Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Soy-free Kichen Goes on the Road, part 3

I should have posted this last week, but better late than never.

Last weekend we visited Elder Daughter at college. We booked at the Residence Inn in Richmond where we've stayed before. (Just found out that there is a Whole Foods and a newly-opened Trader Joe's just blocks from the place, woo-hoo!) This time we brought our entire dinner with us: lasagna, salad, salad dressing, and bread. Residence Inns have ovens, so we could bake the lasagna. We did have to bring an extra place setting, because there were 4 of us, and we invited a friend of Elder Daughter's to eat with us.

The lasagna was not my usual recipe, which takes 2 days to make. I used one from Epicurious, and it came out nearly as good as the old standby. In my opinion, it had slightly too much ricotta, and, like a lot of comments on the site said, it needed more sauce. I made 2 times the sauce recipe, but didn't use it all, so I think 1 1/2 times would be enough (but extra sauce can be useful.) Also, I like slices of sausage in my lasagna, and this recipe crumbles up the sausage with the ground beef. But, homemade lasagna is very rarely a bad thing (although Elder Daughter's father said he once ate one made with too many onions and cottage cheese instead of ricotta that was not worth eating). Here's Epicurious's Three-cheese Lasagna with Italian Sausage.

Oh, yes, and we left out the spinach. Spinach makes Younger Daughter gag.

The Soy-free Kitchen tries The Sweet 100

If you have been reading this blog, you may have gotten the idea that the Soy-free Kitchen is run by a gourmande--and you would be right. If you need proof, keep reading.

This list comes from Cakespy.com, which is not a cooking site, but an eating site--they review bakeries--although there are some recipes on it. The photography is wonderful and quirky. In any case, the list seems to have become a meme on several other sites, so here goes:

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten--or make them a different type color.
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.
[because I can't figure out how to cross out, I'm going to bracket]
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.
5) Optional: Post a comment here linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!
*6) My addition--I've asterisked the ones I've made myself

1. Red Velvet Cake
-- update as of 26 Dec
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
-- update as of August 2011--#2 daughter has taken to making these like a fiend
4. *Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. *Baklava
7. Black and white cookie
8. *Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
10. *Kringle
11. *Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotted cream
-- *have made the scones. had them with cream in London
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
-- I'm from New England, so I've probably had at least one of these, but can't remember
14. Halvah
--Joyva brand in the supermarket has soy, others don't
15. Macarons
16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
-- only soy-free if you make your own vanilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
18. Dixie Cup -- careful! some of these have lecithin
19.*Rice Krispie treats
-- these are soy-free if you make them with butter
20. Alfajores
21. *Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
-- alas! they have soy
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. *Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. *Nanaimo bar
--update as of 6 Dec 08
29. Baba au rhum
30. *King Cake
31. *Sachertorte
32. Pavlova
33. *Tres Leches Cake
-- the recipe from 1000 Mexican Recipes is to die for!
34. *Trifle
35. *Shoofly Pie
36. *Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. *New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon / mille-fueille
40. *Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
41. *Anzac biscuits
42. *Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie -- have soy
47. Dutch baby
48. *Boston Cream Pie
49. *Homemade chocolate chip cookies
-- see entry on Cookies for College Students
50. *Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. *Crème brûlée
57. [Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake) ]
-- soy, soy, soy. Fried in soy oil.
58. *Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
-- #2 daughter's favorite cake
59. Jelly Roll
-- I've made Buche de Noel; does this count?
60. Pop Tarts
-- contain soy oil
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
-- am I the only person in the world who doesn't like Tarte Tatin?
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. *Jell-O from a mold
65. *Black forest cake
-- one of these days I'll post my prize-winning recipe for this cake.
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
-- Ritz Crackers are made with soy oil
67. Kulfi
68. *Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. *Stollen
71. *Angel Food Cake
72. *Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
-- these are supposed to be made with lard, but often it's (soy-based) shortening
76. Pain au chocolat
77. *A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. *Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. *Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. [Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)]
-- soy, soy, soy
90. *Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. *S'mores -
-- you have to look around for soy-free grahams and chocolate, but it can be done.
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. *Joe Froggers
-- update as of 2 Nov 08
97. Sables
98. Millionaire's Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
-- the regular ones have soy oil, but you can find them without.
100. *Basbousa

Totals
--Have eaten: [60] [61] [62] [63] 64(update as of August 2011)
--Have made: [35] [36] 37 (update as of 6 Dec 08)
--Would never try: 2

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Chef Cards--a Great Idea for When You Eat Out

This morning I was reading an article on MSN.com called Food allergies: Strategies for dining out. It had a great idea in it: Chef Cards. These are cards from the Mayo Clinic, preformatted with some introductory text, which you can fill out with information on your food allergy and give to the restaurant server to give to the chef. They come four to a page; you print them, cut them out, and fill in the blanks. The text starts:

Attention Chef!
I have a severe allergy to _______________________.
A life-threatening reaction could occur if I eat this or related products, including:
(Here follow several more blanks you can fill in.)

Check it out!