Cochinita (Brooklyn tacos)

Hey, you know how I love tacos? Oh you didn't know that? Well, I do. I love tacos. I love tacos so much that if I wasn't already married, I might marry tacos. And have little taco babies.

One time a few weeks ago I went to visit my sister, Dana, who lives in Brooklyn. We went out for lunch at this cute taco place near her apartment called Cochinita. When we asked the guy behind the counter (the owner, who's name I forgot) if anything was gluten free he said "Everything! Except some of the beers." I had beef and pork tacos, and horchata. Dana and I split the tortilla soup and it was good. No one complained when we lingered there for hours after we finished eating, everything was gluten free, and it was delicious and not terribly expensive. Check out their review in the NY Times tomorrow! Yay. Tacos for everyone!
Check them out if you're in Brooklyn:
922 Fulton St, Bklyn

Bran muffins with raisins

Hi! I bought rice bran like a million years ago and have been meaning to make bran muffins for months and months and months. Apparently it was muffin day today, my sister and one of my friends both posted about making muffins on Instagram. Alex was mostly in charge of dinner (shrimp and olives, like this but without feta and cooked on the stovetop) so I whipped these up. Quick and easy and wicked delicious. I packed a few for breakfast tomorrow and froze the rest. They're not too sweet, they're moist, and I love them. Next time I might add in a tablespoon or two of molasses just for flavor. 

Bran muffins with raisins

adapted from epicurious.com 

1 c rice bran

2/3 c rice flour mix
3/4 t xanthan gum
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
1 1/4 c buttermilk (or, 1 1/4 c milk soured with 2 t vinegar)
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c applesauce
1 egg
1 1/2 T oil
2 t vanilla
3/4 c raisins

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a muffin tin. Combine rice bran, rice flour mix, xanthan gu, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix well. Set aside. Beat buttermilk, sugar, applesauce, egg, oil and vanilla together until frothy (I used my Vitamix, but you can use your hands or a mixer). Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and stir together, then fold in raisins. Pour batter to fill muffin tins about 2/3 full, then bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (mine baked 23 minutes). Cool in pan for a minute or two, then remove to a cooling rack. Serve with butter or eat plain.
I used a regular 12-muffin tin and had leftover batter, so I used a mini-muffin pan and made about 6 mini muffins. I'm not totally sure how many I made because I immediately ate a few of them so I lost count. Then Alex (who "doesn't like" muffins) ate a few too.
Sorry for the not-so stellar photos, I was in a rush.

Grapefruit, carrot, grape smoothie/juice

Hi! Alex and I got a Vitamix. You know, one of those stupid expensive blenders. We've only had it a few days, but it's pretty sweet. You put whatever you want in it, and then it turns into juice or sorbet or soup, depending on what you put into it. We got it with out sweet health care credit card, which our company puts money onto for medical use, which apparently a Vitamix is. Yay! I've been experimenting and this is my favorite drink so far.

Grapefruit, carrot and grape Vitamix drink


2 grapefruits
2 big handfuls of baby carrots
2 big handfuls of frozen grapes

Cut the top and the bottom of the grapefruits and cut the skin off. Cut the peeled grapefruits in half and put them in the Vitamix. Cut all the carrots in half. Toss them in the blender. Dump in all the frozen grapes. Put the top on, and turn the blender on low, then turn up slowly and then flip the switch to high. Blend until you can barely see any more pieces, about two minutes. Makes about 5 cups.

sticky bbq tempeh

Hi! I sure love sticky saucey things. You should too. So we're kind of eating healthy, so no desserts or anything. Sadfaces. The good news is that I made this tempeh and it was delicious. Remember last time I made tempeh and posted about it?

Tempeh is kind of boring by itself, but crisp it up in a pan and coat it with a sticky sauce and it's a delicious thing you should eat. This is Lightlife brand garden veggie tempeh. This is a super easy recipe. All you do is crisp the tempeh and pour over an easy quick bbq sauce that can be whipped up in 1 second, let it cook for a minute or two or five to thicken the sauce and make it stick, and you're done. I served it over rice, with a side of kale chips. 

sticky bbq tempeh

1 package tempeh (I bet this would be good with tofu too probably)

oil for cooking, 2-3 T or so

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c ketchup

4 T cider vinegar

2 T mustard

1 T hot sauce

Slice the tempeh about 1/4" thick. Heat enough oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan you're using over medium-high heat, and toss in the tempeh. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until well browned and crispy looking. While that's happening, whisk together the brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard and hot sauce. When all the tempeh is crispy, pour over the sauce mixture and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for a minute or two or three until the sauce thickens. Serve over rice, or on a sandwich, or whatever. 

