Cheddar Cheese Fondue

I have a few recipes that my kids ask for over and over, this is one of them!  We love cheese fondue.  Not just any fondue, this fondue.  It's made with cheddar and kids like this flavor much better than the traditional swiss.  I serve both when I host parties and oft times the adults like this one better as well.  I think the mild flavor served with fresh bread is always a hit with any age group.

I thought that this would be something that I would not be able to enjoy once I went on a gluten-free diet.  Thankfully it works great with a GF flour blend and I make my flatbread.  All of my guests love the bread and can't believe it is gluten-free.

Cheddar Cheese Fondue

2 C. milk...I use whole milk.

1 T. Worcestershire Sauce

2 tsp.  dry mustard

1 clove of minced garlic

3 T. flour (I use GF flour)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 T. water

6 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

**I use 3 cups of medium cheddar and 3 cups of sharp cheddar.  I have also substituted some of the cheddar for Swiss cheese.  Taste the fondue and make sure that you can "taste" the cheese, if not , add a little bit more cheese.  Cheese has different flavors and some are stronger than others.

1.  Combine the first four ingredients until just starting to boil; add the flour. 

2.  Mix baking soda with 1 T. water and add to flour/milk mixture. Cook and stir until thickened.

3.  Add all of the cheese at once.  Turn heat down and stir until well combined.  

 To reheat, either use the microwave or a saucepan on the stove.  Be careful not to burn it on the stove. 

 4.  Serve with apples and/or bread.

NOTE:  The baking soda blends the fondue so that it is smooth.  If you leave it out, it may look grainy and separate.

The recipe can be found here.

Written by Sherron Watson

Easy Guacamole

Gluten-Free Easily requested some yummy recipes with very few ingredients, this was the recipe I shared with her.  I have checked out the other recipes and they look awesome!  Go check them out.  You can find my contribution to her blog here.  I have also shared this recipe with my friend,  Chef in Disguise and her blog a few months back.

It was one year ago this week that my family and I did something CRAZY!  We sold all of our belongings, rented out our home and bought a travel trailer.  Destination unknown.....We set off towards Texas because my Hubster (that's what I call him) had some work options.  We landed in Texas for 6 months.  Texas is quite large and so we explored every detail...Gulf of Mexico, Austin, Dallas, East Texas and we drove through the west side.  During our travels we were introduced to lots of TEX-MEX and it was HOT, HOT, HOT!

We learned to eat a lot of foods that were not cooked.  Even with air conditioning, it was unbearable to heat up the trailer.  Our go-to food soon became fruits, salads, and guacamole.  We love avocados.  this is a recipe that I just recently made for our family.  It does not matter how much I make, it never lasts more than a few hours in our home.  ENJOY!

Guacamole

4-6 ripe Avocados
1/2 bunch of Cilantro
1/2 red onion, diced
1 tsp. fresh Lime Juice
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper
Salt to taste

Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed.  Using a spoon, remove avocado and add to large mixing bowl. Dice red onion.  Add onion, lime juice, garlic powder, pepper, and salt.  I use 2 butter knives and cut the mixture in a criss-cross pattern.  We like chunky guacamole.  Continue until the consistency is to your preference.   I tend to have to add more salt to mine.   Serve with chips, on hamburgers or with salads.

Written by Sherron Watson

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter has been a favorite of mine for years.  My friend, Debbie, used to make these peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting that were so divine.  The recipe made a cookie sheet full and I was usually the one who ate most of them.  When I found out I could not eat wheat, I was so sad. Yet, my waistline was jumping for joy.  I have not made the recipe using a GF flour yet to see if it would even taste and bake the same...BUT, I will one of these days.

Today I was in the mood for something with peanut butter.  I found this recipe on cooks.com several years ago and we have not looked back.   I like to take this recipe to parties and serve our guests in our home.  Everyone loves the flavor and the texture is perfect. 


My original thought was how does this work...no flour and only 4 ingredients.  I have to say it's super easy and can easily be made by a kid-let with adult supervision.   I have to tell you though, that the organic peanut butter DOES NOT work.  I tried this today and the dough was terribly dry and grainy.  So, I did what any good wife would do, I sent my hubby to the store to buy some normal peanut butter and they turned out great.  I posted a picture of the two so you can see the difference.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup of peanut butter. I used Jiffy.
1 cup of sugar.
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg.

