chocolate chip cookie comapir

Chocolate chip cookie comparison:
WOW VS Lucy's

The boxes cost about the same, and the Lucy's box is about 3 ounces lighter.

Lucy's: 130 Calories per OZ
WOW: 125 Calories per OZ

Wow has over twice the fat and half the fiber as Lucy's.

Lucy's: GF, and NO Nuts, Milk or Eggs.
WOW, is just GF.

The Lucy's cookies were thin and crispy. Crunchy, but not too crumbly. It makes me think of chips-ahow.
The wow cookies are soft and chewy. More like a MrsFields

I gave Hubby two of each, he said that the WOW cookies made him think of "gummy bears" and the Lucy's tasted like potato chips.
Can you guess who is on a diet?...

Anyhow, I think that If I'm indulging in cookies, I would rater go with the Wow cookies.

Thease boots were make for YOU

For My sister in-law's birthday I mad her thease boots.

Well, I got the boots cheep, knockoffs.

I made a matching t-shirt. But forgot to take it's photo, but you get the idea.

 I knew she had a pair already, so I though she would like a pair with a little more flair to it.

This is from Anita Goof Design. Glamor-Rocks

I'm still learning to use the programs, so I was overwhelmed by the CD of designers.

It came with a resizing program but I could not figure it out the first time. And Her birthday was in 2 days, So I picked one of the only four patterns pre-sized to my machine and embroidered it onto some pink chiffon.

Then I cut away the stabilizer and excess chiffon, and then I slip stitched the design onto the boot.

It would have probably been faster to un-sew the lining of the boot and sew the design directly on, but I can't get our winter comforter to go back into it's box at then end of winter so I doubt my ability to put a boot back together.

Make your own coco-Dairy free, GF

My mother in-law apparently had never heard of doing this, so perhaps she is not the only one...
I make my own coco powder.
It tasted WAY better, and is the only way I know of to get it Daily free.
And every so often you get a little "malt flavoring" in there so we don't risk that!
Plus; warm milk does not always set well with me :)
SO this is the recipe for regular, wich I adapted off of the back of the Hershey's cocoa tub.


1 cup powdered sugar
2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
When you add about two spoonfuls to a mug of hot watter, This makes about 8 servings.
You can change the flavor just by changing the flavor of the non dairy creamer.
OR you can get more creative.

My mom, who is Dairy free, likes raspberry. So I wanted to make her a raspberry truffle mix
this is what I came up with:
1 packet raspberry Chrystal light
2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
Because the Crystal light is already sweet, you don't need to add sugar, but this makes the Volume greatly reduced. It only takes one spoonful of powder to make a mug of coco.

I love chocolate oranges so I have also done it with the Tang.
 I imagine any powdered drink mix would do...

Bell Shawl

My mother playes the hand bells.
She has been In love with them since she was a little girl.
And now she finally has the time to indulge in her hobby.
So for Christmas I got her a black pashmina and embroidered one end in Silver and Gold bells

and the Other end I monogrammed and framed it with Bells

I think she liked it.
She is going to show it off to the other women in her Bell Choir and see if they want to order there own.

The bell design is form the same Christmas set as the Penguin featured earlier

Flying apron @ Whole foods

Our Whole foods just started caring, in there bakery, individually wrapped goodies form the Flying apron bakery.
I am SOOOOO excited.

It's a long and difficult drive to get to Fremont where the Flying apron Bakery is, before they close. So having a supply near by is very exciting.
I told the clerk that as I check out, with a few goodies in my GF cart, and she told me that I was the third customer she had heard that from that day, being the first week that they started caring it.
Hum,,,
They way I figure the math: I would think that means that 3% of there customers were excited to see the Flying apron bakery display.
I don't know marketing, but I would think 3% would be worth noticing.
I might have to write Whole foods a letter, just in case that checker did not pass on to her manager how many people were excited by the new addition.

I love the Pecan Cinnamon rolls. They are actually rolled, and the frosting is just right.More of a maple flavored glaze...Not too much Cinnamon and just enough nuts.
And when wrapped individually they were the moistest and softest I had ever tasted. Even when I have gone to the bakery!
Happy day!

Udi's Cranberry Granola (GF, DF,Soy free and Egg free)

Made with Certified gluten free oats.
I got a bag of this Granola on sale for $4.99 That is still quite allot to pay for cereal.
Comes to about 0.40 am oz.
You get 8% of you fiber and 8% of your fat per 1/4Cup serving
Not Super healthy, but I was craving granola.

