My, My, Cherry Pie!



Yesterday Kurt tells me we need to go to Village Inn because it's free pie Wednesday. We picked Miss C up from school and first thing that comes out of her mouth when she gets into the car is "What's for dinner?" I tell her that dad wants to go to Village Inn for dinner and she does an arm pump and says "Oh Yea! Free pie Wednesday!" I think they both watch way to much TV.

 We have a fantastic Village Inn. They have won awards for the being ranked as one of the top rated VI's in the country. Yesterday they completely missed the mark though. Part of the problem was that there were several new waiters and I think a new cook as well. It took over 30 minutes to get our food and before the waiter even put my soup on the table he said he was going to have to take it back and reheat it. Even reheated the cheese soup was so thick they should have served it as a dip with chips!

 Fifteen minutes after we order our meal we are able to flag down our waiter once more and order our pies to go. We also ask for our bill at that time because the man never comes out of the back. He only has three tables to wait on and all three of us are getting fed up with him. Another 15 minutes goes by and he comes out with our bill and tells us that the pie is going to be just a little while because the cherry pie that Mis C ordered is still in the oven. No problem, it will be fresh. So we wait, and wait, and wait.....

  The family behind us comes in, orders their meal, eats it, orders pie. Their waitress tell them there is no cherry pie because it is in the oven and will be another 20 minutes! What!! We snag her on the way by and tell her to cancel our order and change it to apple pie. We haven't seen our waiter in over 20 minutes the people at the other booth near us he was waiting on have the manager at their table and he is getting an ear full.

  Miss C had a bit of a fit but did eventually eat the apple pie we had brought home for her, but only after I promised to bake her a cherry pie today.

 

I used two cans of Wilderness Cherry Pie filling, I added 2 Tbs sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp almond extract. I used a Pillsbury pie crust dough for the pie using a cookie cutter to make the top. I put the pie in the center of the table in place of our usual metal bowl of apples. I'm wondering how long it's going to take her to see it after see gets home from school. :)





Better then Ever

I went to Mayo clinic last week. Met with my GI and ID doctors. My blood work is coming back better then it has in the last 8 years! Amazing what not running to the bathroom all day can do for a girl. I have also gained about 17 pounds!! EEKK! I just can't help it, I can enjoy eating again! Also I needed the 17 pounds but I better not keep it up or they will have to roll me around the house before too long. :)

I have to make a little apologies about today's recipe. It's heavenly, cozy, sweet, with just enough kick to it to be perfect for a cold rainy day like we are having here today. The downfall is it's not a good Crohnie recipe, as it's heavy on the corn and I know a lot of Crohnie's have trouble with corn.

I adapted this recipe from Add A Pinch's Southern Chicken & Corn Chowder Recipe

Chicken & Sweet Corn Chowder

WHAT I USED:
1Tbs Olive Oil
1 Small onion
3 Chicken breasts
2 Carrots
2 Celery Stalks
2 tsp minced garlic
3 pieces cooked bacon
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs flower
4 cans cream style corn
1 can chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of ground cyan pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes


What I did

  Over at Add a Pinch Robyn made this on the stove, but of course I threw mine into the crock pot. :) I have a big Hamilton Beach that cooks hot and fast so the 1st thing I did is plug it in and put 1Tbs of olive oil into it. While that was warming up I got out the rest of my ingredients. I chopped the onion up fine in the food processor because the kids won't eat onions if they can see them so I go to sneak them in. Then I dumped those into the slow cooker with the oil & went to work chopping the carrots and celery.

  I liked the look of Robyn's large cut carrots, but a lesson learned, carrots take a long time to cook in the crockpot - use a mandolin and cut them thin, mine were still crunchy when we ate. (We could have let it cook longer but the smell was killing us! We had to eat it now!) I chopped 2/3 of the celery then put the rest into the food processor, again so the kids still got some even if they picked the big chunks out. I dumped this into the crock with the onion and added the 2tsp garlic also. I put the lid on the crock and moved onto the bacon.  

  I fried up the bacon saving the drippings and beings the food processor was already used for this meal I used it again to chop my bacon, saved me from greasy hands. By the time I added the bacon the onions were looking translucent so I dropped in the semi frozen chicken on top of the veggies. (Here is actually where I messed up. I put a full can of chicken broth in at this time also - don't do that! Instead:) Add your cans of cream corn.
 
  Now remember all that yummy goodness in the skillet you fried you bacon in, we just can not let that go to waist. Drop your 3Tsp of flour in there and whisk it until it's good and brown. Slowly whisk in your milk and cream. This gives you a nice thick bacon gravy. I added pepper, thyme, cyan pepper, and the red pepper flakes into the gravy, mixed it well then added the whole skillet full of goodness into my chowder.
 