1.  Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Stir with a fork until well blended.  I use a cookie scoop to make the cookies into balls (I also like them to all be the same size).  I take a fork dipped in sugar and add the criss-cross on top.

2.  Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes.  They should be golden brown.  I also line my cookie sheet with parchment paper so they will remove easier.  Let cookies cool on a cookie rack.

3.  The recipes makes about 20-25 small cookies (2 inches).  It works great for our family of 5.

Zucchini Puff Casserole

UPDATE 2020: We still eat this recipe at least once a month in the summer and sometimes in the winter. We love it!

It's summer and I can guarantee you that we will make this recipe at least 6-8 times before the zucchini surplus is over.  I found this recipe years ago in a cookbook.  I wish  I could remember the book, but all I know is the cover was a red and white check.  Any ideas readers?  LOL  

Everyone knows my love for cheese.  What I love about this recipe is it's easy, yummy and has the BEST cheese topping.  I wanted to post this recipe next week but I just found a blog hop on Julie's Eats and Treats and I want to participate.  I am here late Saturday night frantically writing up the post and recipe.  It's crazy how the foodie in me can get CRAZY excited about these little things in life.  But, they do make me happy...LOL

My oldest daughter absolutely loves this recipe.  It is her favorite.  I usually make 2 large pans and we eat it for every meal.  I have never tried the topping on any other veggie but I bet it would be just as yummy on any squash that you have in your garden or get from a friend.  ENJOY!

 Zucchini Cheddar Puff

2 lb. zucchini or yellow squash (sliced 1/4 inch thick) 7 cups

1 c. dairy sour cream

2 egg yolk, beaten

2 T. all-purpose flour (GF flour blends work well too)

1/2 tsp. onion salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1.5 c. shredded Cheddar

3 egg white

4 T. seasoned bread crumbs (I use GF bread crumbs)

2 tsp. butter

1.  In a medium saucepan cook squash, covered in a small amount of water for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well and spread evenly into a 9X13 pan.


 2.  In a bowl combine sour cream, egg yolk, flour, onion, salt, and pepper. Stir in cheese. 


3.  In a bowl beat egg whites until fluffy stiff peaks form. Fold into sour cream mixture. Spoon onto squash. Mix bread crumbs and butter together and sprinkle over the dish. 

4.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTES:  I like a lot of the "puff" on my zucchini, I have made the recipe 1.5 times and it works well.  This recipe heats very well in the microwave the next day.

Written by Sherron Watson

Veggie Melts

2014 UPDATE:  THIS RECIPE IS HAVING NEW PICTURES OF THE SANDWICH TAKEN TO UPDATE THE BLOG.  THANKS!

Vegetables play a large role in our dinners.  Trying to come up with veggie foods that my kids will eat is challenging at times.  We eat a lot of melons, fruit salads, green salads, and sauteed veggies.  We like to eat these with fresh bread, quinoa, rice or homemade GF noodles.

This treat is something that my Mother-n-law use to make when we first got married.  I never forgot the flavor of the cauliflower mixed with the other veggies.  I have added different things in the past and this alters the original just a bit, but not much.  The other thing I do to try and keep it fresh is to change the dressing that I use.  Tonight I used a Caesar dressing.  In the past, I have used plain mayonnaise or Ranch.

The recipe is great as a normal sandwich too.  Especially if you live in a hot region and don't want to cook.

The bread that you see in the pictures is my recipe that can be found here .


Veggie Melts

1 head of Cauliflower, diced small
3 large carrots, sliced thin
3 stalks of celery, sliced thin
1/2 onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of salad dressing or mayo

Bread of your choice
Cheese of your choice


1. Dice all of the veggies into small pieces. Steam them in the microwave using a microwaveable bowl until they are firm but not crunchy.  Definitely not mushy.

2.  In a bowl add the salt, pepper and dressing or mayo.  Add the veggies when they are steamed to your liking.  Stir to blend.

3.  Slice the bread in half or use regular sliced bread, take some olive oil and brush on one side.  I broil this until lightly brown, add the veggies and broil until bubbling or lightly toasted.  Remove from the oven and add the grated cheese.  It should melt from the heat of the veggies.

