My aunt invited my husband and I over to her home for dinner one night eons ago — and for dessert she made a pumpkin roll cake. My husband loved it sooooooooooo much I was demanded to get the recipe. I had made the roll cake for his birthday one year and for every Thanksgiving since our first encounter with this yummy cake. My aunt is 100% Italian (me only being 50%)…. had made the roll cake Italian style. Instead of using cream cheese for the filling it has mascarpone Italian cheese instead. Anyhow, this pumpkin roll cake was 7 months in the making. I grew the pumpkins used in my recipe — cooked them up, pureed them then made the roll cake for Thanksgiving.
Month: November 2014
Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving
This is always the time to reflect on what you are thankful for, but when you sometimes get family all jammed together for festivities like Thanksgiving it can be a little stressful. And with that patience tend to run thin, tongues wag and say things that sting, but stress can do that to you. So hopefully we can be more mindful of our feelings and move beyond the cattiness and truly be thankful for everything and everyone we have in our lives.
My family and I have driven to the Bay Area which is a typical 4 hour drive. But we stopped to go hiking after an hour in the car… to none other than to scout out a new camping place, of course.
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies thanksgiving style….
If I’m not making something for the family, I am making something for my kids class parties. I was signed up to bring cookies to my youngest’s preschool class which I am actually fine with making the dessert for class. Than at least I know my kids will be able to participate in the dessert if I am the one making it.
Anyhow, my mother’s friend Sandy had given me a box of Betty Crocker™ Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Mix back in July and I hadn’t had the chance to try it out yet. But then I thought today would be a good time to crack open the box. It was really simple to mix — I actually got down and dirty and used my hands to knead the dough together. Then I used my Pampered Chef Small Scoop to drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet so I would have relatively the same size cookies.
Gluten Free Individual Serving of Meat Loaf
I have no idea why my daughter loves meatloaf, but she does. And she tells me all the time “Mama, you make the best meatloaf! Can you please make meatloaf for dinner?” So who can say no to making meatloaf, when you get such a 5 star review!
So this time around I decided I was going to do something from the normal “Loaf” that I make. I decided to use a Large Muffin Tin to make individual servings. And I have to say — it came out great. And the little muffins popped really easily right out of the tin!
Turkey Tenderloins in a sweetened sage mushroom sauce
I am trying to me mindful and use what I already have in the freezer. I am literally getting bored of food at the moment. Or maybe I am just too tired to cook. Let’s see – I volunteer at my kid’s school twice a week. My daughter is in Girl Scouts and we do something with the Troop at least once a week. I do PTO once a month. And then the rest of the time I am playing catch up with dishes or laundry or both at the same time all the while refereeing my children and trying to keep my sanity.
And on top of everything I have to have dinner ready for when my husband gets home from work so so we can sit down and eat as a family – well not immediately. But at least with in 20 minutes of him getting home. We usually eat anywhere between 6:30 or 7 every night.
Nevertheless, I scoured the cupboards and grabbed a can of Gluten Free Cream of Mushroom soup and a can of Condensed Milk and said — I can definitely make a gravy with these two ingredients and the rest is sweet history. Think of a sweet sage sauce taken up a notch.
Crockpot Pork Stew served over Mashed Potatoes
Yesterday was going to be my late night. My daughter joined Girl Scouts and her meetings run til 6:30 and it was easier for me to throw dinner together in the crockpot then have to make supper as soon as we got home. I am sure the husband and kids appreciated that logic — And it was COLD outside, too, so the warm stew was perfect to warm us up!
I originally was going to make a Beef Stew, but when I was looking for a package of Beef in the deep freezer, I noticed a package of the thin pork chops was punctured and decided to use that instead.
My Daughters outdoor “Frozen” Birthday Party in November
Yes, my daughter wanted a “Frozen” Birthday like every other girl this year. I was informed of this decision about 6 months ago and have been working on this “project” for a couple of months now.
I held the party outside, but of course I stressed over it for a couple of weeks because I wasn’t sure if it was going to rain or snow especially since I had no idea how I would have 30+ kids and a bunch of adults in my little house if it did rain/snow.
But the weather held up nicely at 55º up until the last hour of our party — and then it started turning cold and breezy — a literal “Frozen” Party, LOL.
I used snowflake table clothes including and couple of Arendelle themed plastic table clothes for a couple of my little tables. I also decorated with Frozen themed helium balloons on the tables.
Birthday Cake anyone
Today is my daughter’s 8th birthday and I make her cake practically every year. And this year wasn’t any different. However, I bought a cake box at walmart so I could box it so we can take it over to CV Steak at the Carson Valley Inn for Dinner tonight! I think I did a pretty good job (for someone that doesn’t frost cakes that often) — except for writing her name not so good at that. I need to work on that one!
Frozen themed gluten free chocolate cake.
Frozen themed gluten free chocolate cake.
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
I just made 48 snowflake Sugar Cookies. I glazed them and the kids put sugar sprinkles on them. I am tired and my feet hurt from standing. But my daughter wanted cookies for her birthday treat at school instead of cupcakes so as a mother I said OK. But these cookies are time consuming, about 2 hours at minimum.
Nevertheless, these cookies are buttery, sweet and very tender depending on the thickness you decide to make them.
Gluten Free Sugar Cookie
Blue Glitter Slime
I wanted to make Glitter Slime for my daughter’s party on Saturday – to give the kids some extra things to play with. And what better fun than playing with slime! I do however recommend playing around with water/Borax ratio until you find the consistency you prefer. The more Borax you use the stiffer the slime will get.
Small Town Living in Maryland 