Live Free, Gluten Free

Maybe it's the fact that Paula and I are close in age, or maybe it's that our blogs have similar titles, but I really love this new blog I found!

I went looking again for GF blogs with good recipes that I (1) am interested in and (2) can cook from, and one of the ones I found was Live Free, Gluten Free by Paula.

Like many GF bloggers, she posts a weekly menu with easy links to recipes she's posted before. She posts regularly - not like spastic little me - and the recipes she puts up are super easy to understand and follow. There's a lot of variety in the foods she cooks, so the recipes are interesting. She has younger kids, so there are plenty of kid-friendly recipes as well (like the McDonald's style nuggets and fries).

If you're looking for a new blogger to follow, check out Paula's Live Free, Gluten Free. It's a wonderful blog.

Pork Chops with Apple-Raisin Sauce

It's been a while since I last Joined Linda over at The Gluten Free Homemaker for one of her "What can I eat that's gluten-free?" recipe days.  I guess it's only appropriate that I post a recipe I've been working on for a while.  I think it's pretty established now that I've made it a few times.  This is one of those recipes that I just pieced together from knowing what flavors I like to combine.  It's not from a book.

And, because I tend to cook like a grandma, the measurements are not exact (heck - they barely exist).  But that's the fun of it for me!  Finding the tastes and combinations I enjoy.


Ingredients:
Olive oil
Boneless pork chops.  (I like the ones with the dark meat on them - they're more tender)
Crushed garlic - several cloves (to taste)
Chopped small onion
2 cups chicken broth
Diced sweet apples (about 1 small apple per chop)
1 generous handful of raisins
Salt/Pepper to taste
Cold water and corn starch (for thickening)

Preparation:
Step 1:  Heat the olive oil in large skillet.  Quickly brown/sear chops on both sides.  Remove chops. 
Step 2: Reduce heat to med-high. Add garlic and onion, stir to prevent burning and cook until onions are clear.  Return chops and any accumulated liquid to the pan, scooping the onion/garlic mixture on top of the chops. Add salt and pepper.
Step 3: Add chicken broth, then apples and raisins. (See below) Cover, reduce heat to medium (or med-low if your stove cooks hot).  Simmer until apples are soft and chops are cooked through.  Time will vary based on thickness of your chops. Meanwhile, mix cold water and corn starch.  Set aside.

Step 4: Once cooked, remove chops and spoon some apples and raisins over each chop.  Reserve some of the fruit for the sauce.  Return heat to high and bring liquid to a boil.
Step 5: Using a hand blender, blend the fruits, onion, and garlic into the liquid.  Add starch mixture to thicken slightly until a light sauce forms.  (If you don't have a hand blender to use in your pan, you can simply whisk the starch in, but blending ingredients together makes for a much richer, more flavorful sauce.)  Cook for a few moments to aid in thickening.  Pour/spoon over the fruit and chops.

Add sides of your choice.  I served them with green beans and garlic mashed potatoes.

Recipe round-ups

A new addition:  in the sidebar, you'll see buttons linking you to several weekly recipe round-ups.

I contribute recipes now and again to these, but I have also found them to be a great source of inspiration and of practical recipes.  Often, I have been stumped by cookbooks which call for flours I cannot buy at any of my local or near-local stores, and I appreciate having access to meals which are usually much easier to collect ingredients for.

If you're looking for some good recipes, check these out!  Linda, host of What Can I Eat that's Gluten Free (on Wednesdays), and Amy, host of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, have a really great thing going.

Yummmmm. Chili.

It's Wednesday, and time for another recipe for my recipe group: What Can I Eat that's Gluten Free? hosted by Linda at the Gluten-Free Homemaker.

This week's recipe? Chili!



Ingredients:

Olive oil
2 onions
1 head of garlic, chopped
4 bell peppers, various colors
1 large carrot, sliced


2 small cans green chilis
1 can dark kidney beans, drained
1 can light kidney beans, drained
1 can pinto beans, drained
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes


2T chili powder
1/2t cayenne
1t garlic powder
1T oregano
2T basil
1T cumin


1 to 1 1/2 lb ground beef



A note: This is NOT a spicy chili. If you want spicy, then add several different kinds of peppers of whatever heat level you like. You can also increase the amount of cayenne pepper as well.



