Baking All The Time

Hey, y’all. 🙂

How’s the countdown to Christmas going in your part of the world?

Over here it’s been lots of…

First I did a blind flour taste test with the fam. Testing out gfJules and comparing it to my beloved cup4cup. I’m impressed. It’s made some good eats. 🙂

This…

Became this…

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Gluten – free Irish Soda Raisin Bread  (using my own recipe)

Then this…

Became Eggnog Cookies.

Didn’t get a finished pic. Sorry. They were baked then filled with eggnog icing and topped with red / green Christmas sprinkle shapes.

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Then this…

Martha’s Pate Brisse

Became this…

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Gluten – free Pecan Pies

Then this…

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Became this…

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Doesn’t that look like an alien face?  Or that gross salmon patty / cracker concoction our mom’s used to make with that grody canned salmon that had bits of bones and stuff that looked like eyes.

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Mama B’s side of the fam, do y’all remember how Meme always had King Leo peppermint sticks long before you could get them everywhere?  Now they have the Peppermint bits for holiday baking. I was so happy when I saw them. 🙂

I wasn’t even planning on making peppermint cookies but had to add some to the to-do list as soon as I saw the peppermint bits.  It ended up being a good decision. These are the best new cookies I’ve made in ages.  And they were actually a mistake.  I accidentally used much less flour than I’d planned on using so they became these crispy almost lace type cookies.  They were such a hit I’ve already made another batch.  I know I said I wasn’t going to put a bunch of recipes here but I’m gonna put this one at the end of the post.  Y’all know the drill from the old blog…recipes after the music.

Randoms

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That’s gluten – free y’all.  Look at the fold on that tortilla (it’s wrapped around my hand). I used gfJules flour and it made the best gluten – free tortilla I’ve ever had.  I used my own recipe.

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Gluten – free holiday cupcakes from Gigi’s. That peppermint mocha one (red – pink icing) was unbelievable. This was the first time I’d ever tried their gluten – free cupcakes.  Call me a fan.  🙂

Running around wearing leggings as pants. 😉  Aren’t those adorbsies?

  • So Ted Cruz doesn’t understand that the Princess Bride is about open hearts and love?  The fool who stood on the senate floor reading Green Eggs and Ham while trying to stop a vote on universal health care?  Y’all know…Green Eggs and Ham….the book with the message of not hating on something until you’ve ya know…actually given it a chance.  I doubt that horrible man has actually read his child a bedtime story…ever but in the unlikely event he has he’s either too dumb to understand the message in a pre school level children’s book or…oh never mind there’s really no other explanation for that.  So yeah…totally not surprised he doesn’t understand Princess Bride either.

 

  • Note to Kyler Murray (former potential future Texas A &M quarterback) The amount of bullsh.. people are willing to put up with is always always directly related to how good you are at your job or life or whatever.  Sure you were a pretty good high school football player. Guess what?  This state is FULL of dudes sitting around their garages telling stories about being pretty good high school football players.  No big deal.

 

  • Note to his dad Kevin Murray if the stories are true and you seriously told Aggie boosters they should treat you the same way longhorns treat Earl Campbell?  When I get thru dying laughing…it’s not hard to see where your petulant child got his overrated sense of entitlement.  Not hard at all.  Y’all don’t let the door hit ya.

All day…e’ry day, y’all.  🙂

That’s it for today from my little corner of the internet.

See y’all soon with more baking.  🙂

White Chocolate Pudding Peppermint Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks room temp Butter

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup granulated Sugar

1 (3.4 oz) package Hershey’s White Chocolate Pudding

2 large Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

320g Flour (about 2 1/4 cups loosely packed)

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 bag White Chocolate Chips

1 cup Peppermint Bits  (or any crushed peppermint)

 

Directions

Ok first some notes…these are extremely temperamental. Don’t try these if you don’t have the patience or the time to baby them.

They are really thin and crispy.

They spread A LOT and you need to take them out of the oven while they’re still a little soft. Let them firm up about 3 – 5 minutes and then carefully get them off the pan and onto a cooling rack where they should finish firming up.  Mine stuck a little both times…using different well sprayed pans.

They are totally worth the effort though. 🙂

All I did was…

Put all the dry ingredients plus chips and peppermint bits in a bowl.

Made a well and added butter, eggs and vanilla.

Then mixed it all with my hands.

I used the smallest cookie scoop and left plenty of room between each cookie.

Using that small scoop half the recipe made about 35 cookies.

