Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

I have an explanation for my recent absentee-ism.

It involves stacks of cardboard boxes, mountains of paperwork, peering through dusty windows to living rooms that turn out to have rotten floorboards. Musty basements with water damage. Sending copies of every possible identity-containing document off to someone I don't personally know.

The day has come for Gluten Free in SLC to be housed on its own piece of land. Have its own counter tops for photos, under its own south-facing windows. I bought a house!

My endlessly patient real estate agent took us through more than 30 houses in the area of town where I currently live, and where I wanted to stay. These are historic houses, mostly Victorians (built before 1905), and craftsman bungalows (built between 1905 and 1930). Historic can mean lots of foundation damage, sagging brick, poor fixes by previous exuberant homeowners, lopsided additions on the backs of houses, and a fair sprinkling of water damage. Lots of foreclosures to look through. We looked at one short sale where the homeowner, who was clearly mid-renovation, had pasted "dream photos" on every wall of the house, in every room, of how they wanted their finished house to look. It was like watching someone's dreams slowly bubble and peel around the edges. Those renovations, by those sets of hands, weren't going to happen like they planned.

I chose a very structurally sound bungalow on a great piece of land on a medium traffic street. It's across from an elementary school, and has huge, beautiful trees in the yard. It's got some serious charm, which had me at first look. Things like a little towel hook hanging on the bathroom door that's probably from the 1950s and is in the shape of a sun. An original walk in closet. Original windows that all open. Sigh.

To usher in spring, the daffodils just bloomed in my new front yard (I haven't even moved in yet.) Another sign of spring are the first sprigs of asparagus, which came from a local farmer. One of my favorite ways to make asparagus (besides tender risotto) is wrapped in bacon. Either in the oven or on the grill, this is a 15 minute side dish that would be perfect with any dinner. 

Grill on, friends.

Last Year: Dairy Free Potato Leek Soup

Two Years Ago: Taco Soup

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
higlighted at Aubree of Living Free's Favorite Recipes from Last Week (Check it out!)

[Printer Friendly]

1 1/2 pounds asparagus spears, trimmed 4 to 5 inches long tips
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
A few grinds black pepper
4 slices bacon
Chopped chives, optional

Preheat oven, if using, to 400 degrees F.
Lightly coat asparagus spears in extra-virgin olive oil. Season the asparagus with black pepper. Take a quick count of the spear tips. Divide the total number by four. Gather that number of spears and use a slice of bacon to wrap the bundle and secure the spears together. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

For grilling: place bundles on hot grill and cover. Cook 10 to 12 minutes until bacon is crisp and asparagus bundles are tender.
For oven preparation: place bundles on slotted broiler pan. Bake 12 minutes.

Brownie Bites

I think Mythbusters should test if a person eats more when the food is bite-sized than when it's plate-sized. But then again, I already know the answer. I eat more if they are little bite-sized morsels. So much for relying on the fun size candy bar trick.

This recipe makes 24 little brownies, which I bake in a pan I picked up at a Robert's Crafts going out of business sale. It's a really great Wilton brand mini-muffin pan with 12 spaces. These are fast, delicious, and disappear off the counter in no time. I ended up taking mine into the office to share with my brilliant co-worker A, and thankfully, she needed a little chocolate pick-me-up too. Eaten two at a time, you'll need more before your oven even cools down. They're also great to freeze individually (or in pairs), so you can pull them out whenever you need a gluten free treat. I'm looking forward to the days when I have a bigger freezer and can fill it with brownie bites. Until then, you don't have to worry about these going stale.

Last Year: Gluten Free Panda Orange Chicken
Two Years Ago: Gluten Free Streusel Coffee Cake

Gluten and Dairy Free Brownie Bites

adapted from a childhood recipe ala my Mom

[Printer Friendly]

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celcius). In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until they become one. Add in egg, and stir. Add shortening, vanilla, honey, and water, and stir until the mixture is combined. It should look similar to gluten-containing brownie batter. Add in chocolate chips and stir until they are incorporated.

Spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Plop large tablespoons of batter (filling them 3/4 full) into each muffin spot. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they are slightly firm, a little crackly on top, and have risen above the edge of the pan. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack to finish.

Makes 24 mini-muffin sized brownie bites.

Fresh Pear Cake

Today was bustling with spring movement. Yesterday I went out to eat and sat on the patio at the restaurant. The trees haven't yet burst forth with their buds, but the fragile little starts are resting on the ends of branches, waiting for the perfect day to flower into spring.

I'm excited for a change in the weather, for some more sunlight in the evenings. Barbecue, anyone? We'll likely kick it off with a weenie roast this weekend (we prefer Nathan's all beef kosher hot dogs). Cheers to a nice weekend, everyone!


I wanted to make this for you, and use my fresh, sweet pears inside it while they were still perfectly ripe. The tender crumb of the cake, dotted with walnuts, is perfect for the pear bits to melt into. This is now a favorite use for a pile of pears.


Last Year: New Approach to my Recipes (Dairy Free!)
Two Years Ago: Five Guys Review

Fresh Pear Cake
adapted from this recipe
[Printer Friendly]

2 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup millet flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch 

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 egg

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour. This is important - the sugar helps bring out the sweetness, and the juice, in the pears.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray an 8x8 inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray. Slightly beat the egg and combine it with the oil, chopped walnuts and pear mixture.
Stir the flours, salt, baking soda, xanthan gum, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in the pear mixture. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 45 minutes. It should have a crusty top, flaky almost, and be slightly firm to the touch. Remove from oven ant let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing form pan.

