I’m Alive!

Hi blog!

I’m sorry I’ve abandoned you so. I’m still here, and I’m still avoiding all the glutens, and I’m still experimenting in the kitchen (oat flour, i<3u let’s get married).
But.

My heart just isn’t in it. I don’t really feel like it’s doing anything, I’m getting really bored of my limited cafeteria options at work, I’m sick of not being able to eat all the free treats that arrive in my office on a regular basis — I’m just over it. I said I would stick it out for a full year, and that year mark is quite suddenly(!) around the corner in June. Come next month, I may reevaluate the gluten situation. I don’t feel like my life has changed for the better, but just changed in a inconvenienced way. I don’t know that I would renounce gluten-free things completely (I think at this point I might actually prefer quinoa pasta), but maybe I wouldn’t say no to a bagel. I don’t know. But it’s been hard to blog excitedly about gluten-free cooking when I don’t feel excited about a gluten-free lifestyle at all.

I do have some good recipes I would like to post, recipes I’d want to keep making no matter what, so don’t give up on me yet.

Easiest-Ever Vegetable Enchiladas

Mexican food is a gluten-free person’s dream, thanks to corn tortillas and sauces that rarely ever include flour. It’s one of my go-tos both for going out to dinner and cooking at home — my roommate and I have fajita night at least once or twice a month. Last weekend, we went out for Mexican, and the enchiladas I ordered had TOO MUCH CHEESE. I know, that’s not a sentence humans should utter, and certainly not a human like me, who would list cheese as her main food group. But since those unsatisfactory enchiladas, I’ve been craving good ones ever since.
I made enchiladas for the first time a few months ago, and the sauce was more work than making a Bolognese — so many ingredients, so many steps, and in the end it didn’t taste that enchilada-y. So for these, I did my favorite recipe move: glance at a few for inspiration, then make up your own.

The result was this insanely easy sauce, which takes just five minutes to put together, and involves mostly ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. Sautéing some veggies and assembling it all is the only real work you have to do. Lazy dinners, and especially lazy dinners with cheese, are the best dinners (so good of dinners that I didn’t have time to compose a lovely photo for you before digging in, sorry!).

Easy, Gluten-Free Vegetable Enchiladas
Ingredients
olive oil
1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced
2 large bell peppers, sliced into strips
6 oz. baby spinach
1 14-ounce can tomato sauce (make sure it doesn’t have added corn syrup)
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, divided*
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)*
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)*
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon dried onion (optional)
8 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a “Mexican blend” but feel free to use cheddar/monterey jack/your choice)
*If you don’t like things super spicy, just use cayenne. If you like things moderately to a bit more than moderately spicy, use all the spices. If you like things super spicy, add another 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

For the veggies: Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet (medium heat). Add onions and peppers and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. When ready, add in baby spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted. Turn off heat.

For the sauce: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, pour in can of tomato sauce, water, and milk. Stir until combined. Add all the remaining spices and hot sauce and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until warmed through, about 5 minutes.

To assemble: Preheat the oven to 375F. Wrap the tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave for one minute. In a glass baking dish (I used a weird 8×12-ish one I have), spread enchilada sauce across the bottom. Working one at a time and leaving remaining tortillas covered, take a tortilla, fill with 1/8 filling, roll up carefully, and place seam-side down in the dish (tortillas should be fairly full but not break when you roll them). Repeat with remaining tortillas. Top with enough sauce to comfortably cover the tortillas, then sprinkle cheese over evenly. Bake for 12 minutes or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven, let sit 5 minutes, and try not to eat four in one sitting like I did.

