Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve dinner for as long as I can remember has always been the same meal for my family. No matter where we are, it doesn’t really feel like Christmas unless we are noshing on prime rib for dinner and my sister’s special sugar cookies. Even though when we get together the question is often posed, “what do we have for Christmas Eve dinner?”, it is not really a question. This year my sister, mom and I were going to be all together unlike last year and even more special, we were going to be celebrating in my sister and my new apartment. Furthermore, I was very excited to not only share Christmas with all the most important people in my life, but also to share our Christmas traditions which also include eating homemade loaves of Stollen on Christmas morning with sausages, eggs, fresh squeezed oj and plenty of coffee and eating “stew-p” which is an everything but the kitchen sink type of soup/stew (hence stew-p).

I ordered a really nice roast from Drew’s Brothers and while I was picking it up nabbed some breakfast sausages, hot italian sausages and chicken (for Christmas day). There were a total of 7 of us for Christmas Eve dinner and I wanted everything to be awesome. I fretted a bit over how to cook the prime rib and didn’t settle on a method until I read this post from Serious Eats. It went through the popular methods and figured out how to have the perfect sear plus perfect pink (medium rare). I was sold and with some trepidation proceeded forward.

Secret recipe Mac and Cheese

The menu included Prime rib, Horseradish Sauce (creme fraiche, dijon and horseradish), Green Beans with Garlic and Butter, Salad with AMAZING homemade dressing (red wine vinegar, olive oil, blue agave, fresh herbs and garlic), my secret recipe Mac and Cheese and fresh bread from The Baker.

I prepared everything in stages, timing out the whole meal and executing it dang near perfectly. Especially impressive since dinner time got pushed back by slightly tardy guests. I was nervous about the meal. I really wanted to provide an amazing dining experience for my guests. Before we dug into the food, we enjoyed a nice spread of crackers, hummus, salsa and plenty of Prosecco.

Empty plates and empty wine glasses? For shame! Dig in people!

With everything ready we sat down at the table, paused for me to take a picture of the table and then dug right in. Once everyone’s plates were full the room fell into a deep, deep silence as everyone savored their food. I hadn’t started digging in to my plate, instead I just watched their reactions and the delight at the tasting of each thing. It was actually pretty funny since they all seemed to look up at once at me and say, “this is really good!”. We drank delicious red wine with dinner and then once we had digested and socialized for a while devoured some of my sister’s Special Sugar Cookies, Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip cookies by The Baker and Gluten Free Ginger Molasses cookies by me. It was so much fun enjoying our tradition as a family and sharing it with the people I care about.

Goodbye Year, Hello New Chef in the Family?

Sister sampling her soup.

The other night, my beautiful sister offered to cook for us and boldly go where she doesn’t often go. My sister can cook, she just doesn’t know it yet. She has her staple items that she makes for herself, but a bad experience in the past of being made fun of for something she cooked for someone else has led her to be trepidatious when it comes to cooking for others. I was utterly shocked when she offered to cook for The Baker and I.

And cook she did. A delicious Baked Potato soup with bacon, scallions and cheddar. It had the flavor profile of a good hearty loaded baked potato but was a much lighter meal. She paired it with a salad and we were in business. She did great and I look forward to her next attempt. Who knows maybe one day she’ll be guest posting for me!

While she made soup, I worked on making some gluten free dark chocolate peanut butter and jelly cupcakes for NYE dinner. They are pretty dang tasty. I am stoked to share them. It has been a good year of eating, blogging, writing and living. I look forward to a continuation and growth of that in the new year. Happy New Year everyone!

Just like a fond memory. Gluten Free Pumpkin Whoopie Pie.

Food is often equated with or can provoke both strong positive and negative memories. During the fall, as the weather cools and the leaves change color and fall to the ground, I think back fondly to my time in Pittsburgh when I was in library school. I loved the fall there. I can remember getting in my little kitchen and cooking my first ever Thanksgiving dinner. I remember hunched over a fingerprint covered copy of that month’s Food and Wine magazine, meticulously following the recipe for three elaborate dishes that I would serve only to myself. I wasn’t much of a foodie then, or even that creative of a cook, but I had my moments of brilliance.

Ingredients for the GF Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

One of the things that I discovered while in Pittsburgh (food wise) that I had never heard of, other than Fluffernutters and Salads and Sandwiches topped with handfuls of fries, were whoopie pies. According to Wikipedia: whoopie pie (alternatively called a gob, black-and-white, or bob) is a baked good made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. While considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition, they are increasingly sold throughout the United States. According to food historians, Amish women would bake these and put them in farmers’ lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout “Whoopie!”

