Saturday at the Carnegie

Saturday was a very big event for us. We were at the Carnegie Library in downtown Newnan, Ga. presenting our story and giving tips for gluten-free baking and cooking. The photos are courtesy of Katie Brady who was an incredible hostess for this event.

We certainly appreciate the Newnan Carnegie Library Foundation and Katie Brady who invited us to speak and present our gluten-free tips, and also serve some of our baked goodies to the attendees. We had about fifty who came out on a beautiful Saturday morning to hear us speak and I must say, the audience was so attentive and encouraging. We felt we were really helping those who are struggling to provide a gluten-free lifestyle in a world that is obsessed with wheat!

They provided encouragement and also some very good tips, too. I think it is amazing how much you can learn from a group of like-minded people.

We told everyone about our story and how we came to this point--blogging, authoring a book, and trying to keep things going with busy lives, careers and families.

We showed them the flours and ingredients we use and gave them tips that included, keep positive, how to turn your mistakes into something good--like croutons from a failed bread recipe, and making a trifle from a cake that fell. We also demonstrated how mixing wasn't such a bad thing and gave away one of the mixes we created.

 After we spoke, we invited everyone to try our our goodies and the brownies were the crowd favorite. The Lemon Blueberry Cake which was my favorite, and a very close second with the crowd.

Later, we had a book signing (here I am making change from my purse!).

I can only say how welcomed we felt and appreciate so much the Newnan Carnegie Foundation, Katie Brady, Carol Zoeller, Carolyn Sears, and Anita Headley. They helped us so much. We are definitely fans of the Newnan Carnegie. Thanks so much!

Saturday, speaking at the Carnegie

We can't wait until Saturday! My daughter, Amelia and I will be there to speak at the Carnegie in Newnan, Ga., about our journey. Why we wrote a gluten-free cookbook. What we've learned and how we have grown from the experience.

I can't wait to answer questions and talk about how it is to go gluten-free in a wheat-obsessed world.

It begins at 10:30 am, and will be followed by a book signing. I hope to see you there!

Ardenne Farms giveaway.

Gluten-free mixes just aren't as good, right? They are gritty and don't taste as well, right?

(Birthday cupcakes with football baking cups. My decorating isn't quite on par with my artist mother's).

Well, you just haven't tried the right brand of mix - and I have the right brand for you to try. Ardenne Farm. Honestly, these mixes are so good that you might want to try them even if you don't eat gluten-free. You won't be able to tell the difference - and they really are THAT yummy!

I know I have spoken about these mixes before - last time I told you about the chocolate chip cookies.  And, yes, they were fabulous. This time I made the cupcakes. Oh wow! There is no better cake mix out there - gluten-free or not.

I could tell as they were coming out of the oven that they'd be great. 

Does this look gritty to you? I was told by some nice ladies with Ardenne Farm that they mill their own flours so that they are ground finely. And it was obviously true from how light and fluffy these cupcakes turned out.

And now for the giveaway! How would you like to try this delicious-looking muffin mix?

In the comments below, tell me your favorite gluten-free summertime guilty pleasure, and we will enter you in a drawing for this Ardenne Farm Cinnmon Crunch Muffin Mix so you can see for yourself how great these products taste!

We will pick the winner on Thursday at 7:00 pm and announce it on Friday, 

Gluten-free Peachie pie

While coming up with a gluten-free peach cobbler recipe, my mom decided to fold the dough over some peachy goodness and stick it in the oven to see how it worked. The dough turned out to be a little hard to maneuver than she liked, but the end result was delicious!

If you want to try it for yourself, here is the recipe and her "how-to." If you come up with a better way to form the pockets, please let us know!

Peachie Pie Fold-overs

Working with dough can be hard, but working with gluten-free dough takes a little more patience. We used plastic wrap to roll out the pieces and chilled the dough to help make the gluten-free dough more workable.

