GF Brownies ~ Snow Day Fun

A week of no school . . . a nice treat (until you think about the lost days of summer), but for now a nice treat.  So after grading the MOUND of papers that had been taunting me on the table, I decided to find a new recipe and make it gluten free.
I haven't posted in so long, but believe me the kitchen is always open and taking on new adventures.  But for this snow day, well actually week, I found my inspiration in the magazine "All You" January 16, 2015.
The recipe was ORANGE CHEESECAKE BROWNIES.

As always, I feel due to copyright issues I cannot post the recipe in full here on my blog.  But for my dear friends who have decided to take time out of their day to read this entry, if you would like the recipe I will send to you privately.

I made no major changes, except of course for the flour.  It called for 2/3 cups all-purpose flour and I substituted it with my new all favorite Gluten Free flour pictured below.  I love this flour for a few reasons.  First, it already has zanthum gum added so no trying to figure that measurement out.  Second, it is cup for cup replacement in recipes.  Third, it does not leave a grainy texture to the finished product.  Lastly, it is fairly affordable ($12 a bag) and found at my local Kroger store.  I know all you Gluten lovers out there are probably saying "Affordable at $12 a bag for only 4 lbs of flour".  I say, "YES...this is actually very good for a good GF flour".  Yes I can go out and buy cheaper, which I have done in the past.  And it is usually a terrible product.  See my reason Number 3 - NO grainy texture.  I have used cheaper GF flour and literally felt like the cake, cookie, or brownie had sand in it.  So gross really!  As for me, I really don't use flour at all unless I am on a baking spree.  I bought this bag back in November and I still have plenty do make a few more goodies with.  I store in freezer to maintain freshness and just have to remember to set out to bring to room temperature before using.

As for the finished product, not bad!  It was more like a fudge brownie, which I like.  But if you prefer more of a cake brownie this recipe would not be for you.  Changes I would make - add more orange zest and maybe even a splash of orange flavoring.  The title says Orange Cheesecake Brownies, but seriously I could not taste any orange.  The chocolate of the brownie is so powerful and really dominates covering all orange flavor provided by the 1 tsp. orange zest that was added to the cheesecake mixture.  So my  notes on the recipe have changed the 1tsp. to 2 tsp. orange zest.  I will start there and if that still isn't enough, then I may add 1/2 t. orange flavoring.
But who knows, there are so many amazing recipes out there this may be a one hit wonder at my house.  This is the down side to moving to Kentucky away from our daughter and at the time her college friends - no one around to eat the goodies I make.  Baking has slowed down for me because I truly do not need to eat all these sweets.  If we are blessed tomorrow to make it to school, I will have some happy co-workers as they get to enjoy these brownies.
I pray you are all warm and safe!  On snow days I truly do try to take the opportunity to use it as a gift from God to slow down and stay put.  In my week off school, I ventured out one time (Friday) and only because I was almost out of the basic staples of milk and orange juice.  In my house that could be the cause of a revolution.  Philippians 4:13 was my daily scripture sent and I absolutely love the reminder "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."  Whatever your current battle is in your life, and we all have them, I pray this is a gentle reminder for you too.  God is so good and so amazing.  For me, I can easily get caught up in my own issues that I tend to forget His love for me.  Who would have thought 5 years ago I would have had the strength to cut flour out of my diet.  Believe me, it is not easy even after all these years.  A good slice of pizza and a doughnut are missed dearly.  Anyway, as you start this new week, open your heart to God and find strength in Him.  Happy Baking!

 Final Product

Seriously it has been a YEAR!

I just can't believe it has been almost a year since I wrote in  my blog.  What a crazy year of changes and living in limbo.  As posted previously we moved to Kentucky last year - HA - well poor housing market prevented our beautiful Oklahoma home from selling and a weak job market in Kentucky prevented us from finding work, so it was a quick last minute move back to Oklahoma where I was completely blessed to find a job teaching 4th grade.  I learned so much this past year and felt I grew so much as a teacher.  For that and many other reasons, I know God had this plan in motion the entire time.  So when it was time to decide if we should try to move again, it was a very hard decision.  But we gave a realtor a very short amount of time to sell our house and just left it up to God.  The house sold very quickly even though it was listed for $20,000 more than we asked last year and I quickly learned God wasn't quite done yet - a phone interview was done the day of our closing and half way through Missouri I received a call with a job offered teaching 5th grade.  Those of you who know me real well know my tough exterior is just a cover for my super mushy interior, so it took all I had to not just start crying.  So much anquish it seemed last year to sit back and have everything fall into place this year.  I just give all praise to God and a year long lesson for me that he really is the one in control of my life.

