Gluten/Dairy free awesomeness!!!

Today, feeling somewhat confident in my gluten free abilities, I decided to attempt my first gluten free cupcake. And what resulted was a little piece of heaven. I don't know what the best part was, having created a gluten and dairy free cupcake, or watching my 2 year old gobble it up like it had been years since she had cake (it's been only 2 months really.....).

I took my vanilla cupcake recipe that I have posted before and made only a few alterations.

I substituted the following:
milk - almond milk
butter - Earth's Balance vegan spread
flour - rice flour with xanthan gum

I also cooked them for about 25 minutes, instead of the 15 for my last batch. They turned out slightly dense, but still moist and soft. The taste was awesome! I'm almost thinking that the almond milk adds some nutty flavours to it, making it even more yummy!

For the icing I went with the normal buttercream, not the cooked one like I usually do. I wasn't too sure if the Earth's balance spread would act like butter, and also my electric beater is broken :( On that note, I mixed my whole batter by hand, and I swear the butter got fluffier than normal with the wooden spoon instead of the mixer, hmmmm.... Perhaps the old fashioned way works the best???
But back to the icing... I mushed up almost 1/2 cup of the Earths Balance with a wooden spoon, added about 3 cups of icing sugar and mixed these up. Then I added almond milk till I got to the consistency I liked. I found that I had to add more almond milk than I would usually add cows milk, don't know why though.... I put in about a TBSP at a time...

So, if you need a gluten and dairy free cupcake you have to try these. You wont even be able to tell the difference!

Here is the link again to the recipe I used...
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/moist-vanilla-cupcakes/

Papplesauce... (not a typo...)



Ok folks, so we had applesauce a couple of weeks ago, and now papplesauce! However, the reasoning is quite different... I made applesauce to use up the apples on our trees, I made papplesause to fix up the kids coughs... no lie...


Elysabeth had a cold about two months ago, which with came a lingering, come and go, phlegmy type cough. Back when it started I asked my acupuncturist and friend if she had any recommendations, and she suggested to make a applesauce out of asian pears and feed it to Elysabeth for a couple of days, "will clear it up in no time!".
I replied to her, "oh, like a papple?".
And I believe her reply was "ummmm, yes, I guess so if that is what you call it?".
Funny thing is, as I have been telling this story to co-workers and friends lately, they have given me the same response.... Does no one else call this fruit a papple? Seriously people.....!


Anyways, back to the sauce.... Now, I did not heed my friends advice then, as Elysabeth made a temporary recovery from the attack of the phlegm, but a couple of weeks ago both my lovely girls had return of the cough. Every night before bed and all night, we were hearing hacking, phlegmy coughs from both our girls bedrooms. No one was actually sick, they just had the cough, poor kids!
So, my Husband brought home the papples and I whipped up some papplesauce with cinnamon. I had enough so they both had a bowl that night, and another the next morning.
Now, no word of a lie here, the coughing and phlegm has disappeared at my house. I am totally in awe, (not that I doubted you Diana!) But just that something so simple and wonderfully easy can make my children's life that much better. And not only easy, but yummy and healthy for them! Blows my mind, seriously...


So next time you have that lingering, attack of the phlegm, type cough, whip your self up some papplesauce!!

Yorkshire's and Brownies... All in a Days Work!

Brownies!!

To get my Ms. Kayleigh to go to bed the other night I promised her that we would make blueberry muffins the next day. Don't worry, this is NOT about blueberry muffins, you did read the title right! However, before we went to bake the next day I realized that my muffin tray was at my Mom's house from our fabulous prime rib dinner last weekend, where we used it for yorkshires. So we decided to try our first gluten free brownies.


Now that I have my two secret gluten free weapons, rice flour and xanthan gum, I feel that anything is possible! I picked these both up from Thrifty foods and both are made by Bob's Red Mill. Thanks to Bob for creating wonderful things for gluten free folk!


We took my favourite most wonderful brownie recipe and just substituted the regular flour with rice flour, and added some xanthan gum. I also substituted the butter with vegan butter, as we are dairy free around here too for Ms. Kayleigh. This recipe is the very best brownie recipe I have ever made. The brownies end up fudgy and soft, so yummy!

