Gluten-free banana pudding

When we were walking through the grocery store last weekend we saw a mound of very ripe bananas. My husband said he would love some banana pudding but then decided he really didn't want to make it unless it could be gluten-free.

We did look for gluten-free vanilla wafers but didn't find any in the store so we thought about using a gluten-free cake. I have seen recipes for banana pudding using pound cake so I thought it would be a good alternative.

We chose to use a Betty Crocker Gluten-free Vanilla cake mix we found. As I said yesterday, this cake was very good and I made the cake according to directions and than cut it into thin slices and then cookie-sized pieces.

I made a recipe for pudding. Peeled and cut the bananas.

And then layered the ingredients.

Then I added the meringue on top. Some people meringue and others don't. Whipped cream is a good option if you don't to top off the finished pudding. This recipe makes an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 version. For a 9 x 13 dessert, double all the ingredients except for the cake mix. Half will be left over.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Banana Pudding

For cake:
1 Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mix (only 1/2 of the cake mix will be used)

For pudding:
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 egg yolks
3 cups almond milk
3 teaspoons vanilla flavoring

3 ripe bananas

Meringue:
Whites of six eggs
1/4 cup sugar

Make 1 Betty Crocker gluten-free vanilla cake mix, according to directions, cool and cut into thin, cookie-sized pieces.

Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and salt into a medium saucepan. Mix egg yolks, almond milk and vanilla flavoring and pour over sugar/cornstarch mixture until well-mixed. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. It will be a bit thin.

Layer in this order -- thin layer of pudding, cake, pudding, then bananas; cake, pudding, bananas, pudding.

To make meringue: Whip egg whites until they become foamy, then add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Cover dish with meringue and bake at 400 degrees until browned.

My husband really enjoyed this dessert and my grandson, who is allergic to wheat and milk, I think, actually inhaled two helpings.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

INGREDIENTS
Boiling water
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour, spooned and leveled
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup apple butter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking)


DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, add the raisins and cover with boiling water. Let stand 5 minutes. Once plumped, drain the raisins and set aside to cool completely.


2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and arrange racks in the lower and upper thirds.


3. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.


4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the apple butter, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined; stir in the oats and raisins.


5. Using a rounded tablespoon, drop the cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart (12 per sheet). Bake until the cookies are no longer wet-looking in the center, 14 to 16 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


Copyright 2010 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved


Nutritional analysis per serving of 3 cookies


Calories 228; Total Fat 6g (Sat Fat 3g, Mono Fat 1g, Poly Fat 0g); Protein 4g; Carb 41g; Fiber 3g; Cholesterol 38mg; Sodium 145mg


SOURCE

Using a gluten-free mix

We tried this gluten-free cake mix the other day and found it was quite good. It is very hard to make good breads, cookies and cakes that don't use wheat as the main ingredient, but this cake mix makes it easier to eat gluten-free cake. Compared to most gluten-free recipes it was very good. It is not a vegan mix because it does use eggs. It is found on the shelf in the grocery store with the regular cake mixes.

The main ingredient is rice flour and rice flour is commonly used in commercial mixes but this product seems to use flour that is ground more finely than some of the rice flours I have purchased. They can be a little grainy -- sometimes very grainy. I do know that this mix is good and I would recommend it.

A negative is that it doesn't make two layers like more cake mixes, but the layer it makes is a decent size. I made a smaller sheet cake and it was the perfect size for my needs -- but not for a layer cake. The texture was a little more like pound cake than layer cake and I think eating it in smaller amounts would be best anyway because it was a little heavier than cake made from wheat. Good but the texture was more dense.

I think cupcakes would be great made with this mix and they would be substantial. They wouldn't make twenty-four but would certainly make more than twelve cupcake.

Another use might be to slice the cake and toast it slowly in the oven to make a kind of cake biscotti. This would be a very good way to use any leftover cake.

Cookies could also be made from this mix but I don't have a recipe at this time. I may try to make one later.

One of the negatives was that the price was quite high. This mix costs around $5. That was much higher than I would have expected. It is new and I hope the price will come down because I would use this product again.

I included the ingredient listing, if interested. Click on the image to get a larger view.

