Chocolate Rasberry Torte

Today, 19 years ago, the most beautiful girl entered my life and I took on the new official name of "MOM".  I have loved every year, day, hour, and minute spent with this amazing gift from God.  Sadie has grown into such an independent young lady and our relationship shift to a "friend" level has been a wonderful journey this past year as she is now a sophmore in college.  So of course what better excuse to bake than a birthday!  This recipe came again from the fantastic magazine Living Without, August/September 2011 issue.  The cake is gluten and dairy-free.  It is super sweet though and I did not replace with stevia - I used organic cane sugar.  It is a cake where a TALL glass of milk is required - rice milk for those of you who are dairy free.  It was great enjoying cake and coffee as I caught up on her college life.  My heart is breaking as I realize this will be her last birthday, for now at least, that I will spend with her.  I am thrilled for my new adventure awaiting me as we prepare to move, but the thought of being 14 hours away and no more Sunday lunches creates a little hole in my heart that hurts always.  Special days like this will be so difficult this first year apart, but I will just cherish the times we are together even more. 

As Christmas quickly approaches, I am not sure what time I will have to get to much more baking in.  I would love to get some cookie dough made and in the freezer to bake on the winter break, but time seems to be fighting me.  As our house is quickly transforming into the "under remodeling" mode, it seems like there is to much other things to get done and no time for baking.  My blog may switch to an "Adventures in Moving" mode for a few months, but I hope to get some baking time in.  I wish you a very Merry Christmas and Safe & Happy New Year.
To my precious Sadie, I love you and pray many happy more years for you as you continue to experience life.  My number one prayer for you - is to continue to keep God #1 in your life above all else.  You fill my cup daily with happiness!  Love Love Love you!!!!!
Happy Baking!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving ~ 2011
I LOVE this time of year.  The cooler weather has arrived and a nice break from work to spend time with family and to focus completely on being thankful.  This year has been one of so much heartache, so it was nice to focus on what I am thankful for in my life.  How easy it is to lose track of the good and spend to much energy focusing on the negative.  Although it has been a tough year, so many great things have also happened.  As this year wraps up, I will make a committment to focus 2012 on positive, even in the storms.  I will work to let go of my crazy type-A personality and let my hair down to enjoy the simple day to day things God has blessed me with.  My quick one minute brainstorm of current things I am grateful for:
My family, Sadie home for more than a few hours, Sadie will be a blessing to the people of Tanzania this summer, the farm, my mom's heart procedure was successful, JR didn't suffer long with Lou Gehrigs (although my heart misses him deeply), I have a job, Jim doesn't work for a cut-throat company anymore, I am healthy... Short list, but one minute does go fast and this is a cooking blog, so let's get to it~

I am so thankful my gluten-free cooking has actually gotten better.  This year our entire thanksgiving meal came from the best magazine ever, Living Without, the Nov/Dec issue.  If you live gluten/dairy free this magazine is for you and you can get a copy at Barnes and Noble.  So for copyright reasons, I can't share those recipes here, but I will tell you it was my BEST meal ever.  It was a pear based meal.  Here was our menu:
Butter/Lemon rub Turkey
Fresh Herb & Pear Gravy
Sausage/Pear Stuffing
Cranberry/Pear dish
Herb Popovers
and of course the traditional (not from magazine, but can't have a Thanksgiving without)
Green Bean Casserole - made GF with Pacific GF Cream of Mushroom and homemade french fried onions
Sweet Potato Casserole

As I have blogged before, I cannot master the pie crust :( 
But my family loves Pumpkin pie, so I just bought a frozen pie for them.  I really need to master the pie crust though so I can enjoy pies.  I do love them!

One of the things I am never a huge fan of for the Thanksgiving meal, but is a must is stuffing.  Well the Sausage/Pear stuffing I made was amazing!  I made it the day before so the pear flavors could soak in and then I baked it for 2 hours on low heat.  WOW ~ so good and so moist.  I cut the recipe in half because the one in the magazine served 14, well there are only 3 of us in the family so full amount seemed extreme.  But I wish I had made the full amount.  It was the first leftover that was completely gone the next day. 