  This is where you should add you chicken broth - if needed - until your soup is the desired consistency. Set left over broth aside in case your chowder needs more moisture as it cooks. I added my broth first and then my chowder was a little runnier then I like a chowder to be. So learn from my mistakes.
 
  Even with it being thinner then I wanted it & with the crunchy carrots, this chowder was amazing. The whole family gobbled it up!

Unstuffed Peppers

I sitting here asking myself "can't I just post the food porn and skip all the Chron's stuff" I just don't think that would be right. There are so many issues us Crohnies face that need to be addressed, more so then our obsession with food.

One of the big ones for me is the exhaustion. I'm always tired and there's so much to do that much of it doesn't get done. I'm don't want to be perceived as a "whiner" so I rarely ask for help. Right now, all things considering, I'm feeling good. The Crohn's is behaving itself, the histo has it's own issues but I have more energy now then when I was having constant Crohn's flares.

I'm back on Flylady, I use both google calendars and Cozi to organize my life and today I'm going to start Orginized Christmas. Being organized is against my nature. I make my living being creative and like most creative my brain just does not function in an organized manner. But I think with Crohn's it needs to. Any illness, especially if you are chronic like I am, takes to much away from us. We have very little energy to waist. We can't afford to take an extra 10 minutes running around the house looking for the car keys. That extra 10 minutes running around, bending up and down search under things for our keys is going to turn into 20 when our guts kick in from all the movement and send us running back to the bathroom.

So I know it's hard to go from a care free wild child to an organized got it together, lists and all, but it's worth the try. Give it your best and see if it makes things easier. That's all I ask.

Now when you want a little chaos back in your life you can make this:

It's Stuffed Peppers without all their beautifully organized lives. It's more real life, it's unstuffed peppers. It's ugly, it's messy, it's delish. As a matter of fact my Mr. Man said it's better then stuffed peppers!

The recipe came from here Almost Stuffed Peppers modified a bit from the reviewers suggestions.

Unstuffed Peppers

1 pound ground beef

2 cups water

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 large green pepper cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 medium onion, thinly sliced (I ran mine through the food processor, can't have the kids seeing them!)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice

1 14.5oz can tomato soup

I also set some shreaded colby jack on the table for people to add to their rice dish. I love lots of cheese, but Mr Man does not.

  In a large skillet, brown beef; drain. Set beef aside and keep warm. (I added a little garlic powder and pepper to the meat while it was browning)

In the same skillet, combine water, tomatoes, green pepper, onion and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until vegetables are tender. (I deglazed the pan with olive oil, scrapping up the good bits, added the peppers and sauteed them for a while so they wouldn't be so crunchy, then added the onions and sauteed until the onions were translucent. Added back in the beef and the can of tomato soup.)

Stir in rice; cover and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in beef; return to the stove and heat through. (I cooked my rice in the microwave and added to Th meet mixture once it had cooled a bit and soaked up all the extra liquid.)

Histoplasmosis

More to the point: Disseminated Histoplasmosis
That's what you get when your immune suppressants drop your immune system into the gutter and you live in the Midwest where histo is everywhere.

Bad News: I can't take any meds for the Crohn's because they are all immune suppressants & then the histo could come back

Good News: The Crohn's is doing better then it did on the immune suppressants anyway. My Dr says that there were a few cases of Chronies getting histo and having to go on the anti fungal medications that went into full remission. AWESOME! It nearly killed me but I'm doing much better. :)

Sooooo onto the food porn:

Garden Fresh Veggies, got to love them. Especially when they make such great salsa!!! 

This is a modified version of this recipe found at One Particular Kitchen

I used 18 tomatoes. We had a lot of small ones this year in the garden. Cut in half
1 large yellow onion cut into quarters
1 jalapeño pepper - cap removed
4 cloves garlic

Put everything on a pan and roast at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the onions are translucent, the tomatoes are soft and when you turn the peppers they are starting to blacken.

Allow to cool for just a few minutes then pop everything into the blender and blend. I personally think cilantro tastes like dish soap but if you like it this is the time you would add it, just blend it in with everything else.

Now Eat.

The Food and Music Connection

When I made the tuna tortilla's the other day as I was eating a song popped into my head. Not just the words to the song but the actual song, music playing and Fred Astaire singing "I'm in Heaven." I may be an old chronie but I'm not THAT old, what the heck is Fred Astaire doing in my head!

Well tonight I have found the dark side of this musical food connection. I opened the wrong drawer in the kitchen looking for something. I opened the "snack drawer" and saw a bag of pretzels. The song popping into my head when I saw them "Beth" by Kiss but the words are jumbled and warped. "Can't you hear me calling, I'll be right home to you, can't you hear them calling, oh what can you do, oh what can you do." "Just a few more hours and I'll be right home to you, You say you feel so empty, oh what can you do" Not only did it pop into my head but it is following me around the house reminding me of the gluteny goodness, tempting me to take just one bite.

