Quiche

Quiche has a bad name. I've heard all sorts of things about it, like "Real men don't eat quiche," and "Real moms don't make quiche." Well, that's hooey. Quiche is very easy to make, and it's delicious. I usually make my quiche without a crust because it's faster, but I do have a gluten free pie crust that I love. When I want to be fancy, that's what I use. Most of the time, though, I throw some parchment paper in the pan, pour the quiche in, and bake it. It's easy.

I took this to a Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck Breakfast this last weekend, and received LOTS of compliments. One mom told me: "I'm so impressed. I couldn't make this." Well, I'm sure she could. Quiche is very forgiving. You can add a little less or more of any of the ingredients and still come out with a great quiche. You can add spinach or shredded carrots or leave out the onions or use ham or even chicken instead of bacon, and you'll still come out with a great quiche. Try it!

Quiche - Gluten Free, Easy, and Delicious!

1/2 c. diced bell peppers
1/4 c. diced onions
1/4 - 1/2 lb. bacon
6 eggs
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 c. shredded cheese (I use a 4 cheese blend from Costco)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sautee peppers. (Don't they look yummy? And if we had Wonka-vision, they would smell yummy, too.)

Cut bacon into 1/4 inch pieces (I do this with my kitchen shears), then cook it until it's crispy. (No picture . . . but it also smells yummy!) Allow bacon to cool on paper towels, to absorb most of the bacon grease.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk. Add sour cream and mix well - enough to eliminate any big lumps of sour cream. Stir in cottage cheese, shredded cheese, some salt and pepper, and the cooked bacon and peppers.

Line 2 pie plates with parchment paper. Pour the egg mixture into the two pans, trying to split the solid bits (like peppers and bacon) evenly between the 2 pans. (When I double the recipe, I split the egg mixture between a pie plate and a 9x13 pan.)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut, and enjoy!

Puffy Oven Pancake

This morning's Special Request was Puffy Oven Pancake. This is one of my family's favorite special breakfasts. I especially like the higher protein content provided by the eggs and nuts, which means that I feel full for longer than half an hour. This recipe really works best with Featherlight mix. I've tried it with other flour mixes and just haven't liked it as well. I almost always make a double batch, because my family of 6 easily polishes off two 9x13 pans.


Puffy Oven Pancake

1 c. featherlight mix
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. milk
4 eggs beaten
2 Tbs. margarine or butter
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 (16 oz) can sliced peaches, diced
1/4 c. chopped pecans


Heat over to 425 degrees.

Mix together featherlight mix, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt. Combine milk and eggs, and slowly whisk into dry ingredients. (I usually add enough milk/egg mix to form a thick batter, beat it well, then add more milk/egg. This gives me a smooth batter without any lumps.) Place margarine in a 9x13 pan. Melt in hot oven until margarine is sizzling (about 3 minutes). Remove pan from oven. Tilt to spread margarine over the entire bottom of the pan. Immediately pour batter into the hot pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon, then top with diced peaches and pecans.

Return pan to oven. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until golden brown. Pancake puffs up a lot while cooking, but almost always falls once it's out of the oven. Serve with syrup or cream.

This is the pan just before removal from the oven.

This is the same pan, after being removed from the oven. You can see that the edges of the pancake are 1/2 - 1 inch shorter after removal from the oven. It's shorter, but no less yummy!

"Cinnamon Roll" Bread

This weekend I was making Sunday Morning Breakfast Cake, one of my mother-in-law's recipes (modified to be gluten free, of course). The topping is a combination of butter, brown sugar, and nuts, and as I was spreading it on the cake, I started to think about cinnamon rolls again. The pull-aparts, while yummy, do require a bit of prep work . . . too much to do on a daily basis. I decided to see if I could create a spreadable "cinnamon roll" topping that could be enjoyed anytime. It doesn't taste exactly like cinnamon rolls (my husband says it's not quite gooey enough), but it is very good. In fact, one of my 5 year olds just came up to me, saw the photo, and said: "Mom, will you make some of that for me again this morning?" Of course I will!

"Cinnamon Roll" Bread

1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened

1 1/3 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

slices of White Sandwich Bread

cream cheese frosting, optional

Combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well. (I just used my hands to mix it together, but you could use a mixer.) Spread on slices of bread*. Place topped bread on a cookie sheet, then broil until bubbly. (When using the broiler, don't walk away from the oven. You only need to broil it for 1 - 3 minutes, and you will be happiest if you stay and watch your food the whole time. I'm always immensely irritated with myself when I burn something that would have been delicious if only I'd watched it!)

You can top the bread with cream cheese frosting, if you want, or eat it straight out of the oven. Either way, it's yummy! Keep extra spread in the refrigerator. Microwave cold spread for 10 - 15 seconds to make it spreadable again.

