When I was in seventh grade we spent an inordinate amount of time in school on symbols.  What symbolizes you?  Are you a waterfall?  A crane?  I remember, I chose an otter.  Perhaps that was what I aspired to be in 7th grade, a charismatic, happy-go-lucky sort of person seeing as I was really a very focussed, type-A personality.

One of the most common symbols though, was the circle.  The circle is like the Earth, like the circle of life, like anything cyclical that exists.  The circle was a symbol we could all understand in seventh grade, but a symbol I began to better grasp two years ago, after returning from Honduras.  Indeed, it’s just one month before we head out again to Latin America.  We’re building houses out of wood this time, not concrete blocks.  I must say I’m quite excited to return (and not just because we get to use lighter building material).

The last time I was there my senses were assaulted daily.  There was the bright sun, sporadic rain showers, buzz of flies, taste of farmers cheese, plantains, and beans, pain in my stomach that persisted, warm water from water bottles, and the list goes on.  All my memories of it are vivid and intense.  They remained as such when I stepped off the plane in Miami even as I rejoiced at the clean smell of the airport and the ability to touch most surfaces without fear.

They remained even as I stepped off the bus and as I walked through our church out to the car.  They were there as I stood and glanced up at the giant stained glass rose window at the front of the church above the organ.  And because they were still so fresh, I felt so strongly the realization that I was in the United States and each person we had met and become close to, was not.  It was calm.  And I was where I was.  I could feel, I knew exactly what was going on back there, and looking up at the circular window the sense of connectedness washed over me.  The world seemed so much smaller, and the better for that.  I just found myself wishing those people could come here to the U.S. because with that sense of connectivity came the realization of what truly insane luck it was to be here and not back there, with almost no way out.

I rejoice to be able to go back to that vividness, those lush forests, those strong smells.  But I’m so so thankful that I have the means and opportunity to come and go as I please when so many don’t.

With that, I give you this recipe for dandelion greens.  Dandelion greens can be bitter and are something of an acquired taste.  This recipe is an attempt to sweetened them.  Enjoy these wonderfully nutrient-rich, in-season greens!

Dandelion Greens with Balsamic Vinegar and Dried Cranberries
Serves 4 or so

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic
dash of cayenne pepper
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or sliced almonds
1 bunch dandelion greens (bottom 2-3 inches cut off and chopped into 2 inch pieces)
3 Tablespoons brown sugar (dark or light)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (or less, depending)
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
Salt and pepper to taste

In a sauté pan heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add chopped onion and and cook until translucent.  Add mustard seeds, garlic, and cayenne and sauté until aromatic.  Add dandelion greens, sugar, and walnuts/almonds.  Cover, stirring occasionally until just wilted.  Uncover, add balsamic vinegar and cranberries, and turn up heat.  Cook for a minute or two to combine flavors, then remove from heat and serve.

So, by my current estimate, in the last week my family drove about 2,400 miles.  Out to Chicago…and back.  It was part two of the college trip saga that has taken up these last two school vacations. Last vacation was Wellesley, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. This time was Oberlin, University of Chicago, and Williams.  Add that to the trips we’ve taken here and there and we’ve seen a lot of colleges.  Plus a whole lot more of highways, tollbooths, and, during this last trip, an excess of cows and farmland.

Oberlin

Truth be told this most recent trip was significantly more enjoyable that the one we took in February.  Who would have guessed that it would be in the 70′s out in Ohio?  Well, my mother did.  She was set on us heading out West in April vs. in February.  Something about appreciating her alma mater (Oberlin) in its best light.

University of Chicago

Not only was the weather fantastic, but because we were only visiting a few places, we had more down time.  This meant visiting with my mother’s good friends in Ohio, going to Niagra Falls, and stopping by the Chicago Conservatory.

Alligator Plant (I think that was the name)

To me though, the most interesting part of our vacation involved where we got to eat.  The night we were in Chicago I found an ITALIAN RESTAURANT that has a gluten-free menu.  And no, it’s not a “gluten-free menu” that has on it a slab of steak and some fruit.  No no, it has eggplant parmigiana, pasta all a toscana, cannoli, tiramisu.  Yes, this is the reason why cities are good.  That and the fact that they have cheesecake factories (no, not The Cheesecake Factory, but factories you can get tours of people making cheesecake).  If only we’d been there one more day.  Anyhow, this restaurant was unbelievable.  I mean, we haven’t eaten as a family at an Italian restaurant for probably 10 years.  Here’s the menu.

