Christmas was awesome

About a month before Christmas, my husband was out doing...something.  I don't know.  He was out with friends, I think.  Shopping, maybe?

Yes, my husband shops.  Willingly.

No, you can't clone him.

Anyway, he was out with friends, shopping (and yes, I'm sure he's straight, by the way) and he stumbled upon a big sale at the Paderno Factory Outlet (Paderno is a local company, dontcha know).  A major sale.  Like a holy-cow-now-we-can-afford-the-Cuisinart-food-processor-we've-been-talking-about-for-five-years kind of sale.

So he bought me a Cuisinart.

Yikes, sorry for the hair-raising photography.  The light is so horrible, these days.  I don't have much to work with.

*Officially* it was a Christmas present, but the thing is massive and there was no way he would have been able to hide that thing somewhere in the house (our house is so small that we can't even fit a Christmas tree in it).

I've been inventing excuses for the past 6 weeks to whip it out and play with it.  I don't think he understood why I wanted one so badly until he used it, himself.  When he saw how fast it chopped his stir fry veggies, all he said was "Duuuuuude." and his eyes just about popped out of his face.  Stir fries are a twice-weekly tradition in this gluten-free household, so it was a big deal.

I've been using it for mixing GF dough (pizza, cookie, scone, almond balls, etc) and chopping the aforementioned veggies.  What else should I be making with this thing?  Ideas?  Oh!  Homemade mayo?  Egads, I can't believe it only occurred to me just now.

Gotta go!  That mayo ain't gonna make itself.

(PS: The keyboard for my iMac pooched on me a couple of months ago.  The letter K and the comma buttons suddenly decided that they had known enough of the world and offed themselves.  Perhaps it was murder-suicide.  We'll never know.  Anyway,  I've been using the frustrating/disgusting/obnoxious keyboard that came with it, five years ago.  So he got me a new keyboard.  He's a keeper, this husband of mine.)

Done and done.

After about 4 days (and only 2 hours of actual working time), thar she be:

(I just slipped a discarded magazine page in the front sleeve, for the sake of having a yummy picture to look at.)  I bought a heavy-duty rubber-edged binder at Staples and a pack of grey cardstock for the pages.  A set of colourful dividers and I was off to the races.

These are all recipes that I'd been holding onto for a while and though I haven't made them all, they're the ones I can see myself making.  I split them up into sections that made sense to me.  I have one for soups, seafood/fish, meat, desserts, and gluteny recipes (just in case anyone asks me for suggestions, I'm keeping my favourites back there for quick reference, even though I can't eat them anymore).

There's a section on vegetarian dishes:

There's even a section for canning/preserve notes:

Let this be a lesson to me - if I buckle down, these little things don't have to take long to get underway.  Definitely not as long as I can take procrastinating to avoid doing them.


The nice thing is that this will keep my cookbooks in - if not "pristine" - dignified condition.  I am hell on cookbooks.  Scratch that.  I'm hell on all books.  For someone who lives to knit and read, I sure do treat both with a fair bit of disregard.

{My sister once asked me to scan and send her my copy of our mom's bread stuffing recipe (I think?) and she called me afterwards to demand what the hell I had done to the page - she could barely read the writing, for all the oil stains, rips and smudges on it.}

I haven't photocopied my cookbook faves yet, to add to the binder.  I am going to do that at work sometime this week.  So far, the binder is about 1/3 full.  I'm just taping/stapling smaller sheets onto the cardstock and any print outs that I have on decent paper just got hole-punched and crammed in there.  I'm also going to start a plastic envelope for potential new recipes at the front of the binder.  Once I try them and they pass muster, they'll get upgraded to a permanent position in their respective sections in the binder.

Thank you SO MUCH for your suggestions (and keep 'em coming, of course).  It's funny, because I got the suggestion for polenta and had actually just tagged it in Michael's book as something I wanted try.  I know I said I've backed off corn - and I have - but I still allow myself to have some once or twice a week.  The reason I don't eat a lot is that I find it very hard on my system.  I just need to be very aware of my intake.  Oh, and someone suggested quinoa pasta - I have tried it and yes, it is good (better than most rice pastas, in fact).  I've been gluten-free for four years, and have had a surprising array of options in GF products (surprising, given where I live, I mean).  The best gluten-free pasta I've ever had is actually corn pasta (some informal research done among some of my GF peeps netted the same affirmation).  Alas, it is still corn and is still something for me to watch out for.  Plus, it's GF and if I'm being honest, the taste/texture is still not *quite* the same as wheat pasta, so while it's nice to have in the house, we eat pasta in moderation.

In other totally unrelated news, I have begun The Socks:

Someone asked me what I was holding up in one of my recent posts.  That is a set of interchangeable metal "Options" needles, from KnitPicks.  You get a clear vinyl case full of metal tips and a set of cables that you screw into the ends of the tips to customize your circular needles.  That case I was holding up also contains a series of 40" circulars in all the smaller sizes KnitPicks can't offer in the interchangeables, which I purchased at the same time, knowing I needed to do some sock knitting.  I am VERY happy with them and wish I had bought them years ago.  I might not have hated circulars so fervently, had I tried these (full review to follow in an upcoming post).


Oh, and I should probably tell you that I watched "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" this weekend.  Holy.  Cow.  In a good way.  A very very very good way.  (Disclaimer: if you have a weak stomach, I advise viewer discretion.  There were a couple of scenes that I found exceedingly difficult to watch.)  I'll be renting the second and third films next weekend, so don't tell me what happens!

