Tamale Pie (naturally gluten free)

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 medium onion chopped fine
  • 1/2 bell pepper chopped fine.
  • 1 jalapeño chopped fine (remove seeds and veins to reduce heat)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can diced tomatoes in their juice (do not drain)
  • 1 cup frozen corn or 1 can corn, drained
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Jack or pepper Jack)
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 1/2 cup coarse corn meal
  • 1 tsp salt
  1. Grease a deep dish pie plate
  2. Preheat oven to 375.
  3. Cook ground beef on medium high in large skillet breaking into small pieces. When mostly cooked, but not browned, add onions, bell pepper, & jalapeño. Cook until soft. If meat is fatty, drain oil.
  4. Add garlic and spices. Cook for 30 seconds then add tomatoes and their juices, beans, and corn. Stir well. Simmer until liquid is mostly evaporated. Remove from heat.
  5. Boil water in large pot. Add the salt. Reduce heat to a simmer. Slowly pour in cornmeal while whisking to prevent lumps. Continue whisking or stirring while cooking cornmeal until soft and thick. About 2-3 minutes.
  6. Spread about 2/3 of the corn mush along bottom and sides of greased pie Pan. Cornmeal will go up the sides about 2/3. using slotted spoon, fill crust with meat mixture. Sprinkle 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Top with remaining cornmeal. Try to seal completely. I use my hands to help spread it out.
  7. Bake 30 minutes on bottom rack until crust is brown.
Cooked cornmeal. It’s quite thick.
Filled bottom crust.
Preparing top crust.
Ready for the oven.
Done.

Apple Dumplings (no refined sugar)

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 grams) (see updates note below for gluten free)
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2/3 cup butter softened
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 apples peeled, cored and halved (choose a sweet apple like Golden Delicious or Opal)
  • 1 can frozen Apple concentrate (100% juice. No sugar or sweetener)
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Continue reading “Apple Dumplings (no refined sugar)”

A note on honey

So my husband is not eating refined sugar. This means we’re buying a lot of honey. His favorite is Local Hive Nor Cal. He eats it in low glycemic bread from Alvarado Street Bakery. He dips apples in it. Gets no sugar spike or headaches.

So I’m trying my hand at baking with honey. I’ve mostly been adapting recipes I already make and I’ve learned a few things.

The best all around honey is either “honey” with no specific flower names or orange blossom. When I make ice cream or scones with these, I get a mild honey flavor that is almost unnoticeable from sugar. I can tell it’s not sugar, but it’s close.

The worst for ice cream so far is clover unless you REALLY, REALLY like honey flavor. If you are dipping your toes into honey as a sugar substitute, I’d recommend avoiding clover.

The only other type at my market is wildflower. I bought this and it was in between. A stronger honey flavor than orange blossom but less strong than clover.

Many substitutions will tell you honey is not a 1:1 ratio with sugar, but for many of my recipes, it is. I have not tried it in a cake, but I will be attempting an Argentinian pastafrola for thanksgiving with honey. If I get it to work, I’ll post it here.

Honey chocolate syrup (no refined sugar)

  • 1 cup cocoa
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup honey
  1. In a small sauce pan, add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of cocoa. Whisk over medium low heat. Slowly add additional water until the mixture is fully liquid. This may be less than the remaining half cup.
  2. Slowly heat to simmering while whisking. Sauce will slightly thicken. You want a cream texture, not a water texture. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir.
  3. Whisk in honey.
  4. Add to airtight container and refrigerate. Will thicken a bit as it cools but will remain syrupy.
  5. Use as you would chocolate syrup.
On ice cream

Peanut butter ice cream (no refined sugar)

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup no sugar added peanut butter (I use Laura Scudders brand. It must be stirred before using.
  • 1/2 cup honey (orange blossom is my favorite. Clover is my least favorite)
  • Dash of salt
  • 1 tbsp vodka (optional)
  • For the swirl: 1/2 cup no sugar added peanut butter (see note above)
  1. Using whisk or blender, mix all ingredients well. A blender works best so the honey and peanut butter get mixed in well, but you may do this by hand. Chill mixture.
  2. Freeze as directed in ice cream maker.
  3. Microwave 1/2 cup peanut butter 30 seconds. Stir. Should be runny.
  4. Transfer ice cream into airtight storage. Stir in melted peanut butter. Freeze 2 hours or longer until hard.
Peanut butter ice cream with chocolate sauce.

I made this for my husband who isn’t eating refined sugar, so while I usually use Jif peanut butter and sugar, I had to adjust to use honey and natural peanut butter. Be careful when you buy natural peanut butter. Sometimes it says natural and it just means it has sugar instead of corn syrup. If you are avoiding refined sugar, you’ll already know that. If you are not avoiding refined sugar, you can use regular peanut butter for the swirl.

