Dessert Time

After dinner I like to have a little something for dessert although I would not say that I have a crazy sweet tooth.  When I have a food craving it is typically for more savory fare as opposed to sweet.  There are a few sweet things I like though.  The first would definitely be peanut butter cups.  The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is pretty much one of the greatest things in the world.  The second thing would be cake.  Being gluten free and having cake do not necessarily go hand in hand unfortunately.

When I was doing the gluten/dairy free thing I did a cake mix into cupcakes and although they tasted good initially while still warm from the oven they did not hold up very well afterwards and they were extremely heavy in comparison to regular cupcakes.  Plus the whole not including milk in it probably didn't help them either.

When I was in California I bought a package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake mix at Berkeley Bowl.  Only cost $3 something as opposed to the $5 something here.  

I made it last night.  It was relatively simple, you add a stick of butter, 2 eggs, milk, water and some vanilla, blend and pour it in a pan or cupcakes like a normal cake mix.  The batter was a bit thicker and stiffer than normal cake batter so I was a bit worried.

I baked them the prescribed time and they certainly started looking and smelling like normal cupcakes.   I pulled them out and waited a few moments for them to cool down before digging in.  I was pleasantly surprised by how light they were in comparison to the other gluten free cupcakes I had made.  They were not super sweet or super chocolately but I was okay with that.  They actually reminded me of costco chocolate muffins without the chocolate chips.  I tend to eat cupcakes without frosting if its just for a post-dinner dessert so I didn't add frosting to these but I think they might be really good with frosting actually.  Sometimes a super sweet cake and lots of frosting is just too much sugar for me, I feel these would be a great middle ground.

My mom and brother also sampled the cupcakes and said they were pretty damn good as well.  Yay!  I still have 16 left so I stuck them in the freezer.  We will see how they hold up.  

Gluten Free Bisquick

Blogging frequently is difficult.  Especially when one teaches full time and has lesson plans to do, papers to grade and general end of quarter business to attend to.  Even though I've been busy, gluten free eating is still going on.  Now that I am on Winter Break for 2 1/2 weeks I will have time to update more.  I will also be doing a lot more experimentation with gluten free cooking since I have a lot more free time.

So last weekend I found gluten free bisquick at my local Foodland.  I was pretty excited because you can do lots of things with gluten free bisquick.  I was not excited because a pound sized box cost $5.99 and that was on sale.  The gluten food markup+the Hawaii price markup=no bueno.  I bought a box anyway, I just had to try it.

From there I perused Betty Crocker's website and found that they have many gluten free recipes (that of course utilize their products.  They aren't exactly fine cooking but they are relatively quick and easy.  I would love to craft lovely gluten free meals from complete scratch but lets be real, I don't have time during the school week plus when you are cooking for one its an awful lot of work.  I used my bisquick on two recipes that I found on the website.  They are detailed below.

Sausage Cheese Balls

Betty Crocker Recipe here

My yum yums below (not the most attractive picture but taste is what matters to me:

Mmmm sausage, cheese and bread, there are a few of my favorite things (see my love of pizza expressed earlier)  I made these with a few alterations.  I doubled the amount of sausage and used chicken italian sausage.  I also used a mix of mozarella/parmesan cheese because that is what I had.  I also did not use the rosemary and parsley because Target didn't have either.  In the end I think that was totally fine because I used Italian sausage instead of just bulk pork so there were some spices and such in there already.  They definitely were not as doughy as they look in the picture. they were more like sausage balls but they turned out good.  The bisquick and milk did a good job of binding the cheese and sausage together.  I also felt that they had enough flavor that they did not need the dipping sauce as the recipe recommended.  I also refrigerated the extras and warmed them on the oven setting of my toaster oven the next day and they turned out pretty similar.  I would definitely make these again! 

Sloppy Joe Pot Pie

Betty Crocker recipe here

My yum yums below:

I was excited to do this to see how the gluten free bisquick stands up on its own.  I again messed with the recipe.  Instead of the hamburger with onion, cheese and canned sloppy joe sauce I mixed the hamburger with cheese, onion, a can of kidney beans and then I added some BBQ sauce that i had in my fridge to the mixture until I liked the taste.  I layered this into my pan and then added the bisquick, eggs and milk mixture on top as the instructions directed.  

It looked pretty nice coming out of the oven.  The consistency of the crust on top was pretty similar to things I've had with regular bisquick.  You could definitely tell that you used several eggs though, the dough had a very eggy taste and texture to it.  And because I'm weird I don't really like the taste and texture of eggs.  Still though, it was nice to have a dish that looked and tasted like the gluten equivalent does.  I might make this again, we'll see.

So after the gluten free bisquick worked so well I went and had my mom buy some more of the boxes on sale.  Its expensive but it's nice to find something so easy to use.  I will be using it over the next few weeks as I do more experimenting and cooking for the holidays.  

Pizza Pizza, now with real cheese!

I love pizza.  Seriously.  Sometimes I totally have the eating taste of a four year but pizza may be one of my most favorite foods in the world.  Unfortunately that business is full of gluten.  No longer can I order a $10 pizza from Papa Johns or Pizza Hut.  Booooo.  Gotta plan ahead if I want pizza or even worse, pay that much for a frozen thing half the size.

