mango strawberry sunrise

Posted on Apr 17, 2012
Amys Gluten Free Pantry

I use my lit­tle magic bul­let for this, which gives me a per­fect sin­gle serv­ing. This dou­bles eas­ily to pro­vide four lit­tle serv­ings for break­fast or an after­noon snack. Hav­ing frozen fruit in the freezer makes this a snap! On the week­end, this is our morn­ing rit­ual along with a game of Rum­miqub, fol­lowed by a big breakfast.

Prep time: 2 min­utes
Total time: 5 min­utes
Serv­ings: 1 10 oz. serv­ing
Spe­cial equip­ment: blender or Magic Bul­let

4 frozen straw­ber­ries, cut into fourths with a par­ing knife
1/4 c. frozen mango
2 T frozen blue­ber­ries
8 ounces pineap­ple or peach juice

  1. Add all ingre­di­ents into blender of bul­let and process until smooth.


Posted in beverages, breakfast | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment




dandelion greens

Posted on Mar 28, 2012
Amys Gluten Free Pantry

I’ve always had a curios­ity about the greens I watched my father eat his whole life. My mother steamed or sautéd them with but­ter, salt and pep­per and I would watch him eat a plate­ful, grate­ful that I was not required to par­take of the limp, green blob that would make any child run in the oppo­site direction.

Now that I’m older and my palate is more devel­oped, I finally decided to take the plunge. To my sur­prise, dan­de­lion greens are delight­ful — much more than the dreaded weed that so many lawn own­ers try to erad­i­cate. The fact is, dan­de­lion greens are the most nutri­tious leafy veg­etable you can eat. A huge source of Vit­a­min A and K, they also pro­vide cal­cium and iron to your diet. This rel­a­tive of the sun­flower sup­ports diges­tion, reduces swelling and inflam­ma­tion and even treats viruses.

We had this dish tonight for din­ner along­side a Roasted Chicken and a green salad. Lots of greens, but my kids gob­bled it up. The chicken and salad, that is. I think work­ing dan­de­lion greens into their diet is going to take a bit of maneu­ver­ing, but I’m deter­mined! Enjoy.

Prep time: 5 min­utes
Total time: 20 min­utes
Yield: 2 servings

1 bunch dan­de­lion greens
1/2 T olive oil
1/2 yel­low onion, chopped
1 clove gar­lic, diced
salt & pep­per to taste
sprin­kling of parme­san cheese

  1. Fill a large pot with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil.
  2. Rinse greens and cut stems off. Slice leaves into 1″ strips and add to boil­ing water. Reduce heat and sim­mer for 10 minutes.
  3. While greens are sim­mer­ing, heat olive oil in skil­let and sauté onion until translu­cent, about 7 min­utes. Add gar­lic and sauté for another minute, then set aside.
  4. Drain greens and add to skil­let of onions and gar­lic, on medium heat. Cook for 5 min­utes to com­bine fla­vors. Add salt & pep­per to taste. Sprin­kle with parme­san cheese, optional.


Posted in sides + vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment




tool of the month

Posted on Mar 15, 2012
Amys Gluten Free Pantry

As much as I hate to acknowl­edge base­less enter­tain­ment mas­querad­ing as polit­i­cal com­men­tary, the tim­ing of Rush Lim­baugh’s lat­est vit­riol aimed at George­town law stu­dent, San­dra Fluke, coin­cid­ing with my intro­duc­tion of “tool of the month” is a set-up I am inca­pable of ignor­ing. It’s a bit like hold­ing back a sneeze. Rest assured, I hap­pily cross party lines for all culinary-based polit­i­cal jabs, but only if the intended tar­get really deserves it, as this one so heartily does.

So. Tool of the month must also go to this Amco Enam­eled Lemon Squeezer. Its cheer­ful yel­low makes it’s the hap­pi­est look­ing device in my arse­nal of kitchen helpers. Cost­ing around $10-$12, this device works great for limes too.

My friends Randi and Kelvin keep me in good sup­ply of their gar­gan­tuan lemons that have no hope of fit­ting into this hand juicer. For those, and for grape­fruit and oranges, I use my very afford­able elec­tric juicer; for juic­ing just one or two, a hand reamer works great.

The result­ing cit­rus juice is a great fla­vor enhancer and emul­si­fier used for a vari­ety of salad dress­ings and mari­nades, including:

cae­sar dress­ing
cilantro pesto
dill vinai­grette
tar­tar sauce
home­made may­on­naise
gar­lic rose­mary chicken

Drop me a line and tell me about that favorite device that is indis­pens­able in your kitchen. Happy juicing!


Posted in tools | Leave a comment




chicken caesar salad

Posted on Mar 9, 2012
Amys Gluten Free Pantry

The tuna indus­try will tell you that tuna salad is America’s favorite salad. I even found a coleslaw blog, also “America’s favorite salad”. The point is, we like our sal­ads. Chef, 3-bean, jello (if you want to go way back), potato salads…the list goes on. But for my money, all hail caesar.

