holiday Archives - Page 2 of 3

Spoon Roast

I cannot say enough good things about a spoon roast. It makes your house smell amazing and it is seriously easy to cook.

Spoon Roast

Ingredients

2 1/2 to 3 pound spoon roast

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. For rare cook at 500 degrees for 5 minutes per pound (medium rare 6-7 minutes per pound, medium 8-9 minutes per pound, medium well 10-11 minutes per pound). Then turn the oven off. Do not open the oven. Set timer for 2 hours. Take out and slice to order!

I don’t make a gravy for this because it’s more work and I’d like to enjoy the meal with my family 🙂 I think a pesto or horseradish cream sauce would be great with it. You can make either sauce the day before.

Horseradish cream sauce

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons of sour cream

1 Tablespoon mascarpone

3 – 4 teaspoons of horseradish

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

pinch of salt and pepper

Directions

Mix in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I am serving this on Christmas day with twice baked potatoes, a cauliflower casserole and peas and make your own ice cream sundae’s for dessert! Keeping it simple. I can make the potatoes and casserole the day before and just heat it up after the the roast comes out and saute the peas quickly with some butter, salt, pepper and fresh thyme.

What are your favorite holiday meals? If you are making turkey, below find the link to brining your turkey. It is so good!

Cooking your Thanksgiving Turkey

Polenta, an easy holiday side dish

Instead of serving mashed potatoes at your holiday meal, why not try polenta? They are a creamy and delicious accompaniment to ham, turkey, roast beef or roast vegetables. The two different ways I make it, are much easier and less hands on than mashed potatoes. I make them in the slow cooker, using this recipe from About.com and it comes out perfect, every single time. It takes about 2-3 hours in the slow cooker, but is basically completely hands off.

Most often I make polenta by taking a huge shortcut, buying the already made tubes at Trader Joe’s. Here is my recipe to transform those tubes into an amazingly smooth and cheesy polenta.

Quick Polenta

Ingredients

2-18 ounce tubes of Trader Joe’s Polenta

3 Tablespoons of butter

1 cup of milk (I use either 2% or whole)

1/4 cup of mascarpone or cream cheese

3 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped – optional

Directions

Take the polenta out of the tube and dice. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add butter and the diced polenta. Cover for about 2 minutes, then stir. Cook covered for another 3-6 minutes until the polenta is soft. Use a potato masher and mash the polenta. Add milk, mascarpone and herbs if using them. Mash everything together and stir until smooth. You can then keep it warm in your crock pot or if you have a warming burner, you can put it there covered and serve within an hour or so.

You can use this polenta as part of an easy meal this week. I like to serve it with sausage and peppers.

Keep your menu simple and hopefully you will have a less stressful holiday!

Here are some other holiday side dish ideas:

Twice Baked Potatoes, a perfect holiday side dish

Easy Thanksgiving Side Dish: My favorite! Acorn Squash

Quinoa Risotto

I guess Thanksgiving is coming soon?!

Raspberry Lemon and Thyme Tiramisu

Fancy dessert alert! It looks fancy, tastes light and delicious, yet is very easy to make. You can make it beforehand and bring with you wherever you are going or if you are hosting it would look beautiful on your holiday table.

Raspberry Lemon and Thyme Tiramisu

Ingredients

8 ounce tub of mascarpone

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Zest of 1 lemon

¼ cup of powdered sugar

½ cup of thyme simple syrup (1 cup sugar and 1 cup of water brought to a boil with 3 sprigs of thyme, cook for 5 minutes and allow to cool. Store in fridge.

1-5.3 ounce package of Scharr gluten free lady fingers (or your favorite)

1 dry pint of raspberries (any berries really would work)

¼ cup of melted chocolate chips, optional.

Directions

Mix (with an electric mixer) mascarpone, whipping cream and lemon zest until combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix until fully combined. Put 1/3 of the cream mixture on the bottom of a small glass dish (I use a rectangular 6 cup -1.5 liter, pyrex dish). Dip each lady finger in the simple syrup and place a layer of them on the cream. Place a layer of the raspberries over the lady fingers. Repeat. On final layer of raspberries add the final 1/3 of the cream and then top with more fresh raspberries.

