a Christmas poem

One of my favorites that I love to share on Christmas Day.

Christmas Bells

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

merry christmas! (the quest for cranberry bread)

I had every intention of adapting or creating a recipe this morning. I've stocked up on cranberries, bought oranges and wanted to make something like this lovely cranberry orange bread but I didn't think that experimenting with a part of the Christmas morning breakfast the day before would be a good idea.

My dad is making his famous fruit soup and some sort of fruit/almond bread concoction for our traditional Christmas morning spread and while he was fretting about having something that I could eat, I offered up to bring cranberry bread (especially since I think I bought out the local Whole Foods of their cranberries).

So instead of experimenting, I went to trustworthy sources that I knew might have something. Nothing in my cookbooks looked easy enough (nor did I have all of the ingredients), so to GF blog land I went. When I first started being GF, I happened across the Gluten-Free Goddess and thank goodness, because she has been a wonderful source for me to find recipes and has encouraged me to start experimenting on my own. And find a recipe I did.

While I wait for it to bake, I'll peel the root veggies and get ready to roast them. Before all of that, though, I'm going to sit. Enjoy my coffee, Christmas tree, the lovely snow and MPR.

Wishing you and yours a day filled with peace, joy and love.

Look for a cranberry-orange quick bread recipe from me soon.

olive oil thumbprint cookies

Wow. This blog has sat vacant for almost a year and I wonder where the time has gone. I'll be starting my thesis for my MFA in January. But in the last couple of weeks, leading up to Christmas, I've been fanatically cooking and baking. All in the name of trying to find the Christmas spirit. Three batches of cookies and two kinds of candy (plus one fail on a pan of caramels), and lamb ragu later, I'm still searching.

But in the mean time, I've converted an Olive Oil Thumbprint Cookie recipe from Amy at Sourtooth to bring to the family Christmas gathering.

These are delicious, crumbly, almost tart-like cookies that aren't too sweet. Perfect for my family, who loves a little bit of sweet in with their savory.

My adaptation of this recipe to make it gluten free was almost too easy. All you need to do is substitute your favorite GF flour mix for the flour and add a teaspoon of xanthan gum. I used a rice flour mix for this, which I think contributed to the crumbly light texture of the cookie. Instead of 2 1/2 cups, I used 2 1/4 cups of flour and mixed the xanthan gum in with the dry ingredients.

The rest of the recipe, you can find on Amy's blog post about these cookies. What a find!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Chickpea Flour Pizza

Not one, but two days this week, out of vanity and stupidity, I wore inappropriate shoes to work and ended up slipping and sliding my way to my front door. Coming home with cold, wet feet, I've wanted something hot to eat. I found this recipe awhile ago and have been waiting to try it - or at least the chickpea flour pizza crust, with my own variation on toppings. Below is my adaptation.

Chickpea Flour Pizza

2/3 cup chickpea flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (I used dried)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Whisk the chickpea flour and salt together, pouring in the water slowly and stirring to make the batter. Let sit for 30 minutes and then add the rosemary. Heat the broiler while you heat 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet. Pour batter in the pan and put the rest of the olive oil on top. Once the bottom is crisp and brown, and the top is set, get your toppings on! I don't have an ovenproof skillet, so I transferred the pizza to a cookie sheet to finish it off. Once you've added the toppings, broil for 5 minutes or so until done!

1/4 cup pizza sauce
One or two canned, drained artichoke hearts, chopped
Sun dried tomatoes in oil (put as many on as you want)
Parmesan cheese mixture for topping

Serve hot and enjoy!

Red Cabbage, Polenta and Sausage

After driving through the snow on my way home, I decided that I needed some comfort food - good old fashioned, hot comfort food. My dad used to make red cabbage, cooked to complete submission with sausage. It was delicious. I've had a red cabbage lurking in my crisper for a while and the sausage at the ready. With a half a bottle of red wine waiting to be drunk or used, some mushrooms and a half of a log of ready made polenta, I got out my dutch oven and started the oil. Since this was a spur of the moment dinner, the measurements are approximate.

Red cabbage with polenta and sausage

1 head red cabbage, chopped coarsely
1 large onion, chopped
5 or 6 mushrooms, sliced
1 polish sausage cut to 1 inch pieces(make sure it's gluten free - I got mine at Whole Foods)
2 cups gluten free chicken broth
1 1/2 cups red wine
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup premade polenta, sliced

Heat the oil in a dutch oven or larger pot over medium high heat. Cook the onions and mushrooms until the onions are translucent. Add the cabbage, 1/2 the chicken broth and 1/2 the wine, cook for twenty minutes or so until the cabbage is softened. Add the sausauge and the rest of the chicken broth. Cook for 30 minutes or until the liquid is nearly gone. Add the sliced polenta and the rest of the wine, mashing the polenta to break it down. Cook for ten minutes, stirring so that the polenta doesn't stick to the pan (mine did a little).

Serve hot, with wine and a little parsley on top if you want.

Maple & Brown Sugar French Toast

Happy New Year! For a New Year's brunch, I decided to make some French Toast. One of my Christmas gifts from my dad was two loaves of a new gluten free bread he'd made. Since homemade bread doesn't keep forever, french toast seemed like a good option to eat up the bread before it went bad.

It's been forever since I've made french toast, so I did look up a few recipes and based my toast on this recipe from the Food Network. I liked the idea of browning the toast and then putting it in the oven - that way the toast isn't soggy the way that some french toast can be! Play around with this and make it your own. Nutmeg is one of my favorite versatile spices because it can be used in so many different ways.

Maple & Brown Sugar French Toast

1 cup half & half
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 slices gluten-free bread
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together the half and half, eggs, syrup, salt, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour mixture into a pie pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Soak each piece of bread in the egg mixture for about 30 seconds per side. Place on a cooling rack sitting in a sheet pan. Let sit for 2 minutes or so.

Melt the butter in a skillet or griddle pan on medium high heat. Cook two pieces of bread at a time, browning for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Do this for all 6 slices of bread, removing them and placing on a sheet pan. Sprinkle each slice with brown sugar.

Bake in the oven for 6 minutes. Serve immediately with syrup or fruit.

Enjoy!