Gluten-Free Shepherd's Pie

Recipe Title: Gluten-Free Shepherd's Pie
Recipe Link: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/03/irish-cottage-pie-recipe.html
Status: Approved!
Rating: 9/10

Jen's Notes: This recipe was pretty simple to make, but a bit time consuming. That seems to be an ongoing theme lately. Fortunately, I decided to make this one ahead of time so I only had to pop it in the oven the day I wanted to serve it.

One tip I would give is to get the potatoes started right away. Peeled and diced, they took about 45 minutes to cook in boiling water. If you want to save a little time, skip the peeling but make sure you wash the skins thoroughly.

While the potatoes are cooking, I would recommend doing a full prep. You've got quite a few things to get chopped up, and you don't want anything to burn while you're chopping the next round of ingredients. You're going to be pretty busy stirring things, so just go ahead and get the leeks, garlic and carrots chopped up before you start the meat. Never chopped up a leek before? It's pretty simple - just think of it as a giant green onion - slice the white part and throw out the green part. I would recommend that you take a second to break up the leek slices before you throw them on the meat. Otherwise, you end up with giant chunks of leek. Also, make sure you wash the leeks very thoroughly. If you've ever seen Alton Brown talk about leeks, then you already know what I'm going to say. Because leeks grow up out of the ground in layers, there WILL be dirt between the layers. If you want to save a few bucks (cause leeks aren't cheap), you could probably substitute green onions or regular white onions. I didn't honestly notice much of a difference in the taste, so I'll probably try that next time. If you are going to sub white onions, I would suggest using about 1 1/2 - 2 whole chopped onions.

Other than that, this recipe is pretty straightforward. I loved the taste, but I knocked it one point because hubby felt the need to put ketchup on it. However, he still liked it and said we can add it to the "make again" list. My picky little brother also joined us for dinner that night, and he scarfed it down with no ketchup at all.

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Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Title: Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Link: Quiche Filling and Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Status: Tested and heartily approved

Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: The hubby really loved this one (quote: "This is the first thing you've made that I actually liked since we started this whole gluten-free thing"). Seriously, I was trying to ask him how it was but he was too busy shovelling it into his mouth to answer. And even better, it was really easy.

First, the pie crust. I picked up the Pamela's mix at the store, and made it exactly according to the recipe (with the exception of using a food processor to mix the dough). Be sure to note that this recipe makes TWO pie crusts, so if you only need one, just half the recipe. The dough is much more likely to rip than a regular pie crust dough, but don't stress too much if it rips. It's a little easier to repair rips and tears with this crust than normal crust. I was a little concerned about making a from-scratch pie crust on a weeknight, but it only took about 15 minutes, including rolling out the dough.

The filling was pretty low-stress too. I decided to add some broccoli to the recipe, so I just sauteed about 1 cup or so of chopped frozen broccoli at the same time that I sauteed the onions. Then just dump all the ingredients into a bowl, mix and pour into the pie crust. I should also note that instead of using eggs as called for in the main recipe, I used a 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters. If you have egg allergies, you can probably use the Ener-G egg replacement (though I don't know how that works).

One more note - if you've never bought cubed ham before and don't know where to find it, check the regular meat section of your supermarket, in with the ground beef, chicken, etc. NOT with the deli meat. The variety I bought was 95% lean, so this was still a pretty healthy meal.

The cook time for my quiche ended up being about 10 minutes longer than the quiche recipe said. I checked it at 40 minutes and the top wasn't browned yet so I kicked up the temp to 375 and cooked for another ten minutes. Again, this may very well be my oven's fault (too cheap to go buy an oven thermometer to find out).

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Start to Finish: 1 hour, 20 minutes