White Sauce, Gravy, and Condensed Soups

I have been doing a little research on making white sauce.

It's not any harder than making gravy!

For gravy on Thanksgiving, I have used the technique set forth by
"GlutenFreeGirl," here. 

I used her proportions of
1/4 cup butter,
1/4 cup sweet rice flour, and
2 cups of turkey stock.

I don't like my gravy too light in color, so I add Gravy Master to this.
(I understand that Gravy Master is GF.)


What do you do when you need
a "can of condensed cream of mushroom soup" for a recipe?
Those certainly are not gluten free, for the most part.

This week I made a dish that called for just that. 

I did it this way:

I melted 2 Tbs of butter in a saucepan.
I stirred in 4 Tbs of rice flour.
I let it cook a while, stirring often,
until it started looking light tan in color.
(It's my understanding that this will
improve the flavor over uncooked flour.)

Then I took a 12-oz can of lowfat (2%) evaporated milk.
I -very slowly- mixed in 8-10 oz of this, stirring constantly.
(I did have a few lumps, but I smooshed them out with a spoon.
Next time I will use a wire whisk!)
I finally added 1/2 tsp of salt.
(You may decide to add more, to taste.)

My recipe called for "cream of mushroom soup."
I could have taken a can or jar of sliced mushrooms
and stirred it into the white sauce concoction, above.
Since it was all getting mixed together, anyway,
I just put it in with the rest of my ingredients. 

If you need a cheese sauce, you can stir 4 oz of shredded cheese into this mix,
along with some paprika and a pinch of dry mustard, if desired. 

If you want a thinner sauce, not the condensed soup version,
just add more liquid.

Not too difficult!
Give it a try!

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

I absolutely love using my crock pot/slow cooker.  What a marvelous invention!  Throw foods together, turn it on, and come home later to a meal all ready.  If you're able to set the table ahead of time, that's even better.

I was surprised that I have not posted this recipe earlier.  It's one of my favorites.

To make it:

Brown 1-1/4 pounds of ground beef in your skillet.

Mix it in the crock pot/slow cooker along with:

14 oz. of cole slaw mix,
28 oz. canned crushed tomatoes,
1 onion, chopped,
32 oz. gluten free beef broth,
1/4 cup brown sugar,
1 Tbs lemon juice,
1/4 cup of rice, and
1/2 tsp salt.

Cook about 8 hours on low. 
I usually start my slow cooker on high for about two hours at noon,
then I turn it down to low from 2-6 pm.  Dinner is usually around six.

Off the Handle: Garlicky Spinach and Bean Soup

This picture shows a promise of nicer weather....it was taken off the Connecticut coastline on Sheffield Island, from last summer.  It was a really beautiful place if you didn't care about the goose droppings or the vicious mosquitoes.  Just goes to show....there's usually good and bad in everything!

Last week I made a delicious soup to use up leftover beef broth.  It came out really nice.  There was nothing bad about it.  An exception to the statement above!!

Garlicky Spinach and Bean Soup

Put in a crock pot:

2 - 2 1/2 cups gluten free beef broth,
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes,
1 15.5-oz. can white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed,
6-8 cloves of garlic, run through a press, and
1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted. 

Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.

Serve topped with GF bacon bits and parmesan....
OR....if you have some of that leftover cooked chicken sausage that I discussed in my last post, cut that up and spoon the soup over it!

Off the Handle: Holiday Pea Soup with Ham

Here is a photo of the snow coming down, looking beautiful. 
It was hard to capture the flakes, but the sky looked kind of like this:

Unfortunately, all this snow has resulted in this....picturesque, but not good for the roof:

Here is what it looks like when the ice dams leak water into your home:

I wanted to post yesterday, but I was a little busy with the roof clearing operation. 
Trust me, this is an all-day affair, even with four adults working at it.
(A big THANK YOU to Katie and Andy for their help!)

The recipe for today is a nice one for after a cold and wet day of work. 
Unfortunately, I somehow never took photos when I made it after Christmas. 
(I think we are generally too excited when enjoying this soup to remember taking photos.) 

This is the last of my winter "holiday" recipes.  It's only a "holiday" recipe because that is when we tend to have a HoneyBaked Ham, specifically Christmas and Easter.  These hams are awesome!  I have never had pea soup from a HoneyBaked Ham bone that didn't get devoured quickly.  And yes....they are gluten free!

Holiday Pea Soup with Ham
Serves 8.

This takes all afternoon (4 hours or so), so plan ahead!

Rinse a 1-lb package of dried green split peas.

Put it in an 8-qt. pot.  Add 8 cups of water,
bring to a boil on the stove, let it boil a minute,
then turn off the heat, cover it, and let it sit an hour.

Do not drain....Add a ham bone from a HoneyBaked Half Ham (or your favorite ham). 
If you want, you can tie the bone in some cheesecloth to keep little bones from separating out.
Cover it again, turn the stove to low, and let it simmer an hour. 

Turn off the heat again.  Take out your ham bone and put it on a platter.  Let it cool a little.  Take a knife and pull off the meat.  Cut up the meat into small pieces.  I am pretty picky at this point, and if it's not a piece of meat I'd love to pop into my mouth then and there, then I don't use it.  I don't go for fatty pieces!

Make sure there are no little bones sitting around in your pot. 

Put the cut-up meat back into the pot.  Discard the bone and other stuff.  I usually put this into a plastic bag before putting it in the trash.  Who wants messy trash?

Add a chopped onion, a shredded carrot, and some parsley. 
You may want to add more leftover ham, if you have it. 

Turn on your stove's burner to low again and let it simmer another 2 hours. 

Taste and see how the seasonings are.  I don't believe I ever had to add anything at this point.  The saltiness/flavor from the ham is perfect!

This is one of those dishes that actually tastes even better the second day.