Easy as Pie Test Kitchen

Easy as Pie saves a birthday

Here's some correspondence between me and a college friend I thought I'd share:

Amy,

 

I can't wait until your website is up and running!  We found out this week that 1 of our twins is allergic to eggs (major hive incident), and at least 1 is allergic to dairy (I think the other might be, but I'm in the middle of trying to figure out if dairy or something else is causing the throwing up...).  And since they frequently steal food from each others' trays...we basically have to cut these things out for both...

 

One thing that we do is pancakes on Saturday morning - a tradition that we really wanted to do with the kiddos.  Is there any chance you have a recipe for pancakes without eggs or milk (tall order...I know).  I did find a website that sells box mixes, but since they are already more expensive, and I have to pay shipping, it would be nice if I can find a recipe I can make at home.

 

Final question...their first birthday is coming up...any cake recipes that would work?

 

Thanks so much for your blog & this website! 

 

Kim

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Hey there! Bummer to hear about your kids' food allergies. Geez, I can't believe they're almost 1...

I've used a few mixes, but I haven't actually tried any from scratch pancake recipes, believe it or not. I'm putting it on my to-do list for when I get home (I'm traveling for work right now). I also tend to do a lot of wheat-free stuff, since I can't eat it and a lot of people with food allergies also can't, so a little bit of a selfish bias, there. :) However, you are in luck with your kiddo's allergies. There is a wealth of good vegan recipes online, and since you can still use wheat flour, they should come out tasting pretty close to the real thing. This is one of the first ones that turned up in my search, and it sounds pretty good.
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/
You can also replace the eggs with bananas, applesauce, or pumpkin (about 1/4 cup). I've done it with cake mix, too, and it worked really well. I also use ground flax seed as an egg replacer a lot, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for cakes. It doesn't go well with fluffy. You can replace the milk with soy or almond milk. I've never had any trouble doing that in baked goods (or pretty much any recipe, for that matter.)

I have heard a lot of the Duncan Hines cake mixes are dairy free because they are kosher, although I have not checked that out myself. You can also get dairy free cake mixes on Amazon, if you have trouble finding a health food store in your area. Or use the substitutions I mentioned above in a regular cake recipe (although it might wind up a little heavier than usual). I've also made frosting using just powdered sugar, crisco, and flavoring, following this recipe
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10856
It was pretty good, the only drawback is it gets a little runny if it sits awhile. That just means you have to eat the cake right away. Not that much of a disadvantage if you ask me. :)

Can I share your question on my blog?

Best of luck!

Amy

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Questions for Easy as Pie? Post a comment or email me!

Getting some sage advice

A few weeks back, I got an email from a woman named Heather who has food issues similar to mine, who also loves to cook (and is probably way better at it than I am). Turns out she went to college in my home town AND she lives right down the street from our new place. We got together for tea last week, and she showed me some neat little places in town that I never would have found on my own. She also brought me some pineapple sage from Heavenly Acres Farm. I'd heard of pineapple sage, but I'd never actually tried it. I always thought of sage as kind of a savory seasoning that I just couldn't imagine with pineapple. Well, one whiff of the herbs told me I was in for a pleasant surprise. To get the old creative juices flowing, I've been trying to cook with what I have in the kitchen instead of planning my meals. I basically had pork, some two-buck-chuck white zinfandel, and the usual kitchen staples, so I decided to make some breaded pork with pineapple sage and wine sauce. It turned out fabulously, getting a rare "this is REALLY great" from my husband not once, but twice. The sauce went pretty well on rice, too. I'm now a huge fan of pineapple sage. I even saved a cutting so I can try to plant it in my container herb garden. Heather also informed me that ghee (a prepared butter from India) doesn't have the milk protein in it that bugs my tummy, so I'll be trying that soon and blogging about it, too.

 

Breaded Pork Loin with Pineapple Sage Sauce

1 pound pork loin, sliced in 1/2" thick pieces
1/4 cup flour, (wheat or rice depending on your diet)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup white zinfandel
3 sprigs pineapple sage, chopped
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Seal pork in a ziploc bag and pound it to tenderize it. Add flour, salt and pepper to the bag and shake until the pork is coated with a thin layer of flour. Once the butter has melted, add the pork to the pan and cook until it is golden brown on both sides, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove pork to a plate and cover it to keep it warm. Keep the burner on medium high. Add the sage, rosemary, and wine to the remaining butter in the pan and scrape the remnants of the pork from the bottom of the pan. Cook about 3-minutes, then add the lemon juice. Cook one minute more. Pour the sauce over the pork to serve.

