Corned Beef

So, this was super easy... a recipe from my mom.....

I found a corned beef slab that was labeled as gluten free so that is what I started with. Put it in the crockpot covered with water and all the juices that came with the beef all day.

When the time came I took it out of the crock pot, put it in a shallow baking dish.

Mixed 3ish tbsp Dijon mustard, 1ish tbsp paprika and 2-3 tbsp brown sugar, then spread it on the beef. Placed the dish in the oven, preheated to 375. Cooked until the glaze crystallized and then sliced it against the grain and served with horseradish sauce.

The kids LOVED it!!!

I just want to apologize for being such a slacker the last few months with posting! We had a burst water pipe back in January that flooded our kitchen, so we had to rip up all the flooring, replace drywall, etc....etc..... and since we were remodeling.......yeah, so anyway, my kitchen has been a mess for months. It is finally, mostly put back together....so cooking should resume full force soon.

I've got a thousand recipes I want to try out......so hopefully in a few weeks we will be back in business!!!

Creamed Chicken

This is a throw together at the last minute thing. Turned out great tho. The boys even ate the leftovers the next day!

about 2 lbs frozen chicken breast tenders, or whole breasts cut up
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)
2 cans cream soup (whatever you can find that is GF) (I used Progesso Mushroom)
1/2 cup or so Parmesan cheese
1 box GFPantry olive oil and garlic croutons crushed

preheat oven to 350.

spray a 9x13 baking dish. Dump the chicken in, sprinkle the cheese over top, dump the soup on that, sprinkle with the Parmesan and then spread the croutons on top of that. Put it in the oven until the chicken is cooked. I think it took about an hour, since my chicken was frozen, but of course I didn't actually check the timer........

Served it with some brown and wild rice mix and steamed broccoli and it was a HIT!

YAY!

Bread!

SO, I've been on a baking kick lately. I bought several different bread mixes and finally tried the last one last night. It was one of my favorites.

Bob's Red Mill is a brown bread, sort of pumpernickle, rye bread flavor. It was ok, not one of my favorites. Very seedy, grainy, which I usually like, and it's not that I didn't like this, it was just different.

All of the Gluten Free Pantry breads were awesome. Light, airy, like real white bread! Made Italian breads and sandwich bread and all sorts of yummy's. Kids gobbled them up. Made bread sticks out of some by taking sheets of aluminum foil and making it into a long wadded up sausage looking thing. Laid several of those across a cookie sheet, then laid another long strip of foil over those, making sure to form it to the shape of the foil sausages! So I was able to make several long breadstick by placing small amounts of dough between the sausage strips.

Anna's breads was the one I made last night. It was awesome! I prefered wheat bread 'before' and this was as close as any I've tasted. It smelled a little weird in it's dough form, but after baking it really was fabulous! Had to hide several pcs for Sean to eat with his dinner or the kids would have eaten it all.

Spahsgetti Sauce

No jarred sauce in the pantry and it is too icky to go get some, so what do I do? Make my own of course!

I had
1 med. onionm chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 cup or so olive oil

Saute that in large pot until onions are soft, then add the following

3 cans of tomato sauce
1 can petite diced tomato
1 small can tomato paste
1 capful of Mrs Dash Italian seasonings (I'd guess a heaping TBSP)
1-2 tsp sugar

stir all that together, bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about an hour.

I threw in about 2 lbs of meatballs before I covered it. We shall see what happens, it smells yummy, but I am not picky like some testosterone carriers I know.......

I've also been baking today. I've used Gluten Free Pantry Sandwich bread mix and a mix from Anna's line of products. I'll let you know how those turn out too! The Gluten Free Pantry Italian bread is yummy, so I have high hopes for the Sandwich bread mix!

Meatballs

I made about 1000 meatballs before Thanksgiving and froze them. I forgot to record it here, so I am now going back and putting in what I can remember

1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb pork sausage
1 lb ground turkey breast

1 box crushed Glutino crackers
3/4 - 1 cup chopped sweet onion
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (GF, San-J)
3-4 tbsp prepared Dijon mustard
3 eggs
8 0z V-8 vegetable juice

Mash all of that together and using an ice cream scoop, form into 2" balls. I baked mine in the oven for 15 minutes or so, until lightly browned, then cooled and put into bags in the freezer.

If anyone has a bad outcome, adds anything, let me know. They were really good and I am using the last of them tonight for meatball subs. So I will need to make more.

Red Velvet Cake

My Grandma always made a red velvet cake for special occasions. It is one of those things that always make me think of her and Grandpa. I haven't made one in a looooong time and had a 'hankerin' to make one today. I googled it and found this recipe.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe, except I used Authentic Foods GF Classic Blend in place of her flours......and I put it in a Bundt pan, instead of making cupcakes! I can not wait to slice into it later. It looked fabulous coming out of the oven, I had to pinch a pc off the bottom to try......

Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Merry Christmas!!!!

I am baking today, and one of my all time favorite Christmas cookies are cut out cookies. They are an absolute must for Christmas. I had a recipe that I followed faithfully every year because I didn't have to refrigerate the dough before rolling, so I dug it out and modified it for gluten free cookies!

YUMMM!!!!

***note*** melted butter is NOT softened butter. Melted butter is melted. Softened butter is soft but not liquid.....makes a huge difference.....just ask Paula...haha!

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 cups Authentic Foods Multi Blend flour mix (this mix has xanthum gum in it already)

Preheat oven to 400 Line cookie sheets with parchement paper, set aside.

In stand mixer bowl, whip butter until smooth, add sugar, mix till smooth again, add egg and vanilla....mix......... In seperate bowl mix flour and baking powder...... add 1/2 cup flour at a time, till you reach 2 cups.....mix well after each addition, and also scrape sides of bowl after each. You may need to use the dough attachment to mix.

on clean surface (counter top) scrape dough out of bowl. Knead a little bit if needed to form into large ball, and use a bit of the last 1/2 cup flour on surface and hands if needed to help with sticking. Break into 2 balls, set one aside.

Begin rolling one ball into a 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick circle, about 12" diameter. (I like a thicker cookie, and I use the Pampered Chef baker's roller to roll). Cut with cookie cutters, placing the cookies on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake in oven for 7-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cookie and the size/shape. And start on the other ballof dough...... Remove from oven when edges start to brown and cool on rack. Decorate as desired......

***I had to do some research, but did find that CakeMate decorations (colored sugars, nonpareils, etc) are gluten free, along with McCormick food dyes. For about 1/3 of the dough I used some green food coloring and added a little more of that last 1/2 cup flour to make the green Christmas trees.

The glaze I used was this one..... only I used some fruit juice for flavoring and didn't add any food coloring until the end, and then I added some more sugar and corn syrup with the food coloring.

I LOVE the way these turned out!

I hope you all have a blessed and merry Christmas!!!!