So back on the farm - our garden is double the size as last year and a lot of canning is underway as it produces so many amazing vegetables.  Today I will be canning zucchini/squash pickles.  So yummy!  I have continued to refine and gain confidence in gluten free baking, so although I find myself discussing many other things here, I will try to stay true to the title of the blog.  I will say I have a two flours that have just become a HUGE staple in my kitchen.  I used to make my own flour using Bob Mills, but discovered King Arthur Gluten Free Flour and fell in love with the delicious products it produced.  I can find it at Kroger and Meijer and cost about $8 per box.  The down side - you have to add xanthum gum to your recipes.  Then my second favorite flour - Olivia's Outstanding Flour Mix - it also produces great results and the benefit, the zanthum gum is in the flour already.  Also, on the inside of the box are directions to turn the flour into Self-Rising or Cake Flour if you have recipes that call for these flours.  I was so excited because I had a cake recipe calling for Cake Flour and had no idea how to make it, so never got to make the recipe. 
King Arthur has a wonderful website too with super great recipes and I have made several, one of which I will talk about here in a minute - go to: www.kingarthurflour.com 

So if you have been reading my blog you know my mastery of the GF pie crust has been a mission.  Many unsuccessful tries had left me feeling defeated, but thank you King Arthur!  On the website listed above is a GF pie crust recipe.  Well with all my previous pie crust disasters what harm could trying the recipe be?  So this past Christmas I went for it and let me tell you - light, crumbly, perfect pie crusts!  No one even realized it was gluten free.  So I am now confident in the baking of the pie crust, so you won't have to hear me ramble on in my posts about not being able to make one.  Next should be the bread - a good winter project since I am so busy canning and working the garden now. 

So here is the final result - my apply pie made for Christmas 2012.  I also made a pecan pie, but it was eaten so quickly that I didn't get a picture of it.  I had a lot of fun this past Christmas making some old favorite cookies into gluten free cookies.  I will share those soon.
So my concluding words today are to NEVER GIVE UP - this amazing pie would have never come to be had I just given up.  AND when things don't seem to be going the way you want - step back God's plan is always better!  Happy Baking!

Faithful Friend

16 Years ago our neighbor in Hawaii found a stray dog running the neighborhood.  She brought her over to ask if we may know the owner.  Of course we didn't, but Sadie and I fell instantly in love with her!  We offered to take her to the animal shelter later that day since our neighbor had plans.  As the day progressed she embedded herself into our hearts even more.  When we dropped her off we asked if we could adopt her if no one claimed her.  We had to wait 2 weeks and during that 2 weeks we went nearly everyday to visit her.  The call came from the shelter and she was unclaimed ~ do we still want to adopt her.  YES!!!!  We felt Lucky to have found her, so we gave her the name LUCKY!
We could never have found a better dog and she blessed us with with pure joy for 16 years.
She is a well traveled dog - found in Hawaii, moved to Italy, then to Oklahoma, and onto Kentucky. 

Sadly, exactly 1 week ago today she took her final breath of life.  My heart has a huge empty space where only she could fill it.  We found a beautiful place in the sun to bury her.  Perfect for her since she loved to sunbathe.  Her final days were so hard to watch as she gave up food and eventually water.  We watched her become bones and just spent every opportunity to hold her and love her.  She gave me and my family some amazing memories.  I will cherish those always!

I love you Lucky Girl!



Best Friends ALWAYS!



