Glutenfreedelicacy

A sweet bowl of summertime bliss

It’s nice to know we’re almost through the month of July and we haven’t had to break out our winter wear much. The weather has been pleasantly mild for San Francisco, so to celebrate the warmth we decided to make a summertime classic — gazpacho soup. We found this Melon Gazpacho with Prosciutto recipe in Cooking Light magazine that sounded so unique and different, we just had to try it.

The recipe calls for melons and peaches instead of vegetables, with grilled prosciutto crumbled on top, and it was super easy to make. Each bite was packed with a refreshing burst of sweet, crispy, minty goodness, and a perfect blend of texture and flavors. Even though it was light, it was very filling to us. We served it as a starter dish along with a pork and fig sauce. Even though the meal was a bit heavy on the sweet side for us, it was very delicious indeed. Next time we’ll enjoy this tasty soup with a salad or not so sweet entree.

Bonkers for Burgers!

 

When I was a kid, I was a super picky eater. I wouldn’t eat anything green or anything that crunched unless it came from a cereal box or a potatoe chip bag. No veggies were allowed to enter my mouth unless they were cooked carrots, peas, corn or potatoes. Tomatoes? Forget it. Mushrooms were ugly, onions were nasty and all other veggies were just plain yuck. Mom would sneak chopped veggies into meals in hopes that I wouldn’t notice, but most times I would spot them on my plate and disgustingly push them to the side. My favorite thing to eat was a cheeseburger and fries, and I looked forward to eating them every chance I got.

Before I started school I was dad’s sidekick on Monday’s — his day off from cutting hair at the barbershop. I looked forward to spending time with dad, tinkering around the house, and riding around town in his big mobile taking care of errands and such. I especially loved going to Jackie’s Restaurant, where we’d sit at the counter and enjoy a big juicy burger and fries for lunch. This was our time together and I will always cherish these memories.

As much as I loved eating cheeseburgers at restaurants, none of them compared to dads. He’d fire up the grill and smother them in his beer infused special sauce. They were so good we’d usually fight over the last one.

So in honor of Father’s Day, I thought it would be fun to relive those memories by making beer flavored burgers for dinner. Dad liked to pour a whole bottle of sauce (either a barbeque or steak sauce like A1 or Heinz 57) into a pot with a chopped onion, hot sauce, a few tablespoons of molasses and about a half cup of beer. He’d heat the sauce while the burgers were grilling, and when they were done, he’d put them in the sauce to simmer on the stove. 

For our burgers, we decided to make a home-made barbecue sauce from Cooking Light magazine. We added 3 tablespoons of St. Peter's Sorgham Gluten Free Beer, and an extra teaspoon of molasses to thicken it up. Instead of adding onions to the sauce, we made Pickled Red Onions also from Cooking Light magazine. We prefer our burgers cooked medium, so we served the sauce on the side. My burger was served on a gluten free english muffin, alongside grilled watermelon and peaches with Bobby Flay's Honey-Yogurt Dressing drizzled on top. To drink we made a Watermelon Cucumber Cooler from the latest Everyday Food magazine.

 

The burger's were luscious and the sauce added a spicy, sweet and tangy burst of flavor that we loved. The pickled onions threw our tastebuds in a tizzy with their perfect blend of sweet, tart, and spice! The grilled watermelon and peaches had a bold, charred flavor that was nicely balanced with the caramelized fruit sweetness and the velvety sweet and tart dressing. We couldn't have picked a better drink to go with this meal, it was fresh, tasty and fabulously refreshing. 

This meal was so good, we ate it for dinner two nights in a row! I just wish dad could have been here to enjoy it with us!

Grillin' and Chillin' — You Know the Feelin'

We love going to the Mission area for a tasty burrito and perusing the cool vintage and hipster stores afterwards. This time we had lunch at Pica Pica, a new Venezuelan restaurant in the neighborhood. We filled up on tasty arepas then walked the hot aired streets, glad to be experiencing summer weather, but wishing it wasn't so darn hot at the same time! We stopped at a market to quench our thirst, and noticed a selection of mangos, tomatillos, chayote, cilantro and limes at discounted prices. It's not easy finding limes 14 for a buck, so we loaded up a basket and left with a bag of goodies for just over $3!

Naturally this weeks meal was planned around these ingredients. This was our first time cooking chayote, and we were thrilled to be making something different. Chayote is a vegetable commonly used in mexican cuisine, and can be eaten raw or cooked. So we decided to give our cast iron skillet a night off and break out the grill for a grillin' good time, and serve a cool, summery soup to start.

We whipped up a Mango Peach Gazpacho and Chicken Kebobs with Chayote, Orange Peppers and Mushrooms, along with Home-Made Tomatillo Salsa. The gazpacho was wonderfully creamy, refreshing and sweet with a nice hint of spice that tickled our tastebuds pink. The kebobs had an excellent charred-kissed flavor with a touch of zesty smokiness and the meat perfectly juicy and tender. The chayote was very crunchy, maybe a bit too crunchy for our liking, but still very good.

Our Gazpacho recipe:

2 mangos, peeled and chopped

1 peach, chopped

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Juice of a half of lime

1/2 cup water

Dash of chipotle chile powder

Handful chopped cilantro for garnish

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend briefly, until desired consistency. Pour into a bowl and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Our Kebob recipe:

10 button mushrooms with stems pulled

1 orange pepper cut into large pieces

2 chicken breasts cut into large cubes

1 chayote, peeled and cut into large cubes

Mix juice of 2 limes, 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder, 1 teaspoon olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Add chicken in bowl and mix well. Let sit for a half hour or so.

Thread the pieces onto skewers and grill away!

Steak Fajita Fantastico!

Most Saturdays after our workout at the gym, we’ll enjoy our lunch while watching whatever is on the Food Network. This weekend we watched Giada at Home as she made Chicken and Steak Fajitas. Giada's recipe calls for the zest of two limes, agave nectar, orange juice and a few spices for marinating the meat. Our mouths were watering in no time, and being such mexican foodaholics, we couldn't wait to make this for dinner. We left out the chicken and used a few reserve top sirloins we had from Omaha Steaks. We reduced the oil down to 2 tablespoons, used 4 tablespoons agave nectar along with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and marinated the meat for five hours.

Notice those lovely grill marks on the steak? That's from our new cast iron panini pan! We bought it a few weeks back and we've used it for cooking almost every meal. We just love the crispy, charred flavor the cast iron provides!! While the steak was cooking in the pan we grilled sliced red peppers and onions in a cast iron skillet. 

These fajitas were amazing. The steak was wonderfully moist and juicy, and the marinade was thickened perfectly with a great citrucy sweet flavor. We loved the lime zestiness, orange and agave nectar sweetness. The steaks were big, so all we needed was some corn chips and an easy home-made salsa to complete this meal. If you're craving steak fajitas, then this is definitely a 'meating' you don't want to miss!!

And of course what's a mexican meal without a margarita? No fun to us, so we made two different types — both of which were inspired by the ones we sipped at Mayahuel — a cool tequila cocktail lounge and restaurant in New York. One was made with elderflower, egg whites and bitters, and the other was made with mezcal, muddled jalapeno and fresh oregano. The perfect compliment to this tasty meal!