Murder Cake!

 Have you ever tried a recipe that was in a murder mystery? 

I did! One of my favorite series is Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen Cookie Mysteries. 

The cake I made this week is from her book,  Key Lime Pie Murder.

Kitty's Orange Cake is so good! 

I made it gluten free, too! It calls for a boxed cake mix, so I chose this one: 

Yummy, yummy!

Susie Homemaker

This has been a busy weekend here at home.  John worked on the deck, replacing boards and the stairs to the deck.

JT taught Luci a new video game.

Bryan went to a friend's house to play video games.

And I baked.

First came meatloaf--three ready-to-go meatloaves in the freezer for days when I am short on time.

Then came meatballs, enough for three dinners of spaghetti and meatballs.  (Yum!)

The remainder of Saturday was spent making (and sampling!) a yummy sugar cinnamon bread.  I made this gluten free and it is so good.

Luci approved of the sugar cinnamon bread!  She looks too grown up in this photo.

 

Strawberries came in this weekend--I bought a flat from a young man at church, who was selling them for his baseball team.  Sunday afternoon was spent making freezer jam: 10 half-pints, plus a little bit more in that plastic container.  Why aren't they just called cups instead of half-pints??

Now to just master making good gluten free biscuits.

Friday: In the Kitchen with Luci

We are starting a new way of learning with Luci.  Well, I am.  John just goes along for the ride most of the time with the educational stuff.  :)

I am doing that weird thing, unschooling, with Luci. (A good definition of unschooling is here.)  Reading lots, doing lots of things that interest her. 

One of the things she told me she wants to do is to learn to cook.  Every Friday we make something for the family, with her doing the lion's share of the work. 

So far, she's made spaghetti and meatballs, brownies and a Pokemon cake.  This week, it's an apple pie.

Here are the results:

Washing apples and twisting the stem to see how many kids she'll have:

Slicing those apples! She is thrilled and a bit nervous to be using a "really big knife."

Stirring the filling.  She was irritated with me, because this was photo #4 of the same action, and she was getting tired, mama!  But JT was happy:  Look for him, photobombing this shot:

Rolling out the crust:

Patting out the cracks in the crust:

We used Pillsbury's Gluten Free Pie and Pastry Dough.  Very expensive.  I did not want to experiment with homemade gluten free dough, so I splurged on this.  It is pretty good.

Finished! 

Mmmm.

John knew I was taking his picture, enjoying the pie.  Had to tell him to SMILE.  So he did.

The recipe we used:  Caramel Apple Pie II from allrecipes.com 

Chinese New Year--Year of the Dragon!

Luci and I made a dragon cake for Chinese New Year.

It's a scary dragon!

We got the idea from the Do They Have Salsa in China? blog.  M3 (the author) and her friend made a very intricate cake for her twin daughters' birthday party, and it is gorgeous!  For directions on how to make this cake, please see her blog post.  And when you look at her cake, don't judge mine for the poser it is.  Please.  Ours tastes fantastic, and the main person it's for (Luci) is very happy with it.

Luci and I made a simple version, and as you can see from the second photo, Luci is plenty happy with it--It's scary, Mom!   :)   We also made ours gluten free, with no artificial colors in the frosting (used turmeric for the yellow).  I got the recipe for the bundt cake from Allrecipes.com plus I made these changes:  I used Pamela's Bread Baking Mix (gluten free) for the flour, and I added some extra instant coffee, and used the chocolate syrup mentioned in the heading of the recipe instead of the coffee liqueur.

Pizza, Gluten-Free Style!

Today I made my first gluten free pizza crust. It turned out great! I used the recipe (and the flour mixture) from Pamela's Products.  Click here for the recipe:  Chewy Pizza Crust

 

Why go to all that bother?   Because of this boy, here:

Isn't he cute?

Christmas Math

This time of year is so much fun. I love doing this kind of math with Luci...measuring, baking, and it's art, too.

First we made some applesauce ornaments.

3/4 cup applesauce
4 oz ground cinnamon
2 TBS white glue

Mix well,  then roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters, then poke a hole near the top with a straw, for hanging later.

Lay out on waxed paper.  It will take several days to completely dry the ornaments.  Turn them over each day, so they do not curl up.

When dry, you may decorate with glitter glue, as we did.

JT's snow man

Today's math lesson for Luci was making some sugar cookies!  Yum.  This was our first try at making gluten free sugar cookies, and they are a big hit.  (Feingold friends, I did not use approved frosting or decorating sugars.)

With the leftover dough, I made little ropes and put them into my mini-doughnut pan.  They made adorable little wreaths.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

• 1 stick plus 2 TBS butter, softened
• 2/3 cups white sugar
•  1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups gluten free flour mix
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder (omit if your baking mix has B.P. in it already)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat again.  Mix in remaining ingredients.  Chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400*.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut with cookie cutters.  (I had to use extra flour to keep the dough from sticking, and I picked up each cookie with a spatula to place on the cookie sheet.)  Place on UNgreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 6-8 minutes.  Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes before placing cookies on cooling rack.

Decorate to your heart's content.  Or, let your 7 year old do it, because she'll have 'way more fun than you will!