Happy New Year to All!

As I sit here typing it is the wee hours of of the morning, December 31, 2010, the house is quite and there is a slight nip in the air.  The ground outside is dusted lightly with freshly fallen snow from the storm that moved through last night.  This gives me time to reflect over the year that is drawing to a close and to look forward to the coming year.

In my reflections I learn how truly blessed I am.  My husband (Eric) and I have been married for over 30 years.  He is my best friend.  There are times when he bugs me but I also know there are times when I really bug him as well.  We have had an amazing journey and are looking forward to many years ahead.

I have had a wonderful family and 2 great kids that in spite of me have turned out great.  There is my son-in-law.  He is a great husband and father to my beautiful granddaughters.  This year Eric and I got to take our almost 3-year granddaughter to Disney World.  If you never had the experience of meeting Mickey and Minnie with a 3-year old I would highly encourage it.  Then there was Dumbo and It's a Small World not to mention the highlights of her trip, the Biddidi Boddidi Boutique and breakfast with the princesses at Cinderellas Royal Table.  A fantastic trip.

In June, I was blessed with a second granddaughter and had the awesome experience of taking care of my little girl and her family for a few weeks.  When my children were born, I thought nothing could possibly compare to holding them the first time; however, when you hold a child that is the product of one of those children it is a double blessing.


There is my son.  What a wonderful young man he is.  I know that he would love to find a job more in line with his degree.   It took a lot of courage for him to pack up and head out in a new direction.  I admire him and pray for him each and everyday that his life will be filled with tremendous blessings.

I am looking at the clock and thinking about the events that are planned for today and tomorrow and the year to come.  We have 2 wonderful friends that we were truly blessed to find along our way.  They were neighbors about 30 plus years ago and no matter where our paths have taken us, we were lucky that it came back to them.  The four of us have some wonderful memories together and have plans for making so many more over the coming year.  


This year brought new challenges and I look forward to the challenges to come.  May all of you have a safe and happy New Year.  See you in 2011!

Merry Christmas

Wow!  Where has the year gone?  Once again it has flown by. This year as in years past I was able to make and share homemade goodies from my kitchen.  The only difference this year was they were gluten free.

As usual I found some wonderful recipes while web-surfing and is my habit I made changes to some to others there was no need.  One of my first finds was for Chocolate Covered Coconut Bon Bons....oh yum.  This is one of those recipe that I choose to change.

Chocolate Covered Coconut Bon Bons
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 lbs powdered sugar
1 (7 oz) bag sweetened coconut
2 1/4 cups coarsly chopped pecans
1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, add in milk and powdered sugar.  Mix until well combined.  Stir in coconut and pecans.


Place the mixture in freezer for 30 minutes or until well chilled.  With slightly dampened hands, form the chilled mixture into 1/2 inch round balls.  


Place 10 oz of chocolate chips in a medium size, microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute.  Stir and continue to microwave at 50% powder at 30 seconds intervals until chocolate is melted.  Remove from oven and stir in remaining chips.


Then the fun begins.  With 2 spoons dip the chilled candies into the chocolate.  Place on a cookie sheet that is lined with waxed paper or a spilat baking mat.  When well set, place candies in a covered container and store in refrigerator.  


This recipe makes an abundance of candy, over 100 pieces making it a wonderful find to fill out goodie boxes.  


Lazy Gourmets Peanut Butter Truffles were a gigantic hit and so easy to make.

Then at Gluten Free Hubb I found a fantastic recipe for Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes (From a Box).  Since I was making these to share with co-workers and friends, I used mini-cupcake pans.  The recipe made 36 mini-cupcakes and 6 regular cupcakes.  They got rave reviews and no one knew they were gluten free.  

What is Christmas without cookies?  I made and shared No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies.  Another great gluten free find.  From Good Housekeeping I stumbled upon Paula Deen's Pecan Clusters.  I made them a little more festive by using candied cherries in red and green.

Let us not forgot Texas Millionaires.  Unfortunately I did forget where I found the recipe sooooo....next time I will write it down.  For now I will kick back and enjoy Christmas with my children and grandchildren.

Merry Christmas to All!

Fig Bars for the Holiday

Recently I found a great magazine, Clean Eating.  In the November/December issue there was a recipe for Fig Squares.  They weren't gluten free but were very easily adapted.  A perfect holiday bar cookie.


