Cake Friday!

My husband issued something of a challenge to me, saying that I should bake a cake every Friday....a decorated cake, mind you. I had laughed and thought it was a joke, but he was insistent. I could use the practice anyway, so I accepted the challenge....almost. Instead of making a cake every week, I am shooting for every other week. That should give me plenty of practice without being too overwhelming. Hopefully they do not all end up on Cake Wrecks. :)

 Today's cake was inspired by the snowfall that we got on Wednesday. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, after my children went to bed with visions of going sledding in their heads, it began raining and melted all the snow. Sigh. Now we once again have the brown and muddy look going on outside. Since the winter wonderland outside is not really working out, I tried to conjure up some inside. I have decided to call this my icicle cake.

In trying to make the hard candy, I burnt the mixture twice. My mind was just not in the mood to stay focused today I suppose. I am not super happy about the blue color. I was shooting for something lighter, but by that point I was tired of boiling sugar.

It is a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. Nothing fancy, but plenty yummy.

Spike's 10th Birthday

Spike, my Winter Solstice baby, turned 10 today. He has brought so much into our lives with his funny ways. Me and Brady always laugh when we think about his knack for finding small metal objects, such as computer screws, in any area you put him in. We often had to check his chubby little fists to see what he had found. Even though he is getting older, he sometimes sneaks up on me and gives me a big hug, so I guess I can deal with it.


Without further ado, Spike's Birthday Video...

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Tonight we decorated our Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun unpacking the ornaments and watching the kids decorate the tree while Brady played a variety of funny songs.

While me and Brady have never had the kind of perfectly decorated trees that you see in magazines or on display in stores, I have thought ours were wonderful year after year. The first year we were married, when Gizmo was only a few months old, we splurged on a lovely tree. Since we were pretty broke at that point, we didn't have much money left for ornaments, but our tree looked lovely with its' many candy canes. We still have the three icicle ornaments we bought that year to symbolize the three of us. Later on, during the years were we have had curious toddlers, our Christmas trees have only been decorated on the top half.  We have ornaments that the kids have painted, ornaments from the cruises we have been on together, and ornaments that we just thought were pretty at the store. Somehow it all works together, and every year I can't help but think about where our family is now and where we have been, and I love that.

Brady topped it off with the star.

After the decorating was through, we all enjoyed a glass of Rice Nog (dairy free egg nog) which was really quite good. I tried to get some nice pictures of the kids, but instead ended up temporarily blinding them since I had turned on the flash. Oops.

 I am starting to get really excited for Christmas now....just need to finish up the rest of my shopping.

A Bento for Autumn

I am cheating a bit here. These bentos were made a while ago. To be precise, this is what we ate for lunch when we went to Heritage Park. But life gets busy and other things demand to be posted, and the poor little pictures of my autumn bento box was forgotten.

However, Brady is working an overnight shift tonight so I am filling this time of quiet after the kids go to bed and before I feel ready to succumb to sleep myself with spending time piddling around on the computer. That has led me here, posting up a picture of a bento box fit for Fall.

The preparation on these bento boxes was pretty simple. (Yes, I know there is only one in the picture, you will just have to trust me that there was more) The leaves in the bottom container are tuna fish sandwiches. I cut out the shapes from gluten free bread using a cookie cutter first, and then assemble the sandwich. That way, the cutting is less messy, and you can still salvage the crusts to grind up into bread crumbs for meatballs, meatloaf, or breading something for frying. Surrounding that is carrot sticks. 

The top portion of the box has grapes and a muffin paper filled with homemade gluten and dairy free graham crackers in the shape of acorns. I am working on incorporating almond meal into my graham cracker recipe, and will post it up as soon as I finish the testing process. I bought special autumn muffin papers specifically for this, but the design does not show at all. Oh well, they worked well for muffins later that week.

