Well, we are all still sicker than sick around here, but I’ve had this post rattling around in my drafts for a couple of weeks, so I thought I may as well post it… and incidentally introduce you to a couple of fabulous Gluten-Free bloggers… Seamaiden, at The Book Of Yum, and Karen, at Only Sometimes Clever.

Seamaiden, at The Book Of Yum, runs a wonderful Gluten-Free blog that I am just getting to know and is hosting an “Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger” web event this week to get everybody cooking and swapping those favorite recipes. I’m really looking forward to taking a closer look at her recipe archives once we’re feeling better around here!

And… in honor of our week of horrific hacking and coughing, I’m going to share with you our family’s favorite new twist on chicken soup. It comes from one of my absolute favorite Gluten-Free bloggers who I am officially adopting for this event, Karen, at Only Sometimes Clever. Karen is a wealth of gluten-free know-how and is either the author or inspiration of many of our family’s favorite recipes. I love her creativity with her recipes and she is wonderful about answering questions if you’re just getting started. Whenever I find myself in a gluten-free menu rut, I head over to Karen’s to see what she’s been up to and I’m never disappointed. I’ll always have a soft spot for Karen… her sugar cookie recipe was my very first success story in my adventures in gluten-free baking. (I nearly cried in relief after those cookies came out of the oven… a gluten-free recipe that actually worked!) So here you have it… yet another gem from Karen:

Korean Chicken Noodle Soup (From Karen at Only Sometimes Clever)

This soup has been a wonderful addition to our family’s meal rotation! It is easy to prepare, cost-effective, wonderful tasting, and a hit with our very picky five-year-old. The accolades in our house just don’t get any better than that! For Karen’s original recipe, please click on the recipe title above the photo or on this link here.

The ‘noodles’ are a Korean pasta known by a number of names: rice cakes, ddeok guk ddeok, rice ovalettes, dduckgook, duk-guk, and many more. They are something I would have likely never been brave enough to try on my own, but boy would we have missed out! They are made from sweet rice flour and the oval pads cook to a soft and pleasingly chewy texture. Jacqui, The Queen of Dinner-time Doddling, snarfs them down as if she fears any moment I will yank them from her plate… which left me stunned and exceptionally pleased! I found them at our local Asian market in a large two-pound bag for $2.39 and we had a lunch and two dinners for three out of the recipe. I picked up the baby bok choy at the Asian market too… a large 1.5 lb pack for $0.79 verses $5.98 for the same amount at our local specialty grocer’s.

Now, I’ll tell you how I modified the recipe to suit our family’s tastes…

I did everything exactly as Karen suggests in her recipe with a few exceptions: 1) I skipped the Nori 2) I used Pacific Foods Chicken Broth for the base. 3) Our family loves garlic, so I went on the heavy side with the addition of garlic to the soup, and 4) I added some sea salt to taste.

I skipped the Nori (because my family members are not seafood fans) but I’m sure it’s a fabulous add if seafood is your thing! I used the Pacific Foods brand chicken broth for the stock because I haven’t been able to locate any bullion base in my area that is both gluten-free and casein-free. I did find a version of the “Chicken Better Than Bullion” that Karen mentioned in her post, but the only one I found, while gluten-free, had whey in it. So looks like I’m stuck with either the giant cartons of broth or making my own stock for now.

The soup as prepared for our family has a wonderful garlicky chicken taste that blends nicely with the unique texture of the noodles. An added plus: Jacqui has declared that she loves bok choy… score one for vegetables! Thank you Karen, for helping us transform our chicken noodle soup from ho-hum to heavenly! And thank you, Seamaiden, for this wonderful event to meet other gluten-free bloggers and discover some great new recipes.

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Note: Glutino brand crackers pictured are Gluten-Free but are made in a facility that processes dairy containing products. The label states that the crackers may contain ‘trace amounts’ of milk. Be aware of this if you have an extreme sensitivity or true milk allergy. Jacqui can have milk as a trace ingredient, but not a primary ingredient, so these crackers work well for her.

