gluten- and dairy-free cornbread

I gotta be honest with you--this is not your grandma's cornbread. If you need it gluten- and dairy-free, it just can't be. But as a substitute, it's not bad! I like mine with chili.

Jamie Oliver has a good recipe that I finagle a tiny bit. Here's my riff on his version.

You'll need:

• 1.5 cups gluten-free baking mix (including salt and baking powder)
• 1.5 cups cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups milk (I use organic soy)
• 6 tablespoons grapeseed (or other neutral-flavored) oil

Do this:

Grease an 8 x 8 glass baking dish, mix ingredients together, and pour into the dish. Bake at 180 C for about 23 minutes. The cornbread will turn a bit brown (or fox-colored as they say in Japan) and will be firm in the middle. This is great as muffins too! 

Call me crazy, but I love this leftover, heated up again, and spread with homemade (unsweetened!) peanut butter. 

sausage, bean, and veg soup: enjoying the end-of-summer produce

I have to eat as much zucchini as I can while it's still in the stores this season! (And for many years, we couldn't get it here in Japan at all.)

Along with this summery soup (is that an oxymoron?), I made these delicious savoury gluten- and dairy-free goat-cheese herb muffins (though I use sheep-milk feta now since Costco doesn't carry the goat cheese anymore). 

For the soup, you'll need:

• zucchini
• carrots
• onions (I had purple ones on hand)
• garlic cloves (use a bunch!)
• sweet yellow pepper
• green beans
• mushrooms
• 2 cans of (drained) kidney beans
• sausages, sliced
• bay leaves
• dried mixed herbs
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• chicken broth

Do this:

Simmer up and serve with love.