And here’s one of the Princeton tiger statue, not this trip but still worth a spot.

The other notable restaurant was one we ate at while just outside Utica (my history with this city is a story for another day).  We were looking for an Outback Steakhouse and had found one with the GPS while about 2 hours out.  Upon arriving where it was supposed to be, we couldn’t find it.  Fearing it had shut down, we quickly re-routed to another restaurant.  The Indian restaurant we settled on had just opened, as stated on their sign outside.  We weren’t exactly prepared for what we would meet within.  Let’s just say, the waitress was crying, there was a lot of shouting, multiple order-mess ups, and a waiter who kept telling us to “hurry up” as he took our order.  I think everyone there felt the same way we did–sorry for the waitress who had to deal with the overwrought management, sorry for the management for being so overwhelmed, and then, actually, almost ready to burst out laughing because the situation was so very bizarre as compared to any other encountered normally in a restaurant.

Anyways, we’re back now.  What I really wanted to do upon returning home was to make a roasted rhubarb cake but I just didn’t get the time.  Instead I made this cake.  We had some bananas, it didn’t call for anything exotic, it worked.  What was particularly nice about it was the presentation.  It just looks pretty, so put together, and quite 50′s.  Rare it is that I make something for the picture (well, if you don’t count the red velvet cheesecake brownies), so it’s nice once in a while.

Gluten-free Banana Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from this blog

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 scant cup sugar
1 ripe mashed banana (as to this, I think it might be better if it were more banana-y, thus either use a really ripe banana here, or adjust the recipe to fit in more bananas)
1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup cornstarch or potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2-3 just ripe bananas, sliced to about 1/4 inch thick

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8 by 8 inch square pan (mine was glass, so bear that in mind for baking times).

Melt butter with brown sugar, maple syrup and salt over medium heat.  Stir over the heat for 3 minutes or until it boils.

Pour into the greased pan, and top mixture with sliced bananas in rows making sure to overlap them all slightly.

Whisk together flours, xantham gum, baking powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.  Mash banana with sour cream or yogurt.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy, then add eggs one at a time and beat until fully blended.   Add vanilla.

Add banana mixture and flour mixture alternately until fully blended.  Pour into the pan and smooth it over carefully so as not to mar the banana arrangement below.

Bake on the middle rack of the over for 35-45 minutes.  Once out of the oven, let sit for 3 minutes and then invert onto serving dish.  Best if served warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Weird.  It’s the only word I can come up with to describe this week.  Monday, well, Monday we moved in.  I went to bed in a room with boxes stacked up to the ceiling.  Tuesday we had an entirely unexpected snow day.  Wednesday…we had another snow day.  Then, after our strange weekend-within-a-school-week, we had two school days, and now we’re here.  Add to that grandparents visiting and helping unpack for Tuesday and Wednesday, meals made by various people eaten in numerous places, very slow internet access, a variably warm and cold house, a bus that now comes at 7:00 in the morning…. Ay!  It’s a whole lot of stuff to take in.  And the whole week, the whole entire time, I just wanted to walk into an organized kitchen and make this coconut bread.

But of course, no such luck.  True, though I may not have had time for coconut bread, I did have time for something known as reading.  I was once well-aquainted with such a pastime, but recently my readings have been The American Pagaent and Jane Eyre.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Jane Eyre, and the American Pagaent’s strange metaphors about the Mexican War are entertaining in the strangest of ways, but…I’ve already read through Jane Eyre twice, and by page 765 in my history textbook, our already tepid relationship has turned decidedly sour (so much that I even skipped the last chapter, instead opting for the online notes!).  So, the good thing is, I’ve been reading other things, specifically a riveting science fiction novel involving Jesuit priests who visit an alien planet in the galaxy Alpha Centauri.  Doesn’t that sound appealing?  I love it.

Despite all the weirdness, the location of the place we now inhabit is quite beautiful, and surprisingly peaceful.  Set back from the road a bit, and lacking any streetlights, it’s quieter than ever each night, and you can see a surprising number of stars.  We’re right on a stream, and a smaller brook that runs into the stream I’ve now taken up to test for water-quality.  Just this afternoon, we found some animal tracks in the snow outside; thinking they might belong to something wild, we investigated.  They’re likely from a domestic dog.  Naturally.

