Friends and Cheesecake :)

After a look into the mirror this morning, right after I got out of bed, I was sure the day was ruined. God had a great way of lifting my spirit though. A friend called me on skype and we had a chance to connect again. Even though we didn't touch base with each other much, except the occasional hello on Facebook or through reading each others blogs, it seemed as though we sat together just yesterday. It was such a sweet surprise to talk to her and her children. It made my day, though come to think of it, I am not so sure I made their day. I was not the most pleasant sight ....

After we stopped talking, she had to go because her husband had made pancakes and everyone sat down to eat. That got me hungry and I ventured into the kitchen, only find that I was too lazy to make something for breakfast, so I ate a gluten-free Christmas cookie for breakfast. If you'd like a recipe, look here.     

The kids had fun decorating cookies :)

and they are very good as well :)

When I finally got done with my shower and looked much more presentable, I decided to make the cheesecake I had planned for yesterday. It turned out sooo good! I did make some changes though, because the original recipe calls for pumpkin puree - I made the cheesecake several time like that, but we didn't feel like pumpkin today. So I substituted sour cream for pumpkin puree and lemon for cinnamon and pumpkin spice.  If you would like the recipe, you can click here.

It actually looks a bit darker than it is.

very moist and yummy :)

After all the baking and warming up the left overs from yesterday I cleaned the kitchen, dropped off one of my daughters at the mall - insert rolling eyes - took my little guy to Target to buy Lego Batman 2 for the Wii. It was sold out and so we went to Walmart where he found his long desired game, which he bought from his Christmas money from Oma and Opa. Thank you both, you made him very happy :) Then I dropped him off at home and went to pick up my child and two of her friends from the mall, brought them all to our house and tried to ignore loud laughing of three teenagers. Then I started working on my goals and organization for 2013. I think I deserved that piece of cheesecake. It was a good day :)

Gluten - Free Taco Pie

I have told you about Pinterest, so now it is time to talk about what I have done there and what the results are.
Well, let's start with food :) That's always good, right?  I made taco pie on Sunday because we have had crock-pot food a few days in a row and I wanted a change of pace. However, the temperature is supposed to be in the 90's, 91 to 99 F or 33 to 37 C, all week. I sense another crock - pot week coming on .... did I tell you that I found this one site on Pinterest with crock-pot recipes for a whole year without any repeats? Oh, I digress, sorry, yeah, the taco pie - also from pinterest ;-)

It was very easy to make and quick, which is always a plus, because everyone is hungry when we come home from church. I had planned to stop by the Health Food Store and see if they have the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Bisquick mix because I wanted to use that instead of the regular wheat version. But the car was overheating very fast and very much and so the logical choice was to go home asap. I found a recipe for homemade gluten free bisquick mix, which is probably cheaper. Well, at least if you have the different flours at home, which you very well might if you live gluten free.

So, without further ado, here is the picture......

Impossibly Easy Taco Pie

It's very easy, click here for the recipe for the taco pie and here for the recipe for the gluten free flour. I put the bisquick mix in a mason jar and store it in the refrigerator - oh, yes, I almost forgot. I didn't have shortening so I used coconut oil, which I feel is healthier anyway, you could probably also use olive oil or whatever you have on hand.

This was so delicious, that we had almost all gobbled up before I remembered to take a picture. Now, our picture isn't that pretty because we didn't put tomatoes on the pie while it was in the oven, I just added tomatoes and lettuce and sour cream on side on our plates. So, here is our picture of the left overs ;-)

Yummy treats....

This week we have spend a little of our time watching "The West Ladies" aka Homestead Blessings. We watched the Dairy Delights, Crafts, Cooking and Herbs. It was really fun to see how easy these wonderful ladies make the work look like. Even my little guy had fun watching it and he learned about herbs and such as well. It was pretty cool. Since we were drooling over the cooking dvd and got really hungry, we decided to try some things. Of course we have to adapt some of recipes because we need them to be gluten-free. I have been buying Jules flour for a little while now and really, really like it. It doesn't taste gluten-free at all. We really enjoy it. Anyway, I searched her recipes for peach cobbler and found it. I haven't had peach cobbler since I lived in the south, about 16 years ago. It took me about 10 min to prep it and put it in the oven. It came out very nicely and tasted so delicious! I had a hard time to defend it from certain children (who got up in the middle of the night to steal another piece of peach cobbler). In the morning we had only two pieces left - I guess I have to make some more  :D

A quick picture before it was all gone. Unfortunately GF flour doesn't brown like regular flour.