Goodies Galore

Ok, hold on to your seat because I am going to be true to my blog title and actually talk about some baking!  Tomorrow we head out for Pennsylvania to attend a Gun Raffle and camping is on the schedule.  So of course, you can't camp without some goodies to munch on, so bright and early this morning I cranked on the oven while the temps outside were still bearable.
First item up:  The ever faithful ~ RICE KRISPY TREAT~ Not to much explaining needed here, just be sure to purchase the gluten free rice krispy cereal (thank you Kellogs).  Also be sure to check those fluffy balls of deliciousness because some brands to contain gluten.  Other than that, it is as easy as one, two, three.
Second item up:  Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I normally don't share the actually recipe, but I am spoiling you all today with the recipe :)
You will need to first have a gluten free flour mix.  A couple of options here depending on the level of your adventure side.  You can buy King Arthur's Gluten Free All purpose flour.  Quick easy and done ~ but I find you get a little flour and it has a nice price tag.  So here is my GF flour mix I use for all recipes that call for flour:
2 cups brown rice flour (I buy Bob Mills and a small bag can range from $2.99 - $3.99 depending if
                                       on sale - one small bag can triple the flour mix recipe)
2/3 cup potato starch (NOT potato flour! ~ Bob Mills again on this one and it is about $2.99 a bag)
1/3 cup tapioca startch (Good ole Bob Mills)

I mix these ingredients in a nice snap lock lid container.  When I make it, I triple the recipe so it is always on hand.  Store in the fridge!  Now the serious trick is the ZANTHUM GUM!!  This is a little pricey, but lasts forever.  I am still on my original bag I bought 2 years ago (store in fridge or freezer).  When I make a recipe, for instance the chocolate chip cookies.  I add 1/2 tsp. of zanthum gum for a single recipe.  You could add 1 tsp too.  This is what keeps the cookie, cake, bread together.  Without it ~ you would have a crumbled up pile of messiness.

GF Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cup unsifted GF flour blend
1/2 tsp zanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut oil (this is the most amazing oil and pretty much all I use)
      **If you don't want to buy coconut oil - you can use 1 cup butter (2 sticks), but I promise you
          the taste of the cookie with the coconut oil is AMAZING!
3/4 cup sugar (again I use rapunzel brand)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp gf vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips (splurge here and get the good stuff ~ I like organic, but use what you like)

Preheat the over to 375 F.  Stir flour, zanthum gum, baking soda, and salt; set aside.  Beat the coconut oil with the sugars at medium speed for 3-5 minutes.  Add vanilla and eggs (one egg at a time), mix on low speed until blended well.
Slowly add in the flour mixture.  Once it is well blended, stir in chocolate chips.  **I put in freezer for 10 minutes**.  Remove from freezer and drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.
Pour yourself a nice tall glass of organic milk or goat milk and enjoy!

Third on the cooking list today is to prepare the hamburgers and then freeze them for our ride to PA.  I use venison meat (thanks to my hunting hunk of a husband).  So here is what I like to do:
Dice one small onion - mix into venison meat.  Add 1-2 tsp. of garlic powder.  Then add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese.  Get those hands in there and mix all together.  Form into patties and cook em up.  Or well in my case today, freeze in patties and pack in cooler for a delicious meal on Saturday :)  If you don't like blue cheese, I don't see why you couldn't add a cheese you enjoyed, but they are delicious!

Ok, also this week I picked the beets from my garden.  I LOVE pickled beets, but didn't really know how to do it.  So what is a girl to do???? ~~ Call her Momma of course!  I found out I had already messed up.  When I boiled the beets, I drained the beet water. Mom said I needed the beet water.  So here was  mom's recipe:  equal amounts of beet water, vinegar, sugar.  Her equal amounts were 1 cup each.   I refuse to be defeated by beet water or really lack of beet water, so I just added water.  I cooked the water, vinegar, and sugar over low heat until the sugar had dissolved.  (I only used 1/4 each because I didn't make a lot of beets)  I sliced up my beets and poured the mixture over and stored in the fridge over night.  Well my dear folks who are gracious enough to spend your precious time reading my craziness here - It turned out PERFECT!   I only made 3 beets cut up for our dinner tonight, but I am going to pickle the rest of those beets today and take them camping with us.  I would can them, but I didn't plant enough this year to can.  But next year - look out garden you will get a long row of beets!

I am also including a picture of my wonderful sweet precious Sadie Girl and her grandma.  It was an amazing 4th of July surprise when she walked into the house!  I wish the visit could have been longer, but I am so glad we were able to drive up and surprise her grandma before heading on to the airport.  I must say ~ I LOVE being a mom!

Enjoy your cooking adventures!  Happy baking!

"Can" it be that easy?

