31 for 21: Information

Our granny from CA is visiting right now. She always comes to visit in October, and it is one of the busier months. Not a problem, tho, she's easy-going :). Tuesday was prep for the Buddy Walk at Bounce-U, and today Granny took us roller skating. Ya know, we gotta exercise to stay skinny, so we can bake sweets ;).

Two pretty kids born this morning.

Today (well, tonight) I thought I'd share some links. There's three main subjects on this blog right now: Recipes (mostly sweet ones, of course), Gluten-free and Down Syndrome. My recipes are gluten-free, but besides that I don't really post about gluten-free. I've mentioned The Gluten-Free Homemaker before, because she has some good articles she's written - not to mention her recipes and carnivals. Gluten-Free Information Round-Up is a post she did highlighting several articles.

My oldest sister, Qadoshyah, runs the Down Syndrome blog. She has a so much information there, plus the book? Yeah. Guess what? Her blog was rated as a Top Special Needs Site - 2nd in the Down Syndrome category.

Myself and Lulu, my calf.

~ Hanunyah

31 for 21 is a blog challenge to raise Down Syndrome awareness 1 blog at a time. The challenge is to blog everyday the whole month of October (31 days) to raise awareness for Down Syndrome (aka Trisomy 21). This is the 6th Annual 31 for 21 Challenge.

Thanksgiving

There are many things to be thankful for. During this day of giving of thanks, let us not forget to . . . give thanks. We are so blessed, there are countless "things to be thankful for". Just a few that come to mind for me are: living in a free country (though it may not seem very free anymore, it really is. Just look at North Korea) - namely Oklahoma, living on a ranch with animals that produce food for us, a warm house ready for winter, helpful and hard-working brothers, my little brother that doesn't cease to make us laugh, being one of seven sisters . . . the list goes on, but I am very thankful for my large family and the ranch God has given us in OK, teaching me to fear God, be responsible, and be thankful for the little things that happen everyday - Such as my little brother that has DS, he puts a smile on our faces when he waves from the balcony in the morning when he gets up, or my other brother who is always excited when there is some kind of kitchen flop awaiting him.

Have a happy, thankful Thanksgiving! We are hoping to have Thanksgiving here at our house this year . . . with the neighbors, family and friends. That way it is easy to control what food is brought - it is hard when we go to other people's houses, because my little brother is very sensitive to cow dairy - even a drop of butter on his hand and he'll break out in a rash . . . let alone if he eats any. It is scary - he has choking episodes (where he can't breath) that he could very well die of. That's what I mean by scary. It is that bad.

Anyway, here are some recipes that would be great for your Thanksgiving meal. I hope to post about our thanksgiving day in the next few days. Have a happy allergen-free Thanksgiving!
Sorry these recipes are somewhat jumbled . . . I need to go. For more recipes, you may go to my Recipe Archives.

Fudge Brownies
Maple Walnut Bars
Cinnamon Swirls
Apple Muffins
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Pumpkin Roll
Sweet Potato Cake
Mashed Potato Fudge
Lollipop/Suckers
Black Gold Cookies (you gotta include something chocolate, right? These are AWESOME!)
Gingersnap Cookies
Molasses Cookies
Pumpkin Cookies
PumpkinSnap Cookies
Banana (or fruit) Ice-Cream (isn't ice-cream welcome?)
Layer Bars (like Seven Layer Bars!)
Oatmeal Cookies 2
Apple Pie, Mock
Fudge Pie
Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Buckle
Pumpkin Pudding
Pumpkin, Zucchini or Apple Bread
Autumn Pumpkin Spice Fudge


Remember to always be thankful . . . 
~ Hanunyah

Triple Cute Blog Award

Michelle from The G-Free Wifey gave me and 6 other bloggers the Triple Cute Blog Award! Thanks Michelle!!

When you receive the award you're supposed to pass it on to 7 other bloggers . . . there's soooo many great blogs out there, but here just a few. Check out these great blogs!!

Heather Eats Almond Butter
Sandi's Allergy-Free Recipes (Check out her blog! She has some creative recipes that are gluten & white sugar free)
The Gluten-Free Homemaker
Ginger Lemon Girl
Got Down Syndrome
Life on the Ranch
Good Goats


~ Hanunyah

Bread Pudding

Tuesday some friends came over to butcher a pig. I made this while they were here, and as soon as I cut it and said that they could have some, it was like the locusts came in! It was only about 5 minutes until the pan looked like this, and it was a 10x13 inch pan (a doubled recipe)! -

So, I guess it was good! I sliced a peach over the bread (before baking), and the one time I made it before I used the raisins. Old, dry pancakes work well in this recipe (that's what I used the first time, and the second time I used pancakes and "rice bread" - cornbread recipe, with rice flour instead of cornmeal).