Here it is.


1/2 cup butter (or vegan butter)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (brown or white, I have used both with success)
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup flour (with the rice flour I added 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)
1/2 tsp baking powder


Preheat oven to 350
In a saucepan melt the butter then remove from heat.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk till mixed. Then add the eggs and sugar and beat until shiny and smooth. Add the dry goods and mix again until all blended.

Pour into a greased pan and bake for about 15 minutes.

Don't overbake!! Its ok if its still soft in the middle because after it sets it will be perfect.

I also pour chocolate chips on the top when it comes out the oven, then after they go soft I spread it around. But seeing as we aren't doing dairy, we skipped that step today.
The only difference I noticed with the gluten free was that it didn't rise and wasn't as fluffy as with regular flour. But it was equally as tasty and I don't think anyone around here noticed the difference! After all, chocolate is chocolate, right?

Yorkshires!!

Ahhhhh, the yorkshire.... It's always a gamble. Will it rise? Will they fail? Well, this time my friends we nailed it! They were golden fluffy and scrumptious.
Now, as with the brownies, these were a bit impromptu. My Husband brought home a roast last minute and my Mom made an appearance with my muffin tray (because we were going to do the blueberry muffins...). So as I stared at the roast and they muffin tray on the counter the light bulb went off!


Now we made yorkshires last weekend at my Mom's house under instructions from my Uncle, who just happens to be a chef and creator of most wonderful things! The recipe is similar to what I would normally do except it had one little difference, baking soda. Perhaps the reason for the perfectness??


An important part of yorkshires is to have all ingredients at room temperature. So, plan to make up the batter a couple of hours before you cook them.


1 cup flour
1 cup of milk
4 eggs
pinch of baking soda


Mix up the eggs, flour and about half the milk. Then put your pinch of baking soda in the rest of the milk and whisk up till frothy. Add this to your other ingredients and mix up. It should resemble runny pancake batter. Add more milk or flour as needed to get to that consistency.
Let sit!!  A couple of hours if you can.
Fill your muffin tray with about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in the bottom of each cup. Preheat oven to 425, when heated pop the muffin tray with the oil in the oven to heat up nice and hot, it took about 10-15 minutes in my oven.
Then take out of the oven and fill up your cups with the batter, each one should be about 3/4 full. Get the pan back in the oven and watch......
After about 20 minutes I turned it down to 375 and from there they cooked another 5-10 minutes.
They should be golden brown and HUGE! (hopefully). In the past I always have pulled them too early, and they would kind of collapse. So thanks to Uncle Terry for telling me about the baking soda and for teaching me to let them stay in the oven longer than I thought!!


Gluten free yorkshires? Not so successful.... I whipped some up for Kayleigh with almond milk and rice flour but they turned out undercooked and not so hot. I kind of just peeled off the cooked outside and served it with her gluten free gravy, and of course she didn't mind! But I will save my detailed blog for when I nail it and can pass my wisdom along!

Best of luck in your yorkshire adventure! Tis the season for roasts, gravy and hot yorkshires, yum!

Applesauce....finally!

Wow, what a busy month! One of the things that has been constantly bumped on my to do list is pick the apples from the apple trees. But alas, I have done it! This is actually our second big pick this season and I ended up with a whole lot of wonderful apples. I am yet to figure out what kind they are but I think 3 of the trees are gala apples (or something similar) and the other one is a mystery to me... Its kind of like a fiji, but with shinier skin, suggestions welcome!

Of course, after I picked the fruit I had to decide what the heck to do with it, and because it's so super easy and quick, (I said I have been busy!) I went with the never fail applesauce.

With my two helpers in tow, and a guest photographer, (thanks my sister from another mister, Shalane) we got to work!

Applesauce is pretty much the easiest thing to create with apples. You just peel them, chop them up and place over low heat on the stove, with the lid on. Stir occasionally and when its all soft I like to use a masher to get the last lumps. I sometimes have to add a bit of honey, but these apples were sweet enough and even caramelized a bit. The final product turned out a nice warm brown colour and tasted nice and sweet!

