Smitten Kitchen's Warm Potato Salad

The sun is setting at 5 PM now, so getting photos of my dinner that look nice is hard!

When I first saw Smitten Kitchen's recipe for potatoes with soft eggs and bacon vinaigrette, I knew I had to make it immediately, as it was a perfect combination of things that I love (potatoes! bacon! vinaigrette! soft eggs! some greens to make it healthy!) I made it for dinner the next night even though I didn't have all of the right ingredients on hand, and it is such a well-written formula that tweaking it to use slightly different ingredients still yields a delicious warm potato salad.

So! I have made this half a dozen times since Deb posted the recipe, and have figured out that I prefer this meal with poached rather than soft-boiled eggs (I find peeling soft eggs without crushing them to be rather difficult, alas), that it works better with greasier bacon so that there is sufficient bacon grease for the vinaigrette, that it is just fine without blue cheese, and that boxed salad greens work very well when your local grocery doesn't stock frisee.

Though I tend to make a couple ingredient changes from the original, I am just posting this as a recommended recipe, rather than posting a recipe here, because Deb's recipes are always so beautifully done and well-tested. You should make this, it is delicious and gluten-free, and by skipping the cheese it is dairy-free too!

Life updates and seasoned fries

Edit: I should clarify that it is a coincidence that I posted this on April Fool's day, when apparently most posts on the Internet are a joke. 

I know that the blog has been rather quiet lately. I mean, a little more than usual. This is largely because of some big decisions/events that happened in the last month. The first, which is fantastic (but not life-altering) is that I have gotten a job. Not only that, but I am thrilled to be doing data entry instead of some kind of cleaning job. I have been grateful for my various housecleaning/janitorial/room attendant jobs in the past, but scrubbing toilets gets a little old. So having this job is great. But between working full time and commuting ~45 minutes each way, I am left with very little time for experimenting with new recipes.

The other big thing from the last four weeks is much more life-altering. I have been accepted into graduate school, which is thrilling and also a little terrifying. Last month, the Man and I visited the school (University of Wyoming), and were impressed by the campus, the research, and the people. It will not be at all like living in the Willamette Valley, but I think we will like it there. Both the trip and making this decision has also contributed to our hectic schedule as of late, though.

The campus is quite pretty.

Being from Oregon, it is weird to see the quad (which they call "the Pasture") covered in snow rather than mud.

Lots of beautiful views around Laramie.

Also: snow. Lots of snow.

So we are eating a lot of simple, quick dinners. That often means a rotisserie chicken from Fred Meyer, salad, and fries.

The Man came up with with method for doing fries, and it is brilliant. Normally I dislike oven fries, but these are fantastic, and we eat them at least once a week.

Begin by purchasing a bag of frozen shoestring fries. Any brand of frozen fries is fine, but I think this works the best with the shoestring cut.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil if you want to have less cleanup work.

Pour out as many fries as you intend to eat onto the baking sheet. This was maybe a quarter of the bag. Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil onto the pile of fries. Season to taste; for the amount of fries the two of us eat, I use a pinch of sea salt, a pinch of black pepper, and about a half teaspoon of Italian seasoning (I highly recommend the McCormick Grinder italian seasoning, we use it on everything).

Toss the fries until the oil and spices coat them evenly. Spread the fries out into as even a layer as possible.

Bake for 7 minutes. Remove the fries, and add more seasoning if desired. I usually do up to a teaspoon total of Italian seasoning. Toss the fries again, and bake for 6-8 more minutes, until the fries have some nice golden brown edges. It is very easy to over or undercook the fries, so keep a close eye on them towards the end.

And there you have it! An easy, really tasty, and not too-unhealthy side dish for a quick meal. Also: naturally dairy-free and gluten-free.

Fries right out of the bag.

After tossing them in oil and seasoning.

The baked fries, with my dinner.

A Gluten-Free Twist on Eggs Benedict

One thing I miss quite a bit since going gluten-free is Eggs Benedict. It is a delicious dish, but in my mind it is dependent on having a perfect English muffin. I have not found a DF/GF English muffin yet that works for me, and I haven't gotten around to making my own yet. I am still working on a bread replacement that tastes like real bread (my recipe on this site is tasty enough, and good for putting sandwich fillings on, but the texture is all wrong when I crave real bread) after all. So I decided to put together a deconstructed Eggs Benedict since I had Canadian bacon in the fridge. Then I thought I'd add salsa and avocado. I needed some carbohydrate to hold it all together, so I made brown rice.

The result was more of a Southwestern-inspired meal, and is nothing like Eggs Benedict aside from the egg and canadian bacon, but it was good.

To make your own, first start cooking some brown rice. When it is done, fry a slice or two of canadian bacon. Meanwhile, spoon some rice onto a plate. When the bacon is done, place it on top of the rice. Fry or poach an egg until it is soft in the middle. Or until runny, if that is what you prefer. Slide the egg onto the bacon, and spoon salsa over the whole thing. Add avocado slices if desired. Hollendaise sauce would be awesome, but I didn't want to get that many dishes dirty. Put some salad greens on your plate if you are trying to eat better.

Result: tasty, and naturally gluten and dairy free.

Gluten free bread with polenta

Finally, homemade gluten-free delicious toast!

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Good gluten-free bread seems to be a holy grail of GF baking. After eating rice bread that feels and tastes like Styrofoam, or a tasty but tiny loaf that costs $6.50 and is usually out of stock at my store, I get why. I used to pretty much live on toast; it is simple and tasty, and a delicious vehicle for condiments that I like, and it was nearly a tragedy when I first began seeking gluten-free options. What does one do without peanut-butter toast in the morning?

Normally we would just avoid toast and sandwiches altogether, but I just started a job (yay!!) and need convenient meals I can eat while standing. So that is where this bread fits in.

I tried a number of different recipes from different sources, and the one I ended up liking best was this  from the Gluten-Free Goddess. I recently discovered her blog, and I really love her recipes! This is my adaptation, based on what I like, and the humid Pacific Northwest climate I live in. Based on humidity, or the flours you use, you may need to adjust the flour or water. The recipe I linked you to has a lot of commentary on other ways that the recipe can be modified based on climate etc.

My flour mix that I have been using is a ratio of 2:1:1:1:1 of sorghum, millet, quinoa, oat, and brown rice, respectively. Use the flours you like, and as always, make sure they are certified GF.

The Man and I had people over a couple of weeks ago, and fed them this bread. No one complained, even though they can all eat gluten, and they seemed to think it was perfectly fine bread. As a GF baker, I know I have achieved success when people without food allergies like it! The polenta makes this a bit crunchy (though if having the granules in your bread will bother you, use cornmeal or maybe almond meal) and using either honey or molasses makes this bread tender.

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Gluten-free bread with polenta

1 c warm water (plus 0.5 c)

2.25 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar (brown or white)

4 Tbs olive oil

3 Tbs honey or molasses

2 eggs

0.5 tsp lemon juice

0.5 c polenta or cornmeal

1.5 c GF flour mix plus 0.5 c

0.5 c cornstarch

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

Combine the 1 c water, yeast, and sugar into a bowl. This step is “proofing” the yeast. Let this mixture sit until it becomes foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add the other wet ingredients and stir. Note that if you measure out the olive oil prior to the honey or molasses, and use the same measuring spoon, then the honey/molasses won't get stuck to the spoon.

Add the polenta to the wet ingredients, and stir for a minute, then let sit for five to ten minutes, to allow it to soften (Edit: if using polenta rather than cornmeal, let it sit 15-20 minutes so that it can soften better, I have found that 5 minutes isn't long enough and you end up with granules in the finished product). Add the 1.5 cups flour, cornstarch, sea salt, and xanthan gum, and mix together.

Depending on humidity or the property of flours you use, the dough may be either too wet or two dry. It will not look like normal glutenous dough at all, it should be the same consistency as thick muffin batter. If the dough is too dry or thick, add water in a tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too wet (it should not be as wet as cake batter!) then add flour a tablespoon at a time.

When the dough is the right consistency, pour it into a greased bread pan. Cover with a cloth and let the bread rise for 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Bake until the top is golden brown, and the insides are fully cooked, about 45-50 minutes. Remove from the pan and put onto a wire rack immediately, this prevents the crust from getting soggy.

Yields one loaf.

 Proofed yeast is foamy

 The dough will look like thick batter, and should be rather stiff.

 The dough does not smooth out during baking like glutenous bread would, so be sure to smooth out the dough with a wet spatula or a spoon.

 Smoothed-out dough

This is after the bread has risen. I made a double recipe, hence the two loaves.

 The loaf after baking. The bread doesn't "poof" like what I am used to, but that's ok.

 Bread!

You know you are a GF baker when you get really excited about air pockets.

This makes really good toast, and is pretty decent in sandwiches. It tastes good, freezes pretty well, and makes me happy. I will definitely keep tweaking this recipe, but this will continue to be my go-to bread recipe when I don't want to pay $6.50 for store GF bread.

Pseudo-Cantonese spicy chicken soup

So even though this is a recipe that I invented by throwing things together, and indeed, change the ingredients of every time, I did the unthinkable: I measured (almost) everything. Just for you.



Almost a decade ago, now, I spent some time in China, mostly in Hong Kong. It is a beautiful city, and I enjoyed my time there. Unfortunately, due to circumstances that would take a lot of time to explain, the team I went with ate local cuisine (that is, not McDonalds or bread and fruit bought at a grocery store) maybe once or twice in almost a month. I consider this a great tragedy, as Cantonese food is delicious.

The one time I distinctly remember eating out was a little hole-in-the-wall eatery in one of the many malls. Because the menus were written in Chinese, I just ordered the first thing that didn't sound too spicy or too strange for my 12-year-old palate (pig intestines was one of the options I remember).

I ended up ordering a giant delicious bowl of soup with some kind of sausage, vegetables, and tons of thin noodles that were either mung bean threads or rice noodles. It was also way spicier then anything I eat in America (I am a total hot sauce wimp) but it was so delicious I didn't care.

This recipe was evolved out of multiple attempts to try and recreate the tasty spicy soup with noodles.

Please note that I say "pseudo-Cantonese" because lets face it, I don't know much about Chinese cuisine except that it is delicious.

Here is everything you will need. (The coffee is not a part of this cast of characters. i just have a tiny kitchen is all)

1 Qt chicken broth
1 chicken breast
1/3 package of bean threads or rice noodles (this is the one thing I did not measure. Sorry)
1/2 red bell pepper
1 carrot
3-4 mushrooms
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1-2 tsp sirracha or other hot chili sauce (be careful, this stuff burns!)
1 tsp soy sauce

Begin by soaking the bean threads or rice noodles in a bowl of cold water. Set aside.

Heat a quart of chicken (or whatever-flavored) broth in a saucepan over high. In the mean time, cut all the veggies into strips like these:

Normally I use about a quarter of a cabbage instead of the 1/2 bell pepper, but I didn't want to make another grocery trip. Celery is also good.

Put the veggies into the boiling broth, and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the sweet chili sauce, sirracha, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce.

Meanwhile, slice the chicken into thin strips like this. Beef is also good, and I bet tofu would be too.
Put the meat into the pot and stir. The liquid should be hot enough that the chicken will be cooked in a minute or two.

The purpose of cutting the meat and the veggies so thin is twofold: they will cok very quickly, and it's easier to eat with chopsticks this way.

When the vegetables are soft and the meat is cooked (6-8 minutes of total cooking time if you are more coordinated then me) add the drained noodles, and allow to heat for 1-2 minutes.

Then serve and eat with chopsticks, it somehow tastes better that way!

Serves three.