Bacon & Brown Sugar Roll

Whether you are entertaining a large group or just want to make something special and different for a small family meal, I have a great suggestion for you. All you need are 3 things: brown sugar, bacon, and mini sausages. I used Aidell's mini apple & chicken sausages, (little smokies are not gluten free from what I understand,) and Applegate turkey bacon. Simply cut your bacon in half, wrap the sausage, use a toothpick to hold it. Right before you put them in the oven at 350 degrees, sprinkle them with brown sugar.  Bake for about 20 minutes, rotate and sprinkle if you deem it necessary, and bake for another 20 minutes or until the turkey seems crispy. Serve immediately. You won't be disappointed.

Zucchini & Cheese Appetizers

I experimented with eggplant last week, so this week I decided to play with zucchini. My husband supposedly hates squash of all kinds, but hen you add cheese to the mix, how can you hate something, right?  I found a super simple recipe for these grilled zucchini roll-ups on Health.com, and I tweaked it a little.


I made sure to pat off the extra moisture the zucchini had after being grilled, let them cool, and then instead of goat cheese I used a cashew cheese with some lemon juice and spread it on the zucchini.  Add fresh spinach leaves, although after eating we agreed they would be even better if the spinach was slightly blanked, fresh herbs if you like, and roll.  That's it.  A great, easy, health finger food for parties, as a side, or an appetizer.

Seasoning Packets

I have come to accept that not everyone is as creative or exploratory as I am in the kitchen, so I would like to open everyone's eyes to the versatility of seasoning packets. I know there are other gluten free brands out there, but two I've been using lately are Cali Fine Foods and Mayacamas.
Cali Fine Foods packets are produced in a dedicated gluten free facility, and come in 5 flavors. The Garlic Gusto makes a fabulous dip, and the herb medley is nice blended with olive oil and used as a light pizza sauce. They also have a sweet 'n spicy bbq mix that is a great taco seasoning substitute, but I was feeling lazy one night ans used it a seasoning for a pot of chili.


Mayacamas is not a dedicated gluten free company, but they do test their gluten free products. offers both what they call skillet toss mixes, and pasta sauce mixes. I find the skillet tosses to be a little bit more versatile, and love the green olive pesto as a pesto sauce for a veggie pizza. The dried tomato is great mixed with cream cheese and put on a bagel, and the spicy one is awesome mixed in as a marinade with ketchup or bbq sauce. At less than $2 a packet, any of either brand really are a great addition to have on hand in the kitchen cupboard.

Sojo Foods Fish Appetizer Bites

I recently came across a new savory gluten free item from Sojo Foods. Now normally I love to cook from scratch, but I like to try new things so I can share it with all of you. Plus I had a gift card, so they were a free treat. SojoFoods makes seafood cakes and appetizer bites. Now sadly the cakes are not gluten free but some of their appetizers are. They offer Smoked Salmon with Spinach Capers & Dill, Mediterranean Shrimp with Garlic and Oregano, and the one I tried, was Spicy Thai Tuna with Ginger and Chili Pepper.

For about $5 you end up getting 8 appetizer bites, each of which are about the size of a golf ball. The tuna ones got nice and brown in the oven, although they did need some extra time to get them hot in the center. I cut mine in half, and dipped them in Oli's Sweet 'n Spicy Sauce, and they were delicious. They smelt really fishy at first, but that dissipated. Pretty much like a crab cake, although a different shape, these were tasty. I wouldn't buy them all the time, but I really enjoyed them. The tuna ones are relatively spicy, but not "my tongue's on fire" hot. I am definetly interested in trying out the other two flavor varieties.

Sweet Tooth Satisfaction

I've been on a popcorn kick and found a super easy caramel corn recipe. Let me tell you it was all gobbled up within a 24 hour period. Next time I think I'll make a double batch!
Ingredients
1 bag of popcorn
1/2 up peanuts
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Pop popcorn and put in a large baking pan with peanuts.
3. In a small pan combine butter, sugar, corn syrup, and salt.
4. Bring to a boil, then turn the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Remove from heat then add in vanilla and baking soda and stir well.
6. Pour over popcorn.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Cool on wax paper then store in airtight container.

Tweaked from 1,000 GF Recipes p421

Let's Deep Fry!

I'm not a beer drinker but figured since they make gluten free beer I should try it. I tried the Redbridge, which was the most frequently recommended, and well, it was ok. The after taste wasn't bitter and it didn't linger long. And since I had finally tasted GF beer I figured the next step was to cook with it, so why not whip up some beer batter and deep fry whatever we had on hand. We made the following batter and enjoyed some deep fried onion rings, and beer battered shrimp.

Ingredients
2 cups brown rice flour
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons dried parsley
3 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 bottle Redbridge beer
1 cup vegatable oil


Directions
1. Combine flour, egg, parsley, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper.
2. Gradually add beer, stirring, until a thick batter forms. Add more or less beer depending on the desired consistency of the batter, (we used almost the whole bottle).
3. In a frying pan heat up the oil over medium-high heat.
4. Dip whatever food you're going to fry into the batter.
5. Gently drop into hot oil turning occasioanllu to ensure browning evenly on both sides.
6. Drain on paper towels.

Not all that pretty but man, these were delicious!

Seven Layer Taco Dip

For our Christmas gathering in addition to making a sweet, my favorite category of food, I tried out a new dip recipe, and it was a big hit! For your next party why not try this one out.


1 oz package taco seasoning mix
16 oz can refried beans, (Amy's brand is GF)
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
16 oz container sour cream
16 oz jar salsa
1large tomato, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch chopped green onions
1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 In a medium bowl, blend the taco seasoning mix and refried beans.
2 Spread the mixture onto a large serving bowl.
3 Mix the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl.
4 Spread over the refried beans.
5 Top the layers with salsa.
6 Place a layer of tomato, green bell pepper, red onions and lettuce over the salsa.
7 Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
8 Put in refrigerator to firm up layers a few hours before serving.

Takes about 45 minutes of preparation and will easily serve 15-20 people, but for a smaller crowd it's fairly easily to cut it in half.

from allrecipes.com

Homemade Guacamole

So I own a fabulous Blendtec blender, and while a regular blender could certainly make guacamole, my blender just plain rocks. I had friends over for our monthly game night and we made some fresh guacamole and it was amazing. I have not in the past enjoyed guacamole but I've been trying all the recipes that came with my blendtec and this was one of them. You've got to try it and maybe make it your own!

3 avocados- peeled and pitted
1/2 cup red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 tomato, quartered
1/2 small lemon, peeled
1/4 yellow onion, peeled
3/4 tsp salt