Modern Wife

Tag: gluten-free

  • Cranberry Mini Tarts

    Cranberry Mini Tarts

    After many years of cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner and getting my pace and timing down just right, I am taking a break. Tonight will be the first Thanksgiving dinner I will not be cooking. We are going to spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family, and Aunt Faye will be making us a fantastic old-fashioned Thanksgiving meal.

    Of course, I’m not coming empty-handed. I made these Cranberry Tarts at my daughter’s birthday party recently and they were a hit with everyone. The recipe is gluten-free and nut-free, very important since we have people with gluten and nut sensitivities in the family. I use Namaste Foods Gluten Free Flour Blend.

    Namaste Foods Gluten-Free Flour Blend

    My daughter helped me make these, and it was all we could do to keep ourselves from eating them all up before it’s time to go to Thanksgiving dinner.

    Before beginning, make sure you have the following kitchen tools:
    2 mixing bowls, small or medium
    measuring cups and measuring spoons
    whisk
    wooden spoon
    mini muffin pan
    colander
    oven

    Here we go…

    Cranberry Mini Tarts

    Ingredients for Crust:
    1 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Flour Blend
    3/4 cups organic butter
    6 oz. organic cream cheese

    Ingredients for Filling:
    1/2 cup organic sugar
    1 organic egg
    1/4 cup organic butter
    1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
    8 oz. fresh cranberries

    Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease the mini muffin pan with butter wrapper.

    Beat together gluten-free flour, butter and cream cheese until it forms a ball of dough. I don’t have an electric mixer, so I just use a wooden spoon to combine the ingredients, then knead it by hand until it’s a nice smooth consistency.

    Pinch small portions, roll them up in balls, flatten and press evenly into the bottom and sides of mini muffin cups.

    Now we’re ready for the filling. Whisk together sugar, egg, butter and vanilla.

    Wash the fresh cranberries in a colander. Put about 5 cranberries in each mini muffin cup crust. This was like playing mancala.

    Pour a small spoonful of filling over the cranberries in each mini muffin cup crust.

    Cranberry Mini Tarts Before Baking

    Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tarts are golden. Let it cool completely then remove from pan.

    Cranberry Mini Tarts

    Share these treats with your family and friends!

  • Husband’s Breakfast Recipe: Emphysema Lambada

    Husband’s Breakfast Recipe: Emphysema Lambada

    Yes, you read it right. My husband made me breakfast. How sweet! He really is a good cook. Check out his bean soup here. And he also came up with the idea for Bumblebees. But in true Jay fashion, he gave his recipe the unappetizingly strange and thoroughly nonsensical name, Emphysema Lambada.

    It’s good, though. Don’t knock it till you try it. Here’s the recipe:

    Ingredients:
    1 organic carrot, peeled and chopped
    1 organic celery, diced small
    2 organic green onions, chopped
    some organic frozen mixed vegetables (it’s got peas, corn and carrots in it, I think he used about a third of a package.)
    1 organic beef hotdog, chopped up as thin as possible
    1 tablespoon organic canola oil
    1 organic egg from free roaming chicken
    salt and pepper to taste

    Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the carrot, celery, green onions, mixed vegetables and hotdog. When the vegetables are tender, make a hole in the middle of the skillet and crack the egg in it. Scramble the egg and mix it up with the rest.

    Husband's Breakfast Recipe: Emphysema Lambada

    Serve warm as is. Or do what my husband did: he set some rice to steam before he started so that by the time the rice is cooked, we are ready to Lambada on top of rice.

  • Almond Pancakes

    Almond Pancakes

    I found this gluten-free recipe for Almond Pancakes from Mark’s Daily Apple, and it’s been a family favorite ever since:

    Ingredients:
    1 cup almond meal
    3 large eggs
    1/8 tsp vanilla extract
    1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

    Mix it all together until a batter forms. Pour the batter onto a buttered or greased skillet. Cook over medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Drizzle raw honey or just eat it plain. For kicks, add some blueberries or bananas to the batter.

    One word of caution on this recipe: I would suggest keeping the size of these almond pancakes on the small side. Larger pancakes have a tough time sticking together.

    We use organic maple syrup to sweeten our pancakes. When I’m on the last batch of pancakes, I heat some maple syrup till it bubbles and serve it warm. Not only does it taste wonderful warm, it also kills any mycotoxins that may be in dormant in the syrup.

    This is a much heartier pancake than the basic flour-based one. If you look at the ingredients it is mostly protein and no carbs at all. The recipe above yielded enough for two adults and one 6-year old child, and we felt plenty full. Now we’re ready to go out hiking today!