Green Bean Casserole - I buy the Pacific Brand GF cream of mushroom soup at Target.  They also have Cream of Chicken GF.  Thank you Pacific Brand!  I use the traditional recipe, but I don't buy the can of french fried onions.  If you cut up onions in thin slices, coat them in brown rice flower by shaking them in a ziplock, and fry them over low heat until golden brown and crispy, they taste great.  I use Coconut Oil, which is pretty much all I use to cook with.  It is a solid oil at room temp, but will liquidfy when heated. 

Sweet Potato Casserole - The recipe I use was given to me by our neighbor when we lived in Hawaii - Thank you Kristen Tidwell!  It is like eating candy and so good.  Here is the recipe:
2 large cans of yams, drained
1 Cup sugar, I use rapunzel pure cane.  You can even do 1/2 cup pure cane and 1/2 cup stevia
1 stick butter
1/4 Cup Flour, I use my homemade flour blend (brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch)
1 T nutmeg
3 eggs
1 can Pet milk
GF marshmallows
Put potatoes in mixer and add all ingredients.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased casserole dish and back uncovered at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until firm.  Remove from oven andpour marshmallows on top.  Return to oven just to melt - only takes a few minutes.

Well enjoy the pictures of our Thanksgiving food.  If you are on a gluten free adventure I hope you had a great Thanksgiving meal too.  As 2011 wraps up, I am looking ahead to 2012 and what I can do to advance my healthful eating.  I feel very comfortable with the no wheat and gluten diet and do pretty good cutting sugar, but can do much better here -- I LOVE chocolate.  But feel my new focus will be to work on cutting cow dairy.  I occasionally have stomach issues and when I trace back what I have eaten, it is usually dairy that I can link it too. 
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Baking!  Time to start planning Christmas and New Year's meals. 

Green Bean Casserole - Gluten Free Style

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sausage/Pear Stuffing

Herb/Pear Gravy

Cranberry/Pear Dish

Cookies Galore

How time flies!  Well school is back in session and I got to do some gluten free baking for the incoming Oklahoma Christian lunch at Memorial Road Church of Christ about a month ago.  I made peanut butter cookies with that yummy hershey kiss on top; m&m cookies; rice krispy treats (so happy to have GF rice krispy cereal now).  I am finding that I can take pretty much any recipe - use my flour blend I keep in the fridge from the Gluten Free Baking cook book and a little zanthum gum to hold it all together and it is as good as any other dessert made with regular flour.  I am so happy to see business doing more catering to a GF eater.  I must say I feel great - still need to work on cutting all sugar, but that is a tough one for me.  I do have a sweet tooth, but I do a good job for the most part with portion control.
If you are still on the fence about trying GF baking, go for it!  You will not be disappointed.
Enjoy the pics and happy baking!

Angel Food Cake and Mango Cake

I haven't posted in some time now, but it doesn't mean I haven't made a few gluten free items.  Shortly after the 4th of July, I started craving an angel food cake with fresh strawberries.  So it was time to master a gluten free angel food cake and the picture below is the delicious outcome!  Sorry the picture is sideways, not sure what happened there??  But I think you can still get the idea of how the yumminess!

So then I got my new "Living Without" magazine it had recipes for some great cakes.  I decided to try the mango cake and WOW was it moist.  Of course I can't eat an entire cake on my own, so my friends got to share in the wealth.

I have a few more items to get made before I head back to work in a few weeks.  I did make some delicous blondie bars for our teacher luncheon today.  They were also very good and so easy to make.  I will get pictures on soon. 
Enjoy your summer and I hope you are not melting like I am - praying for some relief from the heat!

