Gluten Free Mom

This Week Only - Donate to help send Children to a Gluten Free Summer Camp

In the spirit of the giving season, I want to bring your attention to a fundraiser I’m helping promote this week for a great gluten-free cause.

 

This week only, giving just $2  will go toward providing scholarships for children to attend a gluten-free summer camp hosted by the Celiac Disease Foundation (CDF) next summer in Southern California.

 

But this week, donating $2 doesn’t mean you’re just donating $2…

 

Through Sunday, December 25, Gluten-Free Saver has partnered with Van’s Natural Foods to raise money to send children to next summer’s CDF-sponsored summer camp, and Van’s is matching all donations up to $1,000!

 

The goal is to raise $2,000 – and when you donate $2, you’re really contributing $4.

 

 

 

You can read more about the fundraiser here: www.glutenfreesaver.com.

 

The summer camp will be held in San Bernardino in Southern California from July 30 to August 3, 2012, and it’s open to all 7-15 year old gluten intolerant and gluten-sensitive children – not just those diagnosed with celiac disease.

 

Please help reach the goal of donating $2,000 to the Celiac Disease Foundation this week. Every $2 helps.

 

YES! I want to help send a child to a gluten-free summer camp and donate $2 right now!

 

P.S. 100% of all donations will go directly to CDF.

 

P.P.S. If you’re feeling extra generous this holiday season, you aren’t limited to donating just $2 – you can give as much money as your heart desires!

 

Hammond's Gluten Free Christmas Candy

I have actually not heard of a candy cane that is not gluten free - if you have, please leave a note in the comments so we can avoid them. 

That being said, I love the Hammond's  Christmas Candy.

 

I was at a local store recently  (Molbak's for those of you in the Seattle area) and saw a bag of Hammond's candy and had an instant flashback to my Grandma's house on Christmas Eve.  I could almost hear my Grandma's voice and smell the pot roast cooking in the oven.

 

Hammond's has been making candy for over 90 years. It was originally found by Carl T. Hammond, Sr. in the 1920s  in Denver. He was inspired to become an entrepreneur after creating his first original candy, Honey Ko Kos, chocolates topped with shredded coconut. In his first few years in business, Carl did it all: He developed the recipes, made the candy, sold the candy, and was his own office staff.

Business boomed during the “Roaring 20s.” While the Great Depression brought many changes, Hammond’s went right on selling candy, because even in those extremely trying times, people could usually find enough money for the simple and sweet pleasure of candy…but if people were going to buy it, it had to be good.

 

Hammond’s world-famous candy canes can be found in Canada, England, Spain, Italy, Dubai, Kuwait, Japan, Korea, Israel, and other areas around the world.  Here in the United States, you can find them at Whole Foods, Nordstrom’s, Dean & Deluca, Cracker Barrel and hundreds of local and regional specialty shops.   If you hurry, you can order Hammond Christmas Candy  from Amazon.com and still get it by Christmas.

And, by the way, all of their candy is gluten free! 

Making our Favorite Gluten Free Cut Out Christmas Cookies and More!

It is that time of the year again when we bring out our recipes for our favorite gluten free cookies!

Last night we participated in the Seattle Christmas Ships Parade on the Puget Sound.  For those of you not from Seattle, the  Christmas Ship festival is a holiday celebration that has been a Northwest tradition for 62 years.

Each night the Argosy Christmas Ship™ sails to different Puget Sound waterfront communities.  Local boaters, like us, join in the parade behind the lead ship.

 

A choirs on board the lead ship sings 20-minute performances that are broadcast to the other boats and people who gather on the beaches to watch the ships.

It was very fun to be a part of the largest holiday floating parade in the world!

 

We invited some very good friends to join us - I served a big pot of Chicken and White Bean Chili and made our favorite Chocolate Decadence Cookies. 

Today I am making the cookie dough for our Cut-Out Christmas Cookies.  This year, I decided to use Jules Cut Out Cookie recipe. 

Baking gluten free Christmas cookies can be tricky - if the dough is too warm, they will spread like warm soup in the oven and spill over the sides of your tray. 

TWO TIPS for MAKING GLUTEN FREE COOKIES:  Make sure your dough is cold!  I refrigerate it over night and I make sure my kitchen is not hot when I am forming the dough.

Second, use parchment paper.  Gluten Free cookies can be crumbly before they set. Using parchment paper not only makes clean up super easy, but also makes it easy to slip the cookies with the parchment paper onto a rack to cool. 

If it is your first year making cut-out cookies, then you cannot go wrong with this recipe. 

 

Jules Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies

• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup granulated cane sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup Jules Gluten Free™ All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbs. water (as needed)
• food coloring (optional)
• colored sugar or frosting (optional )

Cream shortening, sugar and oil several minutes with an electric mixer, until very fluffy.  Add egg yolks, vanilla extract and food coloring.  Mix in the dry ingredients, adding in tablespoons of water only as needed to keep the dough together and avoid dryness (err on the side of this dough being wetter so that after refrigeration, it’s not too dry).  Pat the dough into a disc shape, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough until very cold, at least 3-5 hours (overnight is best).

Preheat oven to 350º F (static) or 325º F (convection).

Lightly flour a clean surface or pastry mat with Jules Gluten Free™ All Purpose Flour.  Roll the dough to approximately 1/8 inch thickness and dust cookie cutters with flour before using to cut out shapes.  You may also roll thin coils of dough of different colors and braid into candy cane or other fun shapes.