I now have about 8 jars of yummy applesauce in the freezer and a huge box left for further creations or just snacking. One thing that's great about home grown apples, other than we only have to walk out back to have a fresh one, is that they are not too big and fit perfectly in little hands!



Next on the list? I have a super yummy apple cake, so stay tuned. And if anyone needs some apples, come help yourself, I have a few to spare!

Gluten Free Granola Goodness

My quest for affordable gluten free snacks has given me the push that I have been waiting for! I have been wanting to make granola bars forever now and this was my first go at it. Now here comes the disclaimer.... My goal was granola BARS, the outcome was more like crumbly granola! But tasty none the less and gobbled up no problem by the other three family members.

I started with a random collection of things I both bought, and found in my baking cupboard.

Ingredients:

Most important... Gluten free oats (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free, available at thrifty's)
shredded coconut
dried fruit (papaya, pineapple, craisins, raisins)
peanuts
almonds
sunflower seeds
(I wanted to add ground flax and a couple shakes of cinnamon as well, but I forgot!)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup earth's balance  'butter'

I mixed up all the nuts, fruit and oats. Then in a saucepan I melted the butter and stirred in the honey and sugar. Then I poured this on top and mixed it all up well. I pressed it into my pan and popped it into the oven for about 20 minutes.

In retrospect I might of tried adding an egg as it was sort of crumbly and made a big ol' granola mess of my sometimes clean floors. I also maybe would of cooked it another 5 minutes or so. The brown edges seemed to stick together better than the rest of it, but I was afraid of burnt oats, cause that is yuck!


All in all I would most definitely make these again. Much cheaper and yummier than store bought, and the bowl is always fun to lick.... ummmmm, for the kids I mean....

Vanilla Success!!

Finally a vanilla cupcake recipe that was both easy to make, and oh so delicious! Here it is folks, after months of searching this is the best one I have found. Funny thing is, it is so basic! Perhaps I followed directions a little better than normal?(I normally follow them as I choose....)

Whatever it was, they turned out fabulous!!

The only thing I altered slightly was the cooking time. I used smaller cupcake liners and my oven is pretty hot so I cooked them at the 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and that was perfect.
Hope they work for you!!

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/moist-vanilla-cupcakes/

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Baby!

So these past few days we have embarked on a totally new way of food life around our house. Well, at least for Kayleigh....

A permanently swollen set of tonsils and a variety of other symptoms led me to take Kayleigh to an Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist. I was certain if I took her to a GP, they would just want to remove her tonsils and I was going on a hunch that she may have a food allergy or sensitivity of some sort. So, after our visit to get Kayleigh checked out, the Acupuncturist was onto the same hunch! Now, we are on day 4 of a dairy free and gluten free diet to see if we cant figure out what is up with Ms. Kayleigh.

I am finding it surprisingly easy so far, the only real difference is the cost of food. A box of 5 gluten free granola bars costs almost $8!! So, I am determined to make things on my own. My first experiment was a bit of a cheat, but well, I'm a busy gal these days! I bought a mix for gluten free muffins. And here is how they turned out!



I used almond milk and vegan butter instead of regular milk and butter.

We beat up the eggs and butter.

Then we stirred in the almond milk and muffin mix and gently folded in our blackberries at the end.

We spooned them into our muffin tray and popped them into the oven. We got about 22 muffins all together, enough to freeze the extras!

 Kayleigh, and the rest of us too, loved them! And the box of mix cost me less than $5, added with the other ingredients I spent less than $7 on 22 muffins.
So this is my new challenge.... Making gluten and dairy free food at a low cost. Wish me luck!! And stay tuned, because were making some bread tonight....yummy!

Dessert!

Ok, no claim to fame on this one. I found it on the internet but I have to share it with everyone. Its chocolate banana cake and it turned out way too good! I am probably going to have to hide it on myself, or send it to work with the Husband, because there are too many calories sitting on my kitchen counter!

