Spaghetti with clams

I love rice, but I love pasta too. And having married into a fine Italian family, pasta is a pantry staple in our house. Whenever I have no idea what to make for dinner, I can grab a box of "macaroni",  a handful of roma tomatoes and have dinner on the table in 20 minutes.

I tend to keep roma tomatoes on hand when they are in season, but honestly, a can of whole or crushed tomatoes will get the job done nicely in a pinch.

Since I tend to do most, if not all, of our cooking for the holidays, I like to simplify our evening meals this time of year. I can't organize my grocery shopping to buy what's needed for the Thanksgiving table and make sure I have enough ingredients on hand for the other nights of the week. I'm just not that gifted. And the fridge doesn't really hold that much. Plus, when I'm thinking about turkeys and corn casseroles and roasted acorn squash and baking, baking, baking, dinner has got to be a no-brainer.

And that's why I love this meal.

Here's what you need to get started:

1 box of spaghetti, linguini or long twirl-able pasta of your choice
1-2 cans of chopped or minced clams w/ juice
4-6 roma tomatoes
generous handful of finely chopped fresh parsley
kosher salt
fresh pepper
red pepper flakes
garlic
olive oil

Put a pot of water on to boil and cook the spaghetti according to package directions.

 While the spaghetti is cooking, chop the tomatoes. I like a small-ish diced cut.

 

Once the tomatoes are chopped/diced, swirl some olive oil in a heavy pan and let it heat for about a minute. Pour in the clams and add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan. Season with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and if you like a little bite, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes.

 

 Let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so (until the pasta is cooked and the tomatoes soften), then throw in the parsley.

Take the pan off the heat. Drain the spaghetti. And mix the sauce and pasta together. I do this in the same pan I cook the sauce in, but you can use a fancy bowl if you like.

 

Sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese and enjoy!!

 

One of the nice things about this meal, is that I can hold some spaghetti aside for my son, who still prefers his serving with nothing more than butter and cheese.

A word on amounts: If you are preparing a pound of pasta, you may want to use two cans of clams and a couple extra tomatoes. Too much sauce is never a problem with this meal, but not enough can feel skimpy. The sauce is very broth-like and one my favorite things, besides sopping it up with a good piece of crusty Italian bread, is to scoop up what's left in my bowl with a spoon.

I'll probably make this once a week or so right up through the New Year.  It's the kind of thing I can throw together after a day of baking or when we need a change of pace from holiday leftovers. My mother-in-law, by the way, makes it the same way only she omits the tomatoes and the red pepper flakes. Her version is even simpler than mine and just as delicious!!

Gluten-free apple muffins

Finding a variety of simple things that my eldest daughter, who is 5, will eat in the morning has been, hmm, challenging shall we say? She used to be a great breakfast eater, but some time in the last 6 months she simply stopped being interested in morning food. Nothing enticed her.

I've made a variety of quick breads for her (banana, carrot) but she wasn't interested. "I don't like this," she proclaims, and then asks for her beloved rice cake. Yes, every day she eats a rice cake for breakfast. How borrrrring!

This week, however, I tried a recipe for apple bread, which I made into apple muffins (cupcakes to her), and I'm pleased to report that she gobbled up her muffin. I also believe it helps tremendously that I involved her in the baking process. I have more success getting her to try new things if she helps make it.

This recipe made 18 muffins. I froze the remaining ones we didn't gobble up right out of the oven. They thawed quickly in the microwave and were just as delicious.

GF Apple muffins
From a pear bread recipe from M.A.G. - Adventures in ASD and GFCF living.

2 small-medium apples, peeled, cored and grated (I used Honey Crisp)
1 1/2 cups all purpose GF baking flour
1 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with baking cups and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, xantham gum, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, canola oil and vanilla. Add sugar and beat well.

Add flour mixture and continue to beat until mixture is well-blended.

Fold in the grated apples (I used my Cuisinart and my apples were more shredded than grated).

Scoop mixture into muffin baking cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool in pan on wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Biscuits...and more biscuits

There's almost nothing I love more than hot, fresh, home-made bread, straight out of the oven. Challah. Whole wheat. A crispy-crusted French loaf.

But fresh-baked bread and a 9-5ish job? Not even a bread machine can make those sorts of yeasty dreams come true on a regular basis.

Which is why I've become the ultimate biscuit fan. OK, sure. Technically? No yeast. But they're warm and flour-y, they make the house smell good, and my kids squeal with delight when they're on the menu. Plus? I can make them from scratch and still have them on the table in under half an hour.

