Gluten Free Bite Size Peanut Butter & Peanut Blossom Cookies

I've been toying with the idea of going gluten free/gluten limited myself. So far, I've been gluten free for six days. My life has not completely changed so far, but I'm looking out for it. I've been craving the Bite-Size Peanut Blossom Cookies I made around Christmas time and thought this was a perfect time to try making them gluten free. I've discovered two things with this experiment: 1. These cookies taste excellent gluten free, and 2. It is not necessary to form balls of cookie dough before baking them. I used my new favorite method of portioning dough--refrigerating cookie dough in a pan and cutting squares/cubes from the resulting slab of dough. It makes life so much easier, and they taste just as good. There's no law that says cookies must be round, right? Thank you refrigerated cookie dough manufacturers for giving me the idea.
So, gluten free peanut butter cookie fans out there, give these a try. You'll love them. I promise.

Gluten Free Bite Size Peanut Butter & Peanut Blossom Cookies
    --Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup smooth/creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• granulated sugar
• 1 bag Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Baking Chips

Instructions:
Prepare a metal brownie pan (I used a 7 cm x 11 cm pan) by lining it with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, and the sugars until fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix on low until combined. Do not overmix.
Transfer the dough to the paper-lined brownie pan and smooth it out until you have an even layer. Place plastic wrap on top and then gently pack the dough in and leave the plastic wrap on top of the dough. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to chill.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit about a half hour before you plan to form the little cookies. Then line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place about 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl that you will use to coat dough pieces.
Once dough is thoroughly chilled, remove from the refrigerator. Lift the dough out by using the edges of the paper. Cut the dough into about 1 cubic centimeter pieces, so that you end up with about a half teaspoon of dough. At this point, you can either roll each cube into a ball, roll in sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet, OR you can just toss the little dough cubes in the sugar. Shape didn't matter to me today, so I used the cubes--much faster.  Leave about 1 1/2 inches between dough balls/cubes. If you plan to make blossoms, put them in the oven at this point. If you want just peanut butter cookies, use a fork to press a criss-cross pattern on the top of each dough ball/cube. Bake cookies for about 5 minutes at 375 degrees, or until they are puffed and slightly cracked. 
Remove from oven and immediately top each peanut blossom cookie with a milk chocolate chip, pressing down to secure the chip. You need to move quickly because you have a lot of cookies and they start to cool pretty quickly. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for about five minutes.
Move cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Wait until the chocolate has solidified again before storing or serving.
Makes approximately 150-175 mini cookies

Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

This is one of my very favorite soups. It's simple and easy, and it makes me feel all cozy on a cold winter's night. It tastes potatoey and oniony, salty, and smooth. Mmmm...makes me want to make some even in the middle of summer. 
When I serve this for dinner, it's not quite hearty enough for my husband, so I usually have to cook some meat on the side, but for me, it's great just as it is, with maybe just. a crusty roll to dip in it. It's also great warmed up the next day or the day after that. It's just good food.

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients
:

• 2 Tbsp butter

• 4 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only

• 4 cups chicken broth

• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

• 1/4 cup cream or half and half
• Salt to taste

• bacon bits for garnish, if desired (I use the real bacon bits in a jar)

Directions
:

1 Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks, cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth, potatoes and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

2 Reduce heat; cover and simmer 25 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Using a immersion blender, blend until smooth.  (You can also work in batches in a regular blender, but the hand blender is so much easier.)

3 Stir in cream or half and half. Season to taste with salt. Garnish with bacon bits, if desired.

Serves 6.

Adapted from a recipe offered by Jones Dairy Farm.

Crispy Caramel Corn

Crispy Caramel Corn

Another recipe to prepare us for fall...
This caramel corn is dry and crisp, not sticky like some caramel corn I've encountered. It's got a rich brown sugar and butter flavor, of course, and I like to eat it 'til I get sick. If you want the full "Oh-my-gosh-I-think-I-ate-too-much" experience, only use four quarts of popcorn. If you're on a diet, or if are simply more sensible, use the whole 8 quarts.  You can figure out your preference after making it a couple of times.
I think this recipe comes originally from my dear friend Cheryl Tellers-now-Whitney. Thanks, Cheryl!

Crispy Caramel Corn

Preheat oven to 250°.

Combine in a medium to large microwavable dish:

• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 C light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Put in microwave on high until butter is mostly melted and then stir to combine ingredients. Bring to a boil by cooking on high for about 2 minutes. Remove and add:
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Put 4-8 quarts air-popped popcorn into a huge bowl. Pour above syrup stuff over popcorn and mix thoroughly. Spread popcorn onto two non-stick cookie sheets. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, rotating pans between top and bottom shelves. Remove from oven; stir immediately. Stir occasionally while cooling. Store in an airtight container.

Caramel Corn made with Tiny But Mighty Popcorn

Mexican Rice

Mexican Rice

Mexican Rice with Enchiladas Suizas and Busch's Fiesta Black Beans

If you're looking for a homemade version of the rice you get at a Mexican restaurant, look no further.  It used to be that when I made Mexican food, I would use one of the Lipton flavored rice pouches and call it good.  The thing was, though, that I was the only one who would eat any of it, and eventually it just ended up in the trash.  This rice, though, gets eaten.  Go figure.
The recipe pretty much came from Allrecipes.com. I made enough changes to it, though, that I feel like I can post it here instead of just providing a link. It's pretty easy to make, and it's delicious.  Use your favorite salsa to personalize it, but know that if your salsa is hot, so will your rice be.  You've been warned.
Half a recipe was enough for Eddie, Ezra, and myself. It tastes good left over too, though.


Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

• 3 T canola oil
• 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp gf taco seasoning
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa (fresh or jarred)
• 2 cups chicken broth (or 2 cups water + 2 chicken bouillon cubes)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with taco seasoning.
2. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook until they are tender.
3. Stir in salsa and chicken broth (or water + bouillon). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Gluten Free French Rolls

Gluten Free French Rolls

 Better Batter Gluten Free Flour,  BetterBatter.org 
I discovered Better Batter Gluten Free Flour last Thanksgiving while perusing the gluten free section at our new fancy HyVee grocery store. My sister-in-law told me she'd heard good things about it, and I'd seen a gf pretzel recipe on Pinterest that called for this gf flour. I went ahead and bought a box, even though it was pricer than most gf flours. I gave it a go with some Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Pretzel Nuggets, and what do you know--it was awesome! Once I knew this flour worked, I started looking around their website and found a recipe for French Bread. The bread turned out too gummy, but the next time I made it I tried to make the "dough," which is more of a batter, into rolls. And it worked too! I fell even more in love with Better Batter, and now I'm almost at the end of my second 25 pound bag that I purchased online (half the price of buying it at HyVee).
My son LOVES these rolls, and I've recently started making them bigger to accommodate my growing boy.
These are actually best if they're baked, then frozen, and reheated. I think the freezer dries them out a bit. When you eat one fresh out of the oven, it will look beautifully baked, but the texture is a little gummy. It's less gummy after freezing and reheating. At least that's the way they've been working around here for us.

Gluten Free French Rolls
     --adapted from BetterBatter.org

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal (optional)
• Ice cubes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease it) and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the water and the yeast. Allow to sit for five minutes to soften the yeast. 
Add the flour and the salt. Beat on low until flour is all wet, and then beat on high for 5 minutes.
Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop batter and then scrape out with a silicone/rubber spatula, making the dough blobs as round as possible. Space blobs about 1 1/2 inches apart. (I fit only 9 on my pan, but I could have made all 12 on one pan.)
With wet fingers, gently smooth out the rough spots on the dough blobs. They don't have to be perfect, just not jagged. 
Allow to rise for about 35-45 minutes. 
Place in the preheated oven and throw four ice cubes into the bottom of the oven to produce some steam. After 6-7 minutes, put in four more ice cubes and bake for another 11-13 minutes, or until rolls are nicely browned.
Remove from oven and cool rolls on a wire rack.
Makes 12 rolls

Unbaked dough blob sitting there to rise.

Caramel Apple Dip

Apple quarter going for a caramel dip.

Fall is near, and so of course it's time to start pushing the foods related to that season.  This caramel dip recipe comes from Eddie's Aunt Willa. Now, that woman's got some AMAZING recipes--and she's an amazing award-winning quilter to boot. It takes a lot of elbow grease, or a Kitchen Aid mixer, to get all the caramel chunks to dissolve, but it's worth the effort, of course. Otherwise I wouldn't be posting this recipe.

Caramel Dip 

• 40-45 unwrapped caramels
• 5-8 tablespoons butter (depends on how you feel about butter)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Put all of the above ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 2- 2 1/2 minutes. You will be tempted to microwave longer, but the caramel chunks will melt after much stirring. 
Now, you can either stir with a spoon or heavy-duty wire whisk by hand until smooth OR you can transfer to bowl of a standing mixer and mix on the lowest setting until smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately, or allow to cool, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use. Microwave for a minute on high and stir.

Apple Quarters

• 5-7 Granny Smith apples
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons water
• 20-28 fat wooden skewers, like you'd use for corn on the cob
• 1 small melon baller

Wash apples. Scoop out the stem and the bottom end with melon baller. Cut in half and scoop out the core with the melon baller. Cut each half in half. Stick in skewers.
Mix lemon juice and water. Dip each quarter into lemon water, shake, and dry off skin. This should help prevent excessive browning.

A melon baller makes the job easier.

Carnitas

Carnitas taco on a soft corn tortilla w/ guacamole

Nothing says good Mexican street food like a good carnitas taco with its soft corn tortilla "shell" and tender, juicy, salty pork in the middle.  Mmmmm...mouthwatering.  This recipe is sure to satisfy a craving  yummy Mexican food.

I found this recipe on Epicurious.com a long time ago. Now that I'm looking at it, I seemed to have veered from the original recipe. It's one of those eyeball-it kinds of recipes for me, so try it a few times and see what works for you. 

Carnitas

Ingredients:

• 1 4-pound pork butt or shoulder, trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2-3 cans of chicken broth
• enough water to cover pork in pot by 1/2 inch
• lots of fresh corn tortillas warmed in a hot skillet and kept warm in a tortilla warmer (or in aluminum foil) 

Instructions:
In the past, I've trimmed off a lot of the fat and gristle before cooking, but I've found that leaving all of that on, and then picking it out when I'm "pulling" the pork, makes it much more tender and flavorful. You know, all that fat. So, just cut the butt/shoulder up into chunks, fat and all.
Place pork in a heavy large pot. Add broth. Add enough water to cover pork by 1/2 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover partially and simmer until meat is very tender and liquid is absorbed, about 2-3 hours. Cool slightly. Shred meat and remove fat and gristle. Season with salt, if necessary. Cover and keep warm.

Onions & Cilantro: finely dice one small onion (I use yellow onion) and chop a handful of clean cilantro leaves and mix with the onion. Add the juice of a lime wedge and mix. I will sometimes add a dash of hot sauce (like Frank's Red Hot), to spice it up a little. Serve with the carnitas tacos. Mmmmm...