This salsa is so brightly colored and flavorful, it will wake up any meal. I love to serve it with Grilled London Broil, and maybe a zesty potato salad for a simple but delicious summertime lunch. Served on a plain white plate, it looks beautiful. The salsa is also super delicious served on top of a juicy grilled summertime hamburger, on a homemade bun made with Tom’s Light Bread. Just like regular, gluten-eatin’ folk (but better — what do they know?).

Mango Salsa
Ingredients
2 mangoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup chopped sweet bell pepper (any color)
1 small red onion, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 to 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, to taste

1. In a medium bowl, combine the mangoes, pepper, onion, (optional) cilantro, lemon juice, and lime juice. Mix until well combined.

2. Cover and allow the salsa to marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight.

Serve at room temperature.

Warmly,
Nicole

Get your grill on...

First things first: London Broil is a cooking method, not a cut of beef. It’s usually made with top round roast, but any large piece of meat will do, really. Buy whatever is on sale; even a less expensive cut will come out tender and juicy when you do it right. Speaking of doing it right… The secret to an amazing London Broil is to marinate the hell out of it. Let it sit in a really good marinade for at least a day, ideally a few days, and you won’t be sorry. Oh, and trim it of its most offensive parts (big pieces of fat, connective tissue, etc.) before you even begin to marinate. After it has finished marinating, take it for a quick spin on the grill, let it rest for about 10 minutes, slice it against the grain, and watch even your vegetarian friends sneaking a piece off the end when they think no one is looking. As my son will tell you, it’s a shame to eat cows, but yum.

Lovely Lady London Broil
Ingredients
6 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/4 cup gluten-free soy sauce (I like La Choy Lite)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil (or canola oil)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (white or dark)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned)
4 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 two-pound piece of top round roast (or other large piece of beef), trimmed of large pieces of fat and ugly bits

1. In a large Ziploc (resealable) bag, combine the garlic, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, oil, oregano (crushed between your fingers and the palm of your other hand, to release its essential oils), pepper, vinegars, and sugar. Seal the bag and massage the ingredients in the marinade together until they are well combined (and the sugar is completely dissolved).

2. Unseal the Ziploc bag, and carefully add the trimmed beef to the bag. Seal the bag, forcing out as much air as possible. Place the bag of marinade and meat into your refrigerator. Allow it to marinate for at least 24 hours, ideally for 3 days (yes, 3 days!), rotating the bag at least 2 times to ensure that both sides of the meat marinate for at least 12 hours.

3. GRILLING DIRECTIONS.
Before you turn on the grill, brush the grates with olive oil or GF cooking spray. This will help prevent the meat from sticking to the hot grates. Then pre-heat the grill to about 400 degrees F.

Remove the meat from the Ziploc bag and place it in the center of your grill (where there’s the hottest and most even heat). Pour about 1/2 of the marinade that’s left in the bag on top of the meat. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes (or until the underside is seared). If you want fancy grill marks, turn the meat 45 degrees halfway through. Flip the meat over, and pour the remaining marinade on top. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes. You want the meat to be seared on the outside but medium-rare on the inside.

Turn off the grill and and flip the meat one more time to heat the marinade for about 1 minute. Remove the steak from the grill and let it rest, covered loosely in foil, for about 10 minutes to allow all of the juices to distribute evenly. Then slice against the grain into thin strips. Yum!

Warmly,
Nicole

I do love the individual, personal strawberry shortcake. Then you don’t have to pretend that you want “just a small piece.” You take your own, it’s a nice size — not too big, not too small — and there’s no false moderation. And it’s filled with strawberries, so it’s practically health food. And you can freeze the cakes either in raw rounds (and then bake them right from frozen when you need them) or after they’ve been baked (and just defrost on the counter). Now look at you. You’re a Gluten-Free Minute(wo)man. You’re a superhero!

Strawberry Shortcakes
Cake Ingredients
3 cups all purpose gluten-free flour
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, diced and kept cold
1 to 1 1/4 cups cream
1 extra-large egg, beaten

Filling Ingredients
1 pound (16 ounces) fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1. To make the shortcakes, in a large bowl, add the flour, xanthan gum, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt, and mix until combined. Add the cold, diced butter to the dry ingredient mixture, and cut the butter in with a handheld pastry blender (or with two sharp knives) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs of butter covered in the dry ingredients. Be mindful not to touch the butter with your hands. You want it to stay cold, and your hot little hands will melt it.