This little recipe has been a long time coming! Before we learned about Jacqui’s food sensitivities, one of the few foods we could count on her to eat without a fuss was cottage cheese. When we had to go casein-free, she was devastated! Ever try and explain to a three-year-old why they can’t have cottage cheese? Or better yet, why you haven’t been able to find one without milk in it? Believe me, I tried. As near as I know, no such thing exists. Jacqui’s grandmother came to the rescue with a homemade soy version that I have since tweaked to Jacqui approved perfection. It’s not really perfection to my own lofty cottage cheese standards (grin) but it’s decent. And it puts a smile on Jacqui’s face and always ends in an empty bowl. Thanks mom, for making a little girl’s cottage cheese wishes come true! And without further adieu…

Jacqui’s Casein-Free Mock Cottage Cheese

Note: Rice Dream beverages contain trace amounts of gluten even though the labels state they are gluten-free. Rice dream is manufactured using barley malt, which contains gluten, but since the product meets the FDA requirements of less than 200 parts per million (0.002%) gluten, they can label it as gluten-free. Also know that within the last year, the manufacturer’s of Rice Dream have removed the reference to barley protein from their labeling, even though nothing has changed with their manufacturing. I confirmed this via their customer service center, so avoid this product if you are extremely sensitive to gluten. Trace amounts of gluten are not a problem for Jacqui and the Rice Dream brand is the only one we can get her to drink, which is why we use it. However, if you are a celiac or highly sensitive to gluten, I would recommend a truly gluten-free brand such as as Pacific Foods Rice Milk or making your own, like Karen’s Homemade Rice Milk at Only Sometimes Clever. Her recipe contains more a lot more protein, and she’s working on finding a way to economically add calcium to it.

Assemble the following Ingredients:

Mori-Nu Firm Silken Tofu - 1 Box

Mori-Nu Extra-Firm Silken Tofu - 1 Box

Better Than Sour Cream Dairy-Free Sour Cream Substitute - 1 TBSP

Dairy-Free Margarine - 1 TBSP - Melted

Lemon Juice - 2 tsp

Garlic Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Rice Milk - 1 tsp

Open the box of the firm silken tofu and drain the liquid off. Place the block into a large mixing bowl and cut off one third of the block. Cube the third you have removed and place the cubes in a food processor or food mill.

Add to the food mill containing the tofu cubes: 1 TBSP of dairy-free sour cream substitute, 1 TBSP of dairy-free melted margarine, and 2 tsp of lemon juice.

Pulse the food processor or food mill until the cubes are no longer intact.

Open the lid and scrape down the sides. Re-seal the lid and pulse until smooth.

Remove the lid and check the consistency. It should be creamy and about the consistency of mayonnaise. If it is too thick, add rice milk, 1 teaspoonful at a time, pulsing food processor or food mill in between each addition, until desired consistency is reached. If it becomes to thin at any point, you can add a little of your remaining block of firm tofu, but try to avoid using very much of it as you will be needing it for the other portion of the recipe. Once desired consistency has been reached, set aside.

Open box of extra-firm silken tofu and drain off the liquid. Place the block in the same mixing bowl with the remaining 2/3 block of firm silken tofu. Cut both blocks into cubes and then gently mash with a fork to form ‘cheese curds’. The purpose of the two different firmnesses of silken tofu? The extra-firm silken tofu more closely approximates the texture of the cottage cheese curds. The firm silken tofu is easier to cream to make the creamy base for the curds. Combining the two different firmnesses of the tofu in the recipe has yielded the best results for our family.

Gently turn the curds over in the bowl, checking for un-mashed blocks until all the tofu blocks have been broken into curd-size chunks.

Scrape reserved creamed tofu from food processor or food mill into mixing bowl. Add 1/4 tsp of garlic powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Gently mix until all ingredients are uniformly incorporated. Adjust salt and garlic powder to taste. Store in air-tight container in refrigerator… or serve up immediately to your cottage-cheese deprived kiddos!