Pie Time

Well my dear friends, making a gluten free pie crust was much harder than anything else I have made to date.  I was just craving a yummy strawberry pie.  We had signed up to bring a dessert to a 4th of July BBQ, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make that pie.  Well almost 5 hours later after try 2 of making a crust, I broke down and switched to making brownies.  So sad!  I have been successful in all my gluten-free adventures, so to have a recipe not turn out was a huge disappointment.  I did finally get a crust made, but it doesn't roll out like  normal pie crust.  I have my crust in the freezer, because once I did get one made that looked half way decent, I just was in no mood to make the filling.  Maybe later this week I'll whip together a banana cream pie or something, but the initial craving for strawberry pie - GONE!  I will say, the first crust I made - that just crumbled the moment it was touched - turned into an amazing dessert topping crumble.  So it was time for snacks with my niece and nephew and we cut up some cherries, put a big scoop of Coconut Milk ice cream into a bowl and then my pie crust crumble.  I can only say DELICIOUS!  So for my friends who want to go dairy free - coconut milk ice cream is sold at Walmart.  It is dairy and soy free.  Walmart carries Mint Chip and Vanilla Bean flavors.  It is very tasty.  Well my friends, my summer of baking has not been as adventurous as I had hoped with all our traveling, but I will continue to bake as often as possible.  Enjoy our 100 degree heat days by staying cool.  Happy Baking!

Cookie Picture

Forgot to add this picture with my last post.  Yum Yum!

M&M cookies

Back to baking finally!  I had a bunch of M&M's and decided to put them in a cookie.  I actually used the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Semi-Chocolate Chips bag, but instead of flour, I used the flour blend I keep made up in the refridgerator from the cookbook "Baking Gluten Free".  I was nervous, but they turned out AMAZING!  Tasted like regular chocolate chip cookies.  Now I get the blessing of practicing self-control because I want to gobble them all up.  I did make a big purchase ~ a KitchenAid stand mixer ~ WOW why did I wait so long to buy this machine.  It made mixing up these cookies so much easier!!!  I bought some strawberries and hope to make a go at my first gluten free pie crust.  Wish me luck and Happy Baking!

Vacation Adventures

Wow, summer is finally here and of course that means it is time to pull out the apron and get to baking!  I need to try to bake more from my original gluten free baking book.  Many of my most recent recipes have been from other locations.  Currently enjoying an amazing week with my mom, so no baking here.  I could have brought all my flours, but just wanted to enjoy fellowship with her this week.  I did take over her kitchen and preparation of our meals.  Today we ate a delicious tuna/rice casserole.  Super good and easy to make.  It is one of my favorites for a quick meal with amazing left over taste.  For dinner I made a Carribean Chicken Salad.  Oh my word!  Our breakfast is on the counter - Soaked Oatmeal.  I'll share more tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy the blessings of summer weather!

Peanut Butter Brownies

Well, I have actually had two baking adventures since my last post.  Last week I made lemon cupcakes for my math class.  The recipe was my easter cake with the lemon variation.  They had earned by baking expertise because I presented them with a goal in math and they achieved it a week early.  I was so proud and their reward was a dessert treat made by me.  They loved it, but of course what made me excited was when I had 6 cupcakes left and a boy asked if we could play a game and the winner could win the cupcakes.  I quickly asked what game and he said "A Math Game."  He chose to play greedy and what math teacher wouldn't play a math game - learning for a simple leftover cupcake - SCORE!
Tonight I made the peanut butter brownies.  The recipe is found on the liveglutenfreely website.  It uses the betty crocker gluten free brownie mix as the base, so it wasn't completely from scratch like I enjoy, but I had the mix and wanted to use it up.  They turned out fabulous!  I did take a picture, but don't feel like downloading it right now, so picture will follow.  Well need to get back to the Thunder Game.  Not looking good, but I have faith they will come back in the second half!  Thunder Up!

