Cinnamon Apple Tacos

 Cinnamon Apple Tacos

Quick & easy - for when you don't have time to make a full apple pie crust.

Apple season is approaching and this recipe is great for when you just don't have time to make a pie crust or you just want to try something different with apples.  You can use your favorite apples, but Granny Smith apples are the traditional apple pie apples because they are tart & firm.  I use gala apples. 

Filling

1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Corn starch
2 Apples peeled & diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 cup water


To make the filling, heat the butter over medium heat & add the diced apples.  Cook for a few minutes until apples begin to get soft.  Then add the sugar, cinnamon, corn starch, and water. 
Cook until the syrup is thick and bubbly.  Then spoon the cinnamon apples into prepared taco shells.  

I use Ceylon cinnamon, but any ground cinnamon will do.  I also use vanilla sugar.  I'm not sure this is sold in stores, but I make my own with super easy this recipe.  The better the ingredients you use, the better your results will be.

Taco Shell

Vegetable oil (enough to cover about a 1/4 inch of a pan)
About 8 small corn tortillas
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


To prepare the taco shells, heat some vegetable oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat.  In a bowl, mix the sugar & cinnamon & set aside.

Once the oil is heated, fold the tortilla shell so only half of the shell in in the oil by holding the other half with metal tongs.  Be very careful.  The oil is really hot & may splash.  

Fry until golden brown and puffy.  Then flip it over & fry the other side until even.  Carefully shake off excess oil and sprinkle it with the sugar & cinnamon mixture.  Rest it between the cups of an upside down cupcake pan to hold its shape until cooled & ready to use.  Repeat for as many apple tacos as you would like.

Makes about 8 cinnamon apple tacos.

Ten Penny

There are limited gluten free choices here, but I'm a sucker for a good filet.  As an appetizer, I'm a sucker for crab dip. It looked like the salmon could be prepared gluten free, too, if you're into that sort of thing.

The crab dip usually comes with soft pretzels to dip in it.  The server told me she didn't know what to bring me as a substitute, so I suggested celery.  She told me they didn't have celery.  That was funny because there was celery on the veggie platter that our group ordered.  After the crab dip was delivered, I grabbed some celery off our veggie platter & dug in.

It was served in a tiny cast iron pan.  The cheese was crispy with maximum stretch.  I love a crispy cheese right out from under the broiler.  The flavor had a tiny kick, but mostly cheesy crab.  I don't like things too spicy, so this was perfect for me.  It was big enough to share with a friend, but I didn't share.  I actually took half home for lunch the next day.

I chose the filet mignon medium rare with no steak sauce for my main course.  I don't care for steak sauce to begin with, but I also didn't trust it.  The steak was cooked perfectly.  My only complaint was the pepper "crust" it had.  It seamed like it was over seasoned with pepper.  You can see half cracked peppercorns in the picture.  And perhaps they meant to crust it with pepper, but maybe it should have been a finer grind or around the edges instead of on the top & bottom.

I believe that too much pepper is what bad cooks use to cover up their mistakes.  This steak would have been ten times better if the dry seasoning was much less.  Not to say the steak was bad, because it wasn't, just that it could have been better if I could taste the steak more and less of the peppercorns.


https://www.tenpennypgh.com/

Ten Penny
960 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 318-8000

The Porch at Siena

 

I've actually been here a few times recently.  This past time was later in the evening.  I felt like someone forgot to dim the lights & the atmosphere would have been a bit better if the lighting was a bit lower.  Well, at least I could see what I was eating.  

They are willing to accommodate groups.  So if you are looking for a place to have twelve to twenty people and have some gluten free options, you may want to look into this place.

The gluten free menu & specials menu are just pieces of paper with items printed out on it and hand cut with scissors crocked.  I wasn't the only person there asking for a gluten free menu last time I went because my server had to retrieve it from another table for me to look at.  I feel like maybe you should do something a little more presentable to attract the gluten free community, but at least menu presentation is no indicator of food quality.

Pictured above, I ordered the steak sandwich without the bread with an onion balsamic relish.  The onions had just the right amount of sweetness and were a great accompaniment to the steak.  The steak had a nice flavor, but there were a good amount of tough gristle parts that, if on a sandwich would have been overlooked, but since I was eating it without, it was very noticeable.  They do not offer gluten free bread here.  I feel like they could really step up their game if they catered to gluten free needs more.  Regardless, they do a good job of not cross contaminating the stuff they can do gluten free.  

I couldn't have the fries that normally come as a side, so they made me a little side salad.

They make a fabulous crab dip that you can get celery to dip in it.  It's cheesy and creamy with just the right amount of crab.  

Over the summer, I had the chicken.  It was really good, but now on the winter menu, I'm told they changed their chicken and it cannot be gluten free.  Hopefully in the summer I can come back & get gluten free chicken again.  It was good.