Yea, I've lost it. :)

Product Review 'Cause You're Special Gluten Free Moist Lemon Cake Mix

Blogger has the hiccups. All my photos are currently missing, and I can't upload any either. It helps me feel a little less guilty that I didn't take any photos for this review.

I love lemon cakes and pies in the spring. I found the 'Cause You're Special! GF moist lemon cake mix at my local grocer and thought I would give it a try. The first thing to note right away is that the mix calls for 1/2 cup softened butter so be sure to set your butter out long enough for it to soften prior to mixing.

I baked my cake in a 9" round cake pan and set the timer for 25 minutes. The directions say to bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. So at 25 minutes I checked my cake. It was turning sort of golden brown around the edges, still pale and a little wobbly in the center. I did the toothpick check and it looked clean, but the wobbliness really bothered me. I did the toothpick again and this time fan my fingers down the toothpick, and they came away wet so even though nothing was visible on the toothpick the wetness indicated to me that it was not done yet. Back in and set the timer for another 10 minutes.

This time when the timer went off the cake was a  lovely golden brown through the whole top. The cake had risen more and had a lovely dome to it. The toothpick came out clean and not damp, so I took the cake out and set it on the counter to cool. As the cake cooled that lovely dome deflated leaving an inverted wrinkled top behind.

Eaten warm the cake had a lovely light lemon flavor and a cake like texture with just a hint of the GF graininess. The top and sides had a bit of a baked sugar crispness that I really liked, however that was lost overnight as the cake cooled.

The next day the cake had transformed. The top had become moist and sticky, and the middle had become an almost thick pudding like texture. Not unpleasant, and I sort of like that kind of texture in lemon, but it's no longer cake like.

I topped my pudding cake with a lemon butter cream frosting:

2 cups confectioners' sugar


1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoons milk
 
I think it would have been a better frosting choice had the cake stayed like cake, and not like cake custard. I didn't frost the cake until the next morning but I had premade the frosting and didn't want to toss it. Maybe this lemon filling would have made a better toping for this type of cake.
 
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest


1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar

2 egg yolks, beaten
 
My final opinion - if your looking for a light fluffy cake this is not it, unless you eat it straight from the oven. Looking for a more custard lemon desert this could fit the bill. Because of the fall it's not a pretty desert on it's own so it needs to be topped with something if you want it to look good, but the flavor is good and the texture isn't bad considering it's GF.

I'm GF But I'm Not Starving

Day 5 of being Gluten Free.

Last night I sat down and had dinner with the whole family. To be honest my families meals have sort of fallen by the wayside as I try to figure out how to cook for myself. Dinner was Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Fries from allrecipies.com. Yes I know that I hang out on allrecipies.com way to much but there is just so much there and the community is fantastic.

The meal went as expected with K and I eating everything, Maddie eating the chicken and veggies, and Chloe eating just the chicken. She will normally eat potatoes but these had skins, and we all know how gross that is. :)

It was a good whole family GF meal, even if it was a bit on the greasy side. It did photograph beautifully.

What I'm really, really excited about though, LUNCH! Lunch was fanfrickentastic! It was inspired by a allrecipies recipe of course called Tuna Lime Tostadas, but I turned it into something mostly my own.

1st I mixed all my ingredients. The original recipe made 8 servings and I'm just cooking for myself so I have to apologize that I don't measure, but I do taste a lot. :) I started with one can of tuna, several teaspoons of tostitos salsa - which is GF BTW, some chopped black olives and some chopped mushrooms. The original recipe calls for corn, but my guts are not up for corn yet, hence the olives and mushrooms taking it's place. I put all of this into a bowl and mixed it up. In a separate bowl I mixed up avocado, lime juice and garlic powder.

Then I used my GF tortilla's. I heated some oil in a skillet until it was good and hot, then dropped that baby in. The sizzle, the smell, the burning....... note here, do not walk away from your frying tortilla. :) I had realized I didn't season my tuna so walked away from my 1st tortilla and added the lime, a bit of cilantro, a dash of Old Bay, and just a pinch of fresh ground pepper. Then I went back to the stove and removed my burning tortilla, got out a new frying pan because the oil would have burned taste to it, put on a new pan, added more oil and started over.

This time I stayed right at the stove flipping and caring for my frying tortilla, while nibbling the small amount of unburned edges from the 1st try as this one became golden and crispy.

Once your tortilla reaches that beautiful golden brown crispyness remove it from the pan. You can pat the oil off with a paper towel if you wish, or just eat that too - it's what I did. I didn't see the paper towels anywhere and I wanted to eat!

Now top your beautiful golden creation with your tuna mix and top that with your avocado mix, then pick it up like a piece of pizza and enjoy!