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!

A Boy and His Garden

Shortly after Phoenix Home and Garden visited our home we got to work on a garden bed just for Justin. We began small to make sure that he could tend it on his own (which he almost, sort of does). He chose the plants that he most desired: corn, watermelon, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Justin's corn harvest. One ear had only one piece of corn on it. Oh well.

He planted with the help of Ryan, he waters with the help of Ryan, but he mostly harvests all on his own (with Tyler occasionally stealing cherry tomatoes straight from the garden). He is always so proud when he gets to eat his own vegetables. It gives him a good sense of pride and a healthy self esteem. Yay for gardening with kids!

Quote of the Week

Our next door neighbor, who sold us every appliance that she owns, was speaking to Ryan sometime last week. She was quite puzzled.

"Is that dryer I sold to you still working? Because I saw that you guys were hanging your clothes up outside."

"Yes,but," said Ryan, "we try to use the line whenever we can use the suns energy."

"Oh," she laughed, "that’s right, you guys care about energy and the environment and stuff."

Farmers' Markets

Ryan and I are huge fans of farmers' markets. Unfortunately, many of them that are actually close by are open only on Sundays. Bummer. We enjoy Guadalupe Farmers' Market for local and/or organic produce. It's close by, Priest and Guadalupe, and the prices are pretty good. The produce is in good form, but it's the extras that actually draw me in. This place sells locally made tamales and tortillas. The tortillas there are reminiscent in flavor of ones that Ryan and I purchased while on vacation in Cabo san Lucas. Delish! On one occasion we were checking out and realized there was a cooler next to us with a big sign on it in red letters that read, "Fresh HOT Tamales." They were still warm. We grabbed a dozen at a good price and had dinner to go. I love that I was supporting some local Grandma that needs a few extra bucks in the home. The salsa sold at the store is to die for too. I love their Drunken Irish brand. I'm a bit of a salsa aficionado because I eat it incessantly and this is one of my favorites.

Ryan and I went to the Downtown Phoenix Public Market on Saturday morning. They are open from 8-12 on Saturdays and have free parking. The market is outdoors but every area is shaded and there are fans for cooling. The market is small which is nice for a family with kids because we could get in and out in about 30-45 minutes. There was good looking fresh/local/organic produce, fresh breads and foods, live music, and other homemade goods. We bought some fresh baguettes, bagels, tortillas, salsa, spinach pasta, and produce for the week. Everything that we have eaten so far has been really tasty.

While the quality of the products was good the shopping was a bit of a hassle. They accept credit cards but not every vendor has a machine on the spot. They give you a paper to fill out with each vendor that you hand over at the end to make good on your credit. Sounds good, right? Not exactly. Not every vendor brings your items to the pay area so you have to go back through to get all of your products. We gave up after two vendors and decided to get some public market certificates thinking that would help. It didn't. Everyone looked at them like they had never seen them before and they couldn't give us change for them. So now we have leftovers. I suppose its not a huge deal since we will go again, but its annoying nonetheless. I suggest bring cash and avoid the hassle. We brought our own produce and shopping bags but there were plenty of plastic bags if you need those (and if you want them to sit in a landfill for eternity). No judgment.

Happy Farmers' Marekting everyone!