Remembering One of Our Own, Elle! Elle's Favorite Bean Dip #ElleAPalooza

January 28th, the food blogosphere lost one of it's own. Elle of Elle's New England Kitchen suddenly passed away leaving her wonderful family and many friends both online and in her life offline shocked, and devastated.

Friends and foodies on Facebook are celebrating Elle's life this weekend by choosing a recipe from Elle's food blog (www.ellesnewenglandkitchen.com) and blogging about it. We're using the hastag #ElleAPalooza on all social media to remember her.

Friends of Elle are also working on an auction where funds will go directly to her family, please follow along on her Facebook remembrance page to learn more.

I met Elle probably a year after I started blogging back in 2007, I believe it was on the Foodie Blogroll site. She was always visiting and commenting on my blog posts with such friendliness. We followed each other on Facebook and she was always there to lend support and reply back to anyone in need. Her witty posts made us all laugh.

I was just on a new-to-me blog the other day and they had a google friend connect gadget in their sidebar, and who's little pink haired icon did I see? Elle's! 

Elle had recently alerted her facebook fans of a great site and company for pet ID tags. She loves her pets, we all knew, so of course I checked into it since we recently adopted a rescue doggy. Winks' tag arrived soon before Elle passed and I posted a "Thank you" to her with Winks' photo. She was, as always, polite to reply back. Now I'll forever remember Elle when I think about his dog tag. 

The recipe I chose to make from Elle's blog is actually one of two I want to share about right now. This Bean Dip and her Mocha Toffee Brownie Chunk Ice Cream. I'll make that (gluten free) soon, I promise!

everything's in the pot!

In her post she says this is her most favorite bean dip and would even eat it from the pot at the stove, lol. Of course I had to try it! It is delicious! I love bean dip and corn chips. I made this for Superbowl (WHAT? We're not football fans really, but Broncos are who MR. roots for, he was born there and it was his mom's fave team, but during the season you won't find us watching a game, MR. watched Nascar). Anyways, I served this up with some nachos and we all sat on the couch to watch the commercials game. I loved how the adobo (chipotle) flavored this, I actually used less and it was still great. It's very smooth and dippable.

I freaking love this Bean Dip 
Makes about 4 cups 

 1 (16 oz) can refried beans
 1 cup shredded cheese, I use a Mexican blend
 1/2 cup chopped green onions
 1/4 tsp adobo powder (I used some chipotle sauce)
 1 jar (8 oz.) taco sauce
 1 can (4 oz.) diced green chilies
 dash of garlic powder (I used chopped garlic)
 Corn chips for dipping

 Mix all the ingredients, but not the corn chips, in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring often, until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted. Keep warm. Serve with corn chips. So simple! And if you want more heat, go ahead and add it.

 enjoy,

Gluten Free Fried Chicken

You know when you see something or talk about something and you get that craving for it...yeah fried chicken happened to me. I saw a friend chicken show on tv, then we were talking about it at work. I haven't made or eaten it in ages (well except for these chicken strips) so I decided to look up a gluten free recipe. That's when I found this Thai inspired recipe for fried chicken. Yes, fish sauce and ginger in fried chicken! Don't let the ingredients throw you off though, you don't even really taste them and it wasn't real spicy, just delicious! All my family knew was how delicious the chicken was, nice and juicy, tender and of course they didn't miss the heavy breaded coating. The rice flour blend was a perfect coating, they loved that it was so crispy. I think I'll keep this recipe for a later use (we try not to eat a lot of fried foods).

You'll have to excuse the lighting for my photos and cell phone pics. 

Gluten Free Fried Chicken
adapted from Hey, That Tastes Good

8-10 chicken pieces, skin on
oil for frying
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 C. fish sauce
1-2 TBL hot sauce
1 TBL fresh ginger, grated
1/2 C. rice flour
1/2 C. sweet rice flour
1/2 tsp cayenne powder

In a large bowl, mix together garlic, pepper, salt, fish sauce, hot sauce, and ginger. Add the chicken into the bowl, toss to coat, and let rest in the fridge for half an hour (or longer, I did mine all day). Heat 3/4" of oil over medium heat. Mix the rice flours and cayenne powder together. Take chicken pieces out of marinade and dredge in flour mixture. Fry in batches, a few minutes per side, until crisp and browned. If your meat isn't cooked (cut into a piece, if the juice doesn't run clear then keep cooking. Or, meat should be around 160 degrees), place on a cookie sheet and bake 350' 10-15 minutes until all the meat is cooked. (I kept mine in the hot oven to let it cook more)

enjoy,

Black Pepper Beef

I saw this on pinterest recently and I have to admit I had second thoughts about it since my family are not pepper liking fans. I love it though, so I was going to make it anyways, but with less pepper on theirs. Well, I did use less than the 2 tsp in the recipe and added more to my plate, but guess what? They LOVED this dish so much that when I came home for lunch one day, the leftovers were picked over and all the beef was gone! I used our favorite cut of beef, a tri tip roast cut up and it was so tender. I made this using gluten free ingredients which are easily adaptable. 

Black Pepper Beef 
slightly adapted from Marc Matsumoto

2 teaspoons (or less) fresh coarse ground black pepper
1 lb tender cut beef, cut into 1/2" cubes (I used Tri Tip)
2 tablespoons gluten free oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
2 teaspoons potato starch
2 teaspoons Tamari sauce (GF soy sauce)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 small green bell peppers, cut into 1/2" squares
1 onion, cut into 1/2" squares

Put the beef into a bowl and add 3/4 of the black pepper in with it along with the oyster sauce, Shaoxing, potato starch, Tamari sauce and sesame oil. Mix thoroughly and let this marinate for at least 15 minutes. Heat a large skillet over high heat until hot. Add the oil, and then immediately add the beef, leaving any marinade in the bowl for later. Fry one side until browned, and then use a hard spatula to stir-fry until the outside of the beef is cooked and browned. Add the garlic, bell peppers, and onions, and continue stir-frying. Add the remaining marinade and stir-fry until the onions are cooked. Transfer immediately to a plate and garnish with the remaining black pepper. We served this over Jasmine rice.

 enjoy,