Tag: gluten-free
Unlock with PatreonThanksgiving Prep: GF Sides & Desserts
This video is longer than I normally post, but we’re also going on an adventure through four different dishes that we’re making in preparation for Thursday. I thought it would be a good idea to do this one in advance, in case anyone wanted to use any of these recipes.
I’ll try to go in the same order as the video. I didn’t plan it out well, though. Which, I mean, that’s what everyone has come to expect from me.
Oh, really fast before I continue: If you like this blog and follow it for updates, please consider creating an account for WordPress.org–because this blog is moving! In efforts to expand this blog and the YouTube channel, I have purchased kwos-food.com and have been importing all of my posts to the blog there. There will be more about this on Thursday, but I wanted to let all of you know about the impending change. When you visit this URL (starting next week), you will be redirected to kwos-food.com to read the content there. I would love for you to join me there and continue supporting this blog. To do the things I want to do, it would be extremely cost-prohibitive to keep the WordPress.com site going.
Now! Onto the food!
Pumpkin Pie
I used the recipe from WholesomeYum for the filling. Mostly. I made my own pumpkin puree, though. Because it’s me and I love pumpkin. Not pumpkin spice; pumpkin. But I also made my own pumpkin spice blend. There are many different recipes available on the internet for it. It’s a lot of cinnamon, not as much ginger and nutmeg, then a little allspice and clove. Even though the pie crust was store-bought, so it’s only gluten-free and not low carb, I still chose a low-carb option for the filling. Same with the cranberry curd tart we’ll talk about in a few minutes.
Gluten-Free, Paleo Dressing
I’m used to cooking a Paleo/Primal style Thanksgiving dinner. In last week’s post about dressing a turkey, I made one type of stuffing that is made with ground meat (I think the recipe wanted pork; I used turkey. Lamb would have been better). This dressing (or stuffing, if you want to go that route) is made with a variety of veggies and some fruits. It cooks up pretty quickly and smells amazing. I’m sure it will also taste amazing.
Boozy Cranberry Sauce
Tori Avey is one of my favorite people to follow. She is a real person with a real life and has amazing recipes that favor a variety of diets, but specifically are kosher-friendly. She is Jewish, after all. Her recipe for boozy cranberry sauce came to my attention via Cameraman Ken and we decided to try her recipe instead of the one I do every year that is pucker-your-mouth tart. If we decide to use this recipe forever, I will definitely plan to make some sugar-free Cointreau or Triple Sec specifically to use in this recipe. I also need to make sugar-free Limoncello. But, that’s a story for another time–as well as another video!
Cranberry Curd Tart
One of my Facebook friends posted a link to a beautiful and vibrant red tart. I read the words “Cranberry Curd” and decided I needed to, at least, make that part. I was originally going to wait til after Thanksgiving to make the curd, but Cameraman Ken suggested that, since I had two pie crusts, I could just use both and make the tart, as well. By the time I got to this part in filming, though, I was out of spoons (or spell slots, whichever you identify with). I was having a difficult time recalling anything and my hands were starting to not work anymore. Cameraman Ken ended up doing the straining of the cranberry puree through a medium-mesh strainer, off-camera.
This entire 33:18 video took a total of 5 hours of prep and work to do. That’s also after we had to run an errand first thing in the morning. Long day was long.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like what you see here, please consider heading over to Patreon and supporting me there. I do have content for Patrons-only, starting at the $5 tier. Let me know if you decide to make any of these dishes for your Thanksgiving. Stay safe. Wear a mask; wash your hands; stay 2m apart! Have a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!
Paleo/Keto Pumpkin Chili
When other people talk about how it’s “Pumpkin Spice” season, I’m just talking about pumpkins because I love pumpkins. I’m not even sure why. They just make me incredibly happy. Which is why I bought 3 sugar pumpkins a few weeks ago so I could make some of my favorite pumpkin treats! We’ve made, pumpkin purée, pumpkin shortbread, and now, pumpkin chili! I still have a pumpkin left and I plan on making pumpkin pie with that! Though, I also want to make pumpkin butter. Hmm. We’ll see. I’ll probably have plenty of purée left over from my pie to make some pumpkin butter.
I found this recipe back in, I want to say 2011 or 2012, when I first decided to do a Paleo diet and start powerlifting. I’ve made it many times over the years because it’s my favorite chili. This time, I made modifications to the recipe by omitting the sweet potato and adding bell pepper and jalapeños; I also omitted the fresh basil, oregano, and cilantro and, naturally, added hot sauce.
