New beginnings

I've got some exciting news! I will not be posting in Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking anymore, because I have set up a new blog  A Stray Kitchen.  You'll still find the same great recipes but I'm stepping it up a notch and taking my blogging more seriously. I'm currently working on  recipes and improving my food photography. I'm taking  bigger baby sets, but my ultimate goal is to have a professional food blog and E-book cookbooks.

Please head on over and check out A Stray Kitchen and let me know what you think!

Blush Spaghetti

My house was about to be crammed full of guys. We occasionally host a game night at our house, but I didn't know until they started arriving that my brother had promised them food. What do you feed a bunch of hungry guys, and quickly? Spaghetti. It's easy, tasty and I usually have everything I need to make it.

I ran into the kitchen, gathered my ingredients and realized I had heavy cream, I was going to make my favorite spaghetti, blush spaghetti. Why? Because I love the creaminess from the heavy cream and how it mellows out the acidic bite from the tomatoes. If it's an option I always make it over regular spaghetti.

Here's a run down on the ingredients. 

Ground beef, tomato sauce, brown sugar, red wine, garlic, onion (leeks), parsley, cream (not pictured) and Parmesan cheese. Also have your favorite Italian herbs, I just added a pinch of Marjoram and Thyme to this sauce.

 First start a pot of water to boil. I add a little salt and some olive oil to mine before I begin making the sauce.

Now that your noodle pot is getting ready, brown that beef and pour off the extra fat. Once that's done add in your onions and garlic. Let it cook for a few minutes so they soften. Then add your red wine, only a 1/2 cup or so and let it cook down before adding in the tomato sauce.

At this point you can add your brown sugar (to taste, I like a little more in mine to add depth and to  counter the acid in the tomatoes), also add in your Italian spices. The basic spaghetti sauce is now done. You could just serve it as is over noodles, but there's only one more step to make this a blush spaghetti and your taste buds will love you for it.

Pour in the heavy cream...I did around a 1/4 of a cup worth.

Mix it all together, so the red becomes pink.

I let this stay at a low simmer until the noodles are done. I had very little actual spaghetti noodles so I used rice noodles instead. Once they were cooked al dente I drained them, tossed them with the sauce, and made sure everything got thoroughly coated.

Grate some Parmesan cheese over the top, sprinkle with fresh parsley and you're done. Everyone got second helpings (I also made a salad) and the only complaints I got were they were too full to eat anymore (but somehow polished everything off). Silly boys.

Gluten Free Stuffing for the holidays

The holiday season is closing in fast, are you ready for it?

The holidays can be hard when you have to eat gluten free and are visiting relatives and friends (Mr. Beams family still doesn't get it entirely) but if bringing or making your own food is an option, I've got a recipe that you might enjoy.

I keep my gluten free bread in the freezer and I know I can't be the only one that gets slices that break into pieces or the ends are too thick for sandwiches. I keep these odd ball pieces in the side pocket of my freezer door and use them to make stuffing, bread crumbs, and anything else I can think of. If you don't have any of these laying around, you can use a fresh loaf. 

I arrange all my  reject sandwich bread on a tray to thaw. Most of these are end pieces that were volunteered for stuffing duty. They don't all fit on my tray and I've over lapped them a bit, but I make sure to move them during the cooking process to make sure everything gets nice and toasted.

Here's a close up of my broken bread, it's perfectly good, save for the fact that it broke into a smaller piece. The bread is mostly thawed at this point (you can see the melted puddles of frost on the tray).

I heated the oven to 300F and put them in.

After 10-15 minutes they should be nicely toasted (for thicker pieces you'll have to turn them over half way through baking or one side will be crunchy and the other will be soft). When they were cool to the touch I broke them into smaller bite size pieces.

 While you're waiting for the bread to toast, prepare your other ingredients.  Stuffing recipes vary greatly, some add dried fruit, while others add the gizzards from the turkey, my recipe however, is on the plain side, and I never have any leftovers.

Chicken stock, diced celery, chopped leeks, minced garlic, chopped parsley, and spice mixture (salt, pepper, celery seed,  ground coriander, garlic powder and onion powder).

When the bread has been cooled and crumbled, combine with the other ingredients, Making sure the bread absorbs the liquid (I show having just over a cup of chicken stock, but while I was mixing the bread I added water to insure there was enough moisture). When it's all mixed together lightly pack it into a baking dish and bake at 350F until golden brown.

Once it's golden, set it on the counter to cool. I usually serve mine warm but it's also great cold.

I make two batches every thanksgiving. One for Mr. Beams side of the family and one for mine (we eat like hobbits during the holidays).

Happy Holidays and Good Eating!