Cheddar Cornbread

I was looking for something to make with my smoked pulled pork, and I thought cornbread was a good companion. My wife and I have made gluten free cornbread a few times but I couldn't find the recipe we used, so I just came up with my own. Both of us agreed that this was way better than the one we've been making. It came out super light and fluffy and was absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

*1 & 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

*3/4 cup King Arthur gluten free pancake mix (you could substitute for gf flour blend)

*1 tbsp Baking Power

*1/2 tsp baking soda

*1 tsp salt

*1 tbsp light brown sugar

*1 tsp xantham gum

*1/4 cup shortening

*2/3 cup buttermilk

*2/3 cup milk (I used 1 percent)

*1 egg

*1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

*Kernels from ear of corn (optional)

Preparation:

-Mix all dry ingredients together

-With a hand mixer, incorporate shortening into dry ingredients

-Add the remaining wet ingredients

-Mix until smooth

-Add cheddar cheese and corn kernels and incorporate into mix (kernels should remain intact)

-Pour into a greased 9x9 dish

-Bake for 25-30 minutes (until toothpick test comes out smooth)

Optional:

-About five minutes before it was done cooking, I put some more shredded cheese on the top to form a light crust. This definitely enhances the cheddar flavor, which otherwise is pretty mild.

Gluten Free Cranberry Sausage Stuffing

I decided to try brining a turkey this weekend, and I thought it would go well with stuffing. I've only made gluten free stuffing with cornbread before, but this time I decided to try using gluten free bread. My wife and I agree after eating it tonight that we could pass this off to anyone as a regular recipe; there is no way you'd know it was gluten free. On top of that, it was incredibly delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Gluten Free Sandwich Bread (we used Kinnikick Italian Style)
• 1 medium onion (diced)
• 4 stalks of celery (diced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• Fresh Parsley
• 1 tsp dried Sage
• 2 cups of Gluten Free chicken broth (we used Kitchen Basics)
• 1 pound of breakfast sausage
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cube and toast the sandwich bread until it begins to get crispy. I seasoned them with adobo and Pam olive oil before toasting, but that is optional.

In a frying pan, break up sausage and cook until browned. Move sausage to mixing bowl but keep drippings in the pan. Add the butter to the drippings and sautee onions, celery and garlic in the mixture. When those are mostly cooked, add to the sausage in the mixing bowl. Then add the herbs, bread cubes and cranberries to the mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together egg and chicken stock. Then add this to the bowl. Once everything is well mixed, transfer to large baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Gluten Free Banana Bread Recipe

We had two brown bananas on the kitchen counter and I was complaining what a waste it would be to throw them out. So my wife suggested we make banana bread. We decided to go with a traditional recipe and convert it to Gluten Free.

The original recipe we found was from AllRecipes.com and comes courtesy of a woman named Shelly. We also added some additional ingredients to it based on the comments from other bakers.



Ingredients:

• 2 cups GF flour (I recommend King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt (skip the salt if using salted butter)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• We used 2 bananas, but you could probably use up to 4
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon (we used KAF's Vietnamese Cinnamon which has a rich, strong flavor
• 1/2 cup walnuts optional (chopped or whole)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees

-Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt (if using) in 1 bowl
-Mix together butter & brown sugar
-Then add the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and bananas (the recipe recommended mashing them first, but i just dropped them in pieces) and mix until blended
-Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix together until nicely blended but not too smooth

Pour into a greased 9x5 pan (I use Pam) and bake for 55-60 minutes. In our oven 55 was perfect, maybe even a touch too long.

This really made the house smell incredible and tasted delicious. Hope you enjoy!

