Gluten Free Croutons

I've been away for far too long. Life has been pretty busy and hectic but it's time to try to start posting again and bringing back my love of food. I can't guarantee I'll update as much as I'd like, but I will do my best to record my journey with food as I go about my day to day life.

In the time I've been away, I've been busier with work and have also been diagnosed with Celiac's Disease. This means I have had to go gluten free. I'm still adjusting and learning and, well, it has been a bit frustrating most of the time. I'm still finding my way and have been obsessing and learning and freaking out and stressing and dealing - sometimes all at the same time! But I feel like I may finally be settling into this new life so I hope to be able to continue this blog but add in these new adventures in food. My main focus of this blog will still be to celebrate all foods, but I'll throw some specifically gluten free things in every now and then.

Along this new journey, I've had to reinvent some foods that I haven't been able to easily find or, to be honest, just taste awful. A lot of the meals and creations I have previously made are already naturally gluten free, but some things require a little creativity. And, in certain cases, some store-bought items...

No Knead Crusty Bread

I wish I could remember where I found this bread. I tweaked it slightly but found the original recipe in a random surfing session and thought it sounded too easy to be good. I was wrong.

Strawberry Bread

I love trying new things in the kitchen. There's just something so exciting about tasting a new food or creating something that you haven't made before.

I never used to be much of a baker, but I've found myself pushing my own culinary limits lately and writing recipes that I would have never even thought about writing. Whenever I would bake a cake or whip up some muffins, I always used recipes in cookbooks or ones I found online. I was always too nervous to write my own since baking is such a precise science. But like most other things in life, a little practice and hard work will usually yield great results. Since I started this whole blog thing, I've tried out a few baked items here and there and I can honestly say that I've gotten better with each one.

Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

Years ago, I decided it was time to create my own cornbread recipe. I tried so many versions by other people but I just couldn't find one that I liked. I wanted more cornmeal flavor and none of them were up to par. It seemed like all the ones I've made before were just too floury and didn't even deserve the cornbread name!

Tropical Banana Muffins

I've had the idea for some tropical-inspired muffins in my head for a bit and I finally wrote a recipe last week. Two versions later, I had the best-tasting banana muffins with a hint of tropical flare.

Rosemary Grape Foccacia with Sea Salt

I recently tried my hand at homemade foccacia bread. A friend gave me a recipe years ago but I was reluctant to have a go at it because I had this preconceived notion that it would be too difficult to make. Boy, was I wrong. Making foccacia bread turned out to be much easier than I ever imagined! It takes a little time to complete the final recipe, but in terms of actual steps involved, they are really simple.