GF/DF Chocolate Chip cookies

I posted this on Celiac.com a bit ago, but just got around to posting this here.  It’s actually a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, with a verification with Nestle’s Tollhouse cookies.  They worked out really well.  I might try refrigerating the dough for about an hour just to see if I get even better results.  The first batch I did were just like I remember homemade chocolate chip cookies.  The second batch were very flat and ran.  They were almost crepe like, but I honestly think I forgot to add the rest of the flour in.  But at any rate, here’s the recipe:

2 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (add more if the dough is a bit runny)

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened (I used dairy-free Fleischmanns, as it’s all corn oil)

3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs (or egg replacement) (room temperature)


2 cups (12-ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, or any dairy free morsels (I used Ghirardelli’s bittersweet and they were fantastic.)

1 cup chopped nuts (OPTIONAL!!)

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts if you are using them. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Stuffed on salad

I managed to absolutely gorge myself on salad tonight.  Not just any salad, you ssee.  I’m not what you would call a “salad lover”.  To me, salad is the stuff I feed my rabbits every night.  While it’s great for them, not so much for humans.  But I saw one on TV that totally changed my mind.  I saw it on the Food Netowrk and totally had to try it, even with the Feta cheese.  Being dairy-free is a challenge, since I *love* cheese.  I adore most cheese, and Feta is no exception.  The last dairy I had was the cup of milk in the pancakes (so about half a cup as the pancakes were split between me and the DH.) and it made me bloated and extremely ill for a couple of hours.  Would 1/4 cup of Feta in a whole salad do the same thing?

Now the amusing part of all this is that it’s FREEZING outside.  Normally this is the weather that just begs for soups, stews or other hearty comfort foods.  But for some odd reason I had my heart set on making this salad tonight.  So I started marinating the chicken and prepped most of the salad.  The red onion I had was way too pungent, so I caramelized it.  I thought about roasting some veggies, but didn’t really feel in the mood for it.  What’s the best complement to a salad.  Slices of crusty bread.  Or, in my case, Chebe rolls with rosemary.   I was a little worried, as I know how many strong flavors there would be in this salad.  The chicken was marinating in an oregano marinade, there was a “greek” dressing I was making with more oregano and garlic, and of course the Feta cheese and kalamata olives.  I kept some additional chicken on stand-by in case the DH didn’t like it.

I needn’t have worried.

He devoured it.  Absolutely loved it.  He was saying how when summer comes around he’d love to see this in our rotation, or when we have people over, make a huge bowl of this.  He’s just as stuffed on the salad as I am.

Heres the recipe from Food Network.  It’s from Good Deal with Dave Lieberman.  If you can’t tolerate dairy, feel free to leave the cheese off entirely or try a dairy cheese substitute, if you desire.

Greek Salad with Oregano Marinated Chicken

For the chicken:

1 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

A couple good pinches salt

10 grinds black pepper

4 (6 to 7-ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts


For the dressing:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 lemon, juiced

2 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of your chef’s knife

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3 pinches salt

10 to 15 grinds black pepper

For the salad:

2 to 3 hearts romaine lettuce

1 English cucumber, peeled, cut in 1/2 lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch chunks

3 vine-ripened tomatoes (about 3/4-pound), cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

To marinate the chicken: In a non-reactive dish, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper and mix together. Add the chicken breasts to the dish and rub both sides in the mixture. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.


To make the dressing: Combine all the ingredients in a resealable container and shake vigorously. Refrigerate until ready to serve, and then bring to room temperature before tossing salad.

Assemble the salad: cut off any dark tips and the bitter white bottoms from the romaine leaves. Cut the lettuce into 1-inch strips and place in a bowl that is large enough to hold all the salad ingredients comfortably. Scatter cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, olives, and feta over the top. You can prepare the salad up to a few hours in advance. Cover it with a moist paper towel and refrigerate until 30 minutes before serving.

To cook the chicken: Heat a nonstick skillet or grill pan over high heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook, turning once, until well browned, about 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Let the chicken rest on a cutting board for a few minutes before slicing it into thin strips.

Give the dressing a good shake and pour it into a nice little serving bowl, using the lid to strain out the garlic.

Toss salad just before serving and fan chicken out on top.

Lemon Mustard Chicken

Except for the chicken, the rest of this isn’t really measured, so these are my best guesses.  I just chuck a bunch of the stuff together until it “looks right”

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. boneless, skinless, meaty chicken pieces (I prefer thighs, but breasts work well)

2 Tbsp cooking oil or Olive oil


1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning

1 1/2 tsp oregano, basil or italian seasoning, crushed

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (I go a bit easy on this)

For better results, marinade the chicken at least 10 minutes in the sauce.  If you have the time, marinade longer, up to overnight.  If you are REALLY short on time, follow the broiling instructions.

Preheat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat.  Place chicken in skillet.  Cover and cook about 5-7 minutes each side or until chicken pieces are done.  Serve.

If you are broiling.  place chicken in the broiler, about 4 inches from the heat.  Broil for about 3 minutes then turn.  Use the sauce as a glaze and brush ckicken with it.  Broil for another couple minutes then turn and brush again.  Give it a few more minutes then check for doneness.  When done, serve, brushing chicken with any remaining marinade.

