Coconut Milk Ice Cream Berry Parfaits

Easy elegance.Coconut ice cream. Berries. Boom. Parfait!

The Gluten-Free Goddess Time Machine dips back into the archives for a fabulous coconut ice cream recipe served parfait style with blueberries and strawberries.

We are slowly melting here in the usually friendlier, temperate wedge of Northwest Connecticut. This heat wave has not been fun. Yesterday we hit 87º degrees. Inside the barn. In the kitchen (if you can call it that), where I am not cooking. I am painting. Very slowly. And sweating. Profusely. The studio air smelled like a West Hollywood muffler shop (if I was a betting soul I'd wager greenbacks on the landlord lying when he assured us the barn was insulated). Yours truly may be suffering quasi-serious brain damage due to these cranium-baking temperatures. I cannot form a cohesive thought. Neither can my iMac which gets dangerously hot (I am writing this post early, while the room temperature is a balmy 78º).

Obviously I am unable to muster any enthusiasm for cooking.

I've been living on gluten-free peanut butter toast. And ice cream. Yes, I know. I am a poor, sad, sad role model. What kind of food blogger doesn't rise to the challenge and cheer-lead you to whip up kale salads and raw peach smoothies? What kind of food blogger would simply give in to her sticky, damp fatigue and general overall crankiness and not create some inspiring, nutritious, bunny food slaw for you?

This one.

She who is about to share a no-cook recipe she actually DID make last night, standing directly in front of her three-speed fan, silver streaked hair pinned wantonly (fashionably!) askew atop her itchy, sweaty head.

Sweet and cold and creamy. Coconut milk ice cream.

It's what's for dinner.


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Gluten-Free Mother's Day Recipes

Karina's Green Chile Egg Bake

Recipes for a Gluten-Free Mom...

We wouldn't be here without her. Or the other nurturing, supportive, maternal figures in our lives- be they sisters (by blood or in spirit), aunties, teachers, mentors, grandmothers, or mothers-in-law. All those who nudge us and inspire us and believe in us. But especially She Who Knows Us- with all our quirks and wrinkles, all our stumbles and scrapes and broken hearted misery- and loves us anyway.

You know who they are.

So if you happen to love such a Person, and they're gluten-free?

Have I got some recipes for you.

Note: Above: A favorite recipe for guests (and popular with B and B hosts)... Whip up these easy baked eggs with roasted green chiles topped with a golden, toasty circle of gluten-free bread, and fresh herbs. Totally Mother's Day worthy, baked in individual ramekins (fancy!).

Gluten-Free Goddess Whole Grain Strawberry Muffins

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Karina's Nirvana Layer Bars: Chocolate Coconut Bliss

Divine Gluten-Free Layer Bars

This dessert is a family favorite- my chocolate-coconut layer bar recipe. Simple to make. Sweet and gooey and bliss inducing. And most important? You can offer them at any gathering without a gluten-free apology. (Would that be, Don't ask, don't tell?)

Bummed about the dairy in it? My son Alex has created his own casein-free version using condensed coconut milk. See our Dairy-Free Nirvana Bars recipe here.


Chill before serving, if you like, for a snappy, cold burst of sweetness.

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Recipe Love

Celebrate love with these fabulous gluten-free chocolate recipes.

I've said it before. Chocolate is love. And any excuse to celebrate love (or chocolate) is high on my priority list. Here are some of my hand-picked favorite gluten-free chocolate recipes for Valentine's Day- or any day you feel like celebrating love.

Which, in my corner of the world, ought to be every day.

Cacao! conquers all.

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Gluten-Free Super Bowl Recipes

Let's Rustle Up Some Grub

I've said it before. I'm no expert on football. But all this talk (and talk, and talk) about deflating balls seems a tad, shall we say, blown out of proportion. So rather than bore you with my colorful opinion on Tom Brady's ball pressure preferences, I'd prefer to discuss something far more important. And far more relevant and impactful to your, you know, ACTUAL LIFE.

Like food.

Enough with the balls already. Here's some ideas and recipes to celebrate The Super Bowl, kids. Party on. 

Play nice. 

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Gluten-Free Hazelnut Crackers with Herb Spread

Gluten-free hazelnut crackers and vegan herbed cream cheese.

Make Your Own Gluten-Free Crackers!