So if I want some good pizza I need to do it myself.  I bought a Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust mix at Berkeley Bowl in CA for only $3.69  (cheaper than I could get it in Hawaii).  Last Sunday night I figured I would bust out the pizza for dinner and then I would hopefully have leftovers for lunch the next few school days.

Here is the mix.  It was pretty simple.  Add the yeast packet to water, blend all the ingredients briefly and let it rise for 20 minutes.  When that's done you are supposed to dump the dough onto a well oiled pizza pan, wet your hands and spread it out.   The dough was definitely much wetter than your average pizza dough, there was definitely no tossing it around and shaping it like a traditional pizza.  It did spread out relatively easily, though I had to avoid not breaking little holes in it if I spread it too thin.  It was difficult though to get it into a perfect circle and I quickly gave up on that since I wanted to eat!

Per the directions I baked the crust for 9 minutes before spreading on my tomato sauce, mozarella cheese and turkey pepperoni (gluten free)!  I cooked it for another 15 minutes and it was done!  Voila!  Tasty, though slightly awkwardly shaped pizza.

So how was it?  The taste was pretty good, couldn't really tell much difference taste wise between it and the other homemade pizza crusts that I have made.  The major difference though was the texture and consistency.  It ended up being way thicker and chewier than other pizzas that I have made.  Kind of interesting as I had tried to spread it thin, but it was breaking apart when I did that.  I do prefer my pizza crust a little thinner and crispier but I am not sure how I could achieve this.  The dough is so runny I don't think I could cook it on a pizza stone or on the rack.    So overall, pretty good, I would definitely use this crust mix again but I will look around for others that might be a little thinner.

I did find this mix on sale on amazon.com 4 packs for $8.48.  You can buy it too here. The packaging looks a little different but the description seems pretty similar.  And can't beat the price, especially since gluten free stuff is so expensive here in Hawaii.   Bizarrely enough, there is a recipe for cinnamon rolls on the package.  May have to try and make a batch of those for Christmas morning.  

Oh yeah, and the leftovers for lunch the next few days.  Kind of gross.  The crust was a tasteless blob of bread with toppings on top.  Not so zesty.  Maybe if I reheated them they might have been better but I couldn't manage to make it to the microwave at lunchtime.  Now I know that next time I should just make a smaller pizza to eat that day and save the rest of the dough for the next time I want pizza.  

The Whole Ox - Honolulu

It's been quite a while since I updated.  I finished the 2 week gluten and dairy free diet as mandated by my doctor.  Took some blood tests and then Thanksgiving break started and I went to California for the holiday and resumed eating gluten and dairy to make life easier while traveling.  Plus I HAD to have In-n-Out.  Didn't feel much difference between eating and not eating gluten.   Once I got back from my trip though I have resumed eating gluten free since it is probably for the best.  Le sigh.  So now I will hopefully continue updating this thing.

Last night I went to see "Life of Pi" with my parents.  It was okay, I didn't think it was really worth all the rave reviews it got.  At least it wasn't as weird as the original book which I started, but didn't finish. Post movie we did the whole "oh where should we eat" go around.  My mom suggested we go to The Whole Ox which is located off of Nimitz Hwy, near Office Max.  It is a restaurant that focus on meat and using all parts of the animal.  She figured I could find something to eat since it is all meat.

Looks wise the restaurant is very casual, set up with large wooden picnic tables that take up a lot of room.  We had to wait a while for a table since they were all full.  I'm sure the tables are a statement and all but I bet they could fit more in if they went for something smaller.

When we were seated we took a look at the menus and debated what I could or could not eat.  We called the waitress over to ask a couple questions and she actually handed up a copy of the menu that had all the gluten free options starred.  Oops, should have asked about that right when we sat down.  Luckily most items on the menu were gluten free with the exception of the burger and anything that had fried potatoes.

My mom and I ordered the steak with a pomegranate sauce and gorgonzola butter and my dad ordered sausage.  I also ordered a creamy polenta with herbs and my parents ordered poutine (which I couldn't eat cause of the gravy).

The polenta came out first and it was pretty tasty!  It was loaded up with cheese and milk so it was about the creamiest polenta I had ever had.  Yummmm.

The polenta came out the same time as the poutine because the restaurant is made to order.  Then my dads sausage came out....then my mom and I waited another 10-15 minutes for our steak.  I get the whole made to order thing and I am glad they are not putting together frozen components to make my meal but I feel that made to order is fancy speak for "too lazy to time our cooking so the meal comes out appropriately".  Finally the steaks came and they were tasty.  The sauce was a little different than other steak sauces but I enjoyed it and of course cheesy butter makes anything good.   Voici the steak.

It was definitely a ton of food, especially since the polenta was so rich.  My dad's sausage was also very tasty and a lot of the other dishes looked really good too.  

So here's the rundown on The Whole Ox

The Good

Tons of gluten free options

Really good food

The Bad

Not a lot of tables

Made to order=food served randomly, might be better to do this place family style

Expensive:  my meal came out to $40 without tax or tip, we forgot to ask how much the steak special was, oops.  Thanks mom and dad!

Skanky waitresses:  Our waitress was dressed a bit skankily and I soon realized that all three were.  Short shorts and lace tops that showcased their brightly colored bras underneath.  Maybe they are doin that to appeal to male customers.  Blegh Have some self respect ladies. 

So there you have it, I would go there again but I would think twice because it is rather expensive.