Success at last!

Not once, but twice I have had success baking! I few days back I made a carrot cake from a Namaste spice cake mix. There are several variations listed on the package besides carrot, but carrot cake is among my faves, so I did that one. Then I made some cream cheese frosting to go on it.

The package makes a 13X9 or two 9" layers. I made in in a 13X9 and cut it in half, packaged and froze one half. The other half I cut in half again and made a layer cake out of it slathered with the frosting. I've been sharing with my spouse & it has been yummy!!!

Last night I made Pumpkin nut muffins again. The first batch I'd made form the recipe was way back in October, and they tasted wonderful, but got more moist as they aged. This batch I made using fresh pumpkin left over (frozen) from Thanksgiving. Because it's more liquid than canned pumpkin, I decided to add extra flour. I used the recipe in Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook: More than 100 Easy and Delicious Recipes from the Gluten-Free Chef by Robert Landolphi, but added 1/4cup flaxseed meal for extra fiber and 1/23 cup more of the Sorghum flour to take up the liquid. They came out wonderful, but a hair dry. So I guess I should have put only 1/4cup extra flour. We'll see how they hold up after freezing!

Been experimenting again (with some success) but keep forgetting to take oics or add to the blog. :-( Sometime back I made Any Berry Scones, which came out really well, and since then a loaf of White Sandwich Bread - also good except the center sank a bit. I'm not sure why that happened unless it was because I substituted 1/2 cup of Almond flour for 1/2 cup of the all purpose. Either that or the liquid amound was off a bit. Whatever, it tastes pretty yummy.

I made rice Krispie treats with GF brown rice cereal that I can't chew because of my implant uncovering a week ago Friday (mouth is still too sore to bite down hard), so my hubby is enjoying those. I also made no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars with coconut instead of part of the oats. They are good.

Last night I made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler. I'd cut the rhubarb to take to Kay, but we had to cancel the trip to Kay's, so I needed to do something with the rhubarb. I used Pamelas pancake & muffin mix and made biscuits witt a little added sugar and vanilla. Dropped by Tbsp on the boiling fruit (sweetened & with some instant tapioca added to thicken it), baked at 400* until golden brown. No Vanilla ice cream or whipped dream on hand, so we topped it with butter pecan ice cream. Yummy!!!

The middle dumpling was still raw underneath (I have that problem with stews too :-( ), so I scooped that one off & dumped it. The extra dough that didn't fit in the casserole I'd baked in a muffin baker, so probably should have done the same with the dough for that center spot. Oh well, next time!

Gluten & Allergy Free Expo

Today was fun!!!! I attended the GF AF Expo in Lisle, IL today. It opened at 10:00, but I didn't get there until about 11. Mostly because I missed a turn & ended up going the long way around... And when I arrived, the place was jammed!!!!! I was amazed at how many people were there. And not just form the Chicago area either. There were visitors from TX, Canada, and several other states. There were reps from various Celiac support groups around the country, people who have stores and were scouting out products to carry, and lots of people like me, just looking for new products to try.

I bought a few books, subscribed to a magazine and came home with two bags (not full) of samples and literature. I'm still not hungry!

After leaving the Expo at around 1:30, I stopped at two stores who are supposd to carry a good selection of GF items. Caputos Market in S Elgin. There I got mostly just yummy deli stuff, but wanted to check out what they carry. And Fruitful Yield - a Health food store (chain) also in S. Elgin. Thay are maybe a mile apart, and about 2 miles south of the Meijer in S. Elgin - so I stopped there too. The Fruitful Yield carries an interesting assortment - but not cheap! I was able to get Bob's Red Mill GF Quick cooking oats there, and have not seen them at Woodmans. So that I did buy + some Xtra virgin Coconut oil for baking.

The Meijer in S Elgin has a much better selection of GF things than the one in Algonquin, which is good to know if I need regular groceries and a couple of GF things. Saves a trip all the way to the Meijer in Algonquin (a 26 mile round trip).

But the end result is I didn't get home until 5:30 and I'm pooped! So good night all!

Cookies

Yesterday my dear spouse ate my last two flourless peanut butter cookies. Not that I would normally complain - and I have offered them to him in the past, BUT! He has 3 boxes of Girl Scout peanut butter cookies in the pantry. So he gave up GS cookies for Lent - and had the nerve to eat mine because he gave up his! Hypocrisy at its finest, I say! To say I was annoyed is putting it mildly! His excuse - my name wasn't on them. :-P

So today I mixed up another new King Arthur offering: Cookie Mix. It's a basic vanilla cookie and you can add chips, or dry fruit or nuts. It also suggests that you can freeze balls of the dough and bake whenever you want. So I made it up and put chocolate chips in half and Reeses peanut butter chips in half & baked a dozen. The rest are in the freezer on a pizza pan freezing for later.


These are way better than the Betty Crocker cookie mix I tried awhile ago. Not gritty, and not so excruciatingly sweet. Not so soft they fall apart. Quite good. We'll see how well they keep.

And you better believe my name will be on the container THIS time!!!!!

Let's change the subject, shall we?

Last night I fried wild caught Alaskan Pollock for dinner. I'd lucked out on a 1/2 price coupon for Better Batter products, and among other things I bought a 20oz box of seasoned flour. When I opened the pkg, the nicest aroma jumped out and tickled my nose! Lovely fresh herb smell...

So following the directions, I coated my fish in the flour, let it set 5 minutes. Moistened it with Rice Milk & dredged in more of the flour mix. Directions said to let it set another 5 minutes - or up to 24 hours, so I let it be until everything else was done. Fried in olive oil for about 3 minutes on a side. Oh My was it good!! My spouse doesn't much care for fish of any kind and he ate the two biggest pieces. The coating stayed on, and was nice & crisp and golden brown.

Next time I'll make chicken & bake it.



But wait! There's more! There was one smallish piece left, so for lunch today I cut an Udi's GF bagel in half & toasted it. Warmed up the fish in the microwave for 30 seconds; put a little real mayo on the bagel and had myself a really yummy fish sandwich for lunch! Just as tasty - not as crisp of course, but very good!

Muffins... again. Are you getting tired of this yet?

I tried a new mix out from King Arthur flour. It supposedly make 1 batch od 12 muffins, but I measured the mix & used half at a time.

The first half I made according to the instructions on the box. They were ok... again, not much substance. I put dried cranberries & date in them. the flavor was fine, but, again, the texyure was iffy. They were very airy. No weight or substance to them, and they didn't hold up well being frozen - but I eventually ate them all.

So the second batch I made last week. I added some quinua flakes - hoping for a heartier muffin. I uded a few frozen berries in each muffin. These looked gorgeous just out of the oven, but wel absolutely flat when they cooled. They were actually wet. I tried them a day later, and they were pretty disgusting.

So that is one mix I will not use again.

April 12th, my slow cooker fragrantly cooked 10 cups of gluten free Cream of Mushroom soup. Last evening, I added the milk & pureed it. This noon I bagged it in 1 cup portions to freeze.

Now it's ready to use in those recipes that call for '1 can of condensed cream of something soup'. Those canned ones mostly contain gluten.