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!