zucchini tots. winning!

We have so so so much zucchini in the garden right now and I know there's much more to come. I've been on the lookout for new zucchini recipes on Pinterest and yesterday I found a winner. Zucchini tots. The tots require a mini muffin pan, but we don't have one. I doubled the recipe and made them in a regular muffin pan...the result: delicious zucchini cakes. WOWZERS! Only a few ingredients and very minimal prep work. I decided at the last minute to try them and I had all of the ingredients right here (including zucchini fresh from the garden). I'll be making these again - probably this week! 

huevos rancheros!

I have a love affair with huevos rancheros. It all started about two years ago when I ordered the dish for the first time (in my whole life) at SunnyPointe in Asheville. I had a crazy migraine and I was trying to rally for a day out at the Biltmore with Jose and his family, so I pulled out all the stops by ordering a diet coke and huevos rancheros, simply because it was the spiciest thing on the menu.

It doesn't make sense that I'd never had huevos rancheros before because 1) I really don't like breakfast food and 2) I love Mexican food. This is literally the most un-breakfast breakfast that there is. As soon as I realized that I could have this very delicious dish in place of eggs and bacon or pancakes, there was no turning back.

Since then I've cooked it a half dozen different ways, always declaring that the most recent iteration is my favorite. It just occurred to me that I should start posting the recipes so that I remember for next time.

Ingredients:

corn tortillas, lightly steamed

chorizo (GF, from Whole Foods)

bacon (baked until crispy then chopped)

black beans (with an ounce of recaito cooked in)

shreeded cheese

sour cream

eggs, over easy

I took the corn tortilla and piled it high with all the ingredients, leaving the egg for last. I cut into the egg, allowing the yolk to spill out and make the whole thing more juicy and flavorful.

SO GOOD. Seriously. I don't like eggs over easy unless they are in some version of huevos ranchero. To be fair, I don't really like eggs, so that says a lot about this dish.

Mods for next time: goat cheese instead of shredded cheese. Yes, please!

pizza & subs

Some old favorites are hard to duplicate as gluten-free dishes, but we're getting better at it. Which mostly has to do with finding better products. Against the Grain has FANTASTIC pizza crusts and baguettes, which make pizza and hot subs possible once more!

This is a fresh mozzerella and sausage pie with Jose's homemade sauce (yum!). The sausage was freshly made at Whole Foods and we chatted with the maker herself to find out what was in it, and to confirm that it's GF. Hooray for nice people!

We bought some additional sausage and Jose made meatballs to go with his amazing sauce. We had just enough leftovers for an easy meatball sub dinner. Seriously, that was the best meal I've had in 2012. We used to do the meatball sub thing pretty regularly, but I hadn't been able to have one since last April. Being gluten-free doesn't kill me the way I thought it would, but it certainly does make me appreciate the little things in life!

fried chicken...gluten-free!

Before going gluten-free I didn't eat fried chicken very much, but it was one of those dishes that I would really crave from time to time. Maybe once every two months. There are no restaurants that sell a GF version of fried chicken, so when I realized I hadn't had any in 8 months, I knew I was going to have to try some at home.

My brother had recommended my sister-in-law's recipe for Paleo fried chicken, but I waited until I was literally DYING for a fix to attempt it. I didn't have all of the ideal ingredients (and I really don't know how to fry chicken), and it was STILL deliciously amazing, and also amazingly delicious.

How-to:
Split chicken breasts and season as normal. Take three bowls and put coconut shreds in the first, coconut flour in the second, and a few whipped eggs in the third. Coat the chicken in egg, dredge in flour, coat in egg again, and roll in loose coconut. Fry in coconut (or olive) oil until golden brown and fully cooked.

I think I might try bone-in chicken next time...and I might start it in the pan and finish it in the oven. I might need to invest in a cast-iron skillet. Oh the (golden, fried) possibilities...

Mamaw's fudge

I don't really have a name for this stuff...I just call it "Mamaw's chocolate, peanut butter, and marshmallow fudge". Not very catchy, is it? I could call it "mmmmm, wow!" or "ohmygod", but for now we'll just call it "Mamaw's fudge". This is the stuff that I think of when i think about the holidays, because Mamaw took any special occasion as a reason to make it. She had a crazy sweet tooth, as evidenced by this made-up candy.

