I peeled off the leaves, scraped off the skin and julienned the kohlrabi along with some carrots. I used my frozen ginger in this dish, which smells so wonderful when grating. I did all the mixing right in the baking dish, so it’s truly a one pot dish. Even though this would have served more , with my husband repeatedly dipping into the dish,  it only served 3.  It was delicious, did I say that yet?

Ingredients:

• 1 kohlrabi – deleafed, destemmed, peeled, julienned
• 3 or 4 carrots – peeled and julienned
• 1 tsp ginger – grated
• 2 garlic cloves – minced
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• salt
• pepper
• parsley

Directions:

Throw all of the ingredients together in the baking dish – up to the olive oil, mix around a little. Drizzle white wine over top, sprinkle on herbs and spices,  cover with foil, bake at 375 until veggies are firm soft.

What was the name of that vegetable?  Carrot.  No the other one.  Ummm, (look at title) Kohlrabi.  Yes, that’s it.

This wasn’t my son’s favorite recipe, since he doesn’t like anything that has a bite to it.  My husband, my daughter and I all loved them.  I am trying to decide if I want to come up with a sauce for it or just keep eating it the way it is.  My husband liked it with butter on top, and also with salsa on top.  My daughter reheated the leftovers and ate them with her fingers and no utensils.  I’m not sure what that means, except maybe that she liked it.  I added some lemon grass to brighten the little cakes up, plus some sage because my daughter picked and dried some earlier this summer and it was just waiting to be used.

Ingredients:

• 1 large ear of corn
• 1 hot pepper
• 1/4 cup of chevre
• 3 stalks of lemon grass – chopped
• 1/4 cup of minced onion
• 1/2 cup (Bob’s Red Mill) Corn Meal
• 1/2 cup Rice flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• a nice handful of dried sage leaves crumbled (stems removed)
• 3 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs

Directions:

Pour oil on the bottom of the pan and heat up.

Bowl number 1 – Microwave corn 2 minutes, strip kernels from ear into bowl.  Mince small hot pepper, add to bowl along with minced onion.  Chop up lemon grass stalk and add into bowl.  Stir in crumbled chevre.

Bowl number 2 – Dry ingredients – Mix corn meal, flour, baking powder, salt and dried sage

Bowl number 3 – Stir together the melted butter, eggs, and milk.

Mix together bowl 2 and 3 until just combined.  Stir in the corn mixture that’s in bowl number 1.

Drop by big spoonful into heated pan.  When browned on one side, flip over to cook on the other side. 

Ingredients:

• 3 yams peeled and cubed
• 2 big handfuls of chard
• Olive Oil
• 2 shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• 1/8 tsp dried ginger
• couple of splashes of Maple Syrup Wine

Directions:

Rinse and tear up chard.  Combine chard and yams in steamer and steam for about 10 minutes.  Heat up oil in large pan.  Saute shallots and garlic until soft. Dump in yams and chard plus seasonings. Heat up a little and serve.  It was pretty darn good.

They are:

• Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles (dairy free & low fat)
• Angus Beef Steak Chili with Beans (dairy free)
• New England Clam Chowder
• Chicken Chili with White Beans
• Grilled Chicken & Corn Chowder

and now also:

• Roasted Vegetable Soup (dairy free & vegetarian)
• Tomato Soup with Garden Vegetables (dairy free & vegetarian)
• Organic Mushroom & Potato Soup with Cream (organic & vegetarian)
• Organic Carrot Soup with Coriander (organic, dairy free & vegetarian)

My husband and I both brought the soups to our works to try out.  I wanted to see how well they traveled and heated up in my work microwave, you know, the ones that are really low powered. I am here to tell you that they were the perfect start to our lunches.  We liked their flavors and how quickly they heated up even in substandard microwaves like they have at my work.

My favorite was a surprise. I loved the Organic Carrot Soup with Coriander.  While I don’t love carrot juice – I don’t know why, I just don’t – this was more of a puree and the slight spiciness of the coriander set it off just right.  I also tried the Chicken soup with Rice Noodles – and although I did enjoy it, the chicken pieces were a little chewy, but still good and the veggies, were delicious.  I’m not a Clam Chowder fanatic, but I loved their New England Clam Chowder, with nice potato hunks and small clams here and there.  It was really creamy.

My husband had the Angus Beef Steal Chili with Beans.  He said it had a slightly spicy taste to it, but not a kick, which he was expecting.  However, he thought the slightly spicy taste was perfect for him. He also loved the Tomato Soup with Garden Vegetables – he said it was a Vegetable soup that leaned toward the tomato side, but was very good. 