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Well, we have finally recovered from all our croup craziness and are officially back on the Christmas train. Today was Christmas cookie day and our first year at making Gluten-Free Casein-Free Christmas cookies. They turned out fabulously well and so we thought we would share our top three favorites:

GFCF Big Batch Christmas Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread

Cookies

(From Karen at Only Sometimes Clever)

Just so you know… That’s rice milk in the photo! : )

These are hands down, the best! They taste like the real deal, the dough is easy to work with, and they always turn out great. Our family’s Christmas gift to all our GFCF friends is to introduce you to Karen at Only Sometimes Clever (if you haven’t met her already). Karen came up with these wonderful recipes for GFCF sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies and since they cannot possibly be improved upon, I will just post the links to her recipes at her site:

Karen’s Big Batch GFCF Christmas Sugar Cookies

Karen’s Big Batch GFCF Gingerbread Cookies

Note: Sweet Rice Flour (or glutenous rice flour) used in these recipes can be obtained at Asian grocery stores for much less than the price you will pay for it at specialty grocery stores. We get ours in a big 5 pound bag for $5.69 per bag at our local Asian market.

The snowflake cookie was made with a 5 piece snowflake cookie cutter set by R&M International Corp.

GFCF Chocolate Snowball Cookies

Rice milk in the photo : )

These I just converted from one of my family’s favorites. They turned out every bit as delightful as the originals - we were quite pleased!

Well, we have finally recovered from all our croup craziness and are officially back on the Christmas train. Today was Christmas cookie day and our first year at making Gluten-Free Casein-Free Christmas cookies. They turned out fabulously well and so we thought we would share our top three favorites:

GFCF Big Batch Christmas Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Cookies

(From Karen at Only Sometimes Clever)

Just so you know… That’s rice milk in the photo! : )

These are hands down, the best! They taste like the real deal, the dough is easy to work with, and they always turn out great. Our family’s Christmas gift to all our GFCF friends is to introduce you to Karen at Only Sometimes Clever (if you haven’t met her already). Karen came up with these wonderful recipes for GFCF sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies and since they cannot possibly be improved upon, I will just post the links to her recipes at her site:

Karen’s Big Batch GFCF Christmas Sugar Cookies

Karen’s Big Batch GFCF Gingerbread Cookies

Note: Sweet Rice Flour (or glutenous rice flour) used in these recipes can be obtained at Asian grocery stores for much less than the price you will pay for it at specialty grocery stores. We get ours in a big 5 pound bag for $5.69 per bag at our local Asian market.

The snowflake cookie was made with a 5 piece snowflake cookie cutter set by R&M International Corp.

GFCF Chocolate Snowball Cookies

1 1/4 Cup White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1/4 Cup Cornstarch
1/2 Tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 Cup Margerine
5 oz Quality Unsweetened Chocolate
4 Eggs
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar

Melt margarine and chocolate together in double boiler then set aside to cool as you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Combine eggs, sugars, and salt. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture and mix well.

Combine flours, xanthan gum and baking powder. Add to chocolate mixture. Add additional sweet rice flour in 3TBSP increments until dough is consistency of brownie batter. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until firm.

Roll into 3/4 inch balls and roll in confectioner’s sugar. Place two inches apart on ungreased or silpat lined baking sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until set. Allow to cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Makes 5 dozen.

Note: These cookies need to be immediately placed in an air-tight container after they cool or they will transform over-night from light and airy to hard and stale.

GFCF Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

These have been my husband’s favorite Christmas candy since I first made them for him when we were dating… sixteen years ago. The original version was made with real butter and 6 oz of semi-sweet and 6 oz milk chocolate. Ken just pronounced this GFCF version every bit as good as the original - Enjoy!

1- 18 Ounce Jar Creamy Peanut Butter
1 1/2 lbs confectioner’s sugar
1/2 lb melted margarine
1/4 Cake Paraffin
12 oz Quality Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Melt margerine and mix together with peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and chill in refrigerator until firm.

Melt together the chocolate and paraffin in a double boiler or fondue pot. Push toothpick through the center of each peanut butter ball and dip in chocolate, leaving a small circle of peanut butter showing around the top of each ball.

Place on wax paper lined trays to harden. Transfer each chocolate peanut butter ball to paper candy cups if desired. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

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We have a bit of a vegetable dilemma at our house. Jacqui has only been off of her tube feeding since June of this year. Now that she doesn’t have the rounded nutritional content of her tube feeding formula to fall back on, it has been tricky to see that she gets all the nutrients she needs in her diet when all she really wants to eat are pepperoni slices, Tofutti soy cheese slices and slices of gluten-free bread slathered in margarine. For her fruit servings I can occasionally get her to eat banana slices (although she prefers to turn them into finger puppets) and she will eat a variety of Fruitabu Organic Fruit Flats or Twirls (the lowest prices we have seen is at Wal*Mart for a six pack box of the twirls) and she also drinks juice well. However, vegetables have been a real problem. That is, unless I want to allow her to grow up thinking it is reasonable to rely on dill pickle spears, french fries and ketchup to round out this area of her diet.

