Hot bread and homemade soup

I made bread today..... It was just a packet mix gf (on special) but boy was it good!

My sister came over and I got to play with my gorgeous nephew, always guaranteed to make you smile. We had the capsicum soup I made yesterday (see yesterdays blog for recipe) with some lovely warm, hot bread! The bread was steaming when we spread the butter onto it! Yummy!

It was so nice to have hot, nice bread to dunk into some hardy, homemade soup. The best thing about the bread was that fresh from the oven, it didn't actually taste like gf bread. My sister enjoyed the bread as much as I did, then she had a bit when it had cooled down. The GF taste was back! Yuck!

Tomorrow I will use the rest of the bread for toast or toasted sandwiches, because it will have that chewy, glue like texture that gf bread does, unless it is steamy hot. And I will savour the flavour of that fresh bread straight from the oven.

Recipe of the Day
Beef Stroganoff

I got this recipe from Taste, here is the link for the recipe
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19959/beef+stroganoff
 I used chuck steak not rump much cheaper I follwed all steps of recipe but once everything was cooked, I transferred to the slow cooker for 6 hours! Meat was beautiful! I did have to add more water and stock and additional tomato paste, make sure you check it after a few hours and add more water etc as needed.

I also had this with gf corn and rice pasta. I was a bit cautious, but it actually tasted rather nice! Better than other pasta I have tried, just be careful not to over cook it!

The restaurant of the week will be in tomorrows post!

Enjoy
xxxx

Wouldn't it be nice!

I remember what it was like to go out and eat BD (before diagnosis) despite the puffer fish and other symptoms of eating gluten, I loved the choice of food on the menu! Every single thing I could eat, if I wanted too! Imagine that!, the choice, the freedom!

Eating out as a coeliac is a completely different matter! The complete lack of choice is completely mind blowing, sometimes there may actually be nothing at all that you can eat!

I went to a cafe today with some old friends, and was very excited to see they had GF cakes (something they didn't have previously)! But its sad when you excited over a 3 different types of cakes you can choose from! Then you glance out of the corner of your eye to the gluten filled cakes!, the variety, the size! GF cakes are generally rather small (granted these were all cup cake like size) but many cafes were I live don't stock anything else! I looked in envy at the size of the cakes my friends had and indeed how nice they looked! GF food doesn't have to be small and lack presentation of flavour!

It's not just cafes, I've been to restaurants were there are three GF options on the menu for both main and desert. Thankfully on this particular occasion I had my first choice of main with any problems and no puffer fish! The GF deserts did look great, the waitress came back to me after I ordered to inform me that 'whoops, that desert wasn't gf they made a mistake!!', I looked at the menu and picked another gf option, she came back again to tell me this time the desert was gf but they had sold out. I ended up with a desert but it wasn't what I wanted!, my third choice!

I often dream about the day when we can go out and the majority of the meals will be gf or at least have a gf option! Wouldn't it be nice.......

Recipe of the Day
Roasted capsicum, garlic and tomato soup

Ingredients
4 red capsicums (peppers for USA readers)
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
400g can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt Pepper
1 Litre of chicken stock (I used powdered stock)

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. De seed capsicums and cut in half, place in a large baking dish. Peal garlic and add to capsicum. Pour some olive oil over the capsicums and roast in oven for about 20 minutes or until skins start to bubble and go crispy (darker looking). Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes, carefully peal skin from capsicums. Roughly cut capsicums and put them into a large saucepan with garlic, add tomato, stock, rosemary and thyme and salt and pepper. Cook on medium to low heat for 30 minutes. Add more salt pepper, rosemary and thyme to your taste.

Remove from heat and puree soup, ensuring all capsicums is chopped up. Serve and eat!!

Enjoy
xxxx

Back to basics

I lost the food battle tonight. You know the argument that happens between husband and wife, partners, housemates etc, takeaway or cooked meal! I was going to make home-made pizzas and have them as the recipe of the day and it fitted in perfectly with the state of origin! My husband had other ideas, he wanted Thai. Though I must admit it didn't take much twisting of my arm to agree (and he managed to get me as I just pulled up outside the supermarket)!!

As I thought about what I was going to put up for my recipe of the day (we are still eating yesterdays cupcakes!) I thought why not make it on icing! Icing you say, WTF!! But though I've been making icing for many years I seem to stuff it up every time. I always ending up making way too much icing because I add too much milk! And there's only so much icing you can eat! (though a flashback from childhood my cousin is a bit of a chocoholic, if there was no chocolate she would actually make up chocolate icing and eat the whole lot!!!)

On a different tangent before I write the recipe, I am in the process of researching the impact the a gluten free diet has on children or adults who are in the autism spectrum. I've got two university degrees and several years teaching; the one thing this has taught me about research is that secondary sources (books, academic papers etc) are good but primary sources (first hand encounters etc) are what really provides you with the nuts and bolts, the real evidence of whatever it is you are researching. So although I will be reading academic papers, articles, websites, the most effective research will be from talking to parents and caregivers of children who are in the autism spectrum to find out if a gf diet has resulted in any behavioural changes in their child.

My blogging friends, I am asking you a big favour, if you know someone who is on the autism spectrum and has tried the gf diet, ask them if they have any success with it an email me or alternatively give them my email address I'd love to hear from all people. If you even have a question, no matter how silly it may sound, comment on the blog or email me, I'll respond as best as I can.

Without further ado here is the recipe......

Recipe of the Day
Icing

Ingredients
 1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon milk (have more milk aside as you may need to add more)
1 teaspoon cocoa (for chocolate icing)

Method
Place icing sugar, margarine, cocoa and milk into a bowl and mix well. You will probably need to add a bit more milk (this is the part I always stuff up, do it SLOWLY!!!), 1/2 tablespoon at a time. The best thing is with icing, if you add too much milk you can add more icing sugar and if you add too much icing sugar you can add more milk!!

1 cup of icing sugar may not be enough to cover a large cake, but a 1 cup basis is easiest to work with when making more or less icing!

If you want to make a vanilla icing, add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence. But if you fancy some lovely bright coloured icing, be very CAREFUL with how much food colouring you add, one extra drop can make icing look like play dough (trust me I've done it many times!)

Good luck with the icing and I hope this works for you (remember icing is meant to go on cakes!).

Enjoy
xxxx