The Literary Cooks

I am a 25 year-old woman with an English degree, a newly acquired JD, and a gorgeous gas stove. I read romance novels, play D&D and video games, and develop gluten free recipes that taste like the real deal when I'm not overwhelmed with work.

[theliterarycooks]

Blueberry Muffins

Do you ever just know you’ve made something divine? Because I made blueberry muffins during this wild blizzard we’re having, and when I tell you the clouds parted and celestial light shone down upon the muffin tin sitting atop my counter this morning, it’s no joke. In general, I don’t like to post recipes to this blog unless they reach a certain standard (the primary reason for my inconsistency in posting recipes). These knock it out of the park, imho.

You literally would never know they’re gluten free. And I know, I know: everybody says that. But trust me. You could mix in any fruit, and I have no doubt these would work. If I had been thinking about it, I might have been inclined to mix some lemon zest into this batch along with the blueberries.

Hm... Thoughts for next time...

Ingredients

1/2 cup of softened butter

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 cups of cup4cup or your all purpose gf flour of choice

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1 1/2 cups of blueberries, washed and patted dry

turbinado sugar to top

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Cream butter and sugar until light.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Add 1 cup of blueberries.

Crush remaining 1/2 cup of blueberries and add to wet mix.

Add dry mix and buttermilk alternatively until completely folded in.

Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with liners and spoon in batter. Sprinkle plenty of turbinado sugar over top.

Bake 30-35 minutes.

Note: these will need to be stored in an airtight container/ziplock overnight to keep their moisture. If you do happen to leave them out, they’ll be quite dry the next day. However, you can fix that by wetting a paper towel, wrapping your muffin up, and microwaving for 10 or so seconds.

I hope you enjoy the muffins!

[theliterarycooks]

Look at my Babyyyyy

So my best friend convinced me to start playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it really is kind of my only creative outlet right now-- anyway, I’ve been drawing the NPCs for my PC’s background and it is SO FUN! I missed drawing a lot. His character design is kind of an amalgamation of many other creatives’ character designs, and I haven’t quite figured out the physics of drawing horns yet, but I’m very pleased overall. 

His name is Andros and I love him <3

[theliterarycooks]

For the ragu recipe do you not mince the garlic? Does the garlic just go in peeled and whole?

Great question! The recipe works perfectly well as you’ve said with the cloves of garlic going in whole (in fact, I actually use pre-peeled garlic from my grocery store, and I just throw in a handful). For some reason though, I throw in some whole, some rough chopped, and some grated. Do I know if it really makes a difference? Nope. I guess I just like to cover my bases!

[theliterarycooks]

Beef Short Rib Ragu

One of the first things my family started eating when my sister was diagnosed with celiac was pasta. We started out with quinoa pasta, but found that it tasted a little too much like corn. Then we moved onto Tinkyada, a rice-based pasta, and all was well.

Lately, though, we’ve been pretty in love with Jovial pasta. I think it doesn’t get as mushy as Tinkyada tends to. Jovial has some pretty unique shapes too-- like farfalle! I just tried the tagliatelle a few days ago and I’m in love; it comes in cute little nests. Just three of the pasta nests make a perfect serving size! And you can get four servings out of each box, in that case.

Tagliatelle and short rib ragu are the perfect combination. If someone made papardelle, that’d be one step better than perfection-- but here we are in the real world. Maybe I’ll make some myself someday.  

I digress.

Cooking for eight hours in a crock pot, this easy recipe is best started at about 9 or 10 AM. Of course, this depends on what time you like to eat dinner.

Ingredients

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes, crushed by hand or spoon

1 head of garlic

1 yellow onion

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

4 lbs short ribs, max (I used 2 packages of short ribs for a total of six)

1 tablespoon beef base

1 cup of dry red wine

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

6 tablespoons butter

1 package of tagliatelle pasta (I prefer Jovial pasta, but use what you like)

Instructions

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high. Generously sprinkle kosher salt and cracked black pepper onto all sides of the short ribs and then place into pan. Brown on all sides, but don’t worry about cooking them through. They will be spending eight hours in a crock pot.

Remove and place in crock pot. Keep heat on whatever pan you used to sear the short ribs and deglaze with the wine. I used a cabernet sauvignon, but you can use whatever you like as long as it’s a dry red. I wouldn’t use it unless you’d drink it though! Pour the wine and the nice crispy bits from the pan into the crock pot.

Dice onion. Chop carrots and celery. Deposit into crock pot along with all the spices, butter, peeled cloves of garlic, and beef base, but hold off on the red pepper flakes. Pour in tomatoes, and set crock pot to eight hours on low.

Stir periodically; I usually did once per hour to ensure nothing stuck. After seven hours, pull the short ribs and put them on a cutting board to cool. In the meantime, add your red pepper flakes. You might have to whisk together the sauce because there’s so much fat that will cook off of the short ribs. I used an immersion blender, which I highly recommend.

Take the meat off the bone and shred it, then put it back into the crock pot and stir it in. Let it cook another twenty-minutes or so, then add the parmesan. The cheese will totally change the flavor of the sauce!

This sauce is warm, rich, and decadent. You can keep it and use it another day, or enjoy it right away! When I cook the Jovial pasta, I like to undercook it by a couple minutes, drain it, then add the ragu to the pasta for it to finish cooking. Add more parm and try not to overeat!

[theliterarycooks]

Gluten Free Waffles

My family have long been breakfast food devourers--

I have a distinct memory of my mother using entire loaves of sandwich bread to make french toast for my cousins and me. But the be all end all of breakfast foods? Waffles-- fluffy, lightly crisped, with little pockets to hold all the butter and syrup my heart desires.

Recently, I had given the cup4cup waffle mix a try; it had that awful gluten free taste. You know the one. So I decided to give a from-scratch recipe a go. Full disclosure: I did end up using the cup4cup flour and it was lovely! I still don’t understand why their mix tasted so yucky when their flour works so well.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups gluten free flour, sifted if not as fine as cup4cup

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cups whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

Instructions:

Place flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. 

In a medium bowl, crack eggs and beat slightly. Add milk, vanilla extract, and melted butter to the eggs and whisk to combine. If you see any solids, don’t worry-- it’s probably your cold milk solidifying some of your melted butter. Whisk on!

Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the egg mixture. Whisk until thoroughly combined and smooth. 

Preheat a waffle iron and grease lightly with cooking spray. Bake waffles for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown.

I think these taste great with just butter and maple syrup, but I’ve been known to enjoy them topped with strawberries and whipped cream or even a simple scoop of chocolate ice cream.

I hope you enjoy them too!