I’m ready to go!  This time tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the airport with my mom, jetting off to Tyokyo.  It’s only a 14-hour flight.  NBD.

I’m actually looking forward to having some uninterrupted reading time.  So, what am I taking with me to read?

First, I’m going to finish The Thousand Autumns of Jacob deZoet which my sister-in-law, Alden, sent me in August and I’m embarrassed that I still haven’t completed it.   This beautifully written book is about Japan in the late 1700s, a Dutch merchant, Jacob deZoet, and his Japanese love interest.  Very fascinating read.

I still haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so Elaney has let me borrow her copy.  Am I going to be freaked out if I read it?  I figure this book (and the entire series) is such a part  of pop culture right now, that I need to read it.

To feed my fascination with prisons, I’m going to read the memoir, Orange is the New Black, about a woman who spends a year in prison and her experience.  Nothing beats prison non-fiction.  (Yes, I love prison documentaries on the Discovery channel too.)

And finally, for a good laugh, I’m bringing Squirrel Meets Chipmunk, the newest book by my favorite humor writer, David Sedaris.  While I do have an irrational phobia of squirrels, I’m hoping this book will make me a little more sympathetic (and less terrified of) those awful creatures.  Maybe this read will be scarier than Dragon Tattoo for me.

I’m probably being a little overly ambitious with this book list but whatever I don’t read en route to Japan, I’ll devour when I’m on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, recovering from jet lag.

What are you reading on your vacation?  Any good reads to recommend?

Have a wonderful holiday!  See you in 2011!

One of the best parts about being on the Shore (besides lots of reading), is the cooking and eating.  During the summer months, there are so many fresh veggies that meal prep is pretty minimal.  Last week we enjoyed many laid back dinners, but one of my favorite meals involved homemade crab cakes.  I can never get crab cakes at restaurants because they’re breaded, so it’s an extra special treat for me to enjoy a summer crab cake.  We happily ate them for two dinners.  (Side note: Urban Pl8’s crab cakes are GF!)

Gillian's Gluten-Free Bread Crumbs

We bought fresh crabmeat at Edward’s Seafood in Onley.  When you buy the best crabmeat, you don’t want a lot of filler in your cakes, but you do need enough to bind it together.  I bought Gillian’s Gluten-Free Bread Crumbs at Herbal Instincts Natural Food Market in Onancock (141 Market Street).  They have an amazing selection of gluten-free goodies, including Udi’s bagels, Pamela’s cookies, quinoa as well as organic meats.  A great place for Mom and me to stock up.

Herbal Instincts Market (Onancock, VA)

I’ve written about crab cakes before but I experimented a different recipe here.  I briefly referred to Mark Bittman’s crab cake recipe, but of course I wanted to add Old Bay and didn’t particularly want to use scallions to my crab cakes so I changed it up a little bit.  Here’s what we did:

ESVA Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb jumbo lump crab meat
• 2 teaspoons Old Bay
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons Gillian’s bread crumbs
• Less than ¼ cup mayonnaise (depends on how mayo-y you want your cakes)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• s&p
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix crabmeat, egg, Old Bay, mayo, dijon, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs in a bowl.  Refrigerate mix for about 30 minutes.  Remove mixture from fridge and make into tightly packed cakes.  (About 4-6 per pound of meat, depending on how big you want them.  I find them easier to flip if they’re smaller.)

Heat nonstick pan on medium high heat.  Add butter and olive.  Let melt and butter bubble.  Once bubbling has subsided, add cakes to pan.  Cook for 5 minutes (until nicely browned) and flip, cooking for another 5 minutes.  Serve warm.

We enjoyed our crab cakes with homemade deviled eggs, fresh corn and tomatoes, both grown on our road.  A truly local meal!

Perfect.  (And obviously, there was wine too, served by our favorite bartender.)

I’m back in Atlanta after a wonderful week on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with my parents.  Sure, it was no Rhinebeck, New York, but I’ll take Finney Creek any day over the wedding of the century.  The Shore is one of my favorite places, as it’s one of the spots where I feel most relaxed.  No sight seeing, very little social activity, just hanging out.  Fortunately, we had a spell of cooler weather so reading on the dock didn’t involve heat stroke.

Most of our time on the shore consisted of boat rides, naps, reading, eating and watching Pardon the Interruption.  During the fall, winter and spring we also watch a lot of football and basketball, but we have trouble getting excited about baseball, so there wasn’t nearly as much ESPN.  While I missed having sports to watch, I found that I had much more time to read without the NCAA tournament or bowl season to distract me.