Preparation:

1. In a large kettle, heat olive oil over medium heat.


2. When warmed, add onion and garlic. Saute until onions begin to clear.

3. Add diced peppers and sliced carrot. Stir occasionally.


4. Meanwhile, in a separate skillet, brown meat while veggies cook. Drain, if necessary.

5. Add seasoning to veggies and stir well.

6. Add canned items to veggies.

7. Add meat.

8. Stir well.

9. Simmer on low for an hour or two, at least, or transfer to crockpot.


Note: Chili is best if allowed to cook for at least 6-7 hours (overnight). Always best the second day.

Enjoy!

(PS - Hats off to my mom-in-law for the original recipe. Which of course I lost. Three times. And then just made up again from memory. Thanks!)

Pork loin with apple-raisin sauce

It's Wednesday! Time to find out what you can eat that's Gluten Free. Thanks, as always, to Linda for hosting: Check out her blog to see everybody's recipes.


Step One:
Slow roast a pork loin (or your favorite cut).
Season with: garlic, onion, salt, pepper, basil, and oregano
Top with: raisins and sliced green apple
Add a little moisture, if you like - a splash of water or broth, maybe

Step Two:
After meat is finished, remove roast and cover to rest.

Step Three:
With a hand blender (or whatever), blend the juices, apples, and raisins
Strain into a saucepan or skillet to remove excess pulp and meat bits
Heat to boiling and slightly thicken with a mix of cold water and corn starch
Season to taste

Step Four:
Slice meat and top with apple-raisin sauce
Enjoy
Yum

PS: Sauce is also good with potatoes, even when it's not really quite thick enough to be gravy.

Caprese

Ok, so I forgot that this week was supposed to be an appetizer week! Grr. Well, here's a salad that I usually have as an appetizer. (Does that count?)

Check out Linda's blog carnival (What Can I Eat that's Gluten-Free) for the other appetizer recipes this week. She also just posted the August summary, in case you're looking for some variety.

------------------------
Caprese - a summer salad

Ingredients:
Fresh, vine-ripe tomatos, sliced, room-temperature
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Fresh basil, torn into small pieces
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Optional ingredient: Balsamic vinegar (I always used to add this, but it is mostly an American addition, from what I've been told. I tried Caprese without, and it is better. The flavor balance changes dramatically. It's a very different dish if you add the vinegar.)

1. Layer the tomato and mozzarella slices on a plate.
2. Sprinkle with basil salt and pepper.
3. When ready to serve, drizzle a little olive oil over the whole dish.
4. If you're a vinegar person, you can sprinkle a little of the balsamic over the plate as well, but just before serving. The vinegar combined with the salt and tomatoes will turn everything mushy if left sitting.
   

Steak Ceasar

It's Wednesday, and time for "What can I Eat that's Gluten Free?"

Ingredients:
Thin-sliced steaks, any cut. (I prefer strips or sirloins for this salad.)
Romaine lettuce
Cardini's original salad dressing
Parmesan and/or romano cheese
Thin-sliced red onion and tomato
GF croutons

Procedure:
I like to either marinade/glaze the meat with the salad dressing or season it with garlic powder, salt and pepper before grilling. After grilling, let the meat sit for a few minutes before slicing thin.

Prepare salad as usual.

Meatloaf and pan-fried potatoes

Well, it's Wednesday, and time for another recipe. This is the least random part of my blog, but I didn't pick the day, so it still feels sort of random to me!

This week: Meatloaf!

Ok, so it's just a link to an old post, but I don't think I've added it to my recipe circle before.... I hope.

I just made this yesterday, and for a side dish I briefly fried some thin-sliced potatoes and onions in olive oil - just enough to brown them up - then I added a little water, covered them and turned off the heat. Oh, if you're using a gas stove, you'll want to keep it on low.) The steam cooked them the rest of the way while we set the table and got drinks. Salt and pepper to taste.

Ta-da! Dinner!

I think I'm in love with Bette Hagman

For those of you who don't know, Bette Hagman is one of THE people to buy a cookbook from if you have celiac disease. I have tried recipe after recipe from her book The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Food and I have loved them all.

Today she saved me from a world with no pie. Yes, that's right, pie. I love pie. I spent years finding and perfecting the perfect pie crust, and then -poof!- no more pie for me! So very very very sad was I.

