Little Beauties

All photos copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Pasta Pasta!

Phew! I just finished making not one, but TWO home made pasta dishes for Golden Prairie's website. The first batch fell apart too easily and couldn't be run through my pasta machine. Lemons out of lemonade, right? So I made little gnocchis. Tweeked the recipe a bit and tried again! Success! Both recipes are gluten free pasta dishes and each has a different topping. This is honestly the best pesto I've ever had! Visit the website for the recipe...

I broke in my pasta machine, enjoyed it, and can't wait to make more pasta!

My daughter has been wanting to have a "Food Around the World" night for a while, so this was great! We ate our pasta dishes, drank grape "Italian soda" and enjoyed spending time with family. As it should be!

All images copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Stir Fry!

Fresh and yummy! Vegan stir fry! New photo for the Golden Prairie website...

All images copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Cupcakes!

I baked some gluten free cupcakes for the Golden Prairie website today. I had so much fun decorating them using India Tree's Natural Decorating Colors! So cute!

All photos copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Muffins!

Oh, do I love these muffins! The first time I made them I filled the cups up too much and they weren't "beautiful" enough to photograph. But they disappeared the first day I made them! I made them again today, being careful to not overfill the muffin cups. Perfection!
These muffins will be featured on the Golden Prairie website soon!

All images copyright 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Millet Tabbouleh

Gluten free and vegan! New photography for the Golden Prairie website.

All images copyright 2012 by Artiste Photography.

5 Minute Millet

So fast! So easy! So yummy! I redid the photo for Golden Prairie's 5 Minute Millet recipes. The baby peppers were a great find - and they tasted awesome!

Gluten free, dairy free and vegan!

All images copyright 2012 by Artiste Photography

Walnut Dessert Bites

I created this gluten and dairy free recipe for Golden Prairie. So easy to make!

All images copyright 2012 by Artiste Photography

Gluten & Dairy Free Pancakes

It was a rough weekend for cooking for me. Well, that's not true, my class was wonderful. The problem was I brought some veggie burgers to my sister-in-law's birthday party. I think I realized that there wasn't enough of a binder to keep the burgers together. Alas, I was in a different location and didn't want to poke around someone else's kitchen. As soon as we put the burgers on the grill, we could tell. These burgers were going to crumble if we tried to flip them over. As my brother put it, it was like "flipping oatmeal". Yeah. That bad.

So today, when my newest experimental recipe turned out well, I was pretty happy. I usually make something great the first time. But not with the veggie burgers. To create something new, to learn, sometimes mistakes have to be made.

Long story short: I got my cooking mojo back to create these gluten and dairy free pancakes. My kiddo can finally eat home made pancakes! This recipe will be featured on the Golden Prairie website.

All images are copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography

Migraines and Gluten

One of the difficulties with eating at celebrations is knowing which dishes will contain gluten and which are without. I must have made some mistake last night at a birthday party because I woke up with a migraine. Anyone who has ever experienced a migraine knows how terrible they are. They understand why someone would completely cut an item out of their diet just to avoid them. Migraines are debilitating.

My discovery that the reason I was having migraines every day was because of gluten is why I am so dedicated to eating gluten free. I don't cheat. I am truly dedicated.

No one else is responsible for my health and well-being. I don't expect anyone to bring gluten free dishes to family functions or celebrations. It is up to me to determine what I can eat and what I cannot. Obviously, I didn't do such a good job last night. However, I can learn from this and make sure I bring more gluten free items for my daughter and I to enjoy. Will I stop eating food made by others? No! I want to celebrate and have fun like everyone else.

With care and thought we can all enjoy the events that make life memorable and enjoyable.

Lunch in Provence

This morning I attended my first culinary arts class at the Kitchen Table in Greenwood Village. Sam was an excellent instructor, the food was amazing and I had lots of fun. I learned so much! Including the fact that I have been cutting improperly all of these years. I know my way around the kitchen, but this class enhanced my cooking techniques and knowledge tremendously.

It was not intentional, but this class happened to be entirely gluten free. I had brought my own flours to the class but didn't even need them.

On the menu:

Tomato-goat cheese terrine with olive tapenade

Pan-fried loup de mer, sea bass with grilled Provencal vegetables and basil puree

Nougat Glace: Frozen meringue with pistachio nougat, mixed berries, and honey

It was a very valuable (and delicious) experience.

If you are interested in taking a class at the Kitchen Table, click on the link below.

http://www.kitchentablegv.com/

All photographs are copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography

Naturally Gluten Free Summer!

I adore mozzarella caprese! Fresh organic vine ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella. Fresh, fresh, fresh! Ya just gotta love summer!

I topped it with Annie's Artichoke Parmesan dressing.

All images copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Rainbow Shrimp Paella

Not quite a rainbow - but almost! We have the yellow and orange bell peppers, green peas, pink shrimp... I wanted to include some red bell peppers but I just couldn't find any that were beautiful enough. A substitution of millet for the couscous is perfect to make this dish gluten free. The recipe will be published on the Golden Prairie website.

All images copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.

Mushroom, Millet & Sage Stuffed Chicken Breasts

We had lots of fun visiting family and friends in Chicago and Minnesota, and now we are back and ready to cook up a storm!

My favorite way to spend a Sunday is to cook for family. I made this recipe in the hopes that my love of butter and sage would prove to make a great chicken dish. Success! This filling is so great it would make an excellent gluten free stuffing at Thanksgiving time. It can be made vegan as well - just use butter substitute (such as Earth Balance) and nix the chix.

The recipe will soon be featured on Jean's Golden Prairie website. We are creating not only new recipes, but brand new photos for all the dishes featured on the site. It's a wonderful resource for gluten free folks.

All photos copyrighted 2012 by Artiste Photography.