Easy Bakin'

I sorta, recently received a hand-me-down bread machine. I finally used it! The wheat bread I "made" came out just perfect. I love that I can just add everything into the machine, push a few buttons and walk away. Hours later I have perfectly baked bread and I don't even have to kneed it! I should of gotten one of these sooner ;)

D*mn It!

Just recently...like within the last few days. I have finally come to the conclusion, I am not lactose intolerant. Rather I am actually allergic to dairy. I have noticed my "intolerance" has gotten worse, which does not really happen. And after lots of research...I don't think I was ever lactose intolerant, just misdiagnosed a decade ago. I was never given a proper test by my doctor. I just got the ol'...oh you feel sick when you drink milk? You are probably just lactose intolerance, stay away from milk...ugh!

Reading everything that I have to look out for and not eat leaves me nearly in tears. I can't pronounce half of the crap I can't eat! Processed foods are loaded with hidden ingredients from just about everything! I am almost scared to eat. I have a new found respect for my mom who was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue disease years ago, and has been on a gluten-free diet ever since.

I can't even eat a cracker without strategically combing through the ingredients. At this point, becoming vegan or at least clean eating; might not just be an idea, but a reality. And eating out, or eating anything I didn't prepare myself, from scratch, scares me. The stomach pain I experience later is a painful reminder not to cheat at all. And the list of other symptoms leaves my head spinning. I am hoping that completely cutting out any dairy (even proteins that are put in other foods) will help allieviate things that I have suffered with for years. Having had no idea that any of it could be related to a full blown food allergy.

A severe update to my recipes will be in order...if substitutions can't be found, just gonna chuck it. Or else I will later up-chuck...ha ha ha...Ok that was bad...but accurate :-p

A Cup Of Coffee Cake

Pinterest strikes again! Though I have literally "pinned" hundreds of ideas on said site, I have yet to try alot of what I am finding. I did try a recipe however which is worth sharing! It's a cup of coffee cake, it's actually off of someone else's blog. I liked it cuz it leaves me with only one serving to eat, and it's extremely easy and quick to make (you literally make it in a coffee mug and microwave it!). Try it! **click me** ☺

Getting Organized

Finally! Tossed that busted up 3-ring binder that was literally bursting with recipes. Compiled all the recipes collected from the internet or magazines, and found them a new home! Took me quite awhile to organize the chaos, but its all done! All cataloged into things like "main dishes" "desserts" "breads" and so on....

Annnnd...it's already full ;-) Guess I should of gotten a bigger binder ☺

Happy eating ☺

Halloween Goodies ☻

I went searching for a Halloween recipe and I came across these!! I had to do a lil' substituting with the fingernails, (pecans instead of almonds) but they came out just as creepy!

Hope everyone has a hApPy hAlLoWeEn!! ☻

Nothing Like Homemade

Fresh out of my mom's garden was a bunch of tomatoes...what to do with so 'em...?? I made homemade salsa, was a first...and I must say, very yummy! ☺

Someones In The Kitchen...

Some of you have heard some of the rumors going around about my cooking. I've really been into trying new recipes and all sorts of different foods for the past few months. Having willing guinea pigs has helped boost my confidence in the kitchen. As well as trying to introduce my taste buds to some new things. One awesome lil' helper is allrecipes.com. Whenever I wanna try something new I simply search on there, and with all the emails they send me about new recipes, I am never at a loss for something new to cook. The fact that I can go through my emails and pick and choose what I think might be good and add them to my online recipe box is simply fantastic! Full of comments and helpful tidbits of information from other kitchen do-gooders really helps too. I am simply in love with that site.

I also recently acquired, thanks to Aunt Karen (aka Santa), the new 'Best New England Recipes' Book from Yankee Magazine. Full of 150+ recipes, its the 75th anniversary collection of the best New England recipes...already having tried two recipes so far, I can't wait to try more! The meatloaf and yankee pot roast recipes were delish! It has everything from breakfast to desserts. After 'borrowing' Beepa's original copy, it was decided I needed my own copy, hehe, leaving me to finally return Beepa's back to her. ☺

I started such a collection of printed out recipes that I now have an entire 3 ring binder full of great go-to recipes. I am willing to try most anything now. I have conquered over bread too, which I was mighty proud of, since yeast used to intimidate me.

The real challenge has been making most everything I make lactose and gluten-free. Though I have surprisingly had little trouble with it. Just trying to watch what goes in, and substituting soy milk and gluten-free flour whenever possible.

Cooking and baking has, for one reason or another, become much more fun for me. Not to mention its just healthier, less sodium and preservatives and all that jazz. I can't wait to taste what I get to cook next. ☺

Christmas Yummys

We are doing a cookie swap this year on Christmas..and I chose wedding cake cookies (made gluten-free)...they are soooo addicting, just ask everyone that has tried one (it's pretty near impossible to keep it to just one) ;-) ♥

Christmas Cookies ♥

This year us girls went over to help Beepa make her famous Christmas Cookies. We cranked up the Christmas music and began...

(Cortney helping Kathy keep count of how many cups of flour she had measured so far.) We made two batches and had two 'cookie makin' stations'...Kathy was designated to one...
...and I to another...

"I'm ready to go in the oven."
Cookie rotatin' ☺

Toby was a great lil' helper, he stayed outta the way for the most part and we never had to sweep anything up that we dropped. He is my own personal vacuum. ☺
"Now I'm ready for frosting..and a lil' sprinkles."
Our 'frosting and sprinkle station'...
We tricked Dad into coming over under false pretences...a certain someone said something sprung a leak and we needed him over asap! So he of course came over promptly with his tools...
...he wasn't too impressed when he realized we only tried to get him over to help frost the cookies (something he always tried to get out of doing as a kid.) Needless to say, he soon ran away with his tools in hand, hehe.
...Cort was left to frost most of the cookies, since the rest of us were busy making more for her to frost. ☺
We covered the surface of every counter with cookies...yup there is more on the other side of the sink...
...and the oven...

...also made gluten-free cookies this year...

cookies, cookies, everywhere ☺

Yum!

What's Better Than Banana Bread?

Banana Bread In A Jar!!

Just happened upon this recipe for banana bread and figured I would put some of my mother's numerous collection of pickle jars, to good use. Very simple and they came out great! Not to mention they look super cute.☺

Gettin' Domesticated

Today I tried my hand at making some homemade bread. Besides having two completely different looking loaves it came out tastin' fantastic. Definitely gonna make that again! ☺

....and take two: a week later I tried to make this same bread again. This time allowing the yeast to 'bloom' longer. It was able to rise much more and came out even better, and with less funny shapes. I think I got it down now. ☺

Happy Easter

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!!

(cresent rolls, made from scratch for easter)