Gluten Free

Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

My favorite pie in the whole world is Lemon Meringue. My mother used to make these pies for our family reunions, at Christmas, and maybe at Easter, too. If she ever asked me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday, I am sure I asked for a Lemon Meringue pie instead.

I have not had a Lemon Meringue pie since I started eating gluten free in April of 2007. But, the week before Thanksgiving, I found some gluten free frozen pie crusts at Whole Foods in Scottsdale. When I saw them, my head just about exploded with joy, and I knew I would be making a lemon pie soon.

This morning, I made my pie, using my mother’s recipe. I think it is actually from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook from the 1940’s or 50’s. Mama had that cookbook forever, so used that it came apart from the binding. She kept it in a drawer in the kitchen, wrapped in rubber bands to keep it together. Several years ago, she wrote down a bunch of her most used recipes, and I made copies for all my siblings and one for myself.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
3 eggs, separated
juice and grated rind of 2 lemons
1 baked pie shell

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a boiler. Add water, stirring constantly. Beat egg yolks, add a little of the hot cornstarch mixture to the eggs. Beat well, and return the egg mixture to the boiler, stirring well. Cook for 2 minutes longer or until very thick. Add lemon juice and rind, beat well to combine. Pour into baked pie shell. Cover with meringue. Bake at 325 degrees until meringue is browned.

Meringue:

3 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat egg whites until frothy. Add sugar slowly, continue beating until stiff. Add vanilla.

Refrigerate at least one hour, if you can wait that long, before cutting the pie. Enjoy, repeat until the pie is gone. MMMMMMMMM…..

Tweet1

Pin37

38 Shares

Project 365 Day 36

Karen · 10 Comments

Mmmmmm, porterhouse steak was on sale at Basha’s, so it was steak, potatoes, and LeSeur peas for dinner. My favorite meal. (OH, and I found gluten free worchestershire sauce, whoo hoo!)

We don’t get beef very often, so when we do, I like for it to be the very best.

0 Shares

Project 365 Day 30

Karen · 12 Comments

We are all still sick, but even sick people need supplies, so we went to the gas station and to Whole Foods today. The price of diesel is still coming down, as you can see from the photo above. It hasn’t been that low in seems like forever, or at least since 2004. I could be wrong, and if I am I am blaming it on all the cold medicine I have taken this week. My head feels all poofy inside from it.

At Whole Foods, I had to restrain myself from taking out my camera and taking pictures of the breads. They had a whole freezer section full of gluten free goodies: breads, bagels, pies, biscuits, muffins, cupcakes, donuts…I had a hard time deciding what to get, but wound up with just a loaf of white bread and some bagels. But, then, in the fresh baked stuff, there was this:

Believe me when I tell you it was icky, sticky, gooey, fantabulously good. They called it Orange Clouds. I called it delicious~!

0 Shares

We Got Mail Today!

Karen · 9 Comments

We normally only get mail about once a month when my step-daughter, Becky, sends it to where ever we may be. She hasn’t sent it this time in over a month because I did not know how long we would be somewhere until this week.

So, I opened the bag and got a few surprises. First, the good ones. I got my yearly dividend check from the electric co-op from when I had my house. I think I’ll still get those for a few more years. The check I got this year is enough to go out to eat at a really good place, like maybe Outback Steakhouse or something similar to that.

Next, I got a statement from one of the medical bills we have been paying on since 2005, when FabGrandpa was in the hospital for four days, and it turned out to be that his thyroid had quit functioning. Anyway, that one bill is paid in full, YIPEE. One down, three to go.

The last of the good ones, is that I also got a statement from the IRS, showing that I only owe them $63.00 more, so that bill will get paid off this month, too. Yay!

Then for the finale: FabGrandpa’s passport arrived, but I got a letter saying that the birth certificate I sent them won’t do. It is not a “certified” copy, and it does not show the date my birth was recorded. Excuse me? I ordered that certified copy from the state of Georgia, and paid good money for it. The other copy I have (I ordered two copies from the vital records department at the same time) does have the raised embossed seal on it:

However faint it might be, it IS there. And the date the birth was recorded is also right there on it:

So, it sort of looks like the date filed says 6/16/1952, which would be about three weeks after I was born, but if who ever filled out that form way back then couldn’t write worth a shit, how is that my fault? I was a baby at the time!

How in the hell do they expect me to correct something that was recorded way back in 1952?!? I am going to call the vital records department on Monday to see what, if anything they can do for me, but if I don’t send in another copy in 60 days, I’ll lose my application fee and have to start all over again. So NOT FAIR! FabGrandpa will get to go to Mexico without me. I demand justice! I NEED that tequila, I NEED those margaritas!!!

So, to calm my nerves and get my Mexican fix, I made charro beans for dinner:

1 lb dried pinto beans
6 slices bacon

Rinse the beans, cover with water, and bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Pour into a crock pot. Add the bacon, cut up, cover, and cook until the beans are tender.

6 slices bacon
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
salt to taste

Fry the bacon until crisp, set aside. Add the garlic, celery, onion, and peppers to the pan, and sautee in bacon grease until the onions are clear. Add the bacon, crumbled. Add all to the crock pot. Add the can of tomatoes and salt to the crock pot, stirring well to combine. Cook for one hour longer. Serve with corn bread or corn tortillas.

0 Shares

Wandering Lost In The Desert, But Finding Great Gluten Free Pizza Saves The Day!

Karen · 4 Comments

I sat at my computer for at least an hour this morning mapping out our day. We were going to Mesa to the Camping World store to get a few things we needed, like a water filter for the trailer (to try to alter the taste of the Phoenix water supply, ick) and a new light fixture for over the sink. I wrote down the address of each place we wanted to go, and consulted my map program, Microsoft Trips and Streets, then wrote down the directions for how to get there. This would have all worked out if I had actually READ the directions again once we got on the road.

And, those roads didn’t look like BIG roads on the map, they looked like maybe four lanes with a median in between. But, when we got up there on that 101, it looked like a major interstate highway, four lanes on each side, with construction going on and SHIT! And I was driving, and FabGrandpa was sitting over there grumping and fussing and making me all nervous… Anway, we wound up going all the way to Glendale by way of Scottsdale, which is like driving all the way around I-285 in Atlanta during rush hour. Crap!

Finally, we stopped at a gas station and called Camping World, and got found again, and he started driving and I sat over there and fumed steam out my ears. So, after driving farther than we did yesterday to get to Phoenix from Flagstaff, we arrived at Camping World and spent some more money.

As we made our way back home, we had a couple of other places we wanted to go, but since we had actually seen the road they were on before we got lost going to Camping World, we knew where we were going. Sort of. And here is where I have to tell you that Phoenix has some very cool road art on their highways. Bridge abutments, overpasses, and concrete walls display some really neat artwork: (click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see the art)

Our destination for lunch was Picazzo’s Pizza on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale. I read about the place on the Phoenix Celiac Support Group’s web page. They not only have gluten free pizza available, they have an entire 4 page gluten free menu. They even have gluten free beer on tap. And gluten free deserts! I was in gluten free heaven. The first thing I noticed, though, was the artwork on the walls. This was a classy place, too.

This mural was on the wall near our table. It made me feel like I was in a busy place, even though there weren’t many customers in there at the time.

We ordered the medium Puttanesca pizza with white sauce. It had olive oil and garlic sauce, mozzarella, fresh Roma tomatoes, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese topped with fresh basil. OMG! FabGrandpa and I ate every bite!

And, FabGrandpa said he would be inclined to lick his plate if it wouldn’t make him look so much like a pig. Very yum, he said. We will probably go there to eat at least once a week while we are in this town. Oh, and they have one in Sedona and one in Flagstaff, too.

