Pork Tamales

I recently took a trip across southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. While traveling through Tucson, I stopped at Tucson Tamales (http://tucsontamale.com/) for their tamales. These tamales are so fresh and delicious! Once I got back from my trip, I researched tamale making and recipes. After hours of watching youtube videos, I found one that I liked, Amanda's South Texas Pork Tamales: http://how2heroes.com/videos/international/south-texas-pork-tamales.

So, naturally I made my own tamales. I followed Amanda's recipe, but I added more spices in the pork and whole corn. I followed the folding technique that the Tucson Tamale Co shows on their youtube video since I like their method of folding. I made over 40 tamales. This photo was taken while stacking the tamales into the steamer. These are so yummy! Although not as fresh as the Tucson Tamales since they use fresh corn daily, but still good enough to satisfy my cravings.

Kinako Ice Cream and Macarons

I made kinako ice cream and then had to make kinako macarons to accompany the ice cream. Kinako is roasted soy bean flour that is used in Japanese desserts as well as some Korean desserts. I found the recipe from this blog, http://icecreamdaily.blogspot.com/2013/05/day-9-black-sesame-kinako.html. I just substituted the black sesame to kinako.

The macarons were made by following this recipe http://www.chow.com/recipes/28339-french-chocolate-macarons-with-chocolate-ganache. I just substituted the cocoa powder for the kinako. As an ice cream sandwich, this combination is so much better than a ganache for the filling of a macaron- totally delicious!

New Year's Resolution- Cinnabon

I know that this is the time of year when folks are looking for ways to lose weight, but I just had to make these yummy gluten-free Cinnabons. And yes, I gained weight just by looking at the pie of Cinnabons.

The non-gluten-free dieters of my family loved devouring these yummy buns.
Recipe can be found here:http://recreatinghappiness.com/breakfast-recipes/gluten-free-cinnabon-copycat-cinnamon-roll-recipe-updated-and-now-easier-to-make/

Enjoy and eat them while they are still warm!

Homemade Yogurt

My new toy is a yogurt maker. I asked for this as a Christmas gift after deciding that I want to make my own yogurt. I consume yogurt daily in my morning smoothies. Since I like to use Greek yogurt in my smoothies, it is much cheaper to make my own yogurt.

About a mouth ago while researching how to make yogurt, I came across the SCD website and information on Elaine Gottschall. In reading her book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, I discovered the benefits of incubating the milk for 24 hours to produce a yogurt free of lactose. All of the medical information on benefits to eating lactose free yogurt can be read on the SCD site or in her book.

One can make yogurt within 4-6 hours, but I figure if I'm going to make my own yogurt then I would go the extra hours to produce a yogurt that is lactose free and healthier to the gut.

This yogurt is so yummy! It hasn't gone through the process of straining the whey, and the yogurt already tastes much better than the Greek yogurts found at the grocery stores. The taste is still sour, but has a sweeter flavor than found in the commercial yogurts.

Well, all of the yogurt research also lead me to new information and sites on how to make mascarpone, http://realfoodrealdeals.com/2013/04/17/homemade-mascarpone; and at the same website, how to make ricotta cheese and ghee. I was curious on how to make mozzarella. Mozzarella is also a very easy process. But for now, my next project will be making homemade frozen yogurt.
 

The Yule Mouse

My Yule Log or Buche de Noel cake had a mouse popping its head out of the log this year all thanks to the creativity of my daughter. I used my favorite gluten-free chocolate sponge cake recipe, http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/seasonalandholiday/r/gfbuchedenoel.htm, for the cake. The icing was mascarpone, some powdered sugar, and chocolate.

One trick that I do to prevent cracking in the cake when rolling the cake into the log shape is to roll up the cake while warm in a cloth towel that is covered with a coating of powdered sugar. Let the cake cool before filling, then unroll cooled cake, fill with soften ice cream or favorite filling, and roll up cake. If any cracks do form, they can easily be covered with icing.

Betty Crocker to the Rescue

The Betty Crocker's gluten free cake mixes are so tasty!

This marble cake was made with Betty Crocker's gluten free yellow cake and gluten free chocolate cake mixes. The cake was decorated with chocolate mascarpone icing, English toffee bits, and white truffles.

One would never know that the cake is gluten free.

Apple Pies

...are so yummy!  I have always enjoyed working with a flour dough to make pies crusts for scrumptious pies.  In late summer, my one and only apple tree produces apples that only taste good after the apples have been cooked. Every summer, I use the best of the apples that drop to the ground to make apple pies.

This summer I tried a couple of gluten free dough recipes. This one was my favorite since it was the easiest to work with in forming a pie shell. It's the gluten free Land O'Lakes pie shell recipe. I just double the recipe.

This pie was given the thumbs up by husband and son.