I'm back! Also, snickerdoodles

So I'm back. 

Hi.

It's me. Audry. 

::Taps mic::

Anyone?

Remember me? Yes? No? Maybe? Well get ready cause I'm back! We'll see if I can get my sisters on board.

A lot has changed since my last post. We have a whole nother human being in the house! Which means we have about 943872594978 people under one roof. Okay, fine. Six.

T-man is 7 months old and has really given us a run for our money already. I'm a nursing mama and my sweet T-man has some intolerances (And now I'm all distracted b/c my computer is telling me that intolerances is not a word - dreaded red squiggly underline. So now I gotta consult an outside source...the Internet says it is a word, and we all know the internet does not lie. So I'll just be over here adding it to the dictionary) to different things that were passing through into my milk. His GI doc told us he is dairy and soy intolerant. I also managed to figure out that he has intolerances to tree nuts and avocado. Although I bought some avocado yesterday to have a trial and I forgot to do that today! 

Around Christmas I had given up the top 8 allergens (dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish), corn, chocolate, carrots, hummus....is that even all? I can't remember. Basically I ate potatoes. For about a month. Bye bye baby weight! I will write a more detailed account of our MSPI journey at some point in case anyone out there in internet land cares. 

Okay, so let's get to a recipe. 

So this recipe hails from my mid-February life. Which means it is egg, wheat, dairy and soy free. And it's cookies. I told y'all I was getting to a recipe! 
This recipe is a variation on this one.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy/dairy free butter alternative (I've used melt buttery sticks, earth balance soy free, and smart balance all with success and no reaction from my boy)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seed (flax meal?) mixed with 3 tablespoon water (this is your new friend "flax egg" Hi Flax Egg!)
1 1/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar (this will give you extra...so you can just eyeball some kind of less than 1/4 cup granulated sugar with however much cinnamon floats your snickerdoodle boat)

Directions:
1. Make your Flax Egg - mix the flax seed meal with water and set aside. You can put in the fridge for a few minutes (So says the Internet), but I never did. Primarily because cookies can't wait.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or if you're like me, wait and do this last)
3. Cream together "butter" and brown sugar
4. Beat in our old pal Flax Egg
5. Stir in white rice flour and baking soda. I always like to mix them together at the top of the bowl a little bit before mixing in with the other ingredients. 
6. Roll into small balls. Obviously if you can't roll them (sticky dough) add more flour...or if you think they need more liquid throw in some water. Do your thing. I could usually make around 10 or 12 depending on how small small was for me at the time.
7. Roll in the delightful cinnamon sugar mixture.
8. Put on pan...you can squash them down a little bit before baking or leave them in a ball to be super dome shaped. 
9. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Y'all. These are so good. I don't even want to try to make them with real eggs now that I can eat eggs again. I also wouldn't want to use regular flour! White rice flour is where it's at.

Sorry, no pictures. :( I'll try to do better on the next recipe.

Country Pride Pork Cops (Southern Living 1979)

Country Pride Pork Chops (slightly updated) = delicious

I can almost guarantee that I'll always vote for something that comes from off the grill.   This recipe did not disappoint.

We have eaten this recipe twice in the month of July, trying it with different cuts of pork chops.  The first time we made this recipe, we used thin sliced pork loin chops.  We had about six pork chops weighing in at a little more than 1.2 pounds.  Using this cut of meat, the meat was definitely well marinated.  The pork chops tasted really good.  We used more sugar the first time, too, than the second time.  We all agreed it was better without as much sugar, because you could taste the smokiness of the grill a little more.  And why grill something if you can't tell it's grilled?  The second time, we bought two center cut pork loin chops that weighed in at just a little over one pound.

The verdict?  The thinner pork chops definitely had a stronger taste of the marinade.  However, we actually preferred the thicker cut of meat - taste-wise and presentation-wise.

 K-man said this is a recipe that could impress people.  Easy to prepare and impressive?  Is there a better combination when it comes to a meal? 

This recipe did need some tweaks - I mean, do people actually still cook with MSG?  I do remember our mom having a small jar of MSG growing up, but I do not have MSG on my spice shelf and do not plan to keep it around.  So, here's how I updated Country Pride Pork Chops. 

Country Pride Pork Chops (Updated from Southern Living 1979)
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/16 teaspoon ginger
1-2 pounds center cut pork loin chops

Combine first 7 ingredients in a 1 gallon ziploc storage bag; mix well.
Place the pork chops into the ziploc storage bag; close and refrigerate overnight.  Our meat ended up marinating at least 18 hours for each version of this recipe. I do recommend flipping the bag over when you wake up in the morning.
Grill chops 6 to 8 inches from heat.  Ours only took about 30 minutes to cook.  However, this can all depend on how hot your grill gets - so make sure that you use a meat thermometer.  Don't want anybody to get sick from undercooked pork!

This recipe is a winner.  Quick, easy, delicious. 

Lindy

Chops in Sherry (Southern Living 1979)

Very good and very easy.  That about sums up this recipe.  The picture I took of it wasn't very good, but this is something that's definitely worth trying.  Tweaks included choosing thin sliced pork chops, which allowed the cooking time to decrease.  The major tweaks were that I skipped the mushrooms and used white cooking wine instead of sherry. 

Chops in Sherry
6 thin sliced loin pork chops
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 cup carton low-fat sour cream

Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper; brown on both sides in well-sprayed skillet.  Remove chops, and place in shallow casserole dish.  Combine sherry and sour cream.  Cover and bake at 375F for 35 to 40 minutes, or until done.

This main dish was a big hit with K-man and the kids.

Lindy

Savory Beef and Vegetables (Southern Living 1979)

For some reason this recipe caught my eye in the July section of the 1979 Southern Living cookbook.  Not sure why, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to cook it like it prescribed.  Mushrooms?  A jar of onions?  Pepper strips?  No, I knew none of those things would work for my (picky) husband or even for my not-so-picky children.  Did I mention that I don't like mushrooms either?  Despite these "minor" issues, I wanted to give it a go.  And with all my tweaks this was a huge success for my family.  When I asked K-man what I could do to make it better, his response was "nothing."  :-)

Savory Beef (adapted from Savory Beef and Vegetables (Southern Living 1979))
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1-2 t brown sugar (I used closer to 1 t)
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1-1/2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T white cooking wine
1 pound steak (I used sirloin), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 T cornstarch
Noodles (I used whole-wheat rotini)

Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and wine into a gallon size ziploc bag; mix well.  Add steak; make sure the steak is well coated with the liquid mixture.  Marinate overnight in refrigerator.  Mine marinated about 19-20 hours.
Remove steak from marinade.  Add cornstarch to marinade, stir well, and pour into a skillet.  Add steak to skillet; simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, cook noodles.
Serve over noodles.

Lindy