So how do you do it? It's super easy. Here we go.

Ingredients:
10 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
a dollop of peanut butter
1/2-3/4 bag of mini-marshmallows

Melt the chips in a double boiler, or in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Add a dollop of peanut butter when the chips begin melting. Melt both, stir together well. NOTE: I hate when people use measurements like "dollop" or "smidgen", but really, just use as much or as little as you'd like. I probably use 2-3 tablespoons per 10 oz of chocolate.



Once the chocolate is melted, add in marshmallows and stir until coated. I feel like I've added enough marshmallows when there isn't much remnant chocolate left in the mix.

Historically I've poured the mixture in a glass pan, let it set in the fridge, then cut it into squares for serving. This year I decided to use the cupcake tins since they worked out so well for my birthday candies. Worked like a charm. Also, I usually double the recipe because it's for a party or some gathering of peoples. My double batch at Thanksgiving yielded 14 cupcake cups.

Since this is such an insanely sweet treat, I wasn't sure if the Lopezes would be into it, but they were! On day 3 my brother-in-law called dibs on the last piece and I was so incredibly happy. It's tough not to be able to share Mamaw with my new family, so it was nice to share this piece of her.

bell pepper stuffed burgers

Sometimes I just want a good burger. It isn't often at all, but when the craving is there, it's real. My stuffed Greek burgers were so good that I thought they could never be topped. But then...

Last month we were getting a crazy influx of bell peppers in the garden and we could hardly cook them fast enough. Side note: it's so frustrating how the bounty seems to come in waves. Anyhoo, we were going to grill the peppers and add them to the top of the burger and I suggested grilling and stuffing them instead. We topped the burgers off with crispy bacon and creamy gorgonzola, and served them with a side of an old childhood favorite - tater tots.

As another side note, Udi's gluten free buns are pretty delicious (especially when toasted on the grill). So much more satisfying than going bun-less.

This was just one day's harvest. I think we picked just as much the next day:

slowcooker BBQ pork

A few years ago, Jose and I had a conversation about the genres of food that we never go out for anymore, because the version we make at home is better. Then I started thinking about the ones that we exclusively went out for, and decided to work on getting better at them. BBQ pork was on the list, and the first that I set out to tackle. The result isn't really a recipe, but a guideline of sorts...and it turns out supercrazydelicious every single time.

Ingredients:
2-3lb pork roast (beef works too)
1 cup sauce of choice
adobo seasoning
fresh ground pepper

Slice roast into 4 equal slabs, season liberally with adobo and fresh ground pepper. Place meat side-by-side in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour sauce over the meat, cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Remove lid, separate meat with a fork and let simmer in the sauce for 30 minutes.

So. Delicious. You can throw in any spices and seasonings that you're partial to, these just happen to be two that are always involved in my BBQ. It's also yummy to throw in a few chunks of pineapple. A few dashes of liquid smoke adds some nice flavor. Really, I think it would be hard to go wrong with this recipe.

swedish potatoes

My favorite kind of recipe is one that uses foods that I typically have in my kitchen. Also, most of the recipes I use are ones that someone else recommends. It's nice to get trusted opinions, warnings, and suggestions before diving into something that may or may not be good. My friend Christy has given me some pretty fantastic suggestions over the years, and these Swedish potatoes were no exception. The recipe calls for you to drizzle melted butter and olive oil over them, rub freshly minced garlic between the slices, and top with salt and pepper. They were really great, but I should have used more butter. And next time I'll probably start branching out with some various herbs and spices. The possibilities are really endless...

sofrito...fresh from the garden (kind of)

The ultimate goal of the garden is to provide ingredients for some of the dishes that we make/eat the most. We planted the cubanelle peppers for the sofrito that we use in rice, beans, marinades, stews, etc. etc. In the past we've had to use anaheim peppers in their place, so we thought it would be cool to get the real deal out of our very own garden.

