Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar Recipe

This great side dish from Just Vegetable Recipes doesn’t require too much prep, and will go wonderfully with a variety of main dishes.

Ingredients:

2 large turnips
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Recipes:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel turnips, then cut into 1 inch squares.

2. Whisk oil and vinegar, and toss with turnips.

3. Spread the turnips in a single layer in a roasting pan, and roast 25-30 minutes or until slightly browned and softened.

New Blog Page: Recommended Cookbooks and Recipe Sites

I’ve added an exciting new page to my blog called Recommended Cookbooks and Recipe Sites! This page includes a list of regular cookbooks which have plenty of gluten free recipes and recipes that can easily be made gluten free. Each cookbook has a list of linked recipes which have been included in my blog. So no more searching for special gluten free cookbooks – they usually have recipes which wouldn’t include gluten anyway!

Pizza Fusion Restaurant Review

Gluten free in New Jersey? Dairy free, even? No problem. Gluten Free/Dairy Free NJ has you covered. Check out his amazing list of gluten free and dairy free restaurants throughout New Jersey (and some elsewhere too!).

The author of the blog and I recently took a trip to Pizza Fusion in Red Bank, NJ for some great food, the most exciting of which were gluten free hoagies! I’ve never been to a restaurant that could make a gluten free hoagie, and it was really excellent. They also had a few gluten free appetizers, brownies, and all their pizzas are now gluten free.  Check out the full review here.

Oranges in Marsala Recipe

This is a yummy, quick, light dessert recipe from Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet Today which I often use when I feel like having something more than just fruit after dinner, but I don’t want to take much time making dessert. Oranges are the recommended fruit for this recipe, but Uglifruit and other types of fruit are also great.

Ingredients:

5 navel oranges
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sweet Marsala

Recipe

1. Squeeze enough juice from half of an orange to measure 2 tablespoons.

2. Peel oranges, removing all white pith, and keep in segments or cut into bite-sized pieces.

3. Heat sugar in a dry small heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring with a fork to heat evenly, until it starts to melt. Stop stirring and cook, swirling pan occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is a dark amber caramel.

4. Carefully add orange juice and wine (caramel will harden and steam vigorously) and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until caramel is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove sauce from heat.

5. Either spoon the caramel over orange slices/segments and let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving, or let the caramel cool first, then dip the orange slices/segments into the caramel.

Pork and Tomatillo Stew Recipe

This amazing recipe is another one from Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet Today cookbook. It takes time, but is absolutely worth the work and will last you quite a while!

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 large garlic cloves
1 (12 oz) bottle gluten free beer – Amber Woodchucks could work
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice (from about 5 oranges)
1 lb tomatillos, husked, rinsed under warm water, and quartered
1 (28 oz) can whole tomatoes, drained, juice reserved, and chopped (I used the same size can of diced tomatoes with green peppers)
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, root ends discarded, leaves and stems chopped (optional – I didn’t include it)
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped, including seeds
1 (14 to 19 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained (optional – I didn’t include them)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Accompaniment:

Rice

Optional side:

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (8 oz) contained sour cream
(Stir together and serve with dish)

Recipe:

1. Pat pork dry and season with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Heat oil in a 6-8 qt heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes.

2. Add pork in batches, without crowding, and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides; transfer to a large bowl.

3. Meanwhile, combine beer, orange juice, tomatillos, and tomatoes with juice in a 5-6 qt pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tomatillos and tomatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. When pork is browned, pour off all but 1 tbs oil from pot (you may not even need to do that). Add onions and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes.

5. Add tomatillo mixture, pork, cilantro, jalapenos, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper, and cook, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until well combined. Bring to a boil, reduced heat, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionaly, until meat is very tender, about 2 hours.