Garlicky steak

Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8-12 minutes for the beef, or until desired doneness and 5 minutes for the sauce.

2 boneless beef top sirloin steaks, or any preferred cut that about 3/4” thick and about 1.5 to 1.75 lbs

1 to 2 tsp bottled minced garlic (around 2-4 cloves)

1 tsp fresh ground pepper


1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp olive oil (or garlic-infused olive oil if you have it)

1 cup beef broth (I use these vegan GF cubes thaat are awesome)

2 tbsp wine

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

These can be done either in a broiler or in a skillet.  I usually use the skillet method

Preheat broiler or start heating a skillet with the oil on low-medium heat.  Trim fat from steaks.  For rub, in a small bowl combine garlic pepper and salt.  Sprinkle mixture evenly over both sides of each steak.  Rub in with your fingers.

For sauce, in a pan combine beef broth and wine.  Cook over high heat for 4-5 minutes or until mixture is reduced to about 1/2 cup.  Whisk in mustard.  Cover sauce and keep on low heat to keep warm.

Place steaks n the unheated rack of a broiler pan Broil 3-4 inches from the heat until desired doneness, turning once halfway through broiling.

-OR-

Place steaks in heated skillet.  After a minute or two, start raising the heat of the skillet.  Allow 8-10 minues or so for medium rare, more time for more doneness.

Cut steaks into 4 roughly equal servings if needed.  Spoon sauce onto 4 dnner plates.  Top with steak

I tend to serve this with roasted, blanched or sauted asparagus.  The flavor pairing is incredible.

Oven Roasted Beets with Garlic

4 large, fresh beets (2 1/2” diameter, trimmed, peeled and quartered (canned will not work for this, they have to be fresh beets)


6-8 cloves of garlic, quartered

1 Tbsp minced thyme (or the equivalent dried)

2 teaspoons Olive oil

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp orange juice (fresh if you can)

2 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  When you handle the beets, I would recommend using vinyl gloves or those disposable deli-type gloves so the beet juice doesn’t stain your hands.  In a glass baking pan or casserole dish, combine the beets, garlic, hlf of the thyme and the oil.

In a small bowl, comine the orange juice and the water.  Pour over the beets.  Cover with foil and roast until tender 45-50 minutes.  Remove the foil and roast 10 minutes longer.  Serve, sprinkled with the remaining thyme.

Early Shrove Tuesday

You ever have one of those mornings where you just want something different?  For whatever reason, you just suddenly miss something?  I had one of those mornings this morning.  I got thinking about when Paul first moved to the US.  He had a cute fully furnished place that was perfect for a bachelor.  The kitchen was small but serviceable and whenever I would stay over on the weekends, we’d take turns cooking breakfast.  He’d make bacon sandwiches and I would get up and make pancakes.  They were on the smaller size, but always fluffy, golden and smothered in butter and syrup.

And this morning I wanted them!!

I decided I wanted a change from the usual brekfast and at first thought about a fritatta, but that just wasn’t doing it for me.  Then I thought bout the pancakes.  With that bit of reckless flair, off I went to the pantry to see if it could be done.  I have gluten-free flour of course.  I have baking powder, sugar eggs… did I have syrup?  After a fair bit of rummaging I found it at the back of a shelf, a nearly a full bottle of that wonderfully brown sticky sweet stuff was there.  It’s pure maple syrup, so I know there would be no gluten issues with it.  So yes, in theory it could be done.  Off I went to get my old recipe out.  The way I saw it was if I couldn’t get this, I could always have the usual breakfast.  My only concern was the milk that needed to go in.  I’m always a bit leery of dairy since it usually makes be bloated and ill.  But it was worth a try.

At first, using the recipe portions the batter was a bit runny,, very bubbly and had little structure to it.  When I poured it into my skillet, you could see the bubbles bursting and see the bottom of the skillet.  They didn’t rise and were honestly more like crepes than pancakes.  But they tasted ok.  So I tried adding more flour and some of the Bob’s Red Mill GF flour mix.  It thickened the batter up quite nicely.  Suddenly I was getting real pancakes.  They weren’t as fluffy as they used to be, but they did fluff some.  They also cooked *much* quicker.  In very short order I had a big stack of golden pancakes.

They were wonderful.  Airy and moist, with lots of corn oil butter and syrup - YUM!!!  They disappeared very quickly.  Paul had to finish mine, as they were also incredibly filling.  And he best bit?  No issue with the dairy.

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to make something I haven’t made in years.  I just need to make sure that I add more flour or less liquid.

Fluffy Pancakes

1 to 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder (That’s not a typo - honest)
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp oil

In one bowl, combine the flour, sugar and baking powder.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil.  Add the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Heat an oiled griddle (or a non-stick skillet if you have it) and pour in the batter, about a 1/4 cup (50 mL) at a time.  Allow the pancake to cook on one side for a minute or two.  When you can get a spatula under it and it’s nice and golden, flip it over.  Let cook for another minute or two.

Makes roughly 10-12 pancakes.