Gluten-Free Peach Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

It was so hard to let this cake cool before cutting into it.

Why is it when I bake a coffee cake I get all dreamy and gooey inside, like a knee-socked school girl in Latin class, riveted to the patch of peachy, fuzzy cloud against the swaying swatch of blue between the maple tree branches outside the classroom window, imagining love itself is out there, waiting, breathing, just beyond reach, ready to pounce. Like grace. When you least expect it, a gift arrives. Often in a form you don't recognize at first.

Like a plaid shirt.

And hands that juggle.

The truth is, I didn't even know juggling was on my list.

My top criteria (scrawled in gel black ink one rainy night post divorce) listed kindness, a sense of humor, artistic.

It conjured images of tempered masculinity. Intelligence. Adept at conversation. Curiosity.

Likes women (a big one).

It mentioned nothing about juggling. Or fierce devotion to coffee. Or a willingness to wash dishes. It neglected to include the seductive power of coffee cake. The sexy allure of a cinnamon dusted chin.

So imagine my surprise when on our second date (post French roast coffee and dirt bomb muffins) he grabs three apples. And juggles. While whistling. I can't remember the tune.

Because my knees turned to pudding.

And now, almost twenty years later, I hear a key in the door. And my heart is grateful. It's him. The guy in a plaid shirt.

Bearing peaches.

More gifts.

And once more, I accept.


Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Orange Creme Cupcakes

Gluten-free dairy-free orange cupcake goodness.

Sunny Sweetness with a Twist

On my To-Do List for nearly forever has been creating a gluten-free vegan recipe for my favorite birthday treat- a fresh and fragrant orange cake with orange creme frosting. Since it isn't my birthday until June (and it's just the two of us living out here in the Connecticut hills) I decided to experiment with making cupcakes instead of a layer cake. 

Orange cupcakes just sounded refreshing.

Sunny and sweet.

I had such a good time in the kitchen this week making these sweet little gems. In fact, I'll be working on more recipes for vegan cupcakes in the near future, including basic vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, carrot, perhaps, and a few other tasty flavor combos.

Now that I know how easy it is to bake delicious gluten-free vegan cupcakes, the sky's the limit.

Off to pack. 

Did I mention we're moving again?

Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Coconut Milk Vanilla Ice Cream Parfaits

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

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 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 cheerlead 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 digging into the archives to bring forth a delectable, no-cook recipe she actually DID make last night, tweaking it gently, 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.


Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Quinoa Breakfast Bars with Blueberries

Quinoa flakes make a delicious gluten-free breakfast bar.

For gluten-free folks who prefer to avoid rolled oats (even certified gluten-free oats and oatmeal), I have good news. Quinoa hot cereal flakes are enough like rolled oats that I use them in all kinds of baking recipes. From classic fruit crisps and crumbles, to chewy cookies and cinnamon laced carrot raisin cake, quinoa flakes are a tasty, nutritious alternative to gluten-free oats. 

I love the nutty, complex taste quinoa flakes bring to a Thanksgiving recipes. 

I hope you do, too.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Zucchini Brownies Recipe

Zucchini adds moisture to these fudgy gluten-free brownies.

In the thick of joy and the slow drain of heartache, I bake. I've mentioned this before. Baking is my way. I tie on my apron and rustle up my inner domestic goddess and cope with the world. Because joy tastes sweeter shared with those you love, gathered around a clatter of plates and clinking glasses and spoons licked clean. And heartache...

Well, heartache may not be soothed or tamed by a cookie or slice of cake.

But it doesn't hurt to try.

As for me, I've been reading several (new to me) books this summer. And I suppose, if you were to analyze the connecting themes, you might discern a search not only for meaning in a sticky, complicated post 9/11 world, but also for release. Release from the grip of societal expectations, collective assumptions, and the yoke of consumerism (I am, after all, post estrogen dependence; priorities do not include miracle-push-up bras, nail polish decals, waxed nether regions or upper lip injections).

