Margaret's Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup half and half
1- 1 & 1/3 TBSP unsalted butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Boil the cream and the butter together to a full boil. Watch it because it will boil over.
Remove from heat and add chocolate chips.
Let it sit for a minute or two and then whisk it together and add vanilla.

Pour over ice cream. The texture is a little different from a traditional hot fudge, as it thickens to a more fudgey consistency. But it's really, yummy.

Gluten Free Chocolate Ricotta Muffins

This is my version of an Annalise Roberts Recipe.

Dry Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup almond meal/almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Wet ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (whole milk or skim are both fine)
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 TBSP canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a muffin tin, or line with muffin liners.

Mix up the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in and mix well.

divide the batter into the muffin tins. The recipe makes 10-11 muffins. Ba

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

They are very good.

Rosie's Award Winning Brownies Go Gluten Free

I had been dreading trying this recipe out with my new gluten free techniques. I LOVE the original so much that I just figured I'd sneak out and eat them when I needed them. *I* can have gluten, I just don't ever cook with at at home for fear of cross contaminating something my son might eat/put in his mouth. He's four, and he still puts stuff in his mouth.

I finally made them with very few changes and they taste almost exactly like the ones I made before from the Rosie's cookbook.

Hopefully this isn't a copyright infringement because I changed the ingredients around a bit. Rosie/Judy if you find this, let me know. But remember you used to live downstairs from me on Shepard Street and I used to decorate Babycakes boxes for you in 1976.

Rosie's Award Winning Brownies -- GLUTEN FREE!

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp Annalise Robert's Food Philosopher's gluten free flour mix
1/4 tsp salt

preheat oven to 350 and line a 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper and spray with canola oil

Melt the chocolate and butter over a low double boiler. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.

Pour chocolate butter mix over sugar in large bowl of electric mixer and mix on medium until well blended.

Add the vanilla and mix

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each one until well blended About 10-20 seconds each

Put in the "flour" salt and xanthan gum

Mix on low and finish mixing by hand

Put in a 9x9 baking dish

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a soft crust forms over the top. They taste best completely cooled, especially on the 2nd day.

New Cookbook Full of Fatty Goodness

I bought a copy of the latest gluten free cookbook by Rebecca Reilly. She makes frequent use of almond flour, which adds a lot of taste and texture. But in brownies, it was a big gritty.

She is a Cordon Bleu trained chef and it really shows in the recipes. They are FULL of cream and butter. A lot of the recipes are normal entrees, like quiche and spinach pie. They sound good, but I'd have to cut the fat in half or I think that food would kill me. Normal people who cook a lot, just don't cook that way. I made her corn muffins tonight and they called for a stick of butter, and over a cup of cream. Corn muffins are a staple around here. They make a nice starch for just about any meal and they keep well. But I think we'll all be huge if we make them Reilly style.

I'm all about decadent desserts. But I like to keep the meals around here relatively light. (so the desserts can rock) I have no problem plopping a chunk of butter on our green beans, but this food was beyond heavy. We're talking a POUND of cream cheese in an entree! Who cooks like that at HOME?

But there are some great recipes that I hope to explore. I think I can rework the corn muffins and keep the texture and reduce the fat.

Cross posted to You Made That.

Christmas Dinner - Gluten Free

I made an entirely GF Christmas Dinner yesterday. It was lovely.

Here are some of the highlights.

I got a spiral ham and made my grandmother's glaze.

It's roughly:
1 cup of brown sugar
1 TBSP of yellow mustard
1-2 TBSP of cider vinegar

Mix it up with enough vinegar to make a paste and slather it onto the ham with a brush. When the ham is done, take it out of the oven and reapply the glaze. Crank the oven up to 475 and put the ham back in for about 10 minutes.

I also made

Easy garlic smashed potatoes

5 lbs yukon gold potatoes
1/2 stick butter
1 head of garlic
1/2 cup 1/2 & 12
1 cup milk

partially peel the potatoes and chop them into 1 in cubes
Cover with water and boil for about 1/2 hour, or until you can easily stick a fork in and they fall right off.

peel the garlic and chop by hand or in food processor

sautee the garlic in the butter until it smells really strong. Add the cream and milk and pour back in the potatoes and mash.

Salt and pepper to taste.
===========================
Also included were
GF Corn bread
Rolls, made from a box of GF Pantry French Bread mix. I just did them in muffin tins instead of a bread pan. They were OK. I'm wondering if I should have let them rise longer. They were a little dense and almost biscuit-y

Who needs gluten? I mean really!

Lissie's Famous Salsa Chicken

My good friend Lissie has been raving about this easy two minute prep time chicken for years. I finally had a chance to make it yesterday when my husband was out of town (Because Mr. Pickypants does not eat beans or corn)

Lissie's Famous Salsa Chicken

Layer the following ingredients into a slow cooker:

2 cans corn (drained)
2 cans black beans (drained)
Mix them together
Layer on top of that 6-8 chicken thighs
Layer on top of the chicken 1-2 jars of salsa (I used Trader Joe's Peach for this)

Cook for 4-5 hours on high or 8-9 on low

1/2 hour before serving, dump in one brick of cream cheese.

It couldn't be easier. And it's super cheap to make as well.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes

I've been horribly remiss about posting recipes here for the last few weeks. So here's a new one that I'm particularly pleased with. Proportions are approximate.

1/3 can pureed pumpkin
2 tbsp molasses
3-4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2-3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix

Whisk together the wet ingredients and spices. then Whisk in the pancake mix. You want a thin batter for these, so play with the wet and dry ingredients a bit. The eggs will hold the pancakes together, so lots of pancake mix is not necessary.

I cook them in a hot crepe pan and make large, think pancakes and serve them with hot Grade B maple syrup and plenty of unsalted butter.

They