Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #3: The Giant Sugar Cookie

I told my children this year they get to give their friends giant sugar cookies for Christmas, and that's final. I can't tell you how many years I've blown my Christmas budget because the day before the last day of school one of my children has come home with a list of 13 people they want to give something too. I made some of these Sugar Cookies with a large circle cookie cutter, about 4" in diameter, and I had great plans to decorate them up like fat Santas with red on the circle and a white beard and belt and little mini chocolate chip eyes, but when I looked through my stash of food coloring, not one drop of red existed in my three boxes of colors. So, I punted and frosted them with homemade white frosting and Wilton's sprinkles (gluten free!) and I think they're just as darling, and will transfer over from 14 year olds to 4 year olds. I handmade a little tag and wrapped it in a clear cellophane treat bag with two colors of ribbon, and I think I'm good to go on these. The nice thing is I can get 10 large cookies from one batch, so I can whip up as many friend presents as I need in an afternoon. Depending on what kind of ribbon you use and how elaborately you decorate the cookies, the cost is about $2.50 per cookie.
Here's the recipe for homemade frosting:

Homemade Frosting
1/2 stick of soft butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 T milk

Mix together until it becomes the consistency of thick frosting. If too runny, add more sugar. If too stiff, add a tsp more milk. Color with food coloring to your desired color. Frost and eat!

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #2: An Apple For The Teacher

Aaah, the Caramel Apple. Orthodontist visits aside, this is seriously one of my favorite gifts to give. Who doesn't love getting a huge tart Granny Smith apple covered in sugar? I noticed on one of my new favorite blogs, How Does She? that they had a post on Caramel Apples called Apples Dipped in Heaven a few weeks back, and I've been craving one ever since. I bought all the ingredients and just haven't had the time to make the recipe yet. I stopped by a local chocolate shop the other day, The Chocolate Covered Wagon in Sandy (don't you just love that name?), and got one of their caramel apples because I needed to give one as a thank you to someone in my neighborhood. I noticed on the bottom that all of the ingredients were gluten free, and it gave me an idea. I thought my children could give these "Apples Dipped in Heaven" to their teachers with little tags that said, "An Apple For The Teacher." My friend Aimee would seriously design something completely out of this world and include something fabulous like apple seeds or a real apple branch with it, but I just churned out simple handmade tags that look like this:
I used a 2 3/8" scallop punch with some Christmas scrapbook paper for the background and a 1 3/4" circle punch with white cardstock for the centers. Then I just wrote a little message and colored it in with some markers. (So professional.) I'm going to punch the tops and hang them both together from the apple's ribbon, like dog tags. Caramel Apple Dog Tags. It sounds like a punk band. I think they will love them! You could give these to someone who isn't a teacher and I'm sure they would eat it right up nonetheless. If you handmake these you can choose what toppings you put on your apples, but if you're purchasing them, just make sure you check the ingredients at your local caramel apple depot to make sure they're gluten free. Read: No Cookies and Creme! The cost is between $5 and $6 an apple.

Happy giving!

So Many Announcements...It Feels Like Jr. High

Remember back in the day when you'd be sitting in Utah History with Mr. Vendetti and they'd come in over the loudspeaker from the office like, four different times with announcements and you would just wonder why they couldn't have one sheet of paper taped to the counter where everyone could write the announcements and they could just interrupt you once? I feel like this post is channeling Junior High Announcement time. So many random things I need to tell you about at once.

First of all, don't forget about tomorrow's FREE gluten free cooking class at Macey's Grocery Store in Sandy (7800 South and 1300 East) at 7 p.m. where I will be unveiling for the FIRST TIME a brand new exclusive Thanksgiving recipe. If you're local, come on by, it's a good time. Did I mention we get to eat the food after?

Secondly, I am proud to announce some changes at Off the Wheaten Path. No, I don't have an assistant OR a laptop, and I haven't opened my own etsy shop, and I haven't found a cure for celiac disease, but within the next couple of days we will have a brand new look here at the blog. April Showers has been hard at work re-designing the blog and I think you'll like the new layout and features, but please feel free to let me know if there's something that doesn't work or a glaring omission, which I wouldn't put past me in my current forgetful state. (5 children in school, sports, and church will do that to a woman.) What this new design means is that I will now be able to (hopefully, if I can figure out how to do it) have space for advertising on the sidebar, so if you are a vendor or a business that wants to advertise to Off the Wheaten Path's die-hard audience, contact me via email for a special introductory ad rate. I'm really excited about this. I love to click on the little buttons on other blogs to see what people have going on, and I'm hoping to get some of my favorite products involved, too, so people can find their products more easily.

Thirdly (I know, it should be illegal to say "thirdly" ever in a sentence), next week I'm going to be doing a week of Gluten Free Christmas Gifts, which may be the most fun I've ever had with food before. So check out the posts next week to get some great ideas for the gluten free eaters in your life.