Place cookies onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and decorate with colored sugar, if desired.  Bake approximately 8-10 minutes, or just until they begin to lightly brown at the edges.  Cool on a wire rack and frost with gluten free flour.  

Yield: approximately 2 dozen cookies (depending on size).

Here is another recipe that we have also used many times with great success!

Cut Out Christmas Cookies using Gluten Free Pantry Mix

Before we found Jules flour, we used the following recipe.  It actually works really great as well.  I don't remember ever having a batch that did not turn out.

 

• 2 ½ sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter (or Earth Balance for CF) at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 4 large egg yolks at room temperature
• 1 t grated lemon zest or lemon juice
• 1 t vanilla
• 3 cups The Gluten-Free Pantry Country French Bread Mix

In your electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and salt until creamy. 

Beat in egg yolks, lemon and vanilla.

On slow speed, beat in the flour one cup at a time until just combined.

Divide dough into three equal parts, flatten into disc, wrap separately in wax paper and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour. 

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Flour the work surface and your rolling pin with rice flour and roll out one disk at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. The dough will break up a little bit on the first roll, but then becomes very easy to work with.  On the other end, the dough will be hard to work with after it warms up too much, so keep extras in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. 

Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.

With a metal spatula, transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Depending on the size, makes around 40 cookies.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes, until lightly golden.  Cool on parchment.

Gluten Free Frosting:

• 1 pound box of powdered sugar
• ¼ cup milk (or almond milk for CF)
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 stick butter (or Earth Balance for CF)

Beat with an electric mixer until creamy, scraping the bowl often.

Separate into individual cups and add desired food colors.  

 

Gluten Free Meatloaf with Certified GF Oats

OMG- meatloaf with certified gluten free oats!

We have not eaten meatloaf in years mainly because my Gluten Free Teen was a vegetarian for five years.

It all started with the Evergreen State Fair - when my kids were smaller they loved going to the fair - riding the carnival-style rides and walking through the house of mirrors and seeing the animals and crafts.

About five years ago we were walking through the animal barns at the fair when we saw the baby pigs - there was a pen full of piglets - weighing about ten pounds each at that time, pink and well, cute actually.

We live on two-acres on what we call our little "hobby farm" (we have a big garden, fruit orchard and chickens) and so we thought about buying one of the pigs and adding it to our hobby farm as a pet, of course.

By now three kids are exuberantly picking out their new pet while I am trying to convince Dad that a pig would be fun. Yes, in retrospect, a "what in the heck was I thinking moment!"

In walks the farmer and we explain that we were thinking of buying one of his piglets.  The farmer  was not amused at the city folk thinking we would just buy a pig. 

He went on to explain that these pigs were raised for food, that within a matter of months it would be so huge we would need a backhoe to move it out of our yard and that it would be bacon in about a year.

 

 

Even fully grown, I don't think the pig would ever get as big as the tears my kids shed at the moment they realized their future pet would be dinner.

Jumping into action, I shuffle the kids into the next barn while Dad tries to explain to the farmer what being tactful means.  Of course, we charge into a huge display of a cow neatly dissected showing the cuts of meat juxtaposed against a barn full of living cows.  The reality of where food actually comes from struck home again.

 

From that moment forward, my Gluten Free Teen decided to become a vegetarian.  She said if she could not have a pig as a pet, she certainly was not going to eat it.

I hear that it is pretty common for kids to go through this vegetarian phase - instead of fighting her about it, we adopted the lifestyle ourselves. We did fine on a vegetarian diet - it took time, but we came to the point where the rest of the family would only eat lean meat on a occasion. 

Then last summer the Gluten Free Teen decided she had protested long enough and she ate a hot dog, and then a hamburger, and now we are back to eating meat a little more frequently.

So I decided to try meatloaf and, oh my goodness,  it was delicious!  I know your family will enjoy this recipe as well. 

Now I am thinking that maybe this was not such a great story to share with a recipe for meatloaf!  It is also a commentary on how far removed our modern society is from where our food actually comes from.  My grandparents raised their own beef, while we buy it packaged in Styrofoam from the grocery story.  No wonder my kids were so freaked out. 

And, no, we have not been back to the fair recently. 

 

Gluten Free Meatloaf with Certified GF Oats

 

Ingredients:

 1/3 cup Milk (use non-milk alternative for dairy free recipe)

1 cup dry certified gluten free oatmeal finely ground (we use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats)

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1/2 pounds ground pork

 1/4 cup grated onions

 1/4 cup grated carrots

2 eggs

1 minced garlic clove

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

3/4 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

 a small pinch cayenne pepper

 

Process the oatmeal in a food processor until finely ground. 

In a medium bowl, combine milk and gluten free oatmeal.  Let sit for a couple of minutes.   Stir in eggs, 1/4 cup ketchup, minced  garlic, Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, pork, onions and carrots.  Stir in oatmeal mixture until combined thoroughly. 

Line a rimed cookie sheet with foil.  Shape the mixture into a loaf.  Score the top diagonally. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. 

While it is baking, make the ketchup glaze by combining ½ cup ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon salt.   Remove meatloaf after 30 minutes and coat with ketchup glaze. 

Bake for another 30 minutes or until done. 

For more of our favorite recipes, go the Gluten Free Mom's recipes.