Recipes

Nutty Gluten-Free Peach Buckle for Four

Nutty Gluten-Free Peach Buckle for Four

Oh, summer, how bittersweet ’tis to lose thee!

I’ve been spending a good amount of time observing the shifting in the seasons, lately. I take Mitra out every morning and take in the weight of the clothes I’m adding on, the chill of the frost on the grass when I’m in my dad’s backyard, or the whip of the wind off of the Hudson River when I’m home in New York. I stare at how the sun blasts up the luminosity of green leaves while dozing in my hammock, and the first touches of gold as I drive the Merritt Parkway back to the city again. The shadows on the brick outside my building seem a tad muted, now, and I know soon there will be only trunks sketched on them, their branches bare and trembling.

But I love this time of year, the duality of it. At the local market the apples have taken their first sign of crispness and cold, while the peaches soften and bruise next to them. Last week I made a gingerbread cake with pears for a sunny social event, and I’ve already clipped my crop of herbs and stuck jars of gremolata in my freezer to get me through the winter.

But then… there are still peaches.

Continue reading →

Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake (gluten free)

Photo by my brother's awesomely talented friend, Louis Abate

Photos by my brother’s awesomely talented friend, Louis Abate

I am conflicted about the end of summer.

I don’t want to say goodbye to peaches, or long swings in the hammock in Connecticut, or walking barefoot through grass, or taking Mitra for her morning walk in flip flops and short sleeves. I don’t want to say goodbye to the farmer’s markets that dot the northeast and flourish only a few months a year. I don’t want “school to start again”. Or to admit that I haven’t “started school again” in ten years.

But then…

There are pumpkin-laced candles to be burned. And root vegetables to roast. And CHRISTMAS. And fireplaces to light. And scarves and jackets and warm cocktails and long, hot baths. And apples and pears and gingerbread.

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Gluten-Free Fresh Corn Cornbread

Gluten-free cornbread with fresh sweet red sweet corn.

Gluten-free cornbread with fresh sweet red sweet corn.

I am badass.

I’m not really supposed to be eating corn right now. But here we are, with this plate o cornbready love.

Bad. Ass.

Fall dessert recipes are starting to abound and my local grocery store has an aisle of Halloween candy at the ready. But I’m not about to call it quits on summer yet, even though the leaves are falling on my city sidewalks and there’s talk of a cold winter to come.

Instead, today I’m going to light up my dad’s grill and char the fresh tiny eggplant that I got at the farmer’s market on Wednesday, even though it’s a nightshade and not good for people with arthritis (me). Then I’m going to take it to my grandparents along with gigantic stems of broccoli rabe and some grilled chicken and a few cookies I made. Because, again, I’m pretty tough.

Oh, and last week I flew a plane with my little brother. Continue reading →

Gluten and Dairy-Free Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins

2013-08-13 19.15.09

No fancy camera out here – this is all I got!

In the past week, two chefs in separate interviews have brought up how they note trends and movements in the food world – the ebbing and flowing of ingredients, techniques and ideas – and that those movement have strongly affected the menus they put out at their restaurants today.

I look at the movements of my own life in various ways.

Ten years ago today I signed my first lease in New York, and moved into a 10 x 30 foot apartment on the Upper East Side with three of my closest guy friends from college. Yep, three of us in 300 square feet. Then Brooklyn, then Astoria, then Washington Heights. I have some sharp memories of those places, punctuated by hot summer nights with the boys on the emptied streets of Manhattan, the coffee shops and Italian Ice in Brooklyn, my melting pot of European neighbors and food in Queens, and now the somewhat more subdued, sunlit place I call home.

Ten years ago I was dating Ruark, and we continued dating until four years ago. Now we’re still close friends, and he just moved in with his current girlfriend, which I think is wonderful. In Ohio I dated a man named Adam for a while, and he was sweet and gentle and the kind of man you should date when you’re newly out of a 10-year relationship and need some comfort. He’s now engaged and just bought a house with his fiance, and I couldn’t be happier that he found the kind of love and relationship he deserves. And then there was Aaron, who turned my world upside down by telling me he loved me, and then again when he let me go. I have no idea what he’s doing right now, but hope he’s finding what he needs to feel whole.

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Gluten-Free Karidopita (Greek Walnut Cake)

Gluten-Free Greek Karidopita (Walnut Cake)

Gluten-Free Greek Karidopita (Walnut Cake)

I’m in Cincinnati. Yes, Cincinnati.

I lived here in 2009 and 2010, when I had the best possible internship a little actor could have wanted at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, one of the country’s best regional theatres. I had just gotten over an extremely serious extended period of illness, when my totaled immune system had me so defeated that I’d quit my job and lay like a vegetable for a very long time while I worked with several doctors to get back on my feet again. I came to Cincy both strong yet sensitive, having had (mutually) ended a nine-year relationship (we’re still friends) and determined to get some sort of life back.

In Cincinnati I found a fresh start. I had one job, working eventually on eight shows in a ten-month period. I started figuring out who I was again, in a place where no one knew me as one crippled by my third blow of Lyme or as one half of a couple or as a workaholic actor/producer. It was a grand year, and I think sentimentally and fondly on it often.

I’m back now, three years later, to once again teach at the Playhouse for a few weeks, stretch out in the ample space here and drink in the waves of smiles around me. Continue reading →

Gluten-Free French Lemon Madeleines (and a boost of blogging confidence)

Lemon Madeleines - TheDustyBakerI am a mess of many things.

