This is a great fruit salad recipe that goes together quickly and is available year round since the only fresh fruit you use are bananas.  Everything else is canned.  Though fresh is best, this really brightens up the holidays.  Thanks to PA Mom for the recipe.  You can see what she had to say about it in her original post:

http://www.frugalinpa.com/?p=82

• 1 can Oregon Brand Royal Anne Cherries (Wegmans and Karns carry them)
• 1 can pineapple tidbits in juice
• 1 can peaches in juice
• 1 can pears in juice
• 1/2 jar maraschino cherries – halved
• 1 can mandarin oranges in juice
• 6 fresh oranges, peeled and sectioned
• 1 lb red grapes, halved
• Sliced banana dipped in lemon to prevent browning

Mix the cherries, pineapple, peaches and pears and their juice in a large bowl. Add the maraschino cherries and about ¼ cup of their juice. Add the mandarin oranges but only add the juice if needed to cover fruit. Add the oranges and grapes. If storing, do not add the bananas until right before serving. Chill well.

The size of the cans is not really important since it is up to you how much of each fruit you want. If pieces in the can are large, cut them down to bite size. Try to get fruit in juice (with the exception of the Royal Anne  and maraschino cherries) whenever possible to cut down on the sweetness.  Even using small cans this recipe makes a lot.

is the title of the article in the April 1, 2010 edition of Family Circle magazine containing an assortment of gluten free recipes.  There are cook-from-scratch and product options.

Each of the recipes below are available on the Family Circle website, but you will need to register to see them.  Registration is free.

The recipes in the article include:

• Baked Penne with Turkey Meatballs.  Be careful, this recipe calls for cornflakes and many brands are coated with a malt syrup, which is not gluten free.  You will also need a package of gluten free Penne
• Chicken Scaloppine Al Marsala
• Thai Pork Wraps
• Glazed Chicken Drumsticks with Quinoa
• Southwestern Pizza.  You will need 2 9″ pre-made gluten free pizza crust for this recipe.  Whole Foods Market is recommended,  or you can always make your own.
• Tomatillo Shrimp Enchiladas

My wife recently won some passes to check out the various offerings by The Hershey Company in Hershey, PA.  One of these included free admission to The Hershey Story and a chocolate tasting at Cafe Zooka.   The chocolate tasting in this case consisted of a series of single origin drinking chocolates from around the world.  They were made by melting chocolate and blending it with milk in a 1:3 ratio.  Each serving is 1-1.5oz depending on who at the counter is pouring.

You get 6 different varieties, and a small glass of water, in the tasting.  The chocolates, with percentage cocao, are from: Mexico (70.1%), Ecuador (66%), Sao Thome (70%), Madagascar (66%), Tanzania (75%), and Java (32.9%).

(My daughter couldn’t wait)

We began the tour in Java since it has the lowest cocao rating and worked our way up.  With Madagascar and Ecuador tied we took the one nearest us, respectively, which left me with Madagascar.  In between each sip we cleansed our palates with the provided water.

Initial impressions left us rating them, in descending order of preference, as follows:

Me: Java, Sao Thome, Tanzania, Mexico, Ecuador, Madagascar.

My Wife: Ecuador, Java, Sao Thome, Mexico, Tanzania, Madagascar.

After talking about it with one another we discovered why we rated them this way.  Those at the top were the most familiar and reminded us the most of a regular dime store chocolate bar.  The further you got away from that the more unique the characteristics were, which made them foreign to our tastes.  As we sipped further and took our time, each individual variety opened up some of its secrets and by the end of the event we found that they had each grown on us and they were all of equal caliber.  Our only complaint is that by the end they had begun to cool and the flavors started to close up as they did so.  Ideally, these should be drank warm and fresh, each glass finished in 3 or 4 sips at most.  Do not go slow to keep savoring each flavor but let it fill your mouth and overwhelm your senses.  Revel in the experience, but share it with someone whose company you enjoy.

Would I go and enjoy these drinking chocolates again?  Most certainly.  At $9.95 it is an affordable and enjoyable little decadence, something that is getting harder and harder to find.