Imagine my excitement when, just about the time that our frozen supply was running out, our plant yielded the peppers needed for a full batch! So...fulfilling, so...delicious. Garden win #5,716.

cave woman soup

Do you know how hard it was to find enough cave women to make this soup? Alright, not funny. But seriously, I've had several friends recommend the caveman or "paleo" diet to me, since it is the height of healthy, gluten-free eating. I checked out Health Bent, one of the recommended sites, and right away I spotted the carmelized three-onion and cauliflower soup. I vowed to make more soup this year, and even though it's really too hot for it, I whipped it up last week.


What's that green stuff on top? Why that's the most important part - basil oil. I made a bigger batch than what they recommended - probably three handfuls of basil, and 2 cups of olive oil. In addition to topping the soup with it, I dipped my gluten-free cheese and (fresh from the garden) tomato sandwich in it. Oh good grief. Stellar.


What would I do differently? Well, I would probably add an extra shallot for sweetness. I would have some crisp, lean bacon handy for an additional topping. But the most serious alteration I will make is to the cauliflower. Even though I let it simmer as the recipe said, there was a mealy texture to the soup. After brainstorming with my cook-genius friend Scott, I think next time I will lightly steam them, then chop in the food processor, then simmer, then re-process. Stay tuned for the commentary on that. It's cauliflower, how could it go wrong?

i like (gf) toast and (blueberry citrus) jam

Jose's favorite meal is the one I'm most likely to skip - breakfast. Every once in a while I can be talked into a big morning meal...and the promise of something like blueberry citrus jam goes a long way towards convincing me!

The actual recipe is for blueberry lime jam, but I had to make a small adjustment at the last minute - yes, I know I just said that I wouldn't alter any canning recipes until I better understood the science of PH levels, but a small mishap forced my hand.

I had grated the lime peel and juiced the limes in advance and then right before the juice had to be added to the pot, I knocked it over. Could not believe it. Almost cried. With jam, everything is really time-sensitive, so I had two choices: add lemon juice instead or throw it all out. Easy decision. So it's blueberries, grated lime peel, and lemon juice. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it is amazingly amazing. To quote Jose, "this is the best jam I've ever had. Ever. Really."

My breakfast - an egg over medium, fresh tomato from the garden, oven broiled bacon and blueberry citrus jam on toast made from Udi's gluten-free bread.

Jose's breakfast - eggs over easy, oven-broiled bacon, fresh tomato from the garden, leftover blueberries and blueberry citrus jam on regular gluten-filled toast.

blueberry and lemon verbena compote

My goal for this weekend was to can some blueberries before their season passed. The problem was that we couldn't decide on just one recipe (and maybe that's not a big problem because we ended up with a lot of deliciousness).

My first choice was the blueberry and lemon verbena compote in the Better Homes and Gardens special canning edition. Why? Because you serve it over ice cream (among other things), but most importantly, ice cream.

And can I just say that this is mind-blowingly yummy? It's pretty sweet and I'd like to reduce the sugar for next time, but I'll need to do some research to see what that will mean for the consistency. Also, I think I will use this as a jumping off point for other fruit compotes. I can see me making a big batch, not canning it, and having people over for delicious ice cream and fruit compote. Yes, yes I think I will have to do that.

I turned this:

into this:

The hardest part was going to the farmer's market and hopping from vendor to vendor until I found someone with a lemon verbena plant. Now that I have it, I'll most definitely make and can an additional batch of the above, and I'd love some more recipes that would make use of lemon verbena. Suggestions?

beggin' fur basil

Berger loves homemade treats. I mean, Berger loves ALL treats, but I think the fresh ones that we make at home must be really flavorful, because he freaks out for them (or maybe he can taste the love in each one...d'awwww). Puggie is a food hound in general and will eat anything you give her, but since she moved in with us, we've noticed that she loveloveLOVES the basil we're growing. You can frequently find her outside laying in the sun amongst the many pots of basil we have. That is, if she's not standing and sniffing each leaf like it's the most amazing thing she's ever smelled. I once saw her take a timid chomp at one of the leaves, but she looked around like the super guilty dog that she was and dropped her score.


I confirmed that basil is safe for dogs to eat and vowed to come up with a recipe for the pups. I took bits and pieces from a number of recipes and I think they turned out well (not that I can/would try them, but the dogs seem pretty excited about them).

