Gluten-Free Sisters Cooking Show:Cornbread Stuffing

 In this video, we take the cornbread I made and turn it into some delicious stuffing! Along with the GF cornbread, we have a focaccia GF bread and Udi's brand whole grain GF bread, which turned this recipe into a pretty easy to make gluten-free stuffing.

We have also added a few characters to our show, our Grandma makes an appearance and in the background you can hear our cousin, Mandy, make some comments. We hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7diedFqagI

Gluten Free Sisters Cooking Show - Pumpkin Chocolate Torte

This was another recipe I knew I had to try for the holidays.  The recipe itself was already gluten-free, which are my favorites.  The less substitutions the better.  The end result is a very rich chocolate cake.

Check it out!

Gluten Free Sisters Cooking Show: Cranberry Meringue Pie

So this is the first video that Lara and I did together. Lara gets cooking magazines and found this recipe and decided that we HAD to make it! :)

Even though Lara did most of the cooking and I was her assistant, we still had a lot of fun cooking together and are looking forward to posting more of our cooking videos. See below for the full recipe.

The Full Recipe:

Ingredients:

Gluten Free Crust (See Previous Blog Posting)

Filling

1 12-oz bag cranberries, fresh or frozen, thawed

1 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

3 large eggs, separated

Meringue Topping

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla, the real stuff

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-in pie pan with cooking spray

To Prepare Filling

1. Combine cranberries and orange juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the cranberries are beginning to break down, about 5 to 6 minutes. * While you are waiting on the cranberries feel free to make up your own "waiting on the cranberries" song at this point * 

2. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on the solids to extract all the juice. Whisk 3/4 cup sugar into the juice until combined. Whisk in whole egg and 3 egg yolks. 

3. Return cranberry mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and vigorously  until it thickens and just starts to bubble as you are stirring, about 4 to 5 minutes. 

4. Pour the warm filling into the warm crust. Set aside while you prepare the meringue *Please remember to use oven mitts!!* :) 

To Prepare Meringue

1. Beat the 3 egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until frothy. Add cream of tartar and pinch of salt, beat at high speed until soft "floppy" peaks form.

2. Very slowly add 1/3 cup sugar, beating constantly until stiff peaks form. Beat in (Real) vanilla.

3. Spoon the meringue over the filling, then gently spread to the edges of the crust. 

4. Make peaks in the meringue with the back of a spoon. Bake until the top is lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 3 hours before serving. 



*recipe taken from December 2012 Eating Well Magazine*

Gluten-Free Sisters Cooking Show - Pie Crust

Making a good pie crust is an important part of any dessert.  I had what I thought was a very simple recipe for a butter pie crust.  However, my kitchen appliances failed me!  It's a lot harder to make something when the appliance doesn't work the way it's supposed to - or you don't quite have the right tool for the job.

But, just like you do in life, you play the hand you are dealt.  I made do as best I could.  In the end the crust still tasted delicious - which is what really matters when cooking.

Enjoy watching me try not to destroy the dang appliance and still get a pie crust in the end!

GF Sisters Cooking Video: Cornbread

Growing up, Lara and I would watch Saturday morning cooking shows - it's basically how we learned to cook. So as we were discussing what we wanted to do for Thanksgiving, we decided to make our own cooking show! I had already posted the cornbread recipe a few weeks ago - but this is the video of me actually making the cornbread.

We had always pretended to have our own cooking show as kids whenever we cooked (and yes I still do as an adult when I cook alone sometimes) but it was a little weird to be actually doing it in front of a camera. Once I got going though, it was a lot of fun. There will be more videos of Lara and I cooking together coming soon!

If you happen to not catch the recipe from the video, please check out previous blogs to get the full recipe. Enjoy!

Animal Kingdom: Tusker House Breakfast

On the fourth day of our Disney Adventure we went to Animal Kingdom and started out our day at the Tusker House Breakfast Buffet. After my experience at the Crystal Palace I was interested to see how this buffet would compare. Overall, I was pleased with the experience but there were less choices than at the Crystal Palace.

Once again, I was greeted by the chef who took me around the buffet and showed me various items I could eat. There were some authentic African dishes (In the picture everything but the eggs and bacon are an authentic dish - I don't remember what they were though, sorry) that I could have along with the regular scrambled eggs, etc.

The chef did let me know that they could make me my own waffles and there were donuts and muffins that I could have as well. The donuts and muffins were fairly dry  (I'm pretty sure they weren't homemade) but the waffles were delicious and I loved that they were in the shape of Mickey's face! :)

Overall, I was pretty happy with my experience at the Tusker House. My favorite dish was the homemade waffles. The food was good but my favorite buffet was still the Crystal Palace. I would still recommend going  to the Tusker House though - it was pretty cool to have some authentic food choices and the atmosphere was pretty exciting as well. They offer lunch and dinner but the breakfast is the only character meal offered at the Tusker House. it was fun to have Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy & Goofy  dressed in safari attire, walking around and greeting you at your table (just like the Winnie The Pooh Characters).

Disney Eating Day Two: Ohana

On our second day at Disney we spent the day at Hollywood Studios but we had decided we wanted to try one of the restaurants at a resort. My sister had heard good things about O'hana at the Polynesian Resort - so we figured we'd give it a try!
O'hana is a place where they basically serve you meat. They have giant skewers of chicken, pork, beef and shrimp that they bring around and put onto your plate.  Make sure you come hungry to this one! :)

When we arrived at O'hana we were once again greeted with the ticket that was labeled "ALLERGY" and they also had a flower from a lei placed on the table to note which plate or person had an allergy. The waitress also noted that the CHEF would be out to let me know what I was able to have. There was less that I could eat at O'hana but it was still a very special experience and it was still plenty of food! The chef let me know I couldn't have the chicken or the pork or the wings because of the teriyaki sauce used but she made me MY OWN wings with a different sauce.

As we began to stuff ourselves with meat that was amazingly delicious I began to notice other tables with this bread pudding dessert. I knew of course that I was not going to be able to have the dessert but then came the best surprise of all!

Not only had the chef made me own special wings but she made me MY OWN special dessert, a flourless chocolate cake that was to die for! I don't think I have ever tasted anything so good in my life. No longer did the bread pudding look good - my dessert was better.

 After eating the whole thing and basically licking my plate clean I could have eaten another one. This was by far my favorite dessert of the the trip and I still crave that chocolate cake!

One cool thing about eating at a resort is that you get wander the grounds after dinner. I not only highly recommend eating at O'hana but the grounds are beautiful! It is built right on the lake and has its own beach that looks over into Magic Kingdom where you can see Cinderella's Castle.

  

After two very special meals at Disney I already felt like a princess - something that doesn't happen very often while eating out and being gluten free. I couldn't wait to see what the next dining experiences had in store for me! :)