Gluten-Free Egg McMuffin

A special treat for my little girl is GF egg McMuffins. What? You can make that gluten-free? Yes, you can. A company called Food for Life makes yummy GF English muffins now. (Check out the link for details.) With this product, it's possible to make McDonalds'-style egg McMuffins right in your own home! YUM!

If you don't have access to Food for Life products, you can certainly try to immitate the same thing with simple toast--just use your GF bread and cut it into circles and toast it. Heck, it might work.

INGREDIENTS:
GF ham (i.e. Buddig, Hormel, etc.)
1 egg
1 slice cheese
English muffin (GF) sliced in half and toasted
1 tsp. cider vinegar
water
cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:
I don't own a double-boiler, so I can't poach my eggs properly. So this is how I poach them: I spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray, put a cup of water in it, add the cider vinegar, and boil. Once boiling, I add my egg. Use a spatula to "scoot" the egg across the bottom, so it doesn't stick. Boil it for ten minutes, 'till the yolk is pretty much hard--be careful not to boil it dry. (I don't like runny eggs, but if you do, cook it for less time.) In the last two minutes of boil time, add the ham to the water. It doesn't need to cook very long, just one or two minutes. Then remove it from the water with tongs. Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg out of the pan, once cooked. Rest the wet egg on a paper towel and dry it off some. Pat the ham dry too. Salt and pepper the egg.

Make sure you time it about right, so that your English muffins are hot and toasted when the egg is done cooking. You may choose to butter your English muffins, but it's not absolutely necessary.

Layer the ingredients like this:

Bread on bottom and top
Egg/slice of cheese/ham in the middle

Wrap the bottom half of your egg McMuffin in a paper towel, and that way you won't lose any bits of egg out the bottom. It can be a little drippy too, so this prevents a mess.

Basic Gluten-Free Gravy Recipe

There are several ways to make gluten-free gravy. For today's post, I'll go with the simplest method. It requires no pre-prep of any kind, other than soaking the corn starch in water for a while.

My list of ingredients includes instant broth, like a powdered broth that you can add water to and microwave. You can't trust the normal bullion cubes that you might buy in the regular grocery store. Instead, you might have to go to a health-food store or other GF supplier to get your powdered broth. Glutino makes good broth, but it comes from outside the US, so it can be a little spendy. There's another brand called Vogue that's not as expensive but doesn't taste quite as good (because it doesn't have any meat--it's vegan).

There's no reason why you can't use broth that you made a long time ago--you know, where you put leftover meat in a boiling pan and just let it simmer all day until you've got broth. Then you can freeze that broth in ice cube trays to last for a super-long time in the freezer. But I'm trying to make this recipe simple, so working moms can come home after a long day's work and just whip up a quick gravy. But yeah, you can use real broth instead of instant.

INGREDIENTS:
instant broth
corn starch
water

DIRECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of corn starch and soak it in a quarter cup of water. Use a fork to continually whisk up the corn starch mixture. That way it won't form a clump.

In a saucepan, put one cup of prepared instant broth (follow the directions on your instant broth label) and make sure the broth is well-mixed before you turn on the heat. Simmer this on medium-high until it reaches boiling point.

Add the corn starch mixture and continually whisk the gravy nonstop. Season with salt and pepper (and if you like other seasonings, like garlic or onion powder, those too), to taste. Be wary of using too much salt. A lot of instant broths already contain quite a bit of salt, so keep sampling your gravy as you season it, to make sure it's not too salty.

When the gravy reaches the appropriate thickness, remove from burner and serve. If it's not getting thick enough for you, add another tablespoon of watered-down cornstarch, but make sure it's not clumpy when you add it.

Gluten-Free Meatloaf Recipe

One of my children is 11 years old, and she's wanting to learn how to cook. So a couple of nights ago, I let her make a simple meatloaf, and this is the recipe we used:

INGREDIENTS:
11/2 lbs. hamburger
2 tbsp. finely chopped onions
1 tbstp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic
dash of salt
dash of pepper (we used fresh ground pepper)
2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce (Lee and Perrins is GF)
1 slice of dried GF bread
1 egg

DIRECTIONS:
There are a couple of ways to crumble up your dried GF bread slice. First, you can put it in a plastic Ziplock bag and roll over it with a rolling pin. Or a second choice is to put it in a food processor and let electricity do the work for you.