I know you heard from me already today, but seriously I just had to make a quick post.  Today I had my first canning adventure all by myself and it was AMAZING!  I made butter pickles with the mounds of zucchini and squash my garden continues to produce.  Then I took a stab at rhubarb/strawberry jam.  Why did I convince myself all these years I could never can????  It is amazingly easy and I just love looking over at my canning corner I put together yesterday and seeing all the jars, empty and full!  If you want to can, but are unsure ~ buy the Ball Canning Book.  I have had mine a month now and I think I need to buy a backup because it is already looking well worn (Not a bad thing).  Well unless you have the most amazing sister-in-law like I do, you will just need to read read read that book (magazine look actually).  Get all your canning supplies ~ a HUGE THANK YOU here to my beautiful Grandma who gave me all her jars and water boiler.  I know she does not blog, but those of you reading this that know my grandma -- pass my comment along and tell her pickles and jam are coming her way!
Enjoy my canning pictures and thanks for allowing me to take up a precious 2 - 3 minutes of your day.  I will just sit here and enjoy the "popping" sound of the jars as they make their seal ~ it is a symphony of wonderful.

                                          My canning corner

                                         Look at those amazing canning pots ~ Grandma's are the BEST!

                                        The Zucchini/Squash Butter Pickles heating up!

                                         Beautiful jars full of pickles!

                                         Rhubarb/Strawberry Jam

July already?

Why does the summer seem to fly by so quickly?  It has been one month on the farm and I am still amazed at myself.  I swore I would never survive a country life and here I am living it and LOVING IT!  Last week I drove up to spend a night with my mom, which ended up being two nights because there was no way I was going to miss going to here last radiation treatment with her.  I figured I went to her surgery to remove the tumor ~ here first chemo ~ her first radiation ~ so I should just see the end of it all.  It was awesome!  We had a good laugh driving home reflecting on her first treatment.  So I told my mom I would share the story in my next blog, so here it goes.  Since her treatment was high on her neck, she had to have this CRAZY mask made to go over her face and then it clamped down to the table so she couldn't move.  The only cutouts were her eyes.  So panic set in when they first tried to get this thing on her for the "trial run" the week before the actual start of radiation.  A prescription of meds were needed.  Well they told her people react different so she will want someone to drive her the first time.  We leave her treatment and I am asking her how she feels, does she think she could drive after the medicine (we were in trouble if the answer would be no since she had to go everyday for 4 weeks).  She was telling me she felt fine etc.  In the process of this conversation I am stopped at a red light and the conversation proceeds as follows:
Mom:  "Is it red?"
Me: "Yes mom, it is red"
Mom:  "Really?"  (with a very surprised voice)
Me:  "Mom are you sure you would be ok to drive?  If you can't even tell the light is red, I don't think you need to be driving yourself"
Mom:  "Not the light....Is my neck red from the radiation."
Me:  A HUGE sigh of relief because I seriously thought she didn't think the light was red

                                          Mom's radiation Mask ~ She got to take it home with her

After we got back to her house, she packed up and came to the farm for the weekend with me.  What a joy to have her here!  So we decided to walk the first night.  We went over to see the horses and cows.  We walked the road front going, but coming back I wanted to take her the back way through a path in the woods.  Well, Duke ran along with us and he suddenly went on alert and darted into the woods just as I caught a glimpse of his prey ~ AHHHH  A SKUNK!  I told mom to get to moving up the hill because he was going to chase that skunk right out in the path in front of us.  Well months of chemo and radiation = little exercise time, so trying to get my mom to move it up that hill was not happening.  Luckily, Duke showed up with no skunk back on the path.  Whew - disaster adverted!  I need to start carrying a gun through the woods!!!

We also went to the Blueberry Festival in Augusta, Kentucky.  Ok...so it was about 5 tents of really nothing ~ only one had anything Blueberry.  But we did go down to the Ohio River and enjoyed the view, then we ate a wonderful lunch.  But later this month Augusta is hosting the Ohio River Regatta Festival and it is a weekend long event, so I figure this will be better than the Blueberry Festival.  But I did get an amazing picture of Jim and Me ~ one of my all time favorites.

