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