Gluten-Free Gingersnaps

 

Grandma's birthday is coming up! Since she needs to eat wheat-free and dairy-free foods, we're making these gluten-free gingersnaps. I'm busy getting other stuff done though, so I wrote out a recipe in very kid-friendly terms, gathered some young bakers, explained a few points about the recipe to them, and sent them to work.

I headed out shopping and came back an hour later to find some beautiful, crisp gingersnaps that Grandma will absolutely love!

They can be taught!

(Apparently, Dad helped them mix just a little bit and then he also helped get the cookie sheets in and out. The rest was done by the 8 and 10 yr olds.)

Here's the recipe:

Grandma's Gluten-Free Gingersnaps (Kid-Friendly recipe)

1. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Put 1/4 cup margarine and 1/2 cup white sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix with a fork until it is all creamed together.

3. Add 1 egg and 2 Tablespoons of molasses to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix together with a fork.

4. Add 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/4 cup corn starch, 1/4 cup potato starch, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cinnamon to the mixture. Mix well with a fork or wooden spoon.

5. Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper.

6. Drop by spoonfuls (about a rounded teaspoon's worth for each cookie) onto cookie sheets, about 12 cookies per cookie sheet.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until crisp around edges.

8. Move cookie sheets to hot pads to let the cookies cool before serving them or storing them for later.

(I cannot vouch for how closely this recipe was followed this time, but the kids' results are very tasty.)

Sneaky Soup

My friend, neighbour, and owner of my oops-I need-something-spare-pantry-down-the-street passed along a recipe for baked potato soup.  It's such a simple recipe and it has a dirty little secret.  I'm not going to tell you the secret yet.  I'll let you try to figure it out.

So I made it last night.  I asked my family what they thought of the soup.  I didn't tell them what was in it right away.  I waited until after they oohed and aahed and declared it their favourite soup ever.  That's quite a winning commentary since my kids don't typically rave about soup.

Here's my friend's picture.  Ours got devoured too quickly and I don't want to wait to get the recipe up here since it was just so good!



Here's how I made it:

Boil one head of cut up cauliflower until very soft.  Drain.  Add 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock.  Add  4 Tbsp cream cheese.  Add 1/4 tsp pepper.  Blend with a hand blender.  Top with cheese, bacon, green onions...  Whatever your favourite baked potato toppings are.  Listen for all the slurps and yums as your family happily devours the Baked Potato Soup.

I'm sure you've figured it out by now...  There are no potatoes! 

My husband continues to be amazed by the diversity of cauliflower.  It's becoming my favourite veggie!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte

I admit that I have not ever had a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks or any other fancy coffee shop.  I usually choose to waste my frivolous money on something with coconut in it.  But I was inspired by our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration and this recipe which I found on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a whirl.  I am very satisfied with this recipe!  I'll probably tweak it a little for my tastes (I already have, but it'll change according to my mood) but it's a great place to start.

Pumpkin Spice Latte 

Yield: enough pumpkin spice mixture for 7 or 8 homemade lattes

Ingredients

7 oz pumpkin puree
1 c. whole milk
1/4 c. sweetened condensed milk
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground dried ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
 1/8 tsp. allspice
 
Mix pumpkin mixture with hand blender.  

Add 1/3 cup mixture to 1 cup coffee.  Heat as needed.   Top with whipped cream, cinnamon, chocolate, whatever you wish!

Freeze what you don't want to use today by scooping leftover pumpkin mixture into applesauce cups or similarly sized Tupperware, 1/3 cup at a time.  To use, just pop one into a mug, heat in microwave, and add coffee.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Buttermilk Dressed Potatoes

I must try this recipe...  Homemade dressing and loaded potatoes in a casserole.  Oh yum!
Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Buttermilk Dressed Potatoes:

Gluten-Free Multi-Grain Miracle Bread

One of my sisters has Celiac Disease.  This means that she is very negatively affected if she ingests any gluten.  I made this bread for her when she came to visit a few years ago and she loved it.  It's super-easy and doesn't require any kneading.  I passed the recipe along to her and she enjoys it when she can.

Every so often, she sends me a frantic plea for help, "I lost the recipe!  Please send it to me again!"  I will also have the occasional family member ask to have the recipe so they can make bread when my sis is around.   So...

In order that all family can have the recipe if they need it, and in order that my sister will always be able to find it, here is my Gluten Free Multi-Grain Miracle Bread recipe, which I found somewhere on one of the gazillion websites out there.


Gluten-Free Multi-Grain Miracle Bread

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup amaranth flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot starch
1/4 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 additional egg whites
1 cup water, room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200F.

Sift the flours, yeast and all other dry ingredients together into a medium bowl. Stir in flax meal and combine.

Combine the wet ingredients in a separate large bowl using a hand-mixer on low or medium speed. When fully combined, slowly add dry ingredient mixture and mix until fully blended, with no lumps. Scrape the sides regularly.

Grease a 9x5" bread pan, and pour the dough into the pan. Turn off the oven and immediately place the pan in it. Do not open the door again, if possible. Allow the dough to rise for 90 minutes. It should rise to the very top of the pan.

Let it rise, uncovered, for 90 minutes.

Increase heat to 350F and bake for approximately 40 minutes. The crust should be golden-brown. Allow to cool slightly before removing it from the pan to finish cooling. Do not slice until the bread is no longer hot.

A nice, crunchy multi-grain bread.

This loaf does not need to be frozen, but if there are leftovers after a few days, place slices in airtight bags and freeze.

Sew Much Fun!

My super-mom friend and home-schooler extra-ordinaire, Momo, came over the other day to catch up.  It had been a while.  Since my ??th birthday was the day before, she surprised me with a lovely gift - a hand bag, sewn entirely by herself.  I immediately fell in love with it and then commissioned her nine-year-old daughter to make a cell-phone case to match.

Later that day, as I showed my new bag to my eight-year-old daughter, she asked if we could sew something like that too.  "Why not?"  So we jumped head first into the fun of sewing!  It's been just under a month, but we already have several crafts, made by our hands, and we're working on a few more. 

I thought this bookmark would be great for each of the kids to make for their teachers as an "end of the school year" gift.

An Apple Ribbon Bookmark

And we're taking our fun with us to Family Camp this year.  So far we've got T-shirt pillows, felt designs and Puppy Pals planned for activity time at camp with all our friends.  It'll be Sew Much Fun!

Her first project, a puppy pal!

Cut-out felt flowers attached to a hair elastic.

I haven't worn this shirt since college chorus days. 
I didn't want to get rid of it, but didn't know what to do with it. 
Voila!  A T-shirt pillow!

Are you Sew Crafty?  What were your beginner sewing projects and what are you working on now?  I'd love some tips on where to go from here!

Graham Cracker Houses

This isn't entirely from scratch, but it beats buying expensive gingerbread houses.  I may still try to make a gingerbread houses from scratch, but I haven't had time to figure it out yet.  In the meantime, here's our family's attempt at making our own graham cracker houses.  I used leftover buttercream icing made from this recipe:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup softened butter
4 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla*
*I used the scrapings of one vanilla bean.

Mix well.  Add milk if needed until desired consistency.

(As you browse through the pictures, try to guess where the engineer is.  It shouldn't be too hard.)