This is a post from Eva, creating a Shawarma recipe for the heros of the Avengers after saving the world. We hope you check out the post on FBC today, and enjoy the recipe below! 

Shawarma is a traditional Middle Eastern method of preparing meat by slow roasting it on an upright spit for hours and hours on end, meaning all the spices are just marinating away all day long. Typically, the restaurant or shop-owner will then serve it right from the hearth, cutting off large chunks and slapping them in pita bread or on sandwich rolls.

The at-home version here tastes every bit as spicy and delicious just without the added benefit of open, outdoor fire. Because until I find an upright spit on my doorstep, gift wrapped from Stark Industries, I’ll just have to make do with what I have – a crockpot and some gumption. And, really, what more do you need?

Ingredients

2 lbs. boneless chicken thigh
5 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp all spice
¾ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp cinnamon
pinch of cayenne
pinch of salt and black pepper
a rough ½ cup of water

Directions

1. Measure olive oil and pour into crockpot.
2. Turn crockpot on low setting.
3. Combine spices in a bowl and whisk into olive oil until well combines (no lumps).
4. On a clean workspace, remove excess fat from chicken.
5. Place chicken on the bottom of the crockpot and add enough water so that the chicken is almost covered.
6. Let cook on low heat for approximately 6 hours.
7. When chicken is thoroughly cooked (165 degrees throughout), remove from crockpot and let cool. About 5-10 minutes.
8. Shred chicken with your fingers or a fork. At this point it should just fall apart.
9. Place chicken in pita (or your receptacle of choice).
10. Enjoy at a table in complete silence with your super-powered friends.

Happy Earth Day, lovelies! We here at GMS love Earth Day because we love celebrating the planet that gives us everything (duh) and we like to give back to that earth if we can.

One of the ways we try to be more eco-conscious is simply by knowing about the food system; knowing where our food comes from, how it’s made, and how it gets to us. And a great way to be a little more local in your food choices is to grow your own food if you can, right in your own backyard.

For those of you who have been to the GMS kitchens, you know we don’t exactly have land – but we do have a front porch, and pots galore, and lots of sunshine. So we like to plant our own herbs to have at least a few ingredients homegrown that we tend to ourselves.

We bet you might not have a ton of land, either, but even if you do, maybe you don’t know how to get started in the gardening game – and we’re here to help! Here are five herbs you can grow at home with a pot and some sun and water that will round out your cooking too!

These chives have been growing on our front porch for a while now, and we love cutting a few for photographs, and cutting a whole bunch to use on our Mexican dishes – think tacos, quesadillas, nachos…you get the idea. Chives taste a lot like a green onion, so image a mild oniony flavor – and they’re green and beautiful. You can put them on or in anything you’d put an onion on – which means almost anything. Chives are also pretty good for you – find out more here.

This is parsley from our front porch garden. You can put it in nearly anything for a fresh bite to your dinner. We love it in pastas, sprinkled on top of salad, or mixed into a smoothie. Parsley is full of antioxidants and of potassium, too, so it’s healthy AND delicious. To learn more about this herb, head here.

Basil is another one that can be worked into many different dishes. I put it cut into strips in my salad, I put it in my lasagna, I add it to grilled cheeses, soups, sandwiches, cocktails, even popsicles…you get the idea. Or you can go tradition and make yourself a delicious pesto with the stuff. Basil is a refreshing flavor that works, again, in almost anything, and it’s healthy. This plant might be a little more finicky than the first two, but with a little love you’ll get a nice bushy plant.

Thyme has a very specific flavor that many might associate with Thanksgiving, but we use it year round here at GMS in places you might not think to look for it – like cheese and thyme scones, or thyme mac and cheese, or lemon and thyme cocktails. Plus, thyme is nice and bushy, and it loves the sun, making it a good hearty herb. Check out its multitude of health benefits here.

Last, but actually our fave, rosemary is another great, versatile herb (are you sensing a pattern?) We pretty much put cumin and rosemary on everything – I especially love it in lemonade, but also on potatoes, or chicken, or fries, or in soup, or seeped on the stove. The smell is intoxicating in the best of ways, and its good for your immune system and has anti-inflammatory properties. Plus, it’s pretty.

So there you have it, 5 herbs that are easy to plant. Go out and get yourself some seeds for these fab herbs and start a little garden wherever you have the space! We can’t wait to see what you guys plant – send us your shots and we’ll be updating you on our little garden for 2014 – and have a Happy Happy Earth Day!

Update: We’re happy to announce that Nicole has won our contest! Nicole, email us at jennie@garlicmysoul.com to claim your prize! Congrats – and I hope you all can get out to #bakeforgood!

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to work with King Arthur Flour on their “Bake for Good” Tour. We’ve loved King Arthur Flour since our youth, and my family has always preferred KAF. When I moved to Los Angeles, I found it harder to find, and quickly learned it’s because King Arthur is based in Vermont. Luckily, we found a few local stores that carried KAF products, and our favorite flour has become more prevalent on the west coast over the last few years. Thank goodness!

When we heard they were doing a tour, we knew we wanted to be a part of it. The Bake for Good Tour was a way for bloggers to come together, learn how to make basic baked goods (we made bread and pies) and then cook a meal for the homeless including the breads and pies we had made.

The Bake for Good mission is simple: bake something for someone who needs a little love; whether it be cookies for your neighbors, or a pie for your local senior center, or loaves of bread for a homeless shelter, you can do something that will benefit someone in need. To read more about the program head here.

