Girl Scouts add two new gluten-free cookies to its 2015 line up

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The Girl Scouts have added two new gluten-free cookies to its 2015 line up. These new cookies, Toffee-tastic and Trios, are the third time gluten-free cookies have been offered by the organization. Each cookie is being sold in different marketing areas. Here in our small town my daughter is selling the Trios gluten-free cookies for $5 per box (price varies depending on marketing area). They can be pre-ordered through door-to-door sales, purchased through our online ordering or next month at a local cookie booths near you.

Toffee-tastic (rich, buttery cookies with sweet, crunchy, golden toffee bits) and Trios (Chocolate chips nestled in a gluten free peanut butter oatmeal cookie) are made in dedicated gluten-free facilities. These cookies do not contain any artificial colors or flavors, high-fructose corn syrup, palm oil, or even hydrogenated oils. Trios Gluten-Free Cookie

Toffee-tastic and Trios are made and certified by two different companies: Toffee-tastic cookies are made by Little Brownie Bakers and certified by the NSF, while Trios are made by ABC Bakers and certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization.

If you are local here in Gardnerville, Trios and their long time standard cookies can be purchased locally or you can place an online order through an e-card invite. If you aren’t local I suggest you find a Girl Scout (like my daughter) and purchase a box or two since each Troop benefits from your purchase. And of course if you don’t want the cookies yourself, you can always donate boxes to be sent overseas to the military troops as well. Either way help a Troop out and purchase a box or two.

Taking a look at GFF, A New Gluten-Free Food Magazine Based out of San Francisco

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It isn’t very often you come across a great magazine, but even rarer a gluten-free magazine at that. I was really intrigued what this magazine would or could even offer. I contacted GFF’s Editor Erika Lenkert to see if I could get my hands on a copy and possibly see what their magazine was all about. And I can actually say I was really impressed by their content, pictures and that GFF stands for Gluten-Free Forever…

GFF is a quarterly magazine for anyone that is interested in a gluten-free lifestyle that includes recipes, gluten-free food reviews, gluten-free travel destinations, cooking tutorials to basically everything in between. The photography on their pages are gorgeous and eye catching, the ads are gluten-free which is refreshing to see, and their gluten-free articles are written so exquisitely that you can’t help to be drawn in. And while GFF is aimed at a widespread audience, their first issue is filled with Bay Area-ites such as chefs Lena Kwak, Niki Ford in addition to Craig and Annie Stoll.

And lastly I love that this magazine is based out of San Francisco – just a hop, skip and a jump from where I grew up in the Bay Area — so it feels a little bit like home.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy, GFF offeres delivery to your door or desktop with a one-year print or downloadable PDF subscription at: http://gffmag.com/subscriptions

GFF Magazine

*** Disclaimer: I received a PDF copy for free from GFF. I am not required to write a positive review. And all opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Gluten Free Ravioli Lasagna

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As you know, I made gluten free Raviolis for the new year. And since I had 2 ziploc bags full of Raviolis in the freezer I decided to try layering them Lasagna style. My husband said it came out really good and had two helpings… he is finicky so that is actually a compliment coming from him.

Gluten Free Ravioli Lasagna | Small Town Living in Nevada

Gluten Free Ravioli Lasagna

Ingredients:

  • Raviolis, packaged or homemade and prepared according to directions
  • 1 container (32 ounce) ricotta cheese
  • 2 jars (24 ounce each) pasta sauce
  • 1/4 -1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • 8 ounce shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

  1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease a 9″ x 13″ Oblong Baking Dish.
  2. Spread sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.
  3. Place a layer of cooked ravioli, overlapping in the dish.
  4. Spread a layer of ricotta cheese over ravioli.
  5. Sprinkle a nice layer of Parmesan Cheese.
  6. Next pour a jar of sauce over the cheese.
  7. Another layer of ravioli topped with sauce then topped with shredded mozzarella cheese.

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Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

My iPad screen is shattered….

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OMG — my youngest son dropped my iPad face down onto the tile while we all were at the Dentist office this morning and Shattered the screen!!! I even cut my finger on the glass when I touched it!!! I am devastated I use it for everything including for selling my daughter’s girl Scout cookies on their cookie app. And I don’t have the extra cash to fix it. But will have to suck it up and get it fixed nevertheless, AGH!!!

Shattered iPad Screen

Gluten Free Rustic Sourdough Bread

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I started a sourdough starter about 2 weeks ago with the idea of making english muffins. Of course I ended up making a bread loaf instead. And with no self control my kids and I devoured 1/2 the loaf in one sitting with a lot of butter and honey.

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread | Small Town Living in Nevada

Ingredients:

  • 1-1/4 cup gluten free sourdough starter
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2-1/2 cups gluten free flour
  • 1 tsp instant yeast

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough in a Stand Mixer with a dough hook. It will look more like pancake batter.

Allow the dough to rise, in a lightly greased, covered bowl, until it’s doubled in size, 2 hrs.

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Spray the loaf with lukewarm water.

Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes, until it’s a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

Spicy Shredded Turkey Two Ways – leftover style

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For Christmas I made a 26 lb turkey for 2 adults and 3 little kids. Yeah — I HAVE A LOT OF Turkey left over and have been making sandwiches galore with the leftover meat and then decided I wanted to make burritos for dinner. AND my parents were here over the New Year and brought us several packages of Udi’s Gluten Free tortillas which I needed to use up. So burritos it was!

