Close Your Eyes for These Awesome Cinnamon Rolls

Our 12-year-old daughter has been looking at advertisements for "glutenous" cinnamon rolls lately.  They are beautiful and perfect.  Sometimes I get frustrated, because I used to make this type of cinnamon roll before our diagnosis and it is a difficult transition to get accustomed to gluten-free dough.  I'm not able to shape the dough into anything but a blob.

Not to be defeated, I decided to invent a cinnamon roll that tasted good--even if it didn't look good (as you can see by the photo).  Our daughter came up with the idea of pouring caramel syrup over the top and eating the cinnamon rolls with a fork, which is incredibly delicious!  So, simply close your eyes when you eat these and don't look at the funny shape... and enjoy!

Our Favorite Rolls 

½ cup lukewarm water

2 teaspoons yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

¾ cup milk

½ cup buttermilk (or 1¼ cups soy or almond milk)

2 cups brown rice flour

1½ cups tapioca flour

⅛ cup sugar

2½ teaspoons xanthan gum

½ cup dried potato flakes

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup cooking oil or shortening

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 170°F or warm setting.
2. To make yeast mixture, pour lukewarm water into a small bowl, and sprinkle yeast and sugar across the top of the water. Set aside. (To be sure the water is not too hot, put a couple of drops on the inside of your wrist and be sure that it is lukewarm.) 
3. Microwave milk and buttermilk for about 1 minute, or until hot.
4. Combine flours, sugar, xanthan gum, potato flakes, and salt in large bowl.
5. Add yeast mixture, hot milk, oil, butter, and eggs into dry ingredients. Beat at high speed for 3 minutes. A heavy duty kitchen mixer is recommended.
6. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Spoon dough into muffin tins, around ¾ full.
7. Set muffin tray on open oven door to rise, with oven preheated to 150°F. Let rise for approximately 20 minutes for rapid rise yeast and 30 minutes for regular yeast.
8. Place rolls in oven and turn heat up to 375°F. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes.

Makes 16 to 18 rolls

Cinnamon Rolls 

Use the recipe for Our Favorite Rolls

1. Fill greased muffin tins about ½ full with roll dough.
2. Sprinkle dough with cinnamon sugar.
3. Add dough to fill the muffin tins to around ¾ full. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon sugar.
4. Cover the rolls with caramel syrup when serving.

 Makes 16-18 rolls

(You may want to reduce the Caramel Syrup recipe, unless you want to save the leftovers for pancakes and/or waffles.) 

Caramel Syrup

½ cup butter

½ cup milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

½ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan.
2. Add milk, sugar and brown sugar. Stir and boil gently for one minute. Remove pan from stove and add buttermilk and vanilla.

(See my cookbook for all three recipes.)

Flavorful Fish and Clam Chowder

OK, so the photo doesn't do it justice, but you will love this non-fishy-tasting-fish-recipe.  My wonderful husband kept commenting on how good it was and kissed me and told me that he felt like he was in coastal Newport, Oregon, at a restaurant. I tried topping the fish with pecans instead of almonds this time, and they were very tasty and gave the fish a gourmet flair.

He loved the clam chowder, too.  I served the clams separately by the spoonful after dishing up the soup, according to the taste preference of the kids.  They called it "creamy potato soup" and we enjoyed the clams. :)   I also used 2 cups of 1/2 and 1/2 cream and 2 cups of milk and it was a nice consistency.

Both recipes are in my cookbook.  I hope you will try these recipes out.

Clam Chowder

1 can minced clams

1 cup onion, finely chopped

1 cup celery, finely chopped

2 cups red potatoes, chopped

1 cup butter

¾ cup brown rice flour

4 cups milk or ½ and ½ cream (or 3 cup almond milk + 1 cup soy milk)

1½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon gluten-free chicken bouillon powder

½ teaspoon crushed garlic

1. Drain clam juice into water that barely covers the vegetables. Reserve clams until later.
2. Simmer vegetables until tender. Do not drain.
3. Make a white sauce by melting butter in a small saucepan and adding rice flour. Stir until combined and mixture begins to gently boil.
4. Add milk (or cream or substitutes), salt, sugar, pepper, bouillon, and garlic. Stir over medium- high heat until thickened.
5. Add cream sauce and clams to the vegetables and stir well.

