Chocolate Sorbet

This gluten free, dairy free and vegan Chocolate Sorbet recipe is an oldie but goodie from my recipe archives. What are these archives of which I speak? A binder with more than a thousand of my unpublished recipes. Anyway, this frozen treat is one of my mother-in-law's favorite gluten free desserts, and she asks me to make it every time she comes to visit us.

...continue reading Chocolate Sorbet

Dill Pickles

My garden is over run by cucumbers --in fact, we have a total cucumber infestation, so I am busy pickling away.  This recipe for Dill Pickles is one of my favorites.  The recipe comes from Carol Gold, mother of my good friend Susie Gold, and it is a classic!

The jar in the photo above is actually a half quart.  The key in making this recipe is to scale it up so that you can do lots of jars of pickles at once, kinda factory like, and keep the ratio of pickling water as below -- 1 tablespoon salt for every cup water.  We make a huge batch and then make more as we go.

Carol's Dill Picklesprint this post
6 small gherkin cucumbers (whole), or 1-2 large cucumbers, sliced into spears
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dill, fresh and finely chopped
3 tablespoons celtic sea salt
3 cups water

1. Wash cucumbers and place in a wide mouth quart sized Ball jar
2. Place garlic, bay leaves and dill in jar with cucumbers
3. Close jar and let sit for one hour
4. Mix salt and water together
5. Fill jar containing cucumbers and seasoning to the top with salt water mixture
6. Let sit in a cool place for 7 days
7. Serve
8. Store in fridge after opening

Makes 1 quart jar

UPDATE: Due to a few questions from some of the commenters below I wanted to point out that this recipe uses the brining method for pickling veggies, rather than the canning method. This is why there are not boiling instructions in the recipe directions. Since we are performing a simple pickling process for short term usage the canning method is not necessary.

My boys love making these Dill Pickles and are a true help in the production process.  It is one of the many fun ways we spend time together in the kitchen.  So, don't be intimidated, this is a great way to get your preserving skills going.  It's easy and children love both the process and results.

And to make your pickling potentially easier, today we are giving away a Canning Discovery Kit from Ball.  My house is full of Ball jars.  I use them for everything from storing leftovers, to pickling to who knows what?!  They are all over my kitchen and I find them to be a beautiful storage solution that is more economical than plastic, easier on both the planet and our bodies. Check out my top ten reasons for using glass jars.

There are 3 ways to enter this giveaway, and you may enter as many as 3 times by doing the following:

The contest ends midnight, Wednesday, August 18th.

Napa Valley Restaurants

As I blogged about in yesterdays Grilled Portabella Mushrooms post, my husband and I just returned from a vacation in Napa where we had an amazing time.  After dropping the boys off at my parents house, then catching up on sleep for the first 3 days of our trip, we stepped out to some of the valley's fabulous restaurants.

First we went to a restaurant in St. Helena called Press.  It was easy to get into and they handled the gluten free thing really well.  My husband had steak and I had salmon which was delectable.  We also ordered sides of broccoli and mushrooms which were fantastic. That was Press, I highly recommend it.

Next we went to Dry Creek Kitchen, Charlie Palmer's restaurant.  I was feeling a little sentimental about this venue as Palmer's New York City restaurant Aureole, was one of my first clients back in the day, when I had my environmental consulting company Ecosav, or rather back when I was 25.  I met directly with Charlie in those days, before he was a superstar and he used to tell me about his farm in upstate New York --he was doing farm to table before there was actually a name for it.  Being in his kitchen was great fun and he always had a tight knit crew in there.  So going to Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsberg was a thrill in many ways.

I started with a salad and then had the fish (sorry, can't recall which kind) and both were outstanding.  The gluten free aspect of the meal was very well handled, though a word of caution, the maitre de told us that a wheat thickener is used in all of the ice creams.

After Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, we went to Bardessano in Yountville.  The food there was fantastic and we must have been fairly well rested by that point as it is when we were awake enough to start thinking about taking pictures of our food.  I confess, photographing my meal in a restaurant is not something I've ever done before, though it was fun.

I had the tomato salad to start, then the outrageously good scallops and for dessert a meringue type dessert with strawberry sorbet.  Amazing.  All of it!

Oh, and at Bardessano they also served this incredible little amuse-bouche of raw melon basil soup.  Delicious!

That day, we also took a tour of Silver Oak Cellars which was gorgeous and state of the art.  If you're in Napa, I highly recommend a visit there.

On our last night of vacation, we went to Redd in Yountville, which was also amazing.

I had a fabulous salad to start with local goat cheese, then scallops with cauliflower which were absolutely amazing.  My husband had the pork chops, which he said were the best he'd ever had.

Next it was off to Davis to see the boys and do two book signings.  The first one was at the Avid Reader and the second one was through the Celiac Sprue Association.  Both went very well and it was so great to meet new faces.

Finally, my sweetie and I went to my 25th high school reunion, the next day, the 4 of us traveled home.  It was a wonderful vacation full of sleep, fun and friends and couldn't have been better!