Either way, though I’m not fond of the uncertainty, I have enjoyed the paradox that this week has presented.  It’s overwhelming and it isn’t.  We know we’re going to love this place.  Thus, moving in has been less awful and more of an adventure that we can enjoy by reveling in the newness of our circumstances.  Soon enough they’ll just be what is, and though more certain, that can be a wee bit boring.

These muffins aren’t in the least boring though.  I’d been pining for the coconut bread on Smitten Kitchen, all until I realized we didn’t have a bread pan.  Thus, I instead adapted her double coconut muffins to be gluten-free, dairy-free, and wonderfully scrumptious.  As noted below, the recipe I’m relaying to you isn’t exactly what I did myself.  I made a few changes to the one below because mine were slightly wet and gummy, I think the changes will help.  If not, just let me know!

Gluten-free Triple Coconut Muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 1 dozen

Note:  Alright, so I went to the store looking for extra-virgin coconut oil and accidentally picked up refined coconut oil. As you surely know, such oil is devoid of any coconut flavor.  Thus, some of the ingredients in the recipe are optional, dependent on what type of coconut oil you have.  I’ve changed what I was going to write for the recipe in response to how the recipe turned out.  I’ve reduced the xantham gum amount a bit (mine were a little gummy) and think it would be good for you to top the muffins with a little shredded coconut before baking.  Also, I upped the amount of flour just a bit.

1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/6 cup tapioca starch  (To do this, empty the third cup potato starch into a 1/2 cup container, then top it off with tapioca starch)
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (either virgin or refined, depending on what is available)
1 cup coconut milk (not from a can, the coconut milk you would drink), room temp.
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons coconut rum (if no virgin coconut oil)
1 large egg
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (Reserve 1/4 cup to top muffins)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease or line a muffin pan.

In a standing mixer, mix together all of the flours, xantham gum, baking powder, and sugar until well-combined.

Mix together coconut milk, vanilla, egg, and rum (if using), in a small bowl.

In a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil until it just melts.  When you add it to the flours it should be barely warm.  Add to the flours and beat until well-combined.

Add the liquid mixture and beat on high until well-mixed.  Add in shredded coconut, reserving 1/4 cup of however much you use to top the muffins.

Portion out batter into muffin pan and then top each with a little of the 1/4 cup of extra coconut.

Bake for 15 minutes or so; the muffins themselves won’t really brown, but the coconut should.  Allow to cool completely (in pan or on a cooling rack) before serving.

For the last eight years I’ve lived in the attic.  There’s a lot you can do in a finished attic.  For example, when I first moved in, my little brothers and I used to pretend to be superheroes, dress up in capes and jump around on the furniture and into piles of pillows.  The door I wanted never got installed so the boys were a constant presence.  There were also a whole lot of summersaults and juggling and yards of christmas lights to characterize my attic experience.  Lots of clothing everywhere, because, hey, when you’ve got one million square feet you might as well fill it all with clothes.  One almost mural, but we could never decide what it would be of…  Camping out and photo-shoots and forts.  Old photos all over the floor for scrap-books and school project assembly (because 6th grade was all book projects).  I’ve had a room that has been almost like another world, up here in the trees where the light filters in on the weekends and fills every part of the vaulted ceiling with light…

Why am I reminiscing?  Well, we’re moving, and I’m going to the basement.  In fact, we start the physical move on Friday of this week.  It won’t be far, no, not far, barely a mile away.  But what’s so strange for me is that I’ll only be in this new house a year, then it’ll be off to college.  I guess this move is just a reminder that this time in my life is about over.  I’m leaving the house that will for me always be my childhood.

I’m looking forward to the new house though.  It’s by the river, there’s more land, lots of windows, very open.  My room has arguably the best bathroom (my own bathroom!), and I think I may be able to paint a mural this time over in my room.