Serves 7 to 8

Flavorful Baked Fish

1 tablespoon butter

1 small onion, cut in quarters and thinly sliced

4 fresh or frozen cod, haddock, or halibut fillets, thawed* (Tilapia is also delicious.)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon garlic salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper or lemon pepper

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon parsley or cilantro

1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

¼ cup sliced almonds 

1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Sauté onion in the butter in a small frying pan.
2. Spread onions across the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish. Arrange the fish over the onion and sprinkle with seasoned salt, garlic salt, and pepper.
3. In a small bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, parsley and lemon juice. Spread over fish. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes.
4. While fish is baking, place almonds in small frying pan with 1 tablespoon of butter and stir until just starting to turn golden brown. Spread over the fish and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Serves 4

 

Flavorful Fish

Ahhh...Beef Stroganoff

You probably have a comfort food.  For my mother-in-law, it was popcorn.  If she had a stressful day, she would either eat popcorn-flavored jelly beans or popcorn.  For me, it is roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, or beef stroganoff.  If you love beef, this recipe will be a "keeper." 

Beef Stroganoff

Prepared gluten-free elbow or fettuccine noodles or rice

1 pound beef sirloin steak (or leftover roast beef)

1 tablespoon rice flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

1½ cups fresh mushrooms, sliced

½ cup onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons rice flour

1 teaspoon gluten-free instant beef bouillon granules or powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1¼ cup water

½ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon additional rice flour

1. Slice meat into thin strips while partially frozen, across the grain of the meat.
2. Combine rice flour and salt. Coat meat with mixture.
3. Heat butter in a skillet and add meat and brown quickly on both sides.
4. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cook until onions are tender.
5. Remove meat/vegetable mixture from pan and set aside. Reserve drippings in pan.
6. To make sauce, add butter and rice flour to pan drippings in skillet and cook on medium high heat. Add bouillon, salt, and water. Stir constantly with a whisk until mixture simmers and thickens.
7. Add meat mixture back into skillet. Combine sour cream and rice flour, and add to meat mixture. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve over cooked gluten-free elbow or fettuccine noodles, or rice.

Serves 5 to 7

Weston is Our Hero!

Years ago when our nephew, Weston, was about two years old, he loved to wear a Superman suit.  He has always been an amazing person--playing basketball with great skill at a large high school, pulling straight A's in a difficult accounting program at a great university, marrying an outstanding person, and showing tender parenting with their two little girls.

Now Superman has a new challenge.  At age 28, he was just diagnosed with a rare form of colon cancer.  His Grandma passed away from colon cancer before he was born.  Even so, it has been shocking to consider that it is even possible for someone to have been given such a diagnosis, particularly when a colonoscopy is typically recommended much later.  Most likely, Wes will need to have his entire colon removed.

We know if anyone can beat this cancer, WESTON CAN!!  We are cheering for you, Wes!  We are praying for you.

Review of Abundant Life Orange Muffins; Recipe for Orange Cranberry Muffins

Abundant Life Orange Muffins are quite amazing.  I would rate them at a 10.  We all loved the muffins.  I love the taste of homemade Orange Cranberry Muffins, too.  I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

1¼ cups buttermilk

¼  cup cooking oil

1 egg

1 cup sugar

½ tablespoon vanilla

1 large orange, peeled and quartered

3  tablespoons orange peel, if desired

½  cup sweetened dried cranberries

3/4 cup brown rice flour

2/3 cup tapioca flour

¼ cup potato starch

3 tablespoons sorghum flour

2 tablespoons corn flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Glaze

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 cup orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Puree buttermilk, oil, egg, orange, orange peel (if desired), and vanilla in a blender. 
3. Pour mixture into a large bowl and add dried cranberries, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, corn flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and xanthan.  Miix until combined. 
4. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins, about 3/4 full. 
5. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes.
6. To make glaze, bring the sugar and orange juice to a boil until sugar dissolves. Spoon glaze over the  top of each  muffin.

Makes 14 to 16 muffins