For our Friday Round Up, I wanted to share with you several blogs that are focused on gluten free eating, and several recipes that I am itching to try from the GF world.

Because I know Melissa will be excited by this, check out this sourdough bagel recipe. And in general, check out this woman, Dr. Jean Layton. She is a doctor AND cooks gluten free — what more could you want? And she’s from the west coast, so I expect I will follow her and someday get to see her speak!

She also answers the age-old question: Does eating local honey prevent allergies??

This is local honey we bought last year, hoping it’d help us fight allergies!

If you’re newly GF, check out this book review on “Eat Like a Dinosaur.”

It’s book of recipes geared towards kids, and I suspect this means that nutritious, delicious recipes abound.

Here is a great post from Morri, summing up her blog-learnings over her first year as a blogger. My favorite, “I learned that progress is still progress, no matter how small you think it is, and that I’ll get to where I want to be soon enough.”

I loved this GF crepe post from T.R. Fresh fruit and a crepe AND GF? I love it. I want to try this with Melissa, and soon!

What have you found around lately that’s gluten free? Send ’em my way!

Spring has finally decided to show its face in Chicago, chickadees.

And for that, we are grateful.

In celebration of a season in which the sun shines warmer and the Farmer’s Market is finally open, Ky and I decided to embark on a dish that would make us feel like winter was over.

Enter the spring-themed pasta we made a few weeks ago.

This recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit’s Fettuccine with Peas, Asparagus, and Pancetta, but loosely.

My kitchen strategy is usually to take the framework of a recipe and re-tool it so it’s easier, less cream-heavy, or just made with what I have.

The first thing we did was head to the grocery store and buy all the vegetables that looked like spring.was.coming.

The next step was to saute some garlic in olive oil (my favorite first step to anything) and then to add in the vegetable bounty.

While your vegetables are sauteing, boil a giant pot of water for any kind of pasta you’d like. We used a short cut, because that’s what was in my pantry, but really, anything would be good in this recipe.

Also while the vegetables are doing their thing, this is a good time to prep the sauce that will coat the pasta and the veg. Ours consisted of 6 ounces of goat cheese, a few handfuls of chopped parsley, s & p, one grated lemon rind, and some olive oil and pasta water.

Once the pasta is finished, and your vegetables have sauteed for about ten-fifteen minutes (we dropped in some frozen peas at the very end), grab a giant mixing bowl and fold it all together.

This was a quick, easy recipe with a delicious return. Bon Appetit calls for cream, but we thought that goat cheese + lemon rind was a brighter, spring-ier idea, and it worked out perfectly. We also left out the pancetta, but that had more to do with forgetting it at the grocery store than anything else.

Never underestimate the power to improvise, chickens.

And enjoy this spring dish!

Because coffee was our April ingredient, I thought it important to tackle a dessert that brought out the wonderful taste of coffee (coffee flavored cake whilst drinking coffee? Yes, please!)

I found this recipe from PW, and decided that it was the perfect birthday cake for Ms. Becca, who also loves coffee as much as Corelyn and I do. Plus, it’d give me an excuse to use some more of the instant coffee I’ve had laying around ever since I made mocha brownies from the PW challenge.

A few notes on the originally recipe: 1) put your water to boil on FIRST for your instant coffee, and 2) mix your dry ingredients while your butter is melting! This will save you valuable time in the kitchen!

Butter, melting. This is already off to a delicious start.

Dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt. Yum!

This photo proves I’d be no good at committing crimes. I had butter on my hands, and then poured the flour to measure…and left my finger printed behind! Whoops…guess I know crime is not a career for me.

Some instant coffee for you. This is starting to get good, folks.

This is my boiling water, which I put on before I mixed the flour, so I could save time. Otherwise, you’re standing around waiting for water to boil, and then it never will, as the old saying goes…

So now, add your coffee to the butter. Coffee butter = best thing ever = dangerous combo. I almost ate it out of the pan, but I thought you’d think that was gross, so I didn’t…much.

So over here, we have buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Also delicious.

Add the coffee and the butter to the flour/sugar mixture….try not to eat it all.

Then add the egg/buttermilk mixture. You must taste this because it’s sinful.