This time, I ordered the fig and goat cheese salad.  The figs were a sweet addition to the bed of spring mix, radicchio, almonds, and goat cheese.  I added grilled chicken to the salad, as I felt it needed a protein.   The chicken had a decent flavor.  I've had juicier grilled chicken, but it wasn't dried out either.  The salad was large enough to be an entree. I definitely picked out the good stuff & still had a bowl of lettuce left over.  It was enough to fill me up.

All in all, the food was tasty and I didn't get sick, so in my book that's a win! Thank you to The Porch at Siena, I'll be back soon.

Siena at St. Clair

120 Siena Drive
Upper St. Clair, PA 15241

412-833-5385

Chocolate Covered Angel Food Cake

Mix the flour, salt, xanthan gum, powdered sugar, in a bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl let egg white sit for a half hour until they come to room temperature.  Add cream of tartar and beat with a stand mixer until mixture looks foamy. 

Beat in vanilla sugar a little at a time; add vanilla paste & almond extract.  Continue to beat until meringue is stiff & glossy.  Do not over under beat.



Fold in the powdered sugar mixture 1/4 cup at a time until fully incorporated. 

Spoon into a spring form pan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350.  After the top is golden brown, remove from oven.  Take a knife around the edges of the cake, separating it from the sides of the pan and unlatch the pan.  Let cool completely. 







After cooling, slice cake.  Melt wafers according to package, about 30 seconds in the microwave, then stir.  Dip slice into the melted chocolate and use a spoon to cover completely.   Let chocolate harden on a sheet of wax paper.  Drizzle white chocolate as a decoration.


 




Ingredients
10 egg whites
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup gluten free flour mix
1 1/2 tea cream of tartar
1  tea vanilla paste
1 tea almond extract
1 tea xanthan gum
1/4 tea salt
 1 cup vanilla sugar
Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
Ghirardelli white chocolate melting wafers (Optional)

Seasons 52

Seasons 52

I like to add a travel review every once in a while, just in case you Pittsburghers are traveling!  So if you are in the Columbia, MD area, a consistent gluten free restaurant is Seasons 52.  The atmosphere is classy.  There is usually someone playing piano & singing.  This may be a good thing, or a bad one, but it is interesting to say the least.  This is a chain restaurant, so it is consistent.  They have a gluten free menu, and the things I've ordered have come out gluten free. But the down side is, the service sucks.  The wait staff is slow & inattentive.  I asked the hostess to get me a gluten free menu when she seated us, but she never returned.  We waited a while for a server to introduce herself to us, which is annoying when you are hungry. The trade off is the food is good and consistent.

In a past visit, I order the corn and bacon chowder.  It was really good.  This trip, I was leaning for something a little bit lighter.  I ordered the sesame grilled salmon salad with jicama, lemon grass sauce, mango, and toasted sesame dressing.  The salad was fresh.  I hate when I'm served a salad with wilted or browning lettuce.  This lettuce was green. 

The salad was sweet.  The mango & jicama made the salad sweet and the sesame dressing was like pouring honey over it.  The salmon toned the sweetness down with a salty salmon flavor.  I was a bit skeptical about the salmon; it came out looking not so gluten free, but it was fine.  I double checked with the server when he delivered it and he confirmed it did say gluten free in the kitchen.

I enjoyed the salad, but I felt like the bowl was stuffed with greens, which mostly went to waste.  If you need to fill up on greens, this is the salad for you.  I, however, eat all the good stuff out of it & left a bunch of greens.

I didn't think I saved room for dessert.  In the beginning of the meal, I had already decided on cherry creme brulee.  At the end of the meal, I didn't think I had it in me to to eat it.  Until the dessert tray came out.  Tiniest desserts ever!  The creme brulee was in a double shot glass.  Well, I guess I could eat two more spoonfuls.  

It was delicious, but small.  Sad to say, dessert was over to quickly!!

 My second choice would have been the filet Mignon.  Here's a glimpse of what that looks like from another member of my party.

 

10300 Little Patuxent Parkway

Columbia, MD 21044

(410) 715-1152

Mindful Brewing

Mindful brewing

This is a cool spot, if you can get a parking spot. The inside is open. The atmosphere is trendy. There are bars downstairs and upstairs with an outdoor deck upstairs.  It was too cold for the patio the night in February I was there, even with the cozy fire pit lit.  I'm a sucker for fire pits, but not tonight. I'll have to come back when it gets warmer. 

The beer selection was enormous, but I didn't see any gluten free beers on tap. That's alright, it's hard to find a good gluten free beer.  They are a bottle shop, too, so there might have been some in the case, but I didn't look hard enough. I stick to the wine anyways.  There were wines on tap. I sat down at the bar and ordered a Chardonnay. 

The Chardonnay was fruity, light and not oaked, just the way I like it.  I noticed that they had a gluten free pizza on the menu and I had a craving for pizza.  They also had gluten free buns for the burgers, which was nice.  My second choice, though, would have been the salmon salad.  