Gluten and Dairy Free Pumpkin Muffins

With the weather getting colder, I have been craving pumpkin muffins. I was procrastinating on baking any since all of my previous gluten free muffin attempts have been....not so good. I did not want to spoil my fantasy of a perfect pumpkin baked good by turning out a funny looking and oddly tasting muffin. However, Gizmo started asking me about making them after seeing cans of pumpkin at the store so I decided to give it a go and create my own perfect GFCF pumpkin recipe. It took about six tries for me to get it right, but my family cheerfully ate up every attempt. I am my own harshest critic when it comes to my baking, but I think the recipe is just how it should be now.

Since I have long since discovered that the path to my husband's heart is paved with streusal, I made a streusal topping for the muffins. I included the ingredients and directions to making the topping, but it is optional, and we have enjoyed them just fine without it.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 cup pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup almond flour (I use the leftover pulp from making homemade almond milk)
1 cup rice flour
1/3 cup corn starch
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
3/4 cup almond milk

Streusal Ingredients:
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by using muffin papers or spraying with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, maple syrup, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and olive oil for about 2 minutes, or until well combined.

In a medium bowl, blend together the almond flour, rice flour, corn starch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, salt, and xanthum gum. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well.

Pour in the almond milk and mix until combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup approximately 2/3 of the way full, and bake for 23-25 minutes.

On a few mornings when I have felt particularly lazy, I have prepared a 9 x 13 inch pan instead and just poured the batter into it. This does require a few extra minutes of baking time.

Makes 16 muffins.

Gluten and Dairy Free Zuppa Toscana

This recipe was one of my first triumphs against food intolerance. I am pretty sure that everyone who has been told that they should stay away from a particular food starts making a mental list of all the things that they can not have. Even though I was not all that upset when I found out that I would need to avoid casein in addition to the gluten which I had already stopped eating, I did start that list. Lasagna was the first item on the list, closely followed by cheese enchiladas. Surprisingly, I was okay with that. Then, however, I thought about zuppa toscana. My heart dropped a little. Zuppa toscana is a household favorite. Everyone enjoys it, and it is simple to prepare, not an easy thing to accomplish.

Over the next few weeks as I wrote up menus and did the grocery shopping, I found myself pondering what substitutions I could make to the original recipe to replace the heavy cream. Soy creamer was a possibility, as well as making extra-thick almond milk. I ended up using canned coconut milk, and I think I actually prefer my casein-free version more than the original.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. bulk Italian sausage (check the label to make sure it is gluten-free)
• 2 large potatoes (I use really large ones from Costco, so if you have smaller ones, just chop up how much you want)
• 2 Tbsp. Better than Bouillon Chicken Base (or equivalent bouillon cubes)
• 8-9 cups of water
• 1 bunch kale (about 9 cups chopped)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/4 cup sweet rice flour (not absolutely necessary if you don't have it, but does thicken up the broth nicely)

In a large pot, brown the sausage and drain the excess fat. Remove the pot from the heat while you skin the potatoes and thinly slice them. If the potatoes have a large diameter, you may want to cut the potato in half lengthwise before making the thin slices....trying to eat an enormous piece of potato is not an attractive look for anyone. :) Add the potatoes to the pot and cover with water. In a small bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour with a small amount of water, then add to the pot. Add in the chicken flavoring, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes.

While waiting for the potatoes to cook through, wash and coarsely tear the kale. Ripping up the kale is a great job for little helpers, just make sure that the coarse stem doesn't accidentally make its way into the soup pot. Princess really likes helping with the kale.

Drop the kale into the pot and stir it around a bit. Pour in the entire can of coconut milk and stir until it is fully blended. Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve.

Happy (late) Halloween!

I thoroughly enjoy Halloween each year. Getting costumes ready for all the kids can be  stressful, but worth it once I get to see them all dressed up. Gizmo helped out with her costume a lot this year, from coming up with the design to doing some of the sewing. She was very proud of how it turned out. But enough of my chatter, and onto the pictures. I had an awesome afternoon photographing the kids with my early Christmas present (thanks, Brady), a Nikon D3100.

Squirt the Mummy

Princess the Witch

Spike the Vampire

Gizmo the Demon