Gluten-free Chicago

May 9, 2018August 19, 2020 Red Rose & Honey3 Comments

It has been a LONG time since I posted here! Not sure when life got so busy, but it has totally derailed my blogging schedule. I am wrapping up an online course this week and looking forward to having some extra free time {anyone else work full-time and go to school? I feel ya!}. Last month, I surprised my cousin and maid of honor in Chicago to meet her new, sweet baby girl! This was my first trip to Chicago. It was a short weekend, but luckily I was able to find some good gluten-free eats!

Disclaimer: I am participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. All opinions/recommendations are my own.

Summer House Santa Monica

We went to Summer House for breakfast on Saturday morning. It is such a cute restaurant! The decor is light, airy and as the name suggests, makes you feel like you stepped into the summer season. It’s a pretty big restaurant, but from what I could tell, it fills up quickly. You should definitely make a reservation beforehand. We made ours the night before and there were only a few openings left for 8:30am.

Summer House offers a separate gluten-free menu. I ordered the three egg breakfast without crispy hashbrowns and a cappuccino. I was very impressed when the waitress told me that the kitchen has a separate toaster for gluten-free bread. In the almost 6 years I have been gluten-free, this was the first time I have been to a restaurant that has a gluten-free toaster. I also loved that my toast had an “allergy stick.” This extra little step always makes me feel like the kitchen and servers are very aware of their customers. We all loved our breakfast and I bought a huge gluten-free chocolate chip cookie at the bakery counter on our way out.

City Winery Chicago Riverwalk

We spent Saturday afternoon on Michigan Avenue. When we made it over to the Chicago River, we stopped at City Winery to warm up and relax at bit. This wine bar is right on the river with indoor and outdoor seating. It was a pretty chilly day, but fortunately indoor/tented area was heated. This restaurant does not have exclusively gluten-free options. However, if you are gluten-sensitive, you could opt for the meat and cheese platter, skipping the bread. We shared a bottle of Caves São João Rosé Bruto {Sparkling Rosé} from Portugal. The bartender told us that City Winery is the only place outside of Portugal to serve this wine. I’m not a huge fan of rosé, but I thought this one was great. Gluten-free or not, I definitely think this restaurant is an awesome place to stop at if you’re in Chicago; especially if the weather is nice! I am looking forward to going back.

Homeslice

Saturday we stayed in and ordered pizza from my cousin’s go-to place – Homeslice! Gluten-free pizza is hit or miss, but I am always looking for the perfect GF crust. There are only a few places near my house in NY that actually have great GF pizza. Sometimes GF pizza can be soggy, so I usually play it safe and don’t order many toppings. I ordered the Jr. Cheese pizza from Homeslice. It was so good! The crust was thick and crisp. Not soggy at all. I would definitely recommend this place if you’re in the area. After enjoying our pizza, we rented The Greatest Showman {affiliate link} and stayed in for the night. I am not a huge fan of musical movies, but I really enjoyed this one!

The Vig

After walking around the Lincoln Park Zoo, we took a long walk over to The Vig for lunch before I headed home. To our surprise, Sunday at The Vig was quite the brunch party. If you’re looking for a quiet brunch spot, skip this place. If you’re looking for good 90s jams from a live DJ with a side of dance party, go here. Definitely a great location for birthdays, bachelor or bachelorette parties.

The Vig offers a decent amount of gluten-free options on their menu. I ordered the Chorizo Skillet and was not disappointed! This personal sized skillet came with potatoes, crumbled chorizo and a fried egg. I definitely want to try to re-create this dish in my own kitchen! It had tons of flavor and was just the right size. Our waitress was really friendly and provided us with food and drink recommendations too.

Classic Marinara Sauce for Two!

March 19, 2018August 19, 2020 Red Rose & Honey1 Comment

Hi blog friends! Thanks for stopping by again. Today, I want to share a quick and simple recipe that I think everyone should know how to make — Marinara Sauce! This sauce can be served with pasta, meatballs, on pizza, eggplant parm, chicken parm and so much more. I use this recipe as a base to all red sauces I make too. Like many of the dishes I make, this one starts with olive oil, garlic and onions. I really believe that if you always have these three ingredients, you can whip up a tasty meal with whatever else you have in your kitchen.

Tea Kettle / Stand Mixer / Spoon Rest (similar)/ Pot/ Mason Jar (similar)/ Backsplash

I first started making my own sauce my junior year of college. I could often be found making a pot of sauce and baked ziti before my 8am class. Although I didn’t do very much meal prep in college, I did find it easy to make a head some dinner here and there so I could heat them up quickly after late classes. A girls’ gotta eat, right?

