Week of cooking flops...turned fabulous!

So, you're stressing that that gluten-free pizza didn't quite turn out how you wanted.  Maybe you put too much liquid, or not enough.  Maybe you left out the fats- cause the recipe's all in your head- and you pull it out when needed.  Maybe you got the oven too hot or not hot enough.  You know you're gluten-free and on the road to insanity when those dreams of delightful meals just don't seem to turn out how you expected.  Join the club...I'm making t-shirts.  No really!  It's time to shout it loud and proud that sometimes my kitchen is just one big experimentation.  Yes, I follow recipes, use recipes and so on, but there are times when the ol' school me pops in and just throws ingredients together and voila...masterpiece!  That wasn't the case this week. [see "From Fail to Fabulous..."- Gluten-Free Flop...turned into Success!

                                                               The Not-So-Loaf of Bread

                                                         New Idea!

                                                         Success!

Here are some epic disasters in my gluten-free adventures just this week.
1.  I made a bread recipe using a not-so-used flour in my kitchen, Coconut flour.
2.  I did not do any reading ahead of time for this new addition to my kitchen.  I mean really, how hard can it be, it's flour for heavens sake.
3.  So, I was also not aware of the sensitivity of the water to fat ratio (solid vs. liquid fats) when using Coconut flour.
4.  The baking was going great and I removed the loaf in a timely manner, but when I went to cut into it, it was all gooey!  What the heck?  I was starving at this point [dreaming of slathering butter and jam on this lovely creation]and just wanted a piece of freakin bread.Cue the grumbling tummy.  Needless to say that was my first mistake of the week.  Here is my second...
5. I have a delectable pizza crust that I created and while the crust is a fool-proof recipe, my biggest error was in the toppings.  This happens when gluten-free tummies are hungry.  There comes a point when you just want FOOD! You almost don't care what it is...you just want the grumbling tummy to stop.  Well,  I went to the trouble of sauteing squash and leeks for the topping.  I smothered the sauce over the crust, added a small amount of cheese and put the veggies on top to bake and create awesomeness.    To quote my daughter after taking a bite, "Mom, this isn't one of your better pizzas."  Dah!  I nearly wanted to cry and I've been doing this kind of cooking for years.
6.  Lesson?  Even novice gluten-free cooks get it wrong from time to time.  Sometimes we're just hungry.  Btw, I did eat the pizza anyhoo.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you have to do.  Note to self...no matter how much you like summer squash and leeks, don't add to the pizza in such large quantities.  Lesson learned! Ah...Success!

I will make up for it with a great Father's Day meal, with Gluten-Free options.

Love you guys!  Just remember you can't have success unless you have failure.  Doesn't matter which order they come in, you have to have the one (fail) to learn from your mistakes and move on.  Don't stress, I'm happy to fail for you and iron out the mistakes.

Your GF Mini!