Christmas with CD #4 - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is part of Christmas, right? Right?! Yeah, that's what I thought.

My dad called yesterday, and after the shame of being asked if my answering machine is broken... (it's not: I'm a slacker), we talked about the big T-Day. We're getting together for Christma-giving Day, and he called to talk menus. What a sweetie. We talked about salad dressings and salad toppings and desserts and all kinds of yummies. As he put it, "I just want to make sure that we don't bring something bad."

On the bright side, many of my blogging buddies who are also Celiacs have started posting their favorite holiday recipes for everything bready, from pie crusts to stuffings. Yum. (It's nice not to feel all alone in this holiday endeavor.)

This is gonna be a great holiday season after all. :)

Bad Dreams and Good Grades

It's been a roller-coaster day for my emotions. Starting somewhere around 3AM, I began waking up from dreams. Some of the dreams were about school: today was report card day. Most of the dreams were about food: McDonald's, to be exact.

I used to stop and get McD's pretty regularly. In fact, it was the physical reactions I began having to their food that helped get me to the doctor for my diagnosis. I can't eat their food at all now, except for plain, meatless salads. Even their grilled chicken breasts have wheat in them, according to their nutritional information.

Back to the dream. In the dream, I was eating double cheeseburgers with extra pickles and onions. Lots of them. They were my absolute favorite. Early on (before 5), they were bun-less. Somewhere along the way, my subconscious must have become aware of the fact that I was dreaming because soon, the buns were there. Ooooh, the burgers were sooooo good! Munch, munch , munch. It wasn't long before I was eating 2 or 3 at a time, and then the table was covered in burgers, and I was sooooo happy! Double cheeseburgers as far as the eye could see! Oh, I was so happy! And then, each time, I would jerk myself awake: "No! Don't eat it! You'll get sick!"

It was a long 3 hours.

Then I had to go give report cards out to my "gifted" students at Governor's School. A couple cried over their C's. One walked up to me and said. "What's with the F?" When I reminded him of the work he never turned in, he nodded and said, "Yeah, that makes sense." Then he went and sat down. Kids. Go figure.

Annie got her very first report card today. 2 A's and 3 B+'s. Not bad. Down a little from her interim report, but not bad, considering what flakes 6th graders tend to be. I congratulated her and gave her a hug. She was happy.

Tonight, I hope I dream about food again. It makes for a rough night, but it makes my tummy feel not quite so sad.

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 CD #2

Guess what?! My ever-fabulous hubby has found me a good resource for cookie-ing. (I don't think that's a word....)

Here it is! http://gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/2007-gluten-free-christmas-cookie.html

I am very excited. I've already started a (mini)batch of peanut butter cookies, and he's agreed to be my guinea pig. I'm going to try to find some good recipe substitutions, too, so that I can keep making my favorites and not have to find ALL new recipes.

To the oven! AWAAAAAAY!

Time for A Complaint Free World!

There's a real nifty movement in our country right now. Among other things, they're working on naming the day before Thanksgiving "Complaint Free Wednesday".

Here is how CFW describe themselves: A Complaint Free World, inc. is a non-profit, non-religious entity which provides purple bracelets and other materials to help people affect positive change in their lives. We are in the process of creating additional programs for adults and children which support our mission and vision of creating a world of positive cooperation.

About a month ago, we passed these purple bracelets out at our church. Every time I wore one, someone would ask me about it, and then I would explain and usually ended up giving it to them. Now we're out, and it makes me sad, but the idea is still there in the back of my head, and I pretend I'm wearing one and try not to complain about anything.

If you know me, you'll know that this is hard. If there's anything I'm good at, it's complaining. Trouble is, I don't usually think I'm complaining - I say that I'm just analyzing or critiquing - but I'm complaining.

I hereby officially quit!

Join me, and check out the Complaint Free World website while you're at it, too!

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.

Tag: I'm It!

Matt at Lower Case Lifestyle has tagged me. How exciting. I was very confused until I went to his blog and read the following rules. Now I've tagged 6 of my own, and will spread the joy like the obedient little lemming societal norms have turned me into. (Lemmings of the world, unite! --- I know of a great cliff not far from here)


The Tag Rules be....
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.


My six random things...
1. I give extra credit on the Day of the Ninja to any student who will dress in black and do a forward roll into the classroom.

2. Ever since I saw a cannibal interviewed for a show on Discovery, I have always wondered what it is about us that caused her to think that human was the tastiest meat available. She was quite insistent that it is the yummiest.

3. I love teaching, but hate grading.

4. If I could, I would live in a little one bedroom house with a vegetable garden and about 50 cats.

5. I can get 100% on expert playing guitar or bass in Rock Band.

6. My only Kindergarten memories are (1)being a bunny in a class play and wearing brown construction paper ears and (2) riding a plastic teeter totter in the classroom.


The six people I have tagged are...
1. My sister(in-law) Joy at News From Joy
2. My mom, Clara at Coming Back to Life
3. One of my favorite bloggers, Storm at 365 Days of Christmas
4. One of my GF saviors, Jen at Gluten Free Cooking For a Busy Mom
5. My ever-fabulous hubby Jim at Profoundity
6. A favorite random blogger, Jorge at Que Bueno, Que Bueno