Wheatless Wonders OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

I am oh-so-pleased to report that Wheatless Wonders has begun actual production and retail sales this week! My first run at baking in a commercial kitchen went off smoothly and I delivered the product of that effort to Cups and Cones this week for retail sale and taste-test sampling. The vast majority of the items there are on hand for sampling, and there have been quite a few takers, all of whom have reported that the items were very good and didn't at all taste gluten-free, which of course is a major objective of my efforts here!!! They have a few of each of the items packaged for retail sale. The items there to taste or buy are:

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Banana Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Angel Snickerdoodles

If you get by and try them, I'd love to have your feedback on what you liked best and what else you'd like to see me work on. (I'll take any "dislike" feedback too, but please be gentle and try to offer suggestions for improvement if you have them... :-) )

I have plans for testing a couple of blueberry muffin recipes this week -- one I've tried before and loved the flavor of but not so much the appearance. But my idea is to see what a light sugar glaze on the top of that muffin does -- I think it will make it a winner! The other recipe is one with a streusel topping. Streusel seems to be a big hit with most people and is certainly visually appealing; it's not something that has really ever been a huge draw to me, but it's not all about me...

This weekend, I found the PERFECT chocolate buttercream frosting recipe -- it was just exactly that flavor I've always sought but never been able to create with other chocolate buttercream recipes I've tried. Now, my goal is to find just the right yellow cake recipe to go with it. I have 2-3 candidates I have yet to try, so I'm looking forward to that (but going to have to share with friends to protect my body from myself!).

Also on the to-do list is testing a Texas Sheet Cake recipe. I've done one before that was based on Ree Drummond's (Pioneer Woman) recipe, and coincidentally (or maybe not), this one is too! The first was decadent and delicious, and I'll be curious to see whether I like this one as well or better. Those of you who are gluten-consumers should seriously look into this Pioneer Woman's cookbooks b/c she seems to have some winning recipes going!

I'll keep you posted as things develop. Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement!

Wheatless Wonders is born!

Most people who follow my blog are my friends and family, so this is probably old news, but just in case anyone else is watching out there, I wanted to let you know that my new business has begun and my products should be available for purchase and consumption either this week or next (by 2/16/11 at the latest)!

The name of the company is Wheatless Wonders and my primary business model is wholesale sales of individual-serving-size packages of gluten-free muffins, cookies, and cake slices available to the public through coffee shops here in greater Austin. My first retail location will be Cups & Cones, the awesome coffee and ice cream shop in Steiner Ranch. I will eventually expand into other parts of town through other coffee shops, but not yet. The other part of my business is custom cakes direct to consumers. You can find out about that on my website at www.wheatlesswonders.com!

How exciting!

Grilled Shrimp Ceviche

Today, I tried another of the recipes from Delight magazine's summer issue -- Grilled Shrimp Ceviche. Traditionally, a ceviche is actually done with raw seafood and the acids in the lime juice and/or vinegar "cook" the food over time in the fridge. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that, but luckily this recipe had you start with grilled shrimp.

I skewered the shrimp, sprinkled a little cumin and garlic powder over them (not in the recipe but recommended by the seafood guy at HEB) and grilled them. Then, while they cooled, I chopped the red onion, tomato, and cilantro. Once the shrimp were cooled, I cut them in thirds (also not in the recipe, though I thought the picture didn't look like whole shrimp so maybe they just left that instruction out) and mixed them with the veggies, lime juice and olive oil. I chilled the whole mixture (though it was equally good when I tasted it immediately) and served them with tortilla chips for dipping. It was FABULOUS!!! (Again, if you want the measurements for the recipe, email me or pick up the magazine -- I got mine at Whole Foods and so far, their recipes have been delicious and healthy!)

Apparently it is a common practice to serve ceviche in a martini glass -- almost all the pictures online show it that way. Serving with chips is also apparently a common practice. The recipe actually called for spooning it into Tostitos Scoops and serving as individual pick-up cups, but I chose not to do that b/c I've read some conflicting info about cross-contamination gluten issues with Frito Lay products. Till I get confirmation that they're truly gluten free, I'll stick with ones I know (or at least believe!!) are.