Food: good. Hunger: bad.

My last post triggered some questions which I am going to sit down and write about in the next couple of days, but for now, I wanted to put this out there:

I am starting a new side-project.  It's not a full-blown project, because I think it's going to be a long-term undertaking and I don't need to feel the guilt that will inevitably follow if I have to put it aside for a while or if I give up on it.  This side-project is an inventory/sorting/cataloging of my recipes.

 I don't have a lot of recipe books.  My kitchen shelf contains a few really really really good ones:

• The Best of Chef at Home, by Michael Smith (who, besides being an amazing chef, is also just a really really nice guy)
• Dinner Tonight, by Lucy Waverman
• Home for Dinner, by Lucy Waverman
• Pantry Raid, by Dana McCauley
• The Wheat-Free Cook, by Jacqueline Mallorca

But other than that, I am subsisting on a selection of old family recipes (some of which I revamped and posted online - see the sidebar at the right of my blog), gifted recipes from friends, and a really great collection of Inspired magazine, which is a free publication put out by my local supermarket, Sobeys.

Problem is, a lot of the recipes in these books and magazines are really gluten-intensive (in case you didn't know, I have am gluten-intolerant).  I get a little discouraged when I'm looking for suppertime inspiration.

So now, I've bitten the bullet.  I discarded a couple of cookbooks that didn't pass muster and I'm going through the rest, tagging anything that looks like something I could realistically make for supper (that's my main concern, at the moment).  I don't have a concrete plan as of yet, but I think I'm going to get a nice, good-quality, three-ring binder with some plastic sleeves and start clipping the recipes I like and sorting them into categories.  The rest of the magazine/calendar/whatever is going in the recycling bin.  The interesting cookbook recipes are getting copied out and placed in the binder, so I'm not forced to constantly page through the entire cookbook to find the 5 recipes I can actually make.

There are so many options online, that I don't think I really need to dish out for new books, at the moment.  With the exception of Extra-vegan-za,  which was recommended to me by a friend, Maureen (who is a recipe developer for Michael Smith and fellow GF-er).  A totally vegan diet would be pretty tough for me to follow (a LOT of vegan alternatives are loaded with gluten), but not impossible.  She said the book contained some really amazing ideas, so I'm putting it on my wishlist.

So, here's where you come in (I'm serious, I want some feedback or I'm going to start taking names):  I want some ideas for suppers/lunches.  I need stuff that is quick, nutritious, low-fat, low-sugar, high-protein, as full of whole foods as possible, non-processed and delicious (no, duh).  Stuff like taco salad with ground turkey, mango salsa and low-fat cheddar.  Baked squash, stuffed with wild rice, pecans and raisins.  Chicken pesto with black olives and artichoke hearts.  You know, the good stuff.

I eat everything that does not contain gluten (wheat, oats, rye, spelt, kamut, barley all contain gluten), with the exception of cilantro **BAAAAARRRRRFFFF**, brussel sprouts **shudder gag**  and bell peppers (bad memories of acid reflux from my gluten days).  I am notoriously un-picky (I just asked my husband to list out the food I don't like and he couldn't think of one single thing {ETA: My sister just chimed in and remembered that I detest perogies.  I know, I am the only person on the planet who can say that and technically, it's not even an option anymore - what with them being made primarily of wheat dough and all.  I strongly suspect that may hatred has to do with the slimy gluten content.}) and will try everything at least once (for instance, I could eat an entire plateful of pan-fried chicken livers, like RIGHT NOW - does that make you want to hurl?).  I have eased way off soy, corn, dairy and eggs, but I'm not averse to having them from time to time.  I L.O.V.E. ethnic food.  LOVE IT.

Ethnic food, a not-quite-sonnet

by dw

India, I love you.  

Thailand, I love you.  

Morocco, I love you.  

Lebanon, I love you.  

France, it goes without saying.  

Japan, I love you.  

Italy, you are dead to me.  

Unless you can figure out how to perfectly duplicate your entire cultural menu without using a fleck of flour, of course.  

Then, I will love you once more.

Now, wasn't that beautiful?  Yes, I thought so, too.

To be clear: I do not need dessert ideas.  NO SWEETS FOR ME!  I can't eat refined sugar right now (still sick) and the hubbie is allergic to chocolate.  I have no idea how all of you foodies can eat so many cupcakes and cake pops and pies and ice cream sandwiches and tarts and chocolate truffles.  My idea of dessert is two Medjool dates.  Two.  Dates.  Or maybe a dried fig.  And a mouthful of roasted pecans.  Maybe twice a week.  C'est tout.  I would weigh 400 lbs if I ate the desserts I see on some websites (Pioneer Woman and Elana's Pantry, I'm looking at you).  Butter and fat are also on the persona non grata list, though my conscience can be convinced to occasionally look the other way...  Baked goods are ok, but I have a lot of recipes for those, already.  Plus, I'm only allowed to have a small amount of them, anyway.

Oh, and I want to know: do you think my three-ring binder is the way to go?  Do you have a better system (keeping in mind that I'm VERY visual and need to see photos with my recipes)?  Send me e-mails, not just comments, ok?  I want to be able to reply directly.  So, you ready to help me?  High five?  Ready, set, GO!