Not only are we moving though, other changes too have come, specifically to this blog.  Back in January, the BDN had a few videos made of me making a some recipes.  The blueberry gingerbread recipe video is up now on the BDN, but the videos (there are 5 I think total) are syndicated across the country and can be found on various newspaper sites.  Though the recipes for blueberry cake and blueberry gingerbread are my adaptations, the lemon cake and frosting are just gluten-free bon appetit recipes that I love.  The list of newspapers is below:

Eagle Tribune, Andover, MA: http://food.eagletribune.com
Gloucester Times, Gloucester, MA: http://food.gloucestertimes.com/
Newburyport News, Newburyport, MA: http://food.newburyportnews.com/
Princeton Daily Clarion, Princeton, IN: http://food.pdclarion.com/
Bangor Daily News, Bangor, ME: http://food.bangordailynews.com/
Home News Here, Woburn, MA: http://food.homenewshere.com/
Press Tribune, Roseville, CA: food.thepresstribune.com
Auburn Journal, Auburn, CA: food.auburnjournal.com
Colfax Record, Colfax, CA: food.colfaxrecord.com
Loomis News, Loomis, CA: food.theloomisnews.com
Placer Herald, Rocklin, CA: food.placerherald.com
Lincoln News Messenger, Lincoln, CA: food.lincolnnewsmessenger.com
Folsom Telegraph, Folsom, CA: food.folsomtelegraph.com
Ed Dorado Hills Telegraph, El Dorado Hills, CA: food.edhtelegraph.com
Daily Astorian, Astoria, OR: http://food.dailyastorian.com/
Coast Weekend, Astoria, OR: http://food.coastweekend.com/
Chinook Observer, Chinook, OR: http://food.chinookobserver.com/
Seaside Sun, Seaside, OR: http://food.seaside-sun.com/

As to this recipe itself, what have I got to say?  It’s scrumptious.  I made some changes to the original because I don’t have a spice grinder (this is a travesty I know).  Instead of toasting cumin seed and grinding it, I decided to add ground cumin to the olive oil, along with garlic and cayenne to heat up and let the flavors bloom.  This I found to work well, though both options for the dressing are listed below.  Similarly, we were out of dates, and I found that raisins are perfectly acceptable though I assume, dates, figs, or pluots (the original suggestions) are even better.

Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Salad
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Serves 6

Dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly (can be used or not depending on your method with the cumin seeds)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 Tablespoon cumin seeds or 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Approximately 1 pound carrots, grated
About 2 cups cooked chickpeas, or chickpeas from a 15-ounce can
2/3 cup raisins, or chopped figs, dates, or pluots
1/3 cup roughly chopped mint

Toasted sliced almonds to serve

For the dressing you can do either of two things.  One, you could toast the cumin seeds for a minute or two, than grind them and add then to other ingredients (sans garlic).  Or, you could heat the olive oil, garlic, cayenne, and ground cumin over medium heat in a saucepan for a few minutes then remove it and let it set aside.  You want to make sure nothing burns but also that the spices have bloomed. Once cooled a little you could whisk in the honey and lemon juice.

In a decent sized bowl, toss together the mint, fruit, carrots, and chickpeas.  Then, add in the dressing and toss again.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with toasted almonds.

I might as well say it right off, but if you’re someone who would tell me your favorite cake flavor is red velvet, well, I’d instantly label you as “one of those people.”  Red velvet cake is nice and all, but really, there’s no flavor.  Either go deep, dark, complex chocolate, or pick nice yellow cake filled with yolks and perfumed with vanilla.  Red velvet is that weird middle ground, with so little chocolate you can’t taste it, but just enough that any nice vanilla flavor is obscured.  PLUS, it’s red, so there’s no more to say on the issue.  I really have no idea why I’m so bitter about the whole thing; it’s cake for goodness sake!

In order to explore my deep-seated dislike of red velvet cake, I’ve decided to explore my motives.  I suppose it’s because the thing represents all that I dislike about American food. An eternal obsession with things that lack flavor, lack punch.  In a land of pizza and hamburgers, I eat raw ginger and garlic.  Mwah ha ha ha!

On top of all this, what angers me most is that red velvet cake is considered to be so drastically different from other cakes.  It’s red food dye, baking soda, and buttermilk people!

Now, you may ask, why Maddie did you make red velvet cream cheese brownies if you obviously dislike the stuff so very much?  Well (and this rarely ever happens) it was because they looked good.  As simple as that.  I saw some nice photos.  Yeah, I think the last time this happened was with the Battenberg Cake.  Maybe the reason people like red velvet is because they are so obsessed with the color.  Maybe that’s not a bad thing.  Things that look nice can make you happy just to try them.

Taste wasn’t so big an issue with these though.  In fact, they were pretty good.  Not like a traditional dense chocolatey brownie, they are very moist, cakey and full of swirls of tangy cream cheese making them surprisingly light and fun to eat.  Though the texture and the cream cheese are divine aspects, I would also like to suggest adding something to the red velvet batter.  Maybe raspberry preserves, framboise, coconut, almond extract…It wouldn’t really be red velvet, but it would be pretty, plus it would have a unique taste.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies
Barely Adapted from Sweet Pea

1/2 cup butter (salted or unsalted)
2 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate (I used 60%)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons red food coloring (I used the gel paste but in a smaller amount as it is much more concentrated)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (I made them gluten-free, using 2/3 cup of an all-purpose gluten-free four blend that didn’t contain xantham gum plus 1/4 teaspoon of xantham gum).
1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place a strip of parchment paper in the bottom of an 8 by 8 inch square pan, so that it covers two sides and hangs over.  Grease the parchment and the uncovered sides well with butter or vegetable oil.

Melt butter and chocolate either in the microwave or on the stove, then allow to cool a bit.  Beat the two eggs, sugar, vanilla, and food coloring with a whisk.  If you wanted to add additional flavorings (coconut, almond extract, ect.) you would do so here.  If making it with gluten flour, add the chocolate mixture, then just whisk in the flour and salt to combine.  If making it with gluten-free flour, make sure that the xantham gum and flour have been previously mixed, and feel free to whisk the mixture more liberally.

Turn the mixture into the pan and smooth the top.

In a standing mixer or with an electric beater, beat the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and homogeneous.  Drop the cream cheese mixture in about 8 spoonfuls all over the top of the brownie batter, then swirl the two mixture together with a knife.

Bake for 35-40 minutes on the middle rack.  Remove from the oven and let cool fully in the pan.  I did find that using a glass pan led to a little overcooking on the edges but less cooking in the middle.  Glass retains heat, so it might be good to put some extra parchment in your pan so you can take the brownies out after they have cooled for 10 minutes or so in the pan (I’d prefer undercooked to overcooked brownies).  Hopefully, this wouldn’t mar these fragile brownies.

The Super Bowl is coming up soon right?  Next week is it?  Oh, not next week, so sorry I missed it….Oh!  It’s today!  That’s interesting.

I only realized the Super Bowl was this weekend yesterday.  My mom had thought it was last weekend.  Yeah, you guessed it, I’m not a big football fan, nor am I a big sports fan in general. My male family members are another story.  They watch all sports, from basketball to football to baseball…For the life of me I cannot understand the fixation with something I find so remarkably dull.  The only reason I remotely enjoy Super Bowl Sunday is for the half time show and the commercials, and those aren’t even that great.

Oh, and because it gives me some sort of reason for making this caramel corn.  It’s quite good, though I’m now feeling a bit sick from all the sugary food this week.  Toby’s cake lasted quite awhile, then we went out to dinner last night for my birthday and had creme brûlée.

Of course, not only did we have creme brûlée, we had some divine food.  I had the spinach linguine with scallops, rutabaga, savoy cabbage, cider vinegar cream sauce, and bacon.  Yeah, it was splendid.  As was the tuna confit and the dukkah with naan.  But now I’m feeling a little like a beached whale…

Either way, enjoy your Superbowl Sunday, for whatever reason!

Spicy Caramel (and maybe coconut) Popcorn
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from The Craft of Baking

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4-3/4 teaspoon cayenne (I found that I couldn’t even taste 1/2 teaspoon, but Smitten Kitchen said 3/4 teaspoon was too hot).
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons, or more salt (I found 2 teaspoons to not be quite enough, one version of the recipe called for 1 1/2 Tablespoons, but was decreed to be too much)
3 Tablespoons butter

Optional:
1 cup toasted sweetened coconut
2 Tablespoons coconut rum (or more, mine didn’t have a very pronounced flavor with this amount)

*I added these in halved amounts to a half batch of the recipe and found it quite good, you might even want to add more rum.

Grease a large bowl, two baking sheets, and two rubber spatulas with vegetable oil.

Heat three tablespoons oil over medium-high heat in a covered pan with a popcorn kernel.  Once the kernel has popped, add the rest of the kernels and cover.  Shake the pan as the kernels pop to prevent burning.  You may want to let some of the kernels pop then remove the pan from the heat, let it sit for a moment to make sure no kernels pop out, then empty some into the bowl.  Continue until all kernels are popped.  Add coconut to popcorn if using at this point.

Whisk together baking soda and cayenne pepper.

Combine sugar, butter, 1/2 cup water, salt, and coconut rum (optional), in a medium saucepan.  Note:  I added the rum at the end of cooking, but I think it would be less dangerous to add it with everything else.  I don’t think it would change the flavor. Cook over high heat until the caramel turns a golden-brown color, (not too dark though), never stirring, then whisk in baking soda/cayenne pepper mixture.  In terms of cooking times, it said 10-14 minutes, but I think mine may have cooked a little longer.  Pour mixture over popcorn and toss together with spatulas.  Quickly turn mixture onto greased pans and separate the individual pieces.  Let cool for 15 minutes.  Store in an airtight container for as many as 4 days.

When my little brother Gabe was two, he was diagnosed with celiac disease (my other brother and father have since been diagnosed as well).  Up until that point he’d gone from eating bread and pasta to a subsistence diet of peanuts and orange juice.  He often complained of joint pain and spent large spans of time lying with his feet underneath the radiator in our living room.  His diagnosis ended it, and propelled me into the field of gluten-free baking.

I cannot impress upon you how disheartening the attempts often were.  Being only twelve or thirteen when I started, I didn’t understand that you can’t use a baking mix which includes baking powder, and substitute it one for one into a gluten recipe.  Indeed, I think about 3 out of 4 of my cakes collapsed during that period.  For the longest time, my banana cake was a dense crater-cake.  This, I assured myself, was better than a dry sandy thing, like the many other gluten-free options I knew existed.  Slowly, I figured things out.  It helped that as the years went by more options came onto the market, giving assistance to us weary gluten-free bakers.

The boys, no matter how many times the cakes split in half, no matter how many times I tried to frost a hot cake to have the frosting melt, separate, or slide off, they would still eat it.  My strange science experiments were their only dessert options.

Now, not really in terms of dessert but in terms of food, my brothers were becoming more adventurous because of their disease.  Pizza, pasta, and sandwiches still aren’t staples in our house, despite the options now out there.  Gabe lists his favorite foods as paella, curry, and sushi.  Toby, just sushi, his favorite thing on earth.  Asian food, for it’s inherent absence of gluten, is our preferred cuisine.  Instead of trying to make gluten things gluten -free, we more often eat the things that are inherently that way, food often full of bright colors, fiery spices, and tons of flavor.

Ever since Christmas when I got the Bon Appetít Desserts cookbook, I’ve wanted to make this cake for my little brother, the sushi lover.  Filled with ginger, wasabi, and sesame seeds, I knew it would be perfect for him.  Having finished, I must say I’m truly proud of it. I mean, it didn’t collapse, it tastes amazing, the texture isn’t bizarre, it didn’t split in half…I mean guys, look, it’s normal!!  And the best thing is, I think my whole family looks forward to trying it, despite being a little out of the ordinary flavor-wise.  Celiac has made us all more adventurous and willing to try new things, even sesame-wasabi ganache.

Gluten-free Black Pearl Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Bon Appétit Desserts cookbook

Serves 12

Ginger Syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
5 match-stick sized pieces fresh ginger
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Ganache

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (you can use chips or chop up a bar, either way choose something of higher quality)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on what you’re looking for) wasabi powder
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 tablespoon corn syrup
2 tablespoons black or white sesame seeds

Cake

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cocoa (not dutch process)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger (optional)
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla

Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 to 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups chilled heavy cream
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground ginger (adjust as you wish)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Syrup:

Heat the water, sugar, ginger, and vanilla or scraped vanilla bean in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stirring occasionally, bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes.  Strain out the vanilla bean and ginger.  Chop up the ginger finely to use in the cake later.  Let the syrup sit in a bowl for about an hour to cool and let the flavors balance out.

