Chicken Wild Rice Casserole

Photo of the girls!


I started this blog initially as reference for how we make food now that we are gluten free. This is one of our "plain" standard meals. It works well for families.

Ingredients:

½ cup wild rice
1 cup brown rice
1 (maybe more) frozen vegetables
(corn, carrots, cut green beans, peas)
½ cup cut mushrooms
½ red onion
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (check to make sure gluten free if enhanced with chicken broth)
Chicken broth
Bay leaves
Thyme
Pepper
Garlic Salt

White Sauce:

2 tablespoons Corn Starch
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1.5 cups milk
½ lb Cheese (your choice – we used cheddar)

Directions:

1. Boil wild rice. Check the package for ratios. Mine was ½ cup wild rice to 1.5 cups water. This should start first because it takes the longest to cook. ~40-50 minutes.

2. Pot boiling water with bay leaves, thyme and salt (in proportions you see fit – I put in roughly two bay leaves, a half teaspoon of thyme and a “pinch” of salt). Poach chicken in water. ~ 15-20 minutes.

3. Start frying up onions chopped tiny with ½ teaspoon unsalted butter. Put in mushroom with onions after 5 minutes in frying pan on medium heat – not so many mushrooms that they pile on each other – add 2 tablespoon chicken broth. ~10 minutes.

4. Take onions and mushrooms out and place in bowl. Cook vegetables in same pan as the mushrooms and onions. Add 2 tablespoons chicken broth, pinch garlic salt, pinch pepper. ~ 5-10 minutes. Finished place in same bowl as mushrooms and onions. Take chicken off if it is ready, cut it up in small bits and place same bowl.

5. When the timer for the wild rice shows 20 minutes. Start brown rice in pot with chicken broth instead of water. Check package for rations – mine is 1 cup brown rice for 2.5 chicken broth. ~ 15 minutes.

6. Once the rice is done place all ingredients in one large casserole dish (this is going to be enough for a family of four for two nights). Start white sauce.

White Sauce:

1. Start melting in a pot one tablespoon on med/low heat unsalted butter.

2. While this is melting mix two table spoons corn starch into 1 cup milk.

3. Once butter is melted add in milk with corn starch slowly stirring. As it thickens add the rest of the milk – should be ½ cup left.

4. Start adding in your choice cheese. We use whatever is on hand – happened to be mild cheddar. A couple handfuls are enough – probably ½ pound.

5. Once the cheese has fully melted into the white sauce and it has thickened to your liking pour into casserole dish mix ingredients – sprinkle a hand full of cheese on top and pop in oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When the topping has browned a pinch it is ready.

Woohoo. That is our wild rice casserole. It is heavy and the kids only eat it if there is no wild rice – apparently dark rice scares them. It is not impressive, but it is gluten free, it has vegetables in it and it is in place of our old macaroni and cheese recipe. Next time I make it I will pay closer attention to amounts so that I can come back and adjust this recipe for accuracy.

GF Flours vs Rice

My take on gluten free flours – thus far. I have been using Jules All Purpose mix flour. And I love it because it is based on a modified Tapioca starch. Most wheat flour alternatives are varying measurements of:

Gluten-Free Flour baking mix from Bette Hagman's books...
and many websites:

Rice Flour (white or brown) 2 parts
Potatoe Starch 2/3 part
Tapioca Flour 1/3 part

This is a 1:1 alternative to wheat flour. As Bette Hagman states in her book "it is a heavy mix and leaves a slightly grainy taste in the baked product". I find it also leaves a distinctly rice flour taste.

I have also seen on websites:

Sorghum Flour
Tapioca Flour
Brown Rice (or White Rice) Flour = in equal parts

What I do not like about these mixes is how much they rely on rice flour. Now Jules also uses rice flour, but not as a base and with Jules and Pamela's you do not taste the rice. I think Gluten-Free mixes need to be especially careful of the rice taste. If I want rice, I will eat rice straight - thanks. I find rice based flour mixes are also very chewey.

I also get tired of hearing that one flour mix is great for muffins, biscuits, cakes and breads. Fact is all those baked products are so different in texture and taste that one mix utlizing rice flour – mixed with whatever – is not going to cut it. I find this is true for all the mixes I use as well. All mixes are good for different things!

Pamela’s is great for muffins and pancakes. It is nuttier and heartier. By nuttier I mean it has almonds in it! I mention this for those allergic to nuts. I am also allergic to nuts, but have found that almonds I can eat and peanuts (against my well meaning doctors advice). I would never, ever, condone going against your doctors advice. I just know that I am not allergic to those two nuts. I am allergic to tree nuts and especially Brazilian nuts.