Can you say the same thing, bread? I didn't think so.

Score one for the previously guilt-ridden working mom.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought this little ode to the biscuit would be especially appropriate. Because really, who has time to knead dough and let it rise when you've got a turkey to brine? (What? You don't brine? I'm a total convert, thanks to Alton Brown and the Food Network. Also, I'm a total masochist. But that's a subject for my other blog.)

And, just to raise the ante a bit, I'm going to throw two different biscuit recipes your way. The first is one I just tried for the first time last week, after seeing it in the weekly recipe-laden email the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen folks sent to me. (By the way. Cook's Illustrated = best cooking magazine ever. Hands down. Yes, I do have opinions, thank you very much. And since you asked, go for the online subscription. The archives are incredible.) The second is from my go-to cookbook, The Joy of Cooking. And having made them both within a couple of days of one another, I have to tell you...they're both scrumptious. Try one, try both. There's no such thing as too many biscuits.

Cream Biscuits (adapted from America's Test Kitchen video recipe)

2 cups flour (no reason--ever, that I can think of--to get bleached flour, folks; go for the all-purpose unbleached)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
approximately 1-1/4 cups heavy cream

The ATK folks like these biscuits because they're really easy to throw together, what with not having any butter to cut in and worry about lying around in too-big chunks. Personally, I don't think there's such a thing as a too-big chunk of butter, but, you know, different strokes and all that. What *I* liked about this recipe is how truly creamy and rich and yet flaky the biscuits were.

Here's how to get them that way:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add heavy cream a little at a time, until the mixture is fully wet.

3. Take the dough out of the bowl, and knead it for 20 to 30 seconds on a floured surface. Unlike most biscuits, you can actually treat this dough pretty roughly; I probably kneaded for more like a minute, and it was just fine.

4. The ATK folks then suggest putting the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, spreading it out, turning the pan upside down and dumping it on the countertop, then cutting out the biscuits with a biscuit cutter. Me? I hate washing more dishes than I need to, so I just smoothed it out on the same board where I'd kneaded it and cut it with a round cookie cutter.

5. Place on baking sheet with parchment paper (I'll second Kristen's insistence that it's the only way to go when you're baking), and bake for 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. Serve warm. With real butter. (Or whatever you want. I just love real butter.)

Quick Drop Biscuits (from The Joy of Cooking)

These are based on a more 'conventional' basic rolled biscuit recipe in the book, but I've never been one to care about my biscuits looking all smooth and uniform, and drop biscuits get into the oven and thus into my belly more quickly than do those that require rolling out and cutting. No contest!

2 cups all-purpose flour (another plug for unbleached)
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into smallish pieces
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 45o degrees.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, then add the butter, cutting it with knives or a pastry blender until the butter is in pea-sized (or smaller) flour-coated pieces. You don't want the butter to melt or get pasty.

3. Add all the milk at once, mixing it into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until everything is moist and sticky, but not smooth.

4. Drop golf-ball-sized teaspoons of the batter onto a baking sheet lined (yes, another plug) with parchment, spacing the biscuits an inch or more apart.

5. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the bottoms and the spiky peaks on top are nice and golden brown. Serve warm and, need I say? With butter. Mmmmmmmmmm.

So now I'm wondering...Do any of you have a strong preference when it comes to these sorts of things? Like, do some of you really hate the idea of a biscuit whose top is spiky rather than smooth? Are any of you turning up your nose at the idea of a biscuit made without butter? Do biscuits turn you off entirely, being heavier than their various yeasty cousins? I'd love to hear what you think.

Allergy friendly banana bread

I think I may have a problem in my marriage.

Ever since I got my gorgeous, empire red Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer (with an amazing grinder attachment —*sigh*), I've been having lustful thoughts about all manner of things I can make with it. My poor husband isn't even allowed to touch the thing without me following behind him and wiping off the fingerprints or food spatters.

Much the same way a man might obsess about his shiny red convertible, I am having a serious love affair with my mixer. It is nothing short of amazing. I can't believe I waited so long to get one. For that, I have to say I am actually grateful to my son for not being ready to move beyond pureed and ground foods yet. The cost of buying jars of baby food was getting so outrageous —roughly ten dollars a day— that I was able to make the case with my husband that this sexy new machine would pay for itself in just a couple of months.

