Potato Corn Chowder--A Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Warmer-Upper Recipe

I'm not a vegetarian myself, but my grandmother was, and I believe this recipe is one of hers. I learned it from her oldest daughter, my aunt Bertha.

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe (Gluten-Free and Meat-Free)

Images: iClipart

Ingredients:

• 1 14-oz. can of creamed corn
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 potatoes, peeled
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
• 14 oz. of cold milk (just use the creamed corn can to measure)
• 1 tbsp. potato starch flour
• 1 tbsp. rice flour (brown or white)
• 1 tsp. (that's right tsp. not Tbsp.) tapioca flour
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cube the potatoes and boil them until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. In a 2-qt. sauce pan, mix creamed corn, garlic (minced), carrot bits, onion, and most of the milk.
3.With about 1/4 cup of the milk leftover, mix all three gluten-free flours--potato starch, rice flour, and tapioca flour--into the milk until they're no longer lumpy. This will be your thickener. Set it aside for now. But when the time comes, only use as much as you feel you need.
4. Place corn mixture on the stove and heat it slowly and evenly (medium low temperature or medium, depending on your stove), stirring pretty much constantly to keep milk from burning to the bottom. Once corn mixture is warm, add spuds.
5. Gradually add thickener (milk and flour mixture). Cook until the potatoes are warm inside and the soup is thick enough to your taste.

If you want to make this a non-vegetarian dish, just add chopped ham or cooked bacon bits to the soup when you add the spuds.

This soup is a yummy way to warm up the whole family on a cold December afternoon. It makes about 4 bowls of chowder. It goes great with garlic toast, corn meal muffins, or Glutino crackers.

Next week I'll post my instructions on how to make garlic toast on a cookie sheet with 1/2 gluten-free toast and 1/2 gluten-normal toast. That was a tricky thing to figure out when I first got started cooking GF.

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels--Is It Even Possible? YES!

When Christmas rolls around, my GF kid always requests my gluten-free chocolate-dipped pretzels. Did you know there was such a thing as gluten-free pretzels? My favorite brands are Glutino and Ener-G. They're good as plain ol' pretzels, but they're even better dipped in chocolate and rolled in sugar sprinkles. Here's how you do it...

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels

Image: iClipart

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. GF pretzels
• 1 monster-big Hershey's milk chocolate bar
• GF candy sprinkles (we use Betty Crocker)

Directions:
1. Clean out a tin can that once held a gluten-free food (like canned corn). Make sure it's perfectly dry inside.
2. Break up the Hershey bar into small chunks and put them in the bottom of the tin can.
3. Put an inch of water in the bottom of a sauce pan. Place this on the stove and bring to a boil.
4. Using protection so your hands don't get burned (I use an OveGlove), hold the tin can of chocolate in one hand and a spoon in the other. Place the base of the tin can in the sauce pan of water and hold it there (it tends to want to float on the water, but you must press it down and keep it in the pan--don't let water seep into the tin can at all) while stirring the chocolate with the other hand.
5. You may need to reduce the heat on your sauce pan, so you don't burn yourself. Keep stirring the chocolate in your tin can until it has all turned fluid.
6. Remove the tin can from the sauce pan and turn off the stove. Be careful not to let any water drip into the tin can of chocolate.
7. Fill a saucer with candy sprinkles and spread a sheet of wax paper out on the kitchen counter. Use a pair of tongs to dip each individual pretzel in the can of chocolate, then in the candy sprinkles. Allow it to cool until hardened on the wax paper.
8. Do this over and over again, with each individual pretzel, until you run out of either chocolate or pretzels. Unused chocolate can be discarded, tin can and all, in the trash.

You know how your GF kid never gets to eat any of those yummy cookies and candies everyone has on display at their house at Christmas time? Well this is a handy substitute. Put half a dozen of these chocolate-covered pretzels in a mini-Rubbermaid food container, in your purse. When you get to that party where your kid can't have any of the food, whip out your home-made pretzels, and voila! Your GF child is the envy of everyone there.

Gluten-Free Ham Sandwiches and a Recipe for a Gluten-Free Egg McMuffin

Image: iClipart

There are lots of ways to make a ham sandwich appealing to a kid. One is the cookie cutter sandwich, like the ones I posted about back in October. (See image.) These are perfect for lunchboxes. You can go with a theme (like cutting them in pumpkin shapes for Thanksgiving/harvest time), or just offer a variety of shapes and let the child use his/her imagination with whatever you send to school.

Another ham sandwich favorite is the gluten-free toasted ham and cheese sandwich. For this, you just layer ham and cheese inside your sandwich; butter the outside of your sandwich; and grill it, like you would with a grilled cheese sandwich. These aren't good re-heated though, so save this sandwich for weekends and Thanksgiving vacation, when the kids are at home.

Finally, remember that breads come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Sandwhiches can be made on gluten-free biscuits, gluten-free cornmeal muffins, and even crackers. (Look back at my post on gluten-free home-made lunchables for more on that.)

Which hams are safe? Not all, of course. Read labels to be sure. But at the time when I wrote this post, the following hams were safe:
Many Hormel Hams
Some Canadian Bacons
Carl Buddig Hams and Other Lunch Meats 

I also sometimes buy my GF daughter those expensive GF English muffins made by Food For Life, and we make her Egg McMuffins A-la Mom. To make Egg McMuffins, this is all you need to do:

Gluten Free Egg McMuffins

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 capful of apple cider vinegar
• water
• 1 slice GF ham
• 1 slice cheddar cheese
• butter or margarine (to taste)
• Food for Life GF English muffin

Directions:

1. Poach an egg in a cup of water and a capful of cider vinegar. (I just boil it directly in the water/vinegar mix, but I know ritzy people have real poachers.)
2. Pull the poached egg out of the pan of water and set it on something to dry (I use paper towels, but the egg sometimes sticks to that). Fry a slice of GF ham in a skillet and set a slice of cheddar cheese on top to melt.
3. Meanwhile, slice your Food for Life GF English Muffin in half and toast it until crisp (they usually take longer than GF bread does for some reason). When they're done in the toaster, spread butter or margarine on both slices.
4. Layer ham, cheese, and egg between the two slices of English muffin, making a breakfast sandwich. I usually salt and pepper my egg, but my GF daughter just likes hers plain.