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Free of Gluten, Dairy, Nuts, Tree Nuts, Soy and Corn.

Bar Crust

• 1 cup Sorghum Flour
• ^3/4 cup White Rice Flour
• ^1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
• ^1/2 teaspoon Salt
• ^1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• ^3/4 cup Vegetable Shortening

Rocket Sauce.

Awesome things happen in the celiac community. For instance: The Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University held a benefit at Carnival in Manhattan. The center has been around since 2002 and their aim is simple-make life with celiac disease easier. They work to improve patient care so that once someone is diagnosed that person doesn’t have to struggle to find their own path to health. Sound familiar? I think we can all agree that we wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through this alone. The center is run by Dr. Peter Green, a celiac specialist and perfectly charming bloke from Australia. Dr. Green took some time to chat with me at the benefit about the center and the particular importance of physician education. I also had the grand pleasure of talking with Craig Pinto. Craig is the field kicker for the New Jersey Revolution, which is to say-PRO ATHLETE+CELIAC DISEASE=ROCKSTAR. Craig works his buns off to make sure that people are well educated about the disease and he was a saint for inviting me to this event. In September he’ll be breaking the Guinness Record for the most field goals scored in 12 hours all in the name of Celiac Disease. Obviously I will be on hand to make some video mayhem. This new video has some great info from Dr. Green and Craig talks about his history with the disease. It’s not even five minutes, how could you pass this up?

There are days when I feel like squeezing my head until it bursts.

You know?

So, Renegade Kitchen has been quiet lately, but for absolutely wonderful (and sometimes exhausting) reasons. The sweltering month of August provided me with not one, but two weddings to celebrate. The first, for my oldest friend (quite literally, we met at the unripe age of 2) was a week ago in Boulder. I was asked to officiate the ceremony and the honor unstopped the meager plug holding back my tears which poured forth nearly every moment I wasn’t speaking. Marriage by morning light on Flagstaff Mountain, I will not soon forget you. The second wedding is still to come ( I leave in two days). This time, instead of running the show, I will slip smiling into the role of maid of honor at one of my best friend’s weddings (too many movie titles in this sentence). Remember when you had a gang of four or five miscreants with whom you did everything in middle and/or high school? I would have no gang without Jenny. It is not too outrageous to say that I’m anticipating this wedding like a drag queen with a new wig in a box.

I JUST WANT TO PUT IT ON AND STRUT IT OUT.

OK.
Weddings are wonderful, but hardly enough to keep me from the kitchen. So, what else has been scribbling my brain? MOVING. Double yuck. I like being settled, I like feeling at home, I am dreadful at packing up my ish and taking the show on the road. My new place is in the same neighborhood I’ve always lived in (my fourth in Park Slope) and has a great kitchen (by NYC standards). Obviously the most important thing to do in a new apartment (before unpacking or buying any furniture whatsoever) is making cookies. NYC apartments are not renowned for their modern appliances and I wanted to know a.s.a.p. how far the internal oven temp. varied from that on the dial. There is no better way to do this than with a batch of cookies. You will be pleased to know that while the oven temp. fell quite below its display, the cookies were still deltastico. And I broke in a new wooden  spoon. On cookie batter. Best virgin spoon experience ever.

Now that you’re all caught up on the present let us turn our digital gaze to the future! Renegade Kitchen has balloons of excitement on the horizon, here are a few things to look forward to:

• Tuesday, August 17th-I will be attending a benefit event with the Celiac Disease Center of Columbia University. I’ll be on hand to interview Craig Pinto, the field kicker for the New Jersey Rebels. Also-I will be luxuriating in the carnival games of my youth. Skee-ball, you better work.
• New cooking episodes! Lucy Gibney of Lucy’s cookies came out to Colorado to teach me some of her secret home recipes. What’s that? Chocolate cake? I drool.
• Mark your calendars for September 25th. Craig Pinto (pro athlete+celiac disease=rockstar) will be breaking the Guinness Record for most field goals scored in 12 hours. I will be filming it. As long as my arms don’t fall off.

I am le tired. Lots to look forward to, tons to smile back at.

Cheers!

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Free from Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Soy, Nuts and Tree Nuts.