Ingredients:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup oatmeal
2-3 tablespoons dried basil
1 1/2 cups water*
4 teaspoons vegetable oil

*You may find that you need a touch more water than this, just be careful not to make the dough too wet.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and blend well. Add the water and oil and kneed for several minutes, until the ingredients are well distributed and the dough is a nice firm mixture.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4" and cut into shapes with your favorite cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes (or until edges are browned). NOTE: 30 minutes is for a medium ~3" cookie shape. I make smaller 3/4" stars for Puggie and those were ready in about 20 minutes.

tomatillo salsa

Last year my friend Diane gave us a jar of tomatillo salsa and it was phenomenal. We used it all up pretty quickly and were sad to go back to store bought stuff.

After my initial canning experience, I decided that I totally could (and should) whip up a batch of tomatillo salsa to can. In my hunt for a recipe, I stumbled upon a great blog called Farmhouse Finishing School, and I decided to use their recipe. Since I read in my Hip Girl's Guide that it can be dangerous to make substitutions until you understand the process and recipes really well, I resisted the urge to alter it too much.

Two small tweaks:
1) I ran out of tomatillos and instead of going to the store, I read online that green tomatoes could be substituted. Jose donated about 10 from the garden and I was back in business.
2) I saw a similar recipe in one of my canning magazines that included cilantro. Since herbs don't do too much to the PH (and the recipes were really very similar), I added several tablespoons.

The result is fabulous salsa. Super delicious. Very fresh. Jose and I decided to buy a pressure canner as an early anniversary gift to ourselves and it was money well spent. Although we didn't use the pressure functionality this time, the pot is large enough that I was able to give 10 half pints a water bath all at once. This may not sounds super impressive, but after doing 4 at a time with the jam, I'm pretty jazzed about it.

I will note that I doubled the FFS recipe and the result was about 90 ounces of salsa. I had made her pesto earlier in the weekend and it was a 6-7 ounce recipe, so when she said that the salsa recipe made "a ridiculously small amount" I was thinking 1-2 jars. Wrong. So much salsa. Well, so much to me, the non-hardcore canner.




Next on my list? Something with blueberries...

pizza pizza!

Since going gluten-free, I have really really really missed pizza. Really. I've tried a couple of restaurant and pre-made pizzas and they just don't add up. Now we've moved on to buying various GF crusts and testing them at home. Our first attempt was SO superior to these other pizzas, so fantastic. It can only get better from here and that makes me happy.

It started with Udi's personal-sized crusts. We topped them with:
tomato sauce we made with pan roasted zucchini*, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes*, and onions
basil pesto*
fresh mozzarella
basil leaves*
tomato slices*
feta crumbles


before...

I forgot to take an after photo until I was down to my last slice. Not the most beautiful slice, but if you could have a bite, you would taste the beauty :)

*ingredients fresh from the garden

basil bananza!

Last weekend we harvested somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 cups of basil from the garden. Also, I didn't even get to every plant. So for those of you who said/thought that I planted too much basil, you might be right...but I'll never admit it. I'll work double time to make use of it all and I'll give the rest away. No basil will be left behind.

So what did I do with it all? Well, I made 6 batches of regular pesto - I used the Farmhouse Finishing School's recipe. Love. Great recipe. Not too different from the ones I've been using, but it called for the pine nuts to be lightly toasted and that made a giant difference. While I was toasting stuff, I toasted the garlic - made it easier to peel and the flavor was really great.

But that still left A WHOLE LOT OF BASIL, so I revisited my roasted red pepper pesto and whipped up a double batch. I should note here that the recipe I provided was already a double batch and I had forgotten that (d'oh!) and my food processor almost overflowethed. Almost.

I toasted the pine nuts and garlic and kept everything else the same. Mmmmmm...we ended up using the roasted red pepper pesto as the base sauce on a pizza with a little bit of the basil pesto in a swirl on top...wow. Highly recommend. All the work that has gone into growing this basil and making the pesto is 100% worth it.

Finally, I decided to dry some basil. In addition to using it in our own food, the dogs love it. At casa de Lopez, everyone wins!

pico de gallo

Pico de gallo is a favorite, but it has to be fresh to be delicious. I never make it, but after a few instances of having pico with lackluster tomatoes recently, I decided to stop being lazy and make a batch myself.