Easter Cake

 Happy Easter everyone!  This year I am making a nice Easter dinner.  Sadie came home for the weekend and later 3 of her college friends will be over to enjoy a delicious meal and of course this yummy gluten free coconut cake.  The recipe is from the magazine "Living Without" the April/May 2011 issue.  In fact, our entire meal today except for the meat is their Easter dinner in the magazine.  I kept true to the recipe except for the decorations on top.  They had you making some beautiful eggs with fondont, but we are PEEPS fans and felt this would be our personality better.
Can't wait to eat it!

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Looks yummy? Check back later for more information.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Feb. 27, 11

Mint Bars - Page 90

It has been way to long since I put my baking apron on and attempted a new gluten-free recipe.  Well yesterday I decided to make more of "Elenor's Banana Bread" found on page 51 to take to our Sunday morning bible class.  I must say it was even better than the first time I made it.  I did the variation offered of adding 1 cup fresh blueberries and I made it with walnuts this time.  Sorry no pictures because it was gobbled up!  


As for the mint bars, as my banana bread was baking I flipped to this page and decided I would make them too.  Wow, are they good!  The only change I made to the recipe was again with the sugar.  The bar part called for 2/3 cup sugar.  I didn't use stevia - I used organic pure cane sugar.  But knew the icing part called for quite a bit of powdered sugar, so only added 1/3 cup sugar.  I am so glad I did this change because they were still way to sweet due to the icing.  It is a one bar at a time treat with a glass of yummy rice or almond milk.  My handy taste tester gave them a 9. He said they were moist and good, but very rich!  I love the very rich part because I know I won't eat more than one at a time.

I will deviate a little from my dessert blog to recommend an amazing cookbook for anyone suffering from allergies.  The Whole Food Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal.  I cook 80-85% of my meals from this cookbook.  It eliminates the major allergy foods:  wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, dairy, eggs, soy.  Of course if you are not allergic to all these items, suggestions are provided to put them into various recipes.  I made for lunch today the Corn Chowder soup.  So good and filling!  I purchased this cookbook at Barnes and Noble for $18.95 and I must say it was money well spent.  So if you are suffering from food allergies, or just want recipes for a healthier diet, I HIGHLY recommend this cookbook.  I will get a picture of the cover for you on my next post. 
I also purchased a new book this week Crazy Sexy Diet.  There wasn't any super new information in there for me, but I found it a very inspirational book based on the author's lifestyle changes due to a diagnosis of untreatable cancer.  At the end there is a 21 day cleanse, which is exactly like the one I did last  year.  It was a quick easy read, I did have to look past some of her language (she would have made a good sailor).  But I do like the explainations given for why diet changes need to be made in our world.   Her major urge is to make your kitchen your medicine cabinet and one statistic she gave in the book that I highlighted and marked was found on page 16.  "In 1960, 18% of our national income was spent on food while 5 % was spent on health care.  Today 9% of our income is spent on food and 17% on health care".  Wow, what a flip flop!  Personally I would prefer to make our hard working farmers richer than shoveling money into the pockets of drug manufacturers.  Ok, that is all for my rambling today. 
Happy baking!

Feb. 12, 11

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls

I did get a little baking adventure in today.  I mentioned in my post earlier that I wanted to try cinnamon rolls, so Sadie came over today and we made them.  It was actually very easy and the outcome was amazing!  We both ate two immediately from the oven and could have devoured the entire pan!  Sadie gave them a 10 as do I.  I wanted to share the blog site I got the recipe from with you, but of course can't find it now.  I'll continue looking and will share as soon as I find it so you can have the recipe too! 
After we devoured our 2 cinnamon rolls each, we headed off to Cafe 7 on May Ave.  My friend Tessa told me they were now serving gluten free pizza.  So of course I must give the pizza a try.  Well, it was very very good!  I ordered the Greek Pizza Gluten Free crust.  If you are a fan of BJ's GF pizza, well this is 100 times better in my opinion.  In fact, I told Sadie I thought they had messed up my order and made me a regular crust pizza.  She tried it and thought it was great too.  It wasn't until the manager came over and asked my thoughts on the new Gluten free crust that I realized it really was not a mistake.  Thanks Tessa for letting me know! 

