BLT Pizza

Gluten Free pizza crust from Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse
Pasta Sauce from Muir Glen
Organic spinach
Fontina cheese, grated
Boar's Head bacon, cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pasta sauce over pizza crust. Tear spinach into quarter-size pieces and sprinkle on top of pizza crust. Next sprinkle bacon on top. Sprinkle a few dried red pepper flakes on top if desired. Top with grated fontina cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until pizza is done to your liking.

Very good, especially when enjoyed with Bonny Doon Riesling, as we did. Next up...Iron Chef America.  ¶ 8:36 PM

  Saks Gluten-Free

There is a local deli just off the F&M campus that has the BEST sandwiches. At work, when someone is having a particularly challenging day, we usually order from the deli. Since I've been diagnosed with celiac disease I cannot enjoy their sandwiches, but I still pine for the chewy crumb of the bread and taste of their ingredients. There is one particular sandwich that has grilled chicken, basil, tomato and mozzerella cheese, called the Saks. After watching my coworkers enjoy these sandwiches the other day, I really had the hankering to enjoy a sandwich. As luck would have it, we had been down in Northern Virginia last weekend visiting my hubby's parents, and we found gluten free baguettes made by Glutano that are quite good.

So, trying to feed my Saks-induced craving, I set out to create a delicious gluten free sandwich. I toasted the baguette for ten minutes and then split it open and spread it with herbed cream cheese. Next came organic Applegate Farms roasted chicken breast lunch meet and a little salad made of cherry tomatoes and basil from Market. It was fantastic! My hubby did not speak while he was eating his sandwich. When it renders him speechless, I know it's good.  ¶ 8:12 PM

  I love eating my way through Market and learning about my tastes and the food while I'm at it. I've been contemplating a particular risotto recipe for about two years now, and I finally went to Market and purchased the ingredients needed to actually make the risotto. The risotto is corn, tomato and basil risotto from the Joy of Cooking. While shopping for the ingredients I learned that we could have sweet corn into October, although the fury of Ernesto may make it more expensive and more difficult to obtain. See, the farmers are so smart they plant it in several stages; so fresh ears are being plucked for weeks. I feel silly that I didn't know this sooner but elated that I know the little secret about fresh sweet corn in October.

It was an early fall, rainy, foggy evening. I put on the playlist called "Crooners" and stirred and tasted to the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.

My hubby and I sat and ate the risotto while enjoying Memoirs of a Geisha and some red wine. I highly recommend this dish. I'm happy to report that the risotto was even better the next day.

Fresh Corn Risotto with Basil, Tomato and Lime
4-6 servings

Combine:
1 cup diced seeded peeled ripe tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes and did not peel them, delicious!)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (I did not use and it tasted fine without it)
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Bring to simmer:
5 cups chicken stock (I did not have enough so I just added water to make 5 cups and added some salt)

Cut:
2 cups corn kernels from 4 or 5 large ears

Heat in a large saucepan or deep skillet over medium heat until the foam subsides:
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted

Add:
1/2 finely chopped scallions (I used shallots, which I just LOVE for its mild flavor), and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes

Add:
1-1/2 cups Italian rice or American medium-grain rice

Stir to coat with the butter. Add:
1/2 cup dry white wine

Cook, stirring, until absorbed. Add 1 cup of the simmering stock and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat until the stock is absorbed. Add the remaining stock, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and stirring until the liquid is almost completely absorbed before adding more. Continue adding the remaining stock, in 1/2 cup additions, stirring and cooking over medium-low heat, until the rice is almost tender, about 15 minutes. After stirring in half the stock, add half of the corn. Continue to cook, stirring and adding stock as needed, until the rice is tender but with a slight firmness to the center of the grain, 5 to 10 minutes more, or longer depending on the rice. Stir in the corn kernels and tomato mixture. Season with salt and petter.

Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese.  ¶ 11:18 PM

  Well, there has been too much Gluten Free food to enjoy lately. Black bean chili, brownies, peanut butter bars, chorizo and feta tacos, stuffed shells, French bread, and the list goes on and on. I found a fabulous blog that I've been trying to cook and taste my way through. It is the Gluten Free Goddess. Her recipes for peanut butter bars and stuffed shells are fabulous. It's so inspiring to see recipes that I know I can cook and enoy and to see her passion for such good, healthy food.

It's been almost three months since my diagnosis. At times I have been angry, bitter and deeply saddened by the foods I have had to give up. No more chewy pizza from the shop down the street or sandwiches from the deli. Instead, I have discovered some new favorites. And slowly, I have shifted my mentality from that of "living to eat" to "eating to live". I have a choice - I can either eat the foods that I know will taste fabulous but make me sick and enjoy them, but it will be the only source of enjoyment for me because it will make me so sick that I will be unable to enjoy other areas of my life. Or, I can eat that which I know will restore my health and live to enjoy all the other aspects of my life. I choose the second path. And so this journey has become incredibly liberating. I have new favorites. My body asks me for brown rice and black beans and fresh vegetables and organic meats.

Over the past three months I've begun to compile a list of favorite foods. I got the inspiration to post some of my favorite foods from the Gluten Free Goddess.

1. Coffee (has been and remains a favorite)
2. Breyer's ice cream (most of the natural flavors are fine for me)
3. Brown rice
4. Black beans in any way, mashed with green chilis for taco fillings, cooked into chili, heated and topped with feta as a taco filling, atop tortilla chips for nachos, and any other way I can find
5. Lundberg rice cakes
6. Peaches (have been a favorite for a long time, but I enjoy them even more now)
7. Tomatoes
8. Brown rice pasta
9. Thai kitchen noodle bowls.
10. Wellshire Farms organic, gluten free meats
11. Corn tortillas.

And the list goes on.

New chili recipe:

3 slices of Wellshire Farms Canadian Bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
1 small purple bell pepper, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 teaspoons of chili powder
3 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon of oregano
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1-15 ounce can dark red kidney beans
3-15 ounce cans black beans
1/4 cup Maker's Mark
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 large tomato, diced
splash of vinegar (I like brown rice vinegar that I know is gluten free.)

Saute the onion and peppers and bacon until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano and cinnamon and cook for 2 minutes. Add the Maker's Mark and deglaze the pan. Add the can of tomatoes and beans. Cook until heated and flavors mingle, at least 30 minutes. At the end add in the cilantro, chopped tomatoes and vinegar. Serve with cheese and tortilla chips.  ¶ 6:08 PM