honey glazed salmon salad

About twice a year we get a delivery of honey and maple syrup from Jake’s family in Wisconsin. The maple syrup disappears quickly, but the honey tends to stick around longer. Now that I’ve figured this glaze out, that will change.

With only one smaller filet of salmon I made it part of a salad.

HONEY GLAZED SALMON

1 small filet salmon

pinch sea salt

black pepper

3 sprigs thyme

4 tbls honey

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

Heat grill to medium. Sprinkle salt and pepper on salmon, and top with thyme sprigs. Make a small foil tray for the salmon and place on the heated grill.

Meanwhile, heat the honey and mix the balsamic vinegar in a small jar. After the salmon has grilled for 5-6 minutes, remove the thyme sprigs (a few leaves will remain on the salmon). With a fork, poke a few holes in the salmon to help absorb the glaze. Brush about half the glaze onto the salmon, replace thyme sprigs.

Grill for another another 15 minutes- or until desired doneness, basting the salmon a couple times, using another half of the glaze.

HONEY GLAZED SALMON SALAD

salad greens

1 filet honey glazed salmon, pulled apart

large handful sungold cherry tomatoes, halved

few thin slices of red onion

1 avocado, sliced

remaining glaze

olive oil

lemon juice

Divide salad greens onto two plates. Top with salmon, tomatoes, onion and avocado. Add olive oil and lemon juice to taste (I added about 1 tbls olive oil and a few dashes of lemon juice). Dress salad and enjoy! I served it with slices of gluten-free focaccia from Bellingham Flatbread & Bakery.

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boots

Our first summer together was bliss. We hiked what felt like every trail on the northeast side of Mt. Hood.  At first we quickly hit all the popular trails, preparing the dirt and rock for the summer’s feet, hooves and tires. We gradually moved deeper into the wilderness, trading chainsaws for primitive crosscut saws. We meandered through forests of tall, grey trees spotted with white lichen and green, flowy grandfathers beard moss. We traversed rocky slopes and lunched next to tiny alpine lakes. We paused while trimming Manzanita bushes on ridgelines and soaked in the vistas. We spent days deep in the Badger Wilderness crosscutting several years of blowdown, moving mere hundreds of yards per day. We fell in love camped at the edge of Wahtum lake.

Summer deepened and snow melted and we moved higher. By now, you were comfortable, broken in. We liked to scout, to see how much further till the trail ended, or how much work was ahead. The sun heated the tree sap and warm winds carried the soft scent. Conversation grew easy.

The mornings grew darker, and rehab became the focus. Tilly Jane and Polallie paralleled each other for three miles, straight up, the ridges slowly creeping together to meet at Tilly Jane cabin. They had been burned the year before, and the trail was lost in the ashes and dead trees. Lupine, and a little beargrass, were the only living things to peak out of the black ground. We worked behind the chainsaw, pushing and pulling black logs off what had been, and what would be, a highly used trail. We were black at the end of each day and covered in bruises from broken off limbs on the logs. Sometimes blood and tears were mixed in with the charcoal.

When it first snowed the clouds clung to the ground. Ghost-like trees emerged as we drove closer. The crooked trees without any branches were black with red streaks from fire retardant, sticking up from the blanket of white. It was eerie, more so when we dug trail and mixed the white with the black, making a sooty gray.

That was our first summer together. 500 miles. You should have retired then, but I kept pushing you. Years later, it is time to say goodbye. I will miss you.

baby blanket

I broke my foot on Thanksgiving day. It was a silly surfing accident that took away       five weeks of my snowboard season. I was forced to sit around. Thankfully, a friend is having a baby and I had crochet hooks. That baby was getting a blanket.

The blanket wasn’t started until the holidays, and much of the work was completed in the car.

Many of the squares were completed on a weekend trip to Hood River. Some of them were created during a Nikita marathon. I stitched the squares together, and completed the blanket on my way to go snowboarding for the first time since breaking my foot.

This traveling blanket now belongs to a yet to be born baby girl. It is instilled with love, wanderlust and dreams of adventure. Knowing the parents, she will live those feelings.

Maybe she’ll take the blanket with her.

gluten-free peach and blackberry crumble

Every fruit and vegetable that we eat is a piece of sunshine. Some fruits are lucky enough to capture sunshine in higher concentrations than others- like peaches.

If sunshine could be eaten, it would taste like a peach. Fuzzy, sweet and juicy, ripe peaches are one of my highlights of summer.

This crumble features Yakima peaches from the farmers market and blackberries from my street. The combination is amazing, but the peaches and blackberries can easily be switched out for strawberries, blueberries, apples, or anything other delicious fruit.

PEACH AND BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE

3 cups diced peaches

2 1/2 cups blackberries

1 tbs granulated sugar

1 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

2 cups gluten-free oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl gently combine the diced peaches and blackberries with granulated sugar, set aside.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate large bowl. Cut butter into mixture until pea-sized crumbles form. Press half the crumble mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Spoon fruit mixture into pan, then cover with remaining crumble. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until crumble is golden and fruit is bubbly.

Enjoy by itself, or with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream.

gluten-free sweet rolls

Blog, you’ve been neglected. I apologize.

While neglecting you, I’ve been cutting through fresh dirt with rubber tires, soaking up sunshine and pine-scented air, and baking crusty boule, peanut butter cookies and muffins. But not writing about it. I’ve been busy, having fun. It’s been a blast.