Once I left Pittsburgh, I didn’t see these delicious treats again. Until, that is, I visited Vermont for the Vermont 50miler. As the description indicates, it is also a New England phenomenon and when my friend Glen was eating at the pre-race dinner the night before the race, he came back to the table with three desserts. One of which was a pumpkin whoopie pie. I was instantly lost in a memory of cool, crisp Pittsburgh fall evenings and the comfort of a pumpkin whoopie pie and a cup of tea, nestled down on my couch. I hadn’t thought about that time in my life for a while. And, I began seriously craving a pumpkin whoopie pie.

Folding the ingredients together

After I finally got home from my trip to Vermont & NYC, I decided to start testing a recipe for a gluten free/ egg free/soy free version of the pumpkin whoopie pie. While I would have loved to stuck with the Amish tradition of using eggs and normal flour, I simply cannot eat those things and so what would be the point of having my cake but not being able to eat it too?!?!

Cakes fresh out of the oven waiting to cool and be frosted!

I was quite pleasantly surprised at my first go-round with these. Their texture was absolutely spot on. Very light and fluffy, which is saying something considering gluten free flour usually does not lend itself to that. The frosting turned out creamy and dreamy once whipped the heck out of it the blender and then let it hang out in the fridge to tighten up. I took these pictures before I did that, thankfully I only frosted one “show” whoppie pie. Ok, let’s be honest, I couldn’t hardly wait so I made one I could gobble pretty immediately. It was brilliant! The frosting was not to heavy or sugary. The cakes were not heavy and not super sweet either. Admittedly, I had a second one once I let everything really cool and setup and it was out of sight. I love it when things get better with time.

Vanilla frosting and half a cake.

Today is a very crappy day. The bay is being slammed with bad weather, but these GF Pumpkin Whoopie Pies give me a sense of comfort and security no matter how hard the rain falls and the wind blows. I am comforted by the taste that floods my mouth with each nibble, but even more than that, I am comforted by the memories that are evoked in my mind and wrap my spirit in a sense of calm and coziness.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Whoopie Pie perfection!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 serving eggs replacer, equivalent to 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ½ cups bobs red mill gluten free flour mix
¾ tsp guar gum
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
¼ cup coconut flour
pinch salt
¾ cup almond milk
¾ cup butter
2 ½ cups confectioners sugar
3 ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the cakes:

Preheat the oven to 400 F and cover baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Prepare the egg replacer and add to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat well and add vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, guar gum, baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar alternating adding the pumpkin puree. Mix well until smooth.

Drop rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheets leaving plenty of room for the cakes to spread out as they cook. Bake for 11-12 minutes until the spring back when lightly pressed. Cool completely and then frost and top with another cake. Wrap each whoopie pie individually in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

For the filling:

In a saucepan over medium heat whisk the flour and salt with the almond milk until the mixture is smooth and starts to thicken. Cool in the refrigerator.

In a blender meanwhile, cream butter and confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Add the cooled milk mixture and blend until the filling thickens. Taste and add more sugar if more desired sweetness. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes until cool and thick before frosting.

The food of course!

After running such a (mindboggling) distance as I did on Saturday, it is necessary to give the body proper fueling and rest so that you can recover quickly. I say (mindboggling) because there is a part of me that absolutely lacks the ability to comprehend the type of distance that I covered or the type of effort it takes anyone to do something like that. Maybe that’s why ultrarunners keep coming back for more, we remember that nice afterglow but at least I don’t have an ability to get my mind around it. It was this way last year, I always kept waiting for it to sink in and it never did. In the week after a race, I often times have to remind myself that there is a reason that I am tired, sore, hungry all the time, etc. The body and mind are amazing adaptable things. If I had ever thought about just how far ultras are or try to wrap my head around the distance first, I never would have run my first race. I am simultaneously trying to be smart about resting and get back on to training for WS. Here it is Thursday and I am thinking, ok I should feel all better now. I have to laugh that I even think that, when I look back to my first marathon, less than three years ago, and remember that I took 3 weeks off/easy after that first race. I have come so far in 3 years and that even more so than the distances, boggles my mind but at the same time makes me excited and curious to see what the next several years will hold for me for I have just begun!

Now on to the food…

Part of being in recovery is having a bit more time on my hands since I don’t have quite so many workouts to do. Part of racing is also having a lot of time to sit around doing nothing and so I had put together some menu plans for my week while hanging around post race. Monday I cooked 4-5 things before work, including delicious cookies for my coworkers. Tuesday when I came home from work quite hungry, I made 3 separate dishes that were all so delicious!