I served this with a honey chocolate syrup.

I forgot to take a glamor shot of the ice cream, so this is from the last bit left in the container. I’ll have to replace the picture later.

Chicken pie

1 recipe for buttermilk biscuits OR 2 cups breadcrumbs.

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 2 onions diced
  • 2 carrots diced
  • 2 cups diced celery (include the leaves in the first cup)
  • 4 carrots sliced
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp poultry seasoning or thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  • Tabasco
  • 2 tbsp sherry or white wine or lemon juice or white wine vinegar
  1. In large stock pot, add 1 tbsp olive oil and heat. Place 1 cup each of diced onions, diced carrots, diced celery. Include the celery leaves for extra flavor. Sautée until soft. Place whole chicken on top and cover with water. Add 3 tbsp salt to the water. Cover pot and simmer 2 hours
  2. The chicken will be falling apart. This is good. Remove the chicken with tings and leave behind bones and wings and chicken skin. Using tongs, pick out all the bone and cartilage from meat and put back in the pot. Simmer uncovered another hour.
  3. Pull meat apart with hands or tongs or two forks. You want jagged bite sized pieces. If making biscuits to top pie, make those now but do not bake them.
  4. Strain chicken broth into a large bowl or pot and discard the bones, skin, etc.
  5. Melt 4 tbsp butter in pot on medium high and add remaining diced vegetables. Sautée until golden.
  6. At this point I put the sliced carrots in a bowl and a ladleful of broth and microwave for 2 1/2 minutes to par cook them. I use the auto cook setting in the microwave.
  7. Add 3 tbsp flour and cook until golden brown.
  8. Add two cups of broth to pour and whisk into flour. Freeze the rest of the broth for future use.
  9. Add one cup milk and carrots and 1 tsp poultry seasoning or thyme. Bring to boil and cook for one minute or until thickened.
  10. Salt and pepper to taste and add 4-5 dashes of Tabasco or to taste.
  11. Add back in chicken. Stir. Add wine (or alternative as listed above)
  12. Transfer to a 9×13 casserole
  13. Top with biscuits or breadcrumbs (one daughter likes me to use the canned fried onions)
  14. Bake at 400 with fan for 20 minutes or 25 without fan.
Chicken just out of pot. Note how soft it is
Continue simmering the bones and skin another hour.
I dice my celery from the end because the leaves have a ton of flavor in them.
The remaining vegetables to sautée for the final steps.
Discard all of this.
Strained broth. I add the onion skins into the broth to give it more color and those get strained out.
Par cooked carrots.
Browning the flour.
Finished pie.

Chicken pie is super forgiving and you can fudge the measurements for the most part. The broth measurement is the one you need to worry about. If you add too much broth, it will still taste good but it will be more like chicken soup topped with biscuits. Still good, but not as comforting. I added a bit too much broth this time, so it was a little thin, but my husband also likes it on the thin side, so it works for us. If it’s too thin, you can stir in a corn starch slurry and bring to boil to thicken it. You can also add less broth than it calls for and bring to boil. If too thick, you can slowly ladle in the amount to get to the thickness you like, which is what I usually do.

Many people add peas to chicken pie. I hate peas and refuse to add them, but if you like peas, stir frozen peas in just before transferring to the casserole dish.

Grandma’s lasagna-American style

  • 1 lb Italian sausage or ground beef (can sub finely chopped mushrooms for the meat here)
  • 2 28oz cans whole peeled tomatoes
  • 16 oz tomato sauce
  • 2 small onions or 1 large onion
  • 1/2 tsp each oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, black pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (half of that if using dried)
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 10 oz uncooked lasagna noodles
  • 1 lb ricotta
  • 1/2 lb fresh sliced mozerella
  • 1 cup freshly grated mozzarella
  • 1/2 cup fresh Parmesan grated.
  1. In a Dutch oven, brown the sausage or ground beef. Spoon meat onto plate and set aside.
  2. In food processor or chopper, add the onion and pulse until finely chopped. Add to now empty Dutch oven on low heat with all dried spices. Stir around and let it start to turn yellow.
  3. Pour tomatoes into chopper and pulse until finely chopped. Add to Dutch oven with onions.
  4. Pulse the Italian sausage a few times in the chopper to finely chop. If you used ground beef you can skip that. Add the meat to the Dutch oven and stir.
  5. Simmer one hour
  6. As 16oz of tomato sauce and simmer another 15.
  7. Add red wine and simmer another 15. Remove from heat
  8. in 9×13 casserole, spoon sauce to coat the bottom. Layer lasagna noodles on bottom (mine took four and 3/4)
  9. Spread half of the ricotta on the uncooked noodles. Spoon sauce over that layer and sprinkle half the shredded mozzarella.
  10. Layer more noodles. Spread with ricotta. Top with sauce and remaining shredded mozarella
  11. Top with another layer of pasta, top with sauce and slices of fresh mozzarella. Cover tightly with foil and bake one hour in a 375f oven (no fan).
  12. Remove foil, sprinkle with Parmesan and return to oven for 15 minutes.
  13. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with salad.
Cooking sausage in cast iron. I ended up moving the sauce to the Dutch oven for simmering, so start with the Dutch oven for less mess.
Finely chopped sausage
Starting to simmer.
Meat stirred in.
First layer of sauce at bottom of Pan.
Fresh mozzarella slices on top.
Very full pan. Put a baking sheet below to catch drips.

