Cornstarch Pudding Pie

After about a two month forced break from the food challenge of 2013, I think we are back.  I was to do lychee before the whole mold and moving apartments fiasco, but by the time things got settled within the new apartment, fresh lychee became nonexistent here and canned lychee was not a favored option to me or the boyfriend.

Cornstarch Pudding Pie

As a result, the boyfriend sent me his grandmother's cornstarch pudding pie.  I have to admit, cornstarch pudding doesn't exactly entice me much.  If we added a little bit of rum, I think I would've been okay with the taste of it.

The results of this brought back a number of memories for the boyfriend.  Which I think is ultimately the point of the food challenge.  The memories he has growing up in the Midwest before moving to Washington D.C. for Graduate School then back to the Midwest to now the San Francisco Bay Area, result in him opening up a little more.

We are both onions when it comes to our emotions.  Every layer that is peeled is every layer exposing our inner selves.

Either way, the food challenge of 2013 is back for the remainder of the year.

Rued by Cornstarch but not Overruled

Gluten free mac and cheese rued by cornstarch

The adventures continue and so does the little hamster that could.

I found myself with the ingredient cornstarch and thought well, this can't be too hard, right?  Well, its not per say, but originality was probably the tricky part of this ingredient.

Cornstarch is used as a thickener when it comes to a variety of dishes, including egg drop soup.  I could've known egg drop soup, but I chose not to.  I could've done a lot of things, but wanted to to go to the other side of what cornstarch substitutes.

My sister recently found out that she has a gluten allergy, and with the fear of the possibility, my mother figured, that I too, must be gluten intolerant.   Now I could understand that possibility if my sister and I were fully related.  We share a father, and we look completely different from each other that people have a hard time saying, "oh, that's your sister," or even, "oh, that's your father." So the remote possibility of me having a gluten allergy are fairly slim since she did say one of her relatives on her mother's side has it.  I've never met her mother, and no way related to her so my chances are that much slimmer.  Still, I owed it my sister to experiment.

So, I figure if cornstarch was used as a thickener, could I do a gluten free dish and it still taste similar to a regular gluten dish?  I opted to make gluten free mac and cheese since the pasta is always a bit tricky being gluten free.

The results were good, a little on the tough side, but gluten free pasta isn't as springy as regular pasta since it depends what its made of.  I used the brown rice variety for this dish.  I also figured, while on the "healthy" route, a side salad would compliment it quite well.

Whether I use gluten or no gluten for mac and cheese, it seems to go away quite quickly.  Cornstarch is definitely a good stock item to keep in the pantry.