It's Like Christmas!!!!

I found sandwiches!!!!  (In my head I said that in my Oprah voice so you should too for extra impact.)  I'm just realizing that blog title would be a lot more impactful had Christmas not been just a few days ago.  Oh well.

This is a fairly long story but at the end you'll be so glad you read it that you might want to read it twice.  Probably not.  I went to Jason's Deli once a long time ago when I was in Wichita taking one of my CPA exams (Have I mentioned I'm a CPA yet?  If not, I meant to.  It sounds really important, doesn't it?).  Anyways, I believe that day I had a roast beef sandwich and it was good.  Then I was in Wichita last Wednesday waiting for my sister and husband so we could check out the new IMAX theater (which is pretty cool, by the way) and had to eat lunch by myself.  I didn't want to go to On the Border or someplace like that and eat alone so I thought I'd go back to Jason's Deli because they have soup.  And I don't feel dumb eating there by myself.  I had the broccoli and cheese soup and it was delicious.  My husband and I went back to Wichita yesterday to do a little more shopping so we decided to go to Jason's again because it seemed like a light lunch and we ate a crazy amount of food over the past few days.  So he got an Amy's Turkey-O and I had the biggest baked potato you've ever seen.  It's the Potato Au Broc.  It comes smothered in the broccoli and cheese soup and it's delicious, too.  But it's a meal for like five people really.  You should definitely get the smaller portion.

Review time: I've now been to Jason's Deli twice in one week.  That's really important here.  So Kent had finished his lunch and I was still barely 1/10 of the way into mine.  He was looking over my should and he says, "Why didn't you get a sandwich?"  In my head I'm thinking he's kind of dumb.  I can't eat sandwiches, right?  I don't know where he's been but we've gone over this before.  And then he says, "They have gluten free sandwich bread."  WHAT?????  Yeah, there's a sign on the counter that says in big letters "GLUTEN FREE SANDWICH BREAD".  I have now walked right past it twice in the last week and my husband once.  That's three trips past the sign.  You can tell we really pay attention.

So I'm curious about this, of course, so I go to the counter and read the sign.  It says that they bake their gluten free bread in the same kitchen with their other bread so it's not suitable for people with Celiac Disease.  However, people who have slight allergies, intolerances, or choose to eat gluten free for other health reasons can eat it.  Then I asked the girl behind the counter and she says you can get ANY SANDWICH on gluten free bread.  I about died right there!  Sandwiches!  I felt like this: (in your best Oprah voice) You get a sandwich!  And you get a sandwich!  And you get a sandwich!  Everybody gets a sandwich!

Now I'm dying to go back so I can actually get a sandwich.  See Subway, it works.  You should really look into it. 

Here's a link to the Jason's Deli website if you'd like to scope out the options.  I recommend it.  But they should really advertise this gluten free option more.  Like a TV commercial during my favorite show.  And apparently you should address me directly or I won't get it.  They have a blog on the website.  The posting from November 23, 2010 is about the new gluten free options with a link to a special gluten free menu.

In other news, I'm going to post another blog at some point about my Christmas eating experience.  I know you're on the edges of your seats for that!

More Holiday Baking

Before I get to the baking I must tell you something else.  I went to our little grocery store here in Hesston yesterday, the Hesston Food Market, and they have gluten free Bisquick!  I was so excited!  I bought some in Lawrence at Hy Vee and you can hardly tell the difference between GF and regular waffle mix. I had my sister buy four boxes to bring home this weekend.  Now I don't have to have her get them.  I can get them myself.  Way to go HFM!  I also tried their gluten free pizza crusts last week and they aren't too bad.  They don't beat Pizza Hut or Papa John's but they work.

