Happy Spring! A Vernal Equinox View

I just took this photograph as the sun was setting over the western mesas. A Vernal Equinox sunset. Happy Spring everyone!

And here are my Favorite Spring Recipes for living gluten-free- to celebrate new beginnings.

How to Live Gluten-Free on a Budget: 10 Tips + 2 Recipes

Farmers' market potatoes. Gluten-free and budget friendly.

How to live gluten-free on a budget? It's a legitimate concern. I feel your pain. $6.95 for a gluten-free baking mix? Ouch.

There's a lot of chit chat lately about food budgets, food prices, and stretching a dollar on Twitter and Food Blogs. Budget talk is in the air. Eating in and cooking from scratch is a trend now. And for those of us living gluten-free, a  trend unlikely to burn out soon. 

So if- like me- you are struggling to balance your cranky budget, here are ten tips and tricks to stretch the green and keep it tasty.

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Gluten-Free Recipes for St. Patrick's Day

Colcannon with a twist.

To celebrate the wee bit of Irish in all of us, be it by blood or by spirit, I thought I might gather my gluten-free recipes inspired by Celtic tastes. Sure, Lass, that means potatoes. And cabbage, too. Salmon and cod dishes, eggs, Irish soda breads, cottage pies and spring soups. The Vernal Equinox is just around the corner. Flower beds are sprouting tiny shoots. And here in rural New Mexico, the cranes are following the river north, returning to their summer nesting grounds. The winter of 2009 will soon be a memory.

Put on some Van Morrison. Raise a glass. Sláinte-

Let's eat!

Gluten-Free Recipes for St. Patrick's Day

Breads and Muffins:

Blueberry Oat Muffins
Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread
Gypsy Soda Bread
Ryeless Rye Bread- A Gluten-Free Bread
Spotted Dog Bread

Soups:

Creamy Broccoli Soup (with coconut milk)
Creamy Celery Soup with Ryeless Rye Croutons
Detox Green Soup
Golden Potato Soup for the Sensitive Soul
Irish Potato and Cabbage Soup with Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread
Potato Leek Soup
Split Pea Soup- with Coconut Milk

Sides:

Crunchy Cabbage Coleslaw
Heirloom Potato Salad
Karina's Colcannon (pictured)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts Medley with Butter Beans and Rice
Two Potato Salad

Fish and Meat:

Baked Cod with Roasted Sweet + Sour Vegetables
Easy Lime Salmon
Mustard Roasted Vegetables and Sausage
Pork Roast with Mushrooms + Brown Sugar Apricot Sauce

Savory Pie:

Gold Potato Fritatta/Egg Pie
Irish Cottage Pie
Roasted Vegetable Cheddar Egg Quiche/Pie
Shepherd's Pie - Two Ways
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Sweets:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

 

Gluten-Free Potato Leek Soup

Creamy potato soup- no dairy needed.

Twenty-nine hours. That's how long I've been awake. I could blame the full moon, big as a gleaming white soup plate hanging in the clear desert sky last night. Or the pollen. The hostile spiky spewing of hundreds of junipers rooted round our plucky little casita. Every time I drifted toward the promise of sleep I would sneeze straight up and fumble in the dark for a Kleenex, my throat as raw as Tom Waits' vocal chords after belting forth, Make It Rain. We're talking ragged.

It ain't pretty.

So excuse me if I keep today's ramblings short and sweet. I'm hovering outside my body- nineteen inches to the left of myself. Any moment now, I might spin off with the tumbleweeds and roll down the dirt road to the highway. I might not even mind, if I end up tumbling west, rolling into the City of Angels in my sleep, snoring down Sunset Boulevard all the way to Ocean Avenue and south to Venice Beach where I live a parallel life in an alternate universe surfing at dawn. And if you see me, give me a sign. Any sign will do. As long as you dream walk the same blue wavelength.