The wheel of the year has turned once again and New Year's Eve is fast approaching here! And that means party food, Dudes and Dudettes. Appetizing little bites of joy and peace.

On my list? These gluten-free hazelnut crackers you can serve your guests without apology. Snowy soft herbed cream cheese you can offer your favorite vegan and your die-hard carnivore. That's right. Both. At once. To whet their appetite. A tease. A taste of deliciousness to get the festivities rolling.

And no one has to know how crazy easy it was to conjure these goodies.

They'll just be totally impressed you made your own crackers.


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Karina's Four Must-Try Gluten-Free Recipes

Four Gluten-Free Recipes You Must Try- Now

Looking back was never a favorite pastime for me. I prefer looking ahead. Imagining the new. Rather than rehashing the past (excuse me while I yawn). Or at the very least, enjoying what hipster philosophers deem The Now. The Present. Here. Today. This minute.

It's all we've (really) got. This. Moment.

And here, where I sit, in the now, in the stream, rowing (ever so) gently, I am conjuring four lip smacking recipes. All gluten-free. All dairy-free.

And the best part?

These favorite recipes are so darn good you won't be pining for the past- those wheat-infested glory days of a bygone gluten era. Nope.

Babycakes, you'll be so in The Now as you taste (devour?) each forkful of this Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Or nibble the golden crisp edges of these Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Or sink your teeth into these fudgy, rich, and tender Dark Chocolate Brownies.

Or surrender to the creamy, silky, peanutty bliss that is (my favorite) vegan ice cream, ever- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

So as the New Year dawns, all shiny and brand new... conjure a little kitchen magic and rustle up these recipes pronto.

Now is where it's at.

Karina's Chocolate Truffle Cake

Rich, easy, gorgeous truffle cake.

To celebrate a bright New Year, I say we bake a cake. A flourless cake. A cake so rich it tastes like a truffle. Not the infamous pig snuffled treasure. No, Darling. The chocolate truffle. That heavenly impostor, hiding in the guise of that woodsy French piggery fungi. Spoonfuls of deep, dark ganache rolled in cocoa powder (to look like dirt, of course).

And I didn't want just a chocolate cake topped with ganache, either. I wanted to bake the ganache itself. I wanted the cake to taste like a sweet and satiny truffle- I wanted the cake to live up to its name. Truffle Cake inspires expectations.

So I fiddled around with my Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe and rustled up a divine and creamy chocolate cake so special you'll want to share it with company. It's simply too good to keep to yourself. Try it. It's shockingly easy to make. Just give yourself time to make it ahead. It is at its best chilled overnight.

Silky satin chocolate cake with a dusting of dirt- I mean- organic cacao powder with a secret ingredient. Raw maca powder. Throw in a little superfood magic. Why not?


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Gluten-Free Chocolate Gingerbread Recipe

Delicious chocolate gingerbread loaf. Gluten-free yum.

Chocolate Gingerbread, Gluten-Free Goddess Style

In the deep midwinter, I cheer my fragile spirit by baking. I put on Yo Yo Ma and stir cocoa laced batter with a wooden spoon, imagining my fellow gluten-free bakers- all of you- out there- standing in your humble kitchens, beating strange flours and non-traditional ingredients with an odd blend of dread and hope. Crossing fingers and scooping tea bread, cake and muffin batter, rolling cookie dough between nervous palms, praying to the kitchen gods.

By Winter Solstice- I will celebrate my twelfth thirteenth anniversary of living gluten-free. Yep. December 19, 2001 was the day I decided to shun gluten forever. What timing. Right before Christmas. I could have waited until December 26th. Or even the New Year.  But I didn't. 

I couldn't.

As soon as I connected the dots- from my plague of symptoms to their instigator gluten- I couldn't wait to begin my new life. If I had eaten my very last buttery croissant, so be it. If I had unknowingly crunched my last iced sugar cookie, so what. I was done.

Few of us have to make such choices.


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Pumpkin Bread Pudding - Gluten-Free

Pumpkin Inspired : Bread Pudding

Don't ask me where the craving came from. Because I honestly couldn't tell you. I haven't a clue. I rarely even think about food these days (I seem to have returned to my art school habits of running on fuel comprised of coffee, painting, and music). I don't daydream of desserts or breakfast, or intricate candlelit suppers. I do not spend much time at all on the Internet lately.