Here it is, I skipped the ganache on top because of lack of ingredients, but it doesn't even need it, its super moist and rich without. I also only added 1 1/2 cups of sugar, cause 2 cups seemed a bit much and I didn't want my kids bouncing off the walls! Enjoy!

http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateBananaCake.html

Empty Fridge = Creative Dinner

Sometimes I stare into my fridge and all that looks back at me is an empty white void. Today was one of those days....
I took out a couple of chicken breasts from the freezer earlier in the day and hoped that sometime throughout the afternoon some wonderful idea would spring into my mind... Well, I was wrong.
Later in the afternoon though my Mom stopped by and as I was staring longingly at my chicken she said, "what about chicken with herbs? and you have that tzatziki there too?"... Thanks Mom!! An idea is born!

Here is what I am calling 'Herb Smashed Chicken'

I went out to the garden and picked some oregano, rosemary, thyme and basil. I chopped them up with some garlic, mixed with olive oil and muddled it all together. I then pounded the chicken breasts flat and rubbed the mixture all over the chicken. I then heated up my pan to about medium heat and slapped them in. They took only about 4 minutes on each side until they were a light golden brown. I served them up with tzatziki sauce for dipping and the girls and I had ourselves some yummy chicken! Although I think Kayleigh maybe ate more sauce than chicken....

Chicken with garden fresh veggies, zucchini sticks (see next) and tzatziki.

  

I also happened to pick a large zucchini from the garden today, and much like my experience with the fridge, found myself staring at it with nothing but blank thoughts coming back. Then I remembered in my empty fridge I actually had a little left over parmesan from another batch of kale salad we had the other night.( http://kristin-amateurmother.blogspot.com/2011/07/all-hail-kale.html scroll to bottom for salad recipe.... mucho yummy!) And my motto of course is 'cheese goes with everything!', so I sliced up the zucchini into wedges, tossed some bread crumbs on top, put a couple small dollops of butter around, then sprinkled the parm on top and baked at convect 375 for about 25 minutes. They kind of turned out like not deep fried zucchini sticks and were so good, I will definitely make those again!!

Zucchini and chicken before cooking





 So my uninspired night turned into a garden inspired dinner. Without my little garden I would have had no herbs, no tomato and no zucchini....  All I would of had is an empty fridge! I love that having fresh veggies teaches me new ideas and in turn our family breaks out from the norm. Another great reason to grow your own veggies I say!

Rosemary, thyme, chives

Also oregano, parsley and sage.

Garden in Bloom!

It has been such a wonderful past couple of weeks. My tomatoes are FINALLY ripening, my squash are growing and my fall veggies I planted from seed are growing at a rapid rate.

Pumpkins

Beefsteaks

I have been doing some reading on a fall garden and am experimenting with growing some seeds that I planted a few weeks ago. I am trying beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, peas and radishes. And so far they seem to be doing well, my only concern is the brussel sprouts as they usually should of been planted a few weeks before I got them in, even for a late crop.
I also popped in some spinach that you 'overwinter', so we will see how that goes!

This trial season for growing my garden has taught me so much. I am looking forward to an even bigger and better garden next season, hopefully with a little more success, especially in the bean department. Beans are one of my favourite things to have from the garden and I only was able to bag one small batch for the freezer. A lack of sun and a bug infestation left them as my worst veggie I think. Unlike my cucumbers, acorn squash, zucchini and pumpkins, they did not fight to make a miraculous comeback!

 

Acorn squash

Cucumber

For now I will bask in the glories of my wonderful garden in bloom and just take it all in. It wont be too long till the frost will come and I will be back to gazing out the window and plotting my next summers gardens.....
But I won't rush it, I have a long list of fall chores to do that include transplanting, planting spring bulbs, planting garlic and getting my Husband to dig up bushes and build more garden boxes, I can't wait!

Spoiled Squash Part 2: Return of the zucchini!!!

Well I now know to never give up! If you read my earlier post about my squash I actually almost pulled them all up because they were taunting me with their yellow leaves and puny vines. But, alas they have returned!! I have acorn squash, zucchini, and even a little cucumber!! My pumpkin is growing like its creating a magical carriage to take Cinderella to the ball, it has 3 small pumpkins on it and more coming!

pumpkin...can't even get it all in the shot!