Bread Pudding (Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Corn-free)
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

7 slices worth of old GF, DF, CF bread, pancakes or rice bread*
2 tablespoons oil
raisins or fruit (optional)
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon maple (or vanilla) extract
2 cups goat milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8x8 inch baking pan*. Drizzle oil over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins or sliced fruit.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, spices and maple extract. Add the milk and beat until well mixed. Pour over bread.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

Notes:
*The bread - if you're not sure how much bread to use, just fill the pan with pieces of the bread product you're using until the pan is about 2/3 full. My family liked it with more bread, so it wasn't so gooey like a custard, but it was actually kind of spongy. They liked it like that, but if you like it more like a custard, then you may use less bread. I hope that makes sense ;).
**The baking pan - I used a 6x11 inch pan for when I didn't double the recipe, and a 10x13 inch pan when I doubled it. If you double it, you'll have to bake it longer. I don't know how much longer I baked it when I doubled it, I just left it in the oven until it was done.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Corn-free bread pudding, before "the locusts" came ;).

~ Hanunyah

Falling in the GAPS!

Yep, I've just about fell into the GAPS in 2 ways - as you can tell - my posting is few and far between, and we recently started the GAPS diet. Me and most of my family haven't fully went on the GAPS intro diet, yet, but I'm sure many of us eventually will.

     I haven't had much time on the computer the last week or two, until the last few days I was able to check my email and post on my other blog. Monday we went blueberry picking, and yesterday I had to go to the Urgent Care for a tick I pulled off of my thigh - around it turned into a hard round lump with a big red circle. "THEY" say that's the time for meds . . .

Anyway, last week my brother (who'll be 19 years on the 10th of this month) and a friend/neighbor's little 2 year old boy (who has constipation problems) went on the diet. They've been on the diet for about a week now, and my brother is on stage 2 of the GAPS introduction diet. It's been a tough one for the little guy, but they've been able to pull through with help from us. Those of us on the diet are eating lots of soup (with meat, carrots, onions, and broccoli), broth, yogurt, kefir, and ginger tea (all that my sisters make).

     Here are some links we've been using - 

GAPSDiet.com (we bought the cookbook that's pictured on the home page of this site, I looked through it and it has good recipes)

Health, Home, & Happiness

GAPS.me

GAPSGuide.com

GAPS Help Yahoo! group

     And here are the yogurt and ginger tea recipes that my sister has been making (she typed these up for some friends).

Yogurt

Turn on oven light - it can take a couple hours to heat the oven - make sure you have a thermometer in there - you want it between 100 - 110 degrees in there.

Making the Yogurt -

1. Put as much (I do 1 gallon at a time) milk as you plan to make into yogurt in a pot - warm on stove to 180 degrees.

2. Once it reaches 180, put pot of hot milk in an ice cold bath. Cool down to 110 degrees.

3. Add the yogurt starter, or a small amount of yogurt as a starter - Mix fairly well.

4. Put the milk in a pan or pot (I use a crockpot crock) in the oven.

5. Let it sit for 8 hours.

6. After 8 hours - It's Done!

7. Save ½ cup of yogurt to start your next 1 gallon batch.

Ginger Tea

1. Bring water to a boil. Once it boils, turn off heat.

2. Add grated ginger (add as much for as strong you want it).

3. Let sit for 5 minutes.

4. Strain the ginger out.

5. Done.

Also, if anybody has GAPS-friendly recipes, please send them our way! Thanks!

~ Hanunyah

Make Your Own GF Flour!! It can be Cheaper than Gluten Flour!

Yay! Well, after all gluten-free living is NOT sooo expensive :) . . . We buy big 50 lb bags of white rice for cheap (I think we get it at Sam's), and recently we found out that we can make our own rice flour - easily. Just grind it in a Vitamix (with the dry container), until fine (stir it while grinding).


So, since we can get rice cheap, we figured it out to about 50 cents a pound! Compare that to the stuff you buy in the store - it's over $2 a pound. We grind a couple gallons at a time . . . . And use it very fast. I think I've been baking the most I have ever baked - I have been stocking the freezer with goodies, and everyone likes it.


Praise the Lord for his kindness to us to be able to do all this.


Christmas is EVIL! Please see - http://www.atruechurch.info/christmas.html.