Optional: melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and then drizzle on top of the raspberries.

The simple syrup is also useful for cocktails. Most brands of Limoncello are gluten free, but check with the company to make sure if you are making this for an adult with celiac disease.

Lemon Thyme Martini

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces of Thyme simple syrup

3 ounces of Limoncello

3 ounces of Vodka

Directions

Pour into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a sprig of thyme.

Tis’ the season! Enjoy this twist on tiramisu. More than half way through this month of posts. Hopefully there have been some recipes that you all have enjoyed. If you have made something, let me know how it turned out! I would love to hear about it!

Taco Meatballs

Another Thursday in December means another meatball recipe for you to use as an appetizer on game day or part of a holiday buffet or to bring to a potluck! Meatballs are very popular and everyone has their favorite recipe. Here is a little twist that pairs Tex Mex flavors with meatballs.

Taco Meatballs

Ingredients

About 3 lbs ground chicken and pork (I use 2/3 pork and 1/3 chicken, you can use either all pork or all chicken or even turkey)

3 pieces of bacon, chopped finely or pureed in food processor

1 garlic clove, minced

½ Tablespoon minced jalapeño (or more if you want them to be spicy)

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon cumin

1 egg

1/4 cup of bread crumbs (use gluten-free breadcrumbs if making this gluten free)

6 to 8 oz of cheddar cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes

2-3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl mix garlic, jalapeño, salt, pepper, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, egg and bread crumbs. Place meat and bacon (or oil) in a large bowl and add the egg mixture. Get your hands dirty and mix it all together. Cook a small patty of the meat mixture to taste and adjust seasonings if you need before stuffing and cooking the whole batch. Roll meatballs. Take a cube of cheddar and stuff it into the center of the meatball, making sure it is completely encapsulated by the meat mixture. Heat a large not stick-pan to medium-high, add olive oil. Brown meatballs and transfer to a baking rack that sits on top of a cookie sheet. Roast for 20 minutes. Serve or freeze.

Serve with taco shells, salsa and avocado or make a wrap with tortillas or serve as an appetizer dipped into guacamole or salsa. These go very well with my Tomatillo Salsa or Red Salsa.

A couple of new meatball recipes coming up. Only 2 more Thursdays left in 2016! Here are some meatball recipes from the past:

Sweet and Sour Meatball Recipe

Bahn Mi Meatball Recipe

Italian Stuffed Meatball Recipe

Meatballs, Plain and Simple

Potato Waffles

My kids have been asking me for latkes for the last couple weeks, so I decided to make my version last night, potato waffles. They went very nicely with our leftover slow cooked pork with gravy and acorn squash. Waffles seemed easier so that I wouldn’t have to stand over a pan and could just put the potato mixture in the waffle maker and go about with the other 5 things I was trying to do at the same time.

Potato Waffles

Ingredients

6 to 8 small potatoes (I used a mixture of white and yukon gold potatoes)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 Tablespoons of shredded parmesan

1 Tablespoon GF flour

Directions

Plug in waffle maker and allow it to heat up. Heat oven to 200 degrees. After you shred potatoes spread them out on towels to dry and wring out all the liquid you can. In a large bowl mix the potatoes with the remaining ingredients. Scoop about 1/3 of a cup of the mixture for each waffle. Makes about 8 waffles. When the waffle is cooked, place on a baking rack over a sheet pan and place in the 200 degree oven until you are ready to serve. I served it with sour cream and apple sauce.

I had 2 waffle makers going last night. One, my regular 4 square waffle maker and two, the Frozen waffle maker my daughter got for her birthday. So some of our waffles looked like snowflakes 🙂 This is a fun breakfast idea or good way to use up potatoes if you buy too many over the holidays.

Raspberry Lemon and Thyme Tiramisu recipe coming soon…Amazing and simple. Stay tuned!

Rainbow Pizza

Whenever I host Christmas Eve, we try to keep it simple. The big meal is the next day, so the night before we have a dinner of appetizers. It can be casual and low key or elegant hor d’ouvres. A mixture of hot and cold appetizers are more than filling for a small or large group of people.

Pizza is something that can be a dinner in itself or an appetizer for a crowd. It is something most kids will eat and it is comforting.

