Quoda’s Space Blog

I made a plan to eat baked eggs with sauteed beet greens over polenta this morning. But I didn’t make polenta last night and didn’t want to mess with it this morning.

Then I spotted the blackberries still in the fridge.

I wanted to bake them. Not in a cobbler, but in more of a crumble.

So here’s what happened…

• I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
• I lightly greased a ramekin with a tiny bit of cooking spray.
• I put blackberries, freshly washed and dried, in the bottom of the ramekin.
• In a small bowl, I mixed 3 tbsp oats, 1 tbsp flour (both gluten-free), 1 tbsp brown sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and 1 tbsp butter. I mixed this with my hands until the butter was mixed in. (You may be able to use less butter with no issues)
• This crumble topping was put on the blackberries.
• I cooked it for about 30 minutes.

Here’s what I got!

The blackberries exploded with delicious. The crumble topping was yummy. A very nice experiment.

Today’s Haul: Broccoli, beets with greens, radishes, salad greens, more salad greens, sugar snap peas, mint, and OMG GARLIC SCAPES!!!

Once upon a time I tried garlic scapes. They are majorly yummy, especially if you happen to like garlic. They are going to be “pesto’d” a la this recipe from Serious Eats. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Tonight I added some steamed broccoli to some existing teriyaki pork. The same will happen Saturday and however long I still have teriyaki pork hanging around.

Plans for this week:

1) Salads! Side salad with the pizza I’m having tomorrow, salad with beets and goat cheese for next week’s lunch enjoyment.

2) Mint syrup! I may make chicken with pineapple and mint, but not this week. Mint syrup will give me fun options. The pea and mint soup is good for lunches on these hot days, though!

3) Radishes will be used in salads and on toast. I love radishes.

4) Sugar snap peas and some of the broccoli will be part of a sesame beef stir-fry next week. I hate to be so crazy for Asian food, but these veggies play nicely with it!

5) The beet greens will likely be sauteed and served over polenta with a fried egg on top. Though there is a recipe I found for chard, polenta, and baked eggs that may be modified to take advantage of the beet greens. I figure it will be a nice breakfast on my slower mornings.

Mmmmmmm veggies!

Started my CSA (Community or Consumer Supported Agriculture) on Thursday this past week. Pickup was easy and not too far away from home or work. I picked up my box and have been checking out the yummies!

I got three turnips with greens, a few radishes, about a pound, maybe more, of salad greens, some mint, some broccoli, and a bunch of spring onions.

The lettuce is yummy and great with a little dressing. I’ve been eating salads a few days here, will need to eat a few more. The guinea pigs like it and then they don’t, I can never tell. But it’s all good. I got some new dressings for salady goodness.

The spring onions are fabulous. I’ve been sauteeing them and mixing them with scrambled eggs. Apparently they freeze well, which is good because they are looking a bit sad after a couple of days.

I had the broccoli yesterday. I never cared for broccoli, but this was good. I steamed it and added it to some chicken teriyaki. Very tasty!

I had the turnips tonight for dinner. With my share there was an e-newsletter with a list of veggies and a recipe. This was a recipe for the turnips and their greens. It included raisins and onions. What a wonderful blend of flavors! The bitter greens were balanced by the sweet raisins and everything played nicely with the mild turnips. It was great to have a nice recipe to go with my share.

Starting tomorrow, the radishes will be eaten on buttered toast with a bit of sea salt.

The mint will be used in a mint and pea soup to go in next week’s lunches.

All in all, a great time! I feel like what I am getting so far is just enough. Sure, I am being forced (oh torment!) to eat a good amount of vegetables daily to keep up, but it is tasty food and I have been so craving more veggies in my diet. I’m eating much healthier! I promised myself I would try whatever I got, even if it was just once. I couldn’t believe the broccoli! The turnips were good, too! Maybe I can be friends with beets and okra as time goes on. Either way, I gotta eat my veggies!

Ah, such a flurry of activity lately. Grandparents in town, sister graduating college, spending time with boyfriend. It has been nice to see people I care about.

I’ve also been cooking like crazy, trying to master my skills before the CSA starts on the 27th. I am looking forward to the joy of fresh, seasonal produce! Right now I’m just having fun cooking. Tonight I’m making a BBQ beef roast, braised in a lovely smelling homemade sauce. Mmm. I’m also making a quinoa dish for my lunches this week.

Anyway, moving on to the topic at hand! I learned a few months ago about something fabulous that Amazon.com provides. It’s called “Subscribe and Save.” Amazon already sells fabulous groceries (including great gluten-free groceries in bulk at way cheaper prices than my local stores). This concept takes it to the next level. With Subscribe and Save, you elect to get a shipment of selected groceries every month, every three months, or every six months (I think they offer other times for shipments, too). Shipping is free and you save 15% on what you buy, meaning I can get an amazing price on gluten-free foods. I save loads of money on gluten-free baking and pancake mix (about $4 a bag less than at the store), crackers ($2/box less), and oats ($3/bag less).

Nervous about commitment? There is none. You can unsubscribe at any time. You can skip a shipment or even ask for a shipment sooner if you need it and you still get the awesome price deal.

I don’t know how good of a deal it is for conventional products, but for gluten-free foods Amazon.com is saving me loads of money!

My darling sister shared a wonderful cold with me this week. I’ve been out of work three days. Mostly it’s been coughing, stuffy nose, that sort of thing, but also an achy neck, headaches, and some signs of mild fever. Yuck. Worst of all, I haven’t been able to sleep much. The first day I slept extra and it was great. The second day I woke at 3am and couldn’t fall asleep till 1am the next night. Yuck! I’ve tried to nap on and off today after a night of fitful sleep, to little avail.

However, I do feel better and this evening I’ve started to get some of my energy back.

When I woke up at 3am on Friday, I was nauseous and wanted nothing more than toast. Just toast. Frickin toast. But I have no bread.

So I made bread.

I’ve had the ingredients for a long time now, I’ve just been afraid to try making it. What if I do it wrong? Bread is scary. Gluten-free bread is scarier. It can be crumbly or oily or hard as a brick or just plain nasty tasting.

I read the recipe awhile back on Wise Bread and was intrigued by how easy it sounded. It’s just mix, let rise, bake. No kneading. No magic bread dance. Way less scary than even the “easy” gluten bread recipes I’ve seen.

There’s nothing like doing math at 3am to determine ratios for the bread flour. I think next time I’ll mix all the bread flour in advance so it’s easier to do. A cup of corn starch (thanks to my fabulous friends, as a giant container of corn starch is the best gift ever!), a cup of brown rice flour, 2/3 cup of sorghum flour (this was thanks to another friend who spotted it on clearance!), and 1/3 cup corn (masa) flour. This made the 2 1/2 cups for the recipe and 1/2 cup extra. Next time I think I’ll try to measure out 9 cups of it and store it in a big bag or something.

Once I mixed the flours, I added the other dry ingredients and let the stand mixer do the hard work while I prepped the wet ingredients. Supposedly extra mixing helps make xanthan gum work, so I went along with that. I let the dough rise while I watched X-Files on Netflix. It’s the best thing to watch when you’re sleep deprived and dazed.

Then I baked the bread and got this beautiful loaf. It didn’t have much of a discernible crust, though I suppose baking it longer or having a steam bath type thing would have fixed that. But it was tasty. I ate it with butter. Didn’t even toast it till today. I did make the mistake of trying to wrap it before it cooled completely, but I just let it dry back out a bit and that solved the problem. I don’t know if it freezes well, but it sure was easy to make.

If I can just sleep through the night tonight, I think I will be done with this stupid cold! I will have to try.