For cupcakes I like Jules All Purpose Flour. I also like Pamela’s chocolate cake mix and Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake mixes (though I adjust the ingredients for these with either milk or buttermilk as an alternative to water).

For waffles I like Bisquick pancake and baking mix (I imagine this would be great for biscuits) – my mom makes some yummy upside down pineapple biscuits. I believe she uses the Bisquick mix.

I have not found a mix for breads that I am happy with, but I am really starting to compile a list of mixes to avoid!

I say all this, but know that many times rice flour is unavoidable (not to mention rice flour is in all my favorite products - just in smaller amounts). In fact today when I try a new recipe – a bunt, apple pound cake I saw on the food network – that I will try out a rice flour mix and hope that it tastes like cake and not like a rice cake.

Bette Hagman placed out a new gluten free mix utilizing bean flour:
Garfava bean flour: 2/3 part
Tapioca flour: 1 part
Cornstarch: 1 part
Sorghum flour: 1/3 part

With Xanthum gum added is a one to one ration to regular wheat flour - includes more protien. Not necessarily a "light flour" that is needed for some cakes etc.

Streusel Cupcakes

I am cooking my way through Martha Stewarts Cupcake book, gluten free! I bet I do not get a movie deal based off that. However… maybe if I go to jail to for insider trading…! It is ok Martha you are helping me stay sane while adjusting to a new life style. ;-)

Note before you start: Make the Streusel Topping BEFORE the cupcake batter. The Streusel Topping is below cupcake batter recipe.

Streusel Cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 ½ Cups Jules Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
½ tspn baking soda
1 ¼ tspn baking powder
½ coarse salt
½ cup plus 2 tbspn unsalted butter (1 ¼ sticks)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tspn pure vanilla extract gluten free
1 ¼ cups sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together gluten free Jules flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. Mix on medium-high speed with kitchen aid mixer cream butter and sugar till fluffy and pale. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla (Martha says by hand – I feel this overly fancy and irrelevant) – Add gluten free Jules flour mixture and sour cream. I did hand stir this by hand, but you can do it either way.

3. Martha says fill liners up half way then take the Topping recipe and fill the other half and press down the topping into the batter carefully. I found that filling the cupcake liners a fourth of the way and then putting in a fourth of the topping and pressing down works better. Too many of the ½ and ½ cupcakes came out overflowing!

4. After placing ¼ and ¼ batter and topping and then gently pressing toppings down sprinkle reaming topping on – do not press down and cook for 30 plus minutes.

Martha says 20, but as per usual with Gluten Free adjusted recipes you could easily cook for 40 minutes. Look for a golden brown on top. The knife coming out clean does not necessarily mean done – I usually cut one open to make sure it is not still overly dough-y in the middle. I find with Jules All Purpose Gluten Free flour if you take it out too soon they cupcake caves in on itself!

Streusel Cupcake Topping:
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups Jules All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
¾ cup packed dark brown-sugar
2 ¼ tspn ground cinnamon
¾ coarse salt
½ cup plus 2 tbspn (1 ¼ stick) unsalted butter

I hand mixed all ingredients in a bowl – using both a whisk and my hands! Refrigerate for 30 minutes before applying!

Then Milk Glaze/Icing:
1 ½ cups milk
3 table spoons confectioners’ sugar

Whisk together in mixer or with mixer. Pour over cupcakes in a zig zag fashion – not covering the whole cupcake.

Gluten Free Marble Cupcakes

Another recipe from Martha Stewarts Cupcake book redone gluten free!

Ingredients:
1 ¾ Jules Flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ Teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (we used Hershey’s)
¼ cup boiling water
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir GF Jules flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine Milk and Cream.

2. With an kitchen aid mixer on medium speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each one in. Beat in vanilla.

Martha always likes to say “scraping down the bowl as needed” – I feel this is most likely common sense – but if you are the type of person to not scrape down the mixing bowl as needed I will include – SCRAP DOWN THE BOWL AS NEEDED.

Martha also likes to remind us to place the paper liners in the cupcake tins. Again, I hope you are doing that without me mentioning it. If not, maybe you should reconsider cooking, as you are in way worse shape than me! Haha!

3. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two addition of milk mixture and beating until combined.

4. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

Tip: You need to be able to do this quickly and you might need to play around with the exact amounts. I found that 1/3 a cup of the cocoa was too much. Again I used Hershey’s cocoa gluten free from the store and that might have something to do with it. I used closer to ¼ a cup cocoa.

5. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through the batter in a figure eight motion to make swirls. (This might work great for you – I had a terrible time! Find the strategy that works well for you – I ended up just using a spoon).

6. Bake until tops are golden and cake tester comes out clean, roughly 20 minutes. (Took mine closer to 30 – again, might be the Gluten Free aspect).

7. Dust with sugar for appearance.

 I find storing these cupcakes difficult. They came out great (on my second try) and I could have served them immediately, but overnight in the refrigerator they suffered. Freezing them will probably work out better – even just for over night. They are my favorites so far – more adult than kid cupcakes – my kids did not like them as much as the other cupcakes we have been making.

Awesome GF flour

When in California I noticed a lot less Gluten Free options. I also did not find this Gluten Free flour:

Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour

I have been using this as a 1:1 GF flour for my cupcake recipes. Right now it is my favorite and I highly recommend it.

In South Dakota the HyVee's sell it - I have not seen it at our local co-op. In the bay area I would try Harvest House across from Costco in Concord. Let me know if you find it there.

The one problem with this flour - super pricey.

"Sleeping is giving in..."

I am extremely lucky to be able to take off for an entire month and travel up and down the California coast. I am not unaware of this and I treasure this luxury. I also consider it our Midwest trade off agreement. I will live in the Midwest, but I get to travel in return.

However, my luck has always stopped at sleep. I do not sleep so well in general, when I am traveling I do not sleep much at all. This last week I was expected to share a bed with my lovely daughters. If I had a hard time sleeping before... I had an impossible time last week! My girls could not be more opposite in sleeping style, while at the same time both are perfectly effective at keeping their bedmate wide awake.

Beezus, as is her way, will literally sock you in the middle of the night if she feels you infringe on her turf. I can not be within a foot of her with out a sharp wake up call in the form of one of her stick-ly knees or elbows in my side or back. I wonder now if she stays so petite to keep her night time jabs finely pokey. My face has been sore for the last month or so, which makes me overly paranoid about bumping into things, much less getting sucker punched in the middle of the night by my 8 year old, somewhat rigid daughter. One night she came at me with a right hook, accompanied by childish, groggy profanity and a demand that I leave the bed. She did not have to ask me twice and I am left to again feel anxious for her future husband's welfare.

I switched over to Ramona’s side of the bed. My cute baby and the cuddlier of the family. I was completely sure that we she would share her side of the bed with me. I was right, she was more than happy to share – mommy sleeping next to her was the highlight of the vacation. What I did not plan on was how the enthusiasm to share bed space would assert itself. Ramona, as it turns out, loves company in bed and wants to spoon. At first this is very cute. She wiggles up close and wraps her little arms around me. Eventually I get tired and hot! I am balancing on the edge of the bed to begin with and the more she cuddles in the more I feel myself tipping out. Although I continually untangled her clingy appendages some how I would find that I had a surprisingly strong six year old arms wrapped around me and, as if that was not enough, her leg slung over my hip. Kinda like sleeping with a very sweet parasite.

Well, I spent most of Tahoe on the sofa upstairs right next to the kitchen… so that when my mom got up bright and early I had a great spot to hear the coffee maker start up!

Sitting in the morning sun...

Today my hair dresser implored me to “name one thing you like about South Dakota.” I hesitated which he took as humor. However, to clarify, my hesitation was because I knew the answer immediately and I did not want to insult any Californians I know. Or my hair dresser who I only sorta know.

Unfortunately ever since I moved to South Dakota there is a constant comparison. I do not like to compare two places that are both dear to me. It reminds me of all the parenting books I have read about not labeling our children and navigating sibling rivalry. I get visuals of my two states getting complexes and needing expensive therapies or getting attitude and storming off. However, everything I know is held up and measured out in new terms…

And the answer to his question is without a doubt, the people. I love the people in South Dakota.

South Dakotans are a community. A strong community. I am not sure I ever understood community before I moved there (though my kids school program before we moved was close). When I was at my lowest in South Dakota complete strangers came out of no where to help and make me feel more at home. I never want to generalize too much. There are some great, really great, Californians I know. But it is in South Dakota that I am learning through example how to be a better community member – which I know I have a lot of work to do to achieve.

Whenever I try to understand it better all I can come up with is there is a smaller population, harsher weather and people rely on each other more for support. Maybe in California we are to dispensable to each other – we can hide from social responsibility in our large population assuming we are anonymous.

So Californians tonight I say be a little less snide next time you refer my other home – we Californians do not have it all figured out yet.