I am hungry instead for inspiration. For autumn's burnished light and shadow. Rusted jewel colors and texture. Pattern. And rhythm. I am walking the local woods and creeks, listening, breathing in. Fed by the foggy morning softness and water sounds, and leafy, wet wood smoke. Gathering images and emotions for markmaking and paint slinging. Food- for better or worse (I'm not a judger)- is simply not on my radar these days.

But this weekend I woke with a curiously strong hankering for old fashioned pumpkin bread pudding. And gluten-free goodness ensued.



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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

Gluten-Free vegan pumpkin cheesecake- creamy and dairy-free.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake, Darling

Quick question. It is officially October. The annual Pumpkin Love Fest has begun in earnest. So. I ask you. Is this the time to shun dessert in favor of green kale chia fiber smoothies and ginger laced cabbage detox soup?

I can answer that.

The answer is no.

As in N. As in O. NO. Nope. Nada. Not gonna happen.

Because I, my darling, am a temptress. I am not going to write about healthy Fall desserts today, or some virtuous fat-free bean brownie with chicory fiber, or three-bean dirt-brown chili that will keep you tooting fumes for a week. Instead, Dearest Gluten-Sensitive One, I am going to tease you. I am going to lure you- with a silver fork-worthy dessert recipe totally worth baking this all-too-soon-to-be-upon-us holiday season 2014.

This is a silky, creamy pumpkin cheesecake that begs for a party. Or a family rumpus. One of many last hurrahs as daylight dwindles darkly toward the Winter Solstice low point, flickering her last sigh Northward before the pale glare of January dawns in all her cold and sober glory (and I step- ever so gingerly- on the reality check scale). And maybe sigh. A little hint of a sigh.

Because even though it is pre-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas, pre-Hannukah (and all that pre-winter holiday jazz) I can already see that the annual jean shrinkage has begun. You know- that time of year when (mysteriously!) my favorite jeans come damp-dry out of the dryer a size too small. And that familiar jolly pie roll affectionately known as Doris is itching to start rolling her merry way up and out of my favorite black leggings. It's rather comical. And honestly, she makes me smile. I pat her affectionately.

Like a pet bunny.

Because the truth is I am not about to start counting calories.

Though I admit I may possibly probably definitely feel the need to cleanse my palette in the bright new year that lurks and leers around the post-holiday corner. Detox mulligatawny is surely in my future, come 2015.

If for nothing else, for the sheer love of shedding old stuck energy. A fresh start feels good.

If you do it with a big dash of humor.

And humility.

I know from experience that January will ignite the urge to clean out closets, chase those dust bunnies and walk off our collective Doris's. Or would that be Dori, for plural? We'll have ample time, come 2015, for detoxing and courting virtue with ginger laced green soup, and recipes that will encourage our lovely pinchable pie rolls to skedaddle. I promise. I'll be first second third in line with fresh whipped smoothies and cleansing soup recipes come January.

But this month? Nah.

There's a vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe to share.



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Gluten-Free Fried Zucchini Chips + Dip

Gluten-free fried zucchini chips with vegan dipping sauce.

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us. Gardens are exploding. Vegetables are shiny fresh and happy. From A to Z, produce is queen. 'Tis the season of abundance. You know where I'm going with this, right? Need I say more, Dearest Reader? Do I really have to wax poetic and effusive about the humble cucurbita pepo known as zucchini? Do you crave another verbal celebration of le fabuleux courgette?

Here's my advice. Try these amazing gluten-free fried zucchini chips.

Comfort food Italian style.


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How to Keep Chill: Karina's Best Frozen Treats

Karina's Best Dairy-Free Vegan 'Ice Cream' Recipes

The Big Chill

Our move to the Pacific Northwest has been a looping, crooked road. We've been gypsies for so long now our empty nester's walkabout feels like one epic morning-after flashback. From Cape Cod to Santa Fe, from West Hollywood to the Berkshire foothills, we've crisscrossed the country twice, renting a different space each year- for seven years. We built fires in the kiva of a snowed in adobe casita, listening to coyotes beneath the deepest, darkest, star studded sky. We've gone urban and modern in a glassy fourth floor loft, and budget friendly practical in a murky, cheap, fifties apartment with no laundry onsite. We spent a windy, salty year on Redondo Beach, and a wildly creative nine months in an 1840's New England carriage house with the biggest, brightest art studio I've ever had the pleasure to paint in (the bizarre, off kilter landlord is another story).

