Thanksgiving Sides and Yummies

This poor little blog needs a kick in the pants for sure! Maybe we can all post some holiday Thanksgiving/ Christmas/ Hanukkah whatever type dishes? What does your family love?

This year for the daycare feast we're making:
Mashed Potatoes
Creamy Confetti Corn
Cornbread Dressing
Lime Jello Salad
Caramel Apple Cheesecake
Pineapple Casserole
Pumpkin Pudding (basically pie with no crust)

What sounds good? Want recipes?

Beach House Breakfast Lasagna

This is not my recipe at all- I always wonder if I should post things that I make if I have nothing to do with their origins. :) But I was saying on facebook how good it was and some people asked for the recipe, so I am posting it. It's Jennifer Cinquepalmi's, from her gluten free cookbook that I pink puffy heart....

• 16 thin slices bread (I used Pamela's bread mix in the bread machine, but obviously if you don't have those issues you can do this much more easily. It called for day-old bread, but mine was hot and straight from the machine and it did fine.)
• 1 lb ham, cut into bite-size pieces
• 16 slices Swiss cheese
• 16 slices American cheese (I used 10 swiss and about 15 cheddar. You just really can't go wrong with cheese though.)

Make 2 layers of these things just like you were making lasagna in a 13 x 9.

Then mix:

• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp onion salt
• 3/4 tsp dry mustard (I couldn't find mine so I put a big shot of French's in there. Yum.)

I also added a bunch of chopped onion because I am of the opinion that most everything tastes better with onion in it. But that's just me.

Pour the wet mixture all over the dry stuff and stick it in the fridge awhile, preferably overnight. In the morning, take it out and let it sit out up to 2 hours to get to room temperature, then bake for about 30 minutes at 350 till brown and bubbly.

It is very, very delicious. My kids both ate 2 plates. I will say, though, that most of the daycare kids thought it was weird. :)

Buttercream Frosting

Everyone thinks that this is my recipe and that I am fabulous for creating such greatness. But no. It is not mine. It is Betty's. Regardless, you should use it because this frosting is far superior to the stuff you buy in the store and it's super easy to make.

3 Cups powdered sugar
1/3 Cup stick butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 TBS milk

Mix sugar and butter. Add vanilla and milk, and food coloring if you like. Beat well.

Frosts a 9X13 or fills and frosts one 8 or 9 inch two layer cake.

Strawberry muffins

I found a recipe for strawberry muffins on the inside of a Stonyfield Farms yogurt container. They looked reasonably healthy and we had all of the ingredients on hand, so Gabby and I tried them out. What I liked about the recipe was that it contained whole wheat flour, not too much sugar, plain yogurt in place of the oil, but still some butter for flavor. I really liked the texture that resulted from the yogurt...the muffins were moist, but not greasy. I thought the flavor was ok but a little flat, and I also wanted to reduce the amount of white flour in the muffins. I tweaked the recipe and made them again with my adjustments, and I thought they turned out fantastic.

Now, if you are used to the storebought muffins that are practically cupcakes, these might be a bit too fibrous for your liking. But if you like a whole-grainy, less sweet muffin that is nutritious enough for breakfast and not just snacks, you will love it! Not to mention, the recipe is simple enough to throw together that it makes for a fun afternoon with a toddler who is always asking, "MOM! Can I halp yooooooooo? I wan halp!" while leaning with all their weight on the Kitchen Tower that is parked right outside the kitchen.

Here is my adjusted (perfected) recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup oat bran
3 tablespoons milled flax seed
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farms lowfat...which is where I got the recipe)
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 a stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries (blueberries are good too!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with papers or use cooking spray. Combine the first 10 ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter, and vanilla. Toss the fruit into the dry mix, then pour the yogurt mixture in and stir just until combined. Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields 12 muffins.


The changes I made:

The original recipe called for 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white flour. Instead of using the full cup of white, I used a half cup, plus a third cup of oat bran and 3 tablespoons of flaxseed. I use that ratio a lot...if something calls for 2 cups of flour, I use 1 cup of whole wheat, and the other cup is the white/oat bran/flax combo.

The original recipe did not contain salt, cinnamon, or nutmeg...those were all my additions because I thought the muffins lacked flavor. The cinnamon and nutmeg turned out to be just enough to give them some taste, but not so much to give them a "spiced" flavor. If I ever decide to sub apples or shredded carrot/zucchini for the fruit, I would up it to 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg, since I think those things would be good in a spicier muffin. Maybe throw a half teaspoon of ground cloves or allspice as well.

The original recipe contained 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda but no powder. And the muffins turned out a little on the flat side. I looked at some other tried and true muffin recipes I had, and most contained baking powder. So the second time I used a teaspoon of each and liked the results.

The original recipe just called for a cup of fruit, and I used a cup and a half. Just because I like a lot of "stuff" in my muffins.

Try 'em out, see what you think!

Fried Cheese

Interestingly (and unfortunately), we are pretty sure my husband is going to have to go gluten free as well. He's been working out of town a lot for the past eighteen months and having mysterious sicknesses between being home and going out again. He feels better now that he's home, but gets sick to his stomach when he goes out with his buddies and eats. Very suspect. We'll be getting him tested before too long, but since we already know our son has 2 copies of the gene, 1 is definitely from him... how did we get so "lucky"?