Cuban Pot Roast (Boliche)

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 lb eye round roast
• 4 Links of Chorizo
• 1 Red Bell Pepper sliced into strips
• 1 Green Bell Pepper sliced into strips
• 1 Large onion sliced into quarter inch strips
• 7 Cloves of garlic roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of green olive sliced
• (1) 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
• (1) 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup of dry red wine
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 2 Bay leaves

Remove casings from the chorizo. Insert carving knife lengthwise into the center of the roast and insert the chorizo inside. Salt, pepper the roast; brown on all sides in a frying pan with olive oil. Place all ingredients except the water and wine (including the roast and the oil you browned it in) in a large covered pot or Dutch oven with the potatoes, onion slices, pepper and green olives on top.

Mix the water and the wine. Add just enough of this mixture to cover the bottom 2 -1/2 inches of the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer partially covered (leave your lid slightly ajar to let some of the steam escape) for approximately 3 to 4 hours. Check the roast occasionally, turn and add the water/wine mixture as necessary. When the roast is fork-tender, remove it from the pot, slice and return to sauce until ready to eat.

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake

My wife never tried red velvet cake before she had to start eating gluten free. She found a recipe online and decided to bake this cake for Christmas as at our house. I was really impressed with how moist and flavorful the cake was. Our guests were surprised it was gluten free.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 2 1/2 cups gf flour blend
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 bottle (oz) red food coloring
• 1 tbsp cocoa

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix oil & sugar in a mixer, then add eggs one at a time after first beating them. Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add flour to the mixer in parts, alternating the flour with the buttermilk. She did this about 4 times but you could probably get away with 3 since you need to begin and end with the flour. In a seperate bowl, mix the vanilla, food coloring and cocoa then add to the mixer. After mixing well, pour the mix into two round 8 inch cake pans (lightly spray with oil first). Bake 25-3o minutes or until a toothpick comes out pretty clean. Wait until cooled to frost. You can make your own cream cheese frosting, but she used Duncan Hines frosting and it was very good.

Beef Braciole

Ingredients

• 12 pieces of braciole meat (pounded thin)
• 1/4 lb of prosciutto (sliced thin)
• 3 hardboiled eggs (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1/2 onion (chopped finely)
• 1/4 cup peccorino romano (finely cubed)
• 1 handful fresh basil (chopped)
• 1/2 cup pignoli nuts
• 1 cup gluten free breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Sauce Ingredients

• 2 28oz cans diced tomatoes
• 2 8oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 5 cloves garlic
• Handful of fresh basil (chopped)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Pepper to taste

Preparation

Begin preparing the sauce in a large dutch oven by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauteeing the onions in it. Once soft, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, the garlic (cut into 2 pieces), salt and pepper. After ten minutes add chopped basil. Leave simmering on stove while you prepare the stuffing.

To prepare Braciole stuffing, first lightly sautee the onions with the garlic. In a large bowl you can then combine the satueed onions with the chopped eggs, gf breadcrumbs, pignoli nuts, cubed pecorino romano, chopped basil, salt and pepper. Add olive oil until moist, do not oversaturate. Then take 1 piece of Braiciole meat, add 1 slice of the prosciutto on top, and a heaping tablespoon of stuffing in the middle and roll. Tie with butchers twine and repeat process on remaining pieces of meat. Once all meat is tied, brown on all sides evenly in a few tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Submerge browned bragiole in sauce and cook for 1 and half to 2 hours.

White Bean & Sausage Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds sweet or hot Italian sausage meat
• 2 ounces diced prosciutto or bacon
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 - 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 - 3 celery stalks, split and diced
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped medium fine
  
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 4 to 6 cups chicken broth
  

Gluten Free Recommendation: Always check chicken stock for added wheat gluten. Two known brands that are gluten free are Imagine Organic Free Range Chicken Broth and Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock.

Preparation

Heat oil in a large, dutch over over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add sausage meat; break up with into medium size chunks, cook until well-browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and pour off all but tablespoon of drippings. Add bacon or prosciutto to pot and render for 2 to 3 minutes. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme to the pot; cook, stirring often, until well browned, 8 to 10 minutes. In a small bowl, mash one can of beans with a potato masher into a chunky puree. Add broth, whole and mashed beans, and sausage; cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, partially covered, to blend flavors, 20 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes and serve.