Christmas Gift Ideas for Cooking Savvy Family and Friends

Gloveables!

A cute alternative for the average apron, a great option while entertaining!

Griddle Pan! Essential for those of us who love making quick omelets and pancakes! 

A microplane rasp grater.  Great for zesting fruit for baking.

Citrus Juicer.  I used to think these were unnecessary but you get some much more out of a lemon when you use one.

Food Processor! Essential for making your nut meals and my cauliflower rice.

Monogrammed Wine Stopper and Pourer!

Salts of the World

Tasting Plate! Great for those who like to entertain.

Paleo Comfort Foods Cookbook! An amazing book that shows you how to make paleo versions of comfort food favorites.

Buffalo Tenderloin

Beef tenderloin served with sauteed mushrooms and spinach salad.

I accidentally cut the tenderloin before taking the picture...so I pieced it back together for this photo :)

Eating healthy doesn't necessarily mean limiting your choices.  There are plenty of healthy meats that you've probably never tried before. Buffalo has become more popular in the last couple years and can be found at most supermarkets.  However, the average grocery store tends to only carry ground buffalo- limiting your preparation options to stir fry and burgers.  I recently found a delicious meat market in Willow Glen that not only serves amazing sandwiches (which I eat without the bread) but also offers wild boar, elk, and buffalo cuts.  I purchased a buffalo tenderloin from them and it turned out great.  It has a slightly gamey taste to it so I wouldn't suggest it for everyone but if you have a more adventurous palette, try picking up a buffalo tenderloin instead of the typical beef option.

Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lb buffalo tenderloin
- 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
-1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
-1/2 teaspoon olive oil
-  1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
-sprinkle of sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sriracha

1. Rub defrosted tenderloin with all wet ingredients.  Finish by sprinkling with salt and pepper.
2. Cook on the grill pan for 3 minutes on each side to get good grill marks.  Finish in the oven at 350 F for 7 minutes.  Mine came out medium rare which is what I prefer. 

Chicken Soup!

I’ve never made chicken soup from scratch but after making a whole roasted chicken I figured I might as well use the bones and carcass to make my own stock.  I plan on always using the bones for this purpose from here on out because I feel like simply discarding them is wasteful when they can render such a delicious liquid.  Google searching chicken stock will bring up numerous quick tutorials on how to make your own stock.  It is very simple and pretty much just requires you to cook the bones and leftover skin with some water and a few vegetables over low heat.  You can also use store bought stock if you don't want to slow cook stock overnight.

Ingredients
1 can of white beans
1 can hominy
3 gluten free garlic/artichoke chicken sausages (chopped and cooked)
1 ¼ cup shredded cooked chicken (I had this leftover from when I cooked my whole chicken)
4 carrots peeled and chopped
3 celery sticks chopped
10- 12 cups chicken stock or more if needed

1. Add broth and all veggies to the pot.  Cook over medium low heat covered for 15 minutes.
2. Add chicken and cook 5 more minutes.  Add sausage and cook 5 more mins.
3. Season with salt and pepper if needed and serve!

Thanksgiving Left Overs

It kinda looks like a dessert pizza!

I've been very lazy on the blogging front over the holiday weekend. I did manage to make one delicious and creative dish with the few leftovers we had.  My roommate Karen made a huge amount of cranberry sauce that was wonderfully tart. I used it to make an amazing galette that turned out to be one of the simplest desserts I have ever made.  The beautiful deep red of the cranberry also makes for a vibrantly colored dessert.

Ingredients
- 1 sheet of pastry dough (French Picnic brand - They come in boxes of two and I used one for my Thanksgiving fig gallette, leaving me one to experiment with.)
- 1/4 tube of almond paste
-1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 packet of stevia
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of cranberry sauce


1. Blend the almond paste, mascarpone cheese, honey and stevia in a food processor.
2. Place pastry dough on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper.  Let dough defrost for 10 minutes or so.  It should still be slightly cold to the touch when you're working with it.
3. Spread almond paste mixture on the dough, leaving a border to fold dough over for a crust.
4. Spoon cranberry sauce on top of almond mixture.
5. Fold edges of dough to create a border. Brush lightly with buttermilk if you have any. 
6. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes.  Make sure to rotate dish half way through.


This is a delicious use for cranberry sauce.  I'm considering making another one tomorrow because the one I made yesterday lasted less than 24 hours.  I think it turned out so well because the cranberry sauce I started with had such a wonderful tartness. Thanks Karen!

Almond Rosemary Biscuits (Thanksgiving Baking!)

I made these gluten-free goodies for Thanksgiving.  I had to make them two days ahead of time because I have a lot of work on Wednesday.  They turned out great but I had to alter the original recipe a bit because it did not yield enough biscuits and I ran out of Almond flour.  I decided to substitute in a little Amaranth flour because I had a bag in my pantry that my mom sent me a few weeks ago. It is gluten free and isn't nearly as grainy as other gluten free flours. 

Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups of almond flour

- 1/2 amaranth flour (plus more for sprinkling on parchment paper while rolling out biscuits)
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1/2 cup olive oil or grape seed oil
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Combine almond flour, amaranth flour, salt, baking soda and rosemary in a bowl. Stir to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil and honey.  Whisk to combine.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix together with your hands until combined completely.
5. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.  Lay a separate piece of parchment paper on your counter.  Sprinkle with flour.  Place dough on parchment paper.  Lay another piece of parchment paper on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to flatten dough to desired thickness.  For thick biscuits, roll out to 3/4 in thick.  I made mine fairly thin- partly because I need a lot and because I was in a bit of a hurry. Use a biscuit cutter to cut your biscuits or a heart shaped one like i did.
6.  Bake for 12 minutes if you rolled them thin, 15 minutes if you rolled them thick.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

Coconut Flour Blueberry Cupcakes (Gluten Free)

½ cup coconut flour (sifted) 

a pinch of  sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs 

1/4 cup agave nectar (i actually did just a little less than 1/4 cup)
1 packet of stevia (these are the small single serving packets)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup blueberries
1.In a small bowl, combine sifted coconut flour, salt, stevia, and baking soda.

2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, agave, olive oil and vanilla bean paste and blend well with an electric mixer.

3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and blend with an electric mixer.

4. Fold in blueberries.

5. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes in cupcake tins prepared with cupcake papers- make sure to rotate dish half way through baking.

Yields 12 muffins.

Note: I plan on trying these again with less agave to see if they still come out sweet. These muffins turn out pretty small BUT coconut flour is very filling. I also had a lot of issues with the muffins sticking to the cupcake papers.  I'm going to work on a way to fix this. Maybe I will try doubling the recipe and making a coffee cake out of it.