Normally, I do this recipe in the crock on low for 8 hours. This time, however, I’d had this idea that I’d fill the pumpkin shell with it, but that turned out to be a bad idea, so I just did it on the stovetop. It’s not all that long of a recipe to make–probably about 45 minutes. I would not walk away from your chili, though. It has a serious potential to burn onto the pot, and you do NOT want that! Stay vigilant!
Thanksgiving is coming up soon and I guarantee I will have at least two videos about Thanksgiving foods! They will be low-carb, gluten-free, and delicious! I’ll even have a video (on a Thrusday) about how to dress a turkey (using Cornish game hens because there’s only two of us and I have no need–or place to store–a 12+lb turkey). Patreons have some videos just for them already posted–and we may even do a special Thanksgiving Patron-only video for a from-scratch, gluten-free green bean casserole! If you’re not already a patron and you want to see these videos, the $5 is where you want to be! You’ll get exclusive content in addition to what you find here!
Regardless of what you choose, thank you for your support! We’ll see you next time!
Homemade Condiments
I enjoy making my own condiments. I know exactly what’s going into them and I can customize them to my own taste. Honestly, I wanted to make a couple of other ketchups and mustards, but I didn’t have some of the ingredients I needed and I was very quickly running out of spoons.
I woke up in a massive pain flare. Like, I had to use my wheelchair when we went out, today, and I had to take NSAIDs in order to function at 60%. It was not a good day. I have several things I need to get done, too, and I just don’t have the focus or energy to do them.
At least I have one-serving bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, gin, homemade tonic syrup, and a few other things to make tasty adult beverages (don’t worry, it’s been hours since I took pain meds; they only took the edge off, anyway).
So, the condiment recipes can be found here. I have made the rich, deep-flavored ketchup before and, honestly, it’s my favorite. But I do like the simple ketchup. While filming another video for later, I actually ended up making making more ketchup to use up my tomato paste. So, I gave it to my upstairs neighbors. Then decided to make them a container of mustard, as well. They were very excited. I also owe them eggnog.
The simple ketchup and the simple mustard really are simple. If you’re going to make the BBQ Sauce, I’d recommend whipping up the simple versions of the ketchup and mustard and using them in your BBQ Sauce. If you’re feeling particularly fancy, whip up the deep-flavored ketchup and the whole grain mustard and use those. There is a recipe for making your own Worchester sauce, however, if you stick with the Lea & Perrins, you’ll be fine as they are a gluten-free brand (and also the best, in my opinion).
I always add hot sauce to my BBQ Sauce. I want it spicy! So, I used the Torchbearer Sauces’ Garlic Reaper sauce and I was not disappointed!! I will be visiting my folks over Christmas this year, and I fully expect to go to the mall in Harrisburg and buy up some of their sauces! I mean, my mom gets Cameraman Ken the Zombie Apocalypse sauce every year for Christmas, but there are a few others we really want to sample.
If you went to the Paleo Leap’s site for the link for the condiments, you’ll see a lacto-fermented dill relish and a traditionally fermented horseradish. I’ve made both of these and I will tell you, they are fantastic. My neighbors were all very appreciative, as well. Well, for the dill relish. It’s been a few years since I made the horseradish. I really should do that again. Anyway!
Thank you, again, for subscribing to my channel and blog. If you’re able, consider popping over to my Patreon and supporting me, monetarily, there. It would help me bring more videos and content across your dashboards and allow me to give back to you, my supporters!
Homemade Grenadine
I love pomegranates! I also love friends who allow me to come pick pomegranates from their trees! I think we brought home about 10lbs of pomegranates and about 5lbs of persimmons. I may make persimmon bread; we’ll see.
This video, though, is for how to peel and juice a pomegranate and how to make grenadine syrup. I used two different recipes, so you can make one or both and decide which you like better for yourself! I think it depends on what you’re trying to do, I think. I also realized after the fact, I’d made the Shirley Temples wrong. It’s okay…the Italian Sodas were actually better for tasting the grenadine. Shirley Temples are made with ginger ale, not club soda. OH WELL.
In the evening, I had a Russian Kiss which is 2oz of grenadine and 1.5oz of vodka shaken together with ice; stained into a cocktail glass and topped off with soda water. I drank two of those with the lemon juice grenadine and that was about half a drink too many (so sweet). However, I added about 2tsp of the orange flower water grenadine to about 3-ish oz of tequila and that was actually fairly tasty.
