1000 Gluten Free Recipes

I have a new cookbook!  And I'm so excited about it.  I received it a couple weeks a back and I've been trying out some of the recipes.  It's called "1000 Gluten-Free Recipes" by Carol Fenster.   

I really like it so far.  It's a huge book.  Hardback and several inches thick.  Carol has covered all bases when it comes to this book.  There are recipes for anything and everything you are craving from main dishes to breads and desserts.  This is one of several books I would recommend to new people just starting out on a gluten free diet, it's that good.   

In the past, my pet peeve with gluten free cookbooks, is that every author has a flour blend for each type of product you would be making.  Example, one blend for cookies, one blend for yeast breads, one for quick breads….you get the picture.  Carol has done this in some of her past cookbooks, but in this book, there is just one blend.  You might add other flours per recipe depending on what you might be making.  I love that!  I know if I have her blend ready, I can make any of the recipes in the book on the spot without having to mix up another blend.  

My biggest problem is that she uses potato starch a lot and I can't eat potatoes.  So when I convert that, I don't know if I'm doing it right.  
She has a wonderful recipe for blueberry coffee cake that I served to gluten eaters that will be my "go to" recipe for coffee cakes.  Everyone loved it.  But my favorite thing is the chocolate chip cookies.  For almost two years now, I have been searching for "that recipe" for what is the perfect chocolate chip cookie to me.  I had found some I really like and I've tweaked and converted my old gluten chocolate chip cookie recipe.  They've been good, but this was the best I've had in almost two years.    

I did have to play with her recipe though since her flour mix calls for potato starch.  Since I  can't eat potatoes, I used cornstarch instead.  I don't know if that made a difference or if I didn't have my butter the right temperature, or what I did, but when I mixed it up, the mixture was really crumbly.  It wouldn't hold together.  I know I had the right measurements of everything.   

To compensate, I added more butter.  They turned out perfect!  Crispy outside and chewy inside.  Even the next day!  How they were at 3 days, I don't know because we ate them all!
Hopefully I can replicate what I did wrong again because they were great!   Good flavor, good texture.   

Speaking of no potatoes, it's still really weird making dinner at night.  It's amazing how often we ate potatoes.  Geeze, one can only eat so much rice!  I am having fun trying new vegetable dishes with things like parsnips.  Since it's getting to cold to grill, I've been stir frying a lot.  Last night we had zucchini which I've always loved.  
 

Two chopped zucchini 

One chopped onion 

One small can chopped mushrooms 

One (last of the season) tomato 

Saute onions and mushrooms in olive oil till caramelized and tender.  I like to use a stainless pan for this.  It caramelizes better in stainless.  Add the tomatoes and zucchini and cook till heated through.  I don't like mushy zucchini, so the minute it's hot, I stop cooking.  You can add basil, garlic, salt, pepper, what ever pleases you!  Serves two.   

I  made a huge batch of brown rice on Sunday, so I served the veggies on that.  For our main dish I made Fish Caesar.  It went really well together.  
I was so sad to see frost covering the ground this morning.  No more fresh tomatoes.  The hubster pulled all the wilted vines out of the garden today.  Some of my herbs are still hanging in there.  It won't be long till they've had enough too.  I guess it's time to get out the soup recipes!  Without potatoes of course 🙂