gluten-free – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

Jamie Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses March 3, 2024March 4, 2024basil, black pepper, blanched, butter, casserole, chopped, crushed tomatoes, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, garlic, gluten-free, ham, herbs and spices, inexpensive, layers, lunch, new book, olive oil, peeled, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, summer, thyme, tomatoes, twice-baked, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions, zucchini

It’s been a wet and windy winter here in California, and I’m looking forward to the spring so I can start working in my garden again. In Summer 2022, I grew zucchini and tomatoes, partially in hopes of being able to use them to cover some of the recipes in this book that featured those types of veggies. One of those recipes is this one, 13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole.

I was also able to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden for this recipe as well. If you like these types of recipes (and if you have a garden), 4-1: Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion Bake, 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, and 13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie might be worth checking out.

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 21, 2024February 19, 2024almond paste, almonds, blackberries, blueberries, cakes, chilled, dairy-free, dessert, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, fruit, fruit salad, garnish, gelatin, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, mandarin oranges, nuts, party food, springform pan, strawberries, summer, untested

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.

8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses February 20, 2024February 19, 2024beef, black pepper, brandy, butter, capers, carved, deglazed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, flambé, garnish, gluten-free, gravy, liqueur, olive oil, peppercorns, seared, sirloin, sliced, steak, untested, watercress, Worcestershire sauce

I got into making my own plant-based meats a few years ago, mostly because the options available in the markets at the time were A) expensive; B) hard to find; and C) not very good. B and C have mostly been rectified in the last few years, so I find myself buying more of that and making less of my own (proving that time is money).

However, I had at one point stocked up my freezer with a lot of the homemade stuff, so 8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak is another one of those recipes where I was using up what was left of that stash.

It’s been challenging to figure out how to tackle these meat-focused recipes when I don’t really eat it anymore, so a lot of these have ended up being more “adaptations” rather than full replications of the given recipe. There’s so many cooking travesties on social media and the internet these days–this feels like a drop in the bucket at this point.

2-1: West Coast Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 20, 2022December 20, 2022asparagus, black pepper, California, canola oil, cooked shrimp, crab, creamy, Dijon mustard, dill, dinner, dressing, easy, fairly expensive, fish, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, grated, half-and-half, horseradish, iceberg lettuce, lemons, lettuce, lobster, lunch, mayonnaise, minced, mushrooms, mussels, new book, rockfish, salads, salt, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, sliced, sour cream, tomatoes, vegetable oil, vinaigrette, vinegar, yellow mustard

A wise man once said, ” You don’t win friends with salad.” I’m not sure how many friends you’ll be winning with 2-1: West Coast Salad, but if you’re looking for something keto-friendly (we used to call that low-carb or “Atkins-friendly” back in the day, kids) and you need a break from the cookies and candies that are EVERYWHERE around this time of year, this might be the ticket.

By Western shore/West Coast, we’re referring to the western coast of the United States which includes the states of California (where I live and am from), Oregon, and Washington. The seafood is in fact different in the Pacific versus the Atlantic–you won’t find a lot of lobster here, but you will find an abundance of crab and mussels.

14-13: Berry Omelette

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 16, 2022September 15, 2022blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, breakfast, brunch, butter, dessert, easy, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, folded, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, jam/jelly/preserves, lemon peel, lunch, Madeira, meringue, omelette, powdered sugar, raspberries, sherry, soft peaks, strawberries, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

Summer is slipping away quickly, but if you can still get your hands on some fresh berries, you can give 14-13: Berry Omelette a try. Based on the ingredients and the suggestion to serve it with wine, I think this is more of a “dessert omelette” than a “breakfast omelette”, but you do you.

I suppose there’s lots of dishes on famous breakfast places’ menus that are similar to this in terms of sugar and sweetness–I’m just not much of a “sweets” person for breakfast, especially when eggs are involved. My dad goes even further–he will not eat eggs if there is jam on or near the plate, and vice versa. He would NOT have enjoyed this dish.

11-15: Grilled Salmon with Thyme

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses August 26, 2022August 26, 2022barbecue, black pepper, butter, coarse salt, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, grill pan, grilled, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, marinated, melted, minced, salmon, salt, seafood, seafood steak, summer, thyme, untested

Autumn is just around the corner, but here’s another recipe you can try before you put the grill away for the season (unless you live somewhere that you can grill all year round). 11-15: Grilled Salmon with Thyme uses salmon steaks which can be tough to locate depending on where/when you look for them, but if you are able to snag some it’s a nice change from the same old burgers and hot dogs.