Feb. 12, 11

Well yesterday was another snow day, but by early afternoon the sun was out and the roads were manageable, so off I went to get some errands done.  As I was starting this adventure, my daughter sends a text asking to come over with some friends.  Then she asked if I would make dinner, so no baking got done.  I did want to share my menu from last night.  I started with an herb baked chicken - tarragon, oregano, crushed red peppers with grape seed oil and white wine.  This was poured over boneless chicken breasts and baked covered for 45 min. then uncovered for an additional 10.  I also made the holiday classic potato bake casserole.  Of course, condensed soups do contain wheat/gluten, but here in Edmond, OK at the Target on 2nd street you can find Pacific Brand GF condensed soups.  So I used GF cream of chicken in the recipe and it was yummy!  I steamed up some wonderful organic broccoli from my organic co-op share bag.  If you live in Oklahoma City area, I highly recommend joining OKC organics.  It is easy and affordable and the produce you get each week is wonderful!  The meal was topped off with an apple bake.  I sliced my organic apples and coated them with a little flour mix (the flour mix I use in all my gluten free baking), cinnamon, organic cane sugar.  Then I placed this in a pan greased with coconut oil.  I then mixed more flour, organic GF oatmeal, more sugar and sprinkled over top - poured in some water and baked for 40 minutes.  So delicious. 
I did find a recipe for cinnamon rolls and hope to try them today possibly.  I have signed up to take treats to our bible class for two Sundays, so I want to get some good recipes made to determine what I will take.  I am hoping the cinnamon rolls are easy and good, so I can make them again when it is time to take in treats.  The cinnamon roll recipe is not from my cookbook.  I actually found it off another GF baker's blog.  So I'll give all the information on how to access it after I have made them. 
I hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday and enjoys the beautiful sunsine.  Happy Baking!

Feb. 10, 2011

Lemon Squares
This recipe is found on page 93.  I did not deviate from the provided recipe at all.  I even used granulated sugar for this one.  My reasons for using this sugar, which is absolutely terrible for you, is I had tried lemon squares over the holidays.  I used the organic raw cane sugar, which is naturally brown in color.  Well the lemon squares looked gross - like brown throw up.  No one ate them.  They tasted fine, but our eyes often keep us from eating things and it was a waste of time to even bake them.  So, for this batch, I used the white processed sugar as the recipe called for and as you can tell from the picture they are beautiful!  Since I don't like eating sugar, I only took a sample bite and it took pure strength and endurance to not continue eating.  They were amazing.  The lemon taste was perfect and the crust was superb.  I made mine in a smaller 8x8 pan for thicker squares.  I think next time I will make them in the 9x13 pan to get thinner lemon squares. 
I would recommend to all of you reading this blog who are gluten free and want to get into baking, I HIGHLY recommend this cookbook.  The title again is Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly.  I have not been disappointed yet by any recipe.  Even the scones were not bad.  My daughter dunked her scones in her hot chocolate and loved them.  I really thought gluten-free baking would be difficult, but with great recipes, it is easy and the outcome is delicious.  Happy Baking!

