Cold season aproacheth

I haven't done much with this blog, have I? Sorry! (Who am I apologizing to? Does anyone even read this?) In all honestly, I'm not much of a cook and there's only so much you can write about trying not to burn the chicken while microwaving frozen vegetables.

But then I got a cold and I thought that saying something about cold remedies that won't mess with one's allergies might be a good idea.

So here it is. Tea.

Herbal tea, specifically. The Altivia and Traditional Medicinals brands, even more specifically. No added flavorings, just herbs and whatever you'd call things like licorice root and cherry bark. My own 'nuclear option' cold remedy consists of about five different herbal blends steeped in a glass of water for about fifteen minutes. I'm told it smells bad enough to kill so I don't recommend it for people with a working olfactory system. Still, there are some pretty good teas out there for colds, and they taste pretty good even without adding honey. Do recommend adding honey, though. It's great for colds. If you have allergies to any particular plants, you might want to get a brand of honey that specifies which flowers it's been made from.

Oh, and mullein tea with warm milk and honey is wonderful. Not sure how milk counts as part of an herbal remedy, and if you can't drink milk than you can leave it out, but dang if it doesn't feel good going down! And mullein is a traditional cold remedy. Kinda makes me want to head for the highway and dig up a couple plants to keep.

Gluten-free bread pudding

Specifically Irish bread pudding. It was the simplest recipe I could find.

8 slices of bread
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
4 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees.

2. Break the bread into bite size portions. Place them into a 9x9x2 inch pan

3. Beat the eggs and sugar together. Add zest and milk and pour over the bread.

4. Dot with the butter and bake until mix is set, about 30 minutes.

5. Add toppings to taste.

I used about half a cup of honey instead of sugar and goat's milk instead of regular milk. The goat's milk might explain the slight bitterness I'm tasting. Also, it doesn't quite look like the bread pudding I had in Ireland. That might have something to do with gluten-free bread being so much denser than regular bread. Not as much of the egg and milk mix can be absorbed into the bread. Still, with a little lemon juice it tastes quite good. I may use actual sugar next time, though. The honey didn't mix with the other ingredients quite as thoroughly as I'd like to hope. May also explain the odd taste when I tried it plain.

Now if I could just do something about the pale yellow color.

Pancakes can be gluten free!

No, really!

These turned out a little peculiar tasting, as I recall, but that was probably because I ran out of the sort of flour called for and had to substitute something kinda close.

1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon baking powder (be sure to get a kind that specifies that it's gluten free, I go the extra mile and get one that's aluminum free, too)
1 cup flour (rice, corn or chickpea)
extra butter for frying (you can use oil or Crisco if you prefer)

In a food processor, whirl all liquids. Slowly add baking powder and flour. Yeah, it seems weird to use a food processor, but the resulting batter is really light and poofy and saves on a lot of arm strain.

Heat pan until butter sizzles.

Pour batter until about 2 inches in diameter. When bubbles go to top turn and cook until golden brown.

I'm betting you could probably add some berries or other fruits to this if you like. I haven't tried that yet, though.