2. Add 1 cup of cream, followed by the beaten egg, to the butter/flour mixture, and stir to combine. Squeeze together the dough. Add the remaining 1/4 cup cream by the tablespoon until the dough holds together well without being very sticky. You may or may not need the balance of the 1/4 cup cream.

3. Turn the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, squeeze the dough (covered in plastic wrap) together into a disk about 1/2″ thick. Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour or until firm.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.

5. Next, let’s make the strawberry filling, which couldn’t be easier. In a medium bowl, place the strawberries, sugar, and salt, and mix until well-combined. Allow the strawberry mixture to sit at room temperature as you complete the shortcakes.

6. Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and place it on your counter with the plastic wrap seam facing up. Open the plastic wrap to reveal the top and sides of the dough. Using a well-floured 4″ biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds. Re-form the disk with the scraps and cut more rounds with the biscuit cutter as best you can. Place the rounds, spaced evenly and about 1″ apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator until chilled and firm, about 15 minutes.

7. Once the raw shortcake rounds have chilled, place the baking sheets in the preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until puffed and pale golden, rotating the baking sheets at least once during baking. Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature, or close to it, right on the baking sheets. Once the cakes are cooled, with a large serrated knife, slice the cakes in the center, cross-section-wise. Remove the top of each cake, fill with the strawberry mixture, and replace the top.

Get ready for the oooooohs and ahhhhhhhs, you magician, you.

Warmly,
Nicole

Can you ever forgive us?

My french bread recipe and I owe each and every one of you a most sincere apology, from the bottom of our hearts. Won’t you accept?

The first recipe for french bread that I posted worked for me, but there were enough posts reporting trouble with the recipe that I revisited it. I made some changes so that it was reliably error proof, and revised the post. Since then, we have had various types of issues with our site host, sometimes resulting in our losing recent edits to posts. When, very recently, a reader commented on problems she was having with the {erstwhile} French Bread recipe, I looked back at the recipe and realized it was … the OLD recipe. No more Ms. Nice Guy. I’m deleting the old French Bread recipe from the site, and replacing it with this here post.

I hope you find it to your liking. My 4 1/2 year old certainly does. “Mom, could you make french bread again?”

__________________________

French Bread

Ingredients
3 cups all purpose gluten-free flour, plus more for dusting
2 ¼ teaspoons xanthan gum
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 extra-large egg white
1 2/3 cup warm water, about 100 degrees
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

1. Combine the 3 cups of flour, xanthan gum, sugar, salt, yeast, and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer. These are the dry ingredients. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.

2. Add the egg white to the dry ingredients and use your mixer’s paddle attachment to combine. Add the warm water to the mixture. Begin by turning the mixer on low speed to allow the dry ingredients to begin to incorporate into the wet ingredients. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the bowl, and then turn the mixer back on, this time on a higher speed and let it work for 6 to 7 minutes, still on the higher speed.
   

3. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Divide the dough in half. Take one half, and roll it between two large sheets of plastic wrap into a 10”x8” rectangle. Remove the plastic wrap from one side of the dough, sprinkle with some extra flour, and replace the plastic wrap. Invert the dough, remove the other piece of plastic wrap, and sprinkle that side of the dough with some extra flour. Fold the two shorter sides of the dough to meet in the middle. Pinch the opposite ends together to seal them, and turn the dough over so it is seam-side down. With well-floured hands, roll the dough back and forth to lengthen it to about 12” inches long. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.
   

4. Allow the loaves to rise in a warm, draft-free area for about 30 minutes, or until they have nearly doubled in volume (more or less, depending upon the temperature and humidity level at the time in your kitchen). Once they are finished rising, place the two loaves about 2″ apart on the lined baking sheet, and make deep diagonal slashes along the loaves every 2″, along the length of each loaf. Using a pastry brush, spread the egg wash over the tops and sides of the loaves.
5. Place the loaves on the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. For a crispier crust, spray the loaves with water after 10 minutes in the oven, and then allow to finish baking.
   