Feb. 8, 2011

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies
Let me just say DELICIOUS!  These cookies were amazing.  The recipe is found on page 77.  I seriously think I could eat them all - the entire 5 dozen by myself in one setting.  But I will restrain myself from this temptation.
Let me share with you the few variations I made.  Of course, the 1 cup of sugar was replaced with 1/2 cup whole cane sugar and 1/2 cup stevia.  I wasn't sure what "pumpkin puree" was, so I just used 1 cup of pure pumpkin from a can (like you use for a pumpkin pie).  Maybe that is what puree is, but I don't know and it worked, the cookies were great.
I must admit a CRAZY mistake I made.  I put my first batch in the oven and thought to myself "I can't believe these cookies didn't call for zanthum gum".  Zanthum gum is very important when cooking with non-wheat flours as it holds the product together.  So went back to the recipe, just to be sure it didn't need the zanthum gum.  Oh my word - right there 3/4 t. of zanthum gum - smacked me in the face like a semi-truck.  I couldn't believe it.  I had the first batch in the oven and just knew they would crumble when I picked them up.  So I went ahead and added zanthum gum to the remaining dough and just hoped for the best.  Well I ate my sample taste from the first "non zanthum gum" batch and although I can't go and dunk into a nice big glass of rice milk, it didn't crumble either.  Whew!  But I won't make that mistake again.
I took a picture of the cookies, but also of some of the product packages that I use:  stevia, organic whole cane sugar, and the salt that I use.  If you live in Oklahoma, the stevia I buy at Crest in the sugar aisle.  the organic cane sugar can be found at several places:  Akins, Edmond Health food store, and if I am near my friends office - Energetic Wellness - I buy it there too.  The salt  is fantastic and I purchase this at Energetic Wellness (located in Edmond off of 15th and Rankin).  I believe Akins also sells it and you can probably get it at Edmond Health food store too, I just have never looked for it there.  I do not use table salt at all!
Well this has been a wonderfully productive snow day.  This afternoon I may try to make some Lemon Bars or maybe get them made tomorrow, but they are next on the list.  So I am off to eat another cookie over a napkin as it falls apart gently.  Happy Baking!

Stevia bag

Rapunzel Brand Organic Whole Cane Sugar

Redmond brand
All Natural Sea Salt

  

White Chocolae Pumpkin Cookies

Feb. 4, 2011

Another snow day has given me the opportunity to bake another recipe.  Today I made Eleanor's Banana Bread on page 51.  The only change to the recipe was the 1 cup of sugar.  I used 1 cup stevia.  I also did not put this recipe in the freezer prior to baking.  Well I have to say this is my favorite item I have made in the past four days!  It was moist and so delicious with a small pat of butter on the warm bread.  I would give this bread a 10.  My official taste tester is back to work, so his rank will be posted later.  I can't wait to make this again and I want to try the variation of adding a cup of blueberries next time.  Gluten-free and very delicious!

Feb. 3, 2011

Well snow day #3 has provided me with another opportunity to try a new recipe.  Today I made the SCONES - I used the recipe variation of orange cherry scones.  I had to make a few variation to the recipe.  First, it called for 1/2cup of sweet rice flour.  I did not have this, I had sweet sorghum flour.  So I used this instead.  The second change I made to the recipe was the 1Tablespoon of honey it called for.  I could not find my honey, so I replaced it with 1Tablespoon of Agave.  They baked up nice, but the true test of course is in the taste, and sadly these received a 3 from my official taster.  My husband felt they were to dry.  I tend to agree, they were dry, but I felt they left a flour after-taste in my mouth that I couldn't quite get rid of.  I even served them with a lemon curd, not homemade though.  I feel Stonewall Kitchen makes the yummiest lemon curd around.  I have to overlook all the sugar in the curd though and use it truely has a rare treat.  So they may have received a 3, I will not give up on this recipe.  I will use the sweet white rice flour and true honey next time.  This may be the difference.  I want to try the chocolate chip variation too.  So when the snow crazy roads allow me, I will head off to purchase the correct flour and honey and try again. 

Now an update on those molasses cookies that received a 9 yesterday.  I didn't have cream cheese to make a cream cheese icing like I had hoped, but came across a spice glaze icing in the gluten-free baking cookbook.  So I made the glaze and put it on some of the cookies.  It added a nice texture while eating, but for me they became to sweet.  My husband liked it, but he agrees a cream cheese icing would be better. 

So my precious Sadie recommeded I post a picture of the cookbook, so it is included with this post along with a picture of yesterday's cookies and today's scones.  Happy baking!


