Thanksgiving

I just wanted to express something that I am very grateful for this Thanksgiving. Gluten free food. My WONDERFUL mother-in-law made sure I had everything I needed, from gluten free stuffing to a tasty pumpkin pie. It's so much easier to enjoy a meal when you can eat whatever you want. My first Thanksgiving was extremely hard. The stuffing (which is my personal favorite) tasted nothing like my traditional favorite. The rolls were so-so and the pumpkin pie tasted much better once I stopped trying to eat the crust. I am grateful that the world is coming around a little bit to cater to those with different food needs. The Gluten free substitutes I had this Thanksgiving were so amazing. Maybe someday the price will go down so I will be able to afford them on a regular basis. I will be posting some of the recipes from my thanksgiving feast including a graham cracker type crust for a cheesecake. For now though I just want to send out Thank yous to the Universe. I am grateful to all my friends, both recent relationships and longtime. You have lifted me up when I was down and kept me going. I am grateful that facebook enables me to keep in touch. I am grateful for in-laws who not only want us around but help us out with the kiddies when we (I) need a nap. I am grateful for my Mom and Dad and the love and support they continually send me from far away. I am grateful for my sister Kate who is my amazing best friend and confidante. I am grateful for my brothers and their AWESOMENESS.

I am grateful for my husband Chris who loves me so much more than I deserve. I am so proud of him, He goes to school and work and still takes time to be with me and our kids. I am so amazed that I got lucky enough to have him in my life. I am grateful for our two sweet children Lucy and EmmyKate. Even though there are days that I just have no idea what I am doing or why I am doing it, they bless my life with so much joy. I certainly didn't do anything to deserve to be this blessed. I am thankful to God, for his tender mercies and abundant blessings both seen and unseen in my life.

A Soup a Week for Winter: French Onion Soup

This soup takes a little bit of vigilence and time, but it is well worth the effort.

2 large Onions

2 cans of beef Broth (vegetable will work for vegetarian)

White Wine

salt to taste

1. Chop slice or dice the onion to your preference (I like rings)
2. In a fry pan over medium heat start cooking the onions in just enough broth to cover the bottom of the pan.
3. Cook until the broth boils out. Don't stir to much it is okay for things to stick to the pan. 
4. Continue adding a little beef broth and cooking it off until you use up one of the cans of broth.
5.  After the broth add just enough white wine to coat the bottom of the pan and scrape anything left on the bottom with a spoon.
6. Add the other can of broth and simmer for about 10 minutes.
7. Add salt to taste and enjoy

A Soup a Week for Winter: Butternut Squash

This is a really yummy recipe that may not make it to mealtime if my husband keeps sneaking "tastes" of it. I happened to have some butternut squash sitting on the counter needing to be used, and so I went to work searching for a recipe. However, I didn't have all of the ingredients for any of the recipes I found, so I improvised and created my own recipe.

Butternut Squash Soup
1 large Butternut Squash
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
3 large carrots
3 14oz cans of chicken broth (use vegetable for vegetarian)
Water
1/2 cup sour cream

 

1. Peel squash and scoop out seeds. Then dice into cubes.
2. Chop onion and garlic.
3. Peel and chop carrots
4. Put Vegetables in crock-pot with the cans of broth, then fill one can with water and add that too. Cook on low overnight. 
5. All the vegetables should be really soft at this point. pour into a large container (a bowl or a pot will work) and add sour cream. Stir until there are no big lumps of sour cream.
6. Put soup into the blender and puree until smooth. 
7. Pour back into crock-pot to keep warm until mealtime.

A Soup a Week for Winter

It's that time of year. It's time to make snowmen, have snowball fights, blow noses,  you know that kind of thing. So I'm starting a new project "A Soup a Week for Winter." As someone with Celiac I often find myself wondering what to do about lunch. Oh how I long for the ease of a nice hot toasted cheese sandwich, but alas, the ease of a sandwich would leave me broke. So to make lunches a little easier I am making a soup a week. once a week I will be making a new soup and blogging on it. For myself I am making these in large quantities and putting leftovers in containers so that I have a quick meal when I need it. Microwaves are amazing things aren't they? Anyway I hope you find something warm and yummy on these cold winter days.

Eclairs

So I know that it is pretty easy to find GF dessert stuff, but this is a recipe that i have become really fond of. i made them for a party that I went to and it was a hit.I quadrupled the recipe and made my own filling, the original recipe I used was a cream puff recipe which can be found here.

Before you start this know that the filling works best if left in the fridge overnight.
2 cup water
1 cup butter
1tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup rice flour
8 eggs
1 8oz tub of whipped topping(like cool whip)
1 vanilla instant pudding
1 cup powdered sugar
chocolate glaze (I used store bought)

filling
1. mix up the pudding as per the directions on the package. Mix in the whipped topping and the powdered sugar, beat until stiff. Put in fridge overnight.
2.In sauce pan boil water, butter, vanilla, and salt.
3. add flour all at once, TIP:measure it out while you wait for the water to boil, it really does make a difference whether you add it all at once or not.

4. stir until the dough sticks together and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan
5.take off the heat and let sit five minutes
6. mix in the eggs one egg at a time.
7. place dough in a pastry bag (or you can use a heavy duty ziploc bag with the corner snipped off) and squeeze out in about 3 to 4 inch strips. make sure that you don't make them to thick or they won't cook properly.

8.Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Make sure that they are not under done, because they will deflate if you don't cook them long enough. They should be golden brown and kind of hard.
9. Once they cool pull out your filling. there is a couple of ways to fill them, the easy way is to just cut them in half and then put the filling in the middle like a sandwich. I like making my food pretty so I took a knife and cut a hole in each end, then I took a decorating bag and a long tip that you use to decorate cakes and filled them from the hole.
10. last but not least pour the glaze over. it's easiest if you line them all up first.