Fresh Japanese Eggplant from the Garden of a Friend

Today I had lunch with an old friend of mine from school and with her gluten allergy, we had to determine what she could and couldn't have.

I am fortunate that I don't have food allergies and my friend is fortunate that she is able to manage her food allergies with her a lot of better and a lot more places know a lot more about gluten intolerance than they use to.

We chose to have Vietnamese food and even though things were rice based, sauces tend to be a concern for the one with allergies.  Fortunately, the sauces predominately used in Vietnamese food are gluten free.

After lunch, we went by her house for her to get ready for work.  She showed me around her newly landscaped yard and had me sample some of the goodies that the yard produced.  I tried out a couple of different varieties of strawberries, super sweet, and took home some of the overabundance of Japanese eggplant from her yard.

Fortunately, I don't mind Japanese eggplant and it is one of the few veggies with a high protein content that allows vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike to take part in a tasty vegetable.  That is assuming one likes vegetables or eggplant.

As far as this batch of fresh Japanese eggplant is concerned, I'm at a loss as to what to do with it for now.  Fortunately, the boyfriend is at class tonight so I took off cooking detail so I have some time to figure it out.

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.