Recipe - Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Cookies

For the past couples of weeks we've been trying to eat healthier in the ol' Shomo household. I know how heavy Christmas can be for me - especially if I'm spending it in England and catching up on all my favourite foods like I am this year! So, as a consequence, I haven't been baking as much. Well, today I decided that we needed some Christmas cheer and I was going to bake - the result was Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Cookies! Bonus, they also look Christmassy with their powdered sugar coating! They're not only naturally gluten-free but also dairy free. So eat away my coeliac friends!

Recipe - Mrs Whips' Sweet Potato Casserole

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Does everyone have what they need to feed at least 5000 people? Well, you might just have to go get the ingredients to make this one last thing, because boy is it good. I first had this 3 years ago when I was at my friend's house for Thanksgiving. Caleb was on tour and so I ended up at their house with a few others who had nowhere to go. I fell so in love with this dish that I instantly stole the recipe and here it is!
Now I know people usually put all kinds of weird things on sweet potatoes during this holiday (marshmallows?) but this comes with a crumble like topping, and although it mostly tates like a dessert, it's the perfect pairing to the turkey and stuffing and potatoes. So, if you're making sweet potatoes/yams this year (and lets be honest, it's a staple) then make sure to make them this way.

*Side note, this year I actually burnt the top of mine (schoolboy error) and so it's been incredibly hard to get a good photo of the result. I myself, king of like some things a little burnt, but it definitely isn't how it's meant to be. Trust me, it's a beautiful thing to make and eat, so make sure you do!

Recipe - JSho's Chocolate Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving celebrations have already come to the Shomo household! Caleb's parents were visiting this weekend and so yesterday we decided to do the Shomo traditions whilst they were in town. And boy I'm glad we did! Thanksgiving food is always great, but mostly I get excited about the chocolate pecan pie; you've never tasted anything like it! This year I decided I was going to steal JSho's (my nickname for Caleb's mum Julie) recipe and share it with all of you lovely people. I know a lot of people love normal pecan pie, but I am often of the belief that adding chocolate to most things make things better... and especially in pie. So, don't miss out and enjoy today!

Ps. I am cheating and expecting that you'll either be buying a gluten free pie crust or have gluten free crust to roll out into a pie dish - so this doesn't include instructions on pie crust. Just let yourself cheat for once... I got mine this time from Trader Joes and it was perfect. Whole foods also offer great crusts, just check the frozen aisle!

Recipe - Chicken Chili

The days are definitely getting colder and what do we do once it gets cold? Eat warming, calorie heavy food for comfort. Well, comfort is definitely key, but that word doesn't also mean our favourites have to be bad for us too. America loves chili. It's available everywhere and on everything. I don't love chili, I have a weird thing about meat that has been 'minced' so it's a lot for me to eat "beef chili". I also don't love any type of beans either, and they're not nice to my sensitive stomach, so for this recipe I've taken a new approach. A lot of people probably won't want to call it chili, but to me, it's warm, comforting, easy to make and a healthier option to the usual suspect. You can cook it in two ways and this time, I chose to use my slow cooker, but the choice is yours!

Multiple Locations, USA

For the last 7 weeks my husband Caleb has been on tour with his band across America! So (as usual) this meant that I could go and visit him in various places to not only see him and have some fun time away but also, most importantly, find good food! When visiting on this tour, I have to admit I was quite lazy with my choices and hunting, but I did still make a couple of discoveries! I've been trying to think of how to split up this blog as it's over multiple states and cities but I just couldn't figure it out, so this is a post about a bunch of locations and an array of different places, all thrown together.  Some classic, some new finds and everything, as usual... gluten free! God bless America!

Recipe - Millionaire's Shortbread

Who doesn't love caramel? Because I sure do... and actually, so has everyone else I've ever come into contact with. And what could be better than putting it with chocolate and shortbread? Nothing. Nothing could be better than that.