So there you have it, we recommend it highly.

The only negative is that I can’t find it at my neighborhood store, but if I’m willing to travel I can get it from Whole Foods. Also, it can be ordered online through the Gluten Free Mall and delivered to your home.

Kettle Cuisine has other soups as well.  Besides gluten free, there’s dairy free, vegetarian, low fat, and organic that are all labeled so you don’t need to search to find what you want. 

Nana’s gluten free cookies (also vegan) – These cookies are more cakelike than other cookies, but have a decent taste.  My husband and kids tasted and thought they were delicious also.  Nana’s Cookie Company prides itself on Nana’s No’s – a list of ingredients that will never be found in Nana’s baked goods: No Dairy, No Refined Sugars, No Eggs, No Cholesterol, No Trans Fats, No Hydrogenated Oils, No Preservatives, and No GMO’s. Nana’s Cookies are vegan and kosher.

Nana’s Cookie Company has the following products:

• Nana’s Originals – A delicious and healthful treat created to provide energy and not weigh you down. Available in 7 flavors.
• Nana’s Cookie Bars – Healthier than a Cookie…Tastier than a Bar.™  All natural ingredients plus 12 vitamins and minerals in a bar-shaped cookie. Available in 6 flavors including No Gluten.
• Nana’s Cookie Bites – perfect for smaller appetites, satisfying a sweet tooth, and school lunchboxes.  Available in 6 flavors including No Gluten.
• No Gluten – for those with special food needs, allergies and other sensitivities.  Made on special "No Gluten" Days.  Available in Original, Cookie Bars and Cookie Bites.
• "O"Mega-Fiber Cookie Bars – 5 grams of dietary fiber, 10 grams of whole grains per serving, zero trans fat, and only 125 calories, contain 250 milligrams of plant-based omega-3, 600 milligrams of omega-6 and 800 milligrams of omega-9 fatty acids – an important part of a daily diet. The line also meets the California SB-12 school nutrition requirements

All of Nana’s Cookies are now available on the snack shelves of Whole Foods Market nationally, as well as regional outlets such as Hannaford, Hy-Vee, and Earth Fare, supermarkets, mainstream grocery, specialty, and natural food stores worldwide. Learn more about Nana’s Cookies and Nana’s Cookie Company by visiting www.nanascookiecompany.com

Thai Kitchen Noodles – Instead of looking for noodles around the other pastas, search in the asian food section.  Rice noodles are gluten free and can be substituted for other types of flat noodles easily in your recipes.  I made turkey and noodles using my Thai kitchen rice noodles the other day and it was delicious.  Be careful when using stock or broth to make sure it is gluten free, some use wheat thickeners.  I made up a stock from the turkey carcass my sister in law cooked for Thanksgiving.  I put turkey and the stock into individual containers  and froze them.  When I want a quick turkey and noodle dinner, I heat up the stock and turkey, add the noodles and then some frozen veggies and voila – dinner is ready.  Thai kitchen can be found in the supermarket in the asian food section or online at amazon Thai kitchen noodles.

Pamela’s Chocolate Brownie Mix – This is the brownie mix my mother in law gave me for Christmas to try out.  I made it for us to snack on and we enjoyed it a lot.  It has a nice chocolatey flavor and uses the same baking process as other brownie mixes. Pamela’s Products are available in natural food such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Wegman’s, and more as well as many grocery stores such as Safeway, Fred Meyer, Kroger, Winn Dixie and Publix, throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. They can also be found online at amazon.com. Pamela’s Chocolate Brownie Mix 

 The Green Daily – had a slide show with some really great gluten free recipe suggestions today that they got from Gluten Free Girl.  Gluten Free Girl is Shauna James Ahern and the author of Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too.   Her blog is really filled with recipes with gorgeous pictures.  If you need to go gluten free, then this is the place for you.

Ingredients:

6-8 small red potatoes

1/2 head of cauliflower

3 -4 cloves of garlic

Olive Oil

Salt& Pepper

Herbs du Provence

Grana Padano Cheese

Directions:

Quarter potatoes and cut cauliflower florets into similar size pieces.  Boil water in a large pot, add potatoes and cauliflower. When fork tender, drain off as much water as possible.  In a high sided skillet, saute garlic in about 4 tbs of Olive Oil on a low heat until cooked really well in order to infuse the oil with a garlic taste.  Take garlic out and throw  into compost.  After Potatoes and Cauliflower has drained, put back into pot and smash with potato masher, or with potato ricer and mix together.  Add 2 new cloves of garlic – smashed and chopped into potatoes and cauliflower, add salt , pepper, seasonings and mix together.  Put mixture and heated garlic oil.  Grate cheese and stir into mixture.  Place into greased baking dish and into the oven at 400  until cheese is melted. 