It has changed my life. The way I cook, the way I think about the food instead of the work involved to prepare it. Unbelievable. I don't know how I ever lived without it. My husband thinks I'm a tad obsessive.

Pffft, whatever, dear.

Once upon a time, the idea of making banana bread in my minuscule kitchen would have given me hives. Seriously, I only have a few feet of actual work space between my sink and my stove —and that's on a good day. The idea of sifting flours and dry ingredients in one bowl, using the hand mixer to mash the bananas and wet ingredients in another, then coordinating pouring the flour mixture into the batter bowl while mixing and not spilling on the counter and floor? Oy vey. Imagine Lucy Ricardo and you get the idea; it's not exactly motivating to bake yummy things when it takes so much work.

But once my cherry red Kitchenaid entered my life? (Cue sexy siren song...) Easy peasy. *breathy sigh*

Tonight, I simply dumped all the wet ingredients including —gasp— unmashed bananas right into the bowl and let that hot mama do her thing. Then, I dumped in the dry ingredients —measured them right into the bowl as the mixer was running!— and my trusty mixer turned the lumpy goo into a smooth, satiny batter in moments. Moments, I tell you.

The hardest part is waiting as my little loaves bake to their golden, banana-y goodness. What? Banana-y is too a word; I just made it up. So there!

This recipe is so easy even my husband could make it. If I ever decide to let him near my beautiful new mixer, that is.


Ingredients:
2 C all purpose GF flour blend
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 C canola oil
1 C sugar
1 large egg
4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 C rice milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease loaf pan or use non-stick pans. (Makes one large or four mini loaves.)

Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside.

In large bowl combine oil and sugar. Add mashed bananas, stir well.
Add milk and lemon juice. Stir well.
Add flour mixture, stirring well until all lumps disappear.
Pour into loaf pan(s). (Be sure not to overfill your pans as the bread will rise during cooking.)



Bake at 350F until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
For mini loaves, allow 45 minutes.
For large loaf allow 60 minutes.

Turn onto wire rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before cutting. (Resist the temptation! GF flours are very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity and this will make the bread very gooey.)

A few tips about this particular recipe: I've tried it a number of ways —with egg, without egg, using a sorghum flour blend, using a rice flour blend and adding some flax meal. In my opinion, if you don't need to avoid eggs, add the egg. Otherwise, simply omit the egg —but expect the bread to be much denser and moister than the typical banana bread —a bit sticky; the "mouth feel" will be heavier. If you must avoid eggs, you can add a couple generous tablespoons of finely ground flax which will add some extra fiber as well as absorb some of the extra moisture.

I've read that sorghum flour behaves more like wheat flour in terms of texture and elasticity. However, I think it has a much stronger flavor and competes with the sweet banana flavor of the bread. I prefer a rice flour blend.

Remember how I said I just dumped everything in the bowl and let 'er rip? Here's your proof:

Shrimp feast

I hope you like shrimp. I love it! My whole family loves it.

Problem for a long time was that I didn't know how to cook raw shrimp. I was scared of it. Intimidated by the deveining, worried I wouldn't cook it long enough. I avoided dealing with raw shrimp at all cost, thus relegating me to only enjoying it at the occasional restaurant outing.

That all changed this summer when I went to South Carolina to visit my sister. I asked her to show me how to clean and devein shrimp. Being a teacher, she, of course, took my request very seriously.

After my Shrimp 101 course, I came back home and we started eating shrimp fairly regularly. Both of my daughters love it. We even created a new tradition: Friday Night Shrimp Night.

One of the reasons Friday night works as shrimp night is because by the end of the week, I'm really not interested in laboring too long over dinner. Shrimp cooks really quickly!

Awhile back I started searching for a variety of ways to prepare shrimp. Today I'm going to share with you my three favorite recipes.

But first, if you're at all intimidated about working with raw shrimp (like I was), click here to watch a video demonstrating how to clean and devein raw shrimp. Trust me, it's EASY.

Without further ado, my favorite shrimp recipes.

Fried Shrimp (gluten free and casein free)
1 egg, mixed with a little bit of rice milk (or your preferred milk substitute)
1/2 cup of GF coating mix (recipe follow)
1 lb of peeled, deveined shrimp (I only buy wild-caught American shrimp)
Canola oil

Dip shrimp in egg/milk mixture, then toss in coating mix until evenly coated.