• Candied Lemon Slices (recipe follows)
• 2 tablespoons Lemon Syrup (from making the candied slices)
• 1 cup Frozen Blueberries
• 12 tablespoons White Rice Flour
• 6 ^1/2 tablespoons Tapioca Starch
• 4 ^1/2 tablespoons Brown Rice Flour
• 3 tablespoons Poppy seeds
• 2 ^1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ^3/4 teaspoon Salt
• ^3/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• ^3/4 cup Coconut Oil (any veg. oil but canola!)
• ^3/4 cup Coconut Milk
• Juice+Zest one Lemon

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Testing recipes leaves me with an abundance of food. I eat a lot of it. Really. But sometimes, there’s one too many cakes in the freezer, and/or I have to make two batches of dinner back to back to unwind a kink in the works My fridge can only take so much. I could buy another refrigerator but they really have shown very little capacity to digest the food I feed them. They’re horrible pets. My food just sits there, deep in a cold belly taking a slow nap to decomposition.

And so, instead of investing in an icebox companion for my current GE monolith, I invite friends. They have shown propensity not only in eating my food but also in regurgitating compliments to the chef, something, I assure you, that soothes the belly better than the finest digestif.

I’ve been back in New York for almost two months now and the dinner party craving has taken strong hold. I owe much to Andrew Hyde but chiefly among my debts lays a passion for opening my door to friends and sharing whatever food I have. We had a wonderful habit in Boulder called Dinnergeddon. The premise? Food for an army, wine supplied by the soldiers, laughs, hugs, chatter, challenges and smiles the explosions of our war. The measure of the night taken not in warrants and arrests but in the negative space withing out pots and pans, the line of empty bottles standing guard on Andrew’s sill. 

I couldn’t imagine doing this without him.

And yet, it was time.
This is DinnergeddoNYC

The kitchen is challenging, the humidity oppressive and the gathering smaller. But-the laughs are still here, the chatter infectious and the hugs at the end of the night just as strong. It was my first dinner party in NYC.

Everything tastes better with company.

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Free of Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Nuts, Tree Nuts, Fish and Shellfish.

• 3-4 inches Ginger, minced
• 2 bunches Scallions, minced (~2 cups minced)
• 1.5-2 pounds chicken (breasts or thighs, bone and skin on)
• 3 tablespoons Mirin (Chinese rice wine)
• 1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Salt

Once a year something magically caloric happens at the Javits Center in NYC. The convention hall is consumed by the Fancy Food Show and foodniks of all ages and appetites roam, graze and stalk down the aisles in search of some new morsel or flavor. Manufacturers and vendors ship themselves and their wares into the sweaty heat of mid-summer Manhattan to pitch their products and jockey for attention in the alarmingly expanding specialty food market.

How could I miss this?

I’m always hunting for new gluten free goodies (this is, perhaps, why I can easily spend an hour in a grocery store) and there is no better target to train my sights than the Fancy Food Show. While many of the aisles are packed with cheese and chocolate (remember when I said magically caloric?), I ducked and dodged the crowds in an effort to pick out every gluten free offering. I was stuffed.

Gluten free baking is hot. You know this. Vendors are quick to jump on the boat in an effort to sell more product and grab a growing demographic. This, unfortunately, does not always lead to innovation and creativity. Which is to say, there’s a lot of junk out there. You know this.

And so, my goal in attending this trade show was to find not only what’s new, but shine a spotlight on what I think is great. I tasted (and tasted and tasted), talked and taped for three days. I wanted to be selective, to bring you only my favorites. I can tell you without doubt that the people featured in this video are all doing fantastic work. These are foods I eat and products I use in my kitchen every day.

It’s always smile-inducing to see old friends like Rick Levine from Seth Ellis Chocolatier (check out our tour of his factory here). He’s working on some new gluten free and nut free peppermint cups and caramel cups to compliment his stunning line of chocolates and sunflower-nut butter cups. I had a chance to see Dr. Lucy of Lucy’s Cookies and she gave me a sneak taste of her new treats (if you like her cookies, get excited). Lucy and I cooked together this summer and we’ll be posting that episode in August, stay tuned!

Of course, I love meeting new people. Talking with the folks at Bob’s Red Mill was certainly a highlight. I can’t tell you how many of their products line my shelves. And have you tried Glow Gluten Free Cookies? I knew Jill (the owner/creator) from the twitterverse and it was a joy to laugh and smile and chat with her in person. Speaking of twitter, I was able to meet up with one of my favorite gluten free tweeters (@gfcrumpette). We gossiped and made mischief. Duh.

Here’s the thing of it:
Everything is in the video below. Goody Good Stuff Gummies, Edward and Sons‘ GF Ice Cream Cones, and of course, my bug-eyed trouble making face. Watch the video and watch out for these new products on your shelves.