Now to the really important stuff.  This weekend is our Diener family Christmas.  For those of you not privileged enough to be a Diener, I will tell you it's basically a food fest.  First we eat lunch.  Then we open presents.  Then for some reason we break out about a million different snacks and pig out on those.  Then we eat supper.  My stomach hurts just thinking about that.  My Aunt Sharon always makes caramel from scratch and it's wonderful.  I'm in charge of the mint chocolate brownies.  My mom usually does puppy chow and cinnamon popcorn...you get the picture.  Snack time has changed in recent years because of the gluten free issue, but it's still a smorgasbord.

One of my other favorite things to make beside mint chocolate brownies (more on those later) is poppy seed bread.  I needed some for this weekend and it's snack day at work tomorrow so I'm taking the second loaf there.  Sorry to spoil that surprise for my co-workers.  I used my flour mixture from the previous baking post in place of the regular flour and it worked wonderfully.  My loaves are slightly shorter than normal but taste AMAZING!  You'll notice in my picture that one loaf is a wee bit shorter than the other.  That's where I cut off my sample piece.  The ends are soooo good!  I'm having a hard time not eating it all!  Below is a picture and the recipe if you want to try it.

Poppy seed Bread
2 cups flour or gluten free flour mixture
1 tsp. butter flavor
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. almond flavor

Mix ingredients.  Pour into two greased loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  While hot and still in pan, drizzle with glaze.  Remove from pans after 10-15 minutes of cooling (loaves will fall out easily).

Glaze
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. each vanilla, butter, almond flavor
6 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Back to the mint chocolate brownies.  The pan on the left is Betty Crocker gluten free brownie mix, also from Hesston Food Market.  The one on the right is a glutenous brownie.  Tomorrow night I'm going to make a green mint layer and then chill them.  When that's set, I add a chocolate layer on top and chill again.  YUMMY!

Finally Tried Some Recipes

I haven't posted in awhile but I haven't really felt there was anything to say recently.  I've been trying my hardest not to eat anything with wheat flour in it and have done pretty well at that.  I did eat one last Girl Scout Thin Mint before giving my stash away.  I forgot I'd have to give those up and that was a sad day!  If you know me, you know my weakness is mint chocolate anything.

I also cleaned out my pantry and either threw away or gave away almost everything made with wheat flour.  I kept a few things my husband can eat.  Then I cleaned out the freezer to make room for storing all my special flours.

I've been waiting for a weekend when I could try out some gluten-free recipes and this past weekend was it!  And I'm pretty excited about them.

First I tried gluten-free Oreos.  They are awesome!  I'd eat these even if I didn't have to.  I got the recipe from the blog Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef.  These are pretty simple.  I do have some pointers before I post the recipe and directions.  It says to put the dry mixture in a stand mixer before adding the egg and butter.  I thought I'd use my hand mixer to combine the dry and wet ingredients.  Big mistake!  First, I had a giant cocoa powder cloud everywhere!  I'm still cleaning cocoa powder dust off the counters!  Then it took forever for it to come together.  I finally got out my Kitchen Aid and it was done in like 30 seconds with a lot less dust.  So use the stand mixer!!!  We made the dough balls too big.  My Oreos are more like whoopie pie size.  So when it says a teaspoon of dough, stick to that.  I found that smashing the dough balls with a glass worked better than trying to do it by hand.  I just used a juice glass and sprayed the bottom with cooking spray after every few cookies and it worked like a charm.  The cookies are uniform looking and almost perfectly round.  My filling came out too thick to spread so I thinned it.  Milk would work best for this since the filling is made with butter.  If you do decide to thin it, remember just a drop or two at a time.  Once you go too thin, you can't go back!  So below is the recipe and also a picture.

For the cookies:

80 grams sweet rice flour
60 grams white rice flour
35 grams teff flour
2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) xanthan gum
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (we used Dagoba organic)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (we used 1/2 cup organic cane sugar and 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar)
140 grams (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the creamy filling:
58 grams (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Making the cookie dough. Put the sweet rice flour, white rice flour, and teff flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a whisk, stir the flours together to combine and aerate them. Add the xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Turn the mixer on and let everything combine in motion. While the mixer is running on low speed, add large pieces of the butter until they are all incorporated. Add the egg and mix well. (At this point, you might think the dough will be too dry. Keep mixing. It will come together.)