Heat canola oil in pan. When it's hot, place shrimp in pan. Shrimp cooks very quickly. You will probably only need to fry it about 3 minutes per side. You can tell it's done when the shrimp is opaque in appearance, not shiny and translucent.

Remove from pan to a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Serve immediately.

After much online searching and quite a few trial and fail attempts at making a good gluten free breading, I finally found the perfect one. Trust me when I say, look no further. This is the best recipe for breading chicken, shrimp or fish. Just perfect.

GFCF Coating Mix (works great on chicken, shrimp and fish)
This recipe comes courtesy of Erin at M.A.G. - Adventures in ASD and GFCF Living.

1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup crushed rice cereal
1/2 cup potato flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)

Sift all ingredients until well blended. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Use quickly or store in the refrigerator for longer shelf life.

Baked Shrimp Scampi
The original recipe can be found at allrecipes.com (my go-to online recipe site). I made a few modifications, including making it dairy-free.

1/2 cup dairy free butter (I use Earth Balance)
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1-2 lbs peeled, deveined raw shrimp

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine everything but the shrimp in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.
When butter is melted completely, remove from heat.
Place shrimp in a shallow baking dish, and pour butter mixture over top.
Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until shrimp are pink and opaque.

I serve this over spaghetti and with a vegetable. The butter mixture makes a great sauce over pasta.

Lastly, my most favorite of ways to make shrimp: marinated and grilled! This recipe comes directly from allrecipes.com with zero changes to it. It is naturally free of gluten and casein.

Marinated Grilled Shrimp
3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 lbs peeled and deveined raw shrimp

Mix all the ingredients, except the shrimp, in a large bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate (in the fridge) for at least an hour. I have found the longer you marinate the better with this recipe.

Skewer shrimp and cook on preheated, lightly oiled grill. I haven't timed it, but it takes about 3 minutes per side for the shrimp to be cooked thoroughly. Remember, you know it's done when it's opaque.

I served this several times over the summer with a big salad and corn on the cob. I think we had it 3 Fridays in a row it was so good.

If you have a favorite shrimp recipe, do share! Leave a comment or write a guest post. See sidebar for details.

Rice with vermicelli

You know how Italian families grow up on pasta? I grew up on rice. And I could still eat rice every night of the week. I love it, in all its countless incarnations. But the rice I love best is this rice, the rice I'm going to show you how to make today. It's the rice my mother makes, the one she learned to make from her mother, who learned from her mother, and so on and so on.

Every once in a while I'll stumble upon this rice in a Greek restaurant or a Middle Eastern restaurant, and I'll think, yes, just like home. Because that's what this rice is to me: home.

There are a couple things you need to know up front. First of all, we're going to use butter. And if we were truly being authentic, we would use rendered butter, but honestly, I never have figured out how to actually do that. Second, (and this one is non-negotiable) we need to use Uncle Ben's Converted Rice. No wild rice or sushi rice or brown rice or Carolina rice. God forbid—no instant rice. Uncle Ben's Converted Rice in the orange box.

Here's what you need to make about 4 servings (after double-checking with my mom, we decided it would be important to add that this will make 4 small side-dish size servings. We all love rice so much, that honestly, if we were really going to have four adults sitting down to dinner, I'd double it.)

• 2-3 tablespoons of butter
• @ a handful of thin vermicelli noodles
• 1 cup of Uncle Ben's Converted rice
• 2 cups of VERY hot water (the ratio is always 2 cups of liquid for every 1 cup of rice; so if you want to double the recipe, you would need 4 cups of water, 2 cups of rice)
  
• salt

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan.

Add the vermicelli. If you are using coiled vermicelli, break it apart so it looks like this:

Brown the vermicelli, stirring often. When the color is good, add the rice and stir everything around.

You want the rice coated in the butter. Now add the hot water. Add the water slowly, it's going to sizzle and spit because the pan is hot and the water is hot, so stand back a bit and watch the steam. Add some salt. Be generous. It won't hurt you.

Bring the liquid to a bowl and cover the pan. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.

Now, this is important: Do NOT stir. Do NOT peek. Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down to simmer and walk away. Set a timer, or watch the clock. When the liquid is gone, the rice is done.

If you want to add a little Middle Eastern flavor, sprinkle some cinnamon on top before you serve it.

I think this rice is delicious plain, but there are so many ways you can vary the recipe. You can certainly use chicken broth instead of water; you can add slivered almonds or toasted pine nuts or golden raisins, or top it with a bit of Greek yogurt or lebne. And it's a great accompaniment to everything from shish kebab to fish. It's a real favorite in our house.

