entertaining Archives - Page 3 of 6

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits

That’s right. Buttermilk biscuits that are gluten-free! These are so good and so satisfying. They can be covered with butter and your favorite jam or your favorite sausage gravy. Fill them with some pulled pork for a fun dinner or game day snack. I topped them with leftover swedish meatballs for a twist on biscuits and gravy. The options are endless.

I have adapted this recipe from Southern Living. I had a subscription for a long time and loved every recipe I made from it and now from one of the many cookbooks I have acquired since then. This is from an online recipe. You can find the original recipe from which I drew inspiration here.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups plus more for dusting, all purpose gluten-free flour (I used Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, diced and cold

1 ¼ cup buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together all ingredients except for butter and buttermilk. Add butter and press together with fingers until the size of peas or a little smaller or use a pastry cutter to combine. Add the buttermilk and mix until it holds together. Transfer onto cutting board and knead together for a minute. Add flour as needed. Flatten out or roll out to about ¾ of an inch. Use your favorite biscuit cutter or cup to make the circles. Add to a buttered cast iron skillet. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Please let me know if you try this! Would love to hear good or bad how they turn out at your house!

Sweet Potato Two Ways

Sweet potatoes can be a great side dish or the star of the meal. They can be fancy or very simple. They can be baked, topped with marshmallows, made into fries or create an amazing soup.

This sweet potato side dish is the perfect comfort food on a cold winter night.

Sweet Potato Gratin

Ingredients

3 large sweet potatoes, thinly sliced

1/3 cup of unsalted butter

1/3 cup flour (I use Gluten-Free Cup4Cup)

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard

1 teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

3 springs of thyme

3 cups of milk

4 ounces of cream cheese or 3 tablespoons of mascarpone

12 ounces of shredded cheddar, divided, save about 4 ounces for the top

Directions

Boil slices of sweet potatoes for about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside. Make béchamel: melt butter, add flour, mustard and herbs. Whisk for 2-3 minutes. Whisk milk in. Add cream cheese and combine. Take off heat and mix in cheddar. Make layers, one of potatoes, one béchamel and repeat. Cover top with rest of cheddar and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Broil for 2 minutes if you want to melt the cheese more. If you have extra béchamel sauce, freeze it and add it to quinoa or rice another time.

Serve at Valentines day with a grilled steak or barbecued salmon and a fresh salad.

I love to be able to create more than one meal out of the same ingredient. Especially one that completely hides the fact that I’m using leftovers. That way it is more likely that my family will eat it 🙂

Sweet potato and zucchini enchiladas

Ingredients

4-6 tortillas (I like to use Joseph’s gluten free flour tortillas)

1 1/2 to 2 cups of leftover sweet potato gratin

1 large zucchini, shredded

4 ounces of shredded cheddar

chili powder

1 to 1 1/2 cups of tomatillo salsa or your favorite enchilada sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 300. In a casserole dish, pour tomatillo salsa or enchilada sauce to cover the bottom. In each tortilla place 3 to 4 Tablespoons of the gratin, 1 Tablespoon of the shredded zucchini and sprinkle with chili powder (about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon), roll and place in dish.

Repeat until you have used up your ingredients.

Pour more of the enchilada sauce over all the rolled tortillas. Top with shredded cheddar.

Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes. Broil for 2 minutes at the end if you would like to melt the cheese any further.

The enchiladas would make a great meal for the Super Bowl next weekend! If you haven’t made the gratin, just substitute some mashed sweet potatoes and add some shredded cheddar inside the tortillas.

I’ll be posting more ideas for Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Easy Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs

If I want to have a quiet dinner in my house, I serve ribs. My kids love them. Especially one of my boys. He loves to talk, but put some ribs in front of him and he will be completely silent and just eat and eat and eat and eat 🙂

Ribs are best when cooked low and slow and they practically fall off of the bone. This recipe will make your house smell amazing and wow your family at dinner or friends at your next tailgate or game day gathering!

Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs

Ingredients

15 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 clove of garlic (minced)

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 Tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

6 Tablespoon of brown sugar

3 Tablespoons of honey mustard

3 Tablespoons of soy sauce

5 Tablespoons of cider vinegar

3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce

1 rack of ribs (2 to 3 pounds), brined

5 sprigs of thyme

3 small onions, sliced

Directions

Mix all ingredients together, except for ribs, thyme and onions.

Turn your slow cooker on high and add the ribs. Pour half of the sauce on the ribs, reserve the rest of later. Add thyme and onions to slowcooker as well and mix with the ribs and sauce.

Cover and cook on high for 1 hour and 30, minutes and on low for another 2-3 hours. Take ribs out, put on platter and top with the remaining sauce.