Along the way I've shed outdated things- furniture, frocks, and too many books, old assumptions, outgrown needs. And I got older (who has not?). My fifties are officially over. I turned the milestone of sixty here in Portland, and marked the occasion with grilled salmon, a fire pit, toasted marshmallows and dark chocolate.

There is more to the story of course (isn't there, always?). But I will leave you with recipes today, rather than exposition. Just know that magic is alive, in spite of evidence to the contrary. In spite of the sad, dark nature of things. In spite of the awful, awful news and Internet idiocy. Life is surprising. And sly. And yes. Full of magic.

When you least expect it.



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Grilled Vegetable Stack + Lemon Hummus

Smoky grilled vegetable stack with homemade lemon hummus.

Grilling Vegetarian

Beneath the hot sapphire skies of an all too brief July, backyard grills will be smokin' as savvy cooks keep the kitchen cool by stoking briquettes al fresco. Cooking and dining in the open air- even if your outdoorsy territory is merely a closet-sized urban balcony hanging off a sun-kissed wall of brick and mortar- is an enduring, classic, summer pleasure. 

The smoky sweet heat of barbeque spices, chipotle, and hickory laced sauces slathered on everything from burgers to shrimp and meaty portobellos is intoxicating- and hunger pang inducing.

So to further feed the flames of desire, I'm sharing one of my all time favorite grilling recipes.

And this one's for the gluten-free vegan crowd.

Over the weekend we grilled some of our favorite farm fresh veggies and made these rustic grilled vegetable stacks layered with a light and creamy homemade lemon hummus.

Deliciousness was the word.


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Easy Gluten-Free Green Chile Egg Bake

This puffy golden egg bake is easy (and pretty enough for brunch guests).

Roasted Green Chiles + Eggs = Fabulous

This simple egg bake recipe flirts with being a souffle. She imagines herself in an Anais Nin novel, puffy and voluptuous, trembling on a sunlit, blossom strewn table, about to be devoured by a Henry Miller style character, an unknown writer, all bluster and Brooklyn guff, with a surprising, childlike glint to his laughter.


In a Kerouac novel she imagines herself liquid, a stream of golden beats syncopated in hot opposition to the heart's rhythm, strangely, vertigo defyingly more in tune with how the stars blink- on and off- cradling her humble, unassuming beginnings in feather injected hay, spinning cool and restless past the farmhouse windows lit yellow by a single lamp on the center of a wooden kitchen table strewn with cereal coupons and finger smudged newspaper and coffee cups stained not with lipstick but with infinite tiny cracks, scenting the air with morning that rushes into this author's highway memory like a distant train whistle crooning its tug toward reckless freedom, toward shed dreams and mockingbird awakenings that mimic the familiar just to confuse you, just to keep you anchored, just to clip you from flying in your own, crazy trajectory, your one chance at what might be possible.

Then again.

Maybe she's just an egg recipe.

With attitude.


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Gluten-Free Pan Fried Catfish

Golden pan fried catfish fillet...

Gluten-free golden fried catfish fillet- tender and tasty.

 

Gluten-Free Pan Fried Catfish Recipe with Brown Rice and Baby Greens

Recipe posted by Karina Allrich May 2011.

One of my favorite simple dinners is pan fried catfish. So flavorful. The texture is lovely- flaky, and tender. Here I've made a crumb style coating with three gluten-free flours. The combo of almond meal, coconut flour and brown rice flour creates a light and delicate coating that fries to a crispy golden brown.

Ingredients:

4 (6 to 8-ounce) skinless catfish fillets
1 beaten organic free range egg
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon dried oregano or parsley
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil, for frying
Lime wedges, for serving
Fresh herb salad greens, for serving
Hot cooked brown rice, seasoned with olive oil and sea salt, for serving

Instructions:

Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper, and place it in a warm oven.

Rinse the catfish fillets briefly in cool water and pat dry.

Place the fillets in a shallow baking dish, in a single layer. Pour the beaten egg mixture over the catfish, and make sure each fillet is evenly coated on both sides. Set aside.

