Was it Like Heaven in your Mouth?

Have you ever seen Dan in Real Life? It's hysterical. There's a scene where he is eating dinner and he says, "This corn is heaven." I crack up laughing every time I see that scene. Well, I've found a similar Heaven, in the form of a brownie. A gluten free, dairy free brownie. I made them on Friday and ate the whole 8x8 pan nearly by myself in two days and that's only because my husband was home over the weekend and I couldn't blame it on play date mothers. I found this heaven-in-your-mouth brownie recipe on Gluten Free Girl. You can visit it here. Seriously, it is the best brownie I have ever eaten. EVER. And I have eaten a lot of brownies.

As I said, I ate the whole batch in two days and figured I did without them for two days (and that was some will power on my part), so I was ready for more. I went to Trader Joe's under the guise of "grocery shopping" to buy a 3.5 oz bar of dark baking chocolate-it's part of my Heaven too. I got home and got set up and realized that I hadn't printed out the recipe and my computer was farting that day. Boo hoo! I was devastated, so I called a good pregnant friend who I knew would take pity on me to look up the recipe for me and relay it over the phone. I promised her a slice the next day. Sure enough I made the brownies, downed about half the first day and saved a piece for her.

I gave it to her this morning. She called mid-day to announce that she needed the recipe (as she was at Sunflower buying "groceries" (some baking chocolate for brownies). I asked her, "Was it like Heaven in your mouth?" She laughed at me and quickly got on with the conversation - she's pregnant and NEEDS these brownies! I get it! And, so should you - get the baking chocolate and get to bakin' unless of course you think Heaven is stupid. It's your soul. Whatever.

Okay, I'm serious now!

We discovered that Ryan is getting a 5% cut in his salary, so I'm extra serious now about not buying any more prepackaged gluten free $7-an-item items. I already had several different gluten free flours but they were not easy to use and I was always worried about spilling them everywhere because I would clamp four different bags with one chip clip. I know, I'm brilliant. So, in an attempt to make gluten free cooking easy, and therefore more desirable, I took a trip to IKEA and bought pretty plastic containers with lids. Hooray. I poured bag of flour with a weird name, after bag of flour with a weird name and labeled each of my pretty new containers. This, makes me happy and, in fact, makes me want to bake. Organization is good for my soul, hopefully, it will be good for my budget too.

If you look closely, you will notice a storm trooper and Jengo-dupa-bo-bupa in the picture. My son insisted that his star wars lego creatures be in the picture. Apparently, they appreciate my gluten free baking too.

The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, Seriously

I scoured the Internet for a cookie recipe that I had all of the ingredients for. I am sick and tired of keeping Bob's Red Mill in business all by myself. I found a recipe that looked good and claimed to be the best gfree cookies ever. And I tried it, and they were. Hallelujah! These cookies held their form and were the most like gluten filled cookies I've ever tried. I am ecstatic!

Here's the link as well as the cut and pasted recipe:

The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Created by Carrie @ http://www.gingerlemongirl.com/(Free of gluten, casein, and soy)

Wet Ingredients:
1/4 cup Spectrum Palm Shortening
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour -or- millet flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. xanthan gum (optional)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Add In's:6 oz. gluten free or allergen free chocolate chips

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Banana Bread

I am pumped up by my minimal cookie success and have been baking and cooking up a storm lately. I made some banana bread that was delicious but a little sweet for my tastes, although I think the rotten bananas I had frozen were really what made the bread too sweet.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Banana Bread
2/3 shortening
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
2/3 C vanilla rice milk
1 3/4 C sugar
1 t salt
1 1/4 t baking soda
1 1/4 t baking powder
2 1/2 C gluten free flour (equal parts of sorghum flour, brown rice flour, and tapioca starch)

Bake loaf in pan at 350 for 45 minutes. Makes two loaves.

Terrifying Gluten Free Cookies

About two years ago I discovered I was allergic to gluten, dairy and eggs which I refer to as my glairegg allergies. This past summer I've discovered that my six year old, Justin is allergic to these same things. Bummer.

I feel much more motivated to really stick to an allergen free diet. One of my biggest fears is that nothing will taste as good as the original dairy, gluten or egg filled variety. So, I sit paralyzed by my fear of funky tasting cookies. But, not today. Today is the day I got brave. I rolled up my sleeves, pulled out my 112 bags of Bob's Red mill gluten free something or other flours and began to mix. I consulted a handout I received from a class I took a few years ago about cooking with food allergies. I followed the chef's advice to see if I could, once and for all, put my fear behind me and enjoy good tasting gluten free chocolate chip cookies. Although, I didn't use the egg replacer just yet. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

I mixed up a batch of all purpose gluten free flour which includes 1 part brown rice flour, 1 part sorghum flour and 1 part tapioca flour. Then I followed my original chocolate chip cookie recipe substituting my flour for wheat flour and adding 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum for each cup of flour.

April's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 C shortening
1C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 C GF flour mix
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 C chocolate chips

I mixed up my cookie dough and was hopeful. It looked good. I tasted it. And there was much rejoicing! Hooray! And then I baked my first batch. And they turned out looking like this...

This picture actually doesn't do them justice. They look totally lame in person.

You can't exactly eat it like a cookie. It's more like the crumbs of the cookie jar that you desperately try to suck down when all of the cookies are gone and you want more becaue it was a bad day. But, the good news is that they taste marvelous. So, I'm not giving up. I put the rest of the dough in an 8x8 and am trying my hand at cookie bars. We'll see how that ends up. I'm hopeful at least and no longer terrified. It was a good day of baking!

Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup

Yesterday I slaved over frozen chicken and crock pot. I de-boned and shredded my chicken late in the night so as to prepare a hearty soup for the next day. Today I enlisted help to make said hearty soup. Justin donned his apron and chef's hat and got to mixing dough, cutting carrots, and rolling out noodles. The soup was bubbling and smelling delicious. I ladled out a portion to bring to another family and thought for a minute, Geez, I hope that's enough. It didn't seem to have a much volume as I had hoped. I delivered the meal and returned home to the yummy smell of my homemade chicken noodle soup.

My family sat down to our glorious meal, blessed the food and began to partake. Hmmm. That's funny, I thought, it needs a bit more flavor. As I made my way to the chicken bouillon, I began to laugh hysterically as I realized why my soup was so bland. NO CHICKEN! I made chicken noodle soup with no chicken. I.could.not.stop.laughing. I quickly called up my friend to apologize profusely for being a wicked moron and forgetting the chicken, of all things, in the chicken noodle soup. I feel so embarrassed and mortified. It was too late to bring her some chicken as they had an activity to attend. But, luckily for us we had lots of chicken to add to our yummy chicken noodle soup. Pa ha!