Grilled Portabella Mushrooms

We're back in town after an amazing vacation and I just can't get enough grilled veggies. These grilled portabella mushrooms are my husband's favorite.

I've been grilling everything though --zucchini, broccoli and lots of chicken. I'll be posting a recipe for grilled broccoli before summer's end. My grill is getting a really good workout these days!

Grilled Portabella Mushroomsprint this post
3 large portabella mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. Clean mushrooms and cut off stems
2. Rub mushrooms with olive oil
3. Grill 4-5 minutes on each side
4. Serve

My husband and I had an amazing 7 days in Napa last week, then spent 4 days in Davis attending book signings and my 25th high school reunion. During the Napa portion of our program, we left the boys with my Mom and Dad in Davis, California (my hometown) where they had their fill of tennis, screen time and Fruity Pebbles (which are apparently gluten free according to my mother). Needless to say they were spoiled and so were we.

The first 3 days of our vacation we mostly slept and barely left our hotel, we were exhausted, just from life itself. I took some long walks and read an amazing book called One Drop by Bliss Broyard, which I highly recommend. We were mostly unplugged and checking email maybe once a day, if that.

This lead to an interesting situation --slightly strange emails from a blogger visiting Boulder. Apparently, she thought I was trying to avoid her. One particular message of hers kinda woke me up from my vacation stupor; I'll get to that later.

The problem? This person thought I had sent her an auto-response in an attempt to avoid getting together. I wouldn't ever go to that much effort to avoid someone (if you know me you'll find I'm almost annoyingly direct), not to mention, I was in fact out of town. I was avoiding my computer, not her.

So what actually happened? She used an old email address to get in touch with me. In fact, she used 2 different email addresses of mine to contact me the first 2 times. With my computer closed for hours on end, it did not receive her email (I have a Mac with rules set up and the computer has to be on with the mail program open to generate responses) and hence no response was initially generated. When I opened it up a day after her first two emails were sent to me, my email program received her message (that had been sent to the address called "contact") and then sent out an auto-reply. The next email I received from her was this:

"Thanks for your 'automated response'. We have this set up for one of our email addresses available on our website. These things go out immediately after an email is sent to us. Unfortunately your response is very transparent, especially because it didn't come after the first email was sent and came over 12 hours later."

I had hoped (always the eternal optimist and ever in search of world peace) that we could work things out and even responded to her message, apologizing that she received the auto-response. However, I guess she held to the last line of the email she had sent me:

"it brings you down to a level I didn't know existed. I have no interest in communicating with you again."

I wouldn't have guessed that an auto-reply email could elicit this type of response. I was completely surprised and somewhat saddened. All you bloggers out there, have you ever received emails like this from people you don't know very well? If so, how did you handle it? I confess, even though I get much positive email, I was slightly distraught after reading this. I think part of it was that we were on vacation and my emotional boundaries were lower, however, I think we all can be somewhat sensitive at times, I know I can be. I get a little upset about the state of world affairs when I receive something that isn't so positive.

Anyway, I think it's a very good lesson for me in terms of remembering that computers can add an interesting element into our communications and that many more things are going on in the modern era than meet the eye. Most of all, I just try my best to be compassionate to myself and others as well, and not to take anything personally. What about you?

Grilled Zucchini

This recipe for Grilled Zucchini is one of my favorites for several reasons.  First, it's a good way to use up the prolific zucchini of August.  Second, it's mighty easy to make.  And third, it's delicious.  Let's not forget reason number four though --zucchini and summer squash are a healthy side dish for any meal.

Lately I've been serving this Grilled Zucchini with my Rosemary Lemon Chicken.  They make quite a summery pair, and along with a green salad comprise a lovely meal.

Grilled Zucchiniprint this post
3-4 smallish zucchini, or summer squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. Trim off the top end of the zucchini, then cut in half
2. Cut each half lengthwise into ½ inch thick strips
3. Place zucchini in a large bowl with olive oil and salt
4. Grill each side for 3-6 minutes, until zucchini is tender with pretty grill marks on each side
5. Serve

It's been almost a week since my older son's team captured the Colorado State Baseball Championships in a stunning comeback.  They were one strike away from losing the entire title --down by 4 runs in the final inning with 2 outs and 2 strikes against them and the pulled a win out of their collective hats.

We're now taking a much needed break from baseball.  It was a lot of fun and we were lucky to be surrounded by the absolutely amazing families of the little guys on the team.  Thanks to all of the team families who ate the many test batches of goodies that I forced on you during the tournament!

I'm happy to let you all know that at 7:30pm (PST) I'll be doing a book signing at theAvid Reader in Davis, California tonight.  I grew up in Davis, it is my hometown and a lovely place.  Hope you can join us if you're in the area.

If you can't make that event, I'll be doing another signing on Saturday, August 7th from 12-3pm (PST) at the Davis Lutheran Church (Fellowship Hall) with the Celiac Sprue Association.  Hope to see you there!