I am more interested in keeping my mind agile than my thighs firm.

Hence the books I'm reading. Newest (to me) is Buddha's Brain. I'm learning about the amazing plasticity of the mind, and the neuro-scientific practice of creating new "wiring" (especially as we age) by gently training our mind to release ancient, habitual (so often, negative and critical) thought patterns (what the PhDs call neural pathways but what I like to refer to as my teeth-grinding mental squirrel in a cage wearing my grandmother's wig) and cultivate more self compassion. Which in turn makes everyone happier, apparently.

I guess if you're feeling at peace with the energy ebb and sometimes tumultuous flow of your days and nights, and baking brownies with those surplus zucchinis, and watching the magical late afternoon sunlight dappling the backs of a pair of wild turkeys guiding their brood of nine into the blackberries below the kitchen window, you can feel pretty blissed out.

Or maybe it's the chocolate talking.


Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Crisp

Fresh organic cherries. Mother Nature's ruby gems.

Cherry Baby

Summer is heating up. And so is yours truly in all her hot flashing glory. (We'll get to the cherry almond crisp recipe in a moment- but first I have to get something off my chest.)

Last night my husband was scanning channels on cable. I sat down next to him, (quickie dinner plate perched on my knee) and crunched romaine lettuce, almonds and dried cherries as he watched the end of the Shawshank Redemption. One of his favorite movies. An affection shared by many a cinephile. This is a beloved film.

Then I heard it.

A line that stung and burned so deep and hot I stopped chewing. I stopped breathing. I sat as still as the fork on my uneaten plate of salad.

The despicable, murdering bully of a prison guard is being led away by police. We hear the voice of God Morgan Freeman purr with quiet authority that rumor has it this cruel and abusive man was led away "crying like a little girl".

The ultimate put down. Not only did he cry. He cried like a girl.

Because, really, who would ever want to be caught crying like a girl? It's the ultimate in weakness. The worst thing you could say about a man. It's dependent. It's needy. It's unmanly. Inadequate. Irrational. Disgusting.

Worthy of contempt.

A flood of sneers and mocking imagery ran through my head. All the put-downs of childhood endured and encoded in the hippocampus, stashed away for safe keeping.

You throw like a girl. You run like a girl. You cry like a girl.

Bullies. Belittling. Because girls are less worthy. Less capable. Less whole.

It's a message our culture delivers every day, via media of all kinds. From raunchy punchlines about yeast infections to commercials for thigh cream, from political pundits calling single women sluts, to the latest (oops!) leaked sex tape, from a misogynist song lyric that rhymes with witch to the impossibly high platform heels women teeter in, hobbled for fashion's sake, shoes designed for prey.

I think about this and our nation's Cult of Youth as I walk and sigh at twilight, wearing Converse sneakers and photographing violet shadows with my iPhone.

How often are girls and women celebrated for something other than appearance- a pretty object to penetrate, to own, or rate on a scale of one to ten.

And after a certain age- it only gets worse.

Just look at Botox sales stats. Women fear aging with a depth of disgust unfathomable. We are buoyed on an ocean of revulsion toward aging. Why else would we fail- collectively- to tell the honest truth about plastic surgery and the freakish waxy desperation it exudes? There isn't an actress over the age of 30 who can express worry or surprise with her forehead muscles any more (well that's an exaggeration. There are, maybe... three?).

Ask yourself- how often do we get to see ourselves depicted honestly, as complicated, brave, strong, authentically sexual- never mind brilliant, sassy, dimensional - and not be reduced to mere object or caricature?

Or worse, invisible.

This keeps me up at night. This girl stuff. This aging stuff. This what-do-I-do-next stuff. My hip starts to ache and I lie in the dark and feel no closer to solving my dilemma than I did yesterday. Or the day before.

And tonight?

I am sorry to say, I am no closer to an answer.

But at least I've told something true.



Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More

Olive Tapenade Recipe

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

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.



Read more + get the recipe >>

Read More