Category: COOKING

Pumpkin! Pumpkin everywhere. And not a bit of eating to eat.

Uh, let’s rephrase that. Pumpkin! Pumpkin everywhere. And so, so much of it to eat.

If you hadn’t noticed, Thanksgiving is almost upon us. And, therefore, the ubiquitous pumpkin recipes are coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. Maybe I should say out of the oven, or out of the kitchen.

In fact, I have already had a wonderful guest post by my friend Kim from Cook It Allergy Free about Crustless Pumpkin Streusel Pie. If you haven’t read about Uncle Norm and his aversion to pumpkin, you should. Oh, and make the pie while you’re at it.

So, since I like to think of myself as an independent, free-thinker, I am not following this pumpkin trend like a silly lemming.

OK, I am a silly lemming. I really dig pumpkin, too. So, I decided to try to adapt my oh-so-easy muffin recipe to pumpkin. It took a couple of tries, but I did it.

If you like pumpkin and muffins, this will be a nice addition to your baking arsenal. Just like my Gluten-Free Banana (Chocolate) Muffins and my Gluten-Free Zucchini Muffins, it’s really easy. In fact, it’s oddly similar.

This recipe is killer if I do say so myself. I’m good at this muffin thing. Maybe I will start calling myself the muffin girl. (I know I should say woman, but it doesn’t flow as well.)

Read More →

Pomegranates are probably my favorite food. I could live on them. But, they have one major flaw. Peeling them.

They have this tough skin that gets hard as a rock if, God forbid, you leave them too long before getting around to peeling them. Try to peel that thing off without popping a bunch of the little packet of sweet, juicy flavor around the seeds. Thus, staining anything it touches. Good luck!

And, speaking of stains. The stains my fingers get from trying to peel these things drives me nuts. My fingers dry up and turns a pale, orangey color. Um, why?

I know I could get the seeds in a little container in the store, but that just seems so lazy and wrong.

And, I have heard several times that you just cut it in half and hit it with a wooden spoon. Then, all of the little seeds pop out like beautiful, red, magic rainfall. I’ve even seen Nigella do it on her show. I tried it, and I just ended up mashing the pomegranate and having little red dots all over my kitchen. It was a pomegranate massacre. Should have had a white chalk outline around it and called CSI. Not really the outcome I was looking for.

So, if you are not a pomegranate whisperer, like I am not, I am going to share with you my technique for getting those pesky, but oh-so-tasty seeds out with as little hassle as possible. And, hopefully, as little stains as possible. Either red or orange.

Read More →