thanksgiving in nyc, and nieces in maine

this year, lee and i decided to spend thanksgiving on our own. last year, i was in savannah, ga and we didn't spend any holidays together. so we thought we deserved it and it was nice :) we stayed right on times square, in the edison towers hotel. not great, pretty basic, but clean and cheap. it really just allowed us to stay there--they "lost" my reservation, even though we had called to confirm only a week before and shut the water off from midnight to 6am one night. oh well.

our itinerary ended up being jam-packed! this is unfortunate--lee and i always do this and then get so tired from our trips. here's what we did:

day 1
travel to nyc
new york public library steven a. schwarzman research branch (arts & humanities)
bryant park
grand central station

day 2
rockefeller center
st. patrick's cathedral
museum of the city of new york for the eero saarinen exhibit
vosges chocolate store on madison ave. (where i inadvertantly bought exotic caramels i couldn't eat due to wheat starch!)
guggenheim for the kandinsky exhibit
comedy show at the comic strip live

day 3
moma for the tim burton exhibit
the highline
babycakes for gluten free baked goods (!!!)
storefront for art & architecture
risotteria for gluten free italian food (also !!!)
central park west for inflation eve (the floats for the parade are view-able from 3-10pm the night before the parade)

day 4
macy's thanksgiving day parade
travel back to boston

but it was fun. first, i must also say that babycakes are some of the best cupcakes i've ever had. i had gluten free brownie one and shared a gluten free banana with lee later that night. lee had spelt vanilla with strawberry frosting. then the next day we shared some gluten free ginger cookies. AMAZING...


the risotteria, in greenwich village, also might be some of the finest italian food i've enjoyed in a long time. the breadsticks, which are always gluten free, were to-die-for, and lee agreed that no one would know that they were not made of wheat. then we split a caesar salad with safe-for-me croutons and a gluten free pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, portobello mushrooms, and truffle oil. i had gone to heaven :)


now for some shots of what we did other than eat.

rockefeller center.


times square.


guggenheim.


the highline.


inflation eve in front of snoopy.


the parade.


then after nyc, we went to maine to see lee's parents and his brother's family who had flown in from portland, or. our nieces are 5 and 3 and we hadn't seen them in 2 years because lee's brother doesn't believe he should have to bring his family to see us. so they always go to buffalo to see his wife's family, but won't go to boston to see us. why you might ask? probably because we don't have kids... but that's another story and for the brief time that we were there in maine, we had a good time. here we are dancing to salsa music:


then i made a very allergy-friendly feast for a 2nd thanksgiving dinner. i have no pictures, but this was a challenge! lee's mom is allergic to shellfish and salmon. lee's dad has some kind of reaction to scallops only. his brother's wife cannot have cheese or beef for a specific health reason. i eat vegetarian 90% of the time and was recently told that i must be gluten free. sheesh! so here's what i made:

haddock in foil packets, baked with parsley, salt, pepper, lemon & pimentos
tofu & potato stew with miso gravy from my favorite vegans at the post-punk kitchen (the recipe is in vegan with a vengeance)
biscuits
root vegetable mash
green bean casserole (the vegan, gluten free recipe i used was not so successful...)
chocolate banana cream pie

also while in maine, i discovered a gluten free market and bakery in brunswick. if you go to maine or live in the state, you must go. the place has so many things and the staff is wonderful. it's called wildflours. i will definitely be going back--the breads and pastries looked just delicious. i did try a chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treat and bought some stuff to stock up on at home. it was great.

YAY!

a lot of catching up to do!

first, i'll start with another gluten free meal. this time, we went over to our friends' house for a lovely fall-inspired meal before thanksgiving. drew and jessica were game to try some gluten free sweet potato gnocchi. gnocchi is one of my favorite foods, and i don't want to miss out on it. so we used our normal gnocchi recipe but substituted sorghum flour for the white flour. it didn't really work... with a little xanthan gum, it probably would have been fine. but i think sorghum was the wrong texture and flavor anyway. the flavor was okay, but the texture was waaaay off, and it didn't look too pretty either...


but with the gnocchi, we had some butternut squash soup, some sauteed chard, and for dessert a chocolate peanut butter silk pie. so, besides the gnocchi it was pretty successful.


and it made their dog smile :)


here is our normal favorite gnocchi recipe. i will continue working on it to make it safe for me to eat and get back to you with those details as they emerge:

2 1/4 lb. sweet potatoes
1 tbsp. salt
2-2 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
black pepper, to taste

1. peel, cube, and boil sweet potatoes in salted water. cook until tender, but not mushy.
2. on your work surface, spread out a layer of flour. puree the hot sweet potatoes with a food mill right onto that layer of flour. sprinkle with about half of the remaining flour and work lightly into the potatoes.
3. break the egg into the mixture. add the pepper and knead lightly, adding more flour as necessary. when the dough is light and no longer sticky, it is ready to roll. DO NOT OVERWORK.
4. divide dough into four parts. form each part into a roll about 1/2 inch in diameter. cut into pieces slightly less than an inch long. use a table fork and create that lovely cock's comb pattern on the surface of the gnocchi.
5. to prevent the gnocchi from getting sticky as the dough warms up, place on cookie sheets and freeze until all the dough is made into gnocchi.

after this step, you can boil water to cook the gnocchi you want for dinner tonight. take the rest of the gnocchi on the cookie sheets in the freezer and put them in freezer bags in ONE LAYER ONLY. this will take a couple of bags, but it prevents the gnocchi from sticking together and creating a large ball of gnocchi when you want to boil up the rest.

for the ones that you are making right now, once the water boils, add the gnocchi. they are done when they float to the top. i like to serve them with a little sauce that consists of equal parts butter, white wine (such as chablis or santa margherita), basil and garlic. then top with toasted pine nuts. yum!

chains of love, gotta hold on me...