Ganache:

Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.  In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, wasabi powder, and ginger.  Stirring occasionally, bring to a boil (do not boil for long, just when a few bubbles break the surface).  Pour this over the chocolate and cover with plastic wrap.  Let this sit for 15 minutes.  Then, remove plastic, stir the chocolate and cream until emulsified, then add the corn syrup, sesame seeds, and butter.  Let the mixture sit at room temperature for a few hours to firm up.  If the butter doesn’t fully get distributed the first time, you will be abel to do so once it has firmed up.

Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 3, 8-inch cake pans and flour with the reserved flour specified below.  Place a round of parchment paper in the bottom of each.

Whisk the flours together thoroughly in a medium bowl.  Remove 1/4 cup of the flour mixture to set aside for flouring the pans.  Add the xantham gum, being powder, baking soda, and salt to the flours and whisk to combine.

In a separate medium bowl, place cocoa, chopped ginger from the syrup, and, if you wish, an additional tablespoon chopped fresh ginger.  Pour over this the 2 cups boiling water, and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment or paddle, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy on medium speed.  Add the eggs to this, one by one.  Then, starting with the flour mixture, add the flour alternately with the cocoa mixture.  Make sure you finish with the flour mixture.  Scrape around the bowl to make sure that all of the butter, flour, ect., is mixed in.  Divide between the pans and place on the middle rack of the oven.  I cooked the first two before the last one, but I assume you could fit 3 pans on the middle rack.  You would want to move them around part-way through baking though.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place n a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Remove from pans and let cool entirely before frosting.

Frosting:

In a cold bowl with cld whisk attachment of a standing mixer, beat cream cheese, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and ground ginger.  While the mixer is on low speed, slowly add the heavy cream.  Scrape around the bowl occasionally to make sure that all of the cream cheese is being distributed throughout.  Increase the speed to medium and then eventually high, ending when the frosting is relatively stiff.

Assembly:

Place the first layer, bottom side up, on a cake stand.  Spoon one-third of the syrup over the cake.  Spread half of the ganache over the first layer.  Place the second layer on top, bottom up, cover with syrup, and cover with the rest of ganache.  Place the final layer, bottom up, on top and cover with the remainder of the syrup.  Then cover the cake with the whipped cream frosting.  When frosting, it often helps to stick strips of parchment paper under the edges of the cake so the stand doesn’t get messy.  Decorate with sesame seeds and /or cocoa.  Let sit in the fridge for about 4 hours.  Remove from the fridge half an hour before serving.

Now, despite not really wanting anything to start, I am immensely happy with the cookbooks.  My littlest brother bought me The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Berenbaum.  My next oldest brother got me Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  My father bought me Gran Cocina Latina by Maricel E. Presilla.  And my godfather, well, he gave me Bon Appetít Desserts.  I am so impossibly grateful.

Last night I went through the Bon Appetít book and found myself marking page after page. Did you know they had a wasabi and sesame chocolate layer cake?  I’m thinking of making it for my little sushi-loving brother’s birthday.  Gran Cocina Latina, an enormous volume, is packed full of recipes, that are more often than not gluten-free and look incredibly flavorful.  Have I ever told you just how much I adore Cuban food?  The Cake Bible is one I’ve been hearing about for the longest time.  I’ve never had such a complete and thorough compilation of cake recipes.

But most of all I am falling in love with Jerusalem, and the awe-inspiring photos therein.  We’ve been buying spices and lots of tahini to get to work making some of the delicious recipes.  Last night, my mother made this salad, but in the way specified, which was with cauliflower.  I cannot tell you how good it was.  The varying textures all came together, and the buttery hazelnuts fit well with the sweet and tart pomegranate seeds, slightly charred vegetables, and copious amounts of just barely chopped parsley.

Today I made it for lunch.  Though my mom said she prefers it with cauliflower, I’m not sure.  Broccoli has a stronger flavor on its own, and I think might add more to the salad than cauliflower.  I’d encourage you to make it both ways, and see which suits you.

Anyway, it’s finally snowing here, and heavily.  We’re expecting 7-14 inches, which will be the most we’ve gotten thus far.  Oh how I love the contrast; we’re eating this food from a swelteringly hot part of the globe while getting a foot of snow.

