Beef Stew

 This is my Beef Stew Loved by everyone who has had it, and for some loved more with out the peas ;)
Its a very comforting dish, served with warm rolls on a cool or rainy day.

you will need
 a crockpot or dutch oven

2lbs Stewing beef
3 medium carrots cut into rounds
4 medium potatoes cubed
2 medium onions chopped
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup frozen peas (optional)
2 boxes of beef stock (use gluten free stock if your making gluten free)
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 tsp parsley
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tbsp olive oil or veg oil

Heat a large skillet or if using dutch oven heat dutch oven over med/high heat. (turn on crock pot to low or high if your short on time. If using dutch oven preheat oven to 350)
Cut stewing beef into smaller chunks if they are large. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper to the corn starch and mix. Sprinkle cornstarch mixture over the beef chunks and coat beef evenly. Add tbsp of oil to the skillet and add beef, brown on all sides. Move browned beef to a plate. (if using crock pot add directly to crock pot)
Do Not Skip this step it is very important - Use 1/2 cup of the beef stock and de-glaze the pan or dutch oven. Ensuring you scrape all the bits off the bottom. 
(If using crock pot add this to the crock pot) .
turn heat off. and Add the meat back to the pan along with all the remaining ingredients, stir place lid on and place in oven. Cook at 350 for 3 hours. Check on the stew every hour to ensure it is not drying out. If stew is drying out add more stock. The stew is ready when the meat is tender and falling apart and potatoes are cooked through.  Add peas once the stew is ready and let cook for an extra 15mins to heat peas through. If you don't like peas you can skip this step.
(if you find your gravy is runny.. follow this trick. Add 2 tbsp of corn starch to a cup and remove 1/2 cup of the gravy from the stew mix throughly and pour this mixture back into the pot) this should thicken up the gravy, wait awhile and see if it is as thick as you want. If not repeat this step. 
DO NOT ADD the Corn starch directly to the pot. ALWAYS mix with hot liquid from the pot. Other wise you will get a very lumpy grainy gravy.

For the crockpot best results are cooking on low for the entire day. this is a set it and forget it meal.  around 8 hrs on low and 4 hours on high.

Happy Cooking :)

Enjoy!


Fran

Delicious Hot wings

Delicious hot wings!

1-2lbs of tipped and split chicken wings 

1 cup franks red hot sauce

1/2 cup of butter *melted*

1 lemon juiced

1 tsp oregano

salt and pepper

parchment paper

Preheat oven to 400, line baking sheet with parchment paper, pat chicken wings dry with paper towel and place on prepared baking sheet, season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken wings in 400 degree oven for 45 mins or until fully cooked flipping half way through cooking.

While wings are cooking, place hot sauce in a metal bowl, add melted butter, lemon juice and oregano stir thoroughly.

Place pipping hot wings in a bowl and pour hot sauce over top and toss, serve with celery, carrots and dip.

Happy Cooking :)

Enjoy!

Fran

Gluten free- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I started this gluten free diet, I have been craving chocolate chip cookies..so after much searching and debating I found a recipe I was able to play with and make it taste just like regular chocolate chip cookies. I made these and added them to my christmas cookies

1 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cup rice flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
12 oz. Milk chocolate chips (add more if desired)

In a bowl, sift together the rice flour, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.  In stand mixer cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well on medium speed. Lower speed and add chocolate chips. Turn cookie dough onto parchment or plastic wrap, make the dough into a 1/2 inch rectangle and wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 30 mins. Preheat oven to 350. Cut dough into 1 inch squares and roll into balls, place on baking sheet an inch apart and bake for 9-10 mins. Remove cookies from oven and let stand on baking sheet for 3 mins before moving to rack to cool completely.
Serve with a glass of milk to a cookie loving man- PRICELESS!!!

Happy Cooking!!

Enjoy :)

Fran:)

Gluten Free Yorkshire Pudding..YUMMY!!!