I read three great books while on the Shore and I would highly recommend all three.  Each was very different but I devoured them.  Nothing could stand in my way of finishing them.

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee: Charles J. Shields

Having reread To Kill a Mockingbird this year with my 8^th graders, I loved learning more about the life of Harper Lee, especially her friendship with Truman Capote.  Lee was his research assistant for In Cold Blood, another story that fascinates me.  A large chunk of the book is about their time in Kansas researching the murder and getting to know the people involved in the case.  As a wanna-be writer myself, it was also refreshing to learn that words didn’t always flow easily for Ms. Lee.  She struggled with her first book (TKAM was initially a group of short stories that her publisher made her tie together) and she never even published a second book, despite tirelessly working on one.  Affirming to know that I don’t suffer from writer’s block alone.

Little Bee: Chris Cleave

‘Absolutely riveting’ is the only way I can describe this book.  On the back cover of Little Bee it actually says, “We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book.  It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.”  That’s how I feel about it.  A powerful, creative story, with great characters, I can’t do it justice by summarizing.  It’s beautifully written but I found myself reading it too fast to even appreciate the writing style because I was so eager to find out what happens and how everyone is connected.

The Piano Teacher: Janice Y.K. Lee

This story takes place in Hong Kong, during and after World War II.  A history teacher, I love books about a small moment in history in an unusual place.  I had never really thought much about what Hong Kong was like during World War II, but the story is captivating.  The combination of a large European population from colonialism, the Japanese takeover, and the Chinese made for an interesting social tension at the time.

Now I’m reading Hellhound on His Trail, (Hampton Sides) a book David recommended, about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the search for his assassin.  The history nerd in me loves this stuff.  Written with a journalistic style, the author tells a great story about the man that killed King, our nation’s political state at the time, and the workings of the FBI.  I’m really enjoying it, but it will take me ten times longer to finish it than if I were still reading on the dock.

Do you have any reading recommendations?  We’ll be in Connecticut with David’s family in September so I’ll be looking for some good reads on the trip.

Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, my summers were full of adventures outdoors, on both land and water.  At the time I had no idea how unusual it was to have a dock in your back yard that provided hours of entertainment for my brother and me.  We repeatedly threw sticks for Sadie, our chocolate lab, into the creek, watching her belly flop after them.  We caught jelly fish in our crab net, and watched their tentacles dry out on the dock.  Weekends involved day trips on our boat, with the big decision being, “Do we go to the seaside or the bayside?”

We lived in the middle of nowhere.  It took 20 minutes to get to school, to the grocery store, and 90 minutes to reach the nearest mall.  Besides the post office and a boat ramp, the only places within 20 minutes of our house were farms.  One of the summer activities for my brother and me was going to the local blueberry farm just down the road, in Hacksneck.  You could pick your own berries and pay as you picked.  My brother hated blueberries (and most foods besides peanut butter) so the farmer would pay Rob to pick for him.  (There were probably some child labor laws violated in this exchange, but the farmer’s wages seemed like riches compared to the penny my mom paid us for every Japanese beetle we gently picked off of her rose bushes.)  We happily spent an afternoon on the blueberry farm, picking away, until our buckets were full and we grew tired from the summer sun.

This blueberry farm from our childhood still exists today, but has new ownership and a new name, Mason Beach Fruit Farm.  You can still pick and pay for only 75 cents a pint.  That’s quite the bargain.

After our trip to the farm, Mom and I would wash the blueberries and set to work on a batch of blueberry muffins.  It’s funny.  When I was little I loved picking blueberries, and making blueberry muffins, yet I always scoured the batch for the muffin that contained the fewest blueberries.  I preferred the cake aspect of the muffin as opposed to the fruit.  I even remember asking my mom if we could make one in the batch without any berries.  In my old age, my taste buds have thankfully flip flopped and I have grown to love these delicious bites of blueberry goodness.  Now I immediately pick out the muffin that contains the most blue and purple spots before David can select his.

When I saw the first of the season blueberries recently, I immediately thought back to my childhood on the Eastern Shore.  The activities that I associate with this piece of fruit flooded my mind as I planned what to make with the blueberries: Driving down the road to Hacksneck in our very dusty, grey, Chevrolet mini-van. Rob and I riding on the farm’s ATV after we bored of picking berries and grew tired of the heat.  Being in the kitchen with my mom, watching her drink her afternoon tea, while enjoying a blueberry muffin.

How does food make us so nostalgic?  I’m not sure, but I love it.  The memories and emotions that come to mind from seeing a pint of berries are amazing.  What are your favorite summer food memories?

Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Barefoot Contessa’s barefoot contessa at home)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup sorghum flour
• ½ cup tapioca flour
• ½ cup white rice flour
• ½ tablespoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ tablespoon and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1 extra large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 stick, unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (plus more if you like to go heavy on the berries)
• ¾ cup sugar (plus one tablespoon for topping)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin tines with paper liners.  Spray with PAM.

Mix flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon in a bowl.  Stir to make sure they combine well.

In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs and melted butter.  Make a hole in the middle of the dry mixture, pour the wet mixture into the well and stir until just combined.  Don’t worry if the mix is lumpy.  Add the blueberries and sugar.  Stir gently to combine.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups to fill liners  In a small bowl, mix brown sugar and remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Sprinkle on top of each of the muffins.  Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until you can cleanly pierce with a toothpick.  Makes about a dozen.

My mom and I LOVE mashed potatoes so this is a go to side dish at holiday meals. Simple, flavorful and minimal dishes to wash!
Ingredients:
2 ½-3 lbs. red potatoes washed (not peeled)
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Plenty of salt and pepper
¾ cup 2% milk (warmed)

Directions:
Wash potatoes and put in a pot. Fill with water to cover potatoes. Boil water and let potatoes cook for 25-30 minutes once water boils. Once potatoes are tender to the touch of a fork, drain water. (Don’t poke with fork too much because potatoes will dry out.) Add half of the milk and start to mash with a potato masher. Add rest of milk and start adding salt and pepper and parmesan cheese.

Taste as you add more cheese, salt and pepper. You might choose to use more or less milk and cheese depending on your taste buds and desired consistency of potatoes. (I prefer chunky mashed potatoes but if you want them smoother, add more milk.)

I like this side dish because it’s relatively easy and you don’t even need to break out the Kitchen Aid. It’s perfect when there’s already a lot going on in the kitchen…it minimizes dishes and space. I find that the skin left on adds color and texture to the dish!

Leftover Tip: These reheat well in the microwave, but I suggest adding a little milk before reheating.

Recipe Variation: Use sour cream instead of or in addition to parmesan cheese.

Gluten Free in DC enjoyed getting away from the city during the Thanksgiving break! The husband (whom I’ll now refer to by his real name, David) and I went to Onancock, Virginia with my parents, grandparents, brother and his wife to celebrate the holiday. In the year that I have been diagnosed with Celiacs, I have become more and more aware of just how much food is a major part of all of our celebrations, traditions and holidays so I am appreciative to all of my family members on both sides of my family for making the holiday season gluten free friendly!

You might be asking yourself, where in the world is Onancock? Well, Onancock is located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, which is the peninsula off of Maryland. Yes, it’s actually Virginia. You can get to it by driving through Annapolis and the Eastern Shore of MD. (See map above for more details.)

So why do I love the Eastern Shore? The Eastern Shore is always a much needed break from life in D.C. My parents have a house on a small creek that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. In the summer there’s lots of boating and cocktail hours on the dock, but I think the winter is my favorite time to be on the Shore. There’s no internet, no major cities within an hour’s drive and most importantly, no schedule. The typical day consists of reading, napping, watching college sports on TV, and cooking yummy food. Not only do I love cooking on the Shore, but I also look forward to planning the menus. It’s so nice to have plenty of time to cook and it’s always fun to cook with the husband, Mom and my sister-in-law, Alden. (The other members of the family tend to stay out of the kitchen!)

This year for Thanksgiving dinner we continued our new tradition of cooking beef tenderloin instead of a turkey. We still cook a turkey breast so that we can have cold turkey sandwiches with canned cranberry for lunch, but for the meal itself, we eat beef tenderloin. David cooked the tenderloin and I must say that he did an amazing job. He tested his culinary skills by cooking the tenderloin on the grill for the first time. The flavors were unbelievable even though David prepared the meat simply using only olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.

As sides for the meal, we made mashed potatoes and green beans. My mom’s trick with the green beans is to cook them on the stove, drain them, and add a little butter, salt, pepper and vinegar. The vinegar gives them a great kick but it’s not overwhelming. They are so simple and easy.

To top off the meal I purchased from Whole Foods a variety of pies and their creamy biscuits, all from the gluten free frozen section. The Whole Foods pies are perfect because everyone has strong feelings about what pie flavor they prefer and the pies are small so you don’t feel badly buying a variety. While they might seem a bit pricy, it’s so worth it to be able to enjoy dessert with everyone else! We had a sampler of apple, pumpkin and cherry pies, which lasted us for desserts beyond Thanksgiving day.

The Shore was a great escape from the hectic city and a perfect time to enjoy delicious food cooked with love!