Fewer Carbs, More Veggies, and New Stuff

Last week at a celiac group meeting, we listened to a very good and knowledgeable speaker who spoke about several key elements to good health, particularly in the face of food intolerances and allergies. Some of her presentation was on diet, some on supplementation with various vitamin type things, and some on lifestyle (including physical activity, prayer, meditation, and stress reduction). As an added bonus, for the first time ever, someone gave an explanation for why it would be a good thing to include a Fish Oil supplement in my regimen that actually made logical sense!

A couple of key points she made regarding diet were to use carbohydrates sparingly and to eat more veggies. This may sound like "duh!", but the discussion got me motivated, at least for the moment. She pointed out that those of us whose bodies have been fighting against us over our carbs (namely wheat) really need to give our systems a break from complex carbs that aren't easily digested. For me, that means that my chosen path of stopping wheat consumption but going full-out with non-wheat carbs is not helping enough (not to mention the less than stellar effects it has produced on my scale...). I just need to reduce my starches across the board. As we talked about the “eat more veggies” part, I was inspired by the notion of trying to incorporate more veggies into lots of different meals and food combinations, so I decided to explore some options. I haven't gone far into exploring new veggie varieties yet (there are more than I can count that I never eat) but one step at a time...

I started with breakfast. Let’s face it - except for eggs and fatty meats, breakfast is a carb heavy meal. IMHO, you can only eat eggs so often before you start thinking "ugh - no more!" But at least I can have eggs a few times a week if I get creative with my preparation options, and that’ll let me… get more veggies in my breakfast! For example, one day I made an omelet with broccoli slaw in it - surprisingly good! (Broccoli slaw is in the produce section pre-bagged and is mostly thin strips of broccoli -- stalk part -- with a few carrot strips and cabbage strips in it.) Another day I sautéed up some onions and mushrooms and threw them with some tomato into an egg and cheese breakfast casserole - also yummy, though next time I will use less onion and will make sure I have some diced green chilies for it too because -- YUM!!!

I had also been wanting to try out an alternative grain that is supposed to be super good for you and incidentally is higher than wheat in every nutritional quality EXCEPT complex carbohydrates (and gluten) - which works for me! Yes, it’s in the carb category that I’m supposed to use sparingly, but for something in that category, it’s considered to be exceptionally good. It's called quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I had already tried quinoa flakes for a hot breakfast cereal, and that was pretty good – especially with some diced apples and a little brown sugar – but I had never used the grain itself. It’s a bit weird looking (shown raw and cooked below)

and I had no idea how to cook it, so off I went to teh interwebz to find some recipes. I stumbled across one for Quinoa Pilaf and decided to try it out with lunch. I used the recipe here but made a few changes (added 1 or 2 cloves pressed garlic, used chicken broth instead of veggie broth, and used sliced almonds instead of walnuts b/c that’s what I had). Verdict -- it was yummy! Since I had plenty of leftovers, the next day I sautéed some chicken breasts in a tiny bit of canola oil and then I set the chicken aside and tossed some broccoli slaw in the same pan. Once that was crisp tender, I threw the meat back in and added some of the quinoa pilaf, heating it all together. It was delicious -- a lot like fried rice in its flavoring. I highly recommend it!

We also tried another really fantastic veggie and fruit salad dish this week that I found in a GF magazine called Delight. I cannot TELL you how many fabulous looking items were in that magazine, but so far, this is the only one I’ve gotten around to making. It’s Roasted Corn, Pineapple & Black Bean Salsa (though the consistency is more like pico than salsa) and is made with corn, pineapple, black beans, red onion, red pepper, lime juice, garlic, and cilantro. The picture showed avocado and tomato but the recipe didn’t call for them, so I diced and added about half a tomato and half an avocado to mine. It was delicious! It appeared from the instructions that you are supposed to serve it immediately, which we did, meaning that it was a tiny bit warm (from sauteing the corn), but it was equally good the next day cold. Email me if you want the full recipe.

