Let’s talk good books and good eating. If I want to feel like writing I have to eat gluten-free, which is much easier to do now than it was ten years ago. My local Kroger grocery is filled with all sorts of prepared GF foods, and so is my local Walmart Market.
Still, I love to experiment and come up with my own GF recipes. Some of them are perfectly horrible, but every once in a while I create something wonderful. My latest favorite from-scratch culinary masterpiece (I say this with tongue in cheek), is a ham and artichoke frittata.
It all started when I discovered the BEST GF bread ever, Ancient Grain from Canyon Bakehouse in Johnstown, CO. I found it at the Walmart Market in Tupelo, MS, on Gloster Street. Unlike most GF breads, it doesn’t crumble easily and it doesn’t taste like cardboard. It’s delicious! So I set out making as many good dishes as possible using Ancient Grain bread.
Here’s my favorite receipe: HAM AND ARTICHOKE FRITATTA. You can follow it precisely or tweak it to your own taste. You’ll need 3, T. butter, ½ a medium onion chopped fine, 4 slices of Ancient Grain GF bread cubed, 2 large slices of baked ham (lean only) cut into cubes, 1 ripe tomato cubed, 4 – 6 oz. artichokes in oil, chopped, approximately 1/3 cup of 2% milk, 3 large eggs and parmesan cheese.
Melt 3 T. butter (I always used the real thing) in a skillet and add the chopped onion. Just as the onion starts to turn clear, add the bread cubes and stir until bread is coated with butter and beginning to crisp. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped tomato, ham and artichoke. Toss in about 1 T. of the oil from the artichoke jar. Spread the mixture into a buttered glass casserole dish.
Beat 3 large eggs with 1/3 – ½ cup of milk. You want a pale lemon color. Beat the eggs well so you don’t have any globs of egg white showing in the finished dish. Stir in a small amount of salt and pepper to taste. Pour the egg/milk mixture evenly over the top of your ham/artichoke mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and top with a few thin pats of butter. Bake at 350 until the egg is set, approximately 30 minutes.
There it is! Good eating! Gluten free and almost guilt free, if you don’t use too much butter.
Now, sit down with a big slice of frittata, a cup of coffee and a copy of my latest historical suspense, BLUEBIRD FLYING BACKWARD. Thank you for reading this novel, for leaving such great reviews and writing to let me know how much you’re enjoying it. That’s music to my ears.
My next writing project is another Southern Cousins Mystery, Elvis and the Devil in Disguise, coming in April if all goes well. I’m also writing the prequel to a brand new cozy mystery series I’m calling the Charmed Cat. The series is a spin-off from Elvis, and the prequel will be packaged with the new Elvis book.
Happy reading and good eating!
Peggy
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