More Food

Sunday dinners used to be a fairly formal get together for me when I was growing up.  Perhaps it was for you too.  In any case, it seems I still have a little bit of that same urge these days to take the time and make something really nice for Sunday night dinner.  Yesterday we surprised ourselves and had a fabulous one - almost without planning it!

Steamed local mussels in a white wine sauce, tossed green salad with Mamma's Marvelous Dressing and home grown sprouts, finished off with a homemade coconut lime ice cream topped with fresh strawberries (ripe and on sale).

The entire meal was gluten- and dairy-free, nutritious, colourful, and, best of all it tasted really, really good!  Peter was lovingly nurturing the sprouts all week, and I had made the ice cream Saturday evening on a whim.   Well, not exactly a whim as it had been inspired by a local artisan ice cream maker (Cold Comfort) whose Rum, Banana and Coconut Ice Cream I managed to taste a month ago, and I'd seen some coconut based ice creams at the local Lifestyles Market.  After reading the list of ingredients I made up my own recipe and it worked out quite well as the taste was almost spot on.  The strawberries and mussels were on sale, and the wine, well, it was the cheapest bottle in a specialty wine store. What can I say?  Luckily there was enough wine for us as well as the mussels.  Life is good.

Blueberry Pancakes

This being Saturday, we have time to make lattes and take our time deciding what we want to eat for breakfast.  Today over coffee, we quickly narrowed it down to oatmeal or pancakes.  The last few times we'd made pancakes, we had tried either a gluten-free pancake mix or a recipe labeled as gluten-free.  Turns out most of these contain some form of potato or corn.  Since we have became aware of Peter's various food sensitivities, especially corn, we have chosen to search for a new gluten-free recipe.

Sesame-Rosemary Crackers

With the success of the Sesame-Rosemary Crackers we have been making and enjoying lately, we decided to search for a pancake recipe that includes sorghum flour.  We found one and today was the first attempt using the recipe below.  We added blueberries because we can, and I have to say plates were licked in satisfaction!

Sorghum Pancakes

The sorghum blend is 2 cups sorghum, 2/3 cup arrowroot, 1/3 cup tapioca (I sift this together into my sorghum blend container).

Blueberry pancakes in the pan

In bowl mix:
1 cup sorghum flour
½ cup sorghum blend above (I used tapioca flour instead)

1 packet Stevia powder (= 2 tsp sugar)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

In another bowl:
Beat 1 egg (or egg replacer)
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup milk (I used almond milk and needed more than 1 cup)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix egg mixture into dry mixture. Make sure your pancake grill is nice and hot before you pour your batter on the grill. They will be flat if you don’t heat your grill enough.

Note: I added more milk a tablespoon at a time until the batter was thinner than in the photo.

Homemade Crackers

Further to our last post, here is the recipe for the gluten-free, corn-free, homemade crackers. We have finally got it right so they are a delight to eat, one by one, until they are almost gone!

Sesame-Rosemary Crackers

1/2 cup sorghum flour (NB - other flours don't work as well)

1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup almonds/pecans, finely chopped (I used my food processor/hand blender/coffee grinder to make them finely ground, almost into a coarse meal)


1/4 cup flax seeds
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup sesame seeds


2+ tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2+ tsp. dried rosemary, finely chopped (or dried basil)
1 tsp. cider vinegar


Toast sesame seeds until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes in a toaster oven, hot fry pan or hot oven. Watch carefully so that they don't burn.


Soak flax seeds in 1/4 cup warm water for at least 15 minutes, or until they have swollen to absorb the water. The longer the better and I have even left them overnight.


In a medium mixing bowl, blend together sorghum, tapioca, pecans and salt. Add flax seeds, olive oil, sesame seeds, rosemary and cider vinegar and mix into a ball of dough. If dough is too dry, add a tsp. or two (or more) of warm water to make dough ball stick together. Divide dough ball in half.


Place a sheet of parchment paper on your counter and place first dough ball on top. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll with rolling pin to rough rectangular shape to fit a cookie sheet. I rolled this out to a little under 1/4 inch thickness. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and place bottom parchment layer and dough on cookie sheet. Score crackers into serving size with sharp knife or pizza cutter (about 1/5 x 2.5 inches).


Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until slightly brown at edges. While first batch is baking, roll out your second cracker batch as above.


Makes about 60 crackers. Once cooled, store in airtight container to keep fresh ... if you have any left over! I easily doubled the recipe.

Homemade goodies

Crackers: Take one! 

Or, have them with pate!

Short Work Weeks

I may have mentioned that I work a modified work week, or, flexible work week, which when shortened becomes I have a "flex day" every so often.  I am still relatively new to this schedule and feel I have been in the 'honeymoon phase' of my relationship with it.  That is, until recently.  I say that because while this past Monday was my 'flex' day, and I really enjoyed staying at home doing whatever I wanted, the rest of week seemed to go by with all the speed of a ... well, a slug.  Honestly, it was the longest short week I have ever worked (okay, maybe not ever)!  I was tired, and my muscles hurt just a little bit.  I couldn't seem to catch up enough on my sleep.  And, to top it all off, it was busy, busy, busy at work.  No rest for the wicked, as they say.  I just never considered myself one of the wicked.  Maybe I was fighting a bug.  Anyway, it's over!

Luckily, there were three things that kept me going, between them generating enough hope that I would make it to the end of the week and be able to enjoy another weekend.  One was the rain, or rather, the lack of it at while I ride my wonderful Dutch-style bike to and from work.  I feel so lucky when, on any day rain is forecast, that I don't get wet on my commute.  Three days a week that commute is 4 times a day as I ride home for lunch with my sweetie.  Riding that bicycle, even in the rain, still makes me smile.  I truly wish everyone could be so happy on a bicycle.  Maybe it's because I smile that the rain stops for my little commute.  I'd like to think so anyway.


Two, is the daylight.  Have you noticed how much earlier the sun rises in the morning now, and how much later it sets in the evening?  I still turn my bike lights on, but I now leave and come home in the daylight.  In fact, on Friday, I managed to run two errands on the way home and STILL arrived home in the daylight.  Love it.  Spring has sprung - at least in my mind.




The third is my handy, dandy Zippo Deluxe Hand Warmer (yet another wonderful gift from my sweetie).  I fill it up and light just before I go out the door in the morning, tuck into my pocket and take it with me almost everywhere I go.  All day.  You see, my workspace is quite lovely really, but the temperature is just a tad lower than is comfortable for me to sit and still be warm all the way to my extremities.  The hand warmer cures that pain.  It is a very comfortable, even warmth.  And that makes me smile.  My lower back has been bothering me a bit lately, so I just tuck the warmer inside my skirt and tights right over the spot where the muscles are in spasm, and it helps relax them. I don't take the warmer with me to yoga class, because most of time I get enough of a workout to keep me plenty warm.  And I certainly don't need it during my squash games.