The First Flub

The first few days of eating gluten-free resulted in my first flub.  

 I went to the store and found this pizza in our grocery store freezer section. It was a plain cheese pizza, and while it was half again what I would pay for a regular frozen pizza, I was excited to try it out.

I decided that I should "dress it up right" and have my favorite Hawaiian pizza instead.  "See, I can have it all!" Unfortunately, this was before I realized that the world puts gluten in everything, including meat sometimes.  I had a reaction to the ham and felt all sorts of crappy.  Lesson learned: processed anything (including meat) may contain gluten and needs to be checked.
Now to clarify, the problem was not the pizza (I've had it many times since and loved it), but my additions to the pizza. In the months since, I've learned that limited choices are not the worst thing; at least with said choices I can feel confident that I'm safe.

The First Recipe Tweak

This was my very first attempt at tweaking a beloved recipe to make it gluten-free.  I started really basic with substituting cornstarch for wheat flour.  It made the sauce just a slightly different texture (ever so slightly more gelatinous) and much thicker upon reheating the leftovers but aside from that wasn't noticeable (nothing a little extra broth couldn't fix). Now that I've been at this a few months and have a fully stocked gluten-free kitchen, I would instead swap my favorite gluten-free all purpose flour (Pamela's Artisan All-Purpose Flour) for the wheat flour.  Either way though, this ends up being delicious and really unnoticeably gluten-free.

Beef Stew
barely adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

1 (3-lb) boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes)
3 Tbsp oil
2 onions, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste (check that it's gluten free)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup red wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (Swanson brand is gluten free)
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
4 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
hot mashed potatoes

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Dry beef with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a oven proof casserole over medium-high heat until smoking. Brown beef in batches (as avoid overcrowding) for about 10 minutes a batch and set aside. 
2. Add remaining oil over medium heat and add onions.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in wine, scrapping up an browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add broth, thyme, bay leaves, and beef (with all the juices).  Bring up to a simmer then cover and place in oven to bake for 1 hour.
3. Stir in potatoes and carrots and return to oven to cook until beef is tender (about 1 more hour).
4. Remove from oven and bring to a boil on stove. Mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water until smooth.  Add mixture to boiling stew and stir.  Allow to return to boil for approximately 5 minutes or until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.  Serve over a layer of hot mashed potatoes.