Gluten-Free Lasagna with Brussels Sprouts & Cherry Tomatoes

I eat a lot of pasta. I’ve eaten a lot of pasta my entire life—pastina for breakfast as a baby, small shaped mixed with cheese as my first meals I made myself, and multiple family meals a week with my dad’s meat sauce, with grilled veggies, with sauce from the Italian market, with butter when I was feeling sick. Pasta makes up part of the essence of my soul. So while I do strive to eat naturally gluten-free foods as much as possible, gluten-free pasta is the one “replacement product” I can’t live without.
At this point, I’ve tried almost all the brands and shapes and blends of gluten-free pasta (though that’s a topic for another post). It’s been so long at this point (almost eight months!) that I no longer really feel like there’s a difference between regular and gluten-free dried pastas. After all, pasta is really mostly a vehicle for sauce. Naturally, gluten-free lasagna lends itself particularly well to being exactly like the real thing. So when I saw this recipe for Brussels sprouts lasagna on How Sweet Eats, I knew I had to adapt it.
And adapt it I did. I didn’t just make it gluten-free, which was a pretty easy switch. Brussels sprouts AND mushrooms AND tons of cheese just sounded like too much savory-ness to me, so I decided to swap the mushrooms for cherry tomatoes, which help counter with some sweetness. I also used mozzarella instead of provolone, because mozzarella makes up part of the essence of my soul too.

Gluten-Free Lasagna with Brussels Sprouts & Cherry Tomatoes (adapted from How Sweet Eats)
Ingredients
2 small shallots, diced small (about 1/4 cup)
2 gloves garlic, minced
10 ounces brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced (if you’ve got a Trader Joe’s, cheat and buy their shaved Brussels sprouts)
16 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved (big mama ones quartered)
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated pecorino cheese, divided
1 package gluten-free lasagna noodles
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons gluten-free all-purpose flour (your blend must contain a starch)
2 cups milk, left at room temperature for about 20 minutes
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
olive oil

Prepare your lasagna parts
Set a large pot of water to boil. When water is boiling, add noodles and cook for four minutes less than package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water and then either soak in an ice water bath or coat noodles with olive oil.

Meanwhile, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large skillet. Add shallots and cook until softened and beginning to turn translucent, 2 to 3 minutes, then add in Brussels sprouts and garlic and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add in cherry tomatoes and more salt. Cover skillet and cook another 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until you can burst your tomatoes a bit. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and whisk together, stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes until well-combined and smelling delicious. Slowly pour in milk in a steady stream, whisking as you go, until all the milk is in. Switch to a spoon and keep stirring constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom and edges of your pot, until sauce thickens and magically becomes bechamel, about 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and nutmeg. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, 2/3 cup mozzarella, and 1/4 cup pecorino.

Assemble your lasagna
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Spread 1/4 cup bechamel at the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Lay three noodles down. Top them with 1/3 the cheese mixture (you will probably need to use your fingers to spread it around), 1/3 the vegetable mixture, then 1/3 the bechamel. Top with three more noodles, then repeat the cheese/veggie/bechamel layering process (now using 1/2 of what you have left). Top with three more noodles, then use the rest of the cheese/veggie/bechamel. Cover with three more noodles, then sprinkle top noodles with reserved 1/3 cup mozzarella and 2 tablespoons pecorino. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving (it will be the longest 10 minutes ever).

P.S. Sorry for the absence in posting! You can thank my mom for kindly nudging me texting me and blatantly calling me out to post.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce [with BUTTER]

Winter is a great time for extensive cooking projects (lasagna, for example, or veggie burgers). But it’s also a great time to be lazy and just throw some stuff in the oven while you watch Pitch Perfect for the seventh time.
I make sauce on the stove all the time, but I’d never tried roasting tomatoes for sauce in the oven before. I’d also never gotten a recipe to look exactly like the picture in the magazine before.

This sauce is so easy that even all of you who claim you can’t cook can make it—all you have to do is dump your ingredients in a baking dish and put it in the oven. That’s it. Not kidding. This is the ultimate lazy person’s dish, and also the ultimate dish for tricking people into thinking you did way more work.
The recipe as printed in Bon Appetit calls for quite a bit of garlic. I really love garlic, but I still thought it was too much, so my recipe below includes less than they call for. If you’re really opposed to anchovies, you can definitely omit them and not miss too much, but they do add a nice savory-ness (real word) to the sauce.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce with Butter (adapted from Bon Appetit)
Ingredients
1 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes (without added salt)
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 anchovy fillets packed in oil
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
freshly grated parmesan cheese
pasta of your choosing

Preheat oven to 425. Crush tomatoes with your hands as you add them to a glass* 8×8 baking dish. Add garlic, anchovies, butter, red pepper, salt, and pepper, stirring to combine.