We have pizza every Friday night. Over the summer my kids started picking different toppings each week. One night, one of my sons suggested carrot pizza. He loves carrots. I was very, very skeptical but I had told him he could pick, so we got some rainbow carrots from Trader Joe’s and this recipe is what came out of it. AMAZING! Even my husband, who does not like cooked carrots, loved this pizza. Try something new, live a little 😉

Rainbow Carrot Pizza

Ingredients

3 carrots different colors, sliced thinly (I used a mandolin)
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3 small garlic cloves minced
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 pizza crust One of my favorites is the Against the Grain crust found in the GF freezer section
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ cup of tomato sauce more or less depending on your preference for sauce
8 ounces of shredded mozzarella

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water. In a medium bowl mix vinegar, agave, salt, pepper, garlic and basil.
Drop carrots into boiling water for 2-3 minutes and remove, placing immediately into ice water. Drain carrots and put them into the marinade for about 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Take pizza crust out of freezer.
In a small bowl mix the olive oil, salt and pepper. Brush olive oil mixture on the crust and place crust on the rack or a heated pizza stone and cook for 7 minutes.
Take the crust out of the oven and spread tomato sauce over it. Cover with the mozzarella. Take carrots out of the marinade and dry in a towel.
Place carrots however you like around the pizza. Cook for another 20 minutes. Take out and serve. Top with some more fresh basil if you like.

Recipe Notes

To save time, you can skip the instructions to boil the carrots and put them in ice water. Instead put them directly into the marinade after you slice them.

You can prepare everything ahead up to the last 20 minutes of cook time. Keep it in the fridge and cook just as your guests arrive for a warm appetizer.

Taking something simple and familiar, like pizza, and putting a new ingredient with it, is a good way to expose your family to new tastes. You never know when they’ll surprise you. Pizza is something you can easily adjust to your family’s tastes, so if the rainbow carrots don’t go over well, try different colored peppers or place the pepperoni in a shape of a Christmas tree.

Here are some past pizza and holiday appetizer ideas to help get you through the holiday season: (Usual disclaimer that if the post is dated before April 2014 it may not be gluten free. Adapt for your needs or send me a message and I’ll adapt it!)

Rethinking my cooking bucket list and looking forward to 2015

Appetizer Ideas for Thanksgiving

Good Food that happens to be Gluten Free

Entertaining with Appetizers and What to do with the Leftovers

Dinner of Appetizers: Thursday night or special party

Gluten-Free Holiday Treats

As I have already shared how I adapted my Gingerbread Cookie recipe, now on to some other festive holiday treats. Sugar Cookies and fudge are favorites in our house. As with the gingerbread cookies, after my son’s celiac disease diagnosis, we wanted to find a way to continue our tradition of decorating cookies and enjoying plates of fudge and cookies during the holidays.

For the sugar cookies I have used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Baking Mix. There is a recipe on the back of the box for sugar cookies. I have used that for the last 2 years with great success, for gluten and gluten-free eaters alike. I keep it simple and use already made frosting (Pillsbury is gluten free). I may try a royal icing this year so I can actually stack cookies 🙂 If anyone knows of a good one, let me know!

Fudge is one of my favorite treats. I’m actually not a huge sweets person, but I love fudge in very small doses. Chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, caramel fudge, really any kind of fudge. I discovered this super easy recipe many years ago. You can make many variations.

Easy Fudge

Ingredients

3 Cups of your favorite chocolate chips (I like to use milk chocolate)

1 – 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

pinch of salt

Directions

Line an 8-inch pan with wax paper. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients and microwave for 1 minute. Take out and stir. Microwave for 15 more seconds and stir again. Repeat until melted. Pour into lined pan and refrigerate to cool. Once cool, cut into squares. Keep in an airtight container in your fridge.

There are many ways to change this basic recipe. After the mixture is melted, mix in about 1/2 cup of your favorite chopped nuts, crushed candy canes or crushed Heath Bar.

Add these two treats to your holiday plate and be ready for friends or family dropping by or bring as a hostess gift. I also bring some along in a separate container for my son when we go to holiday parties, so he can have some safe treats to eat.

More good food that is gluten free coming up every day in December! Let me know if there is something you would like to see.