Baking the cookies. Scoop a rounded teaspoon of batter and form a ball. Gently flatten the dough in the palm of your hand. After you have flattened, smooth the edges of the cookie dough disk to make it evenly rounded. Place the dough disks onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. (These will not spread, but you do not want them to touch each other.)

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 5 minutes, then turn the baking sheet 180 degrees. Bake until the cookies are crisp on the edges with just a touch of softness in the center, about 5 more minutes. Take the cookies out of the oven. After a few moments, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely.

Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Making the creamy filling. Put the butter and vegetable shortening into the bowl of the stand mixer. (Clean the cookie dough out first!) Whip them up together, then add the sugar and vanilla extract. Beat the filling on high until it is fluffy frosting, about 5 minutes. (Be sure to turn off the stand mixer and scrape down the sides occasionally.)

Assembling the cookies. If you have a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch round tip, you can pipe tiny dots of filling onto a cookie. We couldn't find ours, so we used a teaspoon measure and our fingers to spread the blob of creamy filling toward the edges but not entirely there. Gently, press the second cookie down onto the filling and watch the filling reach the edges.

Continue until all the cookies are little chocolate sandwiches with a creamy filling. 

Makes 25 to 30 Oreos.

I also made peppernuts this weekend.  My husband calls these "tiny cookies" and can't understand all the hype about them.  My freshman year in college my mom sent a box of peppernuts to me and I was beyond excited!  I think I ate them all in 2 days.  My husband, then boyfriend, didn't get it.  He thought they were good but just a small cookie and why eat a bunch of small cookies when you can eat one big one?  But they are one of my favorite holiday treats.  They're the kind of thing you only make once a year because they are a lot of work so I always look forward to peppernut day.

There are way too many various recipes to count.  I personally prefer the orange slice peppernut.  But cutting up the orange slices takes me a whole week of work so I just went with the anise peppernuts this time.  I haven't found a good method for cutting up orange slices; they are too sticky.

I'd say the peppernuts came out pretty good.  I used my regular recipe but substituted the 4 cups of flour with a flour mixture recipe I got from my mom.  They are definitely more crunchy than when I use regular flour and they are flatter.  When I took them out of the oven they were pretty fluffy but as they cooled they flattened out.  I'm not sure what that's about but they taste just as good as the wheat flour version.  I'll post the recipe and flour mixture recipe below with a picture.

If you've never made peppernuts before, they freeze really well.

Flour Mixture Recipe:

1 cup brown rice flour

1 1/4 cups white rice flour

1/4 cup potato starch

2/3 cup tapioca starch or flour

3/4 cup sweet rice flour

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 tsp. xantham gum

Anise Peppernuts:

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup brown Karo syrup

1 egg

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. anise seed, ground

1 tsp. soda in 1 Tbsp. hot water

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups flour or flour mixture

Cream shortening and sugar.  Beat in egg.  Add syrup and soda mixed in hot water.  Sift remaining dry ingredients and stir until dough is well mixed.  Chill overnight in covered container.  Roll into pencil sized ropes and cute the size of a dime.  Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown.

Happy Baking!

I Cheated....On Accident

Old habits die hard.  This weekend I accidentally cheated on my wheat free diet.  I'm sure you're wondering how you accidentally cheat, right?  We went shopping in Kansas City with my little sister and stopped to eat lunch at Wild Bill's at Legends.  My sister and I were going to share a cheeseburger.  This is beside the point but Wild Bill's has excellent cheeseburgers.  So they brought us two plates, each with half the cheeseburger.  I, of course, intended to take the bun off mine.  I had a bite of cheeseburger and was getting ready for my second when my husband looks over and says, "What are you doing?".  I stopped mid-bite to consider what I was doing.  It took a second to figure it out and then I realized I'd left the bun on the cheeseburger.  Whoops!  So this weekend, I had a bite of cheeseburger with bun...on accident.