Bake tomato mixture for 45 minutes, stirring things up about halfway through; anchovies and garlic should be very soft. Using a fork or snazzier mashing tool, mash up garlic and anchovies and stir to evenly distribute. Add some parmesan and stir. Combine sauce with cooked pasta, stirring until well mixed. Divide between bowls and top with lots more cheese, because cheese.

P.S. This recipe is way more fun to make if you keep pronouncing butter as BUTTEEEEEEH.

*Stonewear is okay, just do not use a metal pan — metal can sometimes react with the acid in the tomatoes and that is not a flavor you want.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

I’ve had the same best friend for 20 years, which means we have a lot of traditions we’ve developed over the years. One of my favorites that we started in the last few years are making pumpkin cupcakes just for us. Normally when I make a big batch of baked goods, I share them around: I invite friends over, I bring some to work, I save some for my parents. But not these cupcakes. Every year we eat the entire batch ourselves.
This was one baked good I was determined to make work gluten-free; I love them too much to skip them. Luckily, this recipe adapts particularly well (I’m guessing it’s because it has so many eggs to help bind things together, along with the pumpkin to keep things moist).

The combination of pumpkin cake and chocolate ganache is literally the greatest. I don’t know how the world has not capitalized on this combination yet. But if you want to try it, don’t ask me; I’m not sharing.

Gluten-free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Recipe (makes 18-20; adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients
2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (use regular flour if you’re not GF; I love King Arthur for both)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick salted butter, melted and cooled (1/2 cup)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1/2 cup)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract, as long as it’s the real deal)
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
9 ounces chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with liners. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and spices (through nutmeg) with a fork. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together butters and sugars. Whisk in eggs and vanilla, stirring quickly and making sure everything is well combined. Whisk in dry ingredients, making sure to scrape bottom and sides of bowl to get everything in there. Whisk in pumpkin puree until smooth.

Divide batter between liners (they will be about 2/3 to 3/4 full). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of your middle cupcakes comes out clean, 24 to 28 minutes, rotating pans from top to bottom and back to front halfway through. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

When cupcakes are cool, put chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until it’s steaming, but not boiling. Pour cream over chocolate and let sit for one minute, then stir until all chocolate is melted and smooth. Let mixture chill in the fridge until it’s stiffened a bit, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from fridge and dip cupcakes into chocolate twice. Store cupcakes in the fridge until you eat them all.

Life Lately

Oh poor blog, I am so sorry for abandoning ye. But you’ve always been in my heart, I promise!

A month ago I started a new job at Cosmopolitan.com. New jobs generally tend to take up a lot of time, but when you LOVE your new job, they take up even more time without you realizing, because you are enjoying every second of it.

But I have been squeezing in some cooking to my crazy new life, and promise to share recipes soon! To tide you over, here are some delicious adventures I’ve had lately:

Enjoying gluten-free treats my mom brought me all the way from Australia (those chocolate cookies are crumbly but goooood.)

Spending the weekend in Atlanta with a bunch of my closest friends from college, staying with a friend’s parents who happen to be gluten-free and whose mom made this INCREDIBLE chocolate cupcake with chocolate mousse, marshmallow, and chocolate fudge.

Enjoying my new gluten-free-friendly cafeteria (GF bread! GF signs on everything I can eat! GF soy sauce!), which gets really into the holidays.

Trying new (to me) restaurants in NYC with gluten-free options, like this pasta made out of potatoes at Sauce.

And trying fancy restaurants too, like ABC Cocina. My best friend and I made a pact to try new restaurants each weekend, rather than continuously going to our old standbys. Best pact ever.

How to Copycat the Pies n Thighs Chicken Biscuit [Gluten Free Optional!]

