Delightfully Gluten Free

December 24, 2008

Gingerbread Pancakes

Filed under: Breakfast, Holiday Menu Items — Cassandra @ 10:31 am

Merry Christmas Eve to you all!

These pancakes have a gentle gingerbread taste.  Perfect for a winter morning.

Gingerbread Pancakes

2 & 1/2 cups Gifts of Nature gf flour mix (or any gf flour mix with xanthan)
5 tsp baking powder
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 & 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 + 1/8 tsp ground ginger
6 TBS oil (tip – use 1/4 cup and 2 TBS)
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses (tip – put the molasses in the cup used for oil)
2 to 2 & 1/2 cups milk (2 for fluffy, 2 & 1/2 for thin)
2 large eggs
1 cup raisins

Stir together dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredient, and stir until mixed.  Fold in raisins.

Cook in skillet on medium heat.  These pancakes do not make bubbles, but a “skin” will start to form on the top.  My stove can be real wonky, so that’s really all I can tell you.  Everything with my stove is a guessing game.  :)

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I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and/or whichever special event you are celebrating.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Till, ringing, singing, on it’s way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

From “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
By Henry W. Longfellow

December 22, 2008

Tell Whole Foods How You Feel

Filed under: Celiac/GF News — Cassandra @ 10:34 am

Whole Foods is currently conducting a survey about special diets.  Please take a few minutes to do the survey (it’s pretty short).

In the comments section, make sure you tell them to get their products certified with GFCO.  This is our chance!

Take the survey.  (I don’t know how long it will last.)

December 16, 2008

Death of A Freezer

Filed under: Desserts, Ideas for Leftovers — Cassandra @ 3:51 pm

It almost sounds like a classic novel.  :)

Last Thursday, after returning from the store, I again found a little water leaking out of the freezer.  This time, I knew for certain that I had shut it properly and no children had been near it.  Hmmm… cheese in the door – soft.  Meat on the top shelf?  Yep, it was soft, too.  But the light was still coming on.

We pulled out the freezer and found that something had chewed all the insulation off the pipes, and chewed through all the wiring to the compressor.  Andy later found the culprit or his accomplice – a rather large rat.  What gives?  They have no right being in my garage.  And why don’t they die when they chew through electrical cords?  At least they didn’t set the house on fire.

Luckily, it had been pretty cold, and we didn’t lose too much (I did have to throw out a few packages of meat, and some leftovers).  I had a roast that was almost completely thawed, but still cold, so I threw it in the crockpot with all the veggies from the freezer, a little garlic, and a few dashes of liquid smoke.  The meat was great.  Andy and the boys liked the veggies, but I hated them (there was cauliflower, peas, carrots, corn, and onions).  Mom took the rest of the veggies home a few days ago.

Something else that had totally defrosted was a big bag of strawberries.  I decided to use those and the last of the snickerdoodles that had defrosted.  Since I spent Thanksgiving being sick, I had plenty of cranberries in the fridge.  It wasn’t a really sweet dessert, but it was really good.  The next day, the cookies had soaked up the juice and were like a thick pudding.

Strawberry-Cranberry Cookie Crumble

3 cups frozen strawberries, defrosted, with juices (mine were whole, unsugared, and I cut them in half)
1/2 to 1 cup chopped cranberries
sweetener (I used 6 packets of Splenda and 2 tsp sugar)
about 9 large gf snickerdoodles (mine were from The Gluten-Free Kitchen cookbook)

Mix strawberries, cranberries, and sweetener(s).  Pour into baking dish, about 9×13.  Sprinkle medium to large chunks of cookies on top.  Bake in a 350° oven for about 40 minutes.

Next time, I might try some cookies whole, on the bottom, for a crust.

And because my children looked so nice on Sunday…

Andy has fixed the freezer now.  We just need to get some insulation back on it, and get the food (that we could save) back from my Granny Reta’s house.  And then clean the garage back up so I can get my car out of the cold.  Brrr.

December 15, 2008

James is Famous

Filed under: Celiac/GF News — Cassandra @ 11:07 pm

Okay, maybe not quite famous.  But he is in an article in Newsweek about Celiac Disease.

Who is James?  (I know most of you are wondering.)  James is a fun little guy.  He’s 11, and he greets everybody with a smiling face each month at our support group meetings, and escorts the newly diagnosed to the Celiac 101 class.  He also sells raffle tickets (we sell more if the tickets go to the people, instead of having them come to my book table to buy :) ).

Okay, read the article.  I think it was decent, although I’m a bit peeved by Dr. Green’s statement:
“I don’t think people should torture their children unnecessarily.”

While the gluten-free diet can be a pain in the butt, especially in social situations, I don’t think it is torture.  (Though I know there are some that would disagree with me.)

Did you like the article?

December 3, 2008

Happy (Very Late) Thanksgiving

Filed under: Uncategorized — Cassandra @ 10:01 pm

I hope everyone had a wonderful gluten-free Thanksgiving.

We had quite a bit of sickness flowing around. One of the most true jokes in our family is that the children always get sick or hurt when Andy is at the fire station. This time was no exception. Braden missed out on the last day before the Thanksgiving break (he got a whole week off) because he was throwing up the night before. And Carter the next day, and the next. I narrowly managed to escape, but probably only because I took some of my meds leftover from pregnancy.

It caught up with me Wednesday.

Thanksgiving day – alone, in my pajamas, all day, watching what I wanted to watch. It would not be truthful to say I didn’t enjoy it.

Unfortunately, all the great recipes I planned to make (and create, even) were not realized. My little brother was quite sad to find out there was no cheesecake in the inn. My hips, however, are grateful.

Grateful. Can you apply that to Celiac Disease? I can. I am grateful for my wonderful friends, both online and in-person, that I have made in the last (almost) five years. And, strangely enough, I am grateful that I don’t have 20 Christmas dinners that I am expected to eat. Yesterday, my mom was lamenting to me all the upcoming holiday meals she is supposed to attend. She has 4 in just one week! Now, if I were crazy skinny, I might not mind. But I am not. And even though my mom is pretty slender, it’s because she generally eats healthy and exercises a lot. Holiday meals are her enemy.

This coming Saturday, is the North Texas GIG’s annual cookie exchange. I have to take 4 dozen cookies (or more). I’m excited. I need to go to the gym. Our holiday party is that night, too. This is the one, and only, holiday party that I will pig out at. For that I am grateful – both that I get the chance to pig out, and that it is only one chance. I will repent next week… at the gym… all week.

I want to share this family picture with you, my friends. We blessed Corice this past Sunday. She was beautiful, of course. Family pictures are getting infinitely harder to take. Andy generally looks terribly goofy, and I think that is why Braden has decided to not really smile in the pictures. (Or else he’s been looking at too many stiff portraits in history books.)

Maybe I’ll get that cheesecake made soon, and pass on the recipe to you. :)

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