A few years ago I decided I wanted to make myself some Millionaire's Shortbread because I couldn't find any that were gluten free anywhere. This style of shortbread isn't really a thing in America, so I decided I would have to start testing out recipes and introducing it to my friends and family, so they could see what they were missing out on. Fast forward a few years and now, it's what I'm known for. So, if you're looking for delicious home-made caramel sandwiched between shortbread and chocolate, then look no further!

Recipe - Pork Souvlaki

I recently went to Cyprus for a friend's wedding, where the food just blew me away. I have missed European food - especially Greek/Cypriot and it was all so glorious; even the pork! I never eat pork. Well, I eat bacon, but never buy pork in any other form, as I've never really enjoyed it...until I was in Cyprus! All of it was so delicious (probably all the salt), I came home with a giant craving to continue my mediterranean diet. And although it'll probably never be as good as the real thing, I decided to have a good try at replicating the Pork Souvlaki. And boy, did it taste good.

NYC, NY

A couple of weeks ago I had a very quick visit to New York. It intially began as a trip to see a live podcast show of All Killa No Filla (yes I love podcasts about serial killers & if you haven't listened to this, do it now), then turned into me also being a guest on a podcast (Past Your Bedtime) and then finally seeing my husband's band in Brooklyn! I love New York! 

As this was a quick trip, I decided that I would use this time to visit my favourite places and finally get to try a certain GF restaurant, that I somehow kept missing... Senza Gluten. 

I was in NY for about 36 hours, but managed to fit a lot into such a small amount of time & I already can't wait until I go back again...

Recipe - Cherbourg's S'mores Bars

In Columbus we have two GF bakeries. Two! What a treat. It's a truly great thing, especially as they both offer different styles of items to buy. If you're looking for more french-style items, as well as the usual cookies & cupcakes etc. then Cherbourg bakery is the place to be. They offer everything from cream puffs to lemon bars to zucchini cake and also a wonderful thing called a S'mores Bar.

They are sticky and chocolatey and cookie dough like and are just all round amazing. They're the first thing that anyone wants when you say you're going there, they're that good. Heaven. Then, I was recently told that the owner of Cherbourg is a legend and writes her own blog with recipes from the bakery! So, I've gone ahead and stolen the recipe, but credit where credit is due, this thing of beauty is all theirs and we are just here to enjoy it. After cooking mine, they were a bit more underdone than what they're usually like at Cherbourg, but I liked that. Caleb did too. He wanted to eat the entire dish and it was hard for me to not slowly eat it all over a few days.

If you make them like me, the dough might be a bit wetter than Cherbourg's, resulting in a softer bar. Which I think is just AOK! If you want yours a bit firmer, then just add slightly more flour if the batter is too runny/sticky for you!

So, here is the recipe for Cherbourg's S'mores Bars!

Cleveland, OH

Back in June I managed to finally book some tickets for the Kusama Infinity Mirrors exhibit! Basically, it's an art exhibit of giant boxes full of mirrors but blimey are they amazing... and beautiful. So, last week Caleb & I set off to Cleveland for the day (yes I had to buy tickets that far in advance) to check it out. And to make it fully worth my while, of course I had to find somewhere GF to eat too.

After searching online for the "best gluten free places to eat in Cleveland" I came across an article that listed around 10 places to visit. I carefully went through the menus of all of them & cross referenced them with location to the Museum of Art and after not being that impressed with most of the suggestions, there was one that stood out - Cafe Avaluan. 

Recipe - Citrus Drizzle Loaf Cake

Does anyone else love lemons? I honestly can never get enough of them. I love citrus flavour and even with my cocktails I think the sourer the better! I even sometimes like to eat lemons, but don't tell anyone that as that's probably very, very strange. So, when I saw the Gluten Free Blogger do a post about a citrus cake, I immediately saved the link to her blog & as soon as I had a chance, I baked it!