I used this cake mix for something other than a cake and I will include what I think is a clever way to make a gluten-free dessert in my next blog.

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time is a list published in book form in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, the Mystery Writers of America published a similar list entitled The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time. Many titles can be found in both Crime Companions.  . Wikipedia hosts the lists.

Click here to see this list at centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com. 

For similar posts, visit cjrlbooksandmore.blogspot.com. 

I Finally Found A Job!

Yes I can't believe it after looking for a year I finally found a job. On Friday I had gotten a phone call for an interview on Saturday. I went to the interview and I got hired on the spot. This was so shocking and I was so happy. Monday I had orientation and today was my first day.

Today it was so boring going over all paper work and watching videos. I was so bored I almost fell asleep. This is for a grocery store cashiering and I have done cashiering since I was sixteen years old. So I do know what to do. But you have to go through all of this for the job. I have more paper work and videos tomorrow. I just can't wait to actually be working on the register so I don't fall asleep. But I shouldn't complain since I do have a job now.

But one thing is my boyfriend will not know what to do with himself while I am at work. He has to pick me up after work. But he will be coming home while I am still at work. He will be lonely until he picks me up. He will just have to get use to it so I can help him with the bills. I love him so much for his patients with me looking for a job this last year. He is such a sweet man and I love him with all my heart.

Tomatoes as art

I thought this photo would be prettier than it is, but I will explain my motivation behind these odd-looking canned tomatoes.

The other day, I canned some heirloom tomatoes. I didn't worry about the colors or types of tomatoes, I wanted to get as much variation of color as I could. I really love the differences in color and even texture. I have red, orange, yellow, purple, rainbow and green tomatoes sharing the same jars and I placed them in the jars so that the colors would stand out as much as possible. It really is pretty to me, but I guess the green ones might throw someone off if they didn't expect it. I hope not, because I think they are beautiful. (They really are lovelier in person.)

The great thing about all the colors is that they taste very good and I don't think that combining the flavors will be different between them and the regular red tomatoes. Some of the yellows and the greens seem to be as tangy as the reds and in some cases tangier.

Though Brandywines are still my all-time favorites, I love the colors. I know that I would love to plant more yellow tomatoes (Jubilees) next year and I really love the Green Zebras whose color is a vibrant green when peeled and kind of green with yellow stripes when ripe.

I did plant some Big Rainbows and Strawberry tomatoes that were not my favorites. They didn't yield well and the Strawberries didn't ripen well. They were a kind of strawberry shape, but that is the only positive thing I can say about them.

The Park's Celebrity tomatoes -- I won't buy again (they didn't produce well, as advertised or last) but I will grow more Romas and I may save seed from the Purple Calabash. I just like the vines. They are one of the oldest varieties, according to what I have read and seemed to be less susceptible to diseases. The color is not really purple but a deep burgundy.

I don't know if my tomatoes would qualify as art but I had to try. I think after I admire, photograph and perhaps even paint them, I will use them in salsa, spaghetti sauce or soup -- the rewards of the harvest.

Garden Update

Our garden story for July is hot, dry weather, little rain, okra and peppers. We have some beautiful bells growing. I can see stuffed peppers in my future meal plans. Actually, we  had them last week. They are really beautiful and peppers will grow until almost frost. They are always a little late for us but do well in hot weather.

We are getting a few butter peas. We cleaned out the grass growing around them yesterday and I am hoping that will help them grow even better. They are beautiful on top of a dark green butter pea leaf.

Cucumbers look quite sad.

The green beans are looking ragged, too, but still growing.

Our hot peppers are growing at a faster pace now that the weather is really hot.

The tomatoes have really suffered. This is just before we cleaned them out and cut the dead leaves off. I hope they will improve a bit but I don't hold out much luck for them if the weather doesn't improve.

We have some watermelons that have been growing. I don't know if they will mature before frost. I like the way they look while they grow.

Okra. I love it. It is really producing now and the blooms are so pretty.

Two days ago we had some nice squash blooms but they really aren't growing well in this hot weather.

More peppers. These are sweet bananas.

Another view. This makes us long for cooler winter crops because the summer crops are not doing so well. I wish we could control the weather but we can't. That's the update. We are wishing for cooler days.