I'm not to sure if anything will actually ripen enough before the cold sets in, but I may at least get to eat a baby zucchini or a baby cucumber. I think with the pumpkins I will pick all the new growth so the plant can put its energy into creating a couple of MONSTERS for Halloween.

baby cucumber (maybe good for one dill pickle??)

Now I'm torn for next year! I was sure the bark mulch was ruining the plants, but perhaps it was just the transplanting and then the serious lack of sun this spring? Do I put them there again next year? I think I  may have to wait to see how many garden boxes I can get out of my Husband!!

For now I will bask in the glory of my revitalized squash and worry about next year......well, next year!


One thing I know though is that I will never give up again on my little plants!! And, its amazing what a little sun can do to garden, perhaps it was a bad year for me to start experimenting with my veggies, with our serious lack of sun and warm weather. All I know is next year I am one more step ahead, and maybe one day (in the far future...) I can claim to be a pro!!



acorn squash

Peas, Glorious Peas!!!

Well my first attempt at a veggie garden has taught me many things. First of all, I need more sunshine for almost all my plants. The exception to that? My peas!!

My peas have turned out some kind of wonderful and everytime I look at them I want to sing, "peas, glorious peas!", to the tune of "food, glorious food!" (from 'Oliver' for those who think I have gone nuts...) The reason they have grown so well is they have the ideal amount of sunlight, sunny in the morning and evening without the hot midday sun. Either that, or Elysabeth has a magical touch, as she was the one to plant them!



My only regret is that I should of grown a whole garden box full, not just a few rows. I planted the first rows just before May long and the second rows a couple of weeks after. We have been enjoying them now for a couple of weeks and they are so superior to frozen peas. Also, they are fun to pick and shell for the girls and I only lose a few to some hungry little mouths along the way!!

I am yet to come up with some clever recipe in which to incorporate them, so stay tuned, but for now we like them just plain ol' steamed, I kind of don't want to mess with a perfect thing.

Next year I am hoping to plant enough so I can freeze them, I also want to plant enough of everything so I can really save on groceries! With two growing girls, (I swear girls can eat as much as boys) and us I will do anything these days to save a few bucks at the grocery store! Oh, did I mention I am sooooo into couponing these days? But that's another post I think.....
What I will say is, "Mr. Hillis, I need a deep freeze and more garden boxes!!" Now I will sneak off to bed so I don't have to deal with the repercussions of this statement till tomorrow...ha ha ha....

60 cupcakes!!

Well, this last weekend I had my first attempt at making 60 cupcakes! I haven't ever actually made more than a couple dozen, but I had two events on the long weekend so I decided to go for it.

Here is the lot! Minus a few casualties that we had to sample of course...

6 hours and one frazzled Mother later, I had completed this wondrous feat! I don't remember the last time I wore an apron all day and to be honest, I'm sure now I would never make it as the next Martha. The time and effort, although worth the outcome, is tedious! The very act of just getting them baked took over two hours! Then I had to make the fillings, put the filling in, make the buttercream and decorate. Needless to say I am taking a cupcakes break! Well, actually there was this recipe I was maybe going to try...hmmmm.....

So my tips for anyone who wants to tackle this challenge? Here they are...

• Be prepared to be fully stocked in ingredients. I used 16 eggs, 2 lbs. of butter, 4 cups of milk, 5 peaches, 1 lb. of blueberries, 6 cups of flour, about 5 cups of sugar and a package of chocolate chips. (not to mention small quantities of other things)
• find a babysitter for all children who require attention (so like any children), mine are great beater lickers and taste testers, but they may have watched some cartoons this day...
• get ready for a HOT kitchen! with the oven on for so long I had to open all the windows and wait awhile to make my buttercream so it wouldn't melt!
• don't stress when you over mix your batter and it tastes a but funny, you already made a double batch of it anyways and you can always use extra buttercream!! (this is what I told myself as I sampled my first cupcake out of the oven...)
• And always make extra buttercream!! (Darn it!!! I ran out of butter and time, and these cupcakes could of used a little more icing.)
• have fun!! I mean, this is why we do it right??!! Its all in the learning!