Eat Dessert First

I got this cookie recipe from off the bag of Gluten-Free Oats that I have and I merely Veganized it. But I have also included the non-veganized substitutes here. There was a part of me that was being cheeky when I made these cookies. I just find there is some irony in going for my first race while at this job, winning and then coming back to work with fresh baked homemade cookies. I think my coworkers don’t know what to do with me. But they definitely knew what to do with those cookies. Comments included, “I am really picky about my oatmeal cookies and these rock”, “wow this is the best cookie I have ever had”, “amazing that a cookie can be crumbly and so smooth at the same time” “Martha Stewart watch out”. I had been a bit worried that the texture would throw some of them off since they are pretty crumbly (eat with two hands and a napkin), but figured the flavor would hold them up and it did.

Monster cookies

Ingredients:
1/4 cup earth balance shortening or butter, room temp
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 egg equivalent for egg replacer or 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3 cups Gluten Free Rolled Oats (normal oats will work for normal people)
6 oz of Vegan chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Beat sugar, brown sugar and shortening until creamy. Add egg replacer (prepared), vanilla, baking soda and mix well. Add peanut butter and mix. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and (optional) 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped-I didn’t do this but feel free! Place large spoonfuls of dough on parchment paper covered baking sheet (I made mine with a 1/2 cup scoop) about 2 inches apart and press down on top with scoop to reduce thickness. I actually would recommend no more than 1/4 cup to reduce some of the fally-apartness. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly brown around edges. Then try not to eat them all in one sitting…


What a Jerk!

Jerk Portobello mushrooms that is. I got this recipe from Vegan Planet which is my current Veganomicon, if you know what I mean. I just can’t get enough of it! While the cookies were cooling, after I had already made my salad mix for the week and homemade Tarragon-Dijon dressing, I put together my lunch which included Jerk Portobello mushrooms with Green Apple Salsa over garlic rice with a side of sauteed red pepper broccoli. Absolutely delicious!

I’m really a nice mushroom
Ingredients:
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
4 large portobello mushrooms, stems and gills removed.
1/4 cup evoo

Directions:
1. Mix together in a shallow bowl the brown sugar through the nutmeg. Set aside.
2. Coat the mushrooms with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then coat them evenly with the spice mixture. Rubbing them to make sure they are thoroughly covered. Heat the remaining olive oil i a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Serve hot. Top with Green Apple Salsa.

Green Apple Salsa
Ingredients:
2 large Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 cup minced scallions
Juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cut minced fresh mint leaves

Directions:
1. Place the apples in a medium sized bowl after chopping. Add the jalapenos, scallions, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Just before serving, stir in the mint. Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve.

Around the world in 80 bites

After a long day at work on Tuesday, all I wanted was to come home and eat some delicious food. While most peoples idea of relaxing may not be creating three separate dishes and cooking for an hour after work, it is very meditational and rewarding to me. I made three dishes that spanned the world of taste: Curried Sweet Potatoes and Peas, West Coast Chili and Soy Glazed Green Beans. Fabulous just fabulous.

Curried Sweet Potatoes and Green Peas
Ingredients:
peanut oil
1 small yellow or red onion, minced
1 large sweet potato, baked until tender, peeled and diced
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 garlic clove, minced
curry powder
fresh cumin
cayenne
salt

Directions:
Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and cook until soft 5 mins. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. I didn’t put specific amounts on the spices because they aren’t exactly measure. Cayenne should be only a dash though. I believe I might have added a dash of Garam Masala as well.

Soy Glazed Green beans
Ingredients:
1 pound green beans, ends trimmed
2 tablespoons peanut oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup (or more-enough to cover) Wheat Free Soy Sauce

Directions:
1. Lightly steam the green beans or parboil them until just tender. Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden. I find it helps to tilt the pan and pool the oil in the edge (carefully!) so the garlic can be fully submerged. Add the green beans and saute for a minute or three to make sure they are heated throughout and fully tossed with the garlic. Pour in the Soy Sauce and crank up the heat to high. It should vigorously boil. You are reducing the soy sauce down to a glaze, so let it boil like this until it is reduced and the green beans are glazed (there will be maybe 2 tbsps of liquid in the pan).

West Coast Chili (another great recipe from Vegan Planet)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 med yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ripe plum tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups water
2 15 ounce cans cooked kidney beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
2 ripe avocadoes, peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 cup pitted and slice black olives

Directions:
1. Heat evoo in large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, bell peppers, and garlic. Cover and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, oregano, wine, water,beans, salt and pepper. Simmer until flavors are blended and the desired consistency is achieved, about 30 minutes.
2. Serve hot, topped with avocados and olives.