If you know me, you know that sandwiches are my favorite food (some people find this controversial, but it’s valid, the end). Every year I look for a new favorite sandwich of the year, and a few years ago I discovered the chicken biscuit from Pies n Thighs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s a juicy piece of boneless fried chicken on a biscuit that’s been slathered with honey butter and doused in hot sauce. It is, in a word, glorious. I’ve been missing it since going gluten free, so I decided to try to recreate it without the gluten. And…
It was surprisingly easy, and tasted exactly like the real version! Even if you’ve never had the real thing, this is a great impressive meal to make, and you’ll be sorry when you’ve finished your last bite. (And if you want the glutens, just use regular breadcrumbs!)

Pies n Thighs Chicken Biscuit Recipe [Copycat version]
Ingredients for the Marinade
1 package boneless, skinless chicken thighs (mine had 4)
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons sriracha or other hot sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper

Ingredients for Breading
3/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs
3/4 cup almond meal (if you’re making these with gluten, you can use all breadcrumbs, but I’d recommend using almond meal anyway as it adds a great flavor)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp amounts of any other dried herbs you like (I added some basil and oregano)
olive oil

Ingredients for Serving
gluten-free biscuits, rolls, or English muffins, halved and toasted (I recommend the Trader Joe’s French rolls)
4 tbsp salted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp honey
hot sauce of your choice (like Frank’s Red Hot or Cholula)

For the marinade: pour buttermilk into a large (non-metal) bowl. Add in hot sauce, mustard, salt, cayenne, paprika, and pepper and whisk together until well mixed. Set aside. Take your chicken thighs out of the package, trim any fat, and pound them out a bit thinner between pieces of plastic wrap. Submerge chicken in buttermilk mixture, making sure it’s completely covered, and let marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours and up to 24, stirring things around once or twice.

When you’re ready to cook: in a large plate, mix together breadcrumbs, almond meal, salt, cayenne, thyme, pepper, garlic powder, and any other herbs with a fork until well distributed. Take each piece of chicken out of the buttermilk, let the excess drip off, and then dredge in crumb mixture until both sides are coated.

Heat enough olive oil to more than comfortably coat the bottom of your pan over medium heat. When it’s hot enough (toss in some breadcrumbs and they’ll sizzle), cook chicken–probably in batches of two so as not to overcrowd your pan–until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. (When flipping chicken, use a thin metal spatula to ensure that coating comes with the chicken.) While chicken cooks, mix together honey and butter in a small bowl until combined.

When ready to serve, divide honey butter between rolls. Top bottom half with chicken, douse with hot sauce to taste (more is better), and top with other half. Grab a lot of napkins, and dig in.

Gluten-free Veggie Burgers [That Actually Taste Like Vegetables]

One of the most frustrating things about being gluten free is checking ingredients lists when food shopping, as so many things you wouldn’t even think could contain wheat seem to. I have a lot of good supermarkets near me, but not a single one’s veggie burger selection includes one that doesn’t contain wheat. Since homemade everything is better anyway, I decided to try making them from scratch.
The problem is that the breadcrumbs in commercial veggie burgers are what helps them hold together, something I only realized when I started cooking my first batch. I threw almond flour in to my second batch which definitely helped (and is great to use if you’re grain-free or slow carb), but I’d recommend using gluten-free breadcrumbs instead to really bind them together well; they’re a bit delicate otherwise…but still taste lightyears better than those gluten-y store bought veggie burgers. The great thing about making veggie burgers from scratch is that you can really customize them to your liking/based on what you have on hand. Don’t like peas? Use corn. Not a fan of spinach? Skip it. Have some leftover zucchini in the fridge? Throw it in. The world is your gluten-free oyster.

Gluten-free Veggie Burger Recipe
Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato, cooked however you like (I roasted mine in a 350 degree oven for one hour, but if you need to save time just stab it with a fork and use the microwave), then peeled
1 cup cooked rice (I used jasmine. If you cook 1 cup of uncooked rice, you’ll have enough for the burgers and to have on the side)
8 ounces button, white, or cremini mushrooms, diced small
1 large carrot (or about 7 to 9 baby ones), diced small
2 small shallots, diced small
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen chopped spinach (not thawed)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
1/4 cup almond meal or gluten-free breadcrumbs
olive oil

In a large bowl, mash together sweet potato and rice. Set aside.