And it makes for a great date.

The title says it all.  King Arthur Flour has introduced a line of gluten free baking products.  As a big fan of the rest of their line I am glad to see this addition.  Baking was once one of my mainstays but I have not had a lot of success so far with gluten-free mixes or from scratch recipes.

King Arthur’s Gluten Free Line

After trying some of the commercial gluten free beer options, none of them were very satisfying.  For my adult beverage choices I’m not much of a liquor or cocktail fan.  That leaves wine or cider as the main, commercially available, choices.  As much as I like both, beer was a mainstay.

That left me searching for a homebrew option.  Thankfully, for Christmas, my wife was nice enough to give me a collection of vinting, brewing, and meadmaking books.  One of those was Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, by Stephen Buhner.  In one of the appendices he references using 8oz of brown sugar and 12oz of molasses per gallon of base beer.  That lead me to put together the following recipe based on my previous experiences.

It went together in a few hours and the first signs of life are appearing in the airlock.  Initial gravity was 1.052.

I’ll let you know my results as the experiment continues.  If anyone has experience with something like this, or tries experimenting with it, let me know.  Gluten free brewing is a new world.

This is for a 1 gallon batch:

12oz Blackstrap (full flavor) Molasses
8oz Light Brown Sugar
1/5oz U.K. Fuggles pelletized hops
1/5oz U.K. Kent Golding pelletized hops
2g Safale S-04 yeast.
Enough water to equal one gallon.

Combine the molasses, sugar, and water in an 8 quart, or larger, pot.
Bring to a boil and add the Fuggles hops.
Boil for 50 minutes and then add the Golding.
Boil for 10 more minutes, remove from heat, and cool quickly to 70 degrees.
Pour into your primary fermenter, filtering off the hops in the process.
Add enough water to make sure you have a gallon.
Double check the temp.  If it is around 70 degrees, pitch the yeast, attach lid and airlock.

As I delve back into fermentation there are a number of recipes, tips, and tricks that will make an appearance in this forum.  With so many excellent books on the topics, I don’t want to repeat all of the beginner information here when people better than myself have done a much better job already.  Listed below are a few of my favorite books on the subjects.  You can also use your favorite search engine to look up “making beer at home” or “making wine at home” and get a lot of information.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing

This is the best place to start for anyone who wants to make beer, and many of the techniques and equipment relate directly to making wine and mead as well.  I have two copies of it and always look for more at rummage, garage, yard, and book sales so I can pass it off to friends who want to learn about the hobby art of homebrewing.  Some may fault it for the layout, or being long-winded in places, but it is very readable and is the best book I have found to start with.

How To Make Wine

This is a recipe book for making wine that comes from the local wine and beer making supply shop, Scotzin Bros. and was written by one of the founders of the store. Most of the recipes are for wines not made with grapes, generally known as a “country” wine.

By itself it gives only a cursory overview of making wine and quickly follows with recipes, however, with a little bit of knowledge from one of the other books in this assortment, it can be put to good use.  Armed with an understanding of how ingredients interplay it is also a great way to develop new recipes for what you have on hand.

To order, follow the link above for the store’s contact information.

The Compleat Meadmaker

Though compleat is spelled a little differently it doesn’t take away from the thoroughness of this book.  Though meadmaking itself is a simple process the manner by which the ingredients blend together to make the wonderful finished product are a mystery.  Thankfully, Ken Schramm turns that otherworldliness and shares with us the art of a good mead bolstered by the history and science beneath it.  You won’t be an expert in making a finished mead when you are done reading, but will have the knowledge and tools to develop the experience to become one.

I have had a craving for a steak lately and am thankful for my wife.  I asked and did receive from her latest grocery trip a 12oz Angus New York Strip.  As soon as I saw that thick piece of well marbled beef I knew exactly how to cook it: pan sear over high heat and finished in a 350 degree oven.

