This weekend was our annual Memorial Day/Hubby's Birthday BBQ. We had a great time with good friends and last minute visit from my wonderful sister.
I didn't take a single picture of any of it! ARG! I never think about taking pictures at the time and then, when it's all over, I'm mad that I don't have any pictures. Maybe next year....
This year I had to figure out what to make for my littlest. So, in addition to the usual birthday cake for my husband (PW's Strawberry Shortcake Cake - you must have this cake!), I made gluten-free, egg-free chocolate sour cream cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. They were so good. They were almost gone by the end of the party.
If you haven't discovered her books already, you must look for The Cake Mix Doctor's books. I have been using them for years - much faster than baking from scratch and I usually get good results which can be difficult baking at high altitude. The Cake Mix Doctor recently published a gluten-free book. I bought a GF chocolate cake mix (pricey!), doctored it up according her recipe, and replaced the eggs with an applesauce/water/oil/baking powder mixture. They worked beautifully and no one knew they were GFEF (gluten-free, egg-free) unless I told them.
On top of that, I had to make my famous cheesy potato dish. There are those who would be really mad at me if my potatoes weren't at a summer BBQ. The problem is that the dish uses cream of chicken soup which has - you guessed it - gluten. So I made my own gluten-free cream of chicken soup to use instead. And I left off the breadcrumb topping all together. Again, everything worked really well and the potatoes were gone in a flash!
I'm beginning to feel much better about my ability to adapt to this new diet for the little one (and the rest of us, I guess). Today's challenge? Gluten-free, egg-free chocolate chip cookies....and I might even try making date syrup to use as the sweetener instead of sugar. Wish me luck!
Oh and remind me to TAKE PICTURES!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Ferocious Lions
Disclaimer - This is my first attempt at posting a video and I have NO idea if it will work or not. If not, I'll post the link to YouTube since I have it as "unlisted." Hope it works!
I took the girls to the zoo a couple of weeks ago as a field trip. Apparently every other school in the state had the same idea though. Tons of kids were there! But Katherine was big enough this time to see the animals and sort of understand what they were.
The lions were out this time and we saw at least two male lions and three or four female lions. My older girls and their friend, Luke, were roaring at the lions through the glass. And Katherine noticed. Since then, she has been looking for pictures of lions in her books. She found one in her Noah's Ark book and here is the result.
(Please disregard the messiness in the background - we had a busy morning.)
I took the girls to the zoo a couple of weeks ago as a field trip. Apparently every other school in the state had the same idea though. Tons of kids were there! But Katherine was big enough this time to see the animals and sort of understand what they were.
The lions were out this time and we saw at least two male lions and three or four female lions. My older girls and their friend, Luke, were roaring at the lions through the glass. And Katherine noticed. Since then, she has been looking for pictures of lions in her books. She found one in her Noah's Ark book and here is the result.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Frustration
Ok, people, I'm frustrated and I don't care who knows it!
I am stressed about this new diet we're doing around here - no egg, no peanut, no gluten. My baby has severe allergies to the first two and has a gluten intolerance. She has been gluten free for just over two weeks now and it's working wonders on her. I'm stressed because it's working. Secretly, I think I hoped that gluten wouldn't be the issue and I could go back to normal - to all the cooking I've known for the last 38 years. But those days are gone. And I frustrated.
What do I usually do when I'm frustrated? I bake.
What do I do when I'm upset or stressed? I bake.
What do I do when I'm happy about something? I bake.
What do I do to show my family and friends that I love them? I bake!
Now my mother did teach me not to brag but right now I don't care. I love to bake and I'm pretty darn good at it. If I bake something - even a new recipe - I know that it's going to come out good and tasty. It just always does.
I can't bake now, people!
Every gluten-free recipe calls for egg. This is because, without gluten, baked goods have nothing to give them structure. So if anything gluten-free recipes call for more eggs than regular baking. I have been able to use egg replacers in regular baking. But what now?
I realize this shouldn't be this big of a deal. In fact, my youngest isn't really that into cake and cookies, etc. But I AM! And if it's going to be in the house, it needs to be Katherine-friendly. This kid is no dummy. She sees that other people are eating different things. And she wants what they're having.
I think if we just had to worry about gluten or just worry about egg, it wouldn't be so stressful to me. I've been dealing with the egg allergy for seven months now and, though it's been difficult at times, it hasn't been impossible. The gluten issue doesn't seem impossible either - lots of products, cookbooks and websites out there now to help. But both together feels overwhelming to me right now.
I haven't cooked much since we started eating gluten-free. I'm scared to, quite honestly. I guess it's time to jump in and see what happens. But the outcomes are unknown to me right now....and that stresses me.
I'll feel better tomorrow.
Thanks for listening.
More positive posts to come.
I am stressed about this new diet we're doing around here - no egg, no peanut, no gluten. My baby has severe allergies to the first two and has a gluten intolerance. She has been gluten free for just over two weeks now and it's working wonders on her. I'm stressed because it's working. Secretly, I think I hoped that gluten wouldn't be the issue and I could go back to normal - to all the cooking I've known for the last 38 years. But those days are gone. And I frustrated.
What do I usually do when I'm frustrated? I bake.
What do I do when I'm upset or stressed? I bake.
What do I do when I'm happy about something? I bake.
What do I do to show my family and friends that I love them? I bake!
Now my mother did teach me not to brag but right now I don't care. I love to bake and I'm pretty darn good at it. If I bake something - even a new recipe - I know that it's going to come out good and tasty. It just always does.
I can't bake now, people!