6. Allow the bread to cool to room temperature before eating (really – if you try to slice it right away, both the bread — and your good spirits — will deflate).

Warmly,

Nicole

come to mama

Oh, berry muffins, I don’t know why I love you so well….

These muffins are so simple, but oh so lovely. The batter can easily be made the night before, and baked off first thing in the morning. If I’m feeling particularly generous, I will even make the batter on a school night and bake fresh muffins in time for my 8 year old daughter to have one before getting on the bus at 7:30 a.m.  After all, she’s only gluten free at home (her brother is the celiac), and I know I’m competing with the complete junk they sell at her school cafeteria.  I have to put my best {muffin} forward.

Give these muffins a try. I predict you’ll love them as well as we do. They always hit the spot. Oh, and of course feel free to substitute the berries I used for your favorite berry (except fresh strawberries, which have too much moisture) in equal measure.

Cranberry-Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten-free flour
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup sour cream (low-fat is fine, nonfat is not)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with liners and set aside the tin.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale in color. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well-combined. Reserving a few tablespoons of the flour in a separate, small bowl, add the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, beating well after each addition. Toss the blueberries and cranberries in the reserved flour and set them aside. Add the sour cream to the mixture, and beat until well-combined.

3. After adding the sour cream, beat again vigorously for another 2 minutes or so, until the batter becomes thicker and a bit more elastic. That will mean that the xanthan gum has been activated. Add the berries to the batter, and mix until evenly distributed throughout. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. With wet hands, smooth the top of the muffins (we don’t want anything to burn).

4. Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out mostly clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached.

5. Allow the muffins to cool for at least 7 to 10 minutes in their wrappers, or the wrappers may be hard to remove. Serve warm or cool. These keep for days in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Warmly,

Nicole

A dozen tomato plants

There’s no doubt that a gluten-free diet can be good for your health — but bad for  your wallet. Gluten-free frozen meals, baked goods and bread can be double or even triple the cost of their gluten-containing counterparts. But so many people feel that having to live gluten-free leaves them with no other choice. You simply have to buy the specialty foods and pay the high cost. With Gluten Free on a Shoestring, I’ve tried to show how that’s simply not the case. You can take back control by learning to cook and bake gluten free with more taste, and less cost.

While cooking and baking yourself can minimize certain costs of being gluten free, other expenses are harder to avoid. For example, even though you can make your own gluten-free pasta from scratch (see recipe: http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/fresh-gluten-free-pasta/), sometimes we just need to rely upon packaged gluten-free pasta. And even at a good price, that can cost double what regular, wheat-based pasta costs. So you have to get more creative and look for other ways to save and make up the difference.

One way is to try growing your own vegetables. Let’s face it. Fresh produce just isn’t cheap. I use tons of frozen vegetables, which are picked at the peak of freshness and generally very cost-effective. But some things just can’t be frozen with good results (frozen tomatoes, anyone? blech). So if you can grow your own, it leaves you with some extra money to buy those $2-$3 bags of gluten-free pasta and that occasional $7 loaf of gluten-free bread when you’re really in a pinch (heaven help us!). Don’t already think you have a green thumb? No worries. The time to start is now, and here are some tips to get started:

1. Plant what’s expensive to buy, and easy to grow.

While the idea of pulling a fresh carrot from the ground may be alluring, it’s not the best use of your gardening time. Carrots are inexpensive to buy fresh, all year long. Instead, plant more costly things like cucumbers (almost $1 each in my area, even in season) and tomatoes (usually around $2.00+/pound). Also, consider what’s easy to grow. Time is money, so you want your efforts to bear fruit … or vegetables. We have had great success in our back yard with zucchini. So it’s a staple every year. Herbs are easy to grow as well. And there’s nothing like adding fresh-picked basil leaves to your pasta sauce, salad or tomatoes and mozzarella.