Everyone thinks being Gluten Free means we have to miss out on some of the yummy foods out there.. well Here is a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding to go with a tasty roast beef dinner that does not disappoint ;)

We use a muffin tin to make these and they turn out wonderful. Just a key to remember DO NOT I repeat DO NOT open the oven once the batter is in the tins.

1 tsp veg oil per muffin cup or pop over tin

3 large eggs
¾ cup milk or dairy-free milk of choice
⅓ cup tapioca starch/flour
⅔ cup brown rice flour
-Dash of salt

1. Preheat oven to 425˚F.

2. In a small bowl, whisk eggs and milk until blended. In another small bowl, whisk together tapioca starch/flour, brown rice flour and salt until combined. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until blended and free of lumps. Let this rest while you prepare the tin. *Tip** put the batter into a pourable container like a large measure cup or juice jug for easier and quicker pouring*

3. Prepare muffin tin by adding 1 tsp of oil to each muffin cup, place muffin pan in the preheated oven for 5-10 mins till the oil starts to spit.

4. Carefully remove the baking dish from oven. Pour in the batter and return to oven immediately. *Tip*   my husband does this part for me, and doesn't remove the tin from the oven and just quickly pours the batter in each cup, and do not worry about making a mess this is best done as quickly as possible no time to be clean.

5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until Yorkshire pudding is puffed high and is a rich, golden brown. For puffiest pudding, avoid opening the oven door before 25 minutes. Serve immediately.

Happy Cooking :)

Enjoy

Fran ;)

Gluten Free Thanksgiving

Happy Canadian ThanksGiving :)

First off, I want to Thank my amazing husband for all his help and in basically doing almost everything with my direction and instructions and my recipes. He really helped make thanksgiving dinner amazing.

this years thanksgiving was a bit of a challenge, firstly because we had to make it gluten free, secondly because I was not healthy enough to do much, but my husband stepped up to the challenge and did the whole thing. except i helped with getting the turkey ready.

To make our life easy,  I basically took my regular recipes and made some changes to make them gluten free, i switched out regular bread for gluten free bread, flour for cornstarch and added some extra flavourings and read a lot of the ingredients on things ensure they were gluten free.

Lets start with the appetizers... :) I tried to make these very simple as the meal itself was a lot of work, and anyone who has ever cooked a holiday dinner knows that simple is best when it comes to certain elements :)

I served Gluten Free Organic Tortilla Chips and Organic farm fresh Salsa that we bought at our local farm..this was simple and required 0 cooking.. most busy peoples favourite thing. 

Add chips to serving bowl with salsa on the side.

I also served my favorite Smoked Salmon with Capers and Lemon

this was also quiet easy, we only had a few people but you can serve as much as you like. I used the following

1 pkg Alaskan Smoked Salmon

10-20 capers 

1 lemon quartered.

Simply arrange the salmon nicely, top with capers and add lemon wedges on the side :) People can then add as much lemon as they would like to their salmon. 

Gluten Free cheese and keilbasa plate... we used Cracker Barrel Mild Cheese, local Farm - apple wood smoked cheddar and Farmstead cheddar cheese. With Pillars gluten free Keilbasa.  Cut these up any way you like and arrange on a plate and serve :)

Now for the fun appetizer.. This recipe idea came from my Aunt Laurie who is an amazing cook, she brought these to a Christmas party and I took it from there, I did ask her for the recipe and she wasn't clear on what was in the sauce so i came up with that on my own.. This is 100% gluten free.. :)

make this based on size of crowd we only had 4 people..so I only made a small batch.

Bacon Wrapped Chestnuts.

1 can whole water chestnuts

1 pound maple bacon

tooth picks

for the sauce

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tbsp ketchup

1/2 tbsp gluten free Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp gluten free soya sauce

Directions

Cut pound of bacon in half, drain chestnuts and put in bowl.

take a piece of bacon and wrap it around the chestnut and secure with a tooth pick, place in baking pan.

This can be done night before and left in fridge to save time.