Bangarang.

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Free of Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Corn, Nuts and Tree Nuts.

• 3 Large Egg Yolks
• ^1/4 cup Lemon Juice
• ^1/4 cup Brown Rice Syrup
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons Whole Grain Mustard
• 2 tablespoons Garlic Powder
• ^1/2 teaspoon Salt
• ^1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 2 cups Olive Oil

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My oven is just like yours. I promise. It’s dark, hot and has some burnt bits on the bottom (ovens come like that, right?) It isn’t a golden cabinet billowing forth light and blessed pastries. In fact, the light is so dim that I have a hard time checking on cakes without opening the door (something I am loathe to do lest I let loose the built up heat). The cakes, cookies, breads and brownies that parade across the screens of Renegade Kitchen are not the first, third or even the fifth batch to come out of the oven. No, the goodies you see are closer to round 15 and sometimes, upwards of 25. I don’t have a golden touch, just frighteningly high standards and a level of persistence on par with telemarketers.

While it may seem like it takes a great deal of patience to wade through round after round of testing, it is, in fact, my bubbling impatience that keeps me going to the end. I know when something isn’t right in a recipe. And I want to fix it. Now. It’s easy to see what’s wrong when it comes out of the oven, but frequently (nod along with me bakers) I know before it even goes into the heat that something is amiss. Baking E.S.P. It is the beautiful fatalism of baking. Even when I can sense that there’s a gremlin in the dough, if I’ve spent time working a batter I will slide it into my preheated oven (if only to confirm my foresight). Of course, as soon as it’s out I’ll break the dough apart for analysis and start writing the next iteration. Which can lead to two, three and four rounds in one day. For me, this is the only way to move forward! If I were more patient perhaps I’d wait a day in between rounds, but I must credit my impatience for helping me to quickly assess a challenge and move forward with a new plan. How do you go about testing recipes?

Certain foods have proved more vexing than others. Biscotti? Don’t even blink. I polished off that recipe in a mere three rounds, practically unheard of in my kitchen. Chocolate chip cookies, on the other hand, were my crucible. What was it, 43 rounds? Every batch provided new insight, but also new mutations, new problems. One batch was spongy. Horrid. Another, crisp and light but brittle as Nicole Ritchie’s over-processed hair. I could barely lift one from the tray before it shattered into a thousand unsplendid pieces. Of course, conquering the chocolate chip cookie gave my ego a boost on par with Simon Cowell’s frigid praise.

I’ve told you about cupcakes. Though they went through fewer rounds than the chocolate chip cookies, the hand held cakes were, perhaps, twice as fickle. I’d solve a problem only to find that the pendulum had swung too far in another direction, producing bastard cakes which leached out their oil or had the texture of low grade foam rubber. And now, it seems, I have a new adversary.

The pretzel.

Let me first inform you that my obsession with the pretzel borders on insanity. There is hardly a meal I can imagine that would not be improved with a handful of small, crisp pretzels strewn across the plate. Butternut squash soup? Pretzels offer the perfect balancing crunch. Salad for dinner? You’ll need some croutons-here, take a handful of pretzels. Late night trash-snack of hot dogs and baked beans? Obviously you should top the bowl with some tiny pretzels. Yes, I know it is unhealthy, I’m aware it is unsavory, but here I am baring all before you.

And while I love little bite-sized pretzels out of a bag, one thing I’m missing in my life is a giant, salty, soft pretzel. Philadelphia or New York style, I’ll take either as long as it’s gluten free. I know I’ll get there at some point, but for now I leave you with these final pictures. The very first round. Full of problems.

You may snicker. I am fully aware that this looks like a giant scatological joke.

It is not. It is truly a first round of experimentation.

Impatience onward!

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Free of Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Soy, and Nuts (optional)

• ~^2/3 pound Rhubarb, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 8-ounce jar of Plum Jam (or Strawberry, if you must)
• Juice of 1 Lemon (~2 tablespoons)
• ~^1/4 cup Sugar
• 9 tablespoons White Rice Flour
• 6 ^1/2 tablespoons Tapioca Starch
• 4 ^1/2 tablespoons Brown Rice Flour
• 2 ^1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 ^1/4 teaspoons Cinnamon
• ^1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• ^3/4 teaspoon Salt
• ^3/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• ^3/4 cup Coconut Oil (any veg. oil, please no canola)
• ^3/4 cup Coconut Milk
• 1 ^1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
• ^3/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract