We’ve got an entire month between chocolate-covered-holidays! Time to clean up our act a bit. These days there’s a huge surge in gluten-free living. So many people have an aversion to gluten, and the symptoms so awful, that even normal folks are tapping in. Even my Mom’s into it, and she’s got some crazy, self imposed, diet restrictions. Sugar-free, Lactose-free, Gluten-free…I don’t know what she actually eats?! Gluten-free, like most specialty diet items, means ‘very-expensive’ and ‘hard-to-find’. More recently, they’ve become easier to find, but wow $8.00 for a little box of flour. Geez. I’m so glad I can still tolerate regular flour. Last year, I saw a tiny article in my Food&Wine magazine from chef Silvana Nardone… and her version of Gluten-free flour to be made up and used like a standard all purpose. Great! I sent the recipe over to my Mom and she immediately set about making, and using it. She loves it ! And since I care, I’ll share it with you too.
You’re welcome.
Gluten Free Flour
(11 cups worth!)
Step 1:
Gather together these slightly pricey items. Now, if you’re gluten intolerant, you probably already stock the little gems.
6 Cups White Rice Flour
3 Cups Tapioca Flour (aka: Tapioca Starch)
1 1/2 Cups Potato Starch
2 Tbl Xanthan Gum
1 Tbl Salt
Combine in a large bowl. Whisk together. Store in a large, air-tight container for up to a year.
I cut this in half, because I have so many kinds of flour – I was running out of space! At one time, I had the calculations of what it would cost to make this and it was much cheaper than the pre-mix from the stores and online. Although, that was then, and that note is missing from my file. I’m simply too lazy to figure out what that big bottle of Xanthan Gum cost per tablespoon. Ugh – Trust me, this will save you money. Speaking of saving money, I’ll have to give a shout-out to my favorite online health food site, www.vitacost.com Super good prices, free shipping deals, not to mention fast shipping too. My stuff always arrives at least three days before it’s supposed to. In fact, I think I’ll make that cookie recipe printed on their box…and make it gluten-free, of course.
I’ll be posting some recipes soon that’ll include this new favorite, of my mother’s. She even ‘feeds’ it to her sourdough starter! Gluten-free sourdough? Really? OK, if you say so.
So be healthy – another chocolate covered holiday is right around the corner!
Tea towels are easy to make and fun to give as hostess gifts.
I started loving unique tea towels when I spotted them at Anthropologie many years ago.
Just a sample of tea towels available at Anthropologie for $22 EACH!
I have to fess up that I did buy one and made it into a pillow.
I couldn’t spend $22 for a tea towel but no problem spending that for a fun pillow!
You can get less expensive towels at Cost Plus World Market but we don’t have any of those wonderful stores in the Tampa Bay area. The ones that I bought when I lived far far away are worn out now.
So I started making my own tea towels. I’ve posted about making tea towels in the past and today I just want to give you some hints that I’ve discovered on my “tea towel making journey”.
The easiest method is to use finished plain towels that you can get just about anywhere. That’s what I used for the LOVE towels in the upper left corner. The applique fabric is a Moda Charm Pack.
Then I discovered Moda Toweling which is also easy to use. The towels in the upper right corner are made with the Moda toweling and fabrics. The lower right corner geo-heart towels are made with the toweling and a Moda charm pack. The toweling is finished on two sides which is wonderful since I don’t have to do all that hemming. I had a problem with the corners being kind of lumpy. But no more! I found an easy way to do that hemming. Once again, Sew4home taught me something new about sewing and now I can make those clever corners!
Here I am, making clever corners!
Then I didn’t know what kind of fabric to buy. Another one of my favorite sewing websites came through for me, PurlBee recommended Kaufman Essex Linen Blend so I ordered three yards of white from fabric.com.
This fabric is 44” wide, after washing and drying it shrunk a little. I cut the towels 16 ½” wide and 20 ½” long. Three yards is enough fabric to make 12 towels.
Now let’s discuss the appliques. I love to use tea items for my tea towels and I pulled the teacup and teapot from Sew4home. But I also use designs from many other sources and even cut them out of magazines and scan them into my computer. An easy one I recently discovered from another blog (sorry can’t remember which one so I can’t credit them) is SweetClipArt. It’s free and there are numerous fun graphics for every season. It includes a download program which I didn’t use because I worry about picking up viruses. I just right clicked on the picture and copied it to my computer then made it in different sizes through Photoshop. You can do the same in Word.
For my latest creation, the warm spring-like weather inspired me to go with butterflies and I again used the Moda Charm Pack “Chance of Flowers” that I bought at our local quilt store, Tomorrow’s Treasures.
Now a little hint about where to put the appliques. If they fit, I like to place them in the lower half of the tea towel. For instance, this towel is 22″ long so I put these butterflies in the bottom 11″. I also centered them in the middle third of the towel so all of the butterflies are visible when hung on a towel rod.
This is just before I ironed them down. Of course, when I took them to the ironing board, the butterflies had flown about and I had to place them all over again.
Here they are appliqued.
Hope those little hints inspire you to make some fun tea towels on your own!
I was cleaning out my photo file, cause it’s that time of year…from closets, to camera…I’m cleanin’ it up. I ran across this shot and remembered that I’d forgotten all about making it a post. Not really a recipe, an ingredient. So, here it is.