Molasses Cookies with spice glaze




Orange Cherry Scones with Lemon Curd




The cookbook providing me with the foundation recipes.



Feb. 2, 2011

Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies

Another snow day, so it was time to make another recipe.  Today I chose to make some cookies.  I selected the molasses cookies on page 70.  I almost didn't make them when I realized they called for brown sugar and I didn't know what to substitute this sugar for.  I did some research and many say "date sugar", but of course who has that hanging out in the cupboard.  So I decided to go ahead and use the brown sugar, but I cut the 1/2 cup the recipe calls for to only 1/4 cup brown sugar.  My plan is to make this recipe again and use either date sugar or I believe there may be a brown sugar stevia (fingers crossed).
After following the recipe to put in fridge for 1 hour prior to baking, I added an additional 30 minutes in freezer (see yesterday's post as to my reasoning here).
I made them into small balls and pressed down prior to baking.  I made smaller cookies than the recipe called for because I ended up with over 4 dozen cookies, yet the recipe called for 2 doz. cookies.  Of course the real test came when my husband tried them.  He gave them an AMAZING 9!  We both felt these cookies would have received a 10 by adding a light cream cheese icing.  I may make an icing later and see if that is the finishing touch they need.  They were very delicious and plenty sweet enough even with half the amount of brown sugar the recipe called for.  So day 2 of gluten-free baking has been another success!  Happy baking. 

Feb. 1, 2011

It has been almost one year now that I have been wheat/gluten free.  What an adventure the past year has been as I have had to change all my previous thoughts about food, cooking, shopping, and eating.  Although I still have moments where the thought of eating a good pizza is about to devour me, I have overall adjusted to this new life style.  My goal this year, is to convert my family.  Of course my husband is at my mercy since I am the cook in the house.  At the start, I was cooking two meals, but that just added to the extreme stress, so around September I stopped.  It is eat what I make or run out and get yourself something.  He has done great overall.  One thing I have not even attempted this past year is baking.  I didn't really bake to much before, and gluten-free baking seemed crazy to even attempt.  Just trying to get all the flours and then figure out where to store them, well it was just to much for me.  But as my gluten-free lifestyle has become more normal, and the fact my daughter bought me a gluten free baking cookbook back in September (Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly), I have decided to start giving it a try.  My biggest challenge is I do not  eat white processed sugar either, so I have to adjust recipes to accomodate either STEVIA or Organic Whole Cane Sugar.  The second challenge is I don't use cow milk.
So my challenge of trying out some baking started today, due to the beautiful day off work due to the "blizzard".  I bought all the required flours over the weekend and made the basic flour mix suggested in the cookbook yesterday. 
Today my first recipe was "Blueberry Cake".  I decided to make muffins instead of a cake.  The recipe called for 1 cup of sugar, so I used 1/2 cup of stevia and 1/2 cup of the Whole Cane Sugar.  I found it took me much longer than the 5 minutes the recipe said to mix the sugar with butter until fluffy.  But it did eventually get creamy.  I mixed about 10 minutes.  I feel this is due to the cane sugar texture.  The next change I made in the recipe was using 1/2Cup warm RICE Milk instead of regular cow milk.  Other than that I followed the recipe as written.  The only other change I made, was putting the muffins in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to cooking them.  This tip came from a gluten-free friend who went to a GF restaurant in North Carolina.  She said the desserts were amazing and she asked the chef his secret.  He said putting all desserts in the freezer for 30 minutes prior to baking.  It forms light ice crystals that help keep the desserts moist.  So I gave it a shot.
The result = delicious.  Of course I am used to the GF taste of foods, so the real test was when I gave one to my husband.  He liked it.  He said it had a different taste than any other blueberry muffin he had eaten before, but it was good.  So I had him put it on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 of course being the best thing ever.  He gave them an 8.  Not bad I thought! 
So I dedicate this first Gluten-free baking experience to my daughter who bought me the cookbook.  It was a success!  Can't wait to bake more later.