Gluten Free Banana Pudding

My neighbor gave me a bunch of ripe bananas today, so I decided to make some gluten free banana pudding. It turned out really good--FabGrandpa ate two big bowls full. To make it:

1 cup sugar

3 cups milk

1/4 cup corn starch

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

5 ripe bananas

1 box of KinniKritter Animal Cookies

Mix the sugar and corn starch in a 4 qt pot. Add milk and salt, cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Separate the eggs, set the whites aside. Beat the yolks well, then add a small amount of the hot mixture from the pan to the eggs, stirring well. Add the egg yolks to the pan, stir and cook until thickened, about 3 minutes. 

Layer the cookies and bananas in a large bowl. Pour the pudding over the bananas and cookies. 

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add 1/3 cup sugar a little at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the top of the pudding. Put the bowl into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until  the meringue is browned.

For a review of KinniKritter Cookies, click here.

I Make A "Stab" At Gucamole

I accidently stabbed myself in the hand while I was trying to get the pit out of an avocado today. The good folks over at Avocado.org say:

"Remove the seed by sliding the tip of a spoon gently underneath and lifting out. The other common seed-extraction method - striking the seed with a knife and twisting - requires some skill and is not recommended." Guess I should have read that first, huh?

Fabgrandpa was outside washing the awning. He heard me scream and came running inside to see what happened. Don't worry, it isn't as bad as it sounds, just a tiny wound in between my middle and ring finger on my left hand. It didn't require stitches or anything. It DID hurt like hell, though

The remedy? An application of New Skin and Patron.

That New Skin stuff is great. As soon as you dab it on, it burns for a second, then the pain is gone. It is a sticky liquid that dries quickly to make a skin-like bandaid on a cut. I love this stuff.

I got that little bottle of Patron about two years ago. It has been living in my "office drawer" since then, waiting for just the right occasion. It was just right and just enough for today.

Dinner tonight was leftover blackeyed peas, cornbread, and fried spam. Not very exotic, but filling and good. And I didn't have to cook.


The recipe for the day:

Banana Pancakes

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix or your favorite gluten free pancake mix
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 bananas

Mix all ingredients except bananas. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. When the skillet is hot, pour pancake batter in. While the pancakes are cooking on the first side, put slices of banana on top. When the pancakes are browned on the bottom, flip over and cook on the banana side until browned. Serve with butter and syrup. The taste of cooked bananas is soooo good!

Banana Buckwheat Pancakes

Ever since I discovered the yummy recipe for the short cakes using corn starch as a main ingredient, I have been using it in more of my recipes. It seems to give the finished product a more "wheat flour like" texture.

So, this morning, I whipped up some pancakes for FabGrandpa and me, and they were really good. Good enough for FabGrandpa to ask for seconds, which in my experience, he won't do unless something is pretty good.

Here is the recipe I used to make these:

Banana Buckwheat Pancakes

1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix all the dry ingredients together well. Add the egg and milk and stir well, making sure all the lumps are mixed in. If this the batter is too stiff, add a little more milk. Add the melted butter last and stir it in well.

Put some olive oil in a skillet and let it get hot but not smoking. Pour in about a 1/3 cup of batter per pancake. While the first side is cooking add thin slices of banana to each pancake. When there are little bubbles popping along the outside edges, turn the pancakes over a cook until browned on the second side. Serve with melted butter and your favorite syrup, and watch them disappear!

I Spent The Day Baking

I haven't written much about cooking in the past couple of months, mostly because I haven't been cooking that much. Whenever I start a new job, I come home exhausted mostly just from learning it. This new job I have has taken a lot out of me because there has been so much to learn and it is very fast paced out there on the entrance station. A lot of people want to see the Grand Canyon. And, this week, I had one day that I had to be at work at 5:30 a.m. and one when I had to be there at 6:30 a.m. Although I love my job, I am not so good with early morning wake up times.


We have been grabbing this or that when we can, eating a lot of quick to fix dishes, salads, and the old standby of scrambled eggs or pancakes for dinner. So, since I was off today, I decided to do some baking so that this week we will have a little more variety in our meals.


I mixed up a batch of those good cheese-garlic biscuits using my Pamela's Baking Mix. All I will have to do now every night this week is pop a few in the oven and bake for 22 minutes. These are really good and go with just about everything.



I had several bananas that were already turned black, so I peeled them and mashed them up and made some banana muffins. These were also made with Pamela's Baking Mix. I put in some almond extract and some Chinese Five Spice Powder, too. MMMMM. These will be good for breakfast with some peanut butter.



I decided to make some bread while I was at it. This loaf of bread turned out not so good, so I am not telling the recipe I used. It will do for breadsticks or garlic bread, though, so I'm not chunking it in the trash can. It's not THAT bad, but it ain't that good, either.



And since I had some strawberries and cherries in the fridge that needed to be used up, I wanted to make something I could use as the base for Strawberry Shortcake. I found a very good, easy recipe online at RecipeZaar. The write up about this shortcake on their website said it tastes like the wheat based spongecakes you can buy at the store, and they do! This is the first time since I started cooking gluten free that I made a cake and the batter actually looked like cake batter. See:

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and baking powder a little at a time, mix until well blended. Fill greased muffin tins half full and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. I baked mine for 22 minutes because they were still too sticky on top after 15 minutes. (But that could be my little RV oven).

The recipe says to grease muffin tins and fill them half full. I did, and they grew up over the edge of the muffin tins and dripped down into the guts of the oven, so we had that burny smell in the trailer. Also, they stuck somewhat in the muffin tins, so next time I will use those little cupcake papers, but let me tell you, they are really GOOD! I will definitely be making these again.

Another Muffin

A while back I posted the recipe for Cranberry Tangerine Muffins. Tonight I made a banana version of them. Here is the recipe, basically the same one from before, just changed up a little bit. If you are casiene and egg free, then leave out the egg and substitute soy, rice, or coconut milk for the regular milk.

Banana Muffins

¼ cup butter, melted (you can use olive oil)
1 cup buckwheat flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup milk
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten
3 bananas
1 of those individual serving cups of applesauce

Melt the butter and set aside. Mash the bananas and mix with the applesauce. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Mix the egg, milk and vanilla together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in all the liquid ingredients. Stir quickly to combine, but don’t worry about if there are lumps. Fold in the fruit mixture. Spoon into muffin pans that have been sprayed with Pam, or line with paper baking cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 28 minutes.