Apple Butter Cupcakes

 I had pinned a recipe for apple butter cupcakes awhile back.  I've been dying to try them for about a week- they've just been on my mind.  When I went to look up the pin, that blog had been deleted.  Sadness.  They had caramel frosting and some kind of filling and I really wanted them.  But I made these instead and if the smell coming out of my oven is any indication, they're going to be fabulous.  It's based off this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ( I used King Arthur gluten free flour)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (if you're making this gluten free)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup apple butter
• 3/4 cup milk ( I used almond)

***Cream Cheese Frosting***

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake papers. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in the apple butter until well blended. Slowly beat in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat until smooth and well blended.

Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. (I needed 25 minutes at 360 for the gluten free.)  Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely before frosting.

Makes about 18 to 20 cupcakes.

I also decided these cupcakes needed to be filled.  I got a cupcake corer for my birthday that I haven't tried out yet.  I melted a stick of butter with a cup of brown sugar and made caramel, which I used to fill the cupcakes before frosting them.

You should really make these.  Oh my.

Cottage Cheese Salad

Okay, so I had a semi-life-changing experience with cottage cheese this weekend, y'all.  I didn't really have any idea that such a thing was possible.  I don't like cottage cheese.  It's weird diet-y food that makes you feel deprived and it's usually served on a limp lettuce leaf with one sad slice of canned peach and the juice running all under.  Nasty business.

I went to visit my grandma this weekend and she made cottage cheese in a way I've never had.  She said she's always made it this way, ever since she and her mom went to Luby's for lunch one day and tried it.  And since my great-grandma Kel passed away when I was eight, it's true that she's been making it like this for oh, thirty years or so.  I am not sure why I've never seen it or heard of it.

Okay, so, ready for the complicated recipe?

Cottage Cheese
Grape Tomatoes
Green Onions
Black Olives if you like them.

THAT IS IT.

You wouldn't think a little bit of tomato and onion could transform cottage cheese into something I'd look up and suddenly realize that I'd eaten a whole pound of it.  But the fact of the matter is, I did that.  I made it this morning because I've been thinking about it since Saturday, and I've been nibbling out of the serving bowl all morning, and it is just about gone. The great thing is that it is still a diety-type food, except now it tastes good.  A pound of cottage cheese is 280 calories and has a ton of protein.  I don't even have to feel guilty that I ate it all!

I did add a bit of Mrs. Dash, and I'm thinking that chopped cucumber would be really good in it too but I didn't have any today.

It's pretty too!  I used the yellow sunburst grape tomatoes, but when I had it this weekend Grandma used the red ones and it's just as good like that.

Spaghetti Casserole

I grew up eating this recipe.  Everyone in my family likes it a lot- in fact, my mom refers to it as "Daddy's favorite".  He never, EVER complains about dinner and just eats whatever we cook, but he doesn't really like spaghetti very much.  It's one of those overused, all-we-have-in-the-house-to-eat kind of meals for him.  So when she'd say we were having spaghetti casserole, he'd get all droopy and she would have to backpedal and say no!  Not really spaghetti, it's that casserole one, the one you LIKE!

Yesterday would have been my Gram's 83rd birthday.  We lost her at 70, which still makes me sad every day.  She was such a great lady.  I decided I wanted to cook a meal that would remind me of her, and that we would talk about her at dinner and tell the kids some stories they might not have heard about her life.  I asked my mom what I should make.  The meal that reminds me MOST of her is chicken and dumplings, but I haven't perfected gluten free dumplings yet and a birthday dinner is not the time to play guinea pig with your family.  She suggested I make spaghetti casserole, because the recipe was from her.  All these years I've been eating it and I had no idea. 

So, here is Gram's (daddy's favorite) spaghetti casserole!
1 package spaghetti
1 lb ground beef
2 cans diced tomatoes
some chopped onion and/or bell pepper, whatever you like
1 small can chopped black olives (you can leave it out if you hate them.  Hubby hates them though and he's ok with them in this recipe.  They blend well.)
1 small can mushrooms
2 tsp italian seasoning
2 cups shredded cheddar (I know most italian dishes would call for mozzarella and of course you can do that if you like it better.  I like the pop of the cheddar though.)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (may need to be thinned with 1/4 cup water depending on the brand.  Just use your best judgement on whether it seems too thick and goopy.)
parmesan cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions.

Meanwhile, fry ground beef with onions and peppers.  Add tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, and seasoning and simmer about 10 minutes.

In a 13x9 pan, layer all the spaghetti on the bottom.  Then put the shredded cheese, then the meat mixture, and then spread the cream of mushroom soup over the top.  Top it off with parmesan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

It's super easy- way less work than lasagna, but tastes a lot fancier than regular spaghetti.

We served it with roasted asparagus and birthday brownies last night, and reminisced about my gram.  Fun times.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

I got this recipe a couple years back from my friend Jamie.  It makes an enormous batch of cookie dough- yes, that really does say 1/4 CUP vanilla.  It's the whole bottle.  The big one.  It's been really great for us to have- the cookies turn out well and are tasty.  I've taken them as snacks for the kids' sports team and class events and everyone munches.  Nobody notices that they're missing the gluten.  And icing always helps too!

They don't hold their shape well with cookie cutters.  I'm working on that...

