Delightfully Gluten Free

I am just loving the Olympics!  How about you?  What is your favorite Winter Olympic Sport?  Mine  is figure skating, particularly the ice dancing.  Those couples make what they are doing look like so much fun.

What else is fun?

Cupcakes.

Cupcakes are fun – no question.

The good folks at Glutino sent me some Gluten Free Pantry mixes.  We decided that the snow of the other night called for cupcakes, specifically Decadent Chocolate Cake cupcakes.

Gluten Free Pantry has some snazzy new packaging.  My favorite feature – it’s a normal box (fits better in the pantry). It also has a very scrumptious-looking picture on the front.

The recipe gives you the option for 8 ounces of buttermilk or low fat yogurt.  I chose to use a 6 oz Yoplait white chocolate strawberry yogurt plus 2 ounces of plain yogurt.

The batter was thick and fluffy, and very tasty.  Licking the beaters is a time-honored tradition which we uphold with great joy. 

As it was getting late, we ate our cupcakes when they were still warm from the oven.

“Mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm” was all I originally got from Andy.  He concluded that it was a good mix.

Braden noticed “a tiny bit of crunch to the top,” which he enjoyed immensely.

Carter was very excited for his tasty chocolate muffin (he could not be convinced otherwise that it was a cupcake).

Corice told me “cuh-kay mmm.”

It had a great texture, was very soft, and a really nice chocolaty flavor.  We paired it with a milk chocolate canned frosting (for lack of time), but the Decadent Peanut Butter Cup Frosting recipe on the back of the box looks soooo tempting to make.

I am pleased to tell you that I managed to avoid the cupcakes while watching the Olympics, though it was pretty difficult.  But perhaps a treat for after the gym…

It was snowing again in Texas, a strange occurrence, indeed.  What better dinner is there to have on a cold, snowy day than a soup, stew, or chowder?

For dinner last night, we chose a mix sent to us by Mixes from the Heartland, a Cheesy Chowder Soup.  All it took was boiling some chicken broth and a little butter, stirring in the mix (a little more boiling/simmering), adding some processed cheese (Velveeta) and milk, and some more simmering and stirring.  (Interestingly, I cannot find this mix on their website.)

I set Braden to work stirring (after adding the Velveeta) while I prepared some cupcakes. 

With the exception of Corice, who, once again, wouldn’t eat anything, the vote was unanimous.

“Mmmmm, this is good” said Braden.

“I like it” said Andy.

“And me, too” said Carter.

It had a good flavor and made for a fun dinner.  I had planned to tell you that you could add some more diced potatoes and carrots for a thicker, heartier soup, but it was actually quite filling as it was.

Braden thought it should be called Cheesy Choop (for chowder/soup).

It was a definite hit for the family.

As for Corice, she’ll probably slurp down some of the leftovers.  She’s recently had a very big week.  Last week, at her insistence, she started wearing big girl panties on Sunday.  It’s quite the learning experience, but she’s getting better at it.  On Monday, she turned 17 months old.  Friday, we took away the rail and turned her crib into a toddler bed.  She even added a whole bunch of new words last week, like panties and cracker.  It was a proud week, though a little tough at times.

I know I’ve been spacey lately – there’s been so much going on.  I think I’ve finally gotten the allergens out of my house that have been plaguing me the past 2 months (and I got a new vacuum in the process).

A couple of weeks ago, my mom decided to throw a birthday party for me.  It’s an excellent excuse to get my little brother and his wife to come visit. 

Usually, I end up baking my own cake and getting most of the food.  This year, Mom wanted me to have less to do and I didn’t have time to go to the store anyways.  So I sent her off to Costco and told her to look for the magic words on packages.

She bought some things she already knew I could have, like nuts, chocolate-covered raisins, Jelly Bellies, and FoodShouldTasteGood multigrain chips.  She also found some new things for us to try.

For our meat, we had a trio of Aidells mini sausages (please be aware that not all of their products are gluten-free), chicken and apple, Cajun style Andouille, and sun-dried tomato and mozzarella.  The package stated they were gluten-free and pork-free.  This was a good choice, since my little sister-in-law does not eat pork, and the first time any of us had tried an Aidells product.

Most of us found them to be very good (with the only exceptions being Braden and my father, who is crazy-picky and doesn’t try new things).  The Cajun ones were pretty spicy, but very tasty.  My nephew and niece ate most of the chicken and apple ones themselves.

Mom had also purchased some of the larger chicken and apple sausages.  We had some this week, and at first, they were not well-received.  The casing is pretty thick, though fairly easy to remove.  The second time I prepared them (browning slices in a skillet), I slit the casing with a knife and easily tore it off.  The kids liked them a whole lot more with the casing removed, and ate quite a few of the slices.

