Johnny's Favorite Yellow Cupcakes

I haven't been a big fan of the gluten-free cake mixes we've tried so far and I know that a large part of it has to do with my own mom's insistence on making cake from scratch when I was growing up (with rare exception). Making just about anything from scratch used to seem like far too much effort to me ... until this whole gluten-free thing entered our lives. Luckily I came across this wonderful website that has amongst it's many offerings an "Easy Yellow Cake." A little tweak here and there and we now have little cupcakes so good that they were the only thing on the counter that Johnny tried to snatch before the party!

Ingredients

2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup Splenda

2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup hot water
1 Tablespoon butter

Directions

Beat eggs 5 minutes then beat in sugar and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder. Melt butter in hot water and add. Fill 24 mini muffin tin holes 1/2-2/3 full. Bake at 350 till done (about 18 minutes using the silicone pans on cookie sheets). Let cool completely then frost & decorate as desired ... although Johnny was just as pleased with them plain as he was with them frosted!

Santa's Cookies

We had devoured the last batch of cutout cookies we made so I had to make a brand new batch so Santa could have some waiting for him Christmas Eve. Of course, I apparently neglected to post the recipe from the last batch so I had no clue what I actually made ... but it all worked out because these are even better! (And John was more than willing to taste-test them so Santa would know they were safe!)

tweaked from Taste of Home

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 packets (1/3 cup) Splenda with Fiber
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups flour (of course, we used Pamela's)
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Tinted frosting or colored sugar

Directions
In a bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat in egg yolk and extracts. Combine the flour, spice and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until easy to handle.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Decorate as desired.

Yield: 4 dozen (we used larger cookie cutters and didn't roll quite as thin and got 32 cookies)

Stained Glass Cookies

Left on their own these ended up being very crispy little cookies ... but we took these along with us on the train ride in the same baggie as the pumpkin cookies and some chocolate chip cookies and they softened up beautifully! These were found at Land O' Lakes' website and the only tweaking I did was to use gluten-free flour (of course), generic butter, omit the salt, and I didn't roll in the sugar.

1 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup gumdrops, cut into small pieces
4 tablespoons decorator sugars

Combine butter and powdered sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat until well mixed. Stir in gumdrops.

Divide dough in half on lightly floured surface; shape each half into an 8-inch (1 1/2-inch diameter) log.

Place 2 tablespoons decorator sugar on large piece of plastic food wrap. Roll 1 log in decorator sugar to coat. Wrap tightly in plastic food wrap. Repeat with remaining log and decorator sugar. Refrigerate until firm (8 hours or overnight).

Heat oven to 350°F. Carefully cut logs into 1/4-inch slices with sharp, serrated knife. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

White Chip Pumpkin Cookies

I actually had to hide these in the back of the freezer so Tom wouldn't eat them all before the party. We took John on a train ride with Santa this Saturday and I thawed a few out for the ride (knowing that the cookies given there probably wouldn't be gluten free) and Tom loved them! These are a tweak of a recipe I found on cooks.com

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup softened butter
6 packets Splenda
3/8 cup Splenda Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (4 servings) instant pumpkin pudding (Jello puts this out seasonally ... I just happened to stumble upon it on a clearance rack)
2 eggs
3 ounces white baking chips

Combine butter, the sugars, vanilla and pudding mix in large bowl. Beat until creamy. Then beat in eggs. Gradually add flour, soda, and chips. Drop by half-Tablespoonful, about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

I also made another variation of these with vanilla pudding and no chips but sprinkled with red & green sugar crystals. Also good, but not nearly as yummy as these were!

Salted Butter Crackers

I know, I know ... I've been a big slacker lately when it comes to blogging. Tis the season and all that fun stuff! Fact of the matter is, I've been doing a lot of trial and error time in the kitchen trying to get things squared away (at least mentally) for the party with the sorta-in-laws on the 27th. The freezer is close to overflowing now and there's more on the way the day or two before the shindig! One of the items currently taking up residence in the freezer is a bag of these Salted Butter Crackers. We always do cheese, pepperoni & crackers at these things but this year is the first that Johnny & I won't be able/willing to dive into the Ritz with everyone else so I found this recipe and, while they aren't even close to Ritz, they're pretty darn good! When I make them the next time I'm going to roll them a bit thinner than I did in hopes that they crisp up more, but for now these are a thumbs-up.

(And I will pay good money to anyone who has a good recipe for a Ritz copycat!!!)

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup water
coarse or table salt to taste
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, softened and divided


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl, mix well flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir water and 1/3 cup butter into flour mixture until smooth dough forms. Divide dough in half; cover and let stand at least 10 minutes.

Place half the dough on lightly oiled 17 x 14-inch baking sheet; flatten to 4-inch square. Roll out, cut in 2-inch squares (obviously we used star-shape cookie cutters). Prick all over with fork, brush with 1 tablespoon butter (I actually sprayed each one with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter) and sprinkle with salt (the original recommends canning or pickle salt ... we used Mrs Dash Table Blend because I seem to be slightly addicted).

Bake in middle of preheated 400 degrees oven 8 minutes or until crackers are dry and golden, but not browned completely. Remove to racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Cookie Fun!

No recipe today because we used a bagged mix for the cookies that are going to end up being treats for the dog because they're just not at ALL tastey ... unless, apparently, you're a dog ... but Johnny and I had a BLAST Tuesday afternoon once I got the dough to be even semi-workable.