Those same noodles, with shrimp and greens and mushrooms

HI! I've been eating these noodles a bunch of times because they're so good. Look! Here they are with kale and mushrooms and shrimp! Also they're easy and fast and cheap and easy.

Look how healthy. Vegetables!

Noodles with vegetables and shrimp


Follow the recipe for these noodles, but cook a few big handfuls of chopped mushrooms until browned, then add some chopped kale in with the noodles. Add cooked, peeled shrimp instead of the crab, and add a teaspoon or two of chili sauce because spicy is delicious! Yum. I will be making these with variations, they're so easy and good and fast.

Crabby noodles with snow peas, from The Gluten Free Asian Kitchen

Hi! Happy New Year! We're trying to eat healthy this month, like everyone else in the world, but it's not going so great. Alex has a cold so we're on a strict chicken noodle or dumpling soup diet. Before he got sick, though, I made these awesome noodles from this cookbook I for got Christmas from my dad, The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen. I've made a few recipes from it so far and it's pretty great. These noodles are easy and delicious and fresh. I tossed in some leftover shrimp, and put more cilantro and scallions on the table for serving.

Crabby noodles with snow peas
from  The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen

1 package mung bean noodles (otherwise known as jellyfish noodles)
4 T veg oil
6 scallions, chopped up (plus more for the table)
4 cloves minced garlic (I used 6)
1/4 lb chopped up snow peas
8oz real crabmeat, picked through for shell pieces
1/2 c chopped cooked shrimp
1/2 c clam juice
2 T fish sauce
1/3 c cilantro (plus more for the table)

Pour boiling water over the noodles and let them sit for a minute or two until soft and stretchy (the book says to use hot tap water but I let mine soak for half an hour and nothing happened, so boiling water did the trick almost immediately). Drain the noodles and chop them up with scissors.
Heat half of the oil over medium heat and cook the scallions and garlic for a minute, then add the snow peas and cook another minute. Add the rest of the oil and the crab, shrimp and noodles, stirring well. Add the clam juice and fish sauce and cook a few more minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and toss with cilantro. Serve with more cilantro, scallions, and hot sauce if you wish.

Here is a photo of my puppy, who is growing up very fast.

Our trip to Europe

Remember when we went to Europe? That was over the summer. I promised to write about it, and never did. Oops! Here are some pictures. 

First we went to London. 

Great architecture

We didn't go up on the London Eye

We did a lot of touristy things like take photos in front of everything

We ate gluten free fish and chips at the Mermaid's Tail in Leicester Square. It was ok, but not the best ever. 

Horses may bite

Then we went to Hungary and Slovakia to visit Alexs family. 

As always, I was fed extremely well. Pictured here - gluten free bread, keilbasa and a weird rice and liver and blood sausage (delicious), and little pickles and apricots

We made something called 'Spanish Bird' which is beef pounded thin, filled with salami, bacon, hard boiled egg and pickle, then cooked in the pressure cooker. Deliciously. 

A relative of Alex's made me this giant loaf of gluten free bread. His son has Celiac, so he brought this over for me and I devoured the whole thing. I've never had anyone give me fresh baked, warm bread before. 

This is lecso (lech-o), a mix of tomatoes and onions and peppers and bacon that you eat for breakfast in Slovakia. 

Slovakia

I made friends with this little spot-faced dog (sure didn't think I'd have a spot faced dog of my own soon after we got home!)

We went to an 'adventurepark' where we went on a ski lift up a mountain and then rode a roller coaster and did a ropes course thing

We cooked fish and chips for Alexs parents (using my recipe)

We went to the Budapest Zoo, which is my favorite zoo. I touched a sloth. 

We went to the Vasarcsarnok Market, where there are a million stands of vegetables and meats and things. 

We went to a great flea market in Budapest and I bought some cameras (what else)

We ate a lot of delicious salamis

Then on the way home we stopped in Iceland for 24 hours because a flight was cancelled. This was my favorite part of the trip. We saw a friend of mine from summer camp (really, in Iceland!) and ate a ton and explored and loved it. I want to go back. 

We ate the best lobster soup of my life at this awesome seafood restaurant, the Sea Baron. I obviously didn't eat the bread. 

We had two different kinds of fish and whale, and it was all delicious. 

This is the Sea Baron. He came around offering samples of things like fermented shark (what he's holding there, it was not delicious) and whale blubber (so delicious). 

Iceland was cool. I bought a really expensive, perfect sweater. 

Alex bought a great hat. 

The end! Vacation was great.