But take a look at this.

Isn't it just gorgeous?!

This is my deep dish strawberry rhubarb pie with a gluten-free crust. The crust was easy to work with, flaky, crisp, soft, and practically perfect. It's just going to take a little tweaking, and I think it will be just as good, if not better than, my original, wheat-filled crust!

Buy the book. Buy it. Now.


Here's my strawberry rhubarb pie recipe for you:
4 cups rhubarb
3 cups strawberry
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn starch

Place in your favorite pie shell. Brush top with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

Bake at 425 for 50 minutes. Put a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie to catch any drips. Loosely cover pie with foil part way through baking to keep crust from burning.

What's for Dinner Wednesday - Dessert Week

Yum! Dessert! Be sure to check out all the yummies over at the Gluten-Free Homemaker today! And be sure to forgive the awful quality of these pictures. I am ashamed of myself for making you look at them. I will make it up to you my graciously accepting the new camera you buy for me for my birthday so that I no longer have to take pictures of things with my phone. You're welcome.

To the recipe!

This one is quick and easy and good luck fighting others off so you can get some yourself. And by quick, I mean, I had everything assembled, done and tidied up in the time it took my husband to go pick up the girl from youth group and come back again. I also had a nice surprise for them to come back to. Yay, me!

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries and Whatnot

Tools:

1. Bowl
2. Spoon
   
3. Knife
4. Wax paper

Ingredients:

1. Almond Bark
   
2. Oil
   
3. Berries

(Yup, that's it)

Suggested Optional Ingredients - for toppings: (double check for gluten-free-ness!)

• Sprinkles
• Coconut (Weird, but tasty!)
• Crumbled cookies
• Mini-chocolate chips (Nothing like chocolate topped chocolate!)

Procedure:

1. Chop almond bark into smallish chunks and place in microwave-safe bowl with the oil. You want approx. 1 t of oil for every 4 oz. of chocolate.
   
2. Microwave 30 seconds, remove, stir. Repeat as needed until chocolate is melted - smooth and silky. KEEP AWAY FROM ALL LIQUID! (If you've just washed your berries, pat them dry before dipping!)
   
3. Grasp strawberry by top. Dip and roll in the chocolate.
4. Dip and roll in topping, if desired.
5. Place on wax paper to harden (takes only minutes - no need to refrigerate)

As you can see, I also dipped some fresh cherries. Super Yum.

Note: The Mrs. Fields recipe I based this on/hijaked this from uses actual chocolate, but my mother-in-law got me hooked on this almond bark, so that's what I use. You don't really NEED the oil when using the bark, but I liked how it changed the consistency, and I always use it now.

Steak and roasted potatoes - What's for Dinner Wednesday

Over at the Gluten Free Homemaker, Linda hosts a weekly recipe exchange. If you have to eat gluten-free, head on over and check it out!

This week, I'm posting an easy one: Steak and Taters!

I like to marinade my steaks, or at the very least, season them with some pepper and garlic. Then, to the grill! Yum.

One of my favorite sides, though, is today's recipe: grilled baby red potatoes. Now I probably have about a hundred different ways to cook potatoes, but this is one of my favorites.

1. Half or quarter potatoes so that the pieces are about the same size as the pearl onions.
2. Peel pearl onions and garlic cloves.
3. Toss all three with olive oil and seal tightly in a long, flat tin foil package. The goal is to have a single layer of veggies in the packet, so you may need more than one packet if you're making a lot of potatoes.
4. Put the packet on the grill about 10 minutes before the steaks. I usually throw them on first and then come back in and get everything together for the rest of the meal and then I take the steaks out to grill.
5. Flip the packets when you put the steaks on. The potatoes should be done when your steaks are.
   

What's for Dinner - Gluten Free style

Nothing too fancy this week, just one of my favorites... It's loosely based on a Carbonara recipe. Emphasis on loosely. And as always, my chicken-allergic peoples, feel free to substitute some lean pork or something else you like for the chicken.

Chicken & Bacon Alfredo
Amounts of ingredients should be based on how many people you're cooking for. I usually use 4-5 chicken thighs, a medium onion, 4-7 cloves of garlic, a handful of bacon, and two jars of sauce. This gets our family of 4 a full meal plus leftovers for the next day's lunch.

