GreenSunflower Cooks

Clementine Cake

 I got one of those bags of clementines from Costco.  I had eaten my fill and didn't know what to do with the rest.  I also wanted to bake a lemon cake.  Well this marriage happened.  I added key lime juice and pure orange extract (i got mine from Williams-Sonoma*) for a more tart and extra orange flavored cake.  I chose Agave syrup because it has a lower glycemic index, but I also had a bottle to use up and this week is all about NOT GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE.  Babe also gives his seal of approval and says this cake is up there with his all time favorite, Heavenly Almond Cookies.  

GreenSunflower's Clementine Cake

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 6 TB softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup Blue Agave syrup
• 1/3 cup clementine juice
• 3 TB clementine zest
• 2 TB key lime (or just regular lime) juice
• 1 tsp pure GF vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp pure almond extract
• 1/4 tsp pure orange extract
• 2 1/2 cupsPamela's Products Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix  

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk and yogurt and butter together, until creamy.  Then add eggs and throughly mix.  Then add all other wet ingredients until mixed throughly.  Put away your whisk and pull out your spoonula.  Add the Pamela's and mix until throughly incorporated.  It will be thick.  It should be to get a good rise.  

Grease a 9" springform pan, and spread the batter into it.  Pop it in the oven and bake for 30 min, or until it springs back when touched or when a toothpick comes out clean.  

Glaze

• 3 TB Key Lime juice
• 1/4 tsp pure orange extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar.

Combine all in a bowl and mix  until powdered sugar has dissolved.  When the cake comes out of the oven and take off the side of the spring form pan.  Place a plate over the top of the cake and turn over, remove bottom, then place a rack on the bottom of the cake and flip back over upright.  Place the rack on a cookie sheet (with sides).  Drizzle/spread the glaze over the top of the cake.

Let cool completely, and then take a piece, or two, or four, and don't blame me.

*I cant find the extract on their website, but at the store in the gourmet food section they have a a whole host of extracts by Neilsen-Massey.  Who make the best pure extracts around.  I have Almond, Peppermint, and Vanilla too and they are all very high quality.

Blueberry Fake Soda Bread

 I was searching the internets for Irish Soda Bread to go with Babe's Bday breakfast this morning.  Nothing spectacular was happening but potatoes and eggs, which I make all the time.  I thought a nice subtly sweet bakery product would do the trick.  I couldn't find one using my all time favorite,Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix .  So I hopped on over to GFG and found this.  After rattling it around in my not-so-gourmet-much-lazier head, I came up with this.  But I only had dried blueberries from Costco. I must say though, that they are HUGE and juicy.  So huge in fact, I had to chop them up.  

This is what came out.  I have been pummeling my body with gluten so long, I couldn't even find my springform pan, so I baked in a pie pan and it fell right out onto the plate nicely.  

Blueberry Fake Soda Bread

• 1 3/4 cup Pamela's
• 1 cup milk w/ 1tsp white or cider vinegar added
• 1 egg
• 6TB butter
• 3/4 cup chopped dried blueberries, or any dried fruit

Heat oven to 350. Mix the milk and vinegar and let sit for five min.  Then add melted butter.  Next whisk in the egg.  Add in the Pamela's.  Stir and fold until moist.  Add fruit.

Grease a pie pan or springform pan.  Spread the mixture in the pan.  Bake for 20 min or until it springs back when touched, it will not get too browned, so don't count on that.

Serve!  

Carrot Raisin Muffins

I was out to lunch with some friends the other day, and the restaurant had some great looking carrot raisin muffins.  So I decided to attempt some.  I based my recipe on my favorite muffin recipe from Karina.

Carrot Raisin Muffins

1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups organic brown cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups Pamela's Ultimate Baking Mix
1 1/12 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup pecan pieces

Heat oven to 375. Grease 12 muffin cups.
In large bowl, whisk together eggs and oil until blended.  Add sugar, vanilla, spices, and yogurt, whisk to combine.  Add baking mix, whisk to combine.  Add carrots, raisins, and pecans, stir with wooden spoon, or silicon spoonula until blended. 

Scoop into muffin pan, filling to the tippy top and maybe piled a little.  Bake for 20 min, until when touched it doesn't jiggle, or a tester inserted comes out clean.

Yum.

Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hazelnut

I made these little babies to take to work today, mostly because I found hazelnut extract at Whole Foods.  For those that do not want to go gluten free, you could take any basic chocolate chip recipe and as the chips, hazelnuts, and extracts. 

The bittersweet chocolate is almost overpowering but in food fauxgasm sort of way.  If you like dark chocolate, you like cookies, and you like subtle flavors to complement stronger ones, these are the cookie for you.

GS's Bittersweet Chocolate Chip and Hazelnut Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups turbinado or raw cane sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp hazelnut extract (if you cant find hazelnut, use 3/4 tsp pure almond extract)
4 1/2 cups Pamela's Ultimate Baking Mix
1 package bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With mixer cream sugar and butter together until fluffy and thoroughly mixed.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing.  Then let the mixture sit for 3-4 min and mix again (to let the sugar dissolve a little bit).  At the extracts, mix.  Add the baking mix and mix until combined.  Take mixer blade out and stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop large teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  Flatten tops of cookies either with back of spoon or clean fingertips.  Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.

Bake for 12-14 min until browned.  Let sit on cookie sheet for at least 5 min, then move to a rack. 

Enjoy!

Grilled Swordfish with Sundried Tomato, Pear, and Onion Jam

Grilled Swordfish with Sundried Tomato, Pear, and Onion Jam
Originally uploaded by greensunflowerRN.

