Scalloped Potatoes

Being Celiac we have to become really creative with our dishes.  Not to mention the fact, that both my daughter and I absolutely hate monotony.  We crave variety.  So I not only work diligently on my main courses, but strive for amazing side dishes to boot.  For our needs, I must keep in mind budget friendly items, as well as being inventive, creative, while still being tasty and with a spectacular texture.  Sounds like a great deal of work, but not really.  Because I know what my family likes and I love to cook.  I also love to experiment with recipes which helps to break up the monotony.  Today I am putting a bit of a spin on an old classic and I am making it gluten-free.  Today's side dish is Scalloped Potatoes.  My family loves potatoes and they love cheese.  Combine those two together and you have a masterpiece.  This is a simple recipe that takes a few minutes to prep and then I can put it in the oven while I am helping Autumn with her home work, or prepping the rest of the meal.  We love to make this dish when we are going to a potluck, and for family dinners around Christmas or Easter.  Everyone raves about these potatoes and are so impressed with them.  If they only knew.... For those of you who make scalloped potatoes from a box mix, you will notice that it may cut your time down in half, but it also considerably cuts your nutritional value.  You increase your sodium and you are essentially eating styrafoam like potato slices.  Trust me, I know.  I used to make these very same boxed potatoes and not think twice about it.  After having to go gluten-free,  boxed potatoes and boxed rice were one of the first things on the chopping block.  But I am very glad for the change!  It is so interesting what we condition ourselves to eat.  When we made the change we opened up not only our taste buds, but our whole world to the endless possibilities and we are so grateful for the more delicious and nutritious foods that we now create.  Take the little extra time to make them from scratch and you will be well rewarded.  The texture and flavor is to die for.  The potatoes are tender, creamy, and cheesy with a hint of crispness on the edges.  And always remember that when you make a homemade dish you are the one in control of how much fat, sodium, sugar, etc. that goes into your recipe. 

For substitutions you can replace the milk in this dish with chicken broth, or vegetable stock, or any milk, butter and cheese substitute you normally use.  You can slice the potaotes by hand but I love using my handy-dandy mandoline.  On the mandoline, potato slices are sliced evenly so your potaotes cook more rapidly.  I go for the thinner slice on this recipe to cut down on the bake time.  You can heat the milk on the stove or in a glass measuring cup in your microwave.  Last but not least, leftovers of these potatoes are fantastic.  My husband and my daughter love to take them in their lunch boxes even though they receive jealous glares from those eating the same old mundane sandwich day after day.

 
Scalloped Potatoes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
•4 cups thinly sliced potatoes, about 6 to 8 medium potatoes
•4 tablespoons Featherlight flour mix
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
•6 tablespoons butter
•3 cups scalded milk
•1 cup shredded cheese
Preparation:

In a buttered 2-quart baking dish, place a layer of about 1/3 of the potatoes. In a cup or small bowl, combine flour with salt and pepper. Sprinkle about half of the flour mixture over the potatoes; repeat with another layer of potatoes and the flour mixture and top with remaining potato slices. Dot with butter then pour hot milk over potatoes. Cover and bake at 375° for 45 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle cheese over the top. Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until scalloped potatoes are tender and cheese has melted. Scalloped potatoes serves 6 to 8.

Camp Celiac 2009

So after returning from our three week cross country trip from California to upstate New York and back we had a little over a week and then we were off to Camp Celiac at Camp Arroyo http://www.celiaccamp.com/ in Livermore, California. Camp Arroyo is part of The Taylor Family Foundation http://www.ttff.org/. Elaine Taylor who is the founder of this foundation is also a Celiac and understand the hardships that children with this disease face, created a week of Celiac camp. Camp Arroyo allows children with various disabilities to come for a week of camp for only a nominal $25.00 registration fee. As the camp runs solely on donations my husband and I volunteer as much as we can. It is not all work, it is so much fun!!

This camp while having tons of amenities of a REAL camp experience is based more on the food. Gluten-free food that is! Elaine Taylor hunts high and low to ensure that only the best gluten-free foods are prepared and served at Camp Celiac. Everything from French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, all of the bread you can eat, home made pizza, Pad Thai, ravioli's, chicken strips, lasagna, Caesar salad, a salad bar and sandwich bar at every lunch and dinner, chocolate souffles, cupcakes, ice cream on ice cream cones, brownies, birthday cake, cherry and apple pie to just name a few, were some of the delectable fare served at camp.

The most amazing attribute of this Celiac Camp is that not only the children that participate have Celiac but the ALL of the counselors, and parent volunteers as well. You can't even imagine what a great experience this is for all involved. The children all become instant friends and they all look out for each other. There is no other place in the world where all of these children feel so much acceptance, and empathy.

This year at camp I was able to do a gluten-free cooking class for mostly the junior counselors, some campers, and parent volunteers. While the class was not one of my usual classes (because the attendants were primarily 19 years old and under and I did not actually have a kitchen) it was quite enjoyable. I served them three different kinds of cake: Black Forest, Carrot Chocolate Chunk, and Orange Pound Cake. I shared recipes and my philosophy on cooking and baking gluten-free.

Although everyone was exhausted, no one really wanted camp to end (except for Elaine's kitchen staff who were cooking and baking non-stop!). We ended our week with an awesome gluten-free vendor fair. We had over 16 gluten-free vendors. It was a taste treat for all of the senses!! We again had more food to sample and take home with us.

Click on this link to see photos and videos from camp: http://campceliacshutterfly.com/ .