Coffee Cake

Who doesn't love coffee cake? Saw this Gluten Free Dairy Free Coffee Cake mix from The Cravings Place at Whole Foods, and I had to give it a whirl. It is delicious and easy to make.

I recommend!


Make it while making your chicken stock for the week.

Multitasking!

Pizza At Home

Finally found the BESTEST gluten free pizza crust mix for nipping the homemade pizza craving in the bud. It's made by Namaste Foods, takes about 5 minutes to prep, and tastes exactly like a regular thin crust pizza, which is my favorite kind of pizza for shoveling down my gullet like a frat boy on football day. If they ever discontinue this mix, a little part of me will die.

I got mine at the gorgeous Whole Foods on Arroyo in Pasadena, which is my new favorite place to spend an afternoon. I'm a sucker for a good grocery store, but this one's beyond belief.

Make me a pizza!!!

Orange Popovers

In a fab little feature in F&W's September issue, Grace Parisi gives us some wonderful quick bread recipes. My job is to interpret and make gluten free for you lovelies (and myself).

I would make these on a Sunday morning, especially if I had house guests so I wouldn't eat them all. The Gluten Free version doesn't quite have the same indented look that a regular popover has, but it is very tasty with strawberry jam, and isn't that what matters?

Gluten Free Orange Popovers
(adapted from this most excellent Grace Parisi recipe)

3 large eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (please tell me you've bought the Microplane)
1 and 1/4 cups milk (I use 2%)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 and 1/4 cups GF Flour Mix (I use Bette's Featherlight Rice Flour Blend)
1/4 teaspoon (a bit heaping) Xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, and orange zest. Whisk in the milk and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter. In another bowl, whisk the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt until evenly blended. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until only small lumps remain.

Brush the cups of a muffin pan with the remaining 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Heat the pan in the oven for 5 minutes so the butter turns a nutty brown (love it). Fill the muffin cups half to 3/4 full with batter. Bake popovers for 30-35 minutes, until risen and browned. Serve and eat straightaway!

Gorditas

Food and Wine Magazine always inspires me. I love this article on the Hot Bread Kitchen in NYC. Makes me wanna get in there with ladies from all over the world and make some bread in our very own "Gluten Free Hot Bread Kitchen" right here in sunny Los Angeles.

This recipe for Gorditas is the only gluten free one in the article, but very fun and easy to make. It's true that it calls for double frying, and so should you doubly fry. Skipping the second frying step makes for soggy gorditas.

You can serve with any protein and toppings you like, I used my easy fave ground turkey taco meat, queso fresco, diced tomato, avocado, and creme fraiche.

Pizza Fusion Hollywood Opens

Pizza Fusion opened in Hollywood, CA a few weeks ago. They have nice ambiance, they have friendly service, but most of all, they have Gluten Free PIZZA and BEER!

The pizza and beer were delish!!! Check their website, because apparently, Pizza Fusion is all over the place. We had 2 celiacs and 2 muggles with us, and Pizza Fusion had a crusts and beer appropriate for everyone's diet. They are eco-friendly and just plain friendly. I had a great meal!

You want to go to there.

Vons/Pavillions No-Cook Cook-Off

A few weeks ago...hell, a few months ago, I participated in the very fun Vons/Pavillions No-Cook Cook-Off. I had a wonderful time schmoozing with my fellow contestants, shopping, prepping, and plating my Lime Chicken Tostadas with Cilantro Sour Cream. And even thought I didn't win (boo!), the Vons peeps hooked up all the contestants with a pretty sweet swag bag of cooking toys and a generous Vons gift card, which I eagerly used to throw a dinner party and then wondered a week later how I blew through that gift card so quickly (wine).

From what I gathered, Vons/Pavillions is undergoing a big ol' store remodel, and they're lowering prices. Plus, their customer service during this whole experience was and is fantastic (when spending my gift card, I was shopping there anonymously, not as a cook-off contestant running around the store like a madwoman).

While I had a great time throughout the event, I wouldn't be me if I didn't shine my Gluten Free love light on my perception of the newly remodeled Pavillions in Burbank. Since this was a no-cook cook-off, we were encouraged to use items from the pre-prepared foods section, which was beautiful and expansive. However, the only items I could spot that are gluten free are the Rotiserrie Chickens (which I used) and the Parmesan Risotto (bought it afterwards-it was good!). In a rush situation of having 10 minutes to shop, I would've spent all of my time reading ingredients and putting items back on the shelf if I didn't have an idea ahead of time of what I wanted to make. People with food allergies understand this. Always Be Prepared.

I would love to see Vons/Pavillions offer more Gluten Free items, maybe even devoting a little end cap to those items. There was a "health food" section with some old, tired Gluten Free flours and pastas, but they were placed right next to the "Vital Wheat Gluten," which smacks of someone who just decided to throw all of what appears to be "health foods" in one section, not realizing that "Gluten Free" and "Gluten" are the opposite, and placing them next to each other could actually risk cross-contaminating someone who is extremely sensitive to gluten. What winds up happening is that those people will shop at another store altogether because there are other stores who make more of an effort to be a one-stop-shop for Gluten Free/Celiac folks like myself.

If you do find yourself at a Vons or Pavillions, go immediately to the wine department and buy your favorites. The prices are comparable to Costco (the President of Vons told me this!), which is super smart. One thing we can all agree on is a damn fine wine department. Love it!