Over the course of this summer, I've been making a few extra special trips to Seattle area farmers markets with my camera in tow to create a little series of recipes based on my market finds.

If you aren't familiar with the Seattle area, we're spoiled with over 15 markets operating throughout the city. Granted some are only seasonal, but it still seems So far I've whipped together three recipes with finds from the Phinney, University District, and Ballard Farmers Markets. I'm currently writing up a recipe with some early fall finds at the Broadway Farmers Market and the Columbia City market is high on my list to try next.

Wondering where those recipes are at?

Well if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may already know, but over the summer I started as a contributor to a new to the scene food blog, My Cooking Spot. Each month, I'm sharing one Seattle area farmers market and a recipe made with my finds there. While I've still get plenty of posts to come, I thought I'd take a moment to share those recipes I've made thus far.

RecipesAdina Marguerite PeaseOctober 9, 2013Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar FreeComment

Split Pea Soup with Bacon

Split Pea Soup with Bacon www.glutenfreetravelette.com

This past winter I really haven't been into soup but now that we're deep in spring, all I seem to want is comforting soups. We've had two different soups on repeat in our food rotation; a dairy free tomato bisque and split pea soup. Up until recently, my attempts at split pea always turned out rather bland - but I've finally worked away at the recipe to get what I want. My theory is that I was missing a very key ingredient: bacon. And not just added bacon to the final soup, but cooking it in the same pot that you're soup will spend two hours simmering away in.

For a vegan version of this soup, you could easily skip the bacon all together and just cook the vegetables in 2 tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil. Adding some slices of cooked shiitake mushrooms would help pump up the flavor in somewhat similar way to the bacon.

Almond Milk

Homemade Almond Milk www.glutenfreetravelette.com

As a non-dairy milk drinker, looking at the ingredients on the cartons of almond, coconut, and rice milk at the store makes me cringe (although there are some exceptions like OMilk in Brooklyn). There are just so many ingredients, many of which I can't even pronounce or spell properly. I know they're in there to preserve the milk and occasionally I find the boxes of non-dairy milks very helpful - like on road trips or for camping. However, on a typical week at home, we easily finish a full carton of non-dairy milk between coffee, tea, and baking - so we don't really need all those preservatives.

Making my own non-dairy milk has always been appealing to me, so I put it on my life list and I'm happy to say that I now regularly make my own almond milk instead of buying it. It has way fewer ingredients and tastes so much better than the stuff that comes in the carton. My version of almond milk is unsweetened, unflavored, rich, and creamy. It makes a good substitute for half and half and the almond flavor really shines.

RecipeAdina Marguerite PeaseMarch 12, 2013Beverages, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Milk, Soy Free Comments

Meyer Lemon Curd

It's quite possible that Meyer Lemon Curd is one of my favorite things on the planet.

First of all, it's something made with Meyer Lemons - so thats a win all in itself. Second, it's creamy and tart and delicious when paired with many things. My favorite way to eat it, other than just by with a spoon, is to dip ginger cookies into it.

Since we're just getting to that magic time of year where you'll find Meyer Lemons in stores, I thought it was high time I shared my recipe for Meyer Lemon Curd with you. I'll make oodles of this throughout winter and then stock the back of my fridge with Weck Jars filled with it to get me through the rest of they year.

RecipeAdina Marguerite PeaseJanuary 21, 2013Condiments, Dairy Free, Gluten Free Comments

Cacao Spice Angel Food Cake

Phew! I didn't even think I'd make this Ratio Rally, I sadly had to miss the last one since I was out of town for three quarters of the month! This month's rally is being hosted by Caleigh of Gluten Free[k] - so make sure to stop over there and look at her delicious cake. I've also included a list of everyone else's at the very bottom of this post.

I've never made an Angel Food Cake before and frankly, I haven't had much luck making any kind of gluten free cake - they always seem to sink or shrivel up. So anyway, when I got back from all my travels I was craving bagels. My recipe leaves me with a whole bunch of extra egg whites - which I prefer not to waste. So I decided just to give an angel food cake recipe a try.