2. Start small and early.

If you want to get the most from your effort, it helps to start early. But be careful. Plant too early and cold Spring weather will kill your plants. So here’s what you can do instead: Save your empty cardboard egg containers. Fill them with a small amount of potting soil and  drop in and cover the seeds of your choice. Then water periodically, just enough to keep the soil moist. You can leave your plants outside during the day. But you should move them inside (or to the garage or shed) until the weather is consistently at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. Depending on your area and climate, this could be mid-May to early June.

There are a couple of reasons to use the cardboard egg cartons. 1) They give you individual sections for your seeds. 2) They biodegrade, so you can break off the individual compartments, peel off as much paper as you can (without damaging the plant) and actually plant the whole thing right in the ground. If you keep them wet enough, you’ll even notice that your plants will sprout roots right through the bottom of the carton.

3. Skip the soil and get some FREE compost.

Here’s an extra Shoestring tip: Instead of buying potting soil, find out if your town has a compost pile. Our local sanitation department has a huge mound of compost available for FREE (and no, it doesn’t stink). People are constantly driving up to fill their buckets, trash cans, pots, etc. You can’t beat the price, and compost is great for those little seedlings. FREE compost is a lot less expensive than paying $4 for a small bag a potting soil. It’s also a whole lot greener.

So break out your garden gloves and trowels this season and give gardening a try. It’s the Shoestring thing to do. Plus, it can be lots of fun, especially when you get to harvest things like this:

Warmly,

Nicole

Fry it up in a pan

When I was younger and for an inconceivably long time, I didn’t eat any meat or chicken.  And, even before that, I did not grow up eating bacon. Not as a rule or anything, but that’s just how it played out, and I never gave it much thought.

I was blind, and now I see.

I’m still not a 5-strips-of-bacon-with-a-side-of-eggs kind of girl. What I love is the depth of flavor that bacon gives to cooking. When I make black beans from scratch, I cook the chopped onion and garlic in bacon and its rendered fat before adding the beans. When what I’m really looking for is the bacon itself, and not just its delicious fat, I will even drain off the bacon grease and use it to make a heavenly loaf of bread. Bacon. It’s not just for breakfast any more.

Here, I’ve used this lovely smoked pork to bring richness to an otherwise simple pasta dish. You won’t be disappointed. Just make sure the bacon you buy is gluten free. Most brands are, but do your homework just to be sure.

Fusilli with Bacon, Spinach, & Tomato
Ingredients
Kosher salt for pasta water
1/2 pound (8 ounces) bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed (with the flat side of a large knife) and peeled
1 package (10 ounces) chopped spinach, thawed and drained completely dry
1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
1 pound (16 ounces) gluten-free fusilli (or other short, fat pasta)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1. Set a large pot of water to boil, and salt it liberally with kosher salt.

2. While the water is boiling, in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until most of its fat is rendered (about 5 to 7 minutes), stirring frequently.  Add the onion and garlic, and cook, still stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent and the garlic is soft and fragrant (about 5 to 7 minutes more). If you’re not a big fan of garlic, remove and discard the smashed cloves.  They’ve done their job.  Add the spinach and tomatoes, and stir to combine well.

3. When the water boils, cook the pasta according to package directions, and then drain it, leave a bit of the pasta water behind with the pasta.  Add the butter to the hot pasta, and toss until the butter melts. Add the pasta to the bacon-spinach-tomato mixture, and toss gently to combine everything in a large bowl.

Serve immediately.  This recipe makes 4 servings.

I know I’ve been rather scarce these days, but it’ll be worth it when the book comes out. I promise.

Warmly,
Nicole

Photographer Lisa Weatherbee and Yours Truly.

Back in December I promised to keep you in the loop as the cookbook comes along. I mean after all, without your interest in Gluten Free on a Shoestring there would be no book, and I’d probably be asking myself, “if you write an online recipe site and nobody reads it, is it still a blog?”

So here’s where things are at this point. I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen and on the laptop for about 5 months now. My goal is to put together a collection of recipes that I think you’ll really enjoy and can use on a regular basis.

Because when you go gluten-free, the toughest part is duplicating the everyday things like breads, baked goods and comfort foods without spending a fortune.

Asst. Photographer “Friday” made sure the floor stayed clean of unwanted crumbs.

As is the case with most things, there’s a pretty long lead time. The manuscript is due this spring (yikes!) and the book is scheduled to hit the shelves in early 2011.

