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.

Saturday night pasta

Sometimes you want to feel like a gourmand, really treat yourself to amazing rich foods, regardless of fat or cholesterol content. And after today’s trip to the gym (Alex), run in the park (me), and a long walk to and from the Coop with a heavy cartful of groceries (both of us), we were feeling pretty indulgent. When what you crave is cozy, sexy comfort food, and it’s a Saturday night on a long weekend, I say, give in to temptation. So here’s our newly-concocted and completely-devoured recipe for a little Saturday night pasta.














This is a dressed-up version of our go-to weeknight dish (usually marinara or primavera), something fancier with a little more pizzaz, although it’s still quick and simple. Also, if you add enough veggies, it can stand alone as a one dish wonder, no sides required. The combination of the smoked gouda and brie cheeses is both tangy and savory and melds perfectly with the tart and slightly ruptured cherry tomato halves. Toss in a bunch of spinach and voila, less guilt and it’s even tastier. Between our two clean plates, I’m not lying when I attest that this is one of the yummiest cream sauces I’ve ever tried, and it’s really not that bad for you :)

Red white and Green Creamy Penne
Serves 2-4, depending on how hungry you are (we devoured it in one night between the two of us)

1 lb (GF pasta) Alex and I usually make two separate pots- one for him with wheat pasta and one with rice pasta, cooked al dente.

1 Tbsp EVOO
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup milk (we used 1%)
1/3 cup smoked Gouda, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup brie, cut into small pieces
4 cups fresh spinach, washed
¼ tsp cracked black pepper

1. Heat the oil on med-hi, add the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and tomatoes; stir for a couple minutes.

2. Add the milk and cheeses, stir until they are melted and well combined, 5 minutes. Toss in the black pepper.

3. When the mixture is well incorporated and the tomatoes are nicely bursting, add the spinach and toss just long enough to wilt it. Immediately pour over the penne (or toss the penne in the pan, if you’re not making two separate batches). Savor with your honey and a good glass of pinot noir. Happy weekend!

Popcorn: the best snack (or meal!)

What is more tempting than the warm, nutty aroma of a freshly popped pot of popcorn? Nothing, so don't try. Well, maybe the smell of coffee beans roasting, but that's about it. Popcorn has an inviting, "it's raining outside so let's hunker down with a movie" air to it which makes the textural, flavorful indulgence all the more special and delicious.

I've been perfecting various flavor combinations for assorted movie purposes (kettle corn for a kids' movie, curry spices for an Indian flick), and have come up with a new balance that just sends me smiling to the corner of the couch where it's hard for anyone else to get their hands in my bowl. When I'm making a really delicious air-popped feast, I tend to serve my partner in another bowl so that I can savor my own without the fear of running out. I am not a handful-at-a-time eater, I much prefer the single kernel method. To Alex, popcorn is a snack, an afterthought while the main entertainment happens on-screen. To me, popcorn can be an all-consuming task, a meal extravaganza, hence the title of this post.

A note on pot-popping: This is a great method because all you need is a large pot with a lid (mine is clear glass, which is perfect for watching the kernels explode) and you can reduce the fat by popping in olive oil, which coats the popcorn, rather than pouring melted butter on top. To start, pour enough oil to coat the bottom of the pot and add kernels to coat in a single layer; my pot holds 1/4 cup. Turn the heat to Med-Hi and wait as it sizzles. When the popping starts, be sure it's not too hot (smoke coming out) or too cool (slow, spaced-out pops) and shake the pot occasionally to stir up any lost kernels. When it slows to 2-3 pops per second, turn off the heat, give it one last shake, and lift the steamy lid for popcorn perfection. Toss with your favorite spice combination and consume immediately.

My latest popcorn sensation:

Jumping Kernel Corn
Makes one large bowl of delectable crunch for studying or curling up with a movie

Pop together on Med-Hi heat:

2 T olive oil to coat pan

1/4 cup popping corn kernels

Toss kernels with:

1-2 tsp. Bragg Liquid Amino Acids (my sister introduced me to this, it's a miracle GF topper and it tastes like soy sauce)
2 T nutritional yeast (rounds out the meaty flavor and adds the definitive yellow tinge as well as a spectrum of B vitamins we veggies crave)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy)

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika (my new favorite seasoning)

2 tsp curry powder

Spritz the Bragg's, add the nutritional yeast and spices, then toss until you have a virgin patch of popcorn and repeat until it's all nicely coated. Munch up!

(Bragg's is the perfect moistener-cum-saltifier as it is gluten-free, nutritious, and sprays on for a light, even distribution. Tamari just isn't the same, it splashes in large doses and renders the kernels it soaks utterly useless soggy messes. A spritzer is the way to go if you're not using butter and want your seasonings to stick.)

Fresh start in the kitchen

I am wonderfully blissed out from my vacation, and instead of hitting that post-holiday depression yesterday, I was surprised with a wonderful gift: a new stove! Since we moved here in March, we have been cooking on a mini-stove with 1 1/2 working burners (out of four!) and an oven that frequently extinguished itself and would pump extra gas, making a "tick tick tick" noise, when the pilot would try unsuccessfully to re-ignite. To top it off, the oven dial was completely worn off, so that we had to guess temperatures by dividing the circumference in reasonable fractions of 25 degrees. I am not a geometrist, nor am I a chemist, so this left a lot of guesswork in baking. But yesterday, our building super surprised us with a brandy-new stove complete with FOUR functional burners and an oven dial in crisp, clear numbers.

Today, as I was facing an empty home for the next week, I again fought the post-vacation, loneliness blues and decided to test out our new gear. Frankly, it was also a test of my GF baking ability, as I've only made one other thing and I followed that recipe very strictly. Today, either from the heady heat or the lingering Cape attitude, I felt more playful and concocted my own. Surprisingly, these muffins are a real success: they are super easy to make, I can't taste any difference from a wheat-based confection, and they're pretty healthy too. The walnuts, flax seeds, and egg are all great sources of omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient lacking in many vegetarian diets. I wasn't even aware of this until my friend explained it to me about six months ago, and ever since, I've tried to get my daily dose through either 1 teaspoon of flaxseed oil, 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseeds, or 1/3 cup of walnuts. These muffins rock both the nuts and the flaxseeds. I can't be sure that the omega-3s are intact after baking, I think the heat may damage them. But these are certainly rich in healthy fats, fiber, and vitamins, so eat up!

This is a good basic recipe which you can modify for your taste: experiment with other combinations of add-ins, like shredded coconuts, macadamia nuts and chocolate chips; or dried cherries and blueberries with almonds. The spices can also be modified for the season or ingredients: fresh diced apples with extra cinnamon and some lemon zest would evoke an apple pie; grated carrots and zucchini with ginger would be a fun combination as well. They are as yummy as they are quick and easy, and your gluten-eating friends won't know the difference.

Omega-3 "New Oven" Muffins

Makes one dozen

1 egg

1 cup milk (or your choice of liquid: OJ, soy, water, etc)

1/4 cup plus 1 T sugar (these are not very sweet, they are breakfast-y, but you should add more if you prefer a sweet confection)

1 tsp baking powder

2 T. canola oil

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (for glutinous texture)

1 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nut)

1/2 cup dried cranberries (or fruit of your choice)

Extra butter or oil to grease the tin

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease the muffin tin (or use paper liners, if you prefer)

2. Combine all ingredients except nuts and fruit, mix well.

3. Stir in nuts and fruit

4. Pour into prepared muffin tin. Bake 12-15 minutes, until peaks just start to brown.

5. Let set 2 minutes in pan, then separate from tin with butter knife and remove to cooling rack. Bon appetit!