Click on the picture below to see their menu:

0 Shares

Stuffed Eggplant, Gluten Free

Karen · 6 Comments

We have been shopping Flagstaff like kids in a candy store. We have bought everything from new underwear to computer games, from groceries to a new purse, hair cuts, pedicures, a new cell phone, and some new hair barretts. But this afternoon, we went to Frontier Natural Foods, and I was absolutely in shopper heaven!

It’s not that they had a lot of gluten free stuff, they did. It was because the food was arranged for sale so artistically that really got to me. Just look:

We didn’t buy much, because we had already bought groceries yesterday, but they had a few things I just couldn’t resist: some Brie, some fresh basil (OH how I love fresh basil!), some pine nuts, eggplant, shallots, and some chicken and apple sausage. I had apple sausage for the first time last year in Pennsylvania, and I have to tell you, I love it. But you can’t find it in most places, so when I saw it in their butcher case, I got three links of it.

I also found Kinnicknick bread and bagels, which were in the freezer case. As soon as we came home, I toasted one of those bagels. It was sooooo good! I haven’t had a bagel since I went gluten free in April 2007. Now I have four more in the freezer.

I knew I wanted to do some bruschetta since I had all the makings for pesto, but I wanted to cook that eggplant, too. However, I knew I did not want to make eggplant parmesan. I thought about it for a bit, and here is how I cooked it:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ links of your favorite sausage, casings removed and crumbled up
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup mushrooms, chopped
1 medium eggplant, cut in halve lengthwise. Scoop out the pulp, leaving the shell intact.
salt and pepper
½ cup Italian blend shredded cheese
½ cup gluten free bread crumbs

Chop the eggplant pulp. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sausage, shallots, garlic, chopped eggplant, and mushrooms, and sautee until the sausage is browned. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the cheese and bread crumbs, keeping aside about 3 tablespoons of each for topping. Stuff the mixture into the eggplant shells, top with remaining cheese and bread crumbs, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

I served this with shrimp cocktails and bruschetta. FabGrandpa loved it. He said he felt like a KING!

0 Shares

Kielbasa and Potato Soup, Gluten Free

Karen · 4 Comments

I am currently reading “Sun Kissed” by Catherine Anderson. (Yeah, it is a dumb love story romance) I started reading her books this summer when I found them in the tiny library at the North Rim. One of the characters in this book was cooking for his family and was making Kielbasa and Potato Soup. There was no recipe given in the book, but it sounded so good that I decided to make some.

Here is the recipe I used:

4 large red potatoes, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch of green onions, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 cloves garic, minced
1 pkg kielbasa, cut into bite sized pieces
1 small can evaporated milk
2 cups water or chicken broth
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Cover the potatoes with water and cook until tender, drain, set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and garlic–sautee until tender. Add the kielbasa, sautee until the meat is heated through, about 5 minutes. Mash the potatoes coarsely and add to the dutch oven. Add the seasonings and milk. Combine the tapioca flour with the water, then add to the dutch oven. Turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

This soup was thick, like New England Clam Chowder consistency. I served it up with some gluten free crackers and some swiss cheese slices. There was none left to take pictures of.

0 Shares

Another Gluten Free Biscuit

Karen · 3 Comments

Look at that! Biscuits that actually get browned. AND they tasted GOOD. These tasted almost like the real thing. These were made with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix. It was reasonably priced, and makes a lot of biscuits. A big batch of biscuits took 2 1/2 cups of mix, 1/2 cup of Crisco, and 3/4 cup of milk. (You can also use water). I served these buttered with a pot of chili. I will definitely be buying this mix again. I may even experiment with it this week to see if it will make dumplings. As in chicken and dumplings. I sure hope so.

I have been really impressed with the small independently owned grocery stores in Kanab
because I have been able to get cookies, bread mix, cracker, and other gluten free items there, even though Kanab is such a small town. Last week when we were at Honey’s Jubilee in town, I told the cashier as I was checking out, “I want to thank y’all for having such a good selection of gluten free items here. It has made my stay in the area so much better because I am able to get the things I need here, instead of having to always go to St. George.” And she said, “The owner of the store has Celiac.” Well, there ya go, that explains everything.

0 Shares