My one foray into new-and-different veggies came from our neighborhood’s new weekly farmers market, where I got some pattypan squash. As a side dish to grilled fish, I sauteed that up with a little zucchini, some good seasonings, and a diced onion. Honestly, I can say the pattypan was mostly the same as the zucchini in flavor, but the dish was tasty enough.

So that about sums up my veggie adventure so far. For me, this is HUGE b/c normally, I eat no veggies with breakfast, none with lunch, and 1-2 with dinner each day (and one of those 2 would be a starchy veggie like potatoes, if that even counts as a veggie). So for me to be incorporating them into my diet multiple times a day, much less mixing them together, is a very big step! Yea for expanded horizons!

Next up: Grilled Shrimp Ceviche! Mmmm!

A Lovely Bridal Shower (and Cake!)

My cousin's bridal shower was last weekend and I was one of the hostesses. I was not really relishing the idea of watching everyone else have dessert when I could not partake, so I talked with my mom and sister about baking the cake myself and making it GF. I also wanted to be sure that everyone would be happy with the result, so I did a test run earlier in the week for them to taste test. I had baked a wonderful lemon sour cream pound cake from the Four Chickens blog I follow, and I figured that would be a winner. (Actually, I had a couple of other ideas from that blog that were various chocolate cake options, but mom and Michelle voted lemon for the shower.)

Anyway, the test run was a hit -- it even resulted in my 12-year-old asking for this lemon cake for his next birthday, so you know it had to be pretty good! So I baked it again on Friday night for the Saturday shower. Mom had requested that I make the glaze a little more yellow so it was obvious it was going to be lemon flavored before you bit into it, so I used a tiny bit of a Wilton lemon yellow dye to adjust that. Michelle brought raspberries to add a splash of contrasting color to the cake and this was the result (no flash so the yellow of the glaze is not obvious in this picture, but rest assured, it's a beautiful shade of lemon yellow):


I think it turned out very pretty and very tasty, and the bride-to-be was happy as well! Everyone seemed to enjoy it so I'll count that as a success. The only other thing I'd like to figure out is how to make the glaze stay shiny after it dries. It was a much more vibrant yellow while it was pouring on wet than it was when it dried. Guess I'll have to Google info on that!

(Now, if only I had remembered to grab the gift for the bride from my dining room before I left town to drive to Houston for the shower, everything would have been perfect! But let's dwell on the positive, shall we?)

King Arthur Flour Muffins

King Arthur Flour company is my hero! I just had a TO-DIE-FOR blueberry muffin made from their GF muffin mix (my own frozen/thawed blueberries added). They are moist, beautiful, and delicious! This adds to the already long list of wonderful product mixes they make -- brownies, cookies, and pancakes (and the bread mix was good, just not better than others I've tried that are slightly cheaper). I am highly impressed by and appreciative of their work to make a wonderful GF product for this market niche!

Thank you Land O' Lakes!

The Land O' Lakes website has an awesome recipe for GF chocolate chip cookies! It's no more complicated than the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and makes totally delicious and normal looking chocolate chip cookies! Yea them and yea me!

I've tasted them warm and cool and they're good both ways. I've frozen a couple of cooked cookies to see if they reheat from frozen well and I'm going to try to take some of the batter and form it into balls and freeze that to see if they can be good break-and-bake (from freezer) cookies too. The trouble with GF baked goods is that they don't really keep for long (they're best consumed within the first 24 hours) so finding ways I can make it easy to make just a few cookies when I want some is key.

I'll keep you posted!

Update 1: They reheat from frozen cooked cookies quite well. Microwave doesn't heat them perfectly evenly, so it's better if you get them warmed and then let them sit for a bit so the hot spots cool and the cold spots warm to room temperature. Then they taste the same as when first cooled. Will try another couple after they've been frozen for a few days.

Update 2: The frozen dough can be cooked and makes good cookies but takes freakin' forever to cook. I think the frozen and thawed cooked cookies are both more efficient and tastier, so I guess next time I'll just make up the whole batch and freeze what I don't think we'll eat.