Let me see, I am trying to think of a gluten free goodie to add here and well nothing is coming to me.  I am still up to my ears in zucchini and squash.  Today, I cut up 30 combined to make buttered pickles.  I am going to also make some zucchini bread tomorrow (gluten free of course).  Tomorrow I am also going to can my first batch of jam:  Strawberry/Rhubarb Jam.  I am so excited!  The cucumbers are coming in now too as are the beans.  I just love the garden!

I did want to share my amazing fly remedy for the cows and horses.  I didn't want to share to much till I knew if it would work.  We made a huge pump spray of it.  We used water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and eucalyptus essential oil.  We sprayed that right on the cows and the flies departed quickly.  I had to do a touch up spray today, but it had been a week, so that is pretty good!  We even sprayed the horses and the flies are much better.  I am hoping the sweet lick blocks will start doing there thing and killing the larve and we will be much better in the fly department.

                                          The much happier cows ~ fly free :)

Well my dear readers, I will end with a few pictures of my gluten free zucchini cookies I made last week, but couldn't get the picture to download.  I will get some pictures of my canning tomorrow and the gluten free bread I make.  Enjoy your 4th of July and happy baking!

Zucchini Overload

What a fun week!  My dear precious sister-in-law and my niece and nephew came down on Wednesday.  By the time they arrived my counter was overflowing with zucchini and squash from the garden.  It was complete madness.  I had been using them in every meal and not a dent was made and each day I was picking more.  So with her canning expertise and my abundance of veggies, we made zucchini/squash relish and zucchini/squash pickles.  I must say this really didn't sound like it would be a success - pickles not made from cucumbers REALLY?  But the final product was beyond amazing!  We used the relish that night on our hotdogs.  The next day we put some pickles on our deli sandwiches.  It is just beyond good.  After day one of canning, we made zucchini/squash GLUTEN FREE cookies.  They were so moist and delicious with a lemon frosting.  It was great!The best part of the entire process was doing it with Maria.  She was so fun and we had a good time talking and chopping. 
Owen and Ruby shadowed their Uncle Jim all day and he is always great with the kids.  The first day he took them fishing down at the pond.  Oh my ~ Ruby caught a 14 inch Catfish and reeled it in all by herself.  Owen did even bigger with his 17 inch catfish.  I was so excited Jim used his phone to video these amazing catches. 
Saturday night we had a big ole' pot of what I like to call "Ann's pot".  It has potato, corn on cob, keilbasa, shrimp, onion in a pot of water seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning.  MMMmmmm.  This came from my friend Ann S. out of Nashville, TN.  Of course she told me the real name and I just can't remember it, so I renamed it Ann's Pot.  Well we added to this delicious meal Rhubarb Margarita's posted on FB by Gillian - It was just a delicious night.
I must say it was a great week other than a few crazy moments.  Like our bright idea to try to shade the front porch using one of those canopy tents.  Let me just start by saying this thing held up in 40mph Oklahoma wind at Rocklahoma.  All was going GREAT - no wind in Kentucky it provided great shade to cut the heat off the front door and windows.  Then while cooking lunch I hear a loud bang.  I open the door to discover the canopy was over my car.  Ok, I try not to be materialistic, but my car is my baby!  All I saw was white paint from the canopy poles all over my nice black car and of course lets not forget the scratches and dents.   Many tears later and smart thinking from Jim (rubbing compound) the white was gone and we only have 2 scratches (barely visible) and one dent.  No more great ideas coming out of me ~ well for a few days at least :) 
Our other not so great moment was when Lucky (our grandma dog - 17 years old) went to get up out of her dog kennel and she was all leaning and kept falling.  Well we have found she had a stroke.  Ruby is such a caretaker, because she just has loved on Lucky and takes care of her.  I pray she recovers, but readers I will say she has gone 2 days no eating.  Yesterday she did eat a couple spoonfuls, but last night she was throwing it up.  Many tears, much  more than the car, have flowed daily.  The tears have been full of sadness, but also just pure joy of all the wonderful memories I have of Lucky in our family.  She is one super special dog!  I pray she recovers and continues to bring us many great memories, but if her time is more limited than I want it to be, I will hold her in my heart forever and thank God for us finding this stray dog in Hawaii and making her part of our family.  We were truly LUCKY to find her!
Focus for this week - learn to compost.  It seems like it would be easy, but when I google there just seems to be way more to this activity than I thought.  Of course dad said - just throw the food scraps in the garden.  So I did this, REALLY dad - have you met my dog Rufus?  I didn't even have the bag empty yet and he was eating it all up.  I think Rufus may be part pig.  So I will need to figure this compost thing out with a more contained system to keep the dog out.  Wish me luck!  Have a great week.