Fourthly, I'm dying to know how all of you are doing your holiday celebrations this year. I'm the type of person that loves to hear how other people do things and get ideas for ways I can improve my life. So the question is this: What is your favorite gluten free food (dessert, treat, meal, side dish, salad, anything) that you eat every single year during the holidays? What do you bring to your parents' big dinner or what do you look forward to making with your kids? My list-topper has to be Sugar Cookies. They just make the season complete for me. I love cutting the shapes and making four colors of frosting and passing out from the sugar on the couch after. Leave a comment or a link to the website with your recipe...let's see who's eating what this year!
Happy eating!

Macey's Coming Up Again

photo from Country Living
I'll be teaching another go-round of Gluten Free Cooking at the Macey's in Sandy this Thursday at 7 p.m., and there will be an EXCLUSIVE new Thanksgiving recipe from Off the Wheaten Path available that night... so make plans now to come out and attend! Classes are free and the address is 7800 South 1300 East. We have a great time in the little theater and I'm sure you might learn something new while you're there...I'm the teacher and I learn something every time!



Happy eating!

Macey'

Eleanor's Gluten Free Bakery...Magic on a Stick

Yes, you are looking at a cake pop. Much like the cake pops made by Bakerella,(not gluten free, but a great source of inspiration!) whose book I'm on my way out the door to buy because I buy cookbooks for fun. And no, this treat was NOT made by me. I have no idea what kind of elfin magic goes into these delicious bites of cake and shell of frosting, but it is worth the entire $1.39 I paid for it. Let me introduce you to my new friend, Eleanor's Bake Shop.

Eleanor's Bake Shop is run by a bakerella in her own right, Janelle, who can whip up a beautiful gluten free wedding cake five days a week and not even bat an eye. Check out the gallery on their website to see what I'm talking about. They have gluten free lunches that include Arepas, a Venezuelan Flat Bread sandwich that is so yummy. I tried the Beef Brisket Arepas and it was a great lunch, I must say. It was such a great blend of flavors. Now I'm definitely hooked. They have soups and cookies and cupcakes and muffins and all sorts of delicious gluten free stuff you can't get in a fast food restaurant. The bake shop even has a facebook page where you can see what new things they are offering or if they have any specials you need to know about. Right now they are offering special orders on holiday pies and cheesecakes for your family celebrations.

The shop is located at 9495 South 560 West in Sandy, well worth the drive if you ask me. You can order cake pops or cupcakes for any occasion on their website. I noticed today they added three new flavors for the holidays...just in time for eating season.

Happy eating!

How to Make the Perfect Gluten Free Pot Roast--Never Underestimate the Power of a Stranger

Yesterday was Sunday, and I really had a hankering for a good Sunday Roast. Lucky for me there's complete strangers out there who know how to make them! I can remember the first time I had really great roast: I was about 10 years old and an older couple in our neighborhood invited my mom and I over for dinner one Sunday after church. She presented a lovely roast, and even in my tender years I was dying to know how she made the meat taste so yummy. She said, "You just cook it in the oven and it tastes like that." Of course I didn't believe a word of it, and continued the rest of my life believing she had a secret she just couldn't bear to share with me. So a few Saturdays ago, I was perusing the meat selection at the local grocery store and happened to see another mom with a cart piled almost as high as mine, and I took the chance of being the crazy woman who talks to complete strangers in a store. "I never know what cut of meat to get for Sunday Roast," I said loudly in her direction. She smiled and asked if I wanted a tender fall-apart roast or a slicing roast. I knew I'd reeled in an expert. So here's what she taught me in the meat aisle:

1. For a tender, melt in your mouth roast, buy a rump roast. They are a little more expensive, but worth it.

2. Slice an onion and place it on the bottom of the pan and then lay the meat over the onions, so it keeps the meat from sticking to the bottom of the pan. (Genius!)

3. Mix together a can of cream of mushroom soup (I use Progresso Creamy Mushroom, only available in Utah at Smith's Grocery stores, which is now labeled gluten free on the front!) and a packet of Onion Soup Mix (I use the Western Family brand) and dump over the meat to keep it nice and moist and make a delicious no-work gravy.
4. Here's the trick that makes it all work: Cover the pan and bake the roast for 1 hour at 350 degrees, then turn the heat down to 250 degrees and bake for 5 hours.

Seriously, the lady speaks truth. And the older lady in my neighborhood also speaks truth: Just bake it in the oven and it will taste that way. This was one of the best roasts I've ever eaten. We had it when my brother in law and his two teen sons were visiting us and the whole platter was eaten and the compliments just kept on coming. So when you're in the mood for a great Sunday hunk of beef, try cooking it this way and see if you don't love it so much you could marry it.

Happy eating!