Yesterday we treated ourselves to homemade ice cream. No we don't use the hand-crank the West Ladies use ;-)  We have a little electric one, which works very nicely and produces about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream. We tried it last night for the first time and boy, was it good ! The recipe is very easy.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

Though I must say that the 2 cups heavy cream was a little too rich. We had some of the cream stuck to the roof of our gums. So next time I will try it with only 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of whole milk. I think that might be just a little less rich. I use vanilla without alcohol, which I think makes it so much better tasting. I will write an update on the reduced fat ice cream. It was too late last night to make chocolate sauce, which I really enjoy, so we used the sprinkles we have on hand.

I liked mine without anything, just pure :)

Oh, how time escapes me....

It has been a while since I last blogged. My husband has been here and left again and we are trying hard to find a routine again. I don't know what it is, but we have been incredibly busy the last two weeks. Now I am sitting here and just saw that a severe Thunderstorm warning was issued for our county. Not surprising, it was so hot and humid here that I even turned the A/C on for a few hours to get the humidity out of the house. 
Since I am sitting here and being lazy because it is still so warm, I thought I let you know how our first homemade wheat free pizza turned out. We made a few weeks ago and I also used the pizza stone for the first time. With this pizza here, I went with the direction and it turned out to be pretty crisp. The next pizza we made was better because I didn't preheat the pizza stone. That was much better! The recipe is from the Gluten Free Gourmet cookbook, let me know if you would like to know which one exactly.

Yeast-Rising Thick Pizza Crust

2 cups rice flour
2 cups tapioca flour
2/3 cup dry powder milk or nondairy substitute
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pizza seasoning, optional ( I didn't have it and it was still very good)
2 tablespoons dry yeast granules
1 cup lukewarm water, 105 to 115 F ( I never actually measured the temp.)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons shortening 
1/2 cup hot water
4 egg whites at room temperature

In the bowl of a heavy duty mixer, put flours, milk, xanthan gum, and salt. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water with the tablespoon of sugar added. Melt the shortening in the hot water.
With the mixer on low, blend the dry ingredients adding the seasoning if desired. Pour in the hot water and shortening, blending to mix. Add the egg whites, blend again, the add the yeast mixture. Beat on high speed for 4 minutes.
Spoon half the the dough onto the greased cookie sheet or round pizza tin. ( I put it onto the pizza stone. I did put cornmeal on it before though.)
With your hand in a plastic bag, pat the dough out in a circle about 1/4 inch thick except at the edges, which should be higher to contain the sauce and fillings. Repeat with second half of the dough (I put that in a baggie and froze it, worked just fine after thawing). Let rise 10 min, then bake in preheated 400 F oven 5 to 7 minutes before spreading with your sauce and favorite toppings. Bake 20 to 22 more minutes. About 8 to 12 servings.
Okay, I did not preheat or prebake the pizza, it worked much better for us to put on the sauce and toppings and then bake. At least that is how it worked for us with the pizza stone. It was very yummy! Really not much different from regular pizza at all. Give it a try :D

The dough looks like regular dough, right?

Here is the pizza with all the toppings, looks sooo good..

I went with the suggested 20 min, which turned out to be too much for my oven, but it was still very, very good. For the next pizza I reduced the baking time by 5 min and it was just right. Unfortunately we were to greedy and ate the pizza before we remembered to take a picture :D

 

New Gluten Free Recipe

In my last post I talked about my new stand mixer. This time I would like to share a recipe for a gluten free cake. Of course I really just wanted to use the new mixer ;-)  It works really good and I am happy with my purchase.

Aside from the fact that I wanted to try out the mixer, we all had a real craving for something  citrus-y. For Dinner we had Rice with Broccoli with Orange and sausage with Mango chutney and a salad with Mangos, Romaine lettuce and Sunflower seeds. It was very good but I think that is where our craving for something citrus-y started.... Probably because we are all sick and our bodies just need vitamin C.

So anyway, I had some Oranges that need to be eaten so I decided to make an Orange cake with orange cream frosting. (I would suggest to use the zest of oranges only if they are organic)

Orange Cake

2 1/2 cups of flour mix ( see the bottom for what I used)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups sugar

zest of 2 oranges

2 oranges, whirled around in the food processor

4 large eggs

1 tbs vanilla 

I started by grating the orange peel into a bowl. Next I peeled the oranges out of the remaining peel and put them into the food processor. I processed it until it was like a sort of orange juice, I have some kids who don't like " pieces" in their cake :-)

Then I beat the oils, orange peel, and sugar until smooth and added the eggs. Then I poured the oranges from the food processor into it. It gets very liquid-y so be sure to turn the speed down on the mixer.