I baked them 8 – 10 minutes on 325* but my ovens run hot so I have to lower temps all the time.

Know your oven. 🙂

Again I want to reiterate that small scoop of dough spreads out to a regular cookie size when baked.

 

Also…I didn’t make these using a cup measure.  As always I weighed out the flour so I can’t say how it will turn out using cup measured flour. But if you keep it loose and don’t pack the flour it should be ok.

I made one batch using  cup4cup and another using gfJules.  Both worked great. I think I liked the Jules best though.

Just Checking In

Hey, y’all.  How’s your week before Christmas going so far?

Did y’all do Wreaths Across America for your loved ones?  We (my immediate fam) did it for Pappy.  You just get the wreath.  Papa B added the flag and I added the Poppies.  It’s such a nice program and I’m glad we did it this year. We’ll definitely keep doing it in the years to come.

Tried these gluten – free donuts.  Wish I would not have tried them.  They were awful…and that’s being kind.

Tried these gluten – free fish sticks.  They’re a keeper.  The only thing I wish Ian’s did differently was use a finer ground corn meal.  They use a coarse ground and it’s a little hard on the mouth feel.  But I’ll still buy more.

Y’all know I’m a hard core Gucci girl but what in the world is this supposed to be?  Gucci, I think y’all need to conduct a surprise drug test for your designers.

In my ongoing health saga…this is what my chest currently looks like. 🙁  Apparently I’m having a reaction to some of my new meds but they don’t know which one.  SO I have to stop them then reintroduce them one at a time once this hive situation clears up.

Got this new gfJules flour and plan to put it to use on some holiday baking starting today.  I want to take a second to say how amazing their customer service is. They had some shipping issues with my order and Jules’ husband went out of his way to make it right.  I think he’s like the CEO of the company or something like that and he personally got the problem fixed.  I know I said I wasn’t going to turn this into a recipe blog and that’s still my plan but I will definitely share pics of what I make and let y’all know how I like it.  I’m not giving up on Cup4Cup at all just wanted to try something different…with hopefully a little different texture.

That’s all for today.  Hopefully I’ll be back in a few days with some Christmas treats.  🙂

 

 

 

Gluten Free Cake Mix Waffles

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Our newest Christmas yard ornament. 🙂

That cactus will not stop leaning. I’ve yet to get a good pic at night so here’s what it looks like in daylight. We always have to explain this so…the snow woman is tubing the Guadalupe complete with belly button ring / bikini and beer. 🙂  I added that piece kinda as an homage to my Mema who 1. loved Christmas yard ornaments so much and 2. loved tubing the river. The beer label used to say Old Milwaukee…again, in her honor…but it’s faded.  Yeah, I know it should say Shiner or Lone Star to keep with the theme…but it’s never going to say that.

Do y’all think I have a problem? 😉 That’s a drawer full of post Halloween Frankenberry.

If you know me in real life…if I showed up somewhere in these what would you think? 😉

But speaking of…ModCloth, how do you know what I’ve looked at if I haven’t signed into my account?  I’m not sure I like that.  I was searching clothes but I know without a doubt I wasn’t logged in.  Then the next day this showed up in my email and I had looked at every single one of those dresses.

Have y’all seen this at Target?  How hard was it not to buy that Strawberry Shortcake? When I was a kid I couldn’t have Strawberry or her friends because of their smell. I am so allergic to any kind of perfume-y type smell. So no Shortcake gang for me.  That’s ok though because I more than made up for it with Smurfs. 🙂

Buggy number 1 of toys for CPS children. 🙂  Just a reminder…if you’re doing any sort of charity type shopping most of the organizations want the items turned in soon. 🙂

Ok so I know I’m kinda crazy late to this but I searched for gluten – free versions online just to read some reviews and couldn’t find any with pics.

Cake mix waffles.

I had bought that King Arthur gluten – free cake mix and a box of their gluten – free flour.  I hated the flour. So much. As you run your fingers thru it you can feel the rice bits.  It’s definitely not a super fine blend. At all.  So then I was scared to use the cake mix because I hate to be able to feel the rice bits in the finished cake.

Solution?  Test it out with waffles.

Y’all that cake mix was amazing.  Silky smooth.

When I was looking at recipes for the waffles I decided on the one where you just make up the cake mix like it says on the box but then cook as pancakes or waffles.  I weighed out half the box of cake mix (11 oz) and then halved all the ingredients. I got 7 waffles out of that amount.