We love this mission because we love baking, and we have great memories baking with family, friends, and each other. We want to share the joy of baking with all of you, and want you to bake it forward to someone.

The first day, our fabulous teachers Susan and Robyn taught us the ins and outs of making breads and pies, and we were beyond thrilled to get some hands on baking instruction from these talented and inspiring women. Robyn is one of King Arthur’s baking instructors, and she really knows her stuff.

She took us through yeast breads and pie pastry, calmly reassuring us when our dough seemed a little too wet and correcting our tendency for aggressive kneading. Afterwards, Susan, who is a chef in the King Arthur test kitchen, taught us her secret for a perfect lattice pie crust.

On the second day, we headed to Homeboy Industries to see their bakery and learn about their program (we’ll be doing a whole post about them later, but to learn more about them, head here.) Then, under Susan’s masterful direction, we cooked a dinner for about 120 people at PATH, a local homeless shelter and organization.

We made some talented new blogger friends and had a great experience learning kitchen techniques and giving back to our community, and we want you to be able to do the same!

So to help you get started baking for good, we want to offer you a prize pack of the following items:

* 5 lb bag of King Arthur Flour White Wheat Flour
* 5 lb bag of KAF Whole Wheat Flour
* A KAF Bench Knife – helpful for cutting butter into your dough, or cutting your dough into loaf-sized pieces, or cutting up your brownies…
* A KAF Bowl & Dough Scraper – great for mixing your dough together without too much touching – great for those of us who hate touching flour, aka Jennie
* Vanilla Extract
* Chocolate Chips

To enter, here’s what we want you to do:

1. Tweet, post on Facebook, Instagram, or comment on this post about how you’ll use the prize pack to #bakeforgood – and make sure to use the hashtag so we can find you! For example, you can say, “I’ll make chocolate chip brownies for my neighbors who just moved in!” or “I’ll host a bake sale and donate the proceeds to Homeboy Industries!”
2. Extra points for any of the steps in the Rafflecopter below – connecting with KAF or GMS on Facebook or Twitter.
3. We hope that whether or not you win, you’ll bake for good in your community anyways – so if you do, please tag your posts #bakeforgood so the great folks at KAF can see all of the good you’ve done!
4. The contest ends Thursday Night at 12:00 midnight (aka technically Friday morning) and winners will be announced sometime on Friday.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Easter is coming up fast – how did that happen?! We make lasagna on Easter, but we figured that’s probably not your average fare, is it?

So here are some things we’ve made in the past that you might want to consider making for Easter, whether you’re hosting or headed to a potluck.

First up, try these Avocado Deviled Eggs. They’re delicious, creamy, smooth, and will be a popular appetizer. Plus, their pretty. Bonus.

If you’ve been tasked with the booze, celebrate this spring holiday with our Brunch Cocktails – they’re classics with a twist, and they’ll keep everyone smiling until your main course is out of the oven.

Speaking of brunch, headed to a mid-morning affair and not into any traditional Easter dishes? Try this 30-minute Frittata…it’ll impress anyone who loves goat cheese (read – most people) and it can travel right in your cast iron (plus, arm workout at the same time.)

Finally, is it your job to bring dessert? Cupcakes travel well. They’re not a mess if there are leftovers. And, these ones incorporate strawberries, which are coming into season, and they have chocolate. What’s not to love?

Here are some other things from around the web we’re loving for Easter:

* These cute DIY Ice Cream Cone Easter Eggs from Studio DIY – leave it to Kelly to come up with something so crazy and adorable all at the same time.
* This strawberry and basil smoothie from Wit & Delight – perfect Easter morning breakfast!
* Look at this salad...the perfect side to a delicious potluck Easter dinner? We think so. Cookie & Kate always has the best stuff, you guys.

What are y’all doing for Easter? Are you dying eggs? We hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

This is the way a gluten-free mind works: what can I use as a receptacle to hold my pizza toppings?

I have to admit for awhile I would just roll pepperoni around a mozzarella stick and call it a day. It’s true there are some simply fabulous GF pizza crusts out there. But for today I didn’t want to deal with flour mixtures or anything from the freezer section.

And then I realized that the vegetarians had it figured out all along. For years vegetarians and mushroom fanatics have been using portobellos as a burger replacement. Today I decided this lovely shroom was due for an upgrade to pizza crust.

And boy did it ever deliver. Portobellos have that fantastic flavor that is somehow both strong and compliant to the foods around it. I took my first bite way before I should have and scalded the good gracious out of my mouth. But (and I don’t say this lightly because my tongue was approximately 375 degrees) it was worth it.

Ingredients

1 large Portobello mushroom
1 tbsp pizza sauce
½ cup mozzarella cheese
*your toppings of choice! I used:

sliced cherry tomatoes
pre-cooked bacon
chopped basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Rinse Portobello mushrooms and place on a greased baking tray.
3. Bake the mushrooms alone for 10 minutes, flipping them after 5.
4. Remove from oven and top however you like! I added pizza sauce first then mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, bacon, basil and then more cheese for good measure.
5. Bake for 10 more minutes or until the toppings are crispy and the cheese melted.
6. Remove from oven and let cool (use caution!).
7. Eat with a GF beer or hard cider and it’ll be like you aren’t dietly challenged at all!

What is your favorite way to make pizza gluten free?