Now, you’re ready for the cake tins (you’ve floured and lined, right?!)

PW says 20 minutes, mine took about 30, but after some time, take ’em out.

Then, you obviously need to let them cool before you ice them with the coffee frosting.

Yes, that’s right: coffee, coffee, coffee. It’s everywhere.

Here is the delicious cake (you can literally SEE the coffee!) ready to be eaten. Everyone loved it…one of these days, I’ll get you an inside shot, since these cakes go so quickly at work it’s hard for me to snap a shot!

Do you have a favorite coffee item? Let us know, we’ll have to make it!

It’s May, which means it’s Celiac Awareness Month! So in addition to food awareness coming at you this month, it’s also a month to educate you specifically about Celiac.

But what is celiac? It’s an autoimmune disease that is triggered by the consumption of gluten, causing the body to attack itself. For more information, check this out.

I happen to have several friends that have celiac, and several other friends that are gluten intolerant. As such, I tried to become a gluten-loving advocate for my gluten-free friends!

When I first started to understand the disease, I had to figure out a) what gluten was and b) where it was. Turns out, it’s mostly everywhere. Most people wouldn’t think to look at a list of ingredients on dried fruit, certain condiments, or mixed salad, but you’d be surprised where you can find gluten hiding!

So what to do? First off, get educated on what gluten is, where it is, and how to avoid it. This process can certainly be overwhelming, but there is help! The National Foundation of Celiac Awareness is a great resource for everyone – whether you’re the 1 in 133 Americans who has celiac, or the other 132 who are friends, family, or co-workers of someone with Celiac. Not to mention those who may not have Celiac, but are gluten-free for other dietary restrictions!

Tomorrow, NFCA is holding a live webinar about Celiac and gluten-related diseases at 11 am PDT. I plan on listening in, and hope you can join me.

If not, check out this list of bloggers that are gluten free, and let me know if you have questions, as I’d be happy to help answer any I can. Look for more Celiac/gluten free information as the month rolls on, and let me know if there is anything going on I miss!

You may or may not know that I usually don’t do banana. Not because I don’t like them – I do like a banana now and then! I just subscribe to the idea that one should eat locally sourced produce, and unfortunately banana’s are never local.

I broke my rule, however, to bring a friend his request of banana cream pie on his birthday. I used a recipe from Tasty Kitchen, and although it ended up delicious, I think I’ll have to try again to get the consistency down.

This pie, despite a flaw in consistency, was so easy I couldn’t believe it.

Step one: prepare your pie crust.

Line your baking dish, and use your fork to create a nice edge.

Get out your pie weights. Mine are beans. I’ve used them several times, and just keep them in a jar in my pantry.

Place a pie of tinfoil in your crust, then your beans. Bake and set aside for afterwards. Confession: I used store bought crust. You can make yours, or buy it, or make a graham cracker crust, whatever your heart desires. Once it’s cooked, set aside for later.

Now for your “cream”: with sugar and flour. In a sauce pan, I know, a little unconventional, but go with me.

Now you’re going to add your milk. I should have titled the post, “In Which Everything I Photograph is White.” Anyways, so you let your sugar/flour/milk bubble up and thicken, for about five minutes…you’d better stir the entire time, lest your floury mixture sticks.

After that, you’re going to take your egg yolks (that you’ve whisked) and add about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture to them. This, in case you’re wondering, is called tempering your eggs. This fancy term is saying to you, “Hey, make sure you bring the heat of eggs up a bit before you add them to something hot,” because no one wants scrambled eggs in their pudding…I think…

Now add your tempered egg mixture back to the rest of the mixture on your stove.

Add your butter and your vanilla. Stir well. Yum!

Now comes your assembly.

And now, whipped cream. I made my whipped cream and brought it separately, since the eating didn’t take place at my house. You can also add it directly to the pie, your choice. I also chose to do two layers of bananas, but you can just do pudding, banana, pudding, if your heart desires.

Sugar and heavy cream = heavenly whipped cream. If I could, I’d just eat whipped cream every day for dinner.

So that’s a banana cream pie, y’all. How do you make yours? Do you use a graham cracker crust, or a pie crust? Does yours slice nicely (like mine did not?)