You don’t have to brine the ribs, but do it once and you will know why I brine all my pork and poultry. I have even tried it with beef, using pickling spices and it had a mild corned beef flavor. Delicious!

Serve with the apricot wings I posted earlier in the week and some easy appetizers if making for a party. For dinner, I often serve it with polenta and green beans.

Apricot Glazed Wings

I made these wings for dinner last week (waffles and wings, a spin on chicken and waffles) and I could not wait to share it! I let my kids lick their fingers and I may even have too 😉 Many of you are watching football or basketball games over the next couple of weeks. I like to watch. I don’t really understand football and much to my husband’s dismay, I don’t really want to try to understand it. I’m happy to create yummy treats for those who enjoy watching it. Try these for your next game day party! You will not have leftovers! Just remember, lots and lots of napkins 🙂

Apricot Glazed Wings

Ingredients

About 2 pounds of chicken wings

3 Tablespoons of apricot preserves

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger, minced

1 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the ingredients, except the wings, together in a large bowl. Microwave for 10 seconds. Whisk the sauce together and pour about ½ of it into another large bowl. Toss wings with ½ of the mixture and place on a cooling rack that is over a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes. Toss with the remaining sauce (that was kept in a separate bowl) and serve!

If you like buffalo wings follow the same recipe but melt a little butter into your favorite wing sauce (I discovered Wegman’s Buffalo Hot Sauce this week and it is delicious and gluten free!). Separate the sauce into 2 bowls. Toss the wings in one bowl and place on rack over baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Toss with remaining sauce and serve with some ranch dressing or blue cheese (just check that it is gluten-free!)

Put these out on a platter alongside a bowl of Doritos, pot of chili, fruit plate and a veggie platter or some meatballs. Later in the in the week, I’ll have my barbecue ribs recipe for you too! What is your favorite game day snack?

Poached Salmon

The first week of the new year is coming to an end. Posting everyday in December was a great challenge and I’m glad I did it and maybe I’ll revive it every once in awhile (shhh, don’t tell my husband), but I am back to posting 2 times a week. You’ll see posts about what to make for dinner, lunch and even breakfast. Comfort food with a twist and of course, always gluten-free because in our house it has to be. To get everyone in my family to eat it, it has to be good. These are recipes that are tested by me, my husband, our 9 year old daughter and twin 6 year old boys.

We had family visiting from other parts of the country (south and the midwest) over the holidays so I made a fair amount of seafood. I made my best clam chowder to date, baked cod, poached salmon and roasted shrimp. Poaching fish is now my new favorite way to cook it! Since it was the holidays I went all out with the butter poaching liquid, but will soon test a recipe with broth so it is healthier and we can eat it more often.

Butter Poached Salmon

Ingredients

About 2 pounds of fresh salmon

4 sticks of butter

1/4 cup of olive oil

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

4-5 sprigs of thyme

4-5 basil leaves, torn

Directions

On medium heat, melt the butter and all the ingredients together in a large sauce pan or pot. Do not boil, but allow to simmer. Place the salmon into the butter and cover. If salmon is not fully covered by liquid, spoon it over the top. Cook until desired doneness, about 10 to 15 minutes. Serve.

We enjoyed it with roasted shrimp and tomatoes, polenta and salad.

Looking forward to a year of new recipes, blogging, working on my cookbook and I even hope to start offering cooking lessons! I will need some test subjects, so stay tuned if you are interested!

Cooking Bucket List 2017

Happy New Year! Thank you for coming on this journey with me. Looking forward to a great year ahead full of cooking, family and friends!

I mostly finished my 2015 bucket list, after taking a break in 2016. Poached salmon was one of the last items and it was delicious! I don’t have an official recipe for the poached salmon. I know I used a lot of butter. 4 sticks to be exact. I added some lemon juice, fresh thyme, salt and pepper to the butter and poached the salmon for about 15 minutes. It was AMAZING! Served it with a broccoli risotto.

Coming up with my own proprietary bread and pizza dough mixes was next, but I’ve found others that I love to use and well, honestly, those are easier in my day to day life for now 🙂 My kids love the Goodbye Gluten Gluten-free bread that I found at Wegman’s. My favorite is still the King Arthur’s Gluten-free bread mix, right out of the oven. For pizza, which we usually have on Fridays when we are all tired from the week, it’s Freshcetta frozen gluten-free pizza or I use Against the Grain’s Pizza Shells to make our own.