So Long Subway!

Lunch is always a challenge for me.  I try to bring my lunch with me but there's just times when we don't have leftovers or I don't want to eat them.  And for those days, my go to restaurant is Subway.  Oh I love Subway!  There's one a couple blocks from my office and I eat there once a week unless I'm on vacation or out of town for work.  The ladies who work there know my order.  BMT on flatbread, toasted with American cheese, pickles, and one squirt of light mayo.  Every once in awhile I get crazy and change it up, but not usually.  I don't have a change-it-up personality.

But my new diet says that I can't eat at Subway.  Not entirely true, I guess.  I could get a salad, but I probably won't.  Not a salad eater.  Besides, I don't really want to go into the store and smell fresh baked bread and then not be able to eat it.  Talk about torturous!  But I feel like I should go there one last time and explain to them why I can't come back.  What if they miss me?  Surely they'll be worried, right?  And I'll miss them knowing what I want.  It's kind of nice to not have to say my order every time.  Arby's doesn't know my order.  Neither does Taco Bueno.  They're like friends to me at Subway.  My once a week, sandwich making friends.

I'm really hoping that the fine people at Subway come out with gluten free bread (HINT, HINT, HINT) as I know I'm not the only one who'd eat it.  If that happened, I'd probably just buy my own restaurant and eat at it everyday so I could at least get some of my money back.  But until that day, no Subway.

So today I'm saying so long Subway!  I'll miss you.

My First Blog Post

This is probably my third re-write of this first blog post.  I can't seem to say what I want the way I want.  I never pictured myself as the kind of person who would have a blog.  I've never had anything really awesome to blog about until Monday.  And it's not really awesome, it's kind of depressing.

I've been having some issues with my digestive area working correctly and October was a pretty bad month.  I just felt pretty bad for most of it.  So I had some testing done and nothing is wrong, which is a relief but doesn't really explain what's been happening.  The doctor's next suggestion was to try to avoid eating wheat.  My dad hasn't eaten wheat for a couple years now and my aunt is a raging celiac as she puts it.  So I guess I knew this day was coming.  I was really hoping I'd inherited that part of my body from my mom and wouldn't have this problem, but something told me it was probably inevitable.  That's the kind of luck I have.

My husband said, "I told you so" because he suggested awhile ago that I try not eating wheat but I didn't want to do it.  He also said he was not participating in this with me.  Later he changed his mind and said he might do it if I really wanted him to, but under no circumstances was he giving up flour tortillas.  That's where he draws the line.

So I thought I'd start a blog about this new adventure.  I have a feeling it will be tough for awhile.  I absolutely love all baked goods and I don't mind some pasta now and then.  So the adjustment to learning how to make these things wheat free could be interesting.  My mom has learned a lot in trying to cook for my dad so I'm hoping to get some pointers from her.  I remembered yesterday that I got a peppernut gun for Christmas last year and haven't used it yet so I know for sure I'll be attempting some GF peppernuts at some point.  I also found a recipe for GF oreos that I'm going to have to try.  They looked pretty good in the picture.

Feel free to post any comments or suggestions you have.  I'd like to hear from others who are having the same experience or anyone who has a good recipe or tip.  I've found some good blogs and websites that I'll eventually post links to.  I'm also taking suggestions on a new title for this blog.  I'm not creative and I don't particularly like the one I've come up with.

Tonight is my first GF shopping trip.  I haven't tried eating GF yet because we don't have much in the house I can eat.  So today is my first official try at a GF day.  I had corn chex and orange juice for breakfast.  For lunch I'm having leftover roast and potatoes.  And for supper we're having Mexican which I know I can do as long as I have a corn tortilla.  My dad says I should feel better in about a week as soon as I get the main wheat sources cut out so we'll see!

Have a good Thursday!