Cherry turnovers -Gluten free

Early on in September, I made David some cherry turnovers.  He really misses poptarts being gluten free.  I can't say that I'm sad we don't have those around the house but I do like to indulge him...

so I made these.  I think he mostly had them for dessert but you could consider them like a big pop tart.

 The filling was really good with fresh cherries!  The dough had cinnamon in it, which made it so much better than just regular dough.  It wasn't the easiest of doughs to work with but I made do.

Gluten-Free Sweet Cherry Turnovers from The Best of this Life

(original recipe says serves 4 but I got more like 6-8)

Dough

1 1/2 cup white rice flour

1/4 cup oat flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup butter (right out of the fridge)

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

6 Tbsp of cool water

In a large bowl mix all flours, sugar & cinnamon together. Cut the butter up and work it into the flour. Beat two eggs, add in the vanilla and water – mix into the flour mixture.  Keep working the dough until all is well blended and you have a nice tender consistency.  Remove from the bowl and form a rectangle – place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

 

 

Sweet Cherry Filling

2 loosely filled cups of sweet cherries (pitted & halved)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup of water

2 Tbsp of tapioca flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan over high heat.  Bring to boil and then reduce to low heat and simmer. Cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring often so that it doesn’t stick.  Once cooked, remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

 

Assembly:

Separate dough into several pieces.  Roll out into a long rectangle.  Top one half with cherry filling then fold the other half of dough over and seal well with a fork on all side.Place on a baking sheet.  Then place the sheet into an oven preheated to 350.  Bake for 22-25 minutes. Enjoy!! 

Beast's Quiche

I hope you are all princess fans, because I have yet another princess cookbook recipe for you.

 I made "The Beast's Quiche" in September as wll.  I did make a gluten free pie crust but there are premade versions that you can buy as well.  This was perfect for us, since Kate really loves broccoli.

 In fact, she was looking at her cookbook last night and pointed this out.  "OOooo, mama!  Let's make this, it has broccoli!"  Needless to say, this was one that we enjoyed!

The Beast's Quiche
premade crust or crust with your favorite recipe
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup cooked broccoli
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425.  Sprinkle cheese over the bottom of the pie crust.  Add the bacon and broccoli.  In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk and pepper.  Pour this over the pie crust.  Place the pie into the oven (you can put it on a baking sheet to prevent spills).  Bake for 15 minutes.  Then reduce oven temperature to 325.  Bake from 25 minutes longer.  Then remove from the oven.  Let cool slightly then enjoy!

Rapunzel Braids

Oddly enough, I seem to have cooked more during September than I did in July and August.  Nesting maybe?  Early on, I made another recipe from Kate's Princess book. 

It ended up being great to send for an easy school lunch.  We made Rapunzel Biscuit Braids.  It was just a biscuit dough with ham and cheese mixed in. 

Kate thought they were really cool.  I can't remember if I used GF flour or regular for these. 

Ham and Cheese Biscuit Braids
2cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 Tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup diced ham
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1cup milk

Preheat over to 400.  Stir together flour, cornmeal, powder and salt.  Pinch or cut in butter.  Stir in the ham and cheese.  Then add the milk and stir until it looks like a dough.  Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and place the dough on top. Then roll the dough out into a 12-inch square using a rolling pin.  This should be 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut the square into quarters then cut each quarter into 12 long strips. 

To braid take three strips and pinch them together at the top.  Take the right section and cross it over the center section, then take the left section and cross it over the center section.  Keep doing this (like braiding hair) until the whole strip is braided all the way down; then pinch together at the bottom.  Repeat until all strips are braided.  Place the braids on a baking sheet or stone.  Place the stone into the over and bake for 8-10 minutes.  When golden, remove from oven.

Start of Kindergarten

Kate started Kindergarten in August. 

I was really excited that she was able to go to school where I went.  It is a great school district and I was confident that she would love it.  We were blessed to be put into Mrs. Hammon's class. 

She went to church with me growing up and is in our Sunday School class.  It was her first year to teach kindergarten but she had taught other grades previously.  Once Kate warmed up to her, she apparently just latched on to her and had daily playtime chats! 

On the first day of school, Kate had pancakes for breakfast.

Of course, we had to take first day of school pictures...complete with chalkboard for comparisons!

Then David and I took her to school and walked her in. 

She was excited but then, of course, didn't want us to leave.  That afternoon, she was tired but happy.  She had a great day...and a great year!

Summer Sunday School Party

In August, our Sunday School class had a party out at the lake.  Some of the guys spent the morning setting up a slip and slide down the hill into the lake.  I really wished that I could do it but I figured it wasn't a good idea at about 33 weeks pregnant!  Ha!  Kate did get to enjoy it. 