These were so good.  Everyone loved them.  What I would do next time though is use my regular pancake / waffle recipe and sub the cake mix for the flour and the dry ingredients.  Also…for these I just used a store bought tub of cream cheese icing (melted a little bit).  Next time I would mix up a simple powdered sugar / milk drizzle.  The icing combined with the sweetness of the cake mix made these way too rich tasting for breakfast.  And if I’m saying something is too sweet…y’all know it must be super sweet. 😉

King Arthur gluten – free cake mix,  you definitely have a spot in my pantry. 🙂

I’m not in a randoms mood today but one more time… Blue Cross Blue Shield, you suck.

Those links link to local stories about cancer patients who will no longer be able to use some of the best doctors in the world.  People come to the medical center in Houston from all over the world…but BCBS customers right here IN Texas won’t be able to use them.

I really don’t think I would ever go back to BCBS after this.  Like I said before…it’s one thing if these insurance companies want to limit what they offer to those using tax incentives.  But for those of us straight up paying out of pocket?  This is ridiculous.  I’ve moved to United Health.  It’s more expensive but I get to keep all of my doctors…even the big deal scleroderma specialist I don’t see til next month.  I would not have been able to see her if I’d stayed with the crappy HMO plans BCBS is offering.   Which of course…they do not care.  They want our monthly premiums but they don’t want us to actually use the benefits.

Have a good day and I’ll see ya soon.  🙂

 

Recap and Randoms

Hey, y’all.  Hope you survived the holiday weekend.  🙂

Since I had to rejigger my ingredients I spent a good part of Wed mixing up all the gluten – free dry ingredients I could ahead of time…

Cooked a turkey breast in my pressure cooker and let me tell y’all what I did…see that blob that looks like ketchup? It’s not.  It’s homemade apple butter.  I mixed up some salt / pepper / onion powder and a little dry chicken broth base plus a couple of tablespoons apple butter and a tablespoon mustard.  I slathered it all over the top / bottom of the breast.

Wrapped it up tight and into the ice box for about 24 hours.

Pressure cooked on high for 25 minutes and then let the pressure release naturally instead of forcing it to release.  The flavor was amazing.  I decided to try that combo because I always slather mustard / seasoning mix all over / inside and then stuff my big bird with onions and apple slices.  I wanted to try to recreate that flavor with the breast.  Mission accomplished. 🙂

This is what I used to cake mix for…apple cake.  It wasn’t all that great so I didn’t get an after shot.

I made gluten – free green bean cass and left the fried onions off a small portion for me.  Mama B took our family dressing recipe and made me a gluten – free version that was so ridiculously good.

The meal turned out really well esp for having to change plans.  Everything was gluten – free except the pie crust (which I didn’t eat) and Mama B made gluten – full dressing for everyone else.

The next day I whipped up some of my most favorite gluten – free whipped butter cookies.  They’re good but I have to get some fresh cup4cup. I ordered some today so hopefully it’s here in a few days.  The whole time I was eating wheat this year they had cup4cup in our local grocery store.  Now that I have to eat it?  Of course they’re not carrying it anymore and it’s back to ordering it.

49* in the middle of the day (Sat).  I pulled out the UGG boots. 🙂  I don’t care if you think UGG boots are silly. 🙂  I ordered another pair on cyber Monday.  Oh y’all know y’all did it too…used the deals to shop for yourselves. 😉  I ended up getting pretty much all of my shopping done and got some pretty good deals…but can’t really talk about them here since most of the recipients read here.

Look at that bottom pic.  That’s bubbling with a gluten – free pancake.  You might understand then why I had such high hopes for these. They turned out to be the most vile tasting thing I’ve had in ages.  I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for several hours.  I picked them up at HEB because they had a store coupon and because Kirby Lane is one of Sister B’s fav restaurants.  Big mistake.  It might be a fabulous gluten – full place but gluten – free?  Yuck.

Got the tree up and decorated.  Love it so much.  🙂  Decided to do all red and white this year. I’m looking for a different skirt but not having any luck.

 

Randoms:

  • Media, I’m gonna need y’all to start labeling these horrible people exactly what they are…Christian terrorists.  Just like their Muslim counterparts they don’t speak for every or even the majority of Christians everywhere but it’s time to start identifying them as exactly what they are.

 

  • I’ve been to Planned Parenthood two different times in my life.  Guess what?  Just because some people are too stubborn and / or intellectually challenged to actually research and decipher the statistics for themselves it doesn’t change that fact that far more people use PP for well women, well pregnancy and well baby care than they do for abortions.  So while you’re advocating violence in the name of life just remember your violence could very well end up killing a LIVING breathing baby doing nothing more than getting his / her well baby checkup.  So much pro life, y’all.  Said with all the sarcasm and disgust in the world.