It was good. Not too sweet. I don't like my granola to be too sugary. I like the oats to be the main feature.
The oats were not under toasted or over toasted. The nuts were small enough to mix well with the oats, but not so small you wondered where they were.
I could have used a few more cranberries.
I think I will keep an eye out for the other GF flavors to go on sale to give them a try.

Bisquick-Gluten free drop Biscuits

How assume is that!!!
It's like being GF gets more and more "normal" every day.
And hubby found this at the local grocery.
 Not just the specialty store!
I have got to say I was skeptical.
 If you look at the ingredients, you see the mix is mostly rice, with some sugar, leavening and potato starch.
However, since hubby was excited to bring this home for me; I was excited to give it a try.
I went for the drop biscuits recipe featured on the back of the box.

The recipe was simple, and fairly quick.

I only had to cut in the shortening and then mix in milk and eggs.

I like mixes that all truly ready to go.

The dough was sticky, but formed nicely to drop on to the baking sheet.

Which I had lined with parchment paper.*I find often when the recipes states not to grease the banking sheet, and you grease it the item in question puddles during baking. If you do not grease the baking sheet, the item in question cannot be removed from the sheet without being mangled. This is why the parchment paper is an essential of the kitchen. It gives you that ability to remove the item after baking without effecting the viscosity during baking.*

They turned out quite good.

They appeared to need  the full 16minutes in the oven.

The had a thin crust and a good texture.

They were a little on the grainy side, probably do to them being mostly rice based.

You could tear them apart without them falling apart.

Overall they were good. And fairly quick to make.

They went well with he stew we had for dinner.

We were even able to soak them in the broth, without them disintegrating. A positive sign.

Overall I will probably get this mix again.

Especially when on sale.

Apply cranberry cobbler-Take 1

I was out to dinner with co-workers last week. And the restaurant we were at had an advertised Apply cranberry cobbler.

It sounded intriguing.

SO I came home and searched the Internet.

I found quite a few recipes, none were GF, and most were complicated or required special equipment and ingredients. So I created this amalgamation of my own from a couple of different locations.

Apple cranberry cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 10 cup thinly sliced peeled sweet-tart apple (about 6 large)
• TOPPING:
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter or margarine
• ¼ C oatmeal
• ¼ C Crushed almonds
• 1/4 cup milk
Directions
To prepare filling, combine sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add cranberries and apple; toss well to coat. Spoon apple mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to form a soft dough. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls over apple mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 20-35 minutes or until topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into topping comes out clean.

First attempt-Toping is very rough and thick. Closer to a shortcake then a cobbler. Cooked to a nice golden brown.

But top was done when apples were still hard.

Not just firm, but barley cooked at all.
And I think it had too many cranberries.

Puppy and Kitty Shawl

My husband’s maternal grandmother:
Of all of her grandchildren, my husband has spent the most time with her. And as we have been married, so have I.

I would venture to say we are her favorites.

And were found of her too.

She is a very classy lady. She and I have similar taste.

Last year we gave her a purse, scarf and leather gloves. And I have seen her use the purse we got her every time we have seen her all year.

So either she liked it a lot, or she gets it out when she knows were coming.

So I wanted to embroider her something special for Christmas.

She is a skinny woman, with excellent bone structure, so I would hate to embroider her clothing in the wrong size..

I got a green pashmina from a local international market.

And I embroidered a Puppy on one end

And A kitty on the other.

She has several cats and a lap dog.

I hope that she will like it.

Smoked salmon sandwiches

So tradition at my parents is that they get a smoked salmon for Christmas.
SO for new years eve late night snack we have cheese, crackers, leftover ham and smoked salmon, cream cheese, and usually salami or some hard meat.

So let me share with you the BEST sandwich I make.
Two slices of toasted Rice bread
Spread with Cream cheese
Then layered with smoked salmon and avocado or cucumber

With the rice bread it's like a Philadelphia sushi roll, only without the seaweed.
:)

banana bread-Flour Blend compair

Pregnant lady has craving for banana bread. I  found a simple recipe on the csaceliac.org page.

csaceliacs.org/recipes

It called for the use of a "prepared GF baking mix".
I happened to have a box of arrowhead mills blend AND a bog of Bob's red Mill.

I made two loafs, one from each blend.

The first loaf, on the left, is the Arrow Head Mills. The center did not rise, and the  crust was thick. The flavor was almost caramelized. Very crumble.

The second loaf was with bob. It made a better looking loaf, sliced better and crust was thinner.

however it was denser and dryer.

So I think this time arrowhead was the winner.

Maybe next time I try Arrowhead against Betty's mix.