Some of my favorite products

Hi!!
Long time no blog. Sorry, life has been so busy, blogging has been pushed to the back of my list. I have been getting a lot of questions lately about good gluten free products for people just starting out on this lifestyle. I spent so much time and money at the beginning to find food that tasted good, and I would love to save someone else's time and money. I will be working on this list a little bit at a time, and adding in the links to sites later. For now, just google any products if you are interested. If I don't do this a bit at a time, I will never get this out. So bear with me, and check back, hopefully I will get this all tweaked in a couple of weeks.

Best gluten free pizza:
Joan's Gluten Free Great Bakes ~(the round NY one) Thick, chewy crust, delicious. When I get this, I am so happy. It tastes the closest to real pizza that I have tasted. No one has else has done such a great job. You can also get a plain crust and do your own toppings. Something I wish restaurants would do.
Better Than Bread ~ Thin crust pizza, yummy. I don't feel deprived when I have this.

Best pancakes:
Pamela's Pancake mix. Non-gluten free children tell me how much they love my pancakes.

Best Waffles:
Van's. I love mine pan fried with butter.

Best Bagels :
Joan's Gluten Free Great Bakes ~ Get them frozen, bake them fresh. Hot. Chewy. Yummy. She even makes a dairy free one. Do your self a favor and order some of these and some pizza at the same time to save shipping costs.

Best Bread:
Rudi's ~ I just found this at my local co-op. Great sandwich bread. Like a gluten free bread, best toasted.
Abigail's ~ Bakery in Weare, NH. They have this yummy cinnamon swirl bread made with millet that my children (who can eat gluten) adore as much as I do. It is a dense bread that can stand up to overnight French toast.
Berry Delicious ~ Bakery in Plymouth, NH. She has a sandwich bread that I love as a toast bread in the morning. Great texture.

Best Pie ~
Berry Delicious ~ Bakery in Plymouth, NH. Oh my. Her pie is awesome. I buy them frozen then bake them when I am going to serve them.

Best Brownie Mix ~
Pamela's, hands down.

I will be adding more to this list and getting the links in here soon. Good luck to those who are just starting out on this diet.

Cheers,
Danielle

Other Blogger Recipes I want to try...

I am in an organizational mode, not much time to blog. We have been working on a small renovation since July, and it's (FINALLY) just about done. A little more tweaking to go, but I am able to move my kitchen around. The renovation was to turn my laundry room into a little butler's pantry, so my family could make gluten stuff in there (sandwiches, toast, etc), while the main kitchen remained gluten free.

I think it is going to great once I get everything organized.

We had been using the same kitchen, reserving a small counter for gluten foods, and it worked, I didn't get contaminated from it. But it was crowded (I do not have a huge kitchen), and the risk was always there. Not fair when Navy Boy gets home from his shift work, working through the night, exhausted in the morning, and having to think about which butter he can use.

So, finalizing this project has taken up a fair bit of my time lately, so I decided to pull a few of my links to other wonderful bloggers and post them here. I haven't tried these yet, but they are on my list. I have more, but this is all the time I had this morning to post, so I will throw more out there another time!!

Lighter than Air Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Crinkles (cookies)
Rosemary's Christmas cookies

Almond Orange Marmalade Muffins
Sweet Potato Ginger Muffins
Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Artisanal Sorghum Bread
Pizza Crust (Actually, I tried the pizza crust this week, it is very good, and easy.)
Homemade Ravioli

HoneyComb Candy
Pumpkin Custard Pie
Rice pudding (looks VERY easy!)



And, if you are wondering about the photo on top, it is off a baked polenta I made. It was pretty good, not a favorite, but good. I took leftover polenta, mixed a few things in there like eggs, cheese, spices, and baked until firm and crisp.

Cheers!!

Pizza

So, you are so tired of cooking. You don't want to lift another finger to cook, and you wish you could order out for pizza? I have had a week myself, and was just done. I cooked so many things that failed, were horrible, and I had to throw out.

I saw this in the freezer section and thought I would grab it for an easy night. One caveat, you have to take it out the night before. It was good. I enjoyed it, and I will use it again.

This is the pizza I made with it below, I will tell you the toppings I used, go out get some and give yourself a night off.

(P.S. The cheese on this pizza is not dairy free, but since the crust is, I labeled this post dairy free. )

I topped this pizza with crushed tomatoes, shitake mushrooms, garlic, roasted red peppers, ricotta cheese, mozerella, oregano, and red pepper for spice.

I use jarred roasted red peppers, but did saute the garlic and mushrooms for a few minutes before putting it on the pizza. I like crispy crusts, so although the directions said 15 min. at 350, after the 15 min. were up, I jacked the heat up to 450, and cooked it for about 5 to 7 minutes more. next time I will cook this at a higher temperature.

Grab some wine, beer, or other favorite beverage and relax, you've earned it.

Foldable Pizza Crust

This is a similiar recipe from hanginthere on celiac.com. This does exactly what it says, it can fold, and get crispy on teh crust..it's is not the chewy type pizza, but good. Better than the other recipe I have here, I am going to work on the other one, I like a thick chewy crust, but this one is good.


Foldable Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons rapid rise yeast
1 1/3 cup warm milk
1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/3 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
4 teaspoons guar gum (xanthan gum interchangeable, same measurements, I use guar gum)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin powder
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning (I left this out in mine, will try it next time though)

2 teaspoons oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm milk.

In a separate larger bowl, blend together dry ingredients.

Stir in yeast mixture to dry ingredient mixture.

Add oil and apple cider vinegar.

Mix well.

Butter and flour the pizza pan (just like you grease and flour a cake pan).

Pat down dough on pan, sprinkle top of dough with flour so dough doesn't stick to your hands as you're shaping pizza.

Bake 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and add toppings.

Return to oven and bake for another 20 minutes.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Last time I added more sugar.....keep that..
next time add:
more olive oil
more honey
more salt
and add some grated cheese????


Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Recipe #44487 (www.recipezaar.com)
From Carol Fenster's "Special Diet Solutions".
by GinnyP




6 servings
time to make 30 min 5 min prep
1 tablespoon dry yeast
2/3 cup brown rice flour or gram flour or fava bean flour (I use
'garfava' flour which is a blend)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 tablespoons powdered milk or non-dairy powdered coffee creamer (Dairy
alternative, 2 T tapioca flour or sweet rice flour in place of 2 T dry milk
powder or non-dair)
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
2/3 cup water (110 degrees F)
1/2 teaspoon sugar or honey
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In medium bowl using regular beaters (not dough hooks), blend all
ingredients on low speed.
3. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.
4. (If mixer bounces around bowl, dough is too stiff. Add water if
necessary, one tablespoon at a time, until dough does not resist beaters.)
Dough will resemble soft bread dough.
5. Put mixture on lightly greased 12-inch pizza pan or 11 x 7-inch pan
(for deep dish version).
6. Liberally sprinkle rice flour on dough, then press dough into pan,
continuing to sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking to hands.
7. Make edges slightly thicker to hold toppings.
8. Bake pizza crust for 10 minutes.
9. Remove from oven.
10. Spread pizza crust with your favorite sauce and toppings.
11. Bake another 20 to 25 minutes or until top is nicely browned.