Category Archives: Recipes

Gluten-Free Goat Cheese, Chive and Walnut Scones for a great cause!

Goat Cheese, Chive and Walnut Scone - TheDustyBaker-1

I have a stupid love for scones. Ever since I started dating Ruark and spending holidays at his parent’s house, they’ve intrigued me. I’d sit drinking tea in the kitchen while his dad, Kevin, worked butter and flour together, and as the house slept the air would fill with sweetness. By the time the fluffy pastries were cooling on the counter, we’d be on our third cup and all gathered at the table. And since I could not personally eat the scones, I inherited Kevin’s base recipe, which I’ve adapted in numerous ways over the years.

For the next three Mondays, I’ll be bringing you three new versions of scones I’ll be bringing in miniature form to a benefit for C-CAP, an organization that works with public schools across the country to prepare at-risk high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry. I’m teaming up with seven other bloggers to provide loads of sweet treats that guests will sample while my darling pastry chef friend Stephen Collucci and master chocolatier Mehdi Chellaoui give demos. There will be door prizes, wonderful company and lots of heart abounding for a good cause. Continue reading

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Filed under Baking for the Cause, Gluten-Free, Recipes, Scones

Careers and Chronic Illness: How Do You Find One That Honors the Other?

This was my general state of being in one job in Cincinnati.

This was my general state of being in one job in Cincinnati.

I caught the end of The Devil Wears Prada the other night and something hit me.

Yes, I admit I’ve seen it more than once. And again I completely sympathized with Anne Hathaway’s character, whose job becomes her life even though she initially scoffed at the world she would soon give up everything to excel in.

For the first time, though, I got why I feel that way.

Only in the past year or so have I accepted that maybe I’m a bit of a workaholic, overachiever. People have started using the “type-A” label on me. The emotionally laid-back, tree-hugging, mantra-chanting side of me would never agree to that. But the work horse in me… yeah. Not that I’ve excelled to the furthest reaches of one career, mind you. But I’ve noticed a theme that I usually give 120% for as long as I can until I a) lose interest or b) my energy completely wanes and I’m left depleted, either with a momentary hiccup in health or a wallop that takes more than a year to bounce back from.

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Filed under Recipes, Words

Gluten and Dairy-Free Olive Oil and Pistachio Biscotti

Gluten-Free Olive Oil Biscotti

Biscottttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

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Filed under Cookies, Dairy-free, Gluten and Dairy Free, Gluten-Free, Recipes

My Life with Lyme: Gluten, Blogging, and Fresh Starts

Found at asliceoflyme.blogspot.com
Found at asliceoflyme.blogspot.com

Hi, my name is Jacqueline, and I have been battling Lyme Disease since I was 12. I am now 31, and still have to consider my body daily in ways many people don’t. And I’m okay with that.

I read up a lot about what’s going on in the gluten-free world, and as of late have been taking my place as someone who does not have Celiac disease in it more seriously.

See, I’ve been off of gluten since my first diagnosis of Lyme disease, when nothing was really working to make me better. In a rather progressive move (remember, this was the early nineties), my mother brought me to a “different kind of doctor”. In some ways I hated him – he took me off wheat, milk, eggs, beef, soy, sugar, corn, tomatoes, green peppers, citrus… I would sit in his office for hours while vitamins were injected intravenously. It was a really boring way to spend time as a kid.

But… within a few months… I could walk again.

Because that’s how badly Lyme hit me. For a while I could walk with crutches. Then I was wheelchair-bound. Then crutches again. I would go to school for a few hours a day, swim at the YMCA to get my joints moving, and spent most of my time in bed. I remember during one summer trip to see my sister at camp, my mom would hang my IV bag from a hook in the car to give me my doses of antibiotics. It was a mess, and as a kid it was hard to process.

Which is why I haven’t eaten gluten or milk since, and watch those other buggers in moderation. Oh, except for a bout in college my freshmen year, which kicked my ass into another flare my sophomore year which brought a whole new slew of lingering symptoms and set me on a 6-month cycle of driving the 90 minutes from class to weekly bicillin injects and picking up lots more vitamins again.

So, yeah, Lyme has stuck with me.

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My Gluten-Free Easter: Pastel Tea Eggs, Portuguese Masa and Angel Food Cake

eggs6-thedustybaker

I’m not gonna lie: Easter is not my favorite holiday.

I don’t mind it at all, but as a lapsed Catholic it always brings up conflict within me. Not that I feel a need to be talked or worked through it, mind you, because I’m very content with my personal beliefs and practices. But my family is very Catholic and our shared holidays are still about, primarily, faith.

I’m all cool with Jesus and Mary.
But here’s where the conflict comes in: homosexuality, abortion, gender inequality. There’s no need to even explain what the conflicts with those are.

I can’t take the good and leave the bad.

So, Easter conflicts me.

How’s that for a horrible introduction to some recipes?

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Filed under Dairy-free, Dessert, Gluten and Dairy Free, Gluten-Free, Recipes