A cool gluten-free blog...

And it has plenty of links to other gluten-free blogs!

I've been wanting to try more gluten-free recipes, especially given a request from the local cafe I bake for.

So, here it is: Life of My Mouth.

The writer is young, sassy, and definitely a foodie.

PS

On second thought, I'd make that 1/3 C of shortening. To be honest, I just plop in a heaped-up wooden spoon of the stuff.

Corn Bread

Dear Peg (but really Todd),

Here is the recipe I use for cornbread.

Preheat oven to 400

Plop 1/4 C or slightly more vegetable shortening into a cast iron frying pan. We use the little one mostly--gives a fatter cake of bread. Heat the pan on top of the stove on very low and let the shortening melt. You can use lard or other animal fat for this part--that's traditional. I don't though.

Meanwhile--
stir together
1 C plain flour
1 C yellow plain cornmeal (did you know it also comes in self-rising?)
4 t baking powder
1 scant t of salt
Some folks add a little sugar to it, but I don't. If you want to try that, add about 1/4 cup.

Make a well in the middle and add in 2 beaten eggs, 1 C buttermilk.

Stir it up.

Pour most of the liquid shortening into the batter and stir it up, but here's the most important part of making good cornbread. Make sure there is a lot of liquid fat left in the pan. It should puddle in the bottom, not just gently grease bottom and sides. This will give you a crispier crust and the satisfying thwack of turning the cake onto a wooden board when it comes out of the oven.

The batter doesn't need to be perfectly smooth--it should be a little lumpy. Pour it into the pan and put it in the fast oven. It will be done in 20-40 minutes depending on the size of the pan.

When you take it out of the oven, turn it out immediately onto a wooden board or counter and then plate it up. Really whack it down and the cake will pop out with an unbroken crust.

Add butter.

Perhaps beer.

Also, a bowl of beans or some soup or...

You get the point it is good with everything.

Love,
Byron

Roast Beast of the week: Elk Meat Loaf!

My husband and I were gifted with some frozen elk meat from his uncle. It's been in the freezer a few months and I was worried it wouldn't be good any more, but it was just perfect. I made meat loaf twice this week; first with roasted potatoes and carrots, then with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach.

Here's some photos I took.
The frozen package; in camouflage packaging!Mixing up my recipe: chopped onion and garlic, Worcestershire sauce, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, an egg, thyme, salt and pepper.
Into the oven with bacon it goes!
Mmm, all done and ready to eat!

It was delicious!

The Cult of Pie

I love pie, as I may have mentioned here before. The slice above comes from Famous Louise's on 221, a restaurant that sits on three counties of western NC. That piece is Forestberry and the crust is darn-near perfect.

Coffee ain't bad there either.

There was a story on NPR this morning about 2011 being the Year of Pie. That sounds good to me. Pie can be for breakfast or for dinner, it can be meaty and savory or it can be sweet.

Is pie the perfect food?

Possibly not, if you have concerns about your carb intake. But even then, there are modifications that can mitigate that effect somewhat.

So, that's really all I have to say--2011=the Year of Pie. I love pie.

And my friend Shelly created a Cult of Pie page on Facebook.

Now that's a religion I can get behind.

Happy cultural New Year everyone! How about we celebrate with a nice piece of pie?

New blog added to our roll...Cheese and Biscuits

I found this British food blogger via The Guardian (which recently had a great article on buying Scotch whisky); he seems to review mostly London restaurants. I did like the name. Also there's a fun "Cheese of the Month" feature (mmm, Cornish Yarg!), and plenty of yummy photos.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast has become a comfortable sameness over the last few years. It was hard to find a cold cereal that wasn't loaded with carbs and I experimented with all sorts of other things for that fast-breaking meal.

But the truth of it is I am the kind of person who hits the ground running most mornings and I don't want to waste thought on it. I have more time to think of other meals and snacks but breakfast defeated me until I found My Perfect Breakfast.

(Okay, in the interest of complete disclosure, a Full English is My Perfect Breakfast but since I'm not a farm-worker it simply isn't practical or healthy to have that fatty goodness every day of the world.)

It starts with a half-portion of old-fashioned oats, into which is splashed enough water from the kettle to cover them. I then put the kettle on to boil for tea, usually a cup not a potful. The oats absorb rather a lot of the water and when the kettle has boiled, I turn the burner on simmer and put the pan of oats on it.

I make my cuppa and let it steep.

I slice a half banana into the bopttom of My Favorite Bowl, add a handful of raw nuts (walnuts right now) and a teaspoon of ginger preserves.

The oats are fluffy by this point and a little gooey--they get plopped onto the banana-nut-ginger mess and stirred up.

Add a splash of the milk of your choice, stir it all up and call it breakfast

Milk in the tea, too--at least for me.