For the sauce, I find the easiest way to make sauce is to put it in an small mason jar with a lid.. Add all ingredients to a bowl or mason jar and mix well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, place chestnuts in oven and cook for 30-40 mins until bacon is cooked through. Add sauce over the bacon wrapped chestnuts and cook for a further 10mins.

Remove and place on platter serve warm...careful these are HOT and go really fast.. I can never seem to make enough.

 Now for the meal..

I am going to start with one of the flavour components that I added .. and that is roasted Garlic

This is very simple.. preheat your oven to 450 degrees.. 

take as many whole cloves of garlic as you want.. cut the tops off, place in foil and pour a little bit of olive oil on top of them, I used around 2 table spoons each. Roast in oven for an hour .. you will know when they are done, as they will smell sweet and fragrant.. warning** during roasting time, they do have a really pungent funky smell ..ignore it..it goes away and changes to a very nice yummy smell.

Once done, you can use them hot, or wait for them to cool.. to remove them just squish the uncut end and the cloves should come right out, or you can use a fork- I tortured my husband by making him squeeze them ;) Love it when men follow directions exactly and dont ask questions..MUAHAHAHAA!!

So lets start now with the Stuffing and the TURKEY!!!! ..as that is usually the first thing to go in the oven.

Stuffing.....

I started my stuffing 2 days ahead as I used gluten free bread.

Choose any gluten free bread you like..always use your favourite as that way you know what it tastes like. If you got frozen bread defrost it.

I used 2 loafs gluten free Umbi bread.

Take the bread and cut it into cubes, place on baking sheet and light toast in oven for 20 mins until they are almost dry, remove and add to large bowl once cool, cover with plastic wrap and leave to finish drying.  I  let the  bread dry for the 2 days before adding any other ingredients. This did really help with changing the texture and flavour of the gluten free bread.

Making the stuffing

Add..

2 tbsp of poultry seasoning

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp italian seasoning

3 stalks of celery chopped

1 large onion diced

1 1/2 apple diced and cored - of your choice I used red delicious

1 bag of dried cranberries

4-6 cups of water or chicken stock if it is gluten free... this is dependent on how moist you want your stuffing or if it is going in the turkey or a casserole dish.

Mix all ingredients with the dried bread cubes and stuff into turkey if thats the way you do your stuffing, other wise put in casserole dish and cover.

TURKEY TIME!!!!

preheat oven to 325 degrees

this is a pretty simple preparation- I bought a butterball turkey as it is gluten free.  No barely, wheat or malt used in their brines.  and a pound of low salt maple leaf bacon.

My turkey took 4.5 days to defrost in the fridge..

take you turkey and remove packaging from turkey, place in clean sink, remove the giblets and neck.. Rinse turkey inside and out with cold water. 

Place turkey on rack of roasting pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Seasoning turkey with salt and pepper,  stuff the turkey with the your bread stuffing and them cover in bacon, there is no rhyme or reason to the way you put on the bacon, just cover the turkey in bacon- My family has been doing this since I could remember, helps keep the turkey moist while cooking.

cook the turkey based on its size , ours took 5 hours and the turkey is cooked when the thickest part of the thigh reached 180 degrees F. Tip- when the turkey is 2//3 the way cooked, cover the breast and stuffing with foil to ensure you don't dry out the breast.

When turkey is done cooking, remove from oven and let rest for 30-40 mins tented with tin foil.

Side dishes

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of fresh cranberries

1/2 apple cored and peeled and diced

6-10 tbps of white sugar depending on taste

add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and turn on low heat, keep and eye on it and stir frequently- this should take about an hour to cook, you know it is cooked when you can easily mash the cranberries.

serve warm or cold :)

Roasted Root vegetables

3 parsnips

3 small turnips

2 large beets

3 large carrots

2 onions

3 springs of fresh rosemary

salt/pepper

olive oil

cut all vegetables any way you want, chunk strips etc..this is a really easy anyway you want recipe.

place parchment paper on a backing pan (you may need two) and spread the vegetables out in a layer, sprinkle with salt and pepper and a little bit of olive oil, remove the rosemary from the stalks and sprinkle on top of the veggies, stir the veggies around to evenly coat them with the oil.

