Fruits

Thumbnail image for gluten-free strawberry shortcake

gluten-free strawberry shortcake

I’m in the middle of strawberry swooning season. It happens every year. We wait all year long, patiently, and then not so patiently, for real strawberries to appear at the farmstands here. From the fall until spring, we can wait. We freeze the red berries so we have some more smoothies and the occasionally decadent [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free scones

gluten-free scones

I’ve eaten a lot of bad scones. And I don’t mean gluten-free scones, although I haven’t had much success with them before this week. I mean regular gluten scones, the ones I ate before six years ago. You know the ones, right? The big-chain coffee shop scones. The ones that crumble like cheap grocery-store cake [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free blueberry clafoutis

gluten-free blueberry clafoutis

Words rattle around in my head all the time. Sometimes my brain repeats words that sound good: prestidigitation, mellifluous, voluminous. Other times, my mind worries over names that snake in there: Christianne Amanpour, Shmuley Boteach, Prunella Scales. Once in awhile, when I’m stressed, I catch my brain repeating b i c y c l e [...]

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Thumbnail image for apple-fennel slaw

apple-fennel slaw

It’s January. Are you dieting yet? You are? Sigh. Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at a coffee shop, trying to work while Lu was at her little school. I say trying to work because I’m an inveterate eavesdropper. When there’s something fascinating being said to the side of me, [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free date-walnut bars

gluten-free date-walnut bars

We can’t seem to stop buying new cookbooks. I mean, after that list of our favorite 12 of 2010, we should be done for a bit. There are plenty of meals to be made in that towering stack. However, the lure of another good cookbook is powerful. On the other hand, we can’t go broke [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free pistachio-cranberry cookies

gluten-free pistachio-cranberry cookies

As you have probably guessed, I have been baking cookies and more cookies for weeks. Nuts and flours spill on the counter. Lu is frequently reaching for a piece of dried fruit or a chocolate chip. We are making memories, she sitting on the kitchen counter, wanting to crack eggs with me, still amazed when [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free zucchini bread

gluten-free zucchini bread

We love potlucks in this house. There’s something humble and lovely about a potluck. Sure, dinner parties are great: the day of prepping and anticipation, the smells coming from the kitchen, the moment of lowering the main course onto the table and listening to everyone’s happy sighs. But the only problem with dinner parties? You [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free nectarine-blueberry buckle

gluten-free nectarine-blueberry buckle

I look forward to that first perfect peach every summer. You know the one I mean, right? That firm-fleshed peach that yields to the teeth, the one that is not entirely soft but not as hard as a toddler’s head either. The peach that is so bursting with juice that you have to stand over [...]

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happy

Lu has been talking up a storm lately. Full sentences burst out of her. Yesterday, she painted with watercolors for the first time, intent and swirling the colors. She ran into the kitchen to grab Danny’s attention. “Dada! Come see painting!” Pronouns. (“We take bath, mama.”) Articles (“See the slide?”). She’s reading words right and [...]

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two

She has started to jump, after weeks of frustration of her feet not leaving the floor. She holds onto my hands after I lift her onto the bed and she bounces, giggling, head thrown back, alive. She never stops moving, this one. After a couple of toddling months of walking, she began running, at full [...]

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breakfasts around here

Late morning, Sesame Street over, the deadlines looming but it’s not time to work yet. Breakfast time. We’ve been eating our breakfasts just after 9 around here. Lu points to the clock on the wall at 8 and says, “Street!” We cuddle on the couch together — the couch of cracker crumbs and pens between [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free cherry crumble pie

gluten-free cherry crumble pie

As I ran down the wooded trail, sunlight on my skin, my thoughts meandered toward the afternoon ahead of me. We had leftover Rainier cherries from our dinner at Dog Mountain Farm. A big bag of Bing cherries waited for me at home, a gift from Northwest Cherries, when they found we couldn’t attend the [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free English scones

gluten-free English scones

This is pretty much my favorite spot in our house. Oh, I love the feeling of our bed when Danny and I can finally fall into it together, dead tired from working and running after Lu all day. I love the sound of Lu’s giggles bouncing off the walls of the bathtub. I love the [...]

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Thumbnail image for banana oatmeal raisin bread

banana oatmeal raisin bread

Sometimes the mistakes lead to great places. Last week, when we were cooking out of C is for Cooking, I spied a recipe for pumpkin muffins. Remembering a can of pumpkin puree left over from the holidays, shoved in the back of the cupboard, I gathered all the ingredients we’d need. I love teff flour [...]

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Thumbnail image for cranberry cocktail for Thanksgiving

cranberry cocktail for Thanksgiving

You probably have cranberries in your home right now, don’t you? Lots of them, if you are anything like us. Danny made the cranberry relish this morning, a casserole dish piled high with bright red puree, with bits of white apple stained pink from standing in the same pot as those berries. Tart and mouth-puckering, [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free pie crust

gluten-free pie crust

(We’re thrilled that this recipe is being featured at Oprah.com’s roundup of holiday recipes for 2009. For more of our featured posts, visit Oprah.com today.) I love making pie. There’s no need to tell you more about this. I’ve written about pie so many times before on this site. Each year, I’ve created a pie [...]

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Thumbnail image for wild rice salad (gluten-free and vegan)

wild rice salad (gluten-free and vegan)

There’s a funny way of looking at food when you first find out you can’t eat a certain one. I started dividing food into two categories: can and can’t. I can eat roasted potatoes, Alaskan salmon, fresh quince, raspberry jam, teff porridge, and duck confit. I can’t eat bread or pasta or pizza or pie [...]

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Soul of a New Cuisine

Two autumns ago, when Danny was still working full-time as a chef, and we were still living in Seattle, I sat in a Starbucks in Madison Park, excited. Marcus Samuelsson would be there soon. His glorious cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine, had come out the year before, and we had been dog-earing pages [...]

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Thumbnail image for Friday island photos: the cider festival

Friday island photos: the cider festival

Last weekend, on the island, there was an apple cider festival. Of course, there was cider, pressed from island apples by island folks, by the glass, the jug, and the barrel. Sweet and mellow, with just a hint of tartness — the cider spoke of autumn. But the main event, in tents off the Saturday [...]

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Thumbnail image for feeding each other gluten-free birthday cake

feeding each other gluten-free birthday cake

I kind of wanted to punch someone last night. But he was on tv and punching the screen would have hurt. Let me explain. First of all, I’m exhausted. Have you ever traveled with a one-year-old? Every single movement has to be planned in advance, with contingencies in case of anything unexpected. And everything is [...]

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Thumbnail image for raspberries

raspberries

Golden and red raspberries, tumbling off the bush when our fingers touch. Our skin warm. Our hands blushing pink and red. Lovely silence. We feel lucky to have found this home. There’s a cool quiet in the middle of the afternoon. We have a spacious kitchen, with a gas stove and a bay window where [...]

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Thumbnail image for silly for strawberries

silly for strawberries

Some of you might remember that 1970s commercial for sugary cereal: “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!” That’s how we feel right now. We’re senseless for strawberries in June. I miss strawberries all year long. A sweetness far deeper than sugar could ever dream. The red juice smeared on my lips. The little grit of small [...]

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just after

(We’re thrilled that this recipe is being featured at Oprah.com’s roundup of holiday recipes for 2009. For more of our featured posts, visit Oprah.com today.) When I was in my 20s, I liked the moments before, the most. Ten minutes before a party, if I wasn’t running around trying to throw a shirt over my [...]

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Thumbnail image for lemons

lemons

Time’s funny. You know? Yes, I’m aware that’s hardly a profound sentence for how many times it has been uttered. But sometimes words fail to describe the absurd rubber-band and snap back with a boing in the eye and where the heck has all that time gone when it feels like just three minutes ago [...]

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Thumbnail image for pomegranate

pomegranate

On Christmas morning, Elliott — who is now 5 and deep in the throes of Santa believing — dispensed presents from each of the stockings to the rest of us. He staved off his protests about having to see our gifts when he really just wanted his own. (He’s a polite little boy.) Since everyone [...]

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Thumbnail image for banana cream pie, gluten-free and dairy free

banana cream pie, gluten-free and dairy free

(We’re thrilled that this recipe is being featured at Oprah.com’s roundup of holiday recipes for 2009. For more of our featured posts, visit Oprah.com today.) Pie. If I want to crack up the Chef, all I have to do is look at him straight on, and say “Pie.” He laughs, every time, his head bending [...]

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Thumbnail image for quince

quince

As much as I love food, and have spent the last few years joyfully exploring, I still find new bites each season. Quince. Before a week ago, I had never eaten fresh quince. Quince paste? Yes. The faintly sweet, wobbly jelly that most people eat with Manchego has been one of my favorite discoveries of [...]

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Thumbnail image for winning him over to oatmeal

winning him over to oatmeal

The Chef and I don’t always agree. If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you know how the Chef and I feel about each other. From the time I announced his existence on this site in June of 2006, it was quite clear I was moony and madly in love. If he had his [...]

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Thumbnail image for granola bars are for grabbing

granola bars are for grabbing

For years, my brother has made fun of my father. About string cheese. You see, my father simply grabs a stick of string cheese and takes bites. To my brother, this is ridiculous. “Why buy string cheese, then?” he queries, a little querulously. The point of string cheese is not the taste, which is bland [...]

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Thumbnail image for clafoutis! clafoutis! clafoutis!

clafoutis! clafoutis! clafoutis!

I baked something today. Ordinarily, this would be quite an ordinary statement. Something unremarkable, hardly worth remarking on. After all, I’ve been baking all my life. And after going gluten-free — aside from the first, three-month mourning period — I’ve baked more in the last three years than most of the years before it. There’s [...]

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a recipe for friendship

Take one best friend from sixth grade on, add an amazing woman who writes about food and being gluten-free. Mix vigorously during a Food Network shoot in Seattle, and deliver the delicious results to my life. Oh, and save my husband in the process. Readers of Gluten-Free Girl, you may recognize me as Nina, or [...]

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Thumbnail image for sometimes mistakes lead to the best bites

sometimes mistakes lead to the best bites

I am always inspired by the comments that accrue at the bottom of the Monday ingredients posts. When I first began this little Monday project, to show a single ingredient, in season, and ask you how you like to eat that food, I had no idea how much you might like it. Some weeks, I [...]

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Thumbnail image for red currants

red currants

This morning, I woke up early. Not too early — I’m lucky. This late in the pregnancy, I’m still sleeping through the night, without a hiccup. (Thank you, Little Bean.) Instead, this was somewhere after seven. The Chef slept, and I didn’t want to disturb him. So I tip-toed from the bedroom toward the kitchen, [...]

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Thumbnail image for watermelon

watermelon

It is finally summer here, after all. Damn, it is hot. I know. After months of wondering if the grey cloud cover would ever lift away to reveal blue sky, I have no right to complain. Last week, I felt exuberant, like a little kid released from school, hop scotching down the sidewalk. Warm air, [...]

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Thumbnail image for ripe strawberries

ripe strawberries

On Saturday afternoon, my friend Tea and I walked around the farmers’ market slowly. Even though it was towards the end of market day, the farmers all looked happy, their stands nearly empty. The sun shone on our skin. People thronged, eager to buy cherries from Yakima and the first real bunches of spinach available [...]

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Thumbnail image for simple fruit salad

simple fruit salad

I used to spend hours in the kitchen, dancing to music and creating flavors underneath my hands. I’m hoping to return to that state of being, loose and not focused on any particular goal, someday. But for now, I’m growing pretty darned tired. Little Bean arrives into this world in five weeks. That’s barely longer [...]

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Thumbnail image for cherries

cherries

The first time I read Homer’s The Odyssey, I was plagued by a confusing phrase. He referred to the waters around Ithaka as “…the wine-dark sea.” Being only 16, and never having drunk any wine, I couldn’t figure out what Homer was trying to make me see. Was it just supposed to sound funny and [...]

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Thumbnail image for rhubarb

rhubarb

The Chef grows dreamy and nostalgic when anyone mentions rhubarb. “Ohhhh, rhubarb,” he almost growls, his face softening into a smile. He grew up in a large home that everyone in the family refers to as Big Brown. (It’s painted blue now, but that hasn’t changed the name at all.) In the side yard of [...]