The broiling is fast, so keep an eye on your oven and sandwiches.  ENJOY

I have also added zucchini to this.  My thought is the more veggies I get in the kids, the better. LOL

Written by Sherron Watson

Cast Iron Breakfast with Potatoes, Bacon and Cheese

There are so many things I love in my kitchen: rolling pins, whisks, graters, measuring cups and the list goes on and on.  So it is hard for me to pick just a few because they all play such pivotal roles in my kitchen.  My cast iron is treasured.  I love cooking with it.  It reminds me of using a "kitchen tool" that has been used for many, many years.  I feel a connection to all of the cooks from my past...Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers and on and on.

I will buy the worst looking cast iron at garage sales and flea markets and bring it home and restore it to it's natural beauty.  I will give it a beautiful black patina.  I give each of them the egg test.  If I can make an egg in it and not have it stick, then I have done my job.  This dish is the ultimate egg test because it combines eggs, cheese, potatoes and bacon.  

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I read an article that gave the easiest and simplest way to re-season your cast iron.  I used to slather it with Crisco and let it season in the oven for an hour and cool.  This took forever, heated up my house and did not always work the first time.  The new way is much easier.  They have you do it on the stove top.  I heat my skillet up, grab some tongs and a napkin, dip my napkin in the Crisco and melt it all over the inside of the pan, all while on the stove top.  I do this about 4 times and it's done.  My last two pans passed the fried egg test the first time.  

Skillet Breakfast with Potatoes, Bacon, and Cheese

The large skillet would feed 4-5 adults 

4-5 baked potatoes (a great way to use up leftovers)

1/2 sliced onion

1/2 sliced bell pepper (optional)

salt/pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 pound of Bacon..cooked and diced

2 cups of cheddar cheese 

6 eggs for the large skillet 

1/2 cup of cream or milk

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and put skillets in the oven.  BEWARE, they will get very hot!

2.  Saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic for 3 minutes in butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add eggs and milk to a small bowl and whisked together.

4.  Using a thick hot pad, remove skillet from oven and coat with butter. Layer your buttered skillet in this order:

Potatoes

Bacon

Onion and bell pepper

cheese

eggs/milk

5.  Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 400-degree oven.  The eggs should be puffy yet firm when touched.  See the picture below.  Serve immediately.  

Before...

...and after.

I think my family liked it!

I love how you can see the individual ingredients that create a wonderful flavor when eaten together.

Written by Sherron Watson

Maryland Blue Crab Cakes

I love crab.  With this said, it makes sense that I would come up with a crab cake recipe having just moved to Maryland.  The Blue Crabs are amazing.  They don't taste like any other crab I have tasted.  The crab comes in a whole slew of sizes.  They range from small to extra large.  The price for a dozen small can be about $40  and this is a lot of money to pay for long hours of cracking and digging...I tried it and, personally, I was fine buying the crab already "picked" fresh the morning of.

Everyone here has their "way" of getting the meat and will happily teach you the "right" way to do it.  At the restaurant we visited, I had two different people instruct me on how to remove the meat.  There was no thought to each of them about touching my food...I laughed about that for days.  They just grabbed a crab, cracked it open, dug the meat out and handed it to me to eat...OKAY then.  I love it here, and the blue crabs and people help make this place wonderful.

I visited a local seafood supplier and we started chatting about a gluten-free recipe for crab cakes. He mentioned they did not have much luck with the cakes staying together when cooking them.  I had a challenge...create a crab cake that stayed together when baked and tasted great.

I chose three different methods: crackers, bread, and almond flour.  I have to say that they each tasted really good, but I did have my favorite: crackers.  I loved the texture and flavor of the almond flour, but they did not look like a crab cake.  So, I used them to make the crab cake sandwich.  The crab cakes made with the bread were very delicate.  They were good, but I wanted something I did not have to worry about and baby sit.  I will share with you all three and then you can choose which one you would like to try.  I used one pound of fresh Maryland Blue Crab and this made about 60 small crab cakes.  I made my small so that they would not fall apart.  I can tell you that the cracker recipe will not fall apart no matter what size you make them.  LOL

You can see the size of the bread cubes I used and the size of the cracker pieces I added to my mixes.

This is how I tested this recipe. I made them all at the same size.  Little did I know that I created enough sauce for  a lot more crab cakes than I made..LOL  We learn as we go sometimes.