Here where I live, it’s not only still 90+ degrees each day, it’s also salmon season, so I’ve been seeing it on sale a lot at our local grocery stores. Warm nights + fresh salmon on the grill = good times.

1-12: Mixed Seafood Au Gratin

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters July 29, 2022July 29, 2022appetizers, au gratin, bay scallops, bay shrimp, black pepper, broiled, butter, cheese, crab, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fish, fish bouillon, fish stock, French, gluten-free, grated, hors d'oeuvres, lobster, mounted, mussels, Parmesan, peeled, reduced, salt, sautéed, scallops, seafood, serving shells, shallots, shellfish, shrimp, untested, whipping cream, white wine

Greetings, and happy Friday! It’s been a minute, but I’ll always come back eventually–I’ve put way too much time/work/energy into this project to give up now. Today, I present to you 1-12: Mixed Seafood Au Gratin. Au gratin is not new for Simple Delicious, and neither is the use of the pictured serving shells. I finally broke down and bought some a year or two ago for 11-10: French Scallops–I’m happy they’ll get another use here.

When was the last time you heard the phrase “tantalize the taste buds”? I feel like that went out of style around the same time as soufflé humor.

15-5: Strawberries Romanoff

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 15, 2022April 14, 2022Cointreau, cold desserts, dessert, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fruit, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, grated, liqueur, marinated, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, powdered sugar, Russian, strawberries, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, zested

I’m (more than) a little reluctant to post 15-5: Strawberries Romanoff given the current state of the world, but I made it over a year ago and I need to get it out of my queue, so here you go. And yes, that’s really how long it takes me to get to these sometimes.

Strawberries are in season right now, so this is somewhat seasonally appropriate (but perhaps not politically so). I’m not sure being from the “courts of the Russian czars” is much of a selling point anymore these days (although arguably, it probably wasn’t much of one in the late 1980s-early 1990s either), but it is what it is.

You can find ways to support the people of Ukraine here. ??

11-10: French Scallops

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses January 6, 2022January 6, 2022broiled, butter, cayenne pepper, cheese, crème fraîche, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fish, fish bouillon, fish stock, French, garnish, gluten-free, Italian parsley, mushrooms, Parmesan, reduced, sautéed, scallops, seafood, serving shells, shallots, shellfish, sliced, untested, whipping cream, white wine

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2022! I’m going to start this year off with a redo–although you didn’t know that it was such. I cooked 11-10: French Scallops early last year (2021), but did such a terrible job of it that I didn’t even want to share the pictures of it with you. I’ve had it hanging out in my queue for almost a year, and it’s time to fix that–when you know better, you should do better.

I took far too many liberties with my first attempt, not realizing that this dish was somewhat specific in its design and not just “up for interpretation”. Coquilles St. Jacques (note Simply Delicious misspelled it) is a French preparation of scallops, hence their abridged title of “French Scallops”. There’s lots of versions of it out there, most somewhat similar to this one.

15-34: White Chocolate Strawberry Soufflé

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 31, 2021December 31, 2021boiled, chilled, cold desserts, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, folded, food processor, fruit, garnish, gelatin, gluten-free, granulated sugar, individual, meringue, mint, party food, purée, sliced, soufflés, stand mixer, stiff peaks, strawberries, temper, untested, vanilla chips, vanilla extract, wax paper, whipped, whipping cream, white chocolate

Happy New Years’ Eve! 2021 has not been my favorite year (probably not yours either), and so I’m not sad to see it go–in fact, we’re going to celebrate its departure with a holiday-ish dessert today: 15-34: White Chocolate Strawberry Soufflé. This soufflé is not baked, but does include meringue being folded in. I’m not sure if that makes it “not a soufflé,” but at this point, does it matter?

“Dramatic” is definitely a good way to describe this past year, so perhaps this is the perfect dessert/recipe for today. However your 2021 has been, I hope that 2022 is a safe and prosperous year for you and yours.?

Now–let’s get off the heavy stuff and into something much lighter–discussion of this “soufflé”.

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