I bake. I write about famous people who make food. I research articles. I develop recipes. I review events. I take photos in professional people’s kitchens. I blog. I manage my family business’ books. I walk hundreds of miles for breast cancer awareness. I don’t eat gluten. I used to write plays. I grew up with Lyme Disease. Sometimes now that stays hidden. Sometimes it doesn’t.

I’ve been having a hard time figuring out how that all comes together here.

I used to feel like I had a “voice” on this blog, one that was quirky and fun and so focused around the joy that is throwing flour in the air and making a mess and being all scrappy in NYC and not letting the whole gluten-free thing be the thing that stops someone from baking and being all dusty in the kitchen. And then two things happened; I started getting a lot more writing/cooking work and my Lyme Disease-related symptoms started making me not feel well again.

Bare honesty here: I don’t feel well a lot, nowadays. I do a lot of things through an incredible doc who does intensely focused plant-forward immune supporting regimens. I also take a combo of pain killers regulated through a pain management doctor I’ve trusted for over ten years. I also meditate, and work with a life coach, and keep a positive attitude, and sometimes let myself cry in the bathtub because in certain moments none of that seems to make a difference.

Sometimes I don’t know how to express this person I am in this body, at this point in my life.  I have a good life. I love my work, value my relationships and have a home that I adore. But I have a history, and even as I’ve tried to start sharing the reason why I’ve been on a gluten-free diet for twenty years, I’ve worried about how it will translate on here.

But then I had a conversation I really needed yesterday. Continue reading →

Gluten-Free Tough Mudder Cookies! (Chocolate Chip, Coffee, Pretzel Walnut!)

Tough Mudder Cookies

I have a friend. On here I’m going to call her EM. She’ll know why.

I met EM at a production of The Fantastiks in Cincinnati, where I was finishing up my season performing at the Playhouse. She was playing the Girl, and I was understudying the mute and the fool, which probably paints a clear picture about my singing skills and odd range of casting.

There we became friendly, but back in New York we became friends. She is a dear, dear woman with a southern heart and northern ability to just get shit done. Every time I look out the window at a dark, gray sky I hum, “Soon it’s gonna rain, I can feel it, soon it’s gonna rain, rain pell-mell…” and think of EM and smile. Continue reading →

Video! How to Make Six Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies!

by  Jacqueline Raposo on Vimeo.

A while ago I shot a few fun dusty videos in my tiny little NYC kitchen with a very lovely lady behind the camera. I love performing and teaching, and often miss doing those things I’ve transferred primarily back to the writing side of the table, and so now and then I pull all of those things together for the heck of it.

This is one of my favorite quick recipes for when I want something sweet but not overwhelmingly so, like the Millet Chocolate Mug Cakes I shared with you on Monday. If you’re the kind that likes a little visual aid when in the kitchen, check out the video that accompanies this recipe. It’s silly, and fun, and supersweet. Just like time in the kitchen should be. Continue reading →

Millet Mug Chocolate Cake (gluten and dairy free)

Gluten-Free Millet Mug Chocolate Cake - The Dusty Baker-2

I’ve been so good with the sugar lately.

As my little tackle with Lyme symptoms flaring has made digesting sugar a bit hard (even small portions induce a bit of shaking), I’ve cut back dramatically on my intake and, therefore, the amount that I’ve been baking. But the other night as I whipped up my little Ramp and Maitake Tartelettes, I was craving something sweet. I don’t really keep sweets on hand, and didn’t want to go full force into a new recipe.

I had a bit of Divine cocoa powder left over from my Divine Gluten-Free Cocoa Brownies and wanted to showcase them in something incredibly quick and easy. A mug cake it would be. Continue reading →

Ramp and Maitake Mushroom Tartelettes (gluten free)

Ramp and Maitake Tart - Gluten-free - The Dusty Baker-3

There’s a line in the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs where Uma Therman says something like, “It was a joke… but not funny “ha ha“…”.

That line popped into my head yesterday day.

I had carefully wrapped five beautiful pheasant eggs I’d collected from my dad’s pheasants (the boys are named Amadeus, Biff and Guiseppe; the two ladies are unnamed as of now for some reason). Nestled amongst paper towels in a fitted takeaway container, they sat in my purse while I collected Mitra, her blanket, my raincoat, a canvas bag of miscellaneous toys and booty I’d pilfered from the house, and my stuffed weekend bag. I was planning on daydreaming about what I’d pick up at Fairway back in Harlem to feature the tiny little gems during the hour-long drive home. Then, as I searched my bag for my car keys with my shoulders loaded with the rest, the container slipped from my bag and onto the cement driveway. The glass compartment was intact, but as I dropped everything else to inspect the contents… my heart broke. All but one of the eggs was a gooey mess.

It was sorta funny… but not funny “ha ha”.

The night before I had stayed up late to write my post on Living with Lyme: Staying in My Body. I was exhausted and words weren’t coming right, but I was content as I hit “save draft” until… my browser froze, or hiccuped, or coughed or something and poof… I called it a night and started from scratch the next day.

Slightly funny… but not funny “ha ha”.

The thing is, none of that really mattered. I collected my sad little mess of eggs, rinsed off the remaining darling, and kept going. I drove home in my clean car under a gray-blue sky with trees budding all around and my iPhone in my hand recording thoughts that became this blog post. Mitra lay content in her bed on the passenger seat, I had a chilled decaf Americano to sip on, and an hour to talk with Muffin.

Back in Manhattan, I decided to let Fairway source my inspiration. I usually have two options with my weekly grocery haul; buy affordable organics in Connecticut and rotate a limited stock of produce, or splurge a tad at Fairway and find something new and exciting. Today I found these… Continue reading →

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