All of the crab cakes I tested by baking and frying them both.  I tried them flattened and in balls.  This is a huge debate in Maryland...flat or balls.  I liked them both, other than the fried, flat crab cakes were crispy on the outer edges and soft in the middle.  I like this texture combination.

I used the same sauce for all three recipes.  I will give that once and then you can add the filler of your choice.  ENJOY

Sauce:

This will make enough to be used with 1 pound of crab (3 cups).  If you don't have that much crab, then change measurements accordingly. I would also add the sauce a little bit at a time until all of the crab and filling are covered and able to form into a ball.  I know some people like theirs a little bit drier than others.

1 tsp. lemon
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce   (Lea & Perrins, in the US, its gluten-free)
1 T. prepared mustard.   I used Grey Poupon
1 cup of mayo
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp Bay seasoning. I used this sparingly, it's quite salty and I think develop a taste for this in time.
1 egg
1/4 tsp. onion salt
salt to taste
pepper to taste


Mix all of the above ingredients in a small bowl.  Add this to your selected bread/cracker/almond mix.

Cracker Mix ( My favorite and the easiest to handle)

1 sandwich-size baggie full of crackers.  I used gluten-free crackers from two brands: Glutino and Schar
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup green onion, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
1 cup of crab pieces, I used large lumps because I wanted them to show up in the pictures, you can use smaller lumps too..they are a bit cheaper.  Do not use artificial crab (this is not gluten-free), plus the flavor is not the same.

Break crackers up inside of baggie.  I did not smash my crackers, I wanted pieces.  Chop all of your vegetables.  I did not saute my veggies, I used them raw.  But if you would like to do this it should not make a difference in flavor but it will in texture.  I like a little bit of crunch in my crab cake.

Combine crackers, veggies and 1 cup of sauce (remember sauce above makes enough for 3X the recipe listed above). Using a piece of parchment paper inside a cookie sheet, shape your crab cakes into balls.

This is the bread mix, shaped into balls.

Bake:  preheat oven to 350.  Place cookie sheet in oven.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  The larger the crab cake the longer you will need to bake them.  The middle should be warm.

The crab cakes in the back are the almond meal mix and the ones in the front are the cracker mix.

Fry:  using a frying pan with 2 T. of olive oil, fry the balls on one side as a ball, then flip the crab cake and gently flatten the cake.  No need to go crazy and make a pancake, you still want some depth to the cake.  Each side should be golden brown.

Cooking the bread mix.  I fry the bottom first, flip, then flatten lightly.

Bread Mix ( Equally good, but a bit more sensitive to fry)

1.5 cups of cubed bread.  I used my gluten-free bread recipe here.
1/4 cup green onion, diced
1/4 cup of celery, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced.  You can also shred your carrots, this makes the crab cake easier to handle.
1 cup of crab pieces, I used large lumps because I wanted them to show up in the pictures, you can use smaller lumps too..they are a bit cheaper.  Do not use artificial crab (this is not gluten-free), plus the flavor is not the same.

Combine all the above ingredients, add 1 cup of sauce.  When I formed my balls using the bread mix, I had to get my hands dirty.  I squeezed the mix together quite hard to form the ball, the sauce dripped on to the cutting board.  The balls formed nicely.

I would not bake these.

Fry: using a frying pan with 2 T. of olive oil, fry the balls on one side as a ball, then flip the crab cake and gently flatten the cake.  No need to go crazy and make a pancake, you still want some depth to the cake.  Each side should be golden brown.

Almond Meal Mix ( These taste awesome, but does not look like a traditional crab cake.  This is gluten-free.)

1 cup of almond meal
1/4 cup of green onion, diced
1/4 cup of celery, diced
1 cup of crab pieces, I used large lumps because I wanted them to show up in the pictures, you can use smaller lumps too..they are a bit cheaper.  Do not use artificial crab (this is not gluten-free), plus the flavor is not the same.

Combine all of the ingredients and add 1 cup of sauce.  This will look like a bread or cake batter.  I used a cookie scoop and baked them in the oven on a cookie sheet. Baked at 350 for 15 minutes or until done all the way through.  Watch your oven, they can easily be overcooked.  I also fried a few but they still needed to be baked on the inside...I only wanted one step to cook these.  If you want to fry them and then bake, go ahead.

Written by Sherron Watson