April 17th Michael's (My husband) 42nd Birthday!!

For my husband's 42nd birthday, as always I asked what he would like for his special birthday dinner, and he surprised me with his answer. He decided that he wanted BBQ'D tri-tip steak, but not with our usual Korean marinade. He wanted a garlicky, wine, olive oil and herb vinaigrette marinade. With that he requested smashed baked potatoes with butter, and buttermilk, and steamed artichokes with garlic, lemon and butter. This is not is every day meal since he comes from a family with very high cholesterol, and he himself is constantly battling his cholesterol numbers. So we thought it would be a special treat for his birthday. The meat was oh so tender, juicy, and flavorful. The smashed baked potatoes were creamy, with a yummy potato flavor that was not washed out as if we had boiled them, and they were not as rich as one would have thought either. For dessert I had fixed him a Banana-Chocolate Custard Tart. Talk about decadence! It was a banana pie taken to the extreme. The meal was delicious and filling an dso Autumn and I could only take a bite of the Banana-Chocolate Custard Tart. Even Michael was saddened that he could not have a larger piece of his birthday dessert. To make up for it he has been able to have a nice slice of it almost every night for a week after his birthday.

Many of you know that our entire household is gluten free. While the fact remains that Michael is not Celiac or gluten intolerant, he does live in a household with two others who are (Myself and our daughter Autumn). So I always tease others and say he is a Celiac by virtue of living with two others who are. Plus, if he wants to eat, he must eat gluten-free. Michael decided early on that it was much easier for me as the chief cook and bottle washer to only have to prepare one meal for the family and on the plus side it ended up so much less expensive for us. He has even learned to cook a few gluten-free dishes as well. For the most part our cooking hasn't changed that much, aside from breads and pastas and of course baking. We do have to be hypervigilant where and with whom we eat. We have to know what is on every menu and make sure that there is not a chance of gluten in the food or in it's preparation. But all of the delicious flavors and incredible textures, with a yummy side of visual appeal are all still there.

Michael seemed to really enjoy his birthday dinner, his decadent dessert and his gifts for his new (new to him) "Spider" scooter. He got his rear view mirrors replaced and he received a cool looking helmet and a very functional scooter trunk for the back. Autumn wants him to get a new seat at least for her because she says his seats are worse than the one on her bicycle. So not as pleasurable a ride as she would like. But she never turns down a ride. Do you want to hear something funny?! Michael finally had to fill up the tank on his scooter for the first time and it cost him a whopping $2.50. Mr. Frugral was truly in heaven! All recipes can be viewed on The Gluten Free Fox search engine.

Monday, April 20th, 2009, Pork Saltimbocca

Although I am Puerto Rican, I love to dabble in other cultural delicacies. I decided to make Pork Saltimbocca with a lemon and white wine cream sauce with asparagus served over fettuccine. I am told Saltimbocca which is Italian, means that it is so flavorful that it jumps in your mouth. I love that concept. If I had it my way I would want all of my food to jump in my mouth. Not because it is still alive but because it has such incredible taste. While this dish sounds difficult don't let it's name fool you. It is not all that difficult to recreate. I took parts of this recipe from Rachel Ray and "Everyday Italian" with Giada. Of course I had to make the recipe my own with little additions here and there, and I also needed to make it gluten-free. With all being said and done this was not too difficult a task. While this recipe calls for pork and Giada from Everyday Italian makes hers with veal, you can make this with chicken and fish if you'd like. Being Puerto Rican we tend to use a great deal of pork. This was a godsend as now we can add yet another pork dish to our repertoire. Here is the recipe (with gluten free changes to follow):


Pork Saltimbocca with White Wine Sauce


http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/pork-saltimbocca-white-wine-sauce/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/everyday-italian/veal-and-lemon-saltimbocca-recipe/index.html


Instead of using wheat flour as requested in this recipe by Rachel Ray, I use either my Featherlight flour mix by Bette Hagman, or the all purpose flour mix by Annalise Roberts. Both

are delicious and you can't even tell the difference.

The next item I use in this recipe to make it gluten-free is Tinkyada Pasta. I prefer the brown rice fettuccine, but feel free to use whatever pasta you like. I also love the taste of the sage and

tend to use more than one leaf per slice of pork. Plus, I have found that an entire piece of prosciutto is the perfect amount per slice of pork. I also put sea salt and pepper to taste in the flour to give the pork a little more flavor. Remember not too heavy on the salt since there is quite a bit of salt in the prosciutto. Once all the prep work is completed this recipe is fairly quick to make and is absolutely deelish!! This is easily a week day meal. The flavors are an incredible taste treat for your tongue and tummy!! My family cannot get enough. I hope you will enjoy it as well.

Easter 2009

Easter this year was supposed to be no fuss, no muss. Unfortunately, the Tuesday before Easter I found out that I had kidney stones that I was trying to pass. I can't get in to see a urologist until the 22nd of April because it is not urgent enough. Meanwhile, I am on pain killers, and anti-nausea medication. They call it pain management. So as I laid on the couch all week, I had to choreograph my husband and daughter Autumn into assisting me to make not one, but two Easter meals. It actually was not all that bad. We just doubled all that we made. Brunch was spectacular and we shared it with some of our dear friends from Martinez who are also a gluten-free household. So our meal consisted of baked ham with a cherry-pineapple glaze, a creamy potato casserole, roasted marinated asparagus, salad with lots of fruit, cheese and nuts and a citrus-champagne vinaigrette, along with Mimos'a, and for dessert a beautiful mixed berry Pavlova. All of htese recipes can be found on the Gluten Free Fox website. My friend Carla made yummy scrambled eggs, and apple sausages to accompany this huge meal. All was so delicious which made us not want to move for hours. Carla's husband Fonse had to work so he was unable to join us for the est of our day. We missed him! We spent the rest of the day with Carla and her sons (Cameron and Skyler) at Carla's sister's house (Zola). They were very gracious hosts and had such a lovely home and huge yard. We met most of Carla's family which was very nice. The children had so much fun. There was plenty of things to keep them busy. The egg hunt was a hit with my daughter finding a golden egg with $20.00 in it.
Unfortunately we had to leave by 4:00 p.m. so we could make it home in time to eat our Easter dinner in our own home. Crazy, crazy!! Luckily our dinner was already made. We just needed to heat it up. A little preparation goes a very long way.