All-Purpose Gravy

This recipe can be made ahead and even frozen.

1 small carrot (about 1/2 cup) peeled and chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 small rib celery (about 1/2 cup) peeled and chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 small onion (about 1/2 cup) peeled and chopped into 1/2" pieces
3 Tbs unsalted butter or shortening
1/4 cup safe flour
4 cups safe chicken/beef/vegetable broth (may be combined as desired, to taste)
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp dried thyme
5 whole black peppercorns
salt and pepper to taste

Use food processor to chop carrot, celery and onion into 1/8-inch pieces (about five one-second pulses) or chop by hand.

Heat butter/shortening over med-high heat in large saucepan with heavy bottom. Once butter/shortening stops foaming, add vegetables. Cook, stirring frequently, about 7 minutes or until well-browned and soft. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes or until fragrant and thoroughly browned. This is what is commonly referred to as a roux.

Whisking constantly, gradually add broths to the roux. Bring gravy to a boil, skimming foam frequently. Lower heat to med-low; add bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns. Simmer 20- 25 minutes until gravy is thick and has reduced to about 3 cups, stirring occasionally.

Strain gravy through fine-mesh strainer into clean saucepan, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Use a Dutch oven to double the recipe; you'll need the extra space to brown all of the vegetables. Cook times will also need to be increased by about 50 percent.

You can freeze the gravy for later use. To thaw: Heat gravy plus 1 Tbs of water over low heat in a large saucepan. Bring slowly to a simmer; then whisk to recombine gravy and restore smooth texture.

modified from this recipe for Make-Ahead Gravy

Grammie's Blueberry Cobbler

contributed by Ann Marie Baribeault Sokos

3 cups blueberries
2 Tbs lemon juice
2/3 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c rice flour
scant tsp of xanthan gum or guar gum
1/2 c quick oats
1/3 c softened butter/shortening
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Place blueberries in ungreased 8x8 pan. Sprinkle blueberries with lemon juice.

Mix dry ingredients with softened butter in separate bowl. Place on top of blueberries.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Ann says:
My grandmother helped me make this recipe up for Megan this summer while visiting. I imagine you could use any berry or maybe even peaches and apples.

My notes:
Because we don't do rice here, I subbed oat flour since it already had an oaty flavor going. And I used palm oil shortening (I usually add a bit of salt to help mimic the flavor of butter) in place of the butter.

I made this (with apples & blueberries) for Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house. I am delighted to report that this vanished completely, to raves. The bakery pumpkin pie went to leftovers. Thanks, Ann!

Cream of Mushroom Soup, v. 1

I was going to post a Green Bean Casserole Cook-off Challenge for Thanksgiving. But it's just over a week away (!), which seems not nearly enough time. So I'll post a few versions & you can all just pick whichever one looks the most promising for your family. Or have your own cook-off & post your results in the comments! :)

I came across this recipe, and it seemed like it'd work for my family without too many subs. And I had pretty much everything on-hand...huge plus.

You can sub this in for just the soup in the traditional green bean casserole recipe or you can replace the whole recipe, depending on your needs.

Cream of Mushroom Soup
EVOO or GSO, for sauteing
1 lb mushrooms of choice (I thought this was about 2x the necessary amount but it tasted good...just too lumpy for my own preferences)
6 Tbs butter or sub (I used palm oil shortening. Might be able to sub in oil as well.)
2 c chicken/vegetable broth
2 c whole milk (or other safe milk...I used oat)
6 Tbs safe flour (sweet/brown rice flour recommended in original recipe, but I used potato starch just for fun. See notes below.)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dash cayenne pepper (optional, for a bit of a kick)
salt & pepper, to taste

Saute mushrooms in olive or grapeseed oil and set aside.

Melt butter or butter sub in a large saucepan. After butter has started to bubble, add flour to make a roux. Then add spices. (Feel free to tweak the spices in this recipe to suit your tastes.) Once the roux has cooked/bubbled for a few minutes, add milk and broth. Whisk over medium heat until the sauce thickens.

Once the sauce has thickened to desired consistency, add the sauteed mushrooms. Serve hot or use for green bean casserole.

My notes:
When I added the potato starch, I thought I had ruined the soup. It didn't mix in well and seemed stiff and sticky and I was pretty sure it was going to permanently bond to the saucepan. Kept going anyway. (I'm a little stubborn like that, sometimes.) Took quite a bit of whisking, but I finally got it to sort of blend and it did actually thicken like it should when the oat milk & broth went in. Yay!

I was making this while also making that night's dinner so I 1) am lacking pictures aside from the sauteed mushrooms (hopefully will add some next time I make it) and 2) stuck it in the fridge and ate it the next night instead of eating it fresh OR using it in casserole. Since I just had mouth surgery and still cannot chew, I also stuck it into the blender and smoothed out all the mushroom lumps.

If you like mushrooms, you'll probably really like this recipe as is. I like mushroom flavor but the texture skeeves me out. So the blending thing worked out great for me and I really enjoyed the smoooth, mushroomy-tasting soup. I find most canned mushroom soups a bit bland, so this was a nice change. Not strong at all (bring on the picky kids/husbands!) but a richer, deeper flavor than you might be used to. When (yes, when) I make this again, I think I'll leave a few small mushroom pieces out of the blending to be added in at the end.