Anyway. He has different cravings and must-haves in the way of what we GOTTA find that tastes good gluten free. Since he's been home, he's been experimenting with our fryer. I almost never drag it out because it's a bit of a pain and not so healthy, but OH MY the things he's been making lately taste so good. He watches Food Network and revamps things that look interesting to be gf for us.

HEY! FOOD NETWORK! YOU REALLY NEED A GLUTEN FREE CHEF ON YOUR CHANNEL!

Our latest favorite is Guy Fieri. He does Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and also Guy's Big Bite. Lots of cool recipes on both shows. And he's the spokesman for TGI Fridays now, and let me just say, that was my favorite restaurant before I went GF and it would be so fabulous for them to develop a menu I could actually eat off.

I'm taking a really long time to get to the fried cheese part, huh? Well, nobody's posted here for awhile, so take what you can get.

So. Guy Fieri makes fried cheese. Here is the recipe. We of course had to adjust it some to suit us, but that's where we started. We have been searching high and low for gluten free won ton wrappers with no luck, but we did find some Vietnamese rice paper that works pretty well, so we use that instead. Also we used GF bread crumbs. I forget what kind they were- he picked them up at Whole Foods though. And Oscar Mayer rotisserie chicken breast instead of salami.

They are crazy good. And now that I know the rice paper will work for holding stuff inside and breading, I really want to try a fried candy bar. But right now we'll stick with cheese. Equally good with marinara or ranch. mmmmm.......

Ahoy there you mateys!

Cap'n Josh and some of his first mates!
Here's the Pirate pinata we converted from a soccer ball (gotta get creative with our China resources).

Here's the cake!

I am very proud of the cake I made for Josh's birthday.

For the Pirate cake, I used one store bought chocolate cake mix, chocolate icing, and white icing colored yellow and blue. I make a 9 inch cake and a loaf cake (put most into the loaf cake) and then cut the side of the front of the cake to make the bow. I used rolos on the side for the cannons, and little dove chocolate bars on the side of the boat. You can't see it, but I used one dove bar as the plank on the other side of the cake. I used chopsticks for the sails and red card stock for the sails. I used pretzels and green airheads for the palm trees, but I would use toy ones if you have them because the airheads did not stay stiff. I would refrigerate it after it is all together to keep the frosting in tact. I had fun with the party, because we also did pirate mustaches for the boy, face designs for the girls, gave out bandanas, eye patches and earrings to the girls. Also, I make a treasure map with a bunch of "x's" on it and we hit their party treat at the end of the party.

The only snafu was Coby choking and turning blue when Josh was opening gifts. Fortunately, Jeff was able to find out he wasn't choking and then administered a couple of quick CPR breaths and he was back. As Jeff rushed him to the doctor, Josh just casually mentioned "Oh, Coby is just jealous of all my great presents". Sounds like something you would hear from a little boy whose spiritual love language is receiving gifts! Needless to say, this will be a party these 5 - 7 year olds will not quickly forget!

If you have questions on how to do it, please let me know.

Chicken Pot Pie

Oh. My. Word. I have missed you, chicken pot pie. Things with cream sauce and flaky pastry have been the hardest to recreate on my own. I finally found a couple of recipes to cobble together and the results have been fabulous. And it's GLUTEN FREE!!!! Not dairy free, but I'm sure you could change it up if you needed to. Plus, if you don't have to be gluten free, you could just get a can of whop biscuits and throw those on the top to make it even quicker.

{you know, whop biscuits? The ones in the can that you have to whop on the counter to open?}

I wish I could say I made this up, but it's pretty basically Bette Hagman's recipe from her Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods. I change it up a tiny bit, but not really enough to say it's my own recipe.

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup diced cooked chicken
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup minced onion (i always chop a whole onion. onion is our friend.)
1/2 cup frozen peas (i use a can of those lesoeur peas with mushrooms and pearl onions- it adds a nice touch.)
3 tablespoons GF mix (or flour)
2-3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

Oven at 350.

prepare chicken and set aside. In my case, that means open the can and flake it with a fork.

put the chicken stock in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil; add the carrots, celery and onions and cook for 15 minutes. Add peas and chicken and cook 5 minutes longer.

Mix the flour to a thin paste with the water. Use it to thicken stock and cook on low 1-2 minutes. Add cream and season with salt and pepper.

Pour mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish or individual ramekins (which I haven't tried but OH the cuteness!) and top with globs of biscuit dough. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

I ALWAYS double this recipe and put it in a 13x9.

Topping (gluten free):
Her recipe says to use her biscuit recipe, obviously. I don't. My mom spent her last snow day from school baking batch after batch of gf biscuits, tweaking 1/2 teaspoon here and there of various things to find the perfect recipe. I don't know what it started out as, but now it's hers and it is GOOD. So that's what I use instead.

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Oven at 375 if you're making actual biscuits with this recipe, otherwise I just throw the dough in blobs on top of the pot pie stuff and use the 350.

In food processor, blend all ingredients except milk. When everything is blended, add the milk and blend till smooth. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes to make 8-9 biscuits.

I always have to at least triple this when I make biscuits for breakfast. A double batch works nicely for a double batch of potpie filling.


My daycare baby is highly enamored of the pot pie.

Here's one serving, ready to eat.

Side view of the casserole dish as it comes out of the oven. I'm not sure if I was trying to be artsy or what- now I'm looking at it and thinking it's kind of weird.

But I guess from the top, all you can see is huge fluffy biscuits, so it's good to have a side view to show off the sauce. :)