1. Saute chopped onion and garlic in some butter or olive oil until tender.
2. Add chopped bacon, and saute quickly. If not using pre-cooked bacon, be sure bacon is completely cooked/crispy before adding chicken.
3. Add chopped chicken and saute, stirring frequently, until chicken is nearly cooked through.
4. Add Alfredo sauce. My favorite is Classico: one jar of alfredo and one of 4 cheese alfredo. (So many of their sauces are GF, and they're soooooooo yummy, too!)
5. Reduce heat and simmer gently while you make pasta. Toss and serve.

This recipe is part of our recipe group. Come and join us at The Gluten Free Homemaker!

Accidental Soup

On Sunday morning I put some food in the crockpot for lunch. I meant to turn it down to low before we left, but I forgot, and so it sat on high heat for 6 hours. When we came home, my daughter took a look at it and exclaimed, "You made soup?! Yum!"

... I didn't mean to make soup. But it was super yummy as a soup/stew, so that's how we ate it. I pulled out the meat, stripped it off the bones, and stirred it back in.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
approx. 2 lb chicken pieces
garlic powder
pepper
gf seasoned salt
oregano
dried onion flakes
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can each green beans and corn
4 carrots, peeled and thick-sliced
1 green pepper, chopped


Preparation:
1. layer chicken in crockpot, seasoning with the garlic, pepper, salt, oregano, and onion flakes
2. add chopped vegetables and pour tomato sauce over everything
3. accidentally cook on high for 6 hours :)
4. If needed, remove bones and skin
5. stir well to break up meat into small pieces
6. if sauce is too thick for your taste, add some gf chicken broth to thin

Like this recipe? Check out the other ones in our group this week: What's For Dinner Wednesday's

Oriental chicken and broccoli cheese casserole-thingy

Look, don't EVER put me in charge of naming stuff in a cookbook, okay? Okay.

Having said, that, here's a yummy recipe. If you haven't discovered it yet, I cook like a grandma, so expect no measurements!

Here we go.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Oriental Chicken:

1. Mix Sesame oil, oriental curry, and ginger together. Brush on chicken while it bakes, basting occasionally. TIP: for more intense flavors, marinate chicken with the mixture in a ziploc for a while (30 minutes to a day). I use a ziploc because then you can use less marinade.

2. Put chicken in oven to cook and start broccoli dish.

Broccoli Cheese Casserole-Thingy:

1. You need fresh broccoli, cream sauce mix, and cheese.

2. Make cream sauce. (See previous recipe for instructions if you don't have your own. The sauce instructions are at the end of the post.)
3. While sauce cooks, chop broccoli. I used I head from the produce section: stems and pieces. Put in a small baking dish.

4. Add cheese over top of broccoli.
5. Finally, pour sauce over broccoli and cheese. Toss in oven with chicken to cook. They should finish up about the same time.

6. Top with more cheese once casserole is cooked, if you wish. (I did.) This small dish served average-sized side portions for 2 adults and 2 children.

Yummy.

Check out this new GF Magazine (and a recipe)

Ooo! I love cooking. Don't you?

I made Chicken and Rice last night, and was all proud of myself for finding a gf soup base so that I could make a cream of chicken soup and actually eat the same dinner as my family. (Whoo!) It was awesome.

But, as often happens, with a small victory comes a reminder of how things used to be. I used to be able to flip randomly and happily through cookbooks and magazines, and simply stop at what caught my eye. Then, I would just make it. So long as I knew what the ingredients were, I was golden.

I feel that I am taking a step back in that direction today. Today, Linda over at The Gluten-Free Homemaker posted some interesting links, one of which was about a new magazine: Delight GF Magazine. I looked at the pages they had available online, and I bought a subscription. I cannot WAIT for the first one to come, especially since one of the editors is the Celiac Princess.

I'll tell you how it is once I get a copy! For now, here's the recipe I promised you:


Chicken and Rice, traditional (NON-GF: see below for GF soup mix.)