But I’m back with some dense, faintly sweet, delicious gluten-free sweet rolls.

They are delicious with blackberry jam.

Or with roasted rhubarb and strawberries with a bit of vanilla yogurt.

GLUTEN FREE SWEET ROLLS

adapted from Bon Apetit’s Vanilla Cloverleaf Sweet Rolls

2/3 cup whole milk

5 tbs sugar

1/4 oz active-dry yeast (one envelope)

2 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Heat milk to warm, add 1 tbsp sugar and proof yeast. Whisk in eggs and vanilla after milk mixture becomes foamy, about 5 minutes.

Blend 4 tbs sugar, flours, xantham gum and salt. Add 1 tbs of butter at a time, making sure to blend well between additions. This is easiest if you use a stand mixer. Mix well. Dough will be slightly viscous, unlike glutinous bread dough.

Transfer dough to an oiled bowl. Cover, let dough rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about one hour.

After dough has risen, spoon into oiled muffin pan cups. Cover, let rise again until dough is 1/2″ to 1″ above the rim of the muffin pan.

Preheat oven to 375. Brush tops of rolls with milk, sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 18 minutes.

Enjoy warm.

gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Not lowercase love, or a cutsie heart symbol. LOVE in all caps.

You probably already know this.

But, unless you’re lucky enough to live or work with me, you probably don’t know that I make cookies about once a month (yes, these people are very lucky). Each time, I try a different recipe, or tweak something that has worked before, in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

After years of baking, and eating, I have finally found the PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. And it’s gluten free.

The slightly crisp outside of the cookie gives way to a fluffy, slightly sweet inside, dotted with melted dark chocolate, a taste of cinnamon and a faint, hardly noticeable hint of sea salt.

The key to these delicious cookies is the flour blend. Please don’t use a pre-mixed gluten free flour. That’s just wrong.

GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup brown rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 large tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375. Combine the dry ingredients and mix well. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars until well blended and creamy. Beat in vanilla and eggs, one at a time.

Gradually add flour mixture, then chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool for five minutes before moving to a wire rack. Makes about 30 cookies.

gluten-free savory cornmeal and cilantro pancakes

This week, it snowed in Seattle. The city panicked. Newscasters were telling everyone to stay home, schools were cancelled and kids took to the streets.

Since I’m a mountain girl and drive a Subaru, it didn’t keep me inside, but the glares from children as I drove the sledding hills (formerly known as roads) to my destinations made me want to go inside.

The snow started to melt yesterday, and then it got cold again, then rained frozen rain. Currently, it is snowing. Since I live on a hillside, this mountain girl decided to stay home.

And make Joy the Baker’s Savory Cornmeal and Chive Waffles gluten-free. Since I obviously wasn’t going anywhere, I worked with what I had- cilantro and a pan.

Gluten-free Savory Cornmeal and Cilantro Pancakes

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup corn flour

3/4 teaspoon xantham gum

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup melted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup half and half

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

salsa and eggs

Mix dry ingredients well. Whisk wet ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.

Drop dough into preheated pan 1/3 cup at a time. Cook until the bottom is brown and bubbles are popping, then flip and cook about half the amount of time. Makes six small pancakes. Enjoy with an egg and salsa on top.

gluten-free double chocolate brownies

I went to the store to purchase salad ingredients… and ended up making brownies. Butter, sugar and chocolate make a balanced dinner, right?

6 tablespoons butter

6 oz semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup oat flour

1/3 cup brown rice flour

1 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish.

2. Melt butter, chocolate and cocoa in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat, stir until smooth and cool to room temperature.

3. Whisk flours, xantham gum, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

4. Mix sugar into chocolate mixture, then eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until combined.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the brownies comes out clean. Cool completely before enjoying.

spiced apple cider

Baby it’s cold outside…

Cold weather means snowboarding, frosty hair, sweaters and Christmas. It doesn’t feel like Christmastime for me until I’ve made this spiced apple cider.

This cider pairs well with tree decorating. It goes even better with spiced rum.

Spiced Apple Cider

1/2 gallon apple juice

1 cup orange juice

1 orange

20 cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 cinnamon stick

Combine apple and orange juices in a large pot. Spike the orange with cloves. Mix spices well, enclose in a tea bag. Add orange, tea bag containing spices and cinnamon stick to juices.

Bring the cider to a boil, lower heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

gluten-free chocolate chip banana bread

Bread scares me.

I cut wheat out of my diet eight months ago. The idea of making bread has been terrifying ever since. Visions of flat, dense breads would come to mind if I ever had the slightest craving of freshly-baked quick bread. If simple cookies were difficult to get right, bread would be impossible.

I manned up. And it was a success.

I should have started out with banana bread. It tastes like real, wheat-filled banana bread- it’s fluffy, moist and everything gluten-free bread isn’t.

Recipe adapted from The Taste of Home

Makes one loaf

1/2 cup white rice flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1 teaspoon xantham gum

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 2 bananas)

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (or walnuts, or both!)

Combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a small bowl whisk eggs, bananas, sugar, applesauce and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Add chocolate chips or other goodie bits.

Fill one greased 8″ x 4″ loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean, or bread has an athletic jiggle. (Athletic Jiggle, according to Gluten-Free Girl: Not too loose, a little firm, but not so firm that there is no movement).