Almond Meal Recipes

I love almond flour!

I first used almond meal in a recipe I was trying for a flourless crust. It was a cookie crust to be covered with pudding and cream cheese and whipping cream. When my first crust made of plain rice flour (grainy and crunchy) failed, I dragged out the almond meal that was languishing in the freezer and threw it in with butter and sugar and it was delicious.

Almond Crust

1 cup almond meal, 3 TBS butter, 1/3 cup sugar. Blend together and pat into a pie pan. Bake 10 minutes and then cool and then fill crust with your favorite delicious filling.

GF Almond Cookies I have a delicious one of these and I will find it I promise--soon.

But how could any crust go wrong under all that?

Truly, almond flour (meal) really makes a light flaky delicious crust. It's a great flour for cookie crusts in pies, cheese cakes, and I really thinkg that it would be a great addition to a graham-like cracker.

I use almond meal daily as part of my 8 flour mix.

Here are some websites to view: http://almondflour.homestead.com/
Gluten free heaven has a wonderful almond muffin GF/CF http://glutenfreeheaven.blogspot.com/2008/11/gfcf-banana-almond-butter-muffins.html

You can grind your own almond meal/flour. I tried to use my blender. It's a K-Tec-"Will-it-Blend" (see You-Tube) and baby, will it blend. It blends almonds into butter before I know it, so I tried to grind almonds with rice in my spice grinder and that didn't work and then someone recommended that I use a food processor, and that works great. It grinds to just the right consistency.

Almond Poppy Seed Muffin Mix
See my recipe for these.  They are delicious.

Celiac Genes

Sisters, four of the five of us have CD. Another thirteen of our first degree relatives follow the diet, either because they are diagnosed or because by acting on the genetic probability, they felt better.

Among the five of us we have a myriad of other ills that we are staving off with healthier dietary habits and sticking to a GF diet. We no longer suffer from our initial diagnoses of pernicious anemia, crohns, migraines, lupus, IBS, restless leg syndrome, reflux, early onset osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and premenapausal symptoms.

We are healthy and loving it. And that is what makes the diet all worth it.

College bound and GlutenFree?

Happy to be GF at College. There are ways to live healthy as a gluten-free college student. See these links for more life stories and information:

http://www.glutenfreeda.com/feb09-college-living-gf.asp

http://www.glu-teenfree.blogspot.com/

Oklahoma Restaurant Reviews

Okay, I love Mr. Michael Fusco and his restaurant. When I visited, I only had to say I'm eating Gluten Free and I was reassured by the waitstaff that they know what they are doing. Twice I asked them about the gravy... "Are you sure." They are!

Mr. Fusco has been celiac diagnosed for a while, but now is scrupulously practicing. I attended one of his GF cooking classes and it was delicious--and not just the food. His homemade pasta is unmatched!

He is a scratch chef and he knows what is in each and every dish. He is moving more and more into advocacy. It helps to have a big name in the business!

At his restaurant, make certain that when your muffins come they are in a silver server. That denotes to all staff that you are specifically GF and they must take extra caution with contamination.

... MICHAEL FUSCO'S RIVERSIDE GRILL. 9912 Riverside Drive 394-2433

Favorite Breads

This evening's loaf: 1/4 cup of flax meal added.

There is no prefab bread mix or frozen loaf that I like as much as bread made from stratch. I am too cheap to try them all, but my newest love is Bette Hagman's Basic Millet Bread Recipe from her Gourmet Bakes Bread book.

The son sliced the bread and took the photo and then asked, "Now, can I eat it?"

The first slice of this morning's loaf was so tasty, I gave it away. (I like to believe that I wasn't being gauche. After all part of a loaf is better than none.)

The loaf mixes up in a regular mixer and a medium loaf bakes nicely in my loaf pan. It is tasty for days and has cheap ingredients millet, tapioca and corn starch. Finally! A loaf left long enough to photograph!

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In the past, I have loved www.TwinValleyMills.com's recipe for Sorghum Bread (also formulated by Bette). I love it, but it doesn't freeze (sorghum flour doesn't) well. (There is never enough left to freeze anyway!)

What breads do you love?

Homemade bread hints: Never double raise GF dough--once is enough. GF dough raises half again as much during baking, only raise dough half-way then bake. Watch the timer. It's easy to overbake/and underbake gf doughs.

Do you have hints or preferences? -- Pass them on!

Breakfast Strata

Yum! The Snowman Blitz Brunch for my church group was delicious! We enjoyed many selections of casseroles and biscuits, all made gluten-free. (And no one could tell.) Here a few selections:

Ham and Cheese Strata

4 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup GF baking mix (Bob's was recommended, but I just used equal measures of my pancake mix)

1/4 cup favorite oil

2 cups milk

2 cups diced ham
1/3 cup diced onion
1 cup grated swiss or cheddar cheese

Scatter ham and onion with cheese in the bottom of a 8x8 greased pan, Mix and pour other ingredients over and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until set and browned nicely on top. (double batch took 40-50 minutes)

I doubled the batch to fit into a oversized 9x13. I baked it half way the night before and finished it the next morning. It was delicious.

I ate it for days afterward--probably not a good habit to get into. I'm fatter, but happier!