Place in oven and bake for 30 mins, or until veggies are fork tender.

 

Steam broccoli/cauliflower with cheese sauce

Cut broccoli and cauliflower into pieces and add to steamer, steam for 15 mins

Cheese Sauce

2 tbps butter

2 tbps corn starch

1 cup milk

2 cups cheddar cheese (or your favourite)

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter on med-low heat, add the corn starch to the melted butter and stir till well combined,  heat through for 2 mins, add 5 table spoons of milk one at a time to help, once heated through, slowly add the rest of the milk, bring to boil while stiring constantly to ensure the mixture doesnt stick or clump.

Add the cheese a little bit at a time, ensure each handful has fully melted before adding more. Once all the cheese has been added, place sauce in a serving container and serve hot :) 

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of these, but here is what I did.

Make your potatoes as you usually do for mashed potatoes. You will be adding roasted garlic to them while mixing.

Recipe for roasted garlic above :).. we didn't add enough of these as I couldn't really taste them..so if you are making a large amount of roasted garlic mashed potatoes.. put at least 4 whole bunches of roasted garlic cloves. :) salt, pepper, butter and milk..DONE!!! 

Dessert-

PUMPKIN PIE see previous post for recipe

Snack roasted pumpkin seeds

I took my three small pumpkins that I used for my indoor decor and had my husband cut them open for me.. I removed all the seeds and guts of the pumpkin, I ensure to seperate the seeds from the pulp and give them a rinse and pat dry with paper towel.. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, laid out the seeds and sprinkled some sea salt ontop of them.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and roast the pumpkin seeds for an hour, depending on how hot your oven is. Ensure you stir them around half way through :) 

Here is a picture of my table :)

Happy Cooking :)

Enjoy!

Fran :)

First Gluten free Thanksgiving recipe....PUMPKIN PIE!!!!

First Gluten free thanksgiving recipe done..and it's everyone's favorite---- PUMPKIN PIE...YUMMY

I did cheat a bit this year but for good reason, one is I have never made pie crust before even regular crust, and I'm suffering from some health issues.. 

So I bought two gluten free pre made pie crusts, I got mine at Nut'n Gluten made by Little B's Bakery 

For the filling for 2 pies I did the following

1 can (796ml) ED Smith Pumpkin purée

4 eggs

1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice ( we like the flavour a little stronger so I add a little extra)

2 cups brown sugar

1.5 cup evaporated milk, turns out to be one whole can

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in large bowl till well combined, I taste the flavour before I add the eggs, to ensure I don't need to add any more pumpkin pie spice.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, bake pies for 15 mins at 425, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 30-35 minutes. Use a tooth pick to check doneness, should come out clean.

Cool and serve with whipped cream or ice cream :)

Here is th done result

Enjoy!

Happy cooking!

Fran :)

BBQ Pork Day

Did i mention I LOVE BBQ SEASON!!!

I think everything cooked on a BBQ is great, and you can cook alot on the BBQ..here we have our BBQ Pork Dinner

to feed two people,

2 boneless pork chops

salt and pepper

your favorite bbq sauce

1 large sweet potato

bunch of asparagus

spinach

blue berries

cremini mushrooms

tomatoes

raspberry balsamic vinegar

olive oil

Heat the BBQ to medium high, wash the asparagus and peel off the stems, put in foil with olive oil salt and pepper, wash the sweet potato pierce with a fork and warp in foil, put the sweet potato on the grill and the asparagus on the warming rack, once the sweet potato is almost cooked through put the pork chops on the grill, grill each side for 3-5 mins depending on thickness and brush on bbq sauce.. 

to make the spinach salad, slice the mushrooms, and chunk the tomato, toss in a bowl with spinach and add the blue berries, seasoning with salt and pepper, add a splash of the balsamic vinegar and then sprinkle with olive oil, toss and serve

Enjoy!!

Happy Cooking!!


Fran :)