A picture of Beezus at the children's museum.
Quick Family Update
Sadly everyone is sick! Yuck. Poor Beezus has been the sickest. She started two weeks ago with a stomach bug, progressed to the flu this last week and then last night we got antibiotics for strep and ear infections! Hopefully she will be up tomorrow for a really healthy pick me up breakfast! Put some meat back on her little bones!
Gluten Free Reading...
I have been dedicating some time to reading up on gluten free baking and I would like to share some of my more recent finds.
The most common complaint I have for muffins, waffles, and cakes in general is how dry the baked product often are. In Living Without’s Gluten Free Holiday Guide, that would be the November/December Issue, their food editor Beth Hillson recommends adding honey, applesauce or yogurt to gain moisture.
The GF Tip:
First of all, yes I am that far behind in my reading and gluten free research. Second, I think adding applesauce, yogurt and honey is an amazing gluten free cooking tip! I have used applesauce often in my muffins and I love the results. The muffins taste better and the kids eat them better. I, of course, follow it up with cinnamon and chocolate chips. However, the chocolate or sugar is not necessary and other ingredients could be substituted for this addition like walnuts, blueberries or both! I highly recommend this. Fruits and nuts add great nutritional value.
The Twist:
To add to my GF tip is a twist I learned yesterday on the food network from Giada De Laurentiis. Laurentiis made breakfast for dinner. Or out here in South Dakota it would be breakfast for supper, since in the Midwest dinner is lunch and soda is pop. The breakfast for supper is one of my absolute favorite tricks to make family suppers less mundane. In fact I already did the same thing early this week. I made gluten free pancakes with bananas on top, eggs and bacon. The pancakes utilized almond flour. I attempted to time the breakfast so my man would walk into the smell of bacon when he got home from work. In my mind, this is the equivalent of flowers and chocolate for a chick. The little “I love you” that married couples need every now and then. ;-)
Ms. Laurentiis made an elaborate meal with several complimentary elements including waffles, quiche and a night cap. The waffles really caught my interest. The night cap did too, but I can not share that with the kids.
What I love about the waffles is that they were made from a Bisquick baking mix! I just want to kiss professional cooks that admit to the simplicity and ease of using a pre-established mixes. For gluten free cooks this is perhaps even more important where mixing different flours together can get tiring and frustrating. The market for GF pre-mixed flours has grown substantially and recently Bisquick came out with a pancake and waffle baking mix. The same baking mix I have in my pantry and I have been dying to try out.
Of course, Luarentiis kicked her waffles up a notch and added the “fun factor”. In this case adding cinnamon and pancettato to her batter and topping her waffles with walnuts. She did suggest that you can use chopped up bacon instead. Below is a link her recipe off the food network website.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pancetta-and-cinnamon-waffles-recipe/index.html
Tomorrow morning I will combine my twists, tips and my breakfast for supper. I will try out the Bisquick GF baking mix. I will add in applesauce, cinnamon and bacon. I will top it off with whip cream and chopped up bananas.
I think keeping an open mind and including with the applesauce either cinnamon, bacon, blueberries, apples, nuts, whatever excites you.
Hope everyone in CA and SD is having a great day! We are getting snow after having it melted off most the week. Bummer.
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