Adventures on the Farm

I haven't posted on here in a long time and I am thinking it is time to change the BLOG title to something more general since this won't have anything to do with gluten free baking.  We left Edmond, Oklahoma May 30th to begin a new chapter in our life in Kentucky.  Oh my what a difference.  There are many moments I question our decision, but after I stop and pray I know we were doing what God wanted of us.  Spending most my life in a city, this has been a serious learning adventure for me.  Being 20 minutes from the nearest restaurant and grocery store has changed the way I cook and shop.  It amazing me how much money we do not spend now!  Of course that is a great thing since I have yet to find a job here. 
Our first week was crazy as we were preparing to host the Williams Family Reunion ~ the first ever weekend long reunion.  It was fabulous!  I had a wonderful time and I think everyone else did also.  We had people in tents, houses, on air mattresses.  It was great. 

Also our first week, we found a baby fawn.  The momma was found later dead in the woods apparently giving birth to a second fawn (hoofs were visible).  Sadly, Jim had to put the fawn down when she tried to stand and had a broken back leg.  She would have never survived a day on her own.  Whew ~ Welcome to country life Deana! 

We are slowly getting settled as we work daily on various chores.  Today we mowed the lawns - started at 9am and we wrapped it up at 2:15pm (that was both of us mowing too).  I love using the zero-turn mower.  How amazing is that invention!  After mowing around all the trees by the double-wide, I may need to go ahead and rethink my decision to get some goats.  I had decided against this due to upkeep of the goats, but wow would it help with the mowing and they would have them a real nice place to live and we would also get some great fresh goat milk.  I could even take a stab at making cheese, goat soap, goat lotion.  So  many possibilities!

I go up and see the horses daily and love on them.  Spirit is getting very used to us and comes over for a nice rub down when we go into the horse pasture.  He is still bossy though and does not allow Jessie or Domino to get any attention.  I hope by fall I will be able to get up and ride him.  After my daily visit with the horses, I go over and check on the cows.  Our bull calf is a little mischievious!  He keeps getting out of the cow pasture and we find him in the wooded area, just on the other side of the barbed fence.  So some fence reinforcing work is on tap this week too.  They are beautiful cows.  There is a terrible fly issue around the cows though, so in addition to everything else I am learning, I have been making myself a fly expert.  So this week I will be working on an all natural fly spray to spray on the cows and horses to kill the current flies.  I have learned about a salt like that kills fly larvae, which will prevent future flies, and I have learned of a mixture I can make that flies drink then they die.  Next year I will be more on top of this and not let it get out of control.  Some flies are always expected, but this is an outright overtake by the flies and it is not good for the cows or horses to have this many on them.  I can't wait till we start building the herd more and then can have some butchered.  I haven't built my chicken coop yet, but need to get on that soon.  I want to get some chickens in here before the end of summer.  My plan is to use them for eggs, but also have some to kill and eat. 

There is some great wildlife and I am thinking of some great hunting for Jim.  Deer every night out in the field.  I saw a turkey one morning from the kitchen window.  Jim and I both feel we heard a bear one night.  It was a little on the scary side actually, so needless to say ~ we carry guns as we walk through the woods!  The catfish in the pond are getting bigger.  We hope to get it stocked more by summers end. 

My garden is beyond amazing!  We kept it small this year since neither of us has kept a garden before.  Jim came and planted back in April and when we got here it was alive with plants.  I have picked so many zucchini and squash they are everywhere.  Our beans look about ready to start picking.  Cucumbers will be anyday now.  My tomato plants are starting to liven up after some good rain.  The corn is about waist high.  Onions are delicious and the beets are really looking good as are the carrots.  Our canteloupe, watermelon, and pumpkins are getting bigger each day.  I pick lettuce about every other day for an amazing fresh salad.  It is just so wonderful to grow and eat your own food.  I have plans to continue building and expanding our garden, especially after our house is built.  This year I want to get aspargus, rhubarb, and rasberry bushes in as these take a few years before we will be able to fully harvest.  I hope to get a peach tree or two planted this year also.