*I always keep my gluten free bread in the fridge or freezer. Then, before using it, I reheat it in the microwave until it's soft and warm. This takes about 10 seconds. Once the bread is reheated, it's as pliable as newly made bread.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pancakes and waffles are one of the first foods I recommend to new gluten free cooks. The batter is easy to make, and they freeze and reheat well. They're great for peanut butter sandwiches, too. Besides which, it's easy to vary the recipe. This particular variation is one that my neighbor shared with me. The ones she brought me were full of wheat, but I was easily able to modify my own pancake recipe to re-create the delicious flavor.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 c. Featherlight mix
1/2 c. GF mix
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
1 Tbs. cinnamon
3 dashes mace
3 eggs
1 ¾ c. milk
½ c. oil
1 c. pumpkin
¼ - ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Add to dry ingredients and mix well (there should be few, if any, lumps). Stir in chocolate chips. Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes. Flip and cook on the other side. Leftover pancakes may be refrigerated (or frozen) and reheated in the microwave.

Cinnamon Pull Aparts

First of all . . . you will note the return of pictures! I will not re-tell the camera story now, because I do not have the time to calm myself back down. I will simply say: "Panasonic has NO customer service skills. But I fixed the camera despite them." Sheesh.

So. Spring Break, for me, means time to make fun gluten free breakfast things. I'm going to try to post a fun breakfast recipe every day this week. Considering my track record, though, I make NO guarantees!

About a month ago, I bought a small loaf of cinnamon pull-aparts from a local bakery. I've tried making them gluten free in the past, but the bread batter is so sticky that it was more hassle than it was worth. Well, as I stared at this little loaf of bread, I started thinking about the prepurchased frozen bread dough balls that are sold in grocery stores, and wondered: "Why can't I do that?" Coming up with no good arguments against, I decided to try it. And . . . it worked! One of my 5 year olds helped me make the pull aparts, and there was very little mess to clean up. Definitely a repeater!

Cinnamon Pull Aparts

1/2 a recipe of Gluten Free Bread batter, balled and frozen *

1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted

1 c. white sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Melt butter in another small bowl. Line one large bread pan or several small bread pans with parchment paper. (This keeps the cinnamon sugar from burning onto the pan.) Roll each ball of frozen dough in butter, then in cinnamon sugar. Place into the pan(s). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Allow pull-aparts to rise while the oven heats. Bake pull-aparts at 350 for about 40 minutes. Top with cream cheese frosting.

*Each recipe of my White Sandwich Bread makes 2 loaves of bread. To make pull-aparts, make a batch of bread, but just bake one loaf. Scoop the remaining bread batter onto a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet using a small cookie scooper or 2 spoons. Stick the cookie sheet in the freezer. You can keep the frozen balls of dough in the freezer for quite a while, though if you want to put off using them for a long time, you might want to transfer them to a re-sealable bag so they don’t freezer burn.

Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my favorite frosting recipe. I use it for cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, graham cracker cookies . . . just about everything that calls for frosting, actually.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. block of cream cheese
1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter and cream cheese. When well blended, mix in powdered sugar. Add vanilla. Keep leftover frosting in the refrigerator.

Black Beans

Oh, my. Life is busy. But, more importantly, my camera broke. So I don't have any beautiful pictures to post. But I feel guilty for neglecting the blog . . . so I'm posting picture-less.

Last summer I decided that it was time to add more beans to our diet . . . because groceries just keep getting more and more expensive, darn it! And my kids are just going to keep growing, which will make the grocery bill grow, too, and so I informed my children (on the way home from our family reunion) that we would be eating beans every evening from then on. My 10 year old was rather leery of the whole plan (everyone else just kind of ignored me), but I've trained them to believe that complaining about my cooking makes me (and, by extension, them) unhappy, so all I got was a semi-reluctant "Okay." After the first bite, though, she told me: "I don't think I'm going to mind eating beans every night!"

Most of the credit for this recipe goes to my neighbor, but I did change some of the spices to suit my own tastes. Feel free to re-adjust them to suit your own likes and dislikes!

Black Beans

4 c. black beans
lots of water
salt
onion powder
chili powder
cumin
5 or 6 quart crock pot *

Rinse the beans and pick out any rocks or things that may have escaped the manufacturer's sorting process. (I've never yet found a rock in my beans, but Wal-Mart felt impelled to warn me about the possibility of rocks, and so I'm passing the warning on!) Place the beans in the crock pot, then fill it up to the top with hot water - about 16 - 20 cups. Add about a teaspoon of salt, put the lid on, and turn it on Low. Let it go all night long. (LOTS of hard work, I know, but it's worth it!)

The next morning, drain and rinse the beans. (DON'T put cold water in your hot crock, though, as it will probably break, and then where will you be? Use hot water instead.) Return the beans to the crock pot, and add enough water to just cover the beans. Sprinkle spices on top (I use about 1 tsp. of salt, 1 tsp. onion powder, 2 - 3 tsp. chili powder, and 1/2 tsp. cumin), then turn it on high. Let it go all day long. (You can stir it occasionally if you are home, but don't worry about it if you're not.)

Serve with corn tortillas and rice. Also yummy in black bean salsa, chef's salad, and chili (recipes forthcoming).

By the way, you may not want to start off with eating them every single night. Beans can cause some . . . hmmmmm . . . intestinal distress (if you aren't used to eating them). Rinsing the beans in the morning helps alleviate some of that, but it won't stop all of it.

* My mother has a crock pot that apparently thinks it's true calling in life was to be a real oven. If your crock pot cooks as quickly as hers does, adjust your cooking times . . . perhaps cutting them in half.