I ordered the wild mushroom gluten free pizza because it boasted of oyster and shiitake mushrooms, a garlic purée, and four kinds of cheese. I love a cheesy pizza and oyster mushrooms are great.  I'm pretty sure I didn't get what I ordered.  

I know I shouldn't a gluten free pizza at a restaurant because I'm pretty sure they all use the same flat bread like frozen pizza crust, but somehow I thought with the right toppings, my pizza craving would be satisfied. 

What came out of the kitchen was two small pizzas with very minimal toppings.  I was told that you get two gluten free ones because the crust was smaller. But why wasn't I told that when I was ordering.  That might have swayed my decision. 

I'd be fine with a small pizza if there was actually something on it.  Where was the four cheeses? Where was the garlic? And the mushrooms were all button mushrooms! This didn't satisfy my craving for pizza at all. I should have ordered the salmon salad. I should have made my own doughy gluten free pizza at home.  In fact, the next day I did, any finally satisfied my pizza craving with my own two tiny pizzas.  Now this is what a tiny pizza should look like.  Someone, please hire me to work in a small gluten free corner of your kitchen so I can bake fluffy deep dish pizza crusts for you to serve to your clients!  My recipe is amazing.

I didn't get sick right away, so that was a plus.  But as the next day progressed, I became sicker & sicker. And I only ate food, other than Mindfuls'S pizza, that I made in my 100 percent gluten free kitchen, so what does that lead you to believe? 

The place was interesting enough that I might go back, but I'm not ordering the pizza again. I hear Dominos has a decent gluten free pizza. Maybe next time I should try that.

3759 Library Rd

Pittsburgh, PA 15234

Sunny Bridge Farms Natural Foods & Cafe

Sunny Bridge Farms Natural Foods & Cafe

As you can probably tell, I love to eat out.  But a passion of mine is also cooking.  You guessed it, it’s all gluten free.  One of the recurring issues at restaurants is the same at home.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell what ingredients are gluten free.  At least at home, I don’t have to worry about cross contamination, as long as I check out my ingredients before I buy them.  This usually consists of a lot of googling.  Sometimes it’s still unclear without contacting the manufacturer or finding someone who has.  With that being said, I found a great place in McMurray that carries a lot of gluten free options.  They are well labeled products to weed out any confusion.  It’s Sunny Bridge Farms Natural Food & Cafe. 


Now I like to cook... A lot!  And a good portion of my meals are naturally gluten free, like scallops, shrimp, and steak.  Sometimes I crave the things that would normally have gluten in them, like pizza, lasagna, and bread.

Sunny Bridge Farms is a health foods store with a cafe.  I haven’t eaten at the cafe because when I was there, they were closing soon, and I don’t like to order food at the end of someone’s shift.  I guess that’s the once restaurant worker in me.  I did find a great selection of ingredients.  I found my favorite gluten free flour mix, Better Batter.  It’s a little bit expensive, but it makes the best pasta.  I made wonderful noodles for my homemade chicken noodle soup.  My mom couldn’t even tell that they were gluten free.  I’ve made great ravioli’s and pierogie out of this mix, too. 

Another great ingredient I found was vanilla powder.  Instead of using an alcohol based vanilla in your baked goods, you can use this powder.  The most annoying thing I found was not knowing what the alcohol was derived from.  Is it gluten free or not?  Most don’t tell you.  Now you have a better option.  I haven't tried it in ice cream yet, but the next time I make homemade ice cream, I'm using this vanilla.

There was so many more things I wanted to try, but I just ran out of time & money.  Gluten free surely isn’t cheap, but with it becoming more mainstream, the price is finally starting to come down.

Sunny Bridge farms has a rewards program that is free to sign up for. Check them out if you love to cook or just need specialty health food items.

http://sunnybridgenaturalfoods.com/

130 Gallery Dr
McMurray, PA 15317
724-942-5800

Dish Osteria and Bar

Dish Osteria

I love this little gem of a place.  I've been here a few times.  It's tucked on the corner of 17th and Sarah Street in the Historic South Side district of Pittsburgh.  It's service is superb.  They will modify a lot of the dishes to be gluten free.  The people are friendly, but most of all, the food is unique and always delicious.  One thing I love about this restaurant is the evolution of the menu.  It is always changing, yet some elements remain constant.

The restaurant is a small establishment focused on Italian dishes with accents of Sicilian and Mediterranean flavors.   There's pasta, seafood, poultry and more.  The pasta is not gluten free, but plenty of other dishes can be made gluten free.  Just ask. 

This time I ordered the cuddlefish.  I've never had cuddlefish before, but I knew this was the place to try it.

It was salty, it was savory.  It was interesting.  I can't say I've ever had anything like it.  And I liked it.

I also had a gluten free dessert here.  The Panna Cotta was so delicious I wish I ordered two!  It is a vanilla bean custard with berries.  I was so excited about this gluten free dessert after seeing it it at the table next to me, that I ate it before I could snap a picture.  That is totally not like me.  I love taking photos of food.


412-390-2012
128 South 17th Street,
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

http://www.dishosteria.com