Heat enough olive oil to comfortably coat the bottom of a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add mushrooms, carrot, shallots, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring regularly, until vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes. Add in frozen peas and spinach and continue to cook, stirring to break up spinach chunks, until vegetables are cooked, about 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Add vegetable mixture to the bowl with the sweet potato and rice. (Wipe out skillet but don’t wash it yet.) Add cayenne, Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper, and mix until well combined. Taste mixture and add more seasonings if necessary. Let cool about 30 minutes (you can speed this up in the fridge), then mix in egg and meal or breadcrumbs until everything is combined nicely.

Heat a teaspoon or two of olive oil in your skillet (use a paper towel to spread it around). Take large golf ball-ish sized portions of the veggie mixture and flatten into patties, then add to skillet. Cook until lightly browned (about 4 minutes), then flip carefully with a thin metal spatula and cook on other side. Serve on toasted gluten-free buns with cheese, because cheese is the best.

(This recipe makes 8 to 10 burgers and freezes quite nicely. Freeze burgers between pieces of parchment paper in a freezer bag and reheat in a skillet or in the microwave.)

Proof of the Truth in My Blog Title

This weekend I went to a second birthday party for my best friend’s niece, who is truly a girl after my own heart. She refused to put down her cake even for a pony ride, so the cake came along on the pony with her.
Cake is clearly the only thing that matters, whether you’re 2 or in your 20s (even if it’s [surprisingly good] gluten and dairy free cake).

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins [Adventures in Xanthan Gum]

Fall is upon us, which means it’s time for boots, new leather jackets, and being able to turn on the oven again without turning your apartment into a kiln.
I normally dive into baking season with enthusiasm, but I’ve been nervous this time around, since gluten-free baking is a new adventure for me. I did a lot of reading about it, and much of what I read kind of terrified me–lots of people warning off of baking with cups instead of weight (math?!), making your own flour blends (how big are your kitchens?!), and the perils of xanthan gum, the binder used in place of gluten. Baking and its ratios really are chemistry, but messing up xanthan gum ratios is not the same as using a little too much vanilla, and I couldn’t find a definitive agreement on how much to use. I also didn’t really love the ingredients lists in many of the recipes I found; some called for very specific flours, others required more eggs than I had on hand. To further complicate matters, many of the recipes I found were also dairy-free and other-stuff-free, and all I wanted to eliminate was gluten.
Naturally, I solved the problem by winging it and adapting an existing favorite (gluten) muffin recipe, because I have some sort of terrible compulsion to almost never follow recipe directions exactly, even when attempting something new. I ended up basing my xanthan gum usage off the package’s recommendation, but using a bit less than they suggested; I’d rather have my muffins be too crumbly than too tough. To my supreme surprise, these muffins actually came out as close to real muffins as they possibly could. The gluten-eaters in my life all loved them too, so these would be great to serve a crowd (but also great if you want to eat a dozen muffins by yourself–no judgments here).

Gluten-free Blueberry Muffins [adapted from The Modern Baker]
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (I used King Arthur)
1/2 cup almond flour (not almond meal, which is coarser. I used Bob’s Red Mill, which my friend Lauren so kindly sent me)
2 tsp baking powder
1 slightly overfull tsp xanthan gum (mine is also Bob’s Red Mill)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, plus a little extra to sprinkle on top
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (vanilla extract will also work, but make sure it’s the real thing)
1/2 cup milk (I used 1 percent)
8 ounces fresh blueberries, picked over for stems and mushy ones
a bit of cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk (or stir with a fork) together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, nutmeg, and salt until well combined. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until lightened and getting fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in vanilla and scrape down the sides again. Add in half of flour mixture and mix on low speed until well mixed. Stop mixer and pour in the milk, then mix on low speed again until combined (you may want to start with your mixer on “stir” to avoid getting your counter covered in milk splashes). Add remaining flour mixture and mix again until combined. Add in blueberries and mix on stir until berries are just distributed.

Divide batter between the liners (they will be quite full) and sprinkle a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon on top of each. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and tops are golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 to 10 minutes (basically until you can touch them without burning your fingers off), then move to wire rack to cool completely. If you’re making them later in the day, eat one for dessert (as my friend Sally says, muffins are just cake).