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

3 c powdered sugar

2 c granulated sugar

2 c shortening

6 eggs

1 T salt

1/4 c (!) vanilla

1 c amaranth flour

2 c potato starch

2 c sweet rice flour

4 c brown rice flour

2 T xanthan gum

3 T baking powder

Preheat oven to 325  mix all dry ingredients, except salt.  Cream wet ingredients and salt.  Add flour mixture, 1/4 at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon.  Knead the ball into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate until fairly firm.  Place chilled dough on wax paper and roll out until dough is 1/8-1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters for your desired shape.  the thinner the dough, the crispier the cookie.  Bake til edges are golden brown.

Gluten Free Flour Blends

I use a bunch of different blends when I cook and bake.  Every gluten free chef creates their own.  Some I like, some I adjust.  For the most part, mine come from Jennifer Cinquepalmi and the Culinary Institute of America.  I'm going to bookmark this post and add the ingredients to the different flour mixes I talk about so you can see how to make them if you need them.  I make a big batch of each one and keep them in gallon ziplocs in the freezer.

Sorghum Flour Mix:
7 cups sweet white sorghum flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch

Savory Corn Griddle Cakes

I love pinterest.  I have a breakfast board with a ton of pins just waiting to make us happy in the mornings.  Today I made a spinoff of these bacon and corn cakes and OH MY they are so good.  I had to adjust a couple things to make them gluten free and to allow for ingredients I didn't have, et cetera blah blah, but they still turned out really well. (And I did copy most of the directions directly from that other post, so go check out the original too!)   Definitely going in our breakfast rotation.  The daycare kids didn't really like them overall, but they have no sugar.  The pancakes I normally make are pretty sweet, and when you're expecting sugar and you get corn and cayenne pepper instead, I can see how it would throw your wheels off.  I'm excited to make them on the weekend because I think hubby will like them a lot.

The maple syrup is a really necessary piece of this dish- which I normally don't like much and never use.  I keep it on hand for my family though, and since these do have no sugar, I went ahead and used it.  SO GOOD.  The combination of sweet syrupy goodness with the crunchy corn and bacon, and the spicy onion and pepper... nom nom nom....

This recipe made 12 griddle cakes- pretty big ones.  Two hungry grownups and five kids ate and I still have 3 leftover.

Ingredients:
8 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 good sized handful turkey sausage crumbles (because 2 breakfast meats is better than one)
2 cups sorghum flour mix
1 green onion, including chive parts, chopped small
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2 cup frozen, canned or fresh corn (I just used a 15 oz can)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
warm maple syrup, for serving

Directions:
1.  In a medium skillet, cook the bacon pieces until they begin to brown and crisp.  Scoop out a heaping tablespoon of the bacon mixture for topping the griddle cakes upon serving- and set it aside.  (or microwave some turkey bacon like I do!)
2. While the bacon is cooking, combine the flour, green onions, baking powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the milk, egg and oil, just until moistened. Stir in the bacon, sausage, corn and cheese. The mixture will be thick. If you'd like the griddle cakes to be slightly thinner, add a little more milk to thin out the batter.
3. Heat and grease a griddle or large skillet. Pour a heaping 1/4-cup of the batter onto the griddle and cook until it is golden brown- 3 to 4 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining batter.  (I used at least 1/2 cup of batter so they turned out huge, and then cut them in fourths to give to the kids.)
4. Serve stacks of griddle cakes topped with a sprinkle of the reserved bacon/onion and a good dose of warm maple syrup.

Squash and Corn Soup

I am growing to absolutely love butternut squash.  (still hate all the other kinds, but hey, baby steps)  My hubby really doesn't like it, but he'll eat this soup, and both my kids love it too.  Sometimes I make a double batch and then freeze the leftovers in muffin cups so I can pop them out into a gallon ziploc.  We call them soup pucks.  Two or three is perfect for a small cup of soup for lunch, a couple more for a big bowl.  It's nice to have on hand.  Yay Pinterest for that idea.

I got this recipe from a Taste of Home soup book I bought on impulse at the checkout.  It's been well worth it.  I tweaked it just a bit- it originally called for half and half but I just use milk.  And since I always use turkey bacon, I never have the drippings that it said I should cook the onion and celery with, so I use butter there.

12 strips bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 tbsp flour (I use sorghum)
1 can chicken broth (14 1/2 oz)
6 cups mashed cooked butternut squash (I never measure- just buy a good sized one and use the whole thing)
1 15 oz can creamed corn
2 cups milk
fresh parsley, salt, pepper to taste

Cook bacon and save drippings, or else microwave your bacon and melt some butter like me

Saute onion and celery til tender.  Stir in flour til blended.  Stir in broth.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or til slightly thickened.

Reduce heat to medium.  Stir in squash, corn, milk, spices, and bacon.  Cook and stir til heated through.  Top with sour cream if you want.

It's super easy and really tasty.  The most labor intensive part is the squash and that's not bad at all.  If you don't know how to cook a butternut squash, here's what you do:

Slice it longways and scoop out the seeds from each side.  Lay both pieces face down on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Cool it and then scoop out the flesh.  I usually zap it in the food processor for a bit just so it's very smooth, but you don't have to.  Just makes the soup a tiny bit chunkier if you leave it as is.