Finding rainbows

Colors are especially important to me--for clothes, walls, skies, and food--and I love to play with them in every format. As a child, when given a set of blocks or toys for a "sorting" exercise, I would usually just order things along the rainbow, rather than by shape or size, as was expected of a kid. So it's second nature with me, when I'm cooking, to try and incorporate the most beautiful food combinations into each dish so that little flecks of color and texture satisfy both the eye and the palate. Here are some recent creations that play with the rainbow scheme.

Handmade foccacia pizza: For this dish, I utilized my new favorite purple/blue tool, the blue potato, and the varieties of tomatoes and squash from the local market to liven up the flavors. With sauteed garlicky chard (red stems) and thinly sliced summer squash, the dish had ribbons of red, orange, yellow, green, and indigo. Not bad for a Tuesday night dinner! Also, we melted three kinds of cheese: feta, asiago, and mozzarella on top to give it some zing.

Bounties of Summer pasta salad:

I brought this dish to a friend's summer gathering, and it was a certain crowd pleaser, even though the pasta was GF. Using red peppers, carrots, summer squash, dill/basil/thyme, cucumbers, and purple Spanish Olives, I accomplished a near-perfect garden rainbow. A simple vinaigrette with lemon juice, dijon mustard, and grated parmesan gave some spice to the fresh veggies.(Close-up of the purple olives)

Tri-color potato Salad
Using Yukon Golds, blue potatoes, red onions, and lots of fresh herbs, I turned a normally bland yellow dish into a bit of side-dish confetti. We enjoyed this with Alex's mom's homemade baked beans, veggie hotdogs, and ice cold lemonade. Summer cooking at its finest.

I challenge you to make your next meal a complete rainbow, it is probably healthier and more delicious than the two- or three-color palate that most Americans consume. Plus, it makes your inner rainbow goddess so happy!

Kitchen competition

We had a bake-off last weekend to welcome in the cooler temperatures and to celebrate our new oven. While I generally do the cooking, Alex is the master baker--effortlessly composing Dutch apple pies, flakey quiches, and fresh whipped cream--so we challenged each other to a friendly bake-off. (I admit that I fought for possession of the Ghirardelli chocolate chips while I stuck Alex with the Nestle ones.) Frankly, I couldn't taste the chocolate difference in the cookies, although I think my little GF confections held their own.

My GF cookies are in the foreground, Alex's conventional choc chips are in the background

These melt-in-your mouth confections are light, but not too crumbly, and the right balance of soft and gooey. I based them on a chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen, by Donna Klein, but I was in a very chocolatey mood, so I added cocoa powder and coconut flakes. I am so pleased with the results, and Alex even preferred them to his wheat-version (pictured in the background). They are best eaten warm from the oven, as the chocolate creates a molten effect in the tiny morsels that just explodes in your mouth. Sooo good!

Double chocolate-coconut cookies

Makes 4 dozen 2” cookies

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

½ cup salted butter, softened (1 stick)

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup potato starch flour (a very fine, light flour)

½ cup white rice flour

½ cup cocoa powder

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup coconut flakes

Splash of milk, as needed, to moisten the batter

1. In a large bowl, beat the first three ingredients with a mixer until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat on low for 1 ½ minutes. Add the flours and cocoa powder, beat on low for 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and coconut flakes.

2. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight to stiffen the dough so the cookies won’t spread too much on the pan. Preheat oven to 375, lightly grease a baking sheet.

3. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough on the cookie sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until slightly firm around the edges.

4. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and transfer to a cooling rack (but be sure to eat some while they’re good and hot!) These are spectacular warm, dunked into milk.