Rouladen, part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted a recipe for my friend Melany to cook--a version of Rouladen using the ingredients she had on hand. She made a couple changes for the sake of time, and got what you see below. Yummy!

 


 

What to do with some leeks, cabbage, and carrots?

A reader (and good friend) Melanie posted this in the comments a few days ago:

"I made potato leek soup today and now I have this big leftover leek. The challenge: come up with a good way to prepare leeks without using potatoes or making a soup. I just have no idea what to do with this thing and I'm determined not to let it go bad.

"I also have half of a head of red cabbage, and some carrots, if that helps. haha!"

Now, I have enjoyed many meals prepared by Melanie and her partner, Ben, so I have privileged information that will probably also help with this challenge. They eat LOTS of meat, and they always have a freezer full of nice juicy cuts of something (including elk from Ben's annual hunting trip. We even ate mountain lion at their place once). So I'm going to suggest something inspired by a German dish called Rouladen that includes the ingredients she's asking about. Rouladen is like a fried burrito made of meat with a pickle wrapped in it and bacon around the outside. I also know Melanie is trying to avoid wheat, so this is a no-wheat recipe.

Including the ingredients she asked about, Melanie will need:

1 leek (white part only)

1/4 head red cabbage

1 large carrot, peeled

2 whole dill pickles

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons paprika

3-4 tablespoons butter, margarine, or oil

8 pieces of round steak, pounded 1/4" thick

mustard

1/2 pound bacon

1 1/2 cups beef broth (Gluten alert--don't use bouillon cubes if you're trying to avoid gluten)

toothpicks

Process the cabbage, carrots, pickles, half of the leek, and the garlic in a food processor. Slice the rest of the leek and set it aside. Mix in the paprika and cook the processed mixture in butter or oil in a deep skillet for a few minutes until it starts to brown a little. Scoop it out of the pan and set it aside in a bowl. Spread one side of each slice of meat with mustard. Put a scoop of the pickle and veggie mixture in the middle of each slice of meat on top of the mustard. Roll up the meat, wrap a slice of bacon around it, and secure it with a toothpick.

Turn the heat under the skillet to medium and add more butter or oil. Place the meat rolls in the skillet and cook on all sides until they're browned. About halfway through browning the meat, add the leeks. Add the broth, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer, covered, for 30-40 minutes.

Let me know how it turns out, Melanie!

Having trouble finding a recipe for some food on hand? Email me or leave a comment.

Celebrate Fall with Sausage & Apples

It may not feel like it, but Fall will officially be here Tuesday. Besides, I couldn't wait to get started on some of my favorite fall recipes. Here's one that my mom used to make when I was growing up. We all loved it, and I'm guessing that made my mom pretty happy because it's extremely easy, not to mention pretty cheap. It's kind of a breakfasty meal because of the syrup and sausage, but one of the homiest dinners is breakfast for dinner, right?

Baked Apples with Sausage Links

8 apples, large, baking apples preferable
8 sausage links
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup apple juice

Heat your oven to 400. Core the apples. Put sausage links through the apple cores and set them in a glass baking or casserole dish. Mix syrup and apple juice and pour over the tops of the apples. Bake uncovered about 45 minutes, spooning the syrup and juice mixture over the tops of the apples every so often. Serve hot.

Mac N Cheese

Did that get your attention? Who doesn't love macaroni and cheese? I've been trying to find a soy-free alternative to cheese, so I tried out this recipe for nut cheese the other day. Yes, I said nut cheese. Okay, when you're done laughing, take a look. I replaced the agar flakes with 3 ounces of plain gelatin.

I melted half of that nut cheese in 1 1/2 cups of almond milk, and added a couple drops of yellow food coloring.

Looking pretty cheesy....

 I added the sauce to some rice pasta and did my usual vegan recipe modification. (I added pork). And voila! Okay, it didn't taste as much like mac and cheese as it looked like it. The lemon juice and the tahini pretty much made that impossible. But it was halfway decent, and my husband ate leftovers.