This past weekend, we drove to Nashville to visit with some dear friends from  Naples Italy.  It had been eight years since I had last seen them.  As I reflect back on my life, wow I have done some pretty amazing things and I feel so blessed!  Many people never leave their state or even their county or hometown.  With all my fears about this move, I do feel it was time to pack up and leave the comfort life of Edmond.  I have loved downsizing and getting rid of things that at one time I thought I had to have!  It is crazy.  I would recommend a book I am currently reading:  "7 - an Experimental Mutinany against Excess" by Jen Hatmaker.  What a wonderful book to help refocus on our true purpose in life and our relationship with God.

Well my dear readers, I was hoping to put a few pictures up, but they were taking way to long to download and many of you can see them on my FB page anyway, so I will leave this blog entry with no pics.  Sorry! 

To stay true to my blog title, I have made a Gluten Free cookie since I have been in Kentucky.  I used the chocolate chip recipe on the back of some chocolate chips, but used of course my gluten free flower blend and organic cane sugar (rapunzel).  This time I even cut the 1 cup of butter out and used 1 cup of coconut oil (AMAZING!).  The other variation...I crushed up 1/2 cup of GF pretzels and put into the batter.  Oh my word..... words cannot really describe the deliciousness of this creation.  The pretzel addition were a tip from my dear sister-in-law who I am envious of her cooking mastery!  Sorry God, I will work on not being jealous!!  My next baking adventure will be this week, maybe even tomorrow as I master some GF zucchini bread (I got to start making a dent in the using the 20 zucchini taking up fridge space).  So I will let you know how that goes.

Happy Baking!

Happy New Year -
Well I tried a new dessert to take to a New Years Eve party at our friends home.  I LOVE tiramisu, and our wonderful local Homeland carries Gluten Free Ladyfingers.  So of course it was time for me to enjoy this amazing dessert again.  I have enclosed a picture of the cookbook I got the recipe from.  I absolutely love this particular cookbook.  It has so many amazing GF recipes in it and they are easy!  I enjoy cooking, but my favorite type of cooking is - EASY!  We had a great time with friends and the dessert received great reviews from all who tried it.  I actually found a coffee flavored marscapone cheese, so I bought that to enhance the coffee flavor even more. 

It was wonderful to ring in 2012.  Although 2011 had some great moments, I look back over my  journal and read many entries detailing sadness and hard days.  It was a year of truly looking over the person I was and making decisions if this is the person I wanted to continue to be.  NO WAY was of course the answer, but took little action to make the changes needed.  Well 2012 will be the year action is taken.  Step One - SIMPLIFY!  I was way to materialistic and that was consuming me.  If it is not a true need - then do I really want to spend money on an item that will most likely end up in a yard sale, goodwill donation bucket, or trash?  Jim and I are simplifying our house too and yes it is killing me to get rid of items that are loaded with memories, but I am realizing I don't need "stuff" to keep the memories.  Step Two - MOVE!  I love Edmond, Oklahoma.  We have lived here longer than any other place in our married life, but it is time to get out of the race.  Our new home is out in the middle of nowhere.  At Christmas, my favorite part of the day was going outside at night and seeing the beautiful stars shining down on me.  I will love this view everynight after we move!  The closest grocery store - 15 to 20 minutes away and there are only two choices.  I have no idea where the closest mall would even be, maybe an hour away.  I want to raise chickens and help with the horses and cattle.  I am already asking Jim to build me a greenhouse for year round growing.  Of course with this move comes fear, which I am trying to not let take over me.  I have no job lined up, nor does Jim.  What if our current house does not sell etc.  But my heart has been in the wrong place for to long, so I will purge it of the waste and trust God will give me just what I need - no more, no less.

I pray you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve and have glorious plans for 2012.  Thank you for reading my adventures in GF baking.  I did mention in my last post it may become a blog about moving, so sorry for my side bars off the main baking topic.  Until my next baking adventure - Happy Baking!


This is a wonderful cookbook! 

You can find these at the Homeland Store - I shop at the Santa Fe & 2nd store.

This added an extra coffee flavor.  I bought this at Crest on 15th & Santa Fe

The finished product!  So good!!!

From my family to yours ~ HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ 2012

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