In the reported 5 million food blogs out there it would seem that it might be difficult to feel close to a big time blog writer. That they would somehow have an elite status that would seperate them from the little-tiny food bloggers. That is not the case with Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef’s writer, Shauna Ahern. Her writing and recipes are so…attainable. She’s encouraging and leaves you with a feeling of, “if I can do this, so can you.” It’s refreshing and inspiring. Needless to say when she and her husband’s latest cookbook venture, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story with 100 Tempting Recipes, was announced I was so excited. Excited because I knew the food would be so good. Excited because with the Chef involved it would be impressive kind of food, but knowing them it would be all about good ingredients and can be executed by anyone with a little time. Excited after all of the enticing posts featuring hints of what was to come in the new book, which pointed to improving my mediocre gluten free pizza crust.

So far, it has been everything I hoped it would be. The gluten free pasta recipe is the best pasta I’ve tasted. So simple to throw together it can be done on a week night, and I’d challenge any gluten eater to pick it out. It’s that kind of good. Not that I’m always looking to make things taste like the gluten variety, but in pasta, I am. It’s already become a staple in my kitchen.

Paired with the suggested anchovies, lemon, and olive sauce, I was a little out of my element. I knew some of these recipes would push me and I need that. It didn’t disappoint. It was lovely, well balanced and a flavor explosion. Not overpowering, but perfect.

The seared shrimp with garlic-almond sauce was another example of exactly what I expected out of this book.

No need for gluten free flour substitutions here, which I love.
Perfectly simple, but incredible, delicious and elegant.
This shrimp dish will serve as an appetizer to wow guests over and over again.

Last on my glimpse into the cookbook, I was exposed to the sweets. Decadent chocolate paired with creamy peanut butter. What could possibly go wrong with that combination? It yielded a sophisticated type of brownie. One that wasn’t too sweet, but perfectly chewy. It cut better than most brownie recipes I’ve tried and would make serving to guests much easier than the crumbling mess I usually end up with. It helped expand my horizon to a new flour, oat flour. Which I’m looking forward to using in other baked goods. I will mention, however, (especially since the Gluten-Free Girl is the one who saved my gf baking, by teaching me to measure out all of my ingredients by weight!), that the weights were missing from one of the flours in this recipe and the sugar. Brownies, even in gf cooking, are pretty forgiving, but it seemed to be an oversight. Let’s hope it was just in the version I was using.

I can’t wait to try out all of the other recipes! Congratulations on an excellent book, and thank you so much for sharing it with us!

The book is available everywhere starting today!

This post is part of group of posts to promote Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef’s new cookbook. If you’re interested, please head over to Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, where links to all the participating blogs will be posted later today.