I also began steeping some compound gins this week–in fact, they should be ready today! One is a very traditional gin flavor palate (juniper berries, cardamom, black pepper, allspice, coriander, fennel seeds, orange peel); the other, I just sorta made up. It’s very floral, featuring juniper, rosemary, calendula, lavender, pomegranate, and cardamom. We’ll see how they turn out, I suppose!
If you’d like to see more videos that involve making liqueurs and various mixers from scratch, head over to my Patreon and for only $5/mo, you can have access to the exclusive content available from yours truly! Who knows–maybe you’ll get to see the role of Kitchen Witch Kryssie played by Cameraman Ken!
Pumpkin Time!
It’s pumpkin time!
No, not pumpkin spice. I mean, pumpkin spice is fine and dandy and if that’s your deal, you go! I prefer the Gingerbread Lattes to Pumpkin Spice, but I just love pumpkin! So, I bought 3 sugar pumpkins (the kind you use for pumpkin pies) to make various things. One of them got heat damaged from being next to one of my burners, so I decided to roast that right on up and make pumpkin puree! The pumpkin weighed about 2lbs and yielded ~2.5 cups of puree.
A note on the puree: If you decide to use a blender, you will need to cut the large chunks down. You will also need to gauge the water that you add. You don’t want to make it too liquidy, but you need enough liquid to keep the blades from seizing. Pumpkin is notorious for bulking up when you blend/puree it.
The recipe is from the Samhain book from Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials library. The entire series is a great resource for each of the Sabbats, honestly. It’s where I get a good number of my ideas for videos. I celebrate very differently from many of the traditions, but if you’re just starting out on your path, these books are a really good overview of everything. I especially use them for the Sabbats I don’t personally celebrate so I can help others celebrate those sabbats!
Samhain is one of my sabbats, if you hadn’t guessed. This entire month, I’ll be featuring recipes and crafts/rituals/etc for the sabbat. I may see if I can live-stream something on Samhain eve/Halloween for everyone, since… we have to be socially distant. Maybe I’ll host a Zoom event. Would that be of interest? I’ll post information, obviously, for the event! Video/audio is not required, unless you want to.
Anyway! Make sure you’re subscribed to the YouTube channel for the video updates and make sure you’re subscribed to the blog for other updates and while you’re subscribing, considering popping over to Patreon and subscribing there so you can be notified of special events and such (and, maybe even get early access to stuff)!
Blessed be!
Veggie Lasagna – Low Carb
There are six guys who live upstairs. They’re a cool group of guys, but I’m really only friend-friends with 3 of them. One of the things they do is run a start-up called “Spira, Inc” in which they grow spirulina to create sustainable and ethical food sources. In a nutshell, that’s what they do.
Anyway, one of them, Elliott, is going to do this–in space! He’s going to be gone for two months for training and getting things set up and all that. So, he’s moving out so they can replace his portion of the rent, quickly. He has a new apartment lined up, already, for when he’s back. Plus, he loves my cooking, so it’s not like I won’t see him.
His birthday was also recently, so I promised that I’d make him veggie lasagna (because he’s a vegetarian). I told him I didn’t use pasta in my lasagna. He was a little dubious, but excited all the same. Instead of pasta, I use zucchini. Plus, I used my homemade sauce. Ricotta and mozzarella added to the flavor and, of course, you have to top it off with mozzarella. And parmesan.
Apparently it was a hit. I had an empty and clean baking dish back the very next day.
Also, my diet is working well. To date (at least of the writing of this post), I have lost 15lbs. I have 10lbs more to lose to reach my goal. And don’t worry, my goal weight is not unrealistic. It’s 145lbs. I thought I had completely blown my progress on Saturday because I ordered a gluten-free pizza from Pizza Hut (veggie!) because I didn’t feel like cooking, I had worked out, and I was just…stressed. It was a low-calorie thing, but the carbs were pretty high. Still, I wasn’t knocked out of ketosis and, in fact, I’m actively burning fat as I type this (in a very insane way, according to my test strips). So, I’m pretty confident that when I transition into a maintenance phase, I’ll be okay and won’t regain everything I worked to take off. Plus, I plan on staying with my exercise routine. I’m on week 12 of the 13, and I’ve only missed one workout.
Thank you all for viewing the videos and reading my posts. I was notified I’ve received 100 likes on this blog. That’s actually overwhelming to me! I never really expected people would be interested in these, but apparently, I was wrong! Thank you for your support!