In separate shallow dish, whisk together the almond meal, coconut flour, brown rice flour, smoked paprika, dill, oregano, garlic, and sea salt.

Working with one fillet at a time, remove it from the egg mixture and dredge it in the gluten-free flour mixture to coat both sides. Transfer the coated fillet to a clean plate. Repeat for the remaining fillets.

Heat the light olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, carefully add two fillets to the skillet, and fry until the underside is golden and crisp, roughly 4 minutes. Using a thin, flexible spatula, gently turn the fillet over and continue cooking until it is crispy golden brown on the second side, about 3 to 4 minutes more.

Carefully transfer the cooked fillets to a parchment lined baking sheet in a warm oven. Repeat the process with remaining fillets.

Serve the catfish with a crisp, fresh herb salad and hot cooked brown rice. Garnish with fresh lime wedges and snips of fresh dill.

Cook time: 8 min for the catfish

Yield: Serves 4

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

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Gluten-Free Coconut Layer Cake

Coconut cake heaven. Gluten-free and dairy-free deliciousness.

Let Us Eat Cake

Birthdays are complicated when you reach a certain age. Oh, don't get me wrong. You're grateful for another year. I mean. You're still alive and kicking, right? Waking up to a fresh start. Starting a spanking new year on the planet with one more number under your (slightly pinching) belt. A number that grants you a whisker more authority in the world. A tad more wisdom.

If you've been paying attention to the lessons life likes to offer up as experience, and not sleepwalking, that is. Not acquiescing to the expectations of others. Or choosing safety over the challenge of the new. Or worse- finding yourself somewhere, in some situation, or relationship, strictly for the sake of momentum, chafing inside a role you don't remember signing up for.

Birthdays can be markers like that.

Defining where we've been. And how far we've come. Or not.

It was my husband's birthday this weekend. And yes, I baked a cake. And as I stirred the batter and scooped it into cake pans, I thought about the other cakes I have baked for him. The chocolate cake in our first year of marriage. Children beneath our roof. Blue balloons and candles. The newness of each others' dreams. The shine of our ideas. The belief in what was possible.

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Gluten-Free Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

Cider roasted vegetables- pair with polenta, rice or quinoa.

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving without the bird, here's a quick round-up of my favorite gluten-free vegetarian holiday recipes to inspire you.

Most of these recipes are actually vegan- a dairy-free plus for those of us gluten-free and casein-free. The few recipes garnished with cheese can be easily converted to dairy-free status by using your favorite vegan cheese.

In my kitchen, that's the way the cornbread crumbles.


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Olive Tapenade Recipe

Vegan olive spread on a slice of gluten-free French bread.

A Beautiful Taste

Summer is officially here. The longest day of the year has paused on her axis for one delightful exhale. The big fat Strawberry Moon will be illuminating the sky tonight. Mother Nature's biggest full moon show of 2013. It is a perfect moment to stop. And put down your various electronic devices (seductive and addictive and shiny as they are).

Turn your gaze skyward. To something bigger than yourself. To something mythic and eternal. Timeless and rooted in dreams.

Celebrate the kind happiness of a warm summer night.

And whip up this simple tapenade.

Perfect for topping slices of a fresh baked baguette (my easy gluten-free baguette recipe using Pamela's wheat-free bread mix is here).

This salty, tangy olive spread is also a lovely no-cook pasta sauce.

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Gluten-Free Raspberry Coconut-Almond Bars

Gluten-free almond raspberry bars with coconut are sweet temptation.

Let's Party

Let's be honest. I am here today to tempt you. To coax you. To seduce you with a (gluten-free vegan!) dessert worthy of every single luscious calorie. In full transparency, I am admitting up front these are not fat-free. Or sugar-free. These aren't diet food. They're not proper for breakfast (unless you serve them with Champagne).

And you won't be able to sigh ever-so-wistfully at parties and mention, off hand, how hard it is to eat gluten-free at family gatherings and parties. Because, Darling Reader, you'll score zero sympathy points once people sink their teeth into the luscious raspberry jam filling nestled between buttery toasted coconut-almond crunch topping and tender hazelnut cookie crust. Nope.

In fact, these decadent raspberry coconut-almond bars should come with a warning:  

{Be careful who you share these with.

Because they are sure to fall madly in love with you.}

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