Roasted Broccoli Salad with Hazelnuts and Pomegranate
Adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

1 head broccoli, cut into relatively small florets (or 1 head of cauliflower, prepared similarly)
5 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 a pomegranate, seeds removed
Around 1/3 cup packed flat-leaf parsley with stems removed and roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, cut on a slant
5 tablespoons hazelnuts, with skins (I may have used more, perhaps 1/2 cup)
1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar (I might use 2 Tbsp.)
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
heaping 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
heaping 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss broccoli with 3 Tablespoon of olive oil and turn onto a baking sheet.  Place on the middle rack of the oven.  The recipe originally states to bake for 25 to 35 minutes.  I found that 20 minutes was sufficient for the broccoli, without turning it.  You want the broccoli to be very dark in places.

Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and place the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for 17 minutes.  Though the recipe doesn’t called for them to be skinned, I think that doing so might improve the salad.  It you wanted to skin them, then, while hot you could roll them around in a towel on a flat surface.  Once cooled a bit, chop them and add them to the broccoli.  Then add the rest of the ingredients (including the remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil) and toss well.

Here’s the other version I made of Joy of Cooking’s cream cheese icebox cookies.  I must say, I think they’re just about perfect.

Nutmeg Browned Butter Icebox Cookies
Adapted from Cream Cheese icebox Cookies in Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary Edition 

Note:  Browning butter refers to toasting the milk solids in the butter and driving of the water in the butter.  To do this, melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large saucepan.  Swirl it around occasionally.  It should take a little while, but eventually as you are swirling you will see that the stuff as the bottom of the pan has begun to turn darker.  Once you see this, remove the pan, you don’t want it to burn.  You can speed up cooling the butter in the freezer, but take care as it can go from a liquid to an incredibly hard solid quickly.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
11 tablespoons salted butter, browned and cooled back to a solid
3 ounces cream cheese
2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2-1 cup chopped pecans or coarse sugar to coat the sides

Mix dry ingredients and nutmeg together in a medium bowl.  Cream cream cheese, milk, maple syrup, butter, and sugar together in the bowl of a standing mixer, or using a handheld mixer.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until fully combined.  Add the majority of the flour now if using a stand mixer, and beat on low until just combined.  Then stir in the rest of the flour by hand, taking care not to over mix.  With a hand-held mixer you probably will have to do more stirring by hand.

Let the dough sit in the fridge for an hour, then remove and shape into a 16 or so inch log.  I did this by rolling the dough up in plastic wrap and shaping the dough into a cylinder once in the plastic wrap.  Chill the dough in the freezer for about an hour, os the dough is quite firm.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees while the dough chills.  Remove the dough from the freezer, unwrap and press the chopped pecans or sugar into its sides.  Cut the dough into about 1/2 inch rounds (maybe slightly less).  Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake for 8-9 minutes.

The inspiration for this cookie came from the quick bread I made a few weeks ago.  I wasn’t too thrilled by the bread, but loved the idea of fresh cranberries and cornmeal together.  I also added some orange zest and molasses to liven things up.  Altogether I think it’s a pretty great cookie, as is the one I’ll put up tomorrow.

I hope you’re all having a happy holidays, and cooking up some tasty food!

Fresh Cranberry and Cornmeal Icebox Cookies
Adapted from the Cream Cheese Icebox Cookies in Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary Edition

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
11 Tablespoons soft salted butter
3 ounces cream cheese
7/8 cup sugar (1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup fresh cranberries (I used frozen), chopped in a food processor rough to fine (see above picture)

Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cream butter, cream cheese, sugar and molasses together on medium speed, with either a standing or hand-held mixer, until light and fluffy.  Add egg, vanilla, and orange zest.  Beat until thoroughly combined.  If using a stand mixer, you can then mix about 2/3 of the dry ingredients in on low to medium speed.  Mix in the rest by hand.  If using a hand held mixer you may have to switch to incorporating the flour by hand sooner.  When some flour still remains, add the cranberries.  Mix until distributed throughout, but take care not to over mix.

Chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour.  Remove from the fridge and form into an approximately 12-inch long log on top of plastic wrap.  Place many layers of plastic wrap around the log and shape the log as and after you wrap it up.  Place in the freezer and chill for approximately an hour or so, just so the log is firm.  While it’s chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  I found that I when I cut this dough it was too soft to be cut into rounds.  The dough flattened out on the bottom and the cookies became rectangles.  Tomorrow’s cookie dough is stiffer, so this isn’t an issue.  Cut the cookies into slightly under 1/2 inch-thick slices.  Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Bake for about 10 minutes.