My solution to this problem will involve a plug for a book, but bear with me here because I also have a little bit of a rant. I promise I’ll get to the recipe in a minute. I’m giving this cookbook the thumbs up even though there has been some controversial press about it lately - I’ll explain why in a second. The book is a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious, by Jerry Seinfeld’s Wife, Jessica Seinfeld (or whoever really does her cooking), and contains a wide selection of really nice recipes that incorporate vegetable (and some fruit) purees into the ingredients to boost nutritional content.

It should be noted for my readers that this is NOT a gluten-free cookbook, but most of the recipes are easily adaptable and very healthy ones. Best of all, every single one of them that I have tried out in this book has had a nice flavor and texture - even after GFCF adaptations. The thing I really like about this cookbook is that it is a great reference for learning about what flavors and quantities of ingredients you can add to recipes without compromising the flavor and texture of a recipe to the point were it is no longer edible. I use it more like a reference/starting point for my recipes than an actual cookbook it works perfectly for this purpose.

The controversy over the book is two-fold. The first controversy I honestly have very little interest in because I think it’s silly. Author of The Sneaky Chef, Missy Chase Lapine, claims Mrs. Seinfeld stole her Idea. Whatever. Like either of them were the first mother on the planet to try and slip vegetables into toddler diets. Bottom line is that the Seinfeld book has recipes that just work better for my family - and that is really the end of it for me. Variety and choices are a good thing and what works for one family may not work as well for another. There is plenty of room on the bookshelf for both books, in my opinion.

The second part of the controversy comes from a group of parents as well as some medical and nutritional experts who are stating that it is deceitful to sneak vegetables into your kids food and that it doesn’t teach them the skills necessary for making wise dietary choices as adults. I kind of see where they are coming from on this issue, but I don’t agree with completely shooting the book down or with some of the blanket statements that have been made. This is a good cookbook containing quality recipes, and useful tips. With a little creative parenting it suddenly transforms into a truly phenomenal book.

Here’s how I use it: Every recipe I have Jacqui help me prepare. I measure the ingredients, she adds and mixes them and I cook them. I make sure I have both the puree and the plain vegetable option prepared and ready to go (stored in the freezer) of whatever vegetable I am working with. Every recipe I give her the option: Do you want to mix your sweet potatoes in your pancakes this morning or do you want to eat them as baked sweet potato fries? Do you want your butternut squash mixed into your (GFCF) macaroni, or do you want to eat it fluffy like mashed potatoes? Do you want to mix your carrots into meatball soup today or would you like to have baby carrots with (GFCF) ranch dip instead? This works really well for us. Jacqui is learning that she needs to make choices for her nutrition that include vegetables at every meal and she is having fun doing it. I also have a rewards system that I use in developing her eating skills that I will go into on a future post, but she gets rewarded and praised for the times that she chooses to try the vegetables plain. It takes the pressure off, allowing her the freedom to learn to make good choices on her own.

The other problem I have with the whole “morality argument” over sneaking vegetables into children’s food is that it completely ignores the parents who are dealing with an entirely different set of issues. Take autism for instance. It’s really inappropriate to be out there saying that every parent who sneaks vegetables into their children’s food is either a moral degenerate, irresponsible or both - it’s just not true. It’s an insensitive and uneducated statement to make. So stop it. I’m not the parent of an autistic child, but I know how it stings to be on the wrong end of one of these sweeping statements. With an autistic child, adding nutrients and vegetables into preferred foods can really come down to a matter of medical necessity. These parents are being thoughtful, responsible, resourceful and compassionate. Dial it down a few notches people - and spend a few minutes thinking about the fact that those itty bitty boxes you are always so busy trying to cram every member of society into aren’t really a comfortable fit for anyone and extremely boring to boot. OK. I feel better and will now step away from the soap box… On to the recipe… enjoy!