Based on that schedule, we needed to start taking photos of some of the recipes. We just completed the first part of the photo shoot last weekend

READY, SET…

SHOOT!

We want the recipes to look great, but also feel accessible. There’s no point in making a gluten-free cookbook with complicated recipes that you’ll never make. We’ll leave that to the fancy-schmancy chefs.

I hope you enjoy these behind-the-scenes photos of day one of the photo shoot.

Tapestries = nice backgrounds.

And just what might this be?

Make dough. Form. Bake. Photograph. Upload.

Part two of the photo shoot is scheduled to take place in a couple of weeks. Until then, you’ll find me in front of the computer and as always, with my head in the oven.

Warmly,
Nicole

Have I ever told you how well I love cornmeal? Naturally gluten-free, and inexpensive to boot. What more could a girl ask for? This quick and easy tomato recipe is a bit more exciting than plain workaday polenta, but you can still make it without breaking a sweat. Parmesan cheese is a bit of a stretch on a budget, but it is so incredibly flavorful, that a little goes a long way. And once the cheese is gone, save the rind and add to the pot when you make soup for incredible depth of flavor. Just remember to remove the rind before serving.

Tomato Polenta
Ingredients
1 cup milk (lowfat is fine, nonfat is not)
1 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)

1. Remove the tomatoes from the can, chop them roughly, then set them aside. In a large saucepan, warm the milk over medium heat until simmering gently. You don’t want it to boil. Add the chopped tomatoes with their juice, plus the salt, to the pan, and stir to combine. The acid in the tomatoes may cause the milk to begin to curdle. This is no problem.

2. Continue to heat the tomato and milk mixture until it returns to simmering. Once the liquid is simmering, add the cornmeal in a slow but steady stream, whisking constantly, making sure there are no lumps. Reduce the heat to low, and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens, about 5-7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese until it is fully incorporated and melted.

Serve with a few extra shavings of Parmesan cheese. You won’t believe how rich this dish is with so few ingredients. But believe it, baby.

Warmly,
Nicole

how many fingers am I holding up?

I don’t generally feed my children “kid food.” Even before we had the dietary limitations of celiac disease to contend with, I just have always found it kind of annoying when people bring their children to my house and expect that I’m going to provide special food for the kids. So, in the spirit of abiding by one’s principles, I had my kids eating real food from the very first opportunity. Which brings us to chicken fingers.

This is not kid food, I swear it. It’s actual food. Make the strips of chicken a bit wider, and you don’t have to use a body part nickname, and you can serve them to a group of full grown adults. Make the strips long and narrow, stick them into a paper-lined mesh basket, and your kids will think they’ve died and gone to heaven.

I make very quick work of these simple beauties by buying a large package of boneless chicken breast (when it’s on sale, of course), and trimming the breasts, slicing them into strips, then storing them in separate resealable food storage bags in 1 to 1.5 pound lots. When I plan to make chicken fingers, I just defrost a package in the refrigerator overnight. Dinner can be ready in mere minutes.

Chicken Fingers
Ingredients
1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
4 tablespoons canola oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3-4 cups finely ground gluten free cereal (I usually use gf corn flakes)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the chicken strips, oil, and the melted butter. This works best if the chicken is not very cold. If it is cold, the chicken will cause the melted butter to set rather than stay liquid. Toss the chicken with the oil and butter until each strip is coated, ideally with both the oil and the butter. Set this bowl aside.

3. In a separate, flat, medium sized bowl, add the crushed cereal, salt and pepper, and stir to combine the ingredients well. Press both sides of each strip of chicken, one strip at a time, into the cereal mixture, and then place the strips side by side on the lined baking sheets.

4. Place the baking sheets in the preheated 375 degree oven and bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets once during baking. The strips should bubble a bit and the cereal coating should be pretty crisp.

The oil and butter not only help the crushed cereal stick to the chicken, but they keep the chicken moist, and the butter flavors both the cereal and the meat. Delightful. These are really best right out of the oven. If you have any leftovers, and let’s be honest you won’t, but if you do, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and reheat them in the oven to crisp them back up.

Warmly,
Nicole