My first one came out pretty great, but it was way too sweet for me. On my second attempt, I went for a vanilla orange flavor with coconut palm sugar. It came out way too dense and with too much flavor for my liking. So on my third attempt, I went back to regular cane sugar but reduced it down to 8 oz and tried to replicate some of my favorite chocolate flavor. My final ratio ended up being 3 parts egg whites, 2 parts sugar, and 1 part flour.

Meals from the Garden: Greens & Herb Pho

Finally! I'm sharing a meal from our edible garden.

I've been meaning to share this quick weeknight meal for quite awhile now since it's been making an appearance on our kitchen table almost twice a week! And as our gorgeous winter greens have begun to fall prey to caterpillars and bolt - I figured it was high time to share.

This post falls somewhere in between a recipe and guide for a meal. The ingredients are loose depending on what looks good in the garden that night. But the basics stay the same; noodles, broth, greens, and herbs. So here's how we made our Greens & Herb Pho in early June.

Seedy Sandwich Bread

It's that time again! The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is back and this time we're bringing you bread! Karen of Cooking Gluten Free is hosting this month, so please check back on her site for a full list of all the delicious creations! I've also included a list of the other wonderful looking recipes at the end of this post.

To find a ratio that worked for me, I started with measuring the ingredients in my successful sandwich bread recipe. From there I rounded numbers and played with the amount of water, varying from 300 grams to 400 grams. A 1 part gluten free flour mix to 1 part water ratio ended up working out the best for me.

Chewy Blueberry Muffins

What do I do when I'm home alone, feeling low, with no clear idea of what I want for dinner?

I look for something to bake.

On this particular night, I came up with a number of ideas which were then thwarted by my realization that I was out of both butter and eggs. So that lead me to experiment with one of my favorite muffin recipes. Gluten Free Girl & The Chef's Whole Grain Muffin recipe is a fantastic template to experiment with, I've made everything from chocolate zucchini muffins to lemon poppy-seed. This time, I deviated a bit more and come up with something I think I'll make again and again.

These muffins are vegan and frankly, I think they taste better than any other muffin I've ever made. They've got a chewy crust and they're soft and moist on the inside. Since we're trying to adjust our household's relationship with sugar, I used coconut palm sugar and halved the amount from the original recipe. The combination of the oats, teff, and sugar make a full yummy flavor that I just love.

RecipesAdina Marguerite PeaseMay 15, 2012Baking, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan Comments

Rhubarb & Meyer Lemon Jam

Rhubarb Meyer Lemon Jam www.glutenfreetravelette.com

After yesterday's very serious post, I thought I might sweeten things up a bit.

Rhubarb and Meyer Lemons are two of my favorite foods in the world and I simply love that short time of year when their seasons overlap. We're at the tail end of seeing Meyer Lemons in stores here in Seattle - so I'm buying them up like they won't be back for another year. Rhubarb is everywhere right now, including in our edible garden.

After scoring some great Weck Jars at this great shop in the University District I thought about combining the two into some jam and it turned out fantastic. For this recipe I let it simmer and reduce down almost in half to really get some deep and delicious flavors in there. We've been eating this jam on toast, bagels, ice cream, and on the occasional spoon. I've also been planning to make some frozen yogurt with my favorite sheep milk yogurt and add a swirl of this jam.

Now, if you can't find Meyer Lemons anymore - I suppose it's worth a try with regular lemon zest or maybe combining half orange zest and half lemon zest. I'm sure that would still be tasty, but it won't have just the same POW of flavors of this specific combination.

Garlic Egg Bagels

It's that time again! The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is back and this time we're making bagels! Morri of Meals with Morri is hosting this month - so be sure to check over there for a full list of the bagel creations. I've tried to include a list at the end of this post as well.

When I think bagels, two primary types come to mind; the fluffy Noah's Bagels and the denser sprouted multigrain variety that I grew to love before realizing they were actually terrible for me.

My trials with developing a ratio for gluten free bagels began with a recipe posted on Michael Ruhlman's site and created by Bruce Ezzell. I knew from the start that I wanted to make egg bagels - so adding egg yolks was the first adjustment I made. I gave this newly egg-tastic recipe a try with the regular multigrain flour mix I use around the house and that turned out to be strike one. Multigrain just does not make the egg bagels I was going for. Next, I moved on to crafting a more mild flour blend that would let the eggs shine.

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