Special meals here usually involve massive pieces of meat on a slow roast. That’s just how I roll. Turkey…rib roast…haaaammmm. All of which require spices and herbs to make their lusciousness sing. I confess, I have an entire cabinet devoted to these botanical wonders. I know I have at least 5 kinds of salt. I’ve been known to make an entire meal to use just one new spice I’ve found. I also enjoy mixing them up at will. It used to be, that the grocery store had a section of little tins (yes, I remember them) a few feet wide and if it wasn’t there, you didn’t need it. Not to say that there weren’t any ’spice shops’ – there have been spice shops since pepper was currency! It’s just that the average cook (in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania) got by with the basics and really didn’t look beyond. The world has changed. Have you seen the spice section lately? It must be half an isle! Although, like the pickle display, it’s full of repeats and pre-mixed concoctions. Expensive ones at that! It’s really hard for me to buy a $4.00 rub when I know what’s in it and can do it at home (so, I don’t). One of my favorite mixes is Herbes de Provence. Hmmm – it just sounds like a vacation doesn’t it.
That gem used to be on my ‘Big City’ shopping list because I could only get it from Williams-Sonoma in the little French crock dispenser and it is wonderful! I’ll let you guess at the price. I will tell you that a compound butter made with it was the key to a fabulous Thanksgiving bird. The little crock without a seal made sure I’d have to replace it often. Later, I started storing it in baby food jars – with the rubber seal, best re-use ever! This product came FROM FRANCE, so I trust it’s authenticity. This year at Thanksgiving, I forgot to check my stash before heading south and it failed to make the list. Oops. I pulled out the crocks ingredient list and kept it on the ‘local list’. Nowhere was Savory to be found…nowhere. Savory isn’t an adjective, it’s a cousin to mint and a main ingredient in Herbes de Provence. Don’t tell the grocery-store-spice-mix-kings that, if there was even a bottle of Herbed de Provence on the shelf, most of them didn’t include savory OR lavender – gasp! What’s more French than lavender! Oh, I get it – we’ll just leave it out because it’s expensive and they’ll never miss it. After a while it becomes an Americanized mix of rosemary, oregano,…Oh, no – not in this camp. I scoured the labels and found a McCormick variety that seemed close, and it had Savory, but no fennel or lavender. That’s ok, I do. Yes, I have lavender in my craft cabinet for scented oils and soaps – same thing. Check your health food store bulk section for a good price. In fact, check them for all kinds of odd spices. I dumped out the bottle into a bowl, added in a pinch of fennel seed, and lavender (about a teaspoon each) mixed it up and put it back in the bottle. No, it didn’t all fit. The extra was added into the compound butter. What’s that? Well, it’s room temp butter mixed with herbs or spices, mashed together and let sit for the flavors to meld. I add a little pressed garlic to mine for meats. OMG – so good! You’re allowed to use it on your morning toast too, or a bagel – gasp, no I meant croissant.
Have I mentioned that herbs and spices are fat free. Spice up your dull diet foods to bring them back to life. Don’t be confined to the store mixes.
Get your herbs together and lets make a Compound Butter – this is unbelievably simple. If you’ve never done it, it’s one of those head-slap, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that things!
I add in a touch of raw garlic for use with meats. Careful, a little garlic goes a l o n g way!
That’s it – Compound Butter. Put it in a special little jar, or butter keeper.
Since we’re talking chicken here,…or Thanksgiving or Easter…here’s a super easy and super tasty chicken. Soooo simple. Soooo good. Don’t believe me – YouTube Thomas Keller and he’ll tell you how a simple chicken is one of his favorites – and he’s the King of Complicated Food!
Step 1:
Set out a chicken to ‘temper’ it. That means let warm to almost room temp – no, you’re NOT gonna die. Like any mass of meat, it should start warm (meaning, not fresh from the fridge cold) so that it cooks evenly. Yes, Organic chickens taste better. Sorry, they just do. But, for this demo, I’ve got my fave Perdue roaster (slightly bigger than a fryer, bigger breast, and less cooperative wings – as the video will prove). It looked great and was on sale. I just can’t say no.
Step 2:
Preheat that oven to 450deg and roll that video. There’s just too much typing. I don’t truss my birds, sorry, I’m lucky to tie my shoes. So I’ll show you what I do with those drumsticks.
Step 3:
One bird in a pan – yes, you can use a skillet. I said it wasn’t fancy. Don’t even cover it. Get that bird in the hot box for about an hour. It’ll be golden brown delicious!!! If you coated the skin liberally with salt, it’ll be crusty…mmmm.
Finale:
See, no fancy pan or twine, or anything. Those wings stayed in place, and aren’t burnt. The drummies tore thru their bindings, mainly because I fuzted with them for the video, but still evenly golden. Simply good. That skin is crunchy and herby, the guys will love it ! My dieting friends and I will be removing that layer of chicken rind to reveal a moist and tender meat underneath. It holds in the juices because you roasted it with the skin on. It’ll be yummy because the butter helped the herbs soak into the meat – not just in the skin you just pulled off.
Plate it:
Now, carefully, cut that bird into sections and put on a platter. Way easier without that wishbone, weird, huh. Wow – now, if you don’t care about the fat in the pan, make a gravy. Or, even back this up, and set the bird on top of a layer of veggies. Just a coarse chop of some carrots, celery and onion – you know, the usual suspects. Then you can serve them along side the bird. But that’s too much fat for me. So, I’ll separate the fat off and make a pan sauce we can all enjoy a bit of.
Compound Butter is your new friend – and yes, it’s regular butter. Just don’t eat a ton of it and you won’t weigh a ton 😉
Be adventurous – be thrifty – be healthy.
(Whew – all that over one photo! What can you find in your old files?)
See, no fancy pan or twine, or anything. Those wings stayed in place, and aren’t burnt. The drummies tore thru their bindings, mainly because I fuzted with them for the video, but still evenly golden. Simply good. That skin is crunchy and herby, the guys will love it ! My dieting friends and I will be removing that layer of chicken rind to reveal a moist and tender meat underneath. It holds in the juices because you roasted it with the skin on. It’ll be yummy because the butter helped the herbs soak into the meat – not just in the skin you just pulled off. 