Fig Squares

Filling:
8 oz dried figs
4 oz pitted dates
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Baking Spice Blend Mix
1/4 tsp pure maple extract

Crust:
1 cup gluten free rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/3 cup flax seed meal
1/3 cup almond flour
2 tablespoons organic dark brown sugar
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 to 2 tablespoons water or apple juice
cooking spray


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


Put the figs, dates, water and lemon juice in a medium size, microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 1 minute or until steaming.  Cover bowl with a plate and allow to stand while preparing crust.


Place the oats through salt into the bowl of a food processor.  Process lightly, add in applesauce and enough water of juice to make a moist, coarse paste.  Spray an 8x8 inch square pan with cooking spray.  Halve the crust mixture and with slightly dampened hands, press evenly into prepared pan.

Place the fig mixture into food processor bowl and process until smooth.  Stir in spice blend and extract.  Spoon mixture evenly over crust, evenly spread top with remaining crust mixture.  Place in preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly brown.  

A delicious and healthy treat for the holiday cookie tray that is gluten free.

Baking for the Holiday

Well I am still working to make that perfect loaf of gluten free sourdough bread.  In the meantime I have turned my attentions to more immediate tasks at hand.  Nothing says winter and Christmas more than fresh cranberries.  I found a recipe for Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins.  I wanted to make the recipe a little healthier.  While the finished product was good, I do think it could have used additional applesauce or maybe the addition of some cooking oil.  I have up the amount of applesauce to 1/2 cup.  I think it would be successful with 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil.  Here is my adaption of Gluten Free Betty's recipe.


Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins

1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used 1/4 cup and it wasn't quite enough.)
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 orange, juice and zest
1 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Brown Rice Flour Blend
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons xanthum gum
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 - 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with 10 to 12 muffin liners.  In a small bowl add  yogurt, applesauce, eggs and extract.  Beat until combined.    

Zest the orange reserving the zest.  Juice orange and measure juice.  Add in additional juice to measure 1/2 cup.  Add orange juice to egg mixture.

In a larger bowl whisk together the flour blend through sugar.  Pour in the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.  Fold in chopped cranberries and walnuts.

Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin tin filling about 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool completely before wrapping.  These freeze well and can be quickly defrosted in the microwave for a quick morning treat.

Before the Freeze

My oh my, where has the time gone.  Thanksgiving is behind us and Christmas is only a few short weeks off.  I have been busy completing Christmas shopping, packaging gifts for mailing and off to the Pacific Northwest on business travel.

In all of this, I am working at making a perfect loaf of gluten free sourdough bread.  There have been some loaves very close but then there are the failures.  Yesterday, I made 2 loaves.  The first rose so high that I knew if would collapse.  It collapsed some but was still edible.  The "some" part gave me hope that success was close at hand.  In the second attempt the yeast was left out completely.  While the bread rose it split open on top.  The dough may need more water or it might need a boost with a touch of instant yeast.  That story can wait till later.

On Thanksgiving day the cold front moved through and in preparation the tomatoes were picked.  After covering the dining room table with containers of green tomatoes the search ensued for what to do with them.  Both DH and I enjoy Green Tomato Preserves.  

This delicious recipe takes care of 4 pounds of the bounty so the search continued for additional uses.  A web search yielded a couple of more wonderful selections.  First there was Green Tomato Salsa.  

I did cut back on bit on the jalapeno and used fresh from the garden green bell peppers since I also had an over abundance of them.  

Then there was a recipe that I found for Green Tomato Pasta Sauce.  I did some tweaking to suit my taste as I do with so many recipes.  The original recipe was found at http://www.squidoo.com/green-tomatoes.

Green Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium onion, chopped
2 pounds medium size green tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy dutch oven over medium low heat.  Add in garlic and onion, cook about 1 minute or until wilted.  Add tomatoes and increase heat to medium.  Saute, stirring until garlic begins to turn brown (about 4 minutes).

Add dried basil and cook covered 5 to 8 minutes.  Transfer contents to a food processor or blender and puree. Return ingredients to dutch oven, stir in grated cheese and season to taste.  Ladle into 2 cup containers, cool and freeze. Reheat and serve over hot pasta of choice.


The final selection was for an old familiar standby of Dilled Green Tomatoes.  This time I used some of leftover jalapenos in lieu of the red pepper.  Here is a photo of all my winter bounty.

With only a few green tomatoes left to use I once again went to web surfing. I found a delicious dinner recipe by Rachel Ray, Grilled Pork with Green Tomato Salsa.  

Just a quick note that the fresh salsa is also delicious on top of a big steaming bowl of chili.  With the green tomatoes preserved for winter use I could get the kitchen cleaned up and ready to start Christmas Baking (gluten free of course).