I took a gallon size ziploc filled with leftover turkey and dumped it into the crockpot with 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 packet of Trader Joe’s Taco Seasoning and let it cook for 4 hours.

I opened the lid and the meat had a wonderful aroma and shredded as soon as I touched it with the fork!

Spicy Shredded Turkey burrito | Small Town Living in Nevada

Spicy Shredded Turkey Burrito | Small Town Living in NevadNext I warmed up the tortillas, spread a very generous amount of sour cream on each tortilla, topped with refried beans, shredded turkey, sliced avocado and rice. Rolled the tortillas and cut them in half.

I love making something creative for dinner from leftovers the night before. I had made homemade sushi and had a lot of rice leftover in the fridge and basically heated that up, too,  and added it to the burritos as well.

Regardless, I had A LOT of shredded turkey leftover and 2 more packages of tortillas left so a few nights later I made Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce with the shredded turkey and extra tortillas!

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Today is a catch-up day

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Even though I was busy yesterday doing a lot of stuff, today I have to catch up on finishing laundry doing the dishes and taking the ornaments off the Christmas tree. Then I have a PTO meeting and a Girl Scout meeting today is going to be so busy. At Thanksgiving I was in the bay area visiting family. My aunt had a persimmon tree that she let me pick a bunch of persimmons to take home. They’ve been sitting in a bag in my garage since Thanksgiving ripening. This morning I puréed the persimmons so I can make cookies. But I’m going to stick the purée in the fridge and do that tomorrow. And probably in a few hours I’ll have to figure out what it crockpot for dinner tonight. We shall see!

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I made Gluten Free Pasta Dough to ring in the New Year

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Gluten Free Ravioli | Small Town Living in Nevada

Spinach and Meat Ravioli topped with Butternut Squash Sauce paired with a Caesar Salad and Gluten Free Garlic Bread

Of all the foods that I miss out on eating since being gluten intolerant, I miss eating Raviolis. Being from a loud, obnoxious Italian family — I grew up eating a lot of pastas and ravioli. Now, honestly I have never been a spaghetti kinda person and I am not a huge fan of Tomato Sauce. LOL, I can remember my Grandmother yelling at me “What kinda Italian are you? That you don’t like Tomato Sauce!!” It isn’t that I really dislike Tomato Sauce — I just can’t eat it with out feeling like my stomach is a ball of acid and will burn a hole through my stomach and esophagus. So I try to stay away from it to avoid my stomach issues.

Anyhow, to get back on track — I decided that I was going to finally tackle making a really good pasta dough so I could make my family and I raviolis. I actually converted my grandmother’s pasta dough recipe to Gluten Free and have to say it came out pretty good.

My husband loves Butternut Pasta Sauce and he actually made a fresh batch of sauce to go with our raviolis.

He skipped the roasting of the butternut squash and just boiled it and said he felt that was easier than roasting it in the oven.

And my mother made my grandmothers ground turkey and spinach filling to stuff the raviolis with! So the whole process from making the dough to filling the raviolis took a good 2+ hours and we ended up making 125 raviolis. But I actually used 10 cups of my Gluten Free Flour blend (my own mixture of Brown Rice Flour and Tapioca Flour).

I used my pasta dough roller to roll out the dough then I used a medium sized biscuit cutter to cut out circles of dough to fill the raviolis and then pinched off to seal.

My kids had a blast helping make the raviolis — it was like a production line at the table — but could had taken an hour longer if I didn’t have the help!

Ravioli

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Gluten Free Eggs Benedict

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Hot English muffins, Canadian-style bacon, and poached eggs topped with hollandaise sauce is my most favorite breakfast of all time. I have made it so many times over the years, I can make it in my sleep, LOL! But honestly I really only make it on Holidays especially for Easter and Christmas.

So this past New Year morning I decided I was going to make the family Eggs Benedict to start the new year off right because I believe Eggs Benedict is one of life’s simple pleasures… and why not indulge!

Eggs Benedict

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Roasted Prime Rib

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My parents bought my family a prime rib to have for New Year’s Dinner. I have to say it was very generous on their part and very much appreciated as well. I took the roast and spayed it with Olive Oil then generously covered it in Pappy’s prime rib rub seasoning, minced garlic, rosemary and parsley…. because sometimes Prime Rib can be a little flavorless unless seasoned correctly. I Roasted the Prime Rib for 3 hours and then let it sit for 5 or so minutes after pulling it out of the oven before slicing. I love the ribs — give me a rib any day over the steak and I am in heaven! It was delicious and I didn’t need any horseradish either!

Roasted Prime Rib | Small Town Living in Nevada

Roasted Prime Rib

9-10 lb Prime Rib Roast

Seasoning is as much as you want to put on the roast:

Pappy’s Prime Rib Rub Seasoning
Fresh Rosemary
Dried Parsley
Garlic Minced
Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix all the herbs well, and mix thoroughly. Next, add the oil, whisk to mix, and then apply to the exterior of the roast evenly on all sides. Roast until the internal temperature reaches 120 degrees F for medium-rare, about 2-1/2 to 3 hours (15 minutes per pound for medium-rare). Then allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Serve with the pan drippings or sauce if preferred.

PrimeRib1