I don't think I ever posted these

Because Gibson and Kea were at school the day that Tiernan and Grady got to go to the Pumpkin Patch, Sonnet and I had planned to take them on the Friday they had off of school but T & G2 still had to go. Anyway, sadly, we got up that morning and it was pouring. So we decided to just hit the local Market that always has great pumpkins and Gibson and Kea were just as pleased with that! So, it was a win-win for everyone. Of course we had to get pictures...

They are besties. Their friendship is so sweet.

Gingerbread Houses

No Black Friday shopping for me. I did that a few years ago and now stay far far away from all shopping on the day after thanksgiving.

So, today we got together with Gregg's family to build gingerbread houses. We made them out of cardboard instead of cookies. I thought that was a GENIUS idea! Not only was it easier to frost, but nothing broke! Brilliant. Plus, they will last forever...

Getting started.

Bad lighting on this one....that big bright orangish red ball that is in the sky was out today. IMAGINE that! It's November, people!

Garrison and I working on his house.

Gibson getting started on his "ninja/Japanese house with a roof top garden"

My...er, um, Garrison's house finished.

The back side.

Me and my, shoot, I mean, Garrison's house.

The boys houses. They did a pretty good job I though. Especially Garrison, he rocked it! ;)

Gibson

Grady's Castle

Then, after we decided to bundle up the kids and take them outside. After all, the sun WAS out and as I mentioned, it's NOVEMBER! Grandma Cleo lives across the street from the church campgrounds, so we headed over there to the playground and quickly got side tracked at the Labyrinth where the kids were put to work helping rake up all the pine needles! They thought it was so fun push the needles around with the rakes and make piles. The child labor made it easier on us grown ups who were also raking ;-)

Gibson & Finley

Then, this "banner" had broken in the middle and Todd was trying to fix it but wasn't tall enough, so I hopped on Gregg's shoulders so we could get it fixed. I think Gregg was a little bit freaked out that he wouldn't be able to hold me, but after I got down he said "wow, you are lighter than the kids." Yes, it's all about how you carry yourself, I'm not dead weight because someone is carrying me around :) Plus, breaking my husband's back would not be good for anyone.

Look how clean it is! Not that Gregg helped but he happened to be standing in the middle when I took the picture so there he is....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Funny stuff the kids say!

Me: Gibson, if you want to help me later, you need to spend some time picking up your room, I don't want to see anything on the floor.

Gibson: Nah, I'd just rather take a nap and then watch you.

Grady: Daddy, I want ALL da matoes (tomatoes) to eat, cuz dat's how I rowl.

Gibson: Salmon is the bestest food ever and it's healthy too!

Gibson: I'm having a bad day because I'm not getting anything I want. (heh, welcome to LIFE, kid)

Garrison: 2 :pause: 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, GO!

Recipes

I've added a few recipes to my blog. I need a place to keep them and I just wasn't keeping up my recipe blog, so I'm adding them here. I'm hoping some of you will enjoy them.

If you want to see the latest posts of the boys, you'll have to click the "older posts" link at the bottom of the page. I did add 2 posts yesterday (or was it the day before?).

French Onion Soup

Slice up 3 sweet onions and caramelize them in a pan

Add 2 boxes of beef stock (can be homemade, make sure box stock does not have yeast in it, some do) to the crockpot

Throw a 3 lb hunk of (seasoned - salt, garlic, oregano) pot roast in there

Cook away for 8-10 hours on low

If you are not dairy/wheat/yeast free you can put some cheese on the top when you serve it with some bread.

Delish!

Potato Salad

It's potatoes (I cooked them in my pressure cooker with olive oil, lemon juice, some water and some oregano) and then artichoke hearts, garbanzo beans, kalamata olives and green beans. When the potatoes were done cooking, I added it to the other ingredients and then tossed it with some olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and a little more oregano. YUMMY!

Chicken Curry

A friend shared this recipe with me and I thought it looked delish! Of course, I had to change a few things, but it still turned out SUPER yummy so, I thought I would share it here.