Two hours in the fridge as suggested and the stuff was brickish! Maybe it was operator error somehow but at this point I cannot, in good faith, recommend Jules' Gluten Free Graham Cracker/Gingersnap Mix. I didn't even tweak it ... but maybe I should have ...

So now, if you have a GOOD gingerbread/snap cookie recipe you like to use Johnny and I recommend:

Using MegaBloks (or some other large toddler-friendly Legoish toy) as cookie cutters! You get the cutest little perfect squares ... and it's fun to use toys to make cookies :)

If you do feel compelled to break out the actual cookie cutters, though ... pick your traditional gingerbread boy and then turn him onto his head to make reindeer heads!

Raisins make excellent eyes and pomegranate chips are perfect for Rudolph noses ... if, of course, you can keep from eating them all before they make it onto the cookies!

Almost Like Mom's Hamburger Gravy

Have you ever made something that literally brought tears to your eyes because of the flood of memories that came with that first bite? This did it for me last night.

Every year my mom would make whatever we wanted on our birthdays ... and Hamburger Gravy on Mashed Potatoes was a normal request from me so I decided to try and recreate it last night (had the leftovers this morning for birthday breakfast).

Mine ended up being slightly less gravy-ish than my mom's because I ran out of milk, but the taste is still there and it made a perfect birthday-eve comfort meal!

Ingredients

2 ounces mushroom pieces

2 ounces chopped onions

8 ounces extra-lean ground turkey*

8 ounces extra-lean ground beef*

(* could use a full pound of either instead but the combo is extra special)

1/2 cup milk

1 Tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon Mrs Dash Table Blend

(for a more gravy-ish effect I would suggest doubling the above three when it comes time)

However Many Mashed Potatoes You Want!

Directions

Spray a skillet with butter spray and saute mushrooms, onion and ground meat until the meat is well-browned. Stir in milk, flour and seasoning and mix well. Reduce heat and cover pan for about 5 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes and enjoy!

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition (potatoes not included)

187 calories, 8g fat, 76mg cholesterol, 232mg sodium, 5g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, 23g protein

4 Points

Submitted to Ultimate Recipe Swap: Quick Winter Dinners

Best Gingerbread Muffins Ever -- And The Cutest Gingerbread House!

I've been wanting to do a gingerbread house with/for Johnny this year but came across a few issues:

1) I'm not a big fan of gingerbread cookies although I adore gingerbread BREAD.

2) Most gingerbread houses aren't really edible to begin with and where's the fun in that?

3) I've got waaaaay too much other stuff going on to want to worry about all the cutting and glueing and whatnot that goes along with the traditional house ...

and quite possibly most importantly:

4) I've got a freakin' muffin fixation!!!

So without further ado:

The Muffins

(tweaked from The Dannon Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour (we use Pamela's Bread & Flour Mix, of course!)
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 packets Splenda w/ Fiber
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup liquid egg replacement
1 cup vanilla nonfat light yogurt (we use Dannon Light n Fit)
1/2 cup dark molasses

Muffin Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, spices and baking soda, set aside. In a large bowl mix together Splenda and oil and mix well. Add liquid egg and continue to beat. Add yogurt and molasses and mix well. Add flour mixture to batter 1/2 cup at a time and mix just to blend. Divide batter evenly between 12 square muffin cups and bake 25 minutes.

Nutrition Per Muffin
222 calories, 10g fat, 317mg sodium, 35.6g carbohydrates, 3g fiber, 2g protein
4 Points

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The House

3 Muffins are needed for every 2 houses so out of each batch above you would end up with 8 houses -- leave 8 muffins whole and cut the other 4 in half diagonally. (The grid shapes were made because I had them cooling upside-down on the wire rack!)

Frost the tops of the whole muffins and the sides of the halves with white frosting of choice (we used cream cheese frosting).
Place one half on top of one whole for the roof. Cut a mini candy cane straight across at the "hook" part. Use the leftover "stem" as a chimney and frost the back of the "hook" and attach it for a door. Mini M&Ms work well as windows (although I thought it was just as cute if not cuter without) as well as for sidewalks. This part you can pretty much do anyway you want -- one of the many joys of gingerbread houses (even in muffin form) is the flexibility in decorations!

The final step? Give one to someone you love and watch the oohs and aahs!

Submitted to All Through The Year Cheer, Holiday Recipe Exchange, Save Room For Dessert

Meet my friend Debbie!

One of my dearest friends (who was also one of my mom's dearest friends) just started a recipe blog! Go on over and check it out :)

Carrot Raisin Muffins

The first gluten free cookbook I got was a present from my aunt and this recipe was tweaked from that because I can never just do anything the way I'm told. We added some cream cheese frosting and they're WONDERFUL (and 4 Points including the frosting!)! They were a tad "eggy" for me so next time (because there WILL be a next time) I may cut the liquid egg some but I haven't decided by how much yet. The original recipe called for 3 eggs which is 3/4 cup liquid ... so maybe I'll try 1/2 cup? Johnny didn't seem to mind them at all as-is, though, so maybe I'll just leave them be.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups grated carrot

8 packs Splenda (or 1/4 cup sugar)

3/4 cup Egg Beaters (or 3 eggs)

2/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting (we found wheat-free at Save-A-Lot of all places!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

In medium bowl stir together carrots, Splenda, egg, oil and vanilla. Sift in flour, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder. Mix well and add raisins. Stir til raisins are well combined in batter. Spoon into 16 muffin cups (we used my silicone square muffin pan and 4 individual cups) and bake @ 35 minutes.

Submitted to What Did You Bake Today?