How do you make rice? (On top of the stove? Rice cooker? Microwave?) What's your foolproof method?

Braised chicken with tomatoes and artichoke hearts

I was going to call this chicken cacciatora, or hunter's style chicken. And in some ways, that's not a bad name, since the idea behind chicken cacciatora is to use up whatever you have on hand. Go ahead. Google it. The only common ingredients you'll find behind most recipes are chicken and tomatoes. And maybe garlic.

So, I decided for the sake of clarity to call this dish braised chicken with tomatoes and artichokes, because that's what I happened to have on hand, though it would be equally delicious with eggplant or zucchini or almost any kind of mushrooms. (Yes, I sort of made this recipe up, but one of the great things about it is that it's so incredibly versatile. Once you get the basic technique down, you can substitute all over the darn place.)

I started with this:

Boneless skinless chicken thighs (though you could use a whole cut-up chicken)

1 can peeled plum tomatoes

1 can quartered artichoke hearts (in their own juice; not marinated)

1 onion, chopped

3-4 carrots, chopped

3-4 celery ribs, chopped

Garlic

Salt, pepper to taste

Thyme

Rosemary

Season the chicken with salt, pepper and thyme. I like kosher salt for cooking. (I have no idea why.) Then swirl some olive oil in a heavy pan. I used this much:

 

Heat it up and add the chicken. The idea right now is not to cook the chicken through, but to give it some nice color and to let all those yummy tidbits collect in the bottom of the pan. I browned my chicken for about 7-8 minutes per side.

Remove the chicken and set it aside. Throw the chopped onion, celery and garlic into the pan. As the onion and celery start to sweat, they'll pick up color and flavor from the bottom of the pan. Saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is nearly translucent.

Now, comes the fun part. Open a bottle of wine. (If you don't have any wine, use the juice from the tomatoes.) Add enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan and stir it around over a good high heat, scraping all the brown tidbits (is there a name for this?) from the bottom. Layer in the chicken and whole tomatoes. You'll need to use your hands to break the tomatoes apart. You want them broken up, but not chopped or crushed. When it looks like you have enough tomato, stop—and save the rest in the fridge for another day. (I used about half of the can for five chicken thighs).

Next, toss in the artichoke hearts, carrots and the rest of the seasonings. Add enough liquid to cover the chicken and most of the vegies. Remember, if you don't have wine, use the juice from the tomatoes or the artichokes—and if you do have wine, don't add too much. You're better off using some wine and some juice for flavor. The rule of thumb in braising is enough liquid to cover about half of the ingredients. It will look like this:

Cover the pan, and if your pans are oven-safe, like mine are, you can finish cooking it at 350 until the meat is fork tender. If your pan is stovetop-only, finish cooking over a medium heat for as long as it takes the chicken to cook through and become tender. I left mine in the oven a little over an hour. While it finishes cooking, check the liquid a couple times and if need be, add a little more juice from the tomatoes or even water. And, of course, here's where you can taste and adjust the seasonings.

I like the way the oven surrounds the pan with an even heat, so I prefer that method, even for my pot roasts. I'm pretty sure this would also work in a slow cooker. You might need to adjust the liquid at the start, but I would still brown the meat first and then transfer to the crock pot.

I served this over rice, but pasta would also be good. (On Monday, I'll show you how I make rice. It's foolproof. And delicious, and the women in my family have been making it this way for a few centuries, so in addition to it being a crowd-pleaser, it's a time-tested method.)

Okay, here's the recap:

1. season chicken
2. brown chicken, set aside
3. saute onion and celery and garlic
   
4. add a little liquid, scraping the pan as you stir
5. layer in chicken, tomatoes, vegies and seasoning
6. add more liquid
7. cover and cook until chicken is fork tender

For a cold day, this is a nice hearty meal, but it's also one of those meals you can fancy up a bit for company. And I love that. I'm all about versatility in the kitchen.

And, in case you are wondering, my son, who typically refuses any food that is cooked in combination with other food, was willing to taste the chicken (after I made sure there was no tomato clinging to it), two carrots and a couple spoons of rice. After which he asked for a bowl of cereal. And since the new rule in our house is: if you taste it and don't like it, you can have frosted flakes (I know, I'm weak), I'm still calling it a win.

Do you have a go-to chicken dish, one that uses up what's in the fridge or requires little more than stocked pantry items? If so, tell us about it.