6. Add black beans and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

7. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Fullness Factor: 

Enjoy Life Chewy Caramel Apple Bar

I was at a health food store I’d never been to before, and they had a whole ton of gluten free products I’d never seen before. Among them, I found Enjoy Life‘s Chewy Caramel Apple Bar:

 

 

 

 

I basically liked the bar except that it was considerably smaller than the package and it wasn’t chewy. It was harder than expected. Having had Enjoy Life’s amazing soft baked cookies, I expected the bar to be chewy as promised, but I found it hardish with only a little bit of chew. The apple taste was there, but there was no caramel taste at all. Overall, it was okay, but I wouldn’t buy it again. I would, however, try the chocolate bar to see if it’s any different.

Flavor Factor: 

Julie’s Organic Ice Cream Sandwiches

I haven’t had an ice cream sandwich in years and years. So when I saw Julie’s Organic Ice Cream Sandwiches, I was extremely excited!

 

 

 

 

The ice cream is Julie’s Organic vanilla and the cookies are Glutenfreeda dark chocolate. The ice cream was very high quality – the kind where you can taste the vanilla bean itself, and it was custardy smooth. The cookies were thin and chocolatey, but not so chocolatey that they stole attention away from the ice cream. The balance between the chocolatey taste of the the cookies and the pure vanilla taste of the ice cream was perfect. And the chocolate cookies were just a little chewy, not crumbly at all; they held together perfectly, even through the last bite.

From the texture to the taste, Julie’s Organic Ice Cream Sandwiches went beyond my expectations and gave me such a pleasant surprise that I was done with my first one in 3 minutes flat!

Flavor Factor: 

Movie Snacks: 9 Gluten Free Gummy Brands

Here’s a great list of gluten free gummy brands for your snacking pleasure:

1. Vat 19 http://www.vat19.com/ (gluten AND casein free!)

2. Froose http://froose.com/

3. Edward & Sons http://www.edwardandsons.com/ldo_info.itml (gluten AND casein free, AND vegan!)

4. Surf Sweets http://www.surfsweets.com/

5. Indie Candy http://www.indiecandy.com/Gluten-Free-Candy-s/54.htm (includes other candies too)

6. Yummy Earth http://yummyearth.com/

7. Starburst http://starburst.com/ (original flavor only)

8. Dots http://www.tootsie.com/products.php?pid=129

9. Haribo http://www.haribo.com/planet/us/startseite.php The following are not gluten free: Black Licorice Wheels, Red Licorice Wheels, Sour S’ghetti, Fruity Pasta, Brixx, Konfekt and Pontefract Cakes. The following are not casein free Strawberries & Cream and Konfekt

NuGo Free Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bar

I found an interesting gluten free bar at the Whole Foods register called NuGo Free Gluten Free Carrot Cake. Carrot Cake? Yes, please! I did the famous product squeeze to see if it felt soft and…well…edible. I hate buying gluten free cake or bread products to find out that they are hard as a rock. This bar passed my test. I was very excited to give it a try:

To my disappointment, the bar was horrible. Not only did it not taste at all like carrot cake, but the texture was horrendous. The puffed rice was chewy, as if it were stale – not an appealing texture. I tasted mostly cinnamon with a bit of the promised icing. No real carrot cake flavor at all. This is especially surprising to me because I have had excellent gluten free carrot cake before, so I thought this bar would definitely be good. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even finish it. With a product that bad, I won’t be trying any more NuGo Free bars in the future.

Flavor Factor: 

Gluten Free Mango Apple Salsa Recipe

Something simple and yummy for your Friday night dinner:

Juice from 1 lime
a few branches worth of cilantro leaves
1/2 jalapeno, finely diced (use 1/4 jalapeno to cut the spice)
1 mango, roughly diced
1 apple (I prefer Red Delicious), roughly diced
1/2 purple onion, diced
1 large pinch sugar
1 small large pinch salt (the ratio of sugar to salt is 2:1)

Make sure to taste test as you go and adjust seasonings (salt, sugar, and cilantro) to your tastebuds’ pleasure. Simply mix all ingredients well and enjoy! You can eat it by itself, scoop it up with some lime tortilla chips, or put it on top of fish, chicken, or just rice.