Tag: Gluten-Free

Fried Gnocchi Aglio e Olio

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The calendar tells me that Lent starts tomorrow. Which is odd because I’m pretty sure it started almost three weeks ago here, when the Black Death first descended on our household. We’ve been battling one health issue after another ever since then, including issues I won’t mention on the same page with food. Regardless, I’m all tuckered out and having a hard time settling on my various Lenten penances. Isn’t sleeping only a few hours a night penance enough?

All this is to say that while tomorrow I might come up with something eloquent to say about fasting, today I’ve got nothing. Except for a recipe that you can cook on days of fasting and abstinence.

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Rosemary Almond Chicken Salad

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February is always hard for me here in the land of eternal grey. Writing is work. Cleaning is work. Cooking is work. In years past, I’ve been able to escape for a week or so to more southern and sunnier climes. This year, with the baby, I’m lucky to escape to the bathroom for a nice long soak (still a February goal). So, since I can’t fly away, I’m trying a trick from my poverty-stricken grad school days, and acting like it’s spring inside my house.

This week, we cranked up the heat a bit, I pulled out a “transitional” clothing items (aka not wool), and we dined on one of our favorite summer dishes: Rosemary Almond Chicken Salad.

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Simple Lentil Dhal

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It is one of the great ironies of the culinary world. Few things on earth are as tasty and hearty as a simple Indian Dhal. But few thing things on earth are also as unappetizing looking as a simple Indian Dhal.

In theory, I knew this. But I was so excited to share this tasty vegetarian recipe with you this week, that I completely forgot about its less than photogenic qualities…until it came time for Dhal’s photoshoot.

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Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishes

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I am currently persona non grata in my corner of Steubenville. Not because of any advice I’ve been dishing out as of late, but rather because of what I won’t be dishing out next week: Thanksgiving Dinner.

For years, mostly because of the hassle of traveling 1280 miles, roundtrip, on Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve stayed in Steubenville for the holiday and opened my home to whomever didn’t have one that day. One year, that number was as large as 25. Another year, it was as small as four.

A few special friends, however, have always been around the table, and those are the ones  less than pleased about Chris and I going to my parents this Thanksgiving. (His family gets us for Christmas).

I’m looking forward to being with all my nieces and nephews next week, but I have to admit, I’m a little sad too. There’s no holiday I like better than Thanksgiving, and (in all humility) there’s also no meal I cook better than Thanksgiving Dinner. People have flown across the country for my mashed potatoes and stuffing. Some of those people also are under the impression that my gravy is a beverage. (“Just because something has brandy in it,” I tell them, “doesn’t  mean you can drink it.” They never listen.)

It’s not only the company or food that makes Thanksgiving special for me,  though. It’s also the chance to pull out all the decorating stops and set the most elegant table I can muster. In grad school, that wasn’t much. But here’s what we did last year.

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Beer and Bourbon Shepherdess Pie with Roasted Carrots

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Warning: You are not about to view the best photos of food on the Internet. You may, however, be witnessing the best photos of food on the Internet taken at night, with a borrowed iPhone, during a dinner party for 10 adults and seven children.

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What you can’t seen in the above picture are 16 hungry guests, patiently waiting to pray (and eat!), while I took that picture. They really deserve a round of applause.

Regardless, although the pictures of the Shepherd’s Pie (renamed “Shepherdess Pie” by my friends) may not be anything to write home about, the actual dish was. Chris pronounced it one of my all time greats, and the rest of the guests at my Monday night dinner party seemed to concur. Continue reading →

Pork Tenderloin in Fig Sauce with Fried Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash

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A long time ago, in a land far away (roughly 30 years and 650 miles), there lived a little redheaded girl who did not like her vegetables. She didn’t like lettuce. She didn’t like broccoli. And she only liked carrots when they were cooked for hours in her mother’s beef stew.

Now, that little girl didn’t like not liking vegetables. It bothered her that others were enjoying something that she could not. She felt left out…like she was missing some big secret. She especially felt left out in the fall, when her parents and sisters happily ate their roasted acorn squash. They really, really liked the green and golden treat. But try as she might, the little redhead really, really did not.

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Sweet and Savory Quinoa Salad

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Dating in your 40s is a little like dating in your 20s. You still plan fun trips together and talk about cool new cocktail bars. But, you also talk about blood pressure and progesterone levels and all sorts of middle age problems that you barely knew existed in your 20s. You also wonder things like, “If we get married and have kids, will I live to see them graduate from college?” And, because of that, you do things for your boyfriend like make him a week’s worth of “healthy” lunches.

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Roasted Potato, Bacon, and Kale Salad

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It was supposed to be a simple dinner. It was supposed to be quick, easy, and nothing about which I had to fret my little head…which is full up with fret these days because, as usual, I’ve taken on too much work. Supposed to be, supposed to be, supposed to be.

Actually, in one way, it was simple. It was simply a disaster.

Here’s what happened.

Last week, my boyfriend Chris came over for dinner. The original plan was pizza margarita, with some kind of warm side salad. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using a frozen pizza dough I’d never tried before. Yes, I know I could have made my own dough. Yes, I know that would have been easier and healthier and yada, yada, yada. But I’ve been trying to cook from the overflowing freezer this month, and my roommate had purchased the dough a while back. It needed to be used.

Anyhow, the dough was apparently made with superglue, as it stuck to everything it touched: the counter, the pizza paddle, my hands. I couldn’t move it off the counter in one piece, let alone get it on the pizza stone. It was your basic kitchen nightmare, with sauce and cheese flying and the oven smoking and me crying. Poor Chris.

In the end, after employing a few choice words, I just folded the stupid thing in half, threw it in the oven, and called it strombolli. It was…fine.

But the salad?

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Carrot, Apple, & Ginger Soup

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Right now, everything in my world is a different shade of gray. The sky, the ground, the roads—all of it. Gray, gray, gray, gray, gray. It’s everywhere. I hear they even made a movie about it.

Don’t believe me? Think I’m exaggerating? This is the view from my kitchen, people.

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It’s a gray, gray world.

And I know, this is Lent. I know Christians are being beheaded in the Middle East. And I know some lunatic “caliph” is trying to usher in the end times. Given all that, it’s good to have little things, like the weather, to offer up.

But I still need color.

So, on Monday, I took matters into my own hands and made carrot soup.

Three bowls wide

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