Now I added the flour, after that was worked in, I added the baking powder, salt and vanilla.

Pour into a large loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 40 min. You may want to check before that, depending how hot your oven gets.

Cool for 20 min and then put the glaze on. 

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Orange

a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

Again, grate the peel of the orange. When you are done add the powdered sugar and the juice from the orange. While mixing it add a little heavy whipping cream until you have the desired consistency. You can also you milk, half and half or water instead of the whipping cream. That is just what I happened to have on hand.

It was very delicious! The light taste of coconut complements the orange taste. The cake has semi- dense texture. I think that is due to the coconut flour. It didn't last long in our house. It was almost half gone before it was even cold :D

 Guten Appetit :D

Home made Detergent

I have heard that people make their own laundry detergent. The other day I decided to give it a try. I bought a bar of Castile soap with lavender at Trader Joe's, I still had Borax and I bought a box of Washing Soda. Next I grated the bar of soap. Then I boiled some water and added the grated soap and stirred until it was dissolved. Now I added one cup of washing soda and one cup of borax, again I stirred until it was all dissolved. I then took an empty bucket (it did have laundry detergent in it at some point) and filled it with hot tap water. Now all I had to do was add my boiling soap mix into the bucket of hot water, stir. Done! I let it sit 24 hours and now we have wonderful laundry detergent without all the ugly chemicals and much cheaper! My detergent didn't gel, but I have since learned that whether it gels or stays watery depends on the bar of soap you use. I used Fels-naphta before but I didn't like the strong smell. I really like lavender so, that's why used that one.  Here are some pictures.....

NOTE: I have since found out that you shouldn't use more than about 1.5 gallons of water. It got too watery the way I made it at first.

this is the water and grated soap

                                                                                         

                                    

here it is dissolved....

Here is the the mix in the bucket of water

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake

We have started eating gluten free (gf) in our house. At this stage it still is an experiment, but it seems that we are all profiting from it. Nina always had stomach aches and we have been trying for years now to find out why. We did food journals, medication, no dairy, all kinds of examinations - all to find out that it is inconclusive. The results from all the tests are saying she is a very healthy girl. Her, at times severe, stomach aches are begging to differ. She was also tested for celiac disease, but that was negative. After I got the results, I investigated a little further and found that one of the readings was elevated and that this could point to a wheat sensitivity. After reading a little more about it and talking to some people, the decision was made to go wheat free for a while. Well, we managed to do it for about a week before we "fell off the wagon" and went back to eating wheat. Which in itself was very interesting. During our gf week, we all felt better. Nina's stomach aches were not very bad, they were very manageable, my headaches were gone, Jamie and Jeremy felt better and were quite a calmer than usual. When we went back to wheat, Nina's stomach aches became VERY severe. I was almost at a point where I was getting ready to tell her that she couldn't go to Camp. She has been living on her prescription drugs for the last three days. I am back on my headache pills and the other two are their usual .... lively selves. All this after just one week!!! Maybe it was a coincidence? Well, Nina is coming back from camp tonight and tomorrow we will go wheat free again. I got rid of just about all the wheat stuff we had. So those temptations are gone ;-)   So far the most challenging thing was finding bread we all agree with. We have found that Ezekiel bread fits that bill. I have just heard from a friend about some other bread I can order but haven't tried yet. Instead of regular pasta we use rice sticks from the grocery store. You can find it a somewhat reasonable prices in the ethnic isles. That was okay for us as well. I have tried my hand at baking and one recipe was pretty good. I got it from Sheri's blog, which is really, really good. So here is Sheri's recipe for :

Pumpkin Spice Cake

• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cups organic sugar or Sucanat
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 15-oz. Can pumpkin
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum  (Since guar gum is much cheaper, I used that)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin on medium speed until smooth.

In a medium-sized bowl combine the remaining ingredients.  Add to wet ingredients and mix at low speed just until everything is blended and smooth.

Spread the batter in a greased 9×13-inch baking dish.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Allow to cool completely, then top with a vanilla frosting.

Vanilla Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2+ teaspoons milk

Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add in milk 1 teaspoon at a time until the frosting is the desired spreading consistency. Once you get the frosting the right thickness, then beat on high speed with your mixer for 2 minutes.

Frosts a 9x13 inch cake. 

This is the cake fresh from the oven

with the icing....

very light, fluffy and yummy !