Past post that will also be a good addition for your holiday treat plate:

Gluten-free Crispy Treats for the Holidays

Meatballs, Plain and Simple

These meatballs are a blank canvas. Flavorful on their own but can easily be served with marinara or to make swedish meatballs or even the popular bbq sauce and grape jelly meatball appetizer. They are perfect to bring to a potluck, to bring to family or friends as an act of kindness or just to enjoy at home.

Meatballs (bulk recipe – you can 1/2 this recipe)

Ingredients

about 3 pounds of pork (boneless sirloin) (or 3 lbs of ground pork)

about 3 pounds of beef (bottom round) (or 3 pounds of ground beef)

8 slices of bacon

2 eggs

1/4 cup gluten-free bread crumbs

1/2 cup of milk

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1 Tablespoon shredded Parmesan

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together. Grind the meat and bacon together if you are not using store bought ground meat. If you are using store bought ground meat, finely chop the bacon or put it in your food processor. Form each meatball and place onto cooling rack placed over baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve with your favorite sauce or freeze in batches to use another time.

You can brown these first for a deeper flavor, but they are just as delicious just baking them. Keep them warm in your crockpot with your favorite marinara. This works well for entertaining. You can cook some gluten-free pasta and toast up some gluten-free garlic bread or make zoodles (zucchini noodles) for a pretty (and healthy!) red and green Christmas themed spaghetti and meatballs.

My kids love to take the leftover meatballs for lunch! Add some yogurt and carrots with hummus and we have a school lunch or a meal my child with celiac disease can bring with him if we are visiting family or friends.

You will find a great new meatball recipe here every Thursday for the next month! Check out these past blogs too for ideas on what to bring to your next potluck or what to serve at your next holiday gathering.

Italian Stuffed Meatballs

Good Food that happens to be Gluten Free

Gluten-free Crispy Treats for the Holidays

Even though there are more and more gluten-free options on the market, there are some holiday treats that I have made for years that we want to continue to enjoy. Luckily some of the key ingredients are already gluten free: Hershey kisses, Nestle Chocolate chips, (some) candy canes, Chex cereal and more.

Crispy treats are a quick and easy dessert. They are also a blank canvas to make as simple or as fancy as you like.

Festive Crispy Treats

crispy-bar

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 -10 ounce bag of mini marshmallows

2 cups of Chocolate Chex

2 cups of Cinnamon Chex

2 cups Rice Chex or Wegman’s Crispy Rice Cereal

Directions

Microwave butter and marshmallows in a large bowl for one minute and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds more and stir. Microwave more at 10 second intervals until marshmallows are melted. Once all the marshmallows are melted add cereal. Stir and put into a buttered casserole dish and cool. Cut into bars and serve.

chex-bars

TIP: Add a cup of chocolate chips, use all rice Chex or use colored marshmallows.

These are treats that even skeptical, gluten loving family members and friends will love! More treats to come as we get closer to the holidays.

Past holiday treat post (Remember posts before April 2014 make sure you use gluten free ingredients or email me if you need help adapting a recipe!)

Getting ready for the holidays

Twice Baked Potatoes, a perfect holiday side dish

Comforting, cheesy and delicious. Holidays often involve spending lots of time with family and even more time eating lots of food. Nostalgic comfort food is definitely more welcome at the table than talking about politics, religion or what Aunt Sylvia is wearing.

I have fond memories of my mom making twice baked potatoes and realized recently that I had never made them for my kids. They were even better than I remember.

Twice Baked Potato

twice-baked-potato-side-dish

Ingredients

8 small baked potatoes

2 cups + 1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar

4 ounces of cream cheese

1/2 cup of milk

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

foil-wrapped-baked-potatoes

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash your potatoes and make 2 to 3 fork pricks into each and wrap each potato with foil. Place foil wrapped potatoes in oven directly on rack for 45 minutes, flipping over half way through. While potatoes are baking, place 2 cups of cheddar, cream cheese, milk, butter and spices in a large bowl. Once the potatoes are cool enough to touch, cut each in half and scoop out the insides and add to the bowl. Mash the ingredients in the bowl together using a teaspoon to fill the potato shells. Top with the rest of the shredded cheese. Put back in the oven for 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

twice-baked-potatoes