Snickerdoodles

I made snickerdoodles recently with oat flour instead of wheat. It was a half batch of the recipe in betty crocker cookbook. I added 1/2 tsp xanthum gum and the cookies seemed to have no difficulty holding together. I baked them 10 minutes which turned out to be too long. The cookies were crisp throughout and I was looking for a soft middle.

Dirty Rice

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/dirty_rice/
Dirty Rice

David really loved this. I did not add the extra oil during cooking as there was enough fat from the bacon and pork. Also I didn't have cajun seasoning but made my own with this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cajun-spice-mix-2/. Also I used brown basmati rice and bell pepper. There was plenty of heat in the cajun spice mix so I didn't miss the jalapeno at all.

David said he wished there was more liver in it since you can't really taste it. There is another dirty rice recipe I ran across that has more liver in it http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/dirty-rice-recipe/index.html that I can try next.

Note: I've made this with 1/4 lb ramps, where the white ends are sauteed first and the greens added later. It works well with varying proportions of sausage & chicken liver. I didn't add bacon this time either, and it wasn't missed. Also I used leftover rice.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreecookierecipes/r/gfchocolatechips.htm

These worked great. Very rich though.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/flourless-peanut-butter-cookies-recipe/index.html?ic1=obinsite

I made these recently. I halved the sugar and added 1 tsp baking powder. They turned out really well, better  than regular pb cookies I think. They were chewy and moist even after completely cooling.

Chorizo and Eggs

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chorizo_and_eggs/

For this recipe I used Johnsonville brand Chorizo, which is so mild that I feel like it barely qualifies as chorizo. I think this is sort of more spanish style, since it is made from actual meat cuts and not weird tendons and crap like mexican chorizo tends to be. (which grosses me out.)

We ate it with sour cream and avocado on corn tortillas.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Semi-based on http://simplystated.realsimple.com/2011/07/05/homemade-strawberry-ice-cream/
Strawberry Ice Cream

I made ice cream twice this week. The first was vanilla. This strawberry recipe is the same except you add pureed strawberries along with the cream and vanilla. The recipe link at the top tells you to use a pound of fresh strawberries, preserving half for chunks that you mix in at the end. I had less than half a pound of fresh (several days sitting in my fridge, getting old!) strawberries for sure, maybe only a third or fourth pound. I pureed them in my mini food processor as fine as I could, but that food processor isn't that great. (Everyone seems to have a real food processor except me. The mini one I have came with my emulsion blender as an extra attachment.)

Anyway. This was so so good. I couldn't believe how good it was.

So here it is:

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 lb or less fresh strawberries, pureed

more strawberries cut in chunks to mix in at the end, optional. (see top link for more info)

Make sure ice cream bowl is frozen solid.

Whisk sugar into the milk. It will take a couple minutes of whisking in order for the sugar to dissolve. Add pureed strawberries, cream, and vanilla extract to milk. Pour into turning ice cream maker. It will take 25-30 minutes until done. Then it can "ripen" for 2 or more hours in the freezer if you like. But its not really necessary, you can eat it right away.

Vanilla Ice Cream

This is a slight variant of the recipe that came with my cuisinart ice cream maker. It is my basic recipe that I use most often.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make sure ice cream bowl is frozen solid. 5 hours in the freezer is not long enough. I made this after a 5 hour freeze and the ice cream turned out more like soft serve. I think it needs overnight at least.

Whisk sugar into the milk. It will take a couple minutes of whisking in order for the sugar to dissolve. (Some recipes tell you to heat it up, but I think this is unnecessary and just adds a lot of extra time since you have to get the milk cold again. The cuisinart recipe book uses the cold whisking method.)

Add cream and vanilla extract to milk. Pour into turning ice cream maker. It will take 25-30 minutes until done. Then it can "ripen" for 2 or more hours in the freezer if you like. But its not really necessary, you can eat it right away.

Banana Oat Blender Pancakes

http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/beauty_that_moves/2013/02/the-pancake-bowl-and-banana-oat-blender-pancakes-recipe.html
Banana Oat Blender Pancakes

I've made this twice now. They are my new favorite pancake, gluten free or not. The banana flavor is still mild but makes the pancake so tasty. Also I like the subtle oat flavor too. Its a nice change from regular pancakes.

This recipe is barely enough for me, david, and Ila. Really I'd like to do 1.5x the recipe for us. If you serve it with a side then it would be enough, but I just really like pancakes so who knows.

1.5x recipe for quick reference (since I make this at least twice a month):
3 cups rolled oats
1 7/8 cups milk
1.5 ripe banana
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 T baking powder
2 eggs