I think she went down 4-5 times before it started raining...and raining...and raining. 

Thankfully, we were able to enjoy the outside under a porch.  The kids ran around playing with balls.  The dads enjoyed throwing frisbee. 

And the moms just enjoyed being able to sit around and talk! 

Kate, as usual, was so kind.  One little girl got hurt (very mildly) but Kate immediately started checking on her and telling her to "go see my Daddy.  He's a doctor!" 

She has the sweetest little heart!  I made a gluten free pineapple upside down cake for David.  He enjoyed it and wasn't sad that we came home with leftovers. 

Kate wanted to stay and play more but she was tired and lightning wasn't showing any signs of stopping...and THIS mama says no water when lightning is around! 

Hope we get to do this again...maybe Caleb can have his first water slide experience.  :-)

Miner Muffins

After her birthday, Kate was enamoured with the Princess cookbook from Philip (and whenever she finds it these days, she is again!). Pretty soon after the Abu Bread, we made Miners Muffins. 

The original recipe is for mini muffins and is regular flour.  We modified these to make regular sized muffins and used gluten free flour.  Kate was pretty excited! 

We did this without a mixer, so she got to stir. 

Then, I let her try out the muffin dispenser.  She is quite the little baker. 

These turned out pretty good.  I think I'd like to try them mini at some time.

Miners' Mini Muffins
1 cup GF flour (or regular)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (or buttermilk or almond milk)
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 375.  Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk and butter.  Stir the flour into the butter mixture.  When it is all "just wet" fold in the blueberries.  Spoon into prepared muffin pan (mini or regular).  Put the pan into the oven and allow to bake for 12 (mini) or 15-17 minutes (regular).  It is ready when a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Remove from pan and enjoy!

Kate's birthday - Five (from last year)

I am SO far behind on my posting.  Kate's birthday is less than two months away...and here is her birthday post!  Yikes!  She wanted a Frozen party (go figure!) this year.  We had it at a local gym that has blow up jump toys. 

It was a great place.  All I had to do was bring food.  I think the kids had lots of fun...and I enjoyed getting everything together, despite what David would tell you.  I probably did stress a little bit.  The biggest thing that stressed me was people not RSVP'ing.  Y'all, if someone puts RSVP or regrets only on a card, PLEASE notify them.  It helps in knowing how much food to have.  Speaking of food we had some cute stuff! 

We ended up having snowman ham sandwiches, snowflake PB&J,

Olaf popcorn,

Olaf noses, Olaf arms, frozen hearts (My favorite!),

ice blocks, snowman buttons, and s .  Kate said that she wanted an ice cream cake, which coincided with a challenge to make a frozen dessert.  Perfect! 

So, I made her cake.  I did have a bit of a fit and threw some fondant...but it all came together well!

They have a fun throne for the birthday child to sit in while he/she opens presents.

 Of course, this can cause some discontent in the guests but Kate was really sweet and shared by the end.  And we got a cute picture of everyone together. 

The kids actually played hard before food and presents.  Of course, Luke was the first to get there and he and Kate had some time together. Such special friends! 

And Kate was little Miss Gymnast on the balance beam!

I love my little five year old...um, soon to be six!

Abu Bread

After our family reunion, we returned to our NEW house!  It was quite the experience moving while pregnant.  I really wanted to help but couldn't do much.  I even pulled a muscle when loading the car with hanging clothes.  Of course, we began cooking right away.

 Kate wanted to make a recipe from her Princess cookbook that my brother picked out for her.

 One of the first recipes we made was "Abu Bread."  Take a wild guess as to what this is.....yes! Monkey bread!  It turned out really good.  It was actually making dough for the bread portion.  I'm used to the monkey bread that uses biscuit dough, so this was a little different but was good.  This is really a great recipe to make with the littles.

 They can be really helpful rolling the dough in the cinnamon sugar and throwing the dough balls into the pan. 

Kate has been asking for a Jasmine birthday party and I haven't decided if we will use Abu bread or not! 

Abu's Monkey Bread
3 cups flour (substitute GF baking mix if gluten free)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 Tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 375.  Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.  Cut in butter with knife or pastry knife.  Then use your hands to "pinch" the butter in until the size of peas.  Stir in the milk.  Turn onto a flat surface and knead for five minutes.  Tear off small round pieces of dough - at least 3 dozen.

Melt butter.  Mix sugars and cinnamon together.  Dip eat ball into butter, then dip into sugar mixture. Place the balls into a pre-greased bundt/tube pan until the pan is full.  Place the pan into over and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Hold a plate over the open side of pan and rotate the two so that the bread comes out onto the plate.  Enjoy!