Next, I'm going to try to figure out a better recipe and with NO NUTS. Any suggestions?

Easy as Pie Challenge--Snack AND Breakfast in one!

Kelly, a fellow alumna from Hillsdale College, can't eat wheat, dairy, eggs or soy. Among other things, she was asking me about good breakfast foods and portable snacks that she can eat. I came up with these date balls, which I like to eat for breakfast in the car. They're sweet and nutritious and a good energy boost around snack-time or breakfast-time.

 

Celebrate the End of Summer with a Picnic!

The summer is winding down, and I've had a couple of requests for picnic lunch ideas that are easy. (As pie. Sorry, had to throw that in there.)

 

Easy as Pie Challenge--Meal #2

What with the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself, and various other festivities, my mom and I wound up cooking less often than we expected to while I was there. We did, however, use some Easy as Pie recipes for the wedding day breakfast for our family and all of the groomsmen hanging out at my parents' house the day of the wedding. We made some conventional breakfast foods, a low-carb standby (eggs and cheese) as well as these two of my breakfast favorites:

Breakfast Sausage Loaf

1 tablespoon oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 apple, chopped
1 pound ground lean pork
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tablespoon flax, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat oil in small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion and apple.  Cook, stirring often, until soft, about 7 minutes.

Transfer to large mixing bowl along with sausage, pork, flour, flax, cinnamon, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix ingredients thoroughly.

Transfer mixture to 8- by 4-inch loaf pan and shape into compact loaf.  Use your hands to lightly press surface to be sure loaf is compact.  Bake uncovered until browned, about 1 hour.

Peanut Butter Muffins

This is my version of a recipe from the whole foods classic, More-with-Less.

1 1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup gluten free oats, (or regular quick-cooking oats as diet dictates)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar (or equivalent stevia. My mom used 1/2 a banana)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon flax, ground
1 1/2 cup almond milk, or soy milk

Preheat oven to 325. Combine dry ingredients. Cut in peanut butter. Blend and pour in flax and milk. Mix well. Turn into greased muffin pan. Bake one hour and 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

Easy as Pie Challenge--Dinner #1

On the menu:

Spinach Salad with Basil
Roast Chicken
Creamy Pesto Sauce (used as a salad dressing and a spread for the chicken)
Corn on the Cob

All right, I've got to admit this one was a pretty soft pitch for me. I cooked it myself and served it to just my parents, my brother, and my husband for dinner. To remind everyone of the challenge this time, it had to meet my diet (no sugar, dairy, eggs, or wheat), be low-carb (for my parents) and be something my dad would eat. He's pretty picky.

I used a standby in my repertoire--roast chicken--and nearly botched that. I'm not used to my mom's oven, we roasted two chickens at once, yada yada. Suffice it to say it was not done when I thought it was. Nonetheless, dinner was good, in part because of some great fresh Ohio produce--corn and tomatoes from the farm market and basil from my mom's garden (see photo). My brother liked the pesto sauce so much he ate what was left with a spoon for dessert. My dad said it was "fine," ate a lot of corn, and even tried some of the pesto after he weaseled the name of the previously secret ingredient (tofu) out of my brother and me.

Roast Chicken
1 2-3 pound whole chicken

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. Truss the chicken. (Click here for my instructional video on trussing a chicken.) Put the chicken in a casserole dish or roasting pan. Roast until it is done (20 minutes per pound) or until a meat thermometer inserted in meatiest part reads at least 185. There is no need to baste the chicken or do anything else with it while it is roasting.

When it is done, remove chicken from oven and add remaining rosemary to juices at bottom of pan. Spoon the juices over the top of the chicken and allow to sit for 15 minutes, continuing to spoon juices over it every so often.

Spinach Salad with Basil
1 bag baby spinach
1 1/2 large tomatoes, sliced or diced
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced

Toss the ingredients together in a large salad bowl.

Creamy Pesto Sauce
2 cups fresh basil
2 tablespoons silken tofu (or yogurt or sour cream, if you eat dairy)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
3 heads garlic
2/3 cup pine nuts (I prefer walnuts, but they don’t agree with my mom)
3 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor until they are creamy. Drizzle on the salad and spread on the chicken.

Corn on the Cob
Remove husks and silk. Boil in salted water for 8-10 minutes until tender.