1 stick butter
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of celery
2 cans water
1 package boneless chicken, 6-8 pieces (white or dark meat)
1 cup of rice

1. Mix together the first 5 ingredients in a saucepan, heat until bubbly.
2. Pour a little soup into a 13x9 baking pan, just enough to cover the bottom. Lay the chicken evenly in next, then sprinkle the rice evenly over top of the chicken. Finally, pour the remaining soup in, taking care to completely cover the rice. (If any rice is sticking out the top of the soup, it will dry out and become crunchy instead of absorbing the soup.)
3. Bake at 350 for about an 40 minutes - hour; bake longer if you want the soup to be more completely absorbed. The top will brown up and get bubbly.

**For my non-chicken eating friends: feel free to substitute! Use boneless pork (tenderloin or sirloin chops), and replace the cream of chicken with a second can of the cream of mushroom or the cream of celery soup.

**For my non-gluten eating friends: You only need to change out the soup. Baking time is the same. The soup recipe that I used was super simple, and comes from The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods book.
Cream soup base: (p.277)
1 cup milk powder (or milk powder substitute)
1 cup white rice flour
2 T dried minced onions
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t salt
3 T powdered soup base

To make the soup (makes 1 cup soup):
1. In a small saucepan, blend 3 T of the base with 1/4 cup cold water.
2. Add 1 cup water or chicken stock and cook over medium heat, stirring, until soup thickens.

NOTE: I could not find a powdered soup base, what I found was more of a paste, and I simply added 1 t of the base for each cup of soup that I was making. This particular base says "gluten free" on the front left of the label and does not require refrigeration. I found it near the spaghetti sauces. It took me forever to find it because I had no idea what I was looking for, so I thought I'd include a picture for you.

Enjoy your chicken and rice!

Spoonbread is my hero

I was in desperate need of a replacement dinner to one that I lost last spring with my celiac diagnosis, and flipping through my GF cookbooks' chicken recipes, I came across spoon bread.

I have heard of spoon bread, but I had no idea what it was. I especially had no idea that it was a type of chicken casserole. Say it with me, people: YUM! The nice thing is that this is a GF recipe, but my family LOVED it. Even Jim, who has a picky palette, said, "Put it on the list!" YAY!




So here it is... I forgot to take a picture, but here's a picture of a jalapeno spoon bread from Lisa's Kitchen that looks almost exactly like mine did before we attacked.... :)

Nifty fact: her recipe is also GF.

Nifty Fact 2: This is a really good leftover recipe because you just need chopped up chunks of chicken.




Chicken Spoon Bread (recipe from Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods)

375 degrees, 40 minutes (or until done)

Ingredients:
3/4C cornmeal
2T GF flour mix *
1t salt
4C GF chicken broth
1/4C butter or margerine
4 eggs, separated
3C chopped cooked chicken

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, combine cornmeal, flour mix, and salt. Stir in the broth. Cook over medium-high heat until thickened.
2. Add butter and beaten egg yolks.
3. Stir in the chicken.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the mixture.
5. Spoon into a greased 2.5 quart casserole and bake.

Super yum!


*If you don't have a flour mix, you can use 4t rice flour, 1/2t tapioca flour, and 3/4t potato starch.
*Also, if gluten is not a problem for you, you can always substitute 2T wheat flour.

Christmas with Celiac #6 - Cream Cheese Cookies

One of the few cookies that we're committed to each year at Christmas is the cream cheese cookie. This is Jim's favorite and SUPER easy to make.

All I did to make this a GF recipe was to substitute a GF cake mix for the regular cake mix. Ta-da!

The cookie ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1 box yellow cake mix

The icing ingredients:
Powdered sugar
Ice water

The process:
1. Cream together butter and cream cheese
2. Add egg yolk and vanilla, mix well
3. Add cake mix, about 1/3 of the mix at a time to help with mixing
4. Chill for 1 hour or so
5. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375
6. Cool and ice

Tips:
If you don't have a heavy duty mixer, you'll end up struggling to mix by hand - it's a dense dough. I often lay the dough and last of the cake mix in a big sheet of plastic wrap and knead the final bit of mix in by hand instead of trying to stir.

Keep the icing a little thick. You want it to be thick enough to stay on top of the cookie, but thin enough to drizzle a little bit. Play with it if you're unfamiliar: if it all drips/runs off the cookie right away, it's too thin.

You shouldn't be able to see through it after it settles/hardens. Add sugar or sprinkles if you like.