Cae­sar salad is widely held to be the cre­ation of Ital­ian restau­ran­teur Cae­sar Car­dini, who lived in my home town of San Diego. Like so many other well-loved cre­ations, this salad is thought to be the result of that old adage “neces­sity is the mother of inven­tion”. Appar­ently, in 1924, when an onslaught of cus­tomers depleted his pantry, Mr. Car­dini came up his recipe on the fly, serv­ing it table-side with much flair.

The dress­ing for this dish has mor­phed along the decades. The orig­i­nal included Worces­ter­shire sauce (which has a small amount of anchovy in it), to any­one dar­ing enough to serve whole anchovies on top. I like the mid­dle road — anchovy paste — all the punch and none of the hair. Tra­di­tion­ally served with crou­tons, I like to top this salad with chunks of grilled chicken. If you must have some­thing crunchy, drop in a hand­ful of pis­ta­chios. But what­ever you do, don’t for­get the anchovy paste in the dress­ing — it’s deli­cious. I swear.

Prep time: 20 min­utes
Total time: 1 hr 20 min­utes (includes mar­i­nat­ing time)
Yield: 4 main course sal­ads
Spe­cial equip­ment: grill pan or out­door grill

4 bone­less chicken breasts or 6 thighs
1/2 c. lemon juice (juice of about 2 lemons)
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
lots of freshly ground black pep­per
8 c. romaine let­tuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 c. cae­sar dress­ing 
4 lemon wedges for garnish

  1. Mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pep­per in shal­low dish. Place chicken pieces into mari­nade for at least an hour and up to 4.
  2. Grill chicken about 7 min­utes per side over hot grill.
  3. While chicken is grilling, mix salad dress­ing and set aside.
  4. Remove chicken and let rest for 5–10 min­utes and then cut on diagonal.
  5. Mix greens with dress­ing and sep­a­rate onto four plates. Arrange chicken on top, douse with a bit more dress­ing and serve with a lemon wedge.


Posted in chicken, entrees, poultry, salads | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment




caesar dressing

Posted on Mar 8, 2012
Amys Gluten Free Pantry

Can I inter­est you in some hairy fish?

This mis­un­der­stood mem­ber of the her­ring fam­ily packs a huge punch. And when served improp­erly, an anchovy can leave an indeli­bly unfa­vor­able mark upon your pal­let. But con­sider this — when served prop­erly, they pro­vide the fla­vor that makes cae­sar salad taste like cae­sar salad. In fact, sci­en­tists con­sider the intense and supe­rior taste of an anchovy to pos­sess “umami” — a fla­vor that is nei­ther sweet, sour, bit­ter or salty, but sim­ply savory. Umami can also be found in parme­san cheese. So remov­ing the cheese, but keep­ing the anchovy paste tricks the palette into tast­ing that it’s still there. Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

And that hair? It’s actu­ally tiny bones that pro­trude from the body of the fish. I know…I’m really not sell­ing anchovies as well as I might, but it’s worth know­ing that these bones are eas­ily digested because they are so tiny and the salt­ing process soft­ens them.  You, how­ever, in the mak­ing of this deli­cious salad dress­ing, don’t have to con­cern your­self with any­thing other than find­ing a small tube of anchovy paste at your mar­ket. I go to Lit­tle Italy in San Diego to a lovely gourmet shop to get mine. The ingre­di­ents should include noth­ing more than anchovies, olive oil and salt. And it’s a bar­gain at $2.49 for a 2 oz. tube.

This recipe makes a cup of dress­ing. If you are going to use only a por­tion of it, I would rec­om­mend adding the anchovy paste only to the por­tion you serve because the anchovy fla­vor that is per­fect for serv­ing the day you make it, will inten­sify the next.

So be brave, and you’ll be so sur­prised at how deli­cious this is. If you can tol­er­ate cheese, the parme­san is won­der­ful, how­ever, a whole slew of 12 and 13 year old girls love this sans the dairy! And for you kids out there who need some­thing tasty to dip your car­rots and cel­ery into, give this dress­ing a try.

Prep time:  8 min­utes
Total time: 8 min­utes
Yield: 1 cup

1 c. home­made may­on­naise or Veg­anaise 
2–3 T lemon juice
1 large gar­lic clove, crushed
1 1/2 inches of anchovy paste, squeezed from the tube
lots of freshly ground pep­per
2 T c. grated parme­san cheese optional

  1. Mix every­thing together in bowl, whisk­ing until thor­oughly com­bined. Taste and make sea­son­ing cor­rec­tions to your spe­cific taste. I like mine really lemony, with lots of gar­lic, so one clove may not be enough.


Posted in condiments + appetizers | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment