good I set myself a goal to make muffins ASAP. I wanted to de-glutenize Mihl’s version, but I had no Dandies or cranberries. Plus, I really suck at looking at/using other people’s recipes. I pretty much never follow them as written. Admittedly, when I look at all the other fabulous food blogs out there, I skim over the whole “recipe” part and get right to the photos.  Look again… you know you want to.

But, back to the issue at hand…

Before I started to even preheat my oven, I realized that I hadn’t yet created a gluten-free version of my own chocolate muffins. Naturally, I decided to nip that problem right in the bud. I started by making a simple chocolate muffin that accompanied our family on a long hike this weekend. By round two, I had created the muffin monstrosity pictured above.

I also happened to pick up some Dandies at the grocery this past weekend while we were out in “the big city” gorging on ridiculously huge and ever-so-tasty dosai (plural? for dosa).  It all made for a pretty spectacular weekend.

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Cherry Tart-lettes

vegan-cherry-tartlette-2

Over the weekend, the family and I stocked up on plenty-o-cherries. While I was excited about eating them as is- savoring each sweet and juicy bite- my son had another plan for them: cherry pie.

He must have asked me to make cherry pie at least ten times this past weekend.

Truthfully, the thought of rolling out a pie crust in 90 degree weather seemed less than appealing…but I didn’t want to disappoint my little man. So, I compromised with some tiny cherry tarts. Similar to the requested pie, with a little less fuss. These tarts can be made quickly, with relatively little effort. Pitting the cherries is the hardest part.

They are super cute too. Kinda like cookies and pie and muffins- all in one!

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Chocolate Twirly Doodle Cookies (GF)

chocolate gluten free vegan cookies

The name says it all.

Okay, maybe not.  But they are chocolatey, and twirly… and “doodle” just sounded nice with the rest.  And, seriously, what kind of cookie with a “doodle” at the end doesn’t taste good?

These cookies are my first experiment using sorghum flour, and I must say, I am pretty impressed.  It seemed to work a lot like buckwheat, but was a touch lighter in color and in taste.

With this new promising flour, I decided to try my hand at some rolled cookies.  And, when it worked out almost effortlessly, I decided to roll them again… with a little chocolate sugar inside.

The results were even better than I expected, with a taste, texture and (a word that has been abuzz lately, and I [childishly] find pretty funny) “mouthfeel” like typical AP flour cookies.

They are soft and flavorful with a hint of almond flavor, and they definitely give me the confidence to try out new and exciting ways to manipulate GF dough.

For all of you readers who still like your baked goods glutinous, I would assume you could sub out AP or whole wheat flour where I used the different flours/xanthan combo.  I say this because I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe as a starting point.  You may need to add a smidgen more flour to make it stiff and rollable… but I think it should work out okay. :)

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Chocolate Avocado Banana Bread

chocolate avocado banana bread

This is a fun twist on an old favorite.  I have been making this recipe for years and it always turns out perfectly. In fact, I’m pretty sure this was the first recipe I came up with “all by myself”.  :)

To make it gluten-free, I just subbed out a few different flours where I usually used all-purpose flour.  Feel free to re-glutenize it by subbing the 2 cups of AP flour back in, and leave out the xanthan gum.

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Super Sticky Clementine Cake

vegan gluten free clementine cake

Okay, when I say this cake is super sticky… I mean it is super friggin’ sticky.  See how the cake kinda dips in the center?  I’m not exactly certain why this happened. :|

My guess is: incredibly moist (and heavy) cake with crispier ( therefore lighter) edges = cake that sinks in the middle.  But the taste and texture totally trump any weird looks this thing may get.

I still have a lot of gluten free cake making in my future, but at least now I can say I have mastered a flavorful, wet, gluten free cake that will stick to the bottom of your plate. Good start.

The clementine filling/topping adds an extra layer of super sticky that I find over the top perfect for this cake.

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Garam Masala Cookies

garam masala cookies

A little unconventional maybe– but pretty delicious for a last minute pantry raid.  What I like best about these cookies is their texture– they are thin and chewy and crispy all at once.  The flavor is, well, flavorful!

Since Garam Masala varies— I cannot guarantee that your cookies will taste just like my photo. :)  Mine was a blend of coriander, cardamom, black cumin, cinnamon, celery, black pepper, allspice, cloves and anise.  Each one of those spices had a special place in these cookies.  A touch of cocoa really tops them off.  Spicy, sweet and kind of chocolatey- could you really ask for anything more?

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