• Peel and Core Apples (I used about 8 )
• Slice Apples into thin to medium slices
• Put apples into a glass bottom dish or pan
• Pour apple cider over top of the apples – enough to cover the bottom of the pan(probably 1 – 1 1/2 cups).
• Sprinkle cinnamon over top of the apples (about 2 tbs?)
• Mix them together in the dish
• Cover with foil
• Bake in oven at 350 until they just start to soften

It’s like apple pie without the crust.  The insides are my favorite part, so this is my way of eating the insides without the crust. I have also done this in a crockpot and thrown in fresh cranberries and raisins and even toasted pecans.  You can top with ice cream, that will melt on the hot apples.  I don’t have a picture, because it’s all gone.  I didn’t do the crazy lady taking pictures of the food routine for the kids, sorry.

We picked enough apples this month to can.  Instead of apple sauce, we do apple slices – which is kind of this recipe on a humongous scale.  Then we jar them up and use them with our dinners.  I had some to put out at Easter one year and my brother in law thought it was the best thing at the table.  That was a real compliment and such an easy side dish since I just opened the jar and poured it into a dish and baked.  The apples will brown, but since they’re covered in apple cider and cinnamon I didn’t worry about it.  If you want your apples to look less brown, you can put them into a bowl with some lemon juice before you put them into the baking dish. 

Enjoy!

Another resource is the Gluten Free Mall.  It’s an online order place, and even has gluten free pastas. Glutenfreeda.com has a whole website devoted to gluten free living, including great recipes.  Glutenfreeda has a weekly newsletter and cooking lessons.  It has a small section devoted to celiac news and even product reviews.  They will soon have frozen gluten free cookie dough coming to stores.  Celiac.com also has a good website for online ordering of gluten free foods.

Right now is probably an easier time to go gluten free since you can use fresh vegetables and meat without opening a jar or can.  In the winter it’s more difficult and you have to rely on reading those labels.  Good luck in your gluten free quest.

Here’s a recipe from Glutenfreeda.com:

Blueberry Ice Cream

Servings
Makes 1 quart
Difficulty
Medium

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries, stemmed & rinsed
6 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
Juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

In work-bowl of an electric mixer, add blueberries, cream cheese, corn syrup and sour cream. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds to combine. Increase speed to medium-high and continue to beat for about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of work-bowl and continue to beat for another 2-3 minutes or until mixture is very smooth. Reduce speed to medium-low and slowly add milk, cream, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Mix until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s directions. Transfer ice cream to an air tight container and freeze for about 1 hour or until firm.

There are many ways of buying local.  Fruits and vegetables from the Saturday street farm market is one way.  Buying products made at local companies is another.  When Dei Fratelli Pasta Sauce and Salsas were offered up for review, I was thrilled to find out that they were a local company.  Well, semi local, it’s in Ohio. Hirzel Canning grows its own tomatoes in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.  Also they supply the 30 family run farms that they’ve  contracted to grow tomatoes for them with seedlings, and are certified GMO free. 

Dei Fratelli pasta sauces were delicious. We eat pasta sauces and salsas all year long, some I make, some I buy.  It’s nice to know this sauce isn’t flying in from another continent when the main ingredients can be easily grown in the area.  It’s the tree hugger in me that is concerned with those things.  The only issue is that distribution currently is limited to primarily the Midwest, Central and Southeastern states.

We used the sauce with our spaghetti and sausage for a quick dinner, and I also used it to make penne pasta with ground beef.  The sauces were delicious and had a great tomato flavor, with just enough seasoning.  We loved the sauce.  The Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce was delicious while the Arrabbiata Pasta Sauce has a spicy zing.

My husband thought the salsa – Casera Salsa Mild tasted almost like my own.  He loved it.       I made 36 pints of salsa last summer and it didn’t make it through the whole winter. We supplement our salsa with store brands and this one is definitely on the list. The Black Bean and Corn Salsa is a medium heat salsa, but not too hot, with kernals of corn and beans.  This is really a nice tasting salsa too. 

Dei Fratelli says their tomato sauces and salsas are naturally gluten free – except for the tomato soup.  Their tomato soup contains wheat flour. 

Consider using the Dei Fratelli in your meals or snacks, it’s delicious and may be semi local for some of you also.