But before I spin toward the rutted crooked highway I'll leave you with a perfect soup for spring. Stir it up when the March winds blow, and soothe your winter weary bones.

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Gluten-Free Focaccia Recipe with Garlic + Tomato

Gluten-free focaccia recipe- with tomato, herbs and garlic.

When Steve and I were on our honeymoon we ate focaccia every morning for breakfast. After a few cappuccinos, that is. Six between us. To fortify us for the walk across the piazza to the tiny bakery. After all, we were in Italy. Doing what you do in Italy. Wake up. Rub the garlic infused sleep from your eyes. Pull on your jeans. Walk to the local espresso bar. Zip. Boom. Buon giorno!

The owner of the Podere Villuzza would greet us every morning on our way out the door, wishing us a good day, For your blue moon!

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Irish Cottage Pie | Shepherd's Pie

Gluten-free shepherd's pie, Irish style cottage comfort.

I have been craving comfort food and shepherd's pie- even though it's been a warm and breezy week here by the Chama River north of Santa Fe. The promise of Spring is tugging at our sluggish winter bodies, cracking and stiff and a tad thicker than one would care to admit. We are itchy to walk- just as the junipers are shedding pollen in curtains of dirty yellow. We walked and sneezed and rubbed gritty eyes.

For this we waited all winter? I complained.

It strikes us as ironic if not downright diabolical. Mother Nature is taunting us. The coyotes are laughing on the rim of the mesa. I listen and note they are closer than usual, emboldened by our wintery hibernation. The land belongs to them now. We're simply tourists.

This doesn't bother me. I'm just here in passing, on my way home. Taking the long way- dreaming of the west coast and waves of glassy blue-green curling in to shore. I'm an ocean girl, a beachcomber. A flip-flop wearer. Not a cowgirl. I've never ridden a horse in my life. Or handled a rifle (two skills highly valued in this part of the world). The desert does not feed me. She takes from me. Sucking every last drop. If I stay here much longer I fear you will find me as brittle and sun-bleached as one of Georgia O'Keeffe's bone paintings.

I'm not quite ready to give up on the juicy part of my life.

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts Medley with Refried Butter Beans & Rice

Roasting Brussells sprouts brings out their inherent sweetness.

Happy March! We made it through. The days are stretching inch by inch, noticeably longer. And just in the nick of time for this winter weary gluten-free goddess and her serotonin deprived little brain. Let's do a collective happy dance, Steve Martin style. We're sneaking up on a big turning point in the year. You know the one- when daylight equals darkness. The Spring Equinox will be here before you know it (March 20, 2009, to be exact). And then? You know what then. Luxurious long days, evening walks warmed by the sun. Sprouting going on everywhere you look. Buds bursting. A brand new season. Fresh. Life.

After the winter we've had- with all the Wall Street inspired doom and gloom infused with a shaken-not-stirred cocktail of fear and hope? I choose hope. This shouldn't surprise you. It's in my nature. New paradigms and inventive beginnings? Bring it on. 

I love learning a new skill set.

So in the spirit of celebrating the whole sprouting and greening thing that is waiting for us right around the corner (if the wheel of the year could sport a corner, that is), the impending balance of the coming Vernal Equinox, I offer you a budget-friendly vegan meal that is fresh and earthy, green and nutty, savory and sweet. You know, that whole yin yang Real Food Daily approach to eating (how cool is Anne Gentry?). Food to feed you, body and soul, as the March winds blow and scatter the remnants of winter into memory.

I know some of you don't believe me when I tell you Brussels sprouts can be tender and sweet. You think these tiny cabbages are mushy and smelly and not worth consideration. To those of you in that particular camp, I must ask. Have you ever roasted Brussels sprouts? Because here's the thing. When you roast these little green babies they get all caramelized and nutty and they take on a whole new demeanor. And the best part? Roasting vegetables makes for an easy dinner. It's almost a night off from cooking. Well. Okay, maybe not a night off, but. 

Pretty darn simple.

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