For 2017, I am back in the swing of things and ready for some new challenges! I am making some family favorites gluten-free and trying some new cooking techniques. Hopefully this will inspire you to make your own cooking bucket list or just pledge to cook at home more in 2017 😉

Gluten-free koeksisters (A South African fried dough, dipped in syrup)
Dragon Ball from Takara (a local sushi restaurant)
Homemade Ginger Beer
Gluten-free Egg Yolk Ravioli
Gluten-free Yorkshire pudding
Gluten-free Croissants
Indian Pudding
Cornish Game Hens
Lamb Mango Korma from scratch
Baked Alaska

Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes that the hope and excitement of a new year lasts more than this day 🙂 What is on your cooking bucket list? Do you have a family favorite that you need help adapting to be gluten free? Let me know!

The Best Recipes of 2016

To celebrate the end of 2016, I’m sharing this list of your favorite recipes from Mamma’s Cooking. Thank you for reading!

1. Appetizer Ideas for Thanksgiving

2. Rainbow Pizza

3. Cooking Your Thanksgiving Turkey

4. Spoon Roast

5. Gingerbread Cookies

6. Gluten-Free Holiday Treats

7. Holiday Mashed Potatoes

8. School Snack and Lunch Ideas

9. Apple or Pear Crisp Recipe

10. What to do with Leftover Cod

This completes my 31 days of posts! I challenged myself with a post a day in December and I did it! Best wishes to you all for a great celebration tonight and an even better 2017. Look tomorrow for my 2017 Cooking Bucket list.

Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup and my favorite soups from 2016

Soup is warm and comforting especially on crazy cold, rainy/snowy and windy days like we seem to be having here south of Boston. Coming in from shoveling, walking the dog or just your hectic day, having a bowl of soup is a great way to slow your day down and unwind for even 5 minutes, while you enjoy it.

Here is a great recipe for one of my favorite soups which happens to also be naturally vegan and gluten-free.

Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup

Ingredients

½ of a large sweet onion, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 6 cups)

2 Tablespoons fresh grated ginger

3 cups vegetable OR chicken stock

13.5 oz can coconut milk

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Cook onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat, until tender. Pour into your crock pot and put the crock pot on high. Add the potatoes, sweet potatoes, ginger and stock. Cook on high for about 4 hours. Once all the potatoes are tender, puree the soup, either with an immersion blender or allowing to cool and then carefully pour into your blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Add the coconut milk, salt and pepper. Cook for another 30 minutes in crock pot and then serve.

Here are my other favorite soups from 2016:

Butternut Squash Soup

Potato Leek Soup

Hot and Sour Soup to Warm your Soul

Chicken Noodle Soup

Any of these would be a great addition to your New Years feast! I am making French Onion soup 🙂 Recipe will follow in 2017!

Favorite Meatball Recipes from 2016

Meatballs are a great way to feed a crowd as a main meal or as an appetizer. They are kid friendly and can be made as healthy or as decadent as you like. Any of these recipes would be great for tailgating, watching football on tv with friends or ringing in the new year.

You can use ground turkey, chicken, pork, beef or your favorite mixture. Meatballs are a canvas. Make them with Asian flavors, Tex Mex or the classic Italian. Here are some of my favorite meatball recipes from 2016:

Greek Meatballs

Taco Meatballs

Bahn Mi Meatballs

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Italian Stuffed Meatballs

Meatballs, Plain and Simple

What is your favorite meatball?

Ice Cream!

There is not much better than an ice cream sundae! Ice cream is also one of the easiest desserts for a crowd. You can make an ice cream sundae bar as fancy or as basic as you want. Make your own fudge sauce or use the bottle of Hershey syrup that you already have in the fridge. Cut up some bananas or just put out a jar of maraschino cherries. Make your own whipped cream or buy a can of it.

Whipped cream is something I love to make. Don’t get me wrong, we buy the Redi-Whip cans sometimes (they are gluten-free!) and have been known to spray it into an open mouth 😉 but I LOVE fresh whipped cream. It is very easy to do.

Fresh Whipped Cream

Ingredients

1 pint of whipping cream

2 Tablespoons of confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

Place metal mixing bowl in fridge the morning you want to make whipped cream. Take out when you are ready to mix. Pour entire pint of whipping cream into bowl. Start whipping. When it is frothy, add confectioners sugar and vanilla. Whip until stiff peaks form.

Put the bowl out with your other sundae toppings, fudge, sprinkles, cherries and an assortment of ice cream flavors. For our holiday dessert we had Hood Peppermint Stick, Vanilla and Fenway Fudge (all gluten free).

Whether you are running around returning things, doing more shopping or relaxing around the house, this is a fun way to do dessert! Especially would be fun for a kids party. A dessert both kids and kids at heart will love!