Once you've crushed the bread into crumbs, mince the garlic with a garlic press, beat your egg, and mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl. Then use a fork to press the well-mixed burger mixture into a bread pan (3x9 inches or whatever those are). Bake the loaf in a 400 degrees F. oven for 45 minutes to an hour (or until a meat thermometer registers 170 degrees. Drain the fat off of the meatloaf before you serve it, for a healthier meal.

Personally, I like to add vegetables like celery and peppers and mushrooms to my meatloaf, but that makes my kids gag! So I've found, the simpler I keep my meatloaf, the more the kids like it.

They like it even more if you make gravy to go with it. I'll post my very basic gravy recipe next week. To make a platter that looks pretty, slice the meatloaf, splay it out like you would a hand of cards, and drizzle gravy over the top. A sprig of parsley can make it look nice too. The only problem with the decorative platter, though, is that it allows the meat to get cool. So there's that to think about.

How to Make Gluten-Free Garlic Toast and Gluten-Regular Toast at the Same Time

This Image: iClipart

When you first start cooking gluten-free, you make a lot of cross-contamination mistakes. You walk around giving your GF kid the guilty eyes, because she's sick and you're responsible. So before you try any more recipes, wipe that guilty look off your face. It's not your fault. You've got to go through a learning curve before you reach perfection, and after six years of cooking GF, even I'm not perfect. So live and learn, but don't wallow in guilt over it.

Today's GF instructions are for something you'd think is simple, but really, it's not. There are a lot of cross-contamination issues when we cook GF, and making garlic toast is a biggie. So here are the instrucitons for making gluten-free garlic toast simultaneously with your regular garlic toast, all on the same cookie sheet:

Guten-Free Garlic Toast AND Regular Garlic Toast Recipe

Here's what you need:

• cube of butter or uncontaminated margarine
• garlic powder (fresh garlic is okay, as far as I'm concerned, but my kids complain it's too strong)
• 3-4 slices of GF bread, whatever fits on your cookie sheet
• 3-4 slices of regular bread, same deal
• 1 pastry brush labeled GF
• 1 pastry brush that's strictly for your gluten-containing ingredients
• aluminum foil
• cookie sheet

Instructions:

1. Lay the cookie sheet on a table or counter. Measure the aluminum foil to 3-4 inches LONGER than the cookie sheet actually is.
2. Place the aluminum foil on the cookie sheet, but fold it in the middle. (See illustration.)
3. Melt 1/2 cube of butter (I chop it up into little pieces and microwave it in a measuring cup) and mix with a good dash or two of garlic powder. Use your GF pastry brush to mix it. I stick my finger in to taste it, making sure it's got a solid garlic flavor, but it's not overwhelming.
4. Use the GF pastry brush to spread melted butter on both sides of your aluminum foil. (The gluten-side has not yet been contaminated, so it's not going to matter if you touch the GF pastry brush to that side, at this point.)
5. Place only the GF breads on one half of the aluminum foil. Use the GF pastry brush to spread butter on each of these pieces of bread. If you have any extra butter, flip the bread over and spread extra butter on the back. The more buttery the bread, the yummier!
6. To avoid contamination, discard all GF items in the kitchen sink or dishwasher while you work with the gluten-contaminated side of the aluminum-foil-covered cookie sheet.
7. Place gluten-containing breads on the empty half of the aluminum foil, being careful not to accidentally drip crumbs on the GF side.--Cross-contamination can happen easily, so don't touch the GF side with your hands, don't carry gluten-containing breads over the top of the GF side, etc...
8. Melt the other half of the butter. (Again, I chop it into bits and microwave it.) Sprinkle a couple dashes of garlic powder in this and mix it with the pastry brush that is NOT for GF items. -- You must keep this pastry brush separate at all times, even when this recipe is over and done. Pastry brushes easily store bits of gluten between the bristles, so once it has been used on gluten-containing breads, it will forever be contaminated.
9. Brush the butter onto your gluten-containing bread slices now. Extra butter should be discarded, not stored, because it has been thoroughly contaminated with gluten.
10. Place the cookie sheet in a 400 degree F oven for a very brief time--usually 5 minutes or less. Just keep checking it. You want the garlic bread to turn golden brown but not black. I usually flip my garlic toast over once--doing the gluten-free pieces first to avoid contaminating them. Tongs will help you do this safely, but don't use them again to serve the bread unless you clean them thoroughly.

Variations:
It's possible to sprinkle your garlic bread with any of the following before toasting:

• dried parmesan cheese (the kind that comes in a can)
• dried parsley flakes
• grated mazarella cheese

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.