One of my first blogs ever was about my homemade sauce {check it out here} and reading that blog now is kind of funny. In that post I mention that oregano was my least favorite dried seasoning, but now I would say that I love oregano and don’t care for parsley. Sometimes I even leave parsley out. I also find it really funny that I mentioned I was making Mike {who is now my husband} strawberry shortcakes with homemade whip cream. He was the pickiest eater in college! I totally forgot that there was a time he ‘hated’ strawberries until I re-read that blog. Boy have times changed!

Now that I’ve taken you on a trip down memory lane, let’s get back to my current recipe! Although I haven’t changed much since I first started making sauce there is one change that I think was for the better. I almost always add very finely chopped or grated carrots. Carrots really cut down on the acidity of red sauce. I am a bit prone to heartburn and acid reflux. I have found that when I add carrots to my sauce it is much less likely upset my stomach. If you’re in the same boat, I definitely suggest you give carrots a try!

Classic Marinara Sauce

Servings: 2-4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2-3 small garlic cloves, finely minced
2-3 tbsp carrot, finely grated
14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes, unsalted*
8oz can tomato sauce, unsalted*
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt (more to taste)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper
*Can substitute 1 28oz can of unsalted tomato sauce/puree

Directions

-Saute onions in olive oil over medium/low heat until they’re fragrant and translucent, about 5-7 minutes
-Add carrots and saute for another 5-7 minutes
-Add garlic and sautee for about 3 minutes
-Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and seasonings
-Once sauce starts to bubble, bring down to a simmer for 30 minutes or up to two hours.

Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread

March 14, 2018March 7, 2021 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

St. Patrick’s Day is a few days away and I am beyond excited to share my gluten-free Irish soda bread recipe. If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I have been testing out this recipe for weeks. I set a goal for myself to share this recipe in time for St. Paddy’s day. After many failed attempts, I was definitely getting discouraged. I swear I was close to tears this past Sunday when I finally got this recipe right. I am so proud of it. I called my mom right away with a mouth full of bread.

Irish Soda Bread is supposed to an easy, throw together recipe. Its made of a few simple ingredients that were considered common in Irish households when this bread first came to be. I also learned that traditional Irish soda bread is plain – no raisins! Now that I got my recipe down pat, I do think it is pretty simple, but I am not sure how common it is to find buttermilk in someone’s fridge.

I haven’t had Irish soda bread in about 7 years, so I wasn’t sure what it should taste like. I started off with Ina Garten’s Irish Soda Bread recipe {substituting all purpose flour for GF flour} and it did not turn out well. Ina is amazing, so I am sure her recipe turns out great with regular all-purpose flour. I also tried a recipe that I received from someone who came to my bridal shower. I am all for experimenting when I am cooking, but doing the same with baking was a big challenge. This was also my first attempt ever at Irish soda bread.

My first few attempts lead to very dense bread that hardly resembled Irish soda bread. I wasn’t sure if it was due to my oven {which is gas}, the flour or my technique. I first noticed improvements when I chilled the butter, buttermilk and egg. Next, I saw improvement the longer I chilled the dough before baking. But the biggest improvement came from my choice of flours. King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour was a game changer! I highly recommend using this flour for my recipe. It totally changed the texture of my bread.

I had been using Bob’s Redmill 1:1 flour {which has worked great in other recipes} but I found that it was what cause my bread to be dense and not bake evenly. I changed up the baking temperature and bake time, but it never seemed to bake correctly. Regardless of the flour this bread bakes with a lot of cracks, so I didn’t find it necessary to score the dough with an “x” before baking it {I tried that too}.

If you try my recipe, I would love to know! Please leave a comment below or on my Instagram @redroseandhoney.

Disclaimer: I am participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. All opinions/recommendations are my own.

Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread

Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients

1 cup butter milk (very cold)
1 egg (very cold)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed (very cold)
2 cups gluten-free flour blend
1/8 cup coconut sugar
5/8 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

– Dice butter into small cubes (about 1/4 inch) and place in a small bowl.
– Beat egg in buttermilk with a fork.
– Place in butter and buttermilk mixture in the freezer for about 10 minutes to chill while you prepare dry ingredients. Do not let it freeze!
– In a stand mixer combine dry ingredients on low speed, adding raisins last.
– Slowly added buttermilk mixture and butter on low speed. Combine well, but don’t over mix. Dough should be sticky.
– Turn dough out onto floured surface (flour your hands too), lightly kneading dough to form a ball. Do not score with “x”
– Chill dough in fridge for at least 1 hour.
– Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
– Once oven is ready, place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in oven.
– Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees then turn heat down to 350, baking for another 30 minutes.
– Test bread with toothpick. Once it comes out clean, allow bread to cool slightly then transfer to cooling rack. Allow bread to cool for at least an hour before cutting.
– Serve plain, with powdered sugar or with Irish butter.