ep·i·cure

[ep-i-kyoor]

–noun

1. a person whose thoughts are devoted to the preparation and enjoyment of food, who reads food blogs until 4am, who keeps cookbooks beside her bed, who currently has 26 (make that 27) web pages of recipes and resources open at once.

-Synonyms

 foodie

Yes, it's true. my photo is next to this definition. Though I am, alas, back to all-liquids (give me smoothies or give me death!), I am reading and reading and experimenting and reading in anticipation of one day (soon, please?) being able to eat "normally". Anticipations include: Soyless tofu, yeast-free breads, stuffed zucchini with mango and currants (just one of many vegetable concoctions I can't wait to try), home-made arugula ravioli, and a full-fledged nutrition plan for gaining 20+ pounds on a vegan diet.

So why am I bothering you with the details of my certifiable obsession? (Come on, Liz, just get to the point.)

In my perusing I came across (lots of!) resources that I am itching to share. These websites are so perfectly wonderful I really can't believe I hadn't come across them before. Today, I break the resource-sharing rules and give you two. The Cinnamon Quill. Go there, now, please. Bookmark it. Read every inch. Gluten-free, with quite a few vegetarian and vegan recipes as well. This site of course led me to another, Elana's Pantry, kept by the author of The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. (I'm going to restrain myself from gushing about the amazingness of almond flour; its unique consistency, its health benefits, its perfection in baking, its exorbitant cost...) I cannot stop reading this blog! And I cannot begin to make up my mind about which recipe I am going to try first.

Hiatus

It's not that I haven't been cooking. In fact, my family can testify that months without solid food have only provoked me to bake and cook to the (hopefully) enjoyment (or simply amusement) of those around me. What can I say? I live vicariously through others.
So perhaps I've been especially lazy about posting, especially busy playing catch-up with school, or I just have an aversion to sharing recipes I myself have not sampled (never mind the loads of ice cream I've been making, which recipes I never do remember to write down). In any case, I'm back, though I do believe there are few (if any) readers of my humble blog to welcome my return.
It is still unclear what exactly merited this recent relapse and the particular aversion my system has been showing to food/nutrition. I am waiting on some test results and the like, but one blood test rebounded with a rather long (and a bit obscure) list of new food sensitivities/allergies I've apparently developed, which is likely 50% of the problem.
I will now be cooking without... ::drumroll please::
gluten, wheat, barley, dairy, soy, eggs, yeast, coffee (sigh), malt, crab, salmon, scallops (random?), tomato (whimper), and pineapple (fortunately not a basic necessity). I'm also avoiding (or more accurately, not adding in) all nightshade plants and so forth.
Long as this list may seem, after months of only smoothies (if that), the idea that maybe I can eat anything but these foods is pretty much amazing. And hey, everyone needs a challenge.

My new food bible for all things baking is Babycakes, stolen from my sister, brought to you by New York's Vegan, Gluten-free, Sugar-free Bakery. I have cooked from here before, but never been such a faithful fan as I am now, and I am anxiously awaiting its sequel. After all, Erin McKenna has provided me with the recipe that inspired the first real food I've had in goodness-knows-how-long.
And so, I give you

Cinnamon Oatmeal Scones
I've strayed pretty far from the original recipe, which was for Raspberry Scones and called for spelt flour, coconut oil (I used applesauce), and no additional spices, but the basic idea is the same. :)

1 cup oat flour (if you are using another gluten-free flour, add 3/4 tsp xanthan gum)
1 cup nut flour (almond, hazelnut, pecan, whatever you have on hand)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/3 cup homemade applesauce (or storebought unsweetened)
1/3 cup agave nectar, plus more for brushing
1 tablespoon pure (gluten-free) vanilla extract
1/4 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the applesauce (or coconut oil), agave nectar, and vanilla and stir together until a thick batter is formed. Pour the hot water into the batter and mix. If you like, fold in a handful of raisins or apple slices.
For each scone, scoop 1/3 cup batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the scoops 1 inch apart to allow them to spread. Bake the scones on the center rack for 14 minutes, rotating the sheet 180 degrees after 7 minutes. They will be golden and slightly firm when finished. Remove from the oven and brush with agave nectar.
Let the scones stand on the sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with earth balance (or, if you're quirky like me, a dollop of apple sauce) and a cup of your favorite tea.

Bidding Summer Farewell

I can never quite get over summer ending. It really ought to last forever. The warmth that just soaks into your skin (Maryland humidity or not, it's warm!), that lazy feeling that merits a glass of lemonade and a good book, long, aimless walks barefoot through clover fields... and let's not forget the peaches! Good fruit has a way of making me ridiculously excited, and peaches? Ohh. I am even now having to restrain myself from eating a third within a shamefully small amount of time. They make me absolutely, blissfully content. Throw in a handful of blueberries and I am just about the happiest girl alive.

And thus the below recipe is an admittedly stubborn attempt at preserving summer for as long as possible. Believe me, there are still peaches and blueberries to be had, and what better way to enjoy them than to bake them into a perfect cobbler?



Blueberry Peach Cobbler
adapted from the kitchen of Rebecca Wilson

1 cup water
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
2 Tbsp lemon juice
5 cups peaches, peeled and sliced
2 cups blueberries
(Fruit measurements are rather approximated. Use as much as you'd like.)

Combine first 5 ingredients and bring to a boil stirring until thick. Add fruit. Pour into greased 9 by 13 in. baking dish.

1 ¼ cup gluten free flour mix (I use Nearly Normal Kitchen's mix, available at most health and organic grocery stores)
¾ cup sweet rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum (use even if the mix has xanthan gum included)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk (rice, soy or otherwise lactose free)
1/2 cup butter or marg - melted

Sift together dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Stir in milk and margarine. Spread over fruit mixture. (It's pretty sticky, so I found it easiest just to use my hands.) Bake at 375 for 50 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Serves 12-14. Enjoy warm with Purely Decadent vanilla icecream.

Note: you can make this without the blueberries, but in my opinion it is much better with them. :) Also, this flour mixture is the product of some experimenting, and while you are at liberty to use your own creativity, I would stay away from any pure nut or bean flours.

A Venturous Beginning

You know that feeling you get when you walk into the kitchen and it just emanates with the smell of homemade bread? The anticipated delight as the butter melts into the steaming, gluten-stuffed goodness? Or as you dip it into your mother's chicken noodle soup on a cold November evening?

Yes, I still remember that. But how about the feeling ten seconds after the enticing smell clouds your senses? That feeling as you remember you can't enjoy it? "I'll just sit over here and munch on my fiber-toast and earth balance, thanks." Oh what a poor substitute for the real thing!

I discovered my allergies to gluten and soy (and low tolerance of sugar and dairy) about two years ago. When I first cut out gluten I thought "there's no way I can do this," but went a full year without it (granted I cheated a little), surviving upon rice cakes and other food that tasted like cardboard.
In the past year I have ventured into the world of gluten-free cooking (and am also beginning to experiment with sugarless, dairy-less ingredients). I have borrowed recipes and created my own, and been more than pleasantly surprised with how much they taste like the "real thing." I can now happily pull a steaming loaf of bread out of the oven, a pan of gooey chocolate-chip cookies, blueberry scones, and many other eats that I know I can enjoy without suffering for it later.
This blog is an attempt to share those recipes (and other gluten-free discoveries) with you in hopes of rescuing you from the miseries of a fiber-breaded life.

Let me say now that I am by no means a professional chef or otherwise culinary artist. I am simply one of many people seeking to live and eat happily (for God's glory!) with significant food limitations. I can only hope that my amateur experiments will serve you and get you one step closer to a normal, palatable life.