The recipe that I threw together was super delicious and I'll continue using/tweaking it in future batches. Also, SO easy. Sure, there's 10-20 minutes of chopping involved, but it's completely worth it. Now I'm wondering if I could can some for wintertime. Canners - thoughts?

Ingredients:
5 roma tomatoes, cored, seeded, diced
1/4 to 1/2 red onion, diced
2 tspns chopped cilantro
1/2 jalepeno, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
juice of three limes
pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients and add a pinch or two of salt (to your liking).

It's hard to say how many this would serve. I guess you could say 4? We snacked on it while cooking tacos, then used it for our tacos and still had a serving left over. If I were taking it to a party, I would double or triple it.

holy guacamole!

Over the past several years I've definitely put more of an emphasis on making things from scratch as opposed to buying them pre-made or going out for them at a restaurant. This is probably mostly due to my interest in learning new techniques and skills. In the past month though, I've really ramped up my efforts to make things fresh because that's the best way to ensure that they don't contain gluten. So yeah, extra effort and extra money, but also extra flavor. Win-win-win.


Not shockingly, I read several recipes and then finally made up my own.

Ingredients:
3 ripe avocados
1/2 red onion, diced
1-2 roma tomatoes, cored and diced
1-2 serrano peppers, minced
1-2 limes, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
fresh salt and pepper, to taste

Juice the limes and set juice aside in a medium-sized bowl. Slice and peel the avocados into 1/2" slices and toss them in the lime juice. Once the avocados are well coated, set them aside and save the remaining lime juice.

With a fork, mash the avocados to desired texture and fold in the onions, tomatoes, peppers, and garlic. Add one or two teaspoons of the remaining lime juice (depending on your taste preferences). Season with salt and pepper.


Serve with UTZ gluten-free corn chips.

You're welcome.

roasted corn and bell pepper salsa

We went to a July 4th cookout where the theme was "summer". For my dish, I immediately thought of corn and then subsequently, my favorite non-traditional salsa - roasted corn and bell pepper.

I never write down my exact calculations and I always swear that I'll remember what I did, but I never really do. So this time, I did my best to remember it all for next time.

4-5 ears of corn (or 2 cans)
2 bell peppers, diced
1/2 red onion, minced
2 serano peppers, minced
2-3 limes, juiced
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt

Heat olive oil in pan and add corn. Cook over medium heat for 10-12 minutes, remove pan from heat and add salt to taste. Set aside to cool.

When cooled, mix the corn, bell peppers, onion and cilantro and toss with the lime juice, vinegar, and sugar. If desired, add more salt to taste. Serve immediately (and watch it disappear).

mojito cupcakes

I've been fired up and ready to bake gluten-free cupcakes for over a week now, and the 4th of July seemed like the perfect time to start. With 50 recipes in my new cookbook, choosing the right cupcake was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Ultimately, I chose mojito cupakes because I could use mint from our garden. Plus, the theme of our friends' July 4th celebration was "summertime" and what says summer better than a mojito?

Before I could even start the baking, I had to use 6 different gluten-free flours and starches to create the flour mix. It was really frustrating that I couldn't just pull down a bag of white or wheat flour and get to work, so my attitude was definitely poor.


The authors of the book did a great job of preparing me for the work that would go into making these cupcakes the best they can be, and I truly appreciate that. But I still found myself a little bitter about the added work, especially since this was my first GF baking experience.

I had to dip my fingers in ice water and smooth the top of each cupcake, because the batter doesn't settle the way your typical batter would.


I was complaining, complaining about the added hassle of GF baking and threatening to give up baking altogether...then I peeked in the oven at the rising cakes and I was back in.


They turned out very well and tasted great, even without the icing.


My (non-existent) decorating skills left a lot to be desired, but the taste was undeniably delicious.


I strayed a bit from the recipe when it came to the icing....the authors suggested buttercream, but I don't have a candy thermometer...so I went for a regular frosting favorite, with a twist.

2 sticks butter, room temperature
3.5 cups confectioner's sugar
zest from one lime
the juice from that lime
2 teaspoons orange mint, minced

I put all ingredients in the bowl and mixed on medium-high until it was thick enough to decorate with.