...when passion's a prison, you can't break free.

can you name that tune? some more:

whoa, oh, you're a loaded gun!
whoa, oh, there's no where to run,
no one can save me,
the damage is done!

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME
DARLIN', YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME!
(bad name)

I PLAY MY PART AND YOU PLAY YOUR GAME,
YOU GIVE LOVE, A BAD NAME
(bad name)

my favorite song of all time. slippery when wet was the first cassette tape i ever owned. and now, i will see bon jovi on july 24, 2010, on their circle tour when they play foxboro. my life will be complete :)

a novel moment

i'm writing a novel for national novel writing month. check it out. the goal is to produce a 50,000 word novel by november 30. i won't make it--i'm kind of a lazy writer. but the point for me is to just have fun and get writing again. i'll let you know how it goes. but sorry, i won't share details yet... bad for my mojo.

and also a new diet...

my friends know me as a baker :) in fact, i might be known in some circles for my delicious vegan cupcakes. unfortunately, a fly has gotten stuck and is gooping up my proverbial batter.

when i got my new job here in boston, i got new health insurance. and then i decided to change doctors because i was so damn tired of the crappy service i got at my local health center. i had a great np there, but it didn't matter. i usually waited for her for 2 hours--even though i had an appointment. and the rest of the staff at the place were deplorable! so at the first visit with my new doctor, she looked through my past medical records. by the way, she was only looking through what i've had done since moving to boston. that's medical records for only 3 1/2 years. and guess what? IT'S 57 PAGES LONG! you might say i've had some issues.

anyway, as she was looking at this and looking at all the tests, symptoms, and mumbo-jumbo that's been going on in my life, she says, "i think you have a food allergy. i'm sending you to see our nutritionist."

fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago, after multiple lab tests and elimination diets, i have discovered that i have ncgs, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. this basically means i can no longer have gluten which is found in: wheat, barley, rye, spelt, triticale, and commercial oats (due to cross-contamination). i've probably left something out. but now my eating world, and my baking world, has been shaken upside down.

now, i may be able to re-introduce some wheat gluten in the future, in small amounts. because i don't have celiac disease, i may be able to eat some wheat as long as i feel ok. we'll see. for now, i'm on a pretty strict diet--or at least i'm trying to be.

now, back to baking. i made some gluten free cupcakes for halloween that were delicious! but i don't have pictures of them. they were made from sorghum flour, white rice flour, and some cornmeal and i made them marbled vanilla and chocolate (with cocoa powder added to about 1/3 of the batter). no one knew they were gluten free! they just asked about the texture and i said i was experimenting with some cornmeal in the batter. YAY!

but today i was home from work (i love having mondays off), and decided to make some cookies. here you go...

gluten free, dairy free, egg free...


chocolate chip cookie crisps (i heavily adapted a wheat-free cookie recipe from Great Good Desserts Naturally by Fran Costigan)

1 c sorghum flour
3/4 c cashews, toasted and cooled
1/2 c cornmeal
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp canola oil
1/8 c honey
1/8 c white sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 tbsp vanilla almond milk
vegan chocolate chips

1. put the cornmeal in a food processor and pulse. this can make it a little finer to take the toothy grain down a bit in the cookie. place in a large mixing bowl.
2. put the cashews in the processor and create a fine meal or flour. add to the cornmeal. then add the sorghum flour, salt, and spices. mix well.
3. in a small bowl, mix together canola oil, honey, sugar, vinegar, and extracts. add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. you should be able to form little walnut-sized balls of dough that stick together nicely, but aren't too sticky. if the mixture is a little dry, add the almond milk, one tablespoon at a time. then add chocolate chips.
4. place the balls on a baking stone (or a cookie sheet with parchment). flatten and bake for about 12-13 minutes at 350 degrees.

the next time i make them, i will use 1/4 c of honey, not split honey/sugar. but i ran out of honey half way through! i would also use rice flour rather than cornmeal and almonds rather than cashews. the cornmeal is a texture thing, the almonds are a taste thing. but i have to say that i successfully made a chewy and yummy cookie without any gluten! moderate improvements and i might have something perfectly delicious :)

A New Day, A New Blog

hey all,

this is my second attempt at creating a blog. i quit the last one because it detailed the trials and tribulations of my life in savannah, georgia--away from everyone and everything i knew. but now i'm back at home and getting on with my life, so we'll see how this goes!

i'll do my best to post things to do, pictures, recipes, etc. as they happen. and friends, if you have any requests, let me know!

cheers,
ms. ann