The sear creates a nice heavy crust on the outside.  Transferring it to the oven lowers the heat, allowing a nice slow finish, making it easier to control the temperature and monitor the progress. Total cooking time is about 16 minutes, 6 in the pan, 10 in the oven for  medium rare. Add 2 minutes for every degree up you want to go: medium, medium well, well.  For a great rare, just pull it out of the pan once you have the sear on.

I like at least a 1″ steak to cook like this.  Thinner steaks tend to be cooked too much by the time you are done with the sear, or just wind up tough.  Get the thicker cut.  You will thank yourself for it.

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• Pat the steak dry and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper or your favorite spice mixture.

• Heat a heavy cast iron or All Clad Stainless skillet over medium-high heat.

• Add your steak.  Cook on each side for 2 minutes.  Hold the edges to the hot pan for a minute or so until the whole thing is well seared.  Note: Depending on how much fat is rendered off of your meat, you may want to deglaze the pan and discard the drippings.  Make sure and use a room temperature or warmer deglazing liquid.  You could crack your cast iron or warp a lightweight pan.

• Once the entire steak is seared, pop it in the oven to finish.

• Enjoy!

The chips in the picture are Martin’s Waffle Cut Bar-B-Q, my favorite. And gluten free.

Note: I mention the All Clad Stainless by name for a reason: it holds up to anything and is a workhorse in the kitchen.  If I could own only one frying pan, my 12″ would be it.  It works on the stovetop and in the oven or broiler up to 500 degrees. I’ve also used it to pound chicken into cutlets, graham crackers for cheesecake crusts, and crack open walnuts for my daughter’s snack.  They are worth every penny, even though a single one can cost more than a complete inexpensive cooking set.  You don’t need a full set of them, but a single 10″ or 12″ should live in your cupboard.

We have not planted any of these for years and continue to get harvests as they self seed wherever a rogue tomato may fall.  They are prolific producers that grow like weeds here in central PA.  Thriving on the warmth and humidity of mid summer, the first harvests begin to appear in early to mid July. Hundreds of tomatoes sprouting up on each plant in little bunches.  If left to run wild, with no pruning or staking, they will cover a 2′x2′ square and produce for several weeks as long as you continue to pick the ripened fruit.

Though advertised as having a high sugar content (11 Brix), described as being like candy, ours are rather neutral in sweetness, but full on flavor.  Very tomato-ey. Exactly the flavor for a salad or sandwich.  If anyone has tasted a slicing tomato like this, post it to the comments and I will plant it in a heartbeat.

All around it is a wonderful tomato and if you are looking for a cherry for your garden, this is the one I recommend.

Here are some places to buy them:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.aspx?item_no=S13479
http://www.localharvest.org/matts-wild-cherry-tomato-seeds-C12442
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/4924-product.html

This is a question that has as many answers as there are people asking the question.  I am no expert, so leave you with this answer from someone who is:

From Gluten-Free Diet , 2006 ed, by Shelley Case, BSc, RD:

Although gluten-containing ingredients (barley malt syrup and starch hyrdosylates) can be used in the production of caramel color, North American companies use corn syrup as it has a longer shelf life and makes a superior product. European companies use glucose syrup derived from wheat starch, however caramel color is highly processed and contains no gluten.

Be safe, eat well, and enjoy those caramel colored foods.

The Kitchen Shoppe, in Carlisle, PA, is hosting a gluten free cooking class entitled “No  Flour Power – Gluten Free Foods!” with Chef Amber Clay and Jennifer McCahan, RD, LDN.

This class will deal with making a gluten free diet more flavorful and easier. Recipes include: goat cheese and roasted corn quesadillas, homemade pasta, pizza crust, blintzes, and marble snack cakes.

I am already signed up and looking forward to it.  If my previous experiences are any indication, it should be a great class.

My wife and I took a class at The Kitchen Shoppe several years ago and it was a very enjoyable experience.  The class size was around 20 people and everyone who asked was given individual attention.  The classroom and demonstration kitchen are setup so that no one is left out of the action and you can clearly see what is going on with the instructor, whatever  they are presenting.

The three hour class is $49.  You can get more information and register here:

http://www.kitchenshoppe.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=144368

Be safe, eat well, and I hope to see you there.