I have just a couple tweaks like a little more cheese than it called for and I bloom the spices in the oil before adding the tomatoes.

Because Italian sausage has a lot of flavor, the spice levels are pretty low for the amount of sauce. If using ground beef, taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.

I usually make garlic bread with this but that’s a lot of carbs. Make sure you eat with a salad for a better balanced meal.

For timing, make the sauce early in the day or the day before and refrigerate. Warm it up before assembling.

My mom cut this out of the Fremont Argonaut in 1970. If you have newspapers.com, you can access it here. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/37963460/

The catering company started by Jim Miraglia operated for over 70 years and closed in 2021.

Garlic Butter Roasted Potatoes

  • 3# Yukon gold small potatoes cut in half.
  • 1-2 cups water
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 tbsp softened butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  1. Preheat oven to 425f
  2. Place potatoes cut side down on rimmed baking sheet. Pour water on sheet.
  3. Cover tightly with foil. May need to use two overlapping sheets. Seal edges well. The potatoes are going to steam in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.
  4. Remove from oven. carefully peel back corner away from you & test done mess of potatoes. A paring knife should Pierce easily. If done, let potatoes cook a little and leave corner open to release steam.
  5. Increase oven temp to 500f.
  6. Drain water into sink CAREFULLY after the stream has gone.
  7. Drizzle oil over with oil. Flip potatoes over with tongs. Season generously with salt and pepper. Flip potatoes back to cut side down.
  8. Return to oven and Roast 20 more minutes.
  9. Mix garlic well into softened butter.
  10. When potatoes are nicely browned, remove. Use metal spatula to loosen from pan carefully to keep crust intact.
  11. Dollop butter around hot pan. when melted and garlic soft, toss potatoes with the melted butter.
Cut potatoes in pan with water about to go in.
Roasted.

I cooked this batch at 450 because I’m

Learning how to use a convection oven, and they weren’t as brown as usual. I will bump up to 475 next time. The 500f for regular non convection oven is accurate.

Honey currant scones

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 7 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1 tbsp squares
  • 3/4 c heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 c honey
  • 1/4 c currants
  1. Preheat the oven to 375f with rack in the middle.
  2. Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Grate the butter and toss with flour mixture.
  4. Combine the heavy cream, honey, and vanilla and pour into the flour. Add currents.
  5. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to come together.
  6. Transfer to a lightly floured large cutting board or work surface. Knead briefly until it just comes together and shape into approximately an 7×7 square.
  7. Cut in square quarters, and then cut those into triangles. Transfer to your baking sheet.
  8. Bake 10-12 minutes until cooked through with light golden edges.
  9. Remove from the oven and leave on the pan 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool, or serve warm.
Stirred until just together
Rough square.
Finished!

Not much to say about these. They’re good. The honey amount is perfect with the currants. I’m new to baking with honey, and sometimes I don’t use enough, but this was just right. I did make a mistake and had the rack too low, so the tops didn’t get as golden as I like.

Grilled chicken marinade: no refined sugar

  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 cloves crushed garlic
  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  1. Mix first four ingredients together.
  2. marinade chicken 30 minutes to 2 hours. There isn’t acid in this so your meat texture won’t get weird.
  3. Grill on direct medium high heat for 8 minutes. Turn and grill another 8 minutes. If very thick, do 10 & 10.
Marinade
In the bag.
I accidentally had the heat too high on side 1 so I grilled less on side 2. Total time was the same.

I find direct medium high heat on the grill for 8 & 8 to give me consistently juicy results (just don’t forget to set your timer).

This weekend I also cooked steaks and forgot to lower the heat when I put in the chicken. It still tasted great. The inside was moist and the outside had a think layer of char, so the texture contrast was nice.

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