Every gluten-free recipe calls for egg. This is because, without gluten, baked goods have nothing to give them structure. So if anything gluten-free recipes call for more eggs than regular baking. I have been able to use egg replacers in regular baking. But what now?
I realize this shouldn't be this big of a deal. In fact, my youngest isn't really that into cake and cookies, etc. But I AM! And if it's going to be in the house, it needs to be Katherine-friendly. This kid is no dummy. She sees that other people are eating different things. And she wants what they're having.
I think if we just had to worry about gluten or just worry about egg, it wouldn't be so stressful to me. I've been dealing with the egg allergy for seven months now and, though it's been difficult at times, it hasn't been impossible. The gluten issue doesn't seem impossible either - lots of products, cookbooks and websites out there now to help. But both together feels overwhelming to me right now.
I haven't cooked much since we started eating gluten-free. I'm scared to, quite honestly. I guess it's time to jump in and see what happens. But the outcomes are unknown to me right now....and that stresses me.
I'll feel better tomorrow.
Thanks for listening.
More positive posts to come.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Gluten, Gluten Everywhere
I promise I will be posting on vacation soon - I'm loading the vacation photos right now.
My littlest one has some food issues, as I've already discussed here. Egg and peanut allergies we know about now. And they are somewhat easy to avoid. But for the last month, my little girl hasn't been sleeping much at all and has had tummy problems that cause her a lot of pain.
The night before we left on vacation it had been over two weeks since she and I had slept through the night. We'd be up for two hours at least every night between 2am and 4am. My husband and I decided to try having her go gluten-free. And as we're about to leave town and have zero control over how her food is prepared, what better time?
It was difficult to avoid peanut, egg, gluten and tomato (she definitely has an issue with tomato but we're not sure how much it bothers her) but all the wait staff we had at restaurants while on the road were really nice and helped us.
Our first night out, we ate at our favorite pizza place in Santa Fe. We ordered a cheese pizza with gluten-free crust for all three girls and they loved it. The crust was really good and they didn't know till the end of dinner that it was gluten free. Unfortunately that night we forgot about the tomato issue but it worked out ok.
Poor baby ended up eating lots of applesauce and veggie straws (but only the potato and spinach flavors) and yogurt. Fortunately she loves those things.
We saw a difference in her throughout the trip. She fussed less, she slept a little better, her tummy seemed improved a lot. So we are continuing the gluten-free experiment with her.
Last night I made a casserole from the latest Paula Deen magazine. Reading through the recipe, it sounded perfect - corn, black beans, brown rice, chicken. Everything the baby could and would eat and everyone would like it. It was really tasty and everyone did like it. Then I read the label on the cream of chicken - contains wheat! Who would have thought?
I am finding that gluten is hiding everywhere in our food. No wonder so many people have gluten sensitivities. We are inundated with gluten everywhere we turn! A friend of mine who is gluten intolerant as are four of her children told me that most of the time when you see "natural flavorings" on a label, it's gluten. Some gluten wouldn't be a problem - the gluten found naturally in wheat, rye and barley. But it's been added to everything to improve texture and flavor.
Going gluten-free is going to be more challenging than I anticipated - but not impossible. At least with gluten, I don't have to worry about anaphylaxis like I do with the allergies.
God bless the internet - I found several recipes for making my own GF (gluten free) cream of anything soups that I can use in place of canned. Yay!
My littlest one has some food issues, as I've already discussed here. Egg and peanut allergies we know about now. And they are somewhat easy to avoid. But for the last month, my little girl hasn't been sleeping much at all and has had tummy problems that cause her a lot of pain.
The night before we left on vacation it had been over two weeks since she and I had slept through the night. We'd be up for two hours at least every night between 2am and 4am. My husband and I decided to try having her go gluten-free. And as we're about to leave town and have zero control over how her food is prepared, what better time?
It was difficult to avoid peanut, egg, gluten and tomato (she definitely has an issue with tomato but we're not sure how much it bothers her) but all the wait staff we had at restaurants while on the road were really nice and helped us.
Our first night out, we ate at our favorite pizza place in Santa Fe. We ordered a cheese pizza with gluten-free crust for all three girls and they loved it. The crust was really good and they didn't know till the end of dinner that it was gluten free. Unfortunately that night we forgot about the tomato issue but it worked out ok.
Poor baby ended up eating lots of applesauce and veggie straws (but only the potato and spinach flavors) and yogurt. Fortunately she loves those things.
We saw a difference in her throughout the trip. She fussed less, she slept a little better, her tummy seemed improved a lot. So we are continuing the gluten-free experiment with her.
Last night I made a casserole from the latest Paula Deen magazine. Reading through the recipe, it sounded perfect - corn, black beans, brown rice, chicken. Everything the baby could and would eat and everyone would like it. It was really tasty and everyone did like it. Then I read the label on the cream of chicken - contains wheat! Who would have thought?
I am finding that gluten is hiding everywhere in our food. No wonder so many people have gluten sensitivities. We are inundated with gluten everywhere we turn! A friend of mine who is gluten intolerant as are four of her children told me that most of the time when you see "natural flavorings" on a label, it's gluten. Some gluten wouldn't be a problem - the gluten found naturally in wheat, rye and barley. But it's been added to everything to improve texture and flavor.
Going gluten-free is going to be more challenging than I anticipated - but not impossible. At least with gluten, I don't have to worry about anaphylaxis like I do with the allergies.
God bless the internet - I found several recipes for making my own GF (gluten free) cream of anything soups that I can use in place of canned. Yay!
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