All in all it was a lot of fun and I felt pretty proud looking at my accomplishments. And over two nights and two parties, and a bit of sampling at home, they were all gone but a couple!
Thanks to all my wonderful family who gobbled them up, despite the slight baking soda taste and lack of buttercream! I love you all for eating my creations :)

Here is the vanilla cake recipe I tried, it was good, but I did over mix it. Because I made a double batch my bowl wasn't quite large enough and mixing was a bit of a challenge. (This just proves that I soooooo need a kitchen aid mixer!) I think I will try it again next time as I did like the texture of the cake.

http://52cupcakes.blogspot.com/2006/05/billys-vanilla-vanilla-cupcakes-with.html

This fillings I made myself. I just cooked up the fruit and mashed it, added some sugar, and cornstarch mixed with water to thicken, then after it was cooled I put it in the cooled cupcakes. This time was my first time putting the filling in with the piping bag, and it was definitely faster, but the downside was that the chunks of fruit got stuck and it was hard to tell how much filling I had got in. I usually cut out a cone shape, spoon the filling in, cut off the bottom of the cone, then place the top of it back on. This is more time consuming, but better results I think.

The buttercream was the same as my last cupcake recipe and was oh so yummy yet again! But, I should of made more, you can never have too much buttercream!

http://kristin-amateurmother.blogspot.com/2011/07/chocolate-cupcakes.html

So, would I do it again? Absolutely! Although I don't think I could handle it as a weekly occurrence, it certainly was fun and another great experience in my quest for the perfect cupcakes.

Here they are... Both vanilla cake, one chocolate buttercream and blueberry filling, the other vanilla buttercream and peach filling.

I also added some fuzzy peach candies to the top, which I believe made these the most popular ones!

Now, what kind can we do next........

Craving some bacon carbonara??

Mmmmmmmm bacon!! For the past couple of days I have been craving a salty something. I bought some salami for a yummy sandwich, but alas, it did not curb the craving. Then a couple of nights ago I was watching "Master Chef" and one the the chefs whipped up a little tasty looking carbonara, "that's it!!" I thought, "that will surely put my mind and body in a happy place!!

I am lucky enough to get to eat at my parents house quite often, when the Husband works nights and I'm too lazy to cook, I head over there. As yesterday my Mom was going to be the chef I tossed the subject out there, "bacon Ma?" Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree you know, of course she agreed.


Now, I get a lot of my cooking skills and tips from my Mom, which is why we work so well in the kitchen together. We kind of just do without thinking and usually our end results are quite good .Neither of us had ever made a carbonara, but my Mom and I both are into this 'trying of new things' mode lately, so we dove in.  Also, my Mom, just like me, likes to read a bunch of recipes then decide which parts sound the best out of each and throw them all together. So that's what we did! Below is our very own version of what we thought would work the best, and it turned out super yummy, enjoy!

Bacon Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
3 eggs
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp olive oil
1 package bacon
1/4 cup chives
noodles of your choice, we used spaghetti

Cook up your bacon and get your noodles on too, this is a quick dinner! Once the bacon is cooked, dice it up. Drain the fat off from the bacon pan but leave the bits on the bottom of the pan.

I had to document this pan because it brought up the only disagreement we had. I said it was too burnt, but Ma said it was OK.... Ma was right.......

Then whisk together the cheese, eggs, olive oil and whipping cream in a bowl.

Another sign I am my Mother's daughter? All the recipes we saw said amounts less than 1 cup of parm, but my Mom says "nothing wrong with extra cheese!".

Once the noodles are cooked add them to your bacon pan, (which is off the burner and cooled down) and stir it all up. The hot noodles should help to scrape the pan of all it's bacony goodness.
While the noodles are still hot add your egg mixture and stir. The heat from the noodles will cook the eggs a just enough so the sauce is a nice, not to runny, consistency.

Add you bacon and chives to this.

We served ours with my Mom's new Mediterranean chickpea salad (you will have to get that one from her) and some yummy crusty bread. It was perfect!!

All said and done I was curbing my appetite in about half an hour. The only thing that makes a meal better (besides cheese of course) is when I can cook it fast, love it!!