Rethinking my cooking bucket list and looking forward to 2015

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! We made it through the holidays with only slight cross-contamination issues. Paul had minor reactions, but fortunately nothing too bad. One instance was completely my fault. I was so excited that he wanted to try a pickle because he usually won't touch them, that I didn't even think to look until after he ate a couple of bites whether or not it was gluten free. Sure enough, he woke up with stomach pains that night.

I managed to cook a completely gluten free Christmas dinner with grilled pork roast (started on grill and finished in oven) with a blueberry balsamic brown sugar gravy, mashed potatoes with marscapone, goat cheese, gruyere and of course butter. I roasted brussel sprouts with bacon (fresh from the pig of a co-worker of Tim's) and we had a salad.

                                     

Dessert was a chocolate trifle with chocolate pudding, GF brownies and fresh whipped cream. Then people could choose to top it with crushed heath bar or GF oreos.

                                             


I even made most of the same treats I usually do at Christmas, just gave them a gluten free spin! I used Snyder's gluten free pretzels and Hershey kisses to make a salty-sweet treat and I used the sugar cookie recipe on the back of the GF King Arthur Flour box to make sugar cookies that were a big hit!


                                                 

                                                 

My mom also helped the kids decorate gingerbread houses. I used plastic houses that you just put the frosting on and stick the candies on. Great for gluten free eating! No one really eats the gingerbread anyway :)
 




Earlier my dad and I made gluten free boerwors, which is becoming a yearly tradition :) We had it the day after Christmas for another family party with the traditional pap (kind of like polenta) and a tomato and onion sauce.

Now it is time for school vacation. I am also taking the week off work to be with the kids. Hopefully I'll get some cooking done to make the craziness of school/work weeks a little easier until February vacation. I'm also taking some time to reflect, as I usually do about my cooking bucket list of the past year and what to add for this year. I had to put my cooking bucket list last year on hold to make room for a new way of cooking, eating and feeding my family, due to my son's Celiac diagnosis. I would like to revisit some of my favorites, making them gluten free and add some new goals as we continue on this journey.

This was my 2014 list, I actually finished 4 items :

Cooking bucket list for 2014:

1. Rusks (think South African biscotti)
2. Macaroons - COMPLETED!


3. Scones - COMPLETED
                                      

4. Brussel Sprouts (I've never cooked them. My husband loves them, so I'm taking one for the team so my kids won't inherit my food prejudices :) ) - COMPLETED

                                

5. Pretzels
6. Poached Salmon
7. Beef Wellington
8. Coq au Vin
9. Khachapuri (a Georgian cheesy bread)
10. Duck (not necessarily a whole duck, we'll see how adventurous I feel)
11. Tortillas - COMPLETED! AND THEY WERE GLUTEN FREE!

                                 

12. Chilaquiles (My favorite Mexican breakfast!!) 


So for 2015, here are my gluten free goals and cooking bucket list: 

 1. Gluten free Pretzels or pretzel rolls
2. Poached Salmon (can easily be done naturally gluten free)
3. Gluten free Puff pastry
4. Gluten free Beef Wellington (need to do #3 1st!)
5. Coq au Vin (can easily be done naturally gluten free)
6. Duck (can easily be done naturally gluten free)
7. Chilaquiles (can easily be done naturally gluten free)
8. Find my own blend of GFflours that make best all purpose flour
9. Gluten free pasta from scratch
10. Gluten free gnocchi from scratch
11. Gluten free bread from scratch that is good enough for anyone to eat!
12. Gluten free pizza dough that is good enough for anyone to eat!

Well, looks like I have some cooking to do! I am also going to try as much as possible to cook one recipe from my cookbooks each week. I have many, many new gluten free cookbooks to explore and recipes in old cookbooks to make gluten free! I'll need more than a year to do that :) I will keep you all posted, probably through Facebook when I have time. I'm always here to answer questions and chat about food though! Feel free to email me at mammascooking@gmail.com or post a question on my Facebook page. Wishing you all the best in 2015!

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