Reader Question: How do I make GF breaded chicken?

Hot dog - I've got a friend who wants this question answered. We were texting back and forth, and she didn't tell me what kind of chicken she wanted to bread. My mind went a little crazy with it, and so I started thinking about all the different ways to make a GF chicken breading, and I thought I'd share with you!

Southern Fried Chicken or Chicken Fingers. Near the beginning of our foray into gluten free foods, I found a great roadmap for a chicken fingers recipe on Mrs. G.F.'s My Gluten Free Cookbook blog. The breading ingredients? A combination of crushed corn tortilla chips and unsweetened shredded coconut. I looove this combination, it's crunchy and has some dimension to it. The boy turned out to not be a fan of the added coconut, but I found it to be delightful, just a little different than chicken fingers from Denny's or something. Coconut is also perfect on baked tilapia with apricot dipping sauce. If you're making some Southern Fried Chicken, a nice gritty cornmeal would be great on the outside. My favorite is Arrowhead Mills cornmeal, nice and tender.


Chinese Chicken. I love a good crunchy Chinese chicken, coated in a sauce that's thick and sweet. Hello - doesn't every Celiac love a good visit to Pei Wei or P.F. Changs? I sure do. I'm always pleased to find a Chinese restaurant that has gluten free breaded chicken, and most often it's made from potato starch (P.F. Changs) or cornstarch (Joy Luck Chinese restaurant in Sandy). Either one of these coatings is perfect if you throw the chopped chicken into a resealable bag with the starch and shake around before you throw it into the oil. A light, crisp breading, perfect every time. I've done the same thing with my Panda Orange Chicken recipe.

Via

Chicken Parmesan or Italian style. There are several great gluten free breadcrumb brands out there, or you can take a slice of old GF bread and whiz it in your food processor or blender. Sometimes I'll do this and throw it into the freezer afterward, so that I have breadcrumbs any time I want to make Chicken Parmigiana or some gluten free Crab Cakes. This is the old three step method to breading something: beginning with a layer of gluten free flour, then a dip in egg wash, and then a dip in gluten free bread crumbs. The egg wash holds on the bread crumbs, while the inner layer of flour is the perfect place for some seasoning (salt and pepper, or any other spice like cayenne is great in that first layer of flour). Also, I just wanted to throw out there that it's really easy to season your own bread crumbs after spinning up your own crumbs in the food processor. Just throw in some Italian herbs and some black pepper and you've got another layer of flavor in your food.

Light all-purpose breading. I've found a really elegant solution to some meals that involve chicken and veggies is a really light breading on the outside, and then a saute in a pan to cook the flour and cook the chicken through. My favorite flour for this is millet flour, which I buy in bulk on Amazon.com. It's very similar to corn flour, with a slight corny undertone to it. I've made a few times a recipe of lightly breaded chicken stuffed with roasted red peppers and sheepsmilk feta (the feta is just for the boy) with some fresh herbs in there too. Just a small plate of millet flour with a little salt and pepper in it is perfect breading for this chicken. You could try this with any stuffed chicken dish.

How do you bread your GF chicken recipes?

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup Recipe

What do you do when you think you've just been given 7 chunks of ginger root? You start with your microplane zester and zest it up, so you can freeze it.

I sat down for some good zester time the other day, only to realize that what I was zesting was not that warm yellow color, and didn't smell like ginger. I sat down for a quick Google search, and discovered it was Jerusalem artichoke, or sunchoke. Totally seasonal for February in the Northern United States, it turns out. So, it wasn't the ginger root I was anticipating, but it did whip up into this beautiful soup.

These are truly root vegetables, all craggy and irregular on the outside. Grown in the earth, and preserved quietly underground until the gray blanket of winter shows no signs of lifting. February. (Can you tell I'm excited we've made it to March? I really am!) It's mild with a little bite, and marries perfectly with potatoes and onions. It purees beautifully into a great dairy free creamy soup that can sooth a sore throat or cough. I just spent the last week on my couch with the seasonal flu that's making its way around. So many people I know are sitting on their couches right now with it that's it's hard to even say where it came from.

Thankfully, jerusalem artichoke soup, lots of lemonade, and a few episodes of the second season of Who Do You Think You Are? and my fever broke. It only took six days for me to flatline back into a normal body temperature. I'm so glad it happened though. I hope you all are feeling better, too. I'm probably not the only one who had the plague last week. Cheers!

Last Year: Cranberry Cream Pie
Two Years Ago: Yoplait Yogurt (lots of dairy going on in March, I guess!)

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Adapted from this recipe
[Printer Friendly]

8 cups (or more) low salt chicken or veggie stock

1 pound Jerusalem artichokes
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, finely minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Bring the chicken or veggie stock to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot. I decided to make my own veggie stock for this recipe, so mine was already hot. Peel the jerusalem artichokes with a vegetable peeler or knife and chop them into 1/2 inch diced pieces. Add chopped and peeled potatoes, onions, garlic, oregano, ginger, and thyme. Cover pot and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes and jerusalem artichoke are tender. Remove from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

In small batches, spoon the soup into your blender and puree until smooth. Or, use an immersion blender in the soup until smooth. Simmer on the stove to let the flavors meld, and season to taste with sea salt and fresh black pepper. Serve with chopped avocados and bacon.