 

  • Remember this post? I was very passionate about not supporting organizations (specifically the Salvation Army) that support domestic abusers. A reader contacted me and told me that the Salvation Army also actively supports anti-gay organizations.  I truly did not know that.  Some of y’all know that my favorite day of the year is when I (and Mama B) go shopping for the Angel tree kids and elderly each Christmas.  At first I was a little bit torn because the trees are primarily for disadvantaged children who most likely have no idea what religious hate even is.  But I like to practice what I rant about so I decided to no longer support the Salvation Army in any way.  Instead I went around to several churches in my own little town and found a way to do basically the same thing.  I’ll still be helping children and their families but without also being in any way associated with the Salvation Army.  If you’re someone who feels the same way…call around to the churches, the chamber of commerce or you local newspaper office in your own towns. Even if they don’t have an organized angel type program they all know someone in their church and / or community who can use a little help.  🙂  Somebody reading this will no doubt contact me and say “but texas girl…churches hate gay people too”.  Uhmm no.  Every single church around doesn’t spew hate.

 

  • It’s time for me to switch over to Christmas music here on the blog but I really need somebody to tell me what Chris Janson is saying about a Yeti something in his song Buy Me A Boat.  I mean my idea of roughing it is a 3 star hotel instead of 5  😉 so I don’t really have a need for a cooler.  The only way I even knew Yeti = some sort of cooler is because I see people buying them / putting ice and beer in them in the Bucees parking lot when I’m getting my ‘medication’…aka crack coke…aka coke icees.  😉 But still…I must know what he’s saying.

 

  • Can y’all believe that removing gluten was all it took to stop those awful blood spots?  I haven’t had one new spot since I stopped the gluten and most of the ones I already had…cleared up within days.  My arms haven’t been this clear for this long since mid July.

 

  • There are a few more hours left of giving Tuesday.  Did you give?  If you’re looking for a good cause I know they’re all good but this is where I donated today…The Lotus Project.

 

 

Ok that’s enough for today.  I have a Dr’s appointment Wed and then one more in a couple of weeks.  After that hopefully I can be done with Dr’s and tests until mid January when I’m going to see some big deal scleroderma specialist at the medical center.  🙂

Y’all have a good week. 🙂

 

Happy Thanksgiving + Health Developments

Happy Thanksgiving. 🙂  Don’t all little girls celebrate Thanksgiving by putting a hat on a turkey and letting it look in a mirror? 😉

So…where’ve I been?

I’ll just go ahead and put this here…

So…yeah.

I went to the gastroenterologist for something else and left with this. 🙁  If you can’t read it…it’s Celiac confirmation.  The blacked out stuff is personal information + what I originally went in for and don’t want on the blog.

I can’t believe this.  I’ve lived most of this year eating pretty much all the wheat around because we (me and my other dr’s) thought the original 2013 diagnosis was wrong.  The gastro thinks that reintroducing gluten is directly related to some of the health things I’ve been going thru for the last several months.

I was in such denial I even took multiple pregnancy tests to try to account for all the bloating.  Because ya know it’s so much more likely for the woman who hasn’t ovulated in several years to be pregnant than not able to eat donuts. 😉

Anyway…I’ve been dealing with this…clearing out the cabinets…changing up things for Thanksgiving meal…getting reacquainted with cup4cup…and being a little bit mopey.

But if I’m completely honest with myself…I know it’s something I have to do and just the week and half-ish of no gluten has changed my health in dramatic ways.  Those awful blood spots on my arms are even healing up really fast.

I don’t wanna dwell on it too much more right now.  Obviously I’m gonna have to go back to cooking everything gluten-free but I’m not sure how much I’ll put on here.  I mean I’ll post pics of stuff but I don’t think I want to go back to posting a bunch of recipes.  At least not until I’m feeling a whole lot better and have the energy to do so.

Those of you who know me in person…”I told you so” will be accepted til midnight tonight.  😉

Hope y’all have the best Thanksgiving weekend with those you love. 🙂

Be safe on the roads and in the malls and I’ll see ya next week when hopefully I’ll get this space back to normal.  🙂

Let’s go old school with the music today while I ask…Is tequila gluten- free? ’cause I think I’m gonna be needin’ the bottle.  😉