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Thumbnail image for bananas

bananas

This morning, about 8:45, I took this photograph of bananas at the Casbah Café in Silverlake, Los Angeles. At breakfast, I sat with my dear friend Sharon, who was born and raised (until she was 11) in Hot Springs, South Dakota, then moved to Claremont, California, went to college in Poughkeepsie, NY, lived in New [...]

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Thumbnail image for the sweet surprise of strawberries

the sweet surprise of strawberries

“Hey sweetie?” I called from the couch into the kitchen. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up. “Yes, my love,” he said as he stood in front of the coffee pot. “What day is it?” “Thursday,” he said, coming toward me with a cup. “Danm.” I reached for the warm cup he stretched toward [...]

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Thumbnail image for avocado

avocado

Look at that avocado. Really, do I need to write anything else? I heart avocados. I realize that using heart as a verb in that sentence leaves me sounding like a seventh-grade girl from Southern California. Ah well. I don’t mind. Avocados do that to me. In the backyard of the house where my family [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free holiday baking

gluten-free holiday baking

(We’re thrilled that this recipe is being featured at Oprah.com’s roundup of holiday recipes for 2009. For more of our featured posts, visit Oprah.com today.) It turns that being sick sometimes pays off. Last week, the Chef spent his only day off sitting in doctors’ offices with me. We were waiting to have my blood [...]

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Thumbnail image for a guide to working with gluten-free flours

a guide to working with gluten-free flours

When I was a kid, I had an irrational love of Tootsie Rolls. Not so much anymore. Since I went gluten-free and started cooking from scratch, eating in season, and eating whole foods instead of stuff out of boxes, I’ve lost my taste for overly sweet foods. The high fructose corn syrup just doesn’t like [...]

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summerautumn

Summer slowly seeps into autumn, creeping like a child on tip-toes. The light fades and simmers, so softly that we hardly notice the changes. Every day, a new revelation. That’s not true, actually. For me, it has always felt like summer Summer SUMMER! for three months, and then — boom — it’s fall. No warning, [...]

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Thumbnail image for an apple crisp and lemonade celebration

an apple crisp and lemonade celebration

There were so many reasons to celebrate, yesterday. On August 26th of last year, I was offered the book deal. I can’t believe, now, that I wrote an entire book in four months. And that I edited it down, rapid-fire, on sheer gumption and force of faith, in two weeks. Or that in about a [...]

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Thumbnail image for the ongoing saga of gluten-free crumble (or crisp)

the ongoing saga of gluten-free crumble (or crisp)

Elliott and I held hands as we walked back to the picnic table. This is one of my favorite places in the world: my nephew beside me, his small hand in mine, my family and the Chef waiting at the other end. Elliott and I talked about the treehouse, the bubbles he had been blowing, [...]

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Thumbnail image for the bliss of blueberries

the bliss of blueberries

Time takes care of that slumped-shouldered overwhelmed feeling. The other day, when I wrote this post, I could feel the weight lifting from my shoulders as I typed. Every sentence slipped me into ease. Reading your lovely comments helped me even more. I’m doing fine now. Writing helps. The Chef holding me helps even more. [...]

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Thumbnail image for Summer beckons.

Summer beckons.

The summer I turned sixteen, I ate cherries every day. After hours of swimming in the chlorine-blue water of our backyard swimming pool, I came inside to eat the same lunch, every day. An egg-salad sandwich, the creamy whites of fresh-boiled eggs and sunny yellow of French’s mustard, mixed together and bursting out of the [...]

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the gifts we give each other.

Every day, I feel blessed. I have my health (thanks to discovering that I have celiac disease), I have work I love to do (you are reading it here), and I have the love of my life, the most adorable, gentle man I have ever met. How I found the Chef and a book deal [...]

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the first plum of spring

The Chef and I bought our wedding rings the other day. We were meandering through the Market, making our way through the sparse crowds, pausing to gawk at the daffodils bunched in white buckets. Spring is nearly here. It’s inching toward us, ready to pounce upon our heads in sunlight-through-trees-full-of-green ease. As we passed the [...]

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