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter - I used Earth Balance Vegan Sticks
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped (2 cups)
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger - I used ground/dried ginger and it was fine
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) chicken, cut into 10 serving pieces
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro - I left this out, I HATE cilantro
• 3/4 cup cashews (1/4 pound)
• 3/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt - I used a coconut yogurt
  
  These are the instructions given with the recipe, but I'll tell you what I did below, because I did mine in the crockpot instead.
  Heat butter in a 5- to 6-quart wide heavy pot over moderately low heat until foam subsides, then cook onions, garlic, and ginger, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add curry powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook, stirring to coat, 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, including juice, and cilantro and bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes. (If making ahead, see cooks' note, below.)

• Just before serving:

  Pulse cashews in a food processor or electric coffee/spice grinder until very finely ground, then add to curry along with yogurt and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring, until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes.

  _______________________________________________________________
  Instead of cooking per the instructions below, I adjusted the recipe and I used a WHOLE chicken. I took the onions and all the seasoning (including the curry) and sauteed it in the pan like it says, then I put the whole chicken in the crockpot and poured the onion/seasoning mix over the chicken and cooked it on low until the chicken was done, then I de-boned the chicken and chopped up the big pieces and put it back in the sauce that was in the crockpot. Then I chopped up the cashews and mixed them with the yogurt and added that mixture to the crockpot and let it simmer for about another hour. It turned out really great. I served it over plain white rice.
  
  It was VERY good, I highly recommend this recipe. I should have taken a picture.
  

Cauliflower Pie

This was an experiment from something I heard on tv. A gal was talking about using cauliflower as a pizza crust instead of dough and so I thought I would see if I could use it in a similar fashion but make it in a pie crust.

I put some onions in a pan to caramelize.

Chopped up on head of cauliflower and put it in the pie pan with some seasoning and butter.

Finished the onions and added them to the top of the cauliflower.

Sprinkled some dairy free cheese on the top and baked it at 350 until the cauliflower was cooked. I think it took about 45 minutes.

I will say this was not one of my favorite dishes. I'll probably try tomess it a little next time I try it, although, I have to think about a way to make it taste better.

My version of salsa

This is my version of what I call salsa. I LOVE salsa and so not to be able to have it anymore is really a bummer.

I took one small onion and sauteed it in a pan with some olive oil then added,

1 can of Garbanzo Beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of Black Beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of Baby Corn (drained)

Salt (to taste)

Chili Pepper (to taste, about a Tbsp)

Then added about 1/2 cup of Chicken Stock (you can add Veggie Stock to make it vegetarian, I just didn't have any in the house)

Then let it simmer for about 15 minutes and everything should thicken and soften.

I ate this with dinner that night, and then the next day I took the leftovers and made a taco with it. It's a very versatile dish.

Roasted Red Pepper Chili

One of the things I miss the most being allergic to tomatoes is chili. I LOVE chili and so I needed to come up with a solution to the problem. So, instead of tomatoes, I thought I would see how roasted red peppers tasted in place of the chili. So, I took 2 whole roasted red peppers with some of the juice from the jar and ran them through the food processor, added some chili powder, salt, garlic and onion powder mixed it all up and let it simmer for about 20 minutes, then added some already browned meat and some more roasted red pepper that was diced up. It turned out SO good and it an completely acceptable substitute for tomatoes! You almost can't taste a difference. I'll be making this one again.

Rice and Beans with Shredded Chicken

Earlier in the week I made a pot of shredded chicken, here's how, I took a packet of taco seasoning and a jar of non-tomato salsa (this time I use a salsa verde) and mixed both together and put them over 3 large breasts of chicken and cooked in the crock pot on low for about 6 hours or until it was easy to shred the chicken.

I had a couple of chicken tacos with the chicken before I decided to make up a one pot meal with the rest. So, I took some pinto beans (I used canned this time), some rice a can of grilled green chilis for a little spice and some chicken stock. Mixed it all together and let it simmer until the rice was fully cooked.

YUM YUM YUM. I'll be making this again!