I love when fall and summer intersect in September.  It is a perfect time of year.  Your last chance to get something on the barbeque, and a first chance to include winter produce in your food.  I am just going to give the recipe for the jam here.  You can basically put this on any firm fish, no matter how you cooked it.  Grilled, in my book, is always best. This could also make a good bruschetta topping for something different.

Sundried Tomato, Pear, and Onion Jam

1 small jar sundried tomatoes in oil, sans oil
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 small red onion sliced thinly
1 tsp raw cane sugar
1 TB olive oil
1 cup red wine (use a good one)
1 cup GF chicken broth

In medium sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat, add onion and saute for five minutes until soft.  Add raw cane sugar and saute, until the onions are very caramelized but certainly not anywhere near burned.  Add pear and sundried tomatoes, stir to combine.  Add chix broth and wine.  Bring to a simmer and reduce until the mixture is a jam like consistency.  Cool until lukewarm.  Spread over what ever you like to your heart's content.

Heavenly Almond Cookies

Heavenly Almond Cookies
Originally uploaded by greensunflowerRN.

Gluten free cookies that taste good are an incredibly hard thing to find already made.  I almost never eat a gluten free cookie, unless it is fresh baked. 

Gluten-Free Heavenly Almond Cookies

1 cup turbinado or raw cane sugar
1/4 cup unsalted, softened butter
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1 1/2 cups Pamela's Ultimate Baking Mix
handful roasted salted slivered almonds

Heat oven to 350-375 (depending on how your oven runs). Mix the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed.  Add egg and extracts, mix to combine.  Add baking mix and stir to combine (it will take a little working).

Place teaspoon full sized balls of cookie dough on cookie sheet, leaving enough room to spread out.  Flatten slightly with fork and top with three slivered almonds.

Bake for 12 min until the edges are crispy.

Coconut Carrot Cake

Coconut Carrot Cake
Originally uploaded by greensunflower.

Karina, the Gluten Free Goddess has this recipe for carrot cake.  I love carrot cake and hate being gluten free.  This makes it all bearable.

Italian Sausage Lasagna

Lasagna
Originally uploaded by greensunflower.

Babe claims he hates lasagna.  I think the only lasagna he has ever had was Stouffer's because I knew he would love this.  And he did, he ate two portions.  I put a TON of ricotta in it, because I love ricotta, you can cut down on it if you want. This is very easy to make.  Do not be put off by assembling a lasagna.  It is one of the easiest foods to prepare. The smell of this cooking in your house, will make anybody hungry.

GreenSunflower's Italian Sausage Lasagna

• 1lb bulk mild Italian sausage, browned
• 1 small box lasagna noodles (wheat or wheat free) cooked very al dente
• 2 jars premade marinara sauce (I used Classico and recommend it)
• 1 extra large container ricotta cheese (any fat content you desire)
• 2 eggs
• 1 ball part skim pasteurized mozzarella (it will melt better than fresh)
• 1/2 cup grated peccorino romano (or Parmesan) cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  After browning and crumbling the sausage in a large pan, add both jars of marinara and stir to combine.  Remove from heat. Place ricotta in a bowl and add both eggs.  Stir until mixed throughly.  At this point, create an assembly line of all the ingredients (noodles, sauce, and cheeses).

In 9x13 pan, place a thin layer of sauce.  Top with 3 noodles along the length of the pan (if your noodles are broken, you can piece them together to make one noodle length).  On top of each noodle, spread a layer of ricotta along the length of the noodle (if you want less ricotta, just dot it on evenly spaced out).  Spread a layer of sauce on top (you have to evenly lay out the sauce to last for 4 layers).  Top with 1/4 of the mozzarella.  Top with more noodles.... etc, until you have used up all the ingredients (approx 4 layers).  When you get to the top layer cover the lasagna with the peccorino romano.  Bake in oven for approx 45 min, until bubbly and browned.

Gluten Free Bread Crumbs

Gluten Free Bread Crumbs
Originally uploaded by greensunflower.

There are lots of recipes that call for breadcrumbs.  I have never seen gluten free breadcrumbs except on Internet sites, so I decided to make some of my own.  First, I got a Breadman Breadmaker, which has a gluten free cycle and a fairly good recipe for gluten free bread. I want to tweak the recipe a little bit, but the texture of the bread was great.

GreenSunflower's Gluten Free Super Easy Breadcrumbs

• 1 1.5 loaf gluten free bread, sliced or separated and left out to dry on the counter for 2-3 days
• salt

Heat broiler.  Place bread slices flat on cooking sheet.  Place under broiler and broil until toasty and brown.  Remove from over and turn over slices.  Broil again until toasty.  Let bread cool slightly and in batches grind the breadcrumbs in a food processor.  It will be very loud and take a little while.  Add salt to each batch according to your tastes, or not at all.  Spread the breadcrumbs on a cookie sheet to continue to dry for a couple of hours.  Put in freezer proof container and store in freezer.

Salmon with Cilantro Lemon Pesto

Salmon with Cilantro Lemon Pesto
Originally uploaded by greensunflower.

This pesto tastes great.  I put it on a little thick here and Babe and I had to scrape a little off.  So I would do it much thinner, but the flavor was great.  We used wild Chinook Salmon.

• 1 bunch cilantro, leaves only
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one lemon
• handful of almond slices or pinenuts
• 2 handfuls pecorinio romano cheese
• olive oil
• 4 salmon fillets

Heat oven to 450.  In bowl of food processor place all ingredients except salmon and olive oil.  Pulse to blend and chop.  Set the food processor to on and then stream in olive oil until pesto has a nice consistency, is not to oily, but will stick together.  Spread a thin layer of pesto over each filet (this may require pressing it on by hand).  Place in greased baking sheet.  Bake for 20 min (for 1-1.5 inch filets) or until fish feels firm when touched.

Serve!