Cookies will fluff a little as they bake, but won't really change shape. You'll pretty much get out of the oven what you put in. I did notice that the GF batch was a little spikier...


...while the regular batch was a little smoother in appearance.



Happy baking!

Christmas with CD #5 - PIE!

Today was pie day.

I looked at a bunch of recipes and finally settled on one that was not too complicated, but seemed promising.

I made a pumpkin pie with half of the recipe and I am planning to make cranberry pecan tassies with the other half, tomorrow probably.

The pie turned out super yummy, and I liked the crust, too. So did the kids and my mother-in-law. Pumpkin pie is her favorite, so I am encouraged.

Jim, my husband did not try it. He hates pumpkin. Perhaps next time. :)


I found the recipe through a link at celiac.com, and could probably find it again for you if you want the original link, but here's the ingredient list.

1 C tapioca flour
1 C white rice flour
1 t xanthan gum
1 T powdered milk
6 T butter (or cream cheese)
6 T shortening
1/3 C water

Step one. Mix dry ingredients
Step two. Cut in butter and shortening
Step three. Add water and mix so dough forms a large ball
Step four. Divide in half
Step five. Place each half between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll out to 8-9in pie crust

Bake as needed based on your filling.


A few notes:
- The dough is super white. Surprisingly so.
- The crust is also very forgiving. If you need to form it with your hands once in the pie plate, you can do it with no problem.
- The edges will probably burn so have tin foil or a protective crust ring on hand.

Christmas with CD#3 - The trials begin

Before I could do anything, I had to shop and setup a prep area. As I don't have a lot of space, but I DO have a Costco membership, the results were a bit, um, overwhelming.

This is what happens when I wander Costco with baking on my mind...

And here is my prep area.

Had to have Christmas tunes, too, of course!

Once prepared, I made regular oatmeal raisin cookies to bribe my taste testers! (just in case!)


Ready to go! I have started with something simple: peanut butter. It's really hard to make a bad peanut butter cookie.

Cookie #1 was a flourless PB cookie. It's something I'd never heard of before, but apparently it's fairly popular. They turned out crisp and tasty. The recipe I used is at Lea's Gluten Free Blog. I made them without the chocolate chips that you see in her picture, and I flattened them with a fork first, too.
Yummy and delicious, but I wanted kiss cookies, so I dug out another recipe. One that uses flour.



Cookie #2 uses a combination of GF flours, and I found it at Recipe Zaar.

This is a very good cookie. It's not terribly soft, though. Once it cools, it's crisp like cookie#1, but it still has a great taste. A couple of tips for this recipe:
1. Below the recipe (follow the link above) you'll find some substitution comments and suggestions.
2. You may find it helpful to chill the dough for a few minutes so that it's a little more workable.
3. Make the dough balls much smaller than you would think you need for the kiss cookies. Otherwise you may end up with the oddly proportioned results you see on the right in the picture below!

The dough ball in the picture below is the size I used for the cookie on the left above. It's about 1", maybe a little smaller

4. Let the cookies set on the sheet. If you remove them too soon, it won't work well.

Overall, Saturday was a pretty good cookie-making day. Up next: pie crusts!

Christmas with celiac disease #1

I love tag. I've always loved tag. In fact, I was rather excited to get tagged again since I missed out on the first one. (Sorry, Mom!)

BUT

I was about to start a new train of thought on thishere blog. So, take 2, here we go.

Christmas is coming. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. But I have been worried lately about how I will deal with Christmas and family dinners and hors d'ouvers and especially how I will deal with Christmas cookies.

If you don't know me, you need to realize that Christmas cookies are the BEST part of the whole year. No exaggeration there...we even have special aprons that we wear once a year when we bake. It's a 2 week operation at least, from planning to shopping to baking to feasting to gifting. Let me tell you something. When I realized that I could no longer have Christmas cookies, I put my head down on the table and cried. (It was at work, and my friend who mentioned them felt really bad. Sorry again, Sam! I luv u! I'm coming to your cookie party anyway!)

I have decided that there is no reason to give up on the tradition of the past years. I will still make my family's favorite cookies, and my personal mission for this year is to find good ways to make MY favorites gluten-free.

So, if you're out there reading this and you have tips, tricks, or recipes to share, please do so! And, have a very merry Christmas.