Another brand-new product (and company) to us, Boulder Canyon Rice and Adzuki Bean Chipotle Cheese snack chips were a huge hit!

Oh my gosh, these were so tasty.  A bag of these from Costco is pretty big, and we nearly demolished it all in a couple of hours.  I managed to score some to keep for the next couple of days, but was very sad when I went to eat some and found them all gone.

I know they will definitely be on my list for my next trip to Costco.

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In place of a regular birthday cake, my older brother made a chocolate orange cheesecake.  I gave him some Mi-Del gluten-free ginger snaps to use for the crust.  He was very careful and mixed everything by hand in order to keep it completely gluten-free (though if my brain had been working properly, I would have let him borrow my hand mixer).  It was extremely nice to not have to make my own birthday cake.

Do you have anyone in your life that will go the extra mile to make you feel safe and special?

Sarah (my niece, 2 years) and Corice (17 months)

Last Saturday, I had a couple of friends over for a fun day of baking together.  I had promised Kat a few months back that we would make cookies together.  I finally delivered.

We began our day of craziness with Harvest Chicken and Rice Soup from Mixes from the Heartland (they sent me a few things to try).

The soup was pretty easy to prepare – boil some water (and maybe some chicken broth) and add some cooked chicken.  For those of you with other allergies, Mixes from the Heartland’s facility is “free of wheat, soy, barley, oats, rye, eggs, nuts, and by products.”

The consensus was that the soup was good, but missing just a little something.  Kat, Regina, and I agreed that it needed a little more seasoning, but at the time, we couldn’t figure out what.  I later decided it needed a small dash of paprika, Andy said salt (but I thought it had plenty of salt), and Braden said garlic salt.  It had a nice light, clean flavor.

This is a good shelf-stable soup mix.  The package I have has a date of May 2011 on it, so it would also be good for a food storage-type of need.  You could use canned chicken, if needed, or for easier preparation.

We also had some Spinach-N-Chives Dip Mix from Mixes from the Heartland (made with sour cream) with some Kettle Brand (I think) potato chips.  None of us are really dip eaters, but we found it to be pretty tasty.  Andy, who loves to eat dip, told me (after making it late one night) that “it’s good… has a light flavor… not overpowering” (he texted me the next day).  I’m actually surprised at how much of it I ate.

After finishing up, we perused the cookbooks to see what we wanted to make.  Regina was a bit in awe of my collection.  Her husband had just told her she had too many gluten-free cookbooks.  She took home pictures to prove she didn’t, lol.

We  actually decided on making a recipe from an upcoming cookbook that I had tucked away to try.  Upon looking at the recipe, we didn’t believe it would come out well.  But it did!  Regina said she would definitely use that recipe when the book comes out (and I’ll tell you what recipe and where it comes from when the book does come out ).

Kat, who is 11, was just too cute.  I think every baker needs an apron, so I had my mom embroider one for Kat.

She was really excited about decorating the cookies, and was getting a little fancy with the colors.  Braden later joined her.

Then we made pudding cookies, using vanilla pudding, raspberry flavoring (with a bit of vanilla), and dark chocolate raspberry creme baking pieces.  That was a good use of raspberry filling.  I only baked a dozen of these, and the rest of the tripled batch got rolled into logs, in wax paper, and stuck in freezer bags (some for them and some for me).  This way, we can quickly have freshly-baked cookies without all the fuss, whenever we want.

By this time, we were nearing a sugar coma.  Kat was in “desperate need” of some cheese crackers.  We made a ton of cheese cracker dough (most of it went into freezer bags for later use).  We found that using the Rumford baking powder is very important in this recipe to get the crispy cracker texture (which I can’t find anywhere anymore!).  Also, separating them on the sheet is quite helpful (but we were way too lazy to do that by that time of the day).  The majority of our crackers ended up just a little puffy and soft (but if you follow the recipe exactly, using Rumford, they come out just right).

Oh yeah, that's gonna make a lot of crackers.

We had had to run to Kroger to get some cheese, and while perusing the shredded cheeses (because I don’t own a food processor with a grater and I’m not about to shred, by hand, 3 pounds of cheese), we came across some habanero cheese and just had to have it.  It’s like trick-cheese: you don’t feel the heat until after you swallow.

Carter sneaked a cookie... or 4

All in all, it was a wonderful day, spent talking, laughing, baking, and just plain enjoying ourselves.  We ended up with a bunch of tasty treats and a bunch of dough, too.  I highly suggest having one with a gluten-free friend or two.