melting your mouth

I made this gluten-free quick bread for a brunch several weeks ago, and now I’ve finally found the time to write it up. This is my first foray into gluten-free baking, and it turned out surprisingly well. It seemed like a good breakfast bread alternative for those who for one reason or another have to stay clear of gluten. I can (and do!) eat as much flour as I want, but I really enjoyed this bread, too. It’s healthier than most breakfast breads since most of the sweetener comes from the fruit, with just a little bit of honey. And the nuts, while adding wonderful flavor, also mean that it will stick with you better than the normal carbohydrate only quick bread. It’s a winner all around!

(more…)

I think this is the longest gap in posting I’ve had, at least in a good while, and I’m sorry. What can I say — we’ve been traveling a lot (the summer of 5 weddings is now done. phew!), I’ve been pretty busy at work, we’re trying to train for a triathlon in September, I’ve been sick for the past several days, and our camera has pooped out on us so we haven’t really been able to take pictures of what little we have been cooking! Basically, life gets in the way.

Anyway, I did still have a couple of things saved up from before the camera started screwing up, so hopefully I can now get back on the ball and these will tide me over until we can get the camera fixed!

So no more of this whining about being busy — let’s talk about pizza! Grilled pizza is something we tried for the first time on the weekend of a thousand posts I keep talking about. I have to admit, my parents’ pizza oven back in Raleigh has pretty well spoiled me for pizza. It took a few years, but they really have it down pat now and make some pretty excellent pizza. I’ve occasionally made pizza on our pizza stone (thanks, Saket!) in the oven, but it’s never quite as good as I want it to be. However, grilling pizza is really the way to go to me. This makes a nice crispy crust, seemed to be pretty forgiving if you’re not able to get the crust as thin as you’d like (that’s me!), and cooks everything pretty fast which is nice for making a lot of different types of pizza to please everyone. I’m not trying to say it’s as good as wood-fired, but it might start to be on the same spectrum, and if you’re 3,000 miles away from the pizza oven you’re used to, it makes a pretty darn good substitute.

For the dough, I of course used a recipe from my mom, which she in turn got from the folks over at Mugnaini, where they bought their pizza oven. She has done a lot of experimenting with pizza dough recipes over the year, and this one is her favorite. The topping combinations listed at the bottom are also some of the favorites my parents have refined. What do you like on your pizza? I’d always love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

(more…)

Last weekend I asked mom to bring a salad to dinner, but she did much better — she brought romaine to grill along with the chicken we were making! I had been seeing recipes for grilled romaine, but hadn’t tried it yet. I wasn’t convinced I thought lettuce was going to have enough flavor to be worth grilling, but boy was I wrong — this was delicious! It reminded me a little of the caramelized brussels sprouts we were making all the time last winter. She kindly shared the recipe. Next time you fire up the grill, you should definitely try this one out.

(more…)

When we had Mom and Dad over for dinner last week, I was planning to make this rhubarb ginger galette that Garrett McCord guest authored on Simply Recipes. However, when I started cutting up the rhubarb, I realized that some of it had gone bad, and I didn’t have enough fruit to make it, so I ended up using about 1/3 apricots which Mom had brought us from the tree at her house. I also neglected to buy ginger root, so I substituted a bit of ground ginger instead, which I’m sure wasn’t as gingery, but was still delicious.

A galette is a sort of a pie without the pie pan, so the edges are just folded up to hold in the fruit. (The word galette can also mean a crepe filled with savory filling, and often using a buckwheat dough.) The apricots and rhubarbs were a delicious combination. I know strawberry is the more traditional accompaniment to rhubarb, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually had it, but it’s never appealed to me. It just seems like strawberries would be too sweet to pair with rhubarb. I’m used to the pies my mom always makes my dad on his birthday with just straight rhubarb, nice and tart. However, rhubarb and apricots do make for a nice pair. The apricot is just sweet enough, but with plenty of that great, mouth-puckering rhubarb flavor still shining through. Delicious! As you can see, we gobbled this one up too quickly for me to get any pictures except of the one leftover piece. I ate it for dessert a couple days later, but I must say, it would’ve made an excellent breakfast, too.

What kind of filling do you like in your fruit pies?

(more…)

If there’s one person outside my family — which, not to brag, includes numerous excellent cooks — whose cooking I really admire and am inspired by, it would be our good family friend Kelly Branson. She can do everything from comfort food and cookies to fancy party food, always making it look easy and elegant — and everything is always delicious.

When Matt and I got married, Kelly and her daughter Meg, who I’ve been friends with since I was about 8, hosted a Bridesmaids Brunch for me. With the invitations, they enclosed recipe cards for the guests to fill out, so now I have a wonderful box of recipes from my family and friends. Kelly filled out several cards, and one of them was for her baked ziti with these roasted vegetables. Someday I’ll pass along the recipe for the baked ziti, too, which is delicious, but last weekend I just made these roasted vegetables. As Kelly says, “I could eat these roasted veggies all day - spread on crackers, pizza - cold, hot, yummy, yummy, yummy.”

Recipe after the jump….

(more…)