3/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup glutinous rice flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar
(+ at least 1/4 cup extra potato starch or corn starch for rolling out dough)
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cups milk (Add 1/3 cup and then a tablespoon at a time until dough is workable. All of the milk may not be used.) (Buttermilk or almond milk may be substituted.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup potato starch, glutinous rice flour, sorghum flour, baking powder, 1 tablespoon corn starch, xanthan gum, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender. Add 1/3 cup of the milk and mix. Slowly add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until dough is workable. Chill for 1/2 hour. While dough is chilling, cook the filling. Remove from the refrigerator and cut into 8 equal pieces. On a sheet of plastic wrap place on the counter, add a little of the potato starch (or corn starch). Take one of the 8 dough pieces and pat it until it is thin. Transfer onto cookie sheet. Put a heaping tablespoon of the cooked peach filling into the center of the pressed-out dough. Fold it over and use a fork dipped into the potato or corn starch and press edges down. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until pies become browned. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the baking sheet. Allow to cool. Makes 8 servings.

Filling

Potato starch or tapioca starch can be substituted for the corn starch. Fresh peaches sprinkled with ascorbic acid can be used instead of the frozen ones. The ascorbic acid is used so that the peaches don't turn brown. It is optional.

1 16-ounce package frozen peaches with ascorbic acid
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch

Pour frozen peaches into a saucepan and allow to partially thaw. Cut into bite-size chunks. Add sugar and corn starch and stir to mix. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture cooks and thickens. Filling is ready to put into the dough shells. Makes enough to fill 8 pies.

And the winner is ...

according to our random number generator--Lauren Brown!!!

We will your your prize to you, an i heart keenwah bag and three packages of i heart keenwah treats. They will be coming to you via snail mail. Enjoy!

BYA Meeting Tonight

Scott McMahan will be the featured speaker at the Backyard Association tonight at 7:00 pm at the Coweta Extension Office. He"ll be presenting “Garden Greats from Garden*Hood.” 

Scott is owner of McMahan‟s Nursery in Clermont, Georgia and the “Garden* Hood” in the old Grant Park section of Atlanta. He will spice up his interesting plant presentation with tales of plant rescues in faraway lands. Hope to see you there.

Also, don't forget to leave a comment for the giveaway this week! i heart keenwah is a great product.

I heart a giveaway!!

This week, thanks to i heart keenwah, we will be giving away three great quinoa snacks plus an adorable bag covered with even more adorable "keenwah" hearts. i heart keenwah has developed a healthy and nutritious snack that is gluten-free with all the health benefits of quinoa--an ancient grain that's more nutritious than most of the grains usually substituted for wheat.

This product is a great snack food that will hold you between meals without being filled with empty calories. It's delicious, crispy, chewy and has a simple ingredients list that you actually can pronounce! How refreshing! Our 8-year-old likes it, too. That is quite an endorsement.

We will be giving away a Cranberry Cashew, a Chocolate Sea Salt and a Ginger Peanut package of treats plus a handy bag.

Check out their website to learn more about their story and their delicious treats.

Then leave the comment, "I want to try i love keenwah!" We will announce the winner on Saturday.

Gluten-free Lemon Blueberry Cake

Nothing says summer like blueberries, so I decided to post the first recipe from our summer cookbook (coming out soon). As the title suggests, it is lemon blueberry cake. I decided to make a gluten-free version of this cake after seeing a picture of the wheat version on Pinterest. It turned out really well, and we found out something else. My father, who has never like lemon desserts, really liked this cake. We figure that what he doesn't like is imitation lemon flavor, but this is full of fresh lemony goodness (and cream cheese frosting - that always helps).

Gluten-Free Lemon Blueberry Cake

1 cup sweet (glutinous) rice flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup corn starch (or tapioca starch if you can't do corn)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 3 lemons
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries (not frozen)

Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and mix with a wire whisk. In your mixer or with a hand mixer, blend the vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. Add the lemons and zest. Slowly add the flour mixture. Stir in the blueberries with a spoon. Bake at 350 in two 9 inch cake pans 25-30 minutes until the edges are brown. Cool. Remove from pans and allow them to cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
1 (one-pund ) box confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream

In a mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add vanilla flavoring and mix. Slowly add confectioners' sugar until blended. Add small amounts of cream until the frosting is creamy, but not too thin. Cover cake in