Gingersnap Cookies

Well, one of my last 31 for 21 posts . . . 

I haven't made these for some time, but they were really good and were gone when I took them to a mother's day party once. For more pictures of the cookies, see a post I did on my other blog.

This is a recipe I tweaked from allrecipes.com.

Gingersnap Cookies (Gluten-free)

4 c brown rice flour (you could also use white rice or some other acceptable flour)

2 t xantham gum

2 T ginger powder

4 t baking soda

2 t cinnamon

1 t salt

1 1/2 cups lard (or shortening or butter)

2 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c molasses

cinnamon sugar to roll the cookie balls in

Mix first 6 ingredients together. Mix the rest (minus the cinnamon sugar) and then add to dry mix. Roll into balls, roll in cinnamon sugar and flatten with your hand a little bit. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. They should be brown with cracks on the tops.

31 for 21 Blog Challenge!

Cooked Frosting

This simple and easy frosting is cooked, cooled and then beat. There's no powdered sugar (aka confectioners', icing or 10x sugar) in this frosting. I made it today along with Basic Cupcakes, and Flourless Peanut Butter Cupcakes. I added the cocoa powder to make it chocolate.

I found this here - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjuEVTcMaPSjF0vpUcK5e_l36xR.;_ylv=3?qid=20080227114317AABxbfm

This frosting keeps in the refrigerator, but it does set. Just take it out and put it in the microwave for a few seconds, then stir and microwave until spreadable.

Frosting (with no powdered sugar)
1 c. white sugar
1/4 c. butter (I used lard)
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Stir together in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for 1 full minute; remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Place pot in a bowl of cold water, and let it cool about less than a minute. Remove from bowl of water and beat with a spoon until thick enough.

Chocolate Frosting:
Add 1 tablespoon cocoa to sugar.

Brown Sugar Frosting:
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar

31 for 21 Blog Challenge!

31 for 21 Blog Challenge!

Hello!

    October is Down Syndrome awareness month. I have to do a post a day, to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. This challenge is called 31 for 21. You may not know, but I have a little brother who is 5 years old with Down Syndrome, and his name is Osiyyah. He is such a blessing, a happy little boy, and life without him would be pretty dull! If you haven't noticed yet, all my recipes on here are gluten-free. We have discovered that half our family cannot handle gluten, and he is how we found this out, because he cannot handle ANY gluten (we think he might have Celiac).

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So, I am going to try to post 31 recipes in the month of October!

~ Hanunyah

GF Neapolitan Cookies

Well, I made these a couple weeks or so ago, but we've been busy lately, so I haven't posted for about a week.

     Ok, I know, the color isn't right, but I didn't have any red food coloring, so I used blue. These were a bit grainy, but still yummy and they got eaten up. I didn't use nuts. I used I think about 3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (melted) for the chocolate layer. I also added a handful of chocolate chips, not melted, to the chocolate dough. I think next time I make these I'll only use about 2 cups of flour (gluten-free, of course), and 1/4 cup of potato starch and/or cornstarch (because the mixture seemed a little dry, and I added a tablespoon or so of lard). The recipe said this makes 72 to 84 cookies. I found this recipe in a Dessert cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens.

Gluten-Free Neapolitan Cookies
2 1/4 cups to 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour, and use some starch so the cookies aren't grainy
about 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine or butter (I used lard)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
5 drops red food coloring
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

1. Line a 9x3x3-inch loaf pan with waxed paper (I used foil because we don't have waxed paper), allowing the ends of the paper to hang over the sides of the pan.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the margarine or butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat just until the ingredients are combined. Slowly add the flour mixture, beating on medium speed about 3 minutes or until all the ingredients are combined.

4. Divide the dough into 3 portions and place each in a separate bowl. Stir the almond extract and red food coloring into 1 dough portion. Stir the chopped walnuts into the second portion and the melted chocolate into the remaining portion.

5. Pat the pink dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Pat the dough with nuts over the pink dough. Top with the chocolate dough. Cover the pan and chill in the refrigerator at least 4 hours or in the freezer a few minutes, until the dough is firm enough to slice.

6. Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove the chilled dough from the pan by lifting the waxed paper ends; remove the waxed paper.

7. Using a sharp knife, cut the block of cookie dough lengthwise in half. Cut each cookie block crosswise into 1/8- to 1/4- inch-wide slices. Arrange the slices about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake in the 350 oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are firm and light brown. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*Update: Here are some updated pictures - I made them again.