So, this is basically (pretty much exactly) her recipe, except with extra lemon-ness and converted into American measurements (because that's where I live these days). But of course, all credit goes to her & you should obviously check out her blog for amazing recipes and way better photography than I could make happen for my attempt. She is right up there with the best and basically puts me to shame - I need to put more of my recipes up! So without further ado, here is the...

Oxford, London, Reading, UK

Towards the end of August, I flew back to my homeland of England because my husband was playing Reading Festival. I grew up always going to the festival so was excited to attend it once more, see some friends and just have a weekend filled with fun. Despite having a terrible time with missing connections on the flight over & a whole problem with United (don't ask) once I'd arrived (a day late) I was determined to forget the whole travel experience & have the best time. The whole weekend was brilliant. Saw some amazing music (even got a VIP pass for N.E.R.D!) and just had an all round top notch time. It felt good to be back in the UK for a few days ( I hadn't been back since November) and it felt amazing to be able to go to the shops and see all the wonderful new (to me) products that have surfaced since I've been gone. Obviously I made a couple of stops to some of my usual restaurants too, but here's what went down on my latest trip...

 

  L-R Me, Soraya, Rosie & Rowdy.                          Pharrel doing his thing on Main Stage

Nashville, TN

For the whole of May (& a bit of June) Caleb (my husband) has been finishing off his new album in Nashville. I have travelled through Nashville before, at a show here & there but never truly spent any time there, so I was excited to spend a few days here & there to explore. The most I know about Nashville? There's a lot of murals, and terrible, terrible county music is loved here. So armed with that knowledge, I drove down to visit him for a few days. And then again a couple of weeks later. And here are the places I spent time eating at...

Austin, TX

Last week my friend Rosie from England was visiting Austin,Texas and I definitely got on a plane to join her for a few days! I've been to plenty of places all over Texas, but strangely never here so I was excited for a new city to visit and explore! Side note - you should definitely follow Rosie's lifestyle blog (is that what they're called?) it's always a great read and actually (I would guess) has way more views than this, but still worth me mentioning.

OK, on with Austin!

Firstly, I have to talk about how I found it strange that Austin wasn't particularly GF friendly. I'm not sure why, but I honestly thought everywhere I'd go there would be symbols on the menus and bakeries galore etc and there just really wasn't anything of the sort. Maybe because people likened it to hip places such as Portland I thought it might be my friend, but it seemed to not really acknowledge GF and I was very surprised by this. I obviously was still able to eat everywhere (as you'll see) it just wasn't as easy as I had imagined.

Recipe, Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Hello everyone!

I see I'm still slacking in the posting department. What can I say? I've had a couple of months of everyday living and cold weather (it's only now just beginning to warm up) and that has left me feeling a little uninspired. It was only last week that I decided I wanted to get back into baking (which I love to do) and actually made it happen. Spring is now upon us & hopefully the end of the freezing temperatures that I so hate. So, with that all said a few days ago I decided to make some chocolate cupcakes. I also made them a week prior & the cupcakes were perfectly tasty, but I miscalculated my marshmallow frosting and ended up with a bit of a runny mess. So, this time, I decided my cupcakes were delicious enough, and just changed what type of frosting I was going to top them off with. Enter salted caramel frosting. Heyooooo. Who doesn't love that? They turned out great and I've enjoyed eating three of them over the past few days (yep 3 of them whoops). Below are separate instructions for each area incase you want to search online and do your own frosting choice, or make them vanilla cupcakes instead of chocolate. It's all changeable and isn't that great? I actually halved the cupcake recipe because I didn't want to make 16 of them, as there was only me & Caleb in the house, so feel free to adapt away.

NYC, NY

Well, it's been a while! I can only apologize and mostly blame the fact that it's been winter & I don't tend to venture out much during these months. I DID go on a random rock cruise that my husband was playing called Shiprocked & I will make sure to do a post about that on here next - but other than that, I really haven't been up to much. Until my birthday month hit...