Great find

Oh how sad it has been making cookies, cakes, and other glorious desserts for my lovely husband and our friends... every single one of the desserts laden full of, yes you know it, gluten. More often than not I get myself into trouble and eat a spoonful of those desserts... just a taste of cookie dough, a spoonful of brownie batter, a piece of cookie fresh out of the oven. I pay for those uncontrollable moments later but I feel so deprived!

Looking into baking g-free is daunting. You have to use 3 different flours, weigh them, sift them, ect... all and all not worth all the effort it would take. And a lot of the time it just doesn't turn out.. there is something said for al-purpose flour! So I have just stuck with pudding and ice cream here lately.

Here is Candace thinking how much she just wants a cookie..like a normal person

Enter Betty Crocker Gluten Free Baking Mixes and their g-free recipes!

So wonderful - I made g-free sugar cookies on Friday night! Glorious cookie heaven in my mouth...the angles were singing, my taste buds were dancing... it was great to taste a cookie again without feeling like I was going to die later! I made gluten free sugar cookies with thier yellow cake mix (g-free)... they were great! I added 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar to the mix to make them more snicker-doodle in nature and they were AMAZING!

So Happy FACE!

The new gluten-free girl...that's me!

So...after much pain and suffering for weeks and months I have discovered my gluten allergy..intolerance...or maybe celiacs. (I'm too cheap to go get tested and I'm not willing to put gluten back into my system) I would feel so sick after eating - full bloated - pain in someone just touching my abdomen - what was wrong with me? I would feel like I ate three thanksgiving dinners after eating a 1/4 cup of oatmeal or a 6in. Subway sandwich. So I called the person I knew who would be able to diagnose me... Mindy! My wonderful, fun, beautiful, all-knowing, grandmother (I just can't call her a grandma because she is Mindy - not your average grandmother :) Who promptly told me I needed to exclude gluten from my diet - test it out and see how I feel in a month. So with much sadness I cut out gluten... after figuring out exactly what gluten is.

Gluten (from Latin gluten "glue") is a protein composite in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley andrye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.

"Helping people get super duper sick...well people like me"

So the weeks and months have gone by without me having a single piece of bread, pizza, sandwich, ect. It's been tough but I have to say I do not miss that sick feeling! Lately I have been pretty bad at being gluten free- almost like I want to prove that I can have some. Let's just say it's not a good idea - my body makes me pay for my stunt later normally within a couple hours and sometimes days afterward.

After an incident this past week of a tongue swelling, throat closing, severe stomach pain (I partook in Michaels birthday cake and a lick of banana bread batter...to be blogged about soon) I have decided that I am going G-free...no more stupid mistakes. After learning more about being gluten free and what gluten does to your body if you are intolerant of it I am actually hurting my body when I eat gluten...causing my body to attack itself. Gluten is everywhere...unexpected places like bacon bits, vinegars, salad dressings... So It's a learning experience.

Welcome into the world of Gluten Free Candace! I'm making my statement, making it real, I'm going G-Free!

This is a great website for those who are interested in cooking gluten free (like myself) and maybe those of you who will have me over for dessert or dinner :) *wink*

Gluten Free Girl

So here begins my journey of being a G-Free girl.

Birthday Weekend

Birthdays are a pretty big deal in my book - it's your day, your week, heck your month! :) At least, that is how I feel about my birthday. So I try to pass that birthday spirit to others! So in honor of Michaels birthday we took a trip to Washington D.C.! Nothing like the one waystreets, stressful traffic, and parallel parking to celebrate ones birthday. haha But in-between theturning on the wrong roads and taking 30 minutes to get back to wherewe started we had a wonderful time exploring D.C.Our first stop was on Friday night where we walked around the National Mall, ate a yummy Texas BBQ dinner, and watched the sun go down by the Jefferson Memorial. Here are some pretty pictures of our 1st day.

Saturday we enjoy a Starbucks breakfast... of course mine had to be gluten free so I had a Kind Bar and a venti iced coffee with skim milk while I watched Michael enjoy a beautiful blueberry muffin and a breakfast sandwich. Oh to eat gluten! On to the zoo - where we drove around for a good while trying to find parking. Nothing like a "free" (paid for with our tax dollars) zoo! We love zoos so we loved walking around looking at all the animals - I think I was a lioness in instead of a puppy... that is reasonable right?

After the zoo we ate at a Mediterranean place - DELICIOUS!! My top two places I want to go for my food experiences are Greece and Paris - what wonderful food those Europeans eat! I got a chicken kabob greek salad.

Finally our last stop was the National Mall again where we stopped in the American History Museum. IF you have never gone there...GO! It's amazing, enlightening, heart-breaking(the war museum is extremely interesting but heart wrenching) , interesting, and just plain fun! We actually stopped in the gift shop this time...thankfully we were not bamboozled in buying anything but we had a great time playing with all the pop-up books!

(We were lost quite a bit...darn one way streets!)

On our way back home we stopped at Moo-Thu. You MUST go here if you are on 29 near D.C. It's homemade ice-cream from the dairy farms around the shop. AMAZING ice cream - I had banana and cinnamon and Michael had cinnamon and butter pecan. I love ice cream and this was a great find!

Find out more here: Moo Thru

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (Not Gluten Free) :(

Here it is... Michaels 23rd birthday cake! I have to say I love his birthday not only because I get to celebrate the amazing man he is to me but also because I get to try my hand at creating a new cake! Cakes are only for special occasions in our home so it's exciting when this time rolls around again. After thinking of different and fun cakes to make (last year it was Chocolate Cake with Oreo Cookie Cream Cheese Icing)

This year it's THIS! Doesn't it look like chocolate goodness, heaven in a chocolate cake, give me death by chocolate! Not going to life this taste like all of the above and more. So if you have a chocolate lover in your life or maybe you are the chocolate lover - try this cake!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake with Glossy Chocolate Icing

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 cups hot water
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glossy chocolate Icing

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the center.

2 Spray two 8" round cake pans with nonstick spray.

3 Whisk dry cake ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

4 Combine water, oil, vinegar, instant coffee granules, and vanilla in a large measuring cup.

5 Add to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined- a few lumps are ok.

6 Divide batter between the two pans (about 3 cups each), then bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (35- 40 min).

7 Cool cakes for 15 minutes on a rack, then invert them onto the rack.

8 Leave upside down until completely cooled before frosting them.

9 To make icing, melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat.

10 Stir in sugar, cocoa, and salt- the mixture will be thick/grainy.

11 Combine cream, sour cream and coffee granules in a large measuring cup, mixing until smooth.

12 Gradually add cream mixture to chocolate until blended and smooth.

13 Cook until sugar has dissolved, and mixture is smooth and hot to the touch.

14 DO NOT BOIL.

15 Take mixture off the heat, and add vanilla.

16 Cool at room temperature until spreadable (up to three hours).

17 If it isn't getting thick enough to be spreadable, put in the refrigerator until thick enough to spread.

18 If it gets too thick to spread easily, warm gently in the microwave until it's just right (20 seconds or so, repeat if necessary).

19 Stir well, and ice cake, frosting first layer, then placing second layer on top, and icing the top and then the sides.

It's the little things...