Chocolate Orange Bars

I follow a coupon blog and the lady who runs it posted a recipe for Cranberry Bliss Bars (similar to the ones made by Starbucks)...anyway, they sounded really good, but obviously that was not something I could eat so, I set out to adapt it and I have to say I did a pretty darn good job and they taste very "normal" (meaning that so many gluten free foods just don't taste the same as gluten foods).

Here's what I did.

I mixed

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar with 1 cup of vegan butter, added 2 eggs (could use egg replacer, I didn't because even though I am sensitive to eggs, I do ok if they are in baked goods) and 2 tsps vanilla and mixed it together. Then, I added 2 1/4 cups gluten free flour, 1 tsp baking powder and some salt, about a tsp. Mixed all that together, then I added some mini vegan chocolate chips, some orange zest and the juice of 2 "Cutie" oranges (hey, it was all I had in the house!)

Then, I spread it all evenly in a large baking sheet and baked at 350 until golden brown, which in my oven was about 24 minutes.

The frosting is 1 8oz container of room temperature "fake" cream cheese aka dairy free/soy cream cheese. There are a couple of brands. I personally like the Tofutti brand the best. 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup of room temperature butter, 1 tsp of vanilla and the juice of one "Cutie" orange. Whip together with your hand mixer for about 2 minutes or until smooth.

Let the cookie part cool

Then, add the frosting.

and ENJOY. Seriously, these are good. Trust me. I'm not even really a dessert person!

I served them to some family and friends and no one could tell they weren't "real".

Things for next time: I will double the frosting recipe (I like frosting!) and add more orange zest and maybe drizzle with chocolate on top.

Roasted Red Pepper Spaghetti

This is in place of tomato sauce. After making this, I may never miss tomato sauce!

2 Roasted Red Peppers (you can either roast them yourself or get them out of a jar)

1 Roasted Yellow Pepper... (again, you can roast them yourself or get them out of a jar)

Olive Oil

1 small onion

3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

If you need to roast the red peppers, do that first. Then peel, seed and coarsely chop them.

Heat some olive oil in a pan, about a tbsp or so, just eyeball it, then add the onion, garlic and saute til the onions are tender, then transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and add 1 3/4 of the red peppers and 1/2 the yellow pepper and the chicken broth and blend. Puree until almost smooth (leave some small chunks in there). Then transfer to a pan and add some salt, and dried basil (you can add pepper if you want, I didn't because of my allergy) and the remainder of the peppers (which you may need to chop a little finer, depending upon your taste and how you like them) and simmer it while you cook the pasta, it will thicken just a bit.

I used a brown rice pasta, but this can be served over any kind of pasta. Mix well and ENJOY! It would be good also if you had some fresh basil to garnish with.

Soda Cracker Cookies

Every year around Christmas time I love to make soda cracker cookies. Of course in years past I would use regular soda crackers, but this year, I am unable to do that, so I had to make my own crackers. so, I searched around online for recipes. I finally found one on a blog somewhere. Anyway, I altered it a bit to make it work.

I used 4 cups of gluten free flour mix, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup of shortening, 3/4 cup coconut milk and 3/4 cup of water.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then you roll it out really thin (mine were a bit too thick, next time I will roll even more thinly)

Then I cut them into squares

placed them on a baking sheet and poked some holes in them, and sprinkled with a bit of salt

baked them at 375 for 5 minutes, then turned them over, did another 5, then turned them back for another 2. You might not have to cook them this long if they were thinner. The thinner ones cooked way faster.

Then, placed them all on one cookie sheet

and make the toffee/caramel - 1 cup of butter and one cup of brown sugar. Mix together until boiling and then boil for 3 minutes.

Pour over the crackers (very hot, be careful, it will burn) and bake in a 350* oven for 5 minutes.

after it comes out of the oven, sprinkle one package of chocolate chips over the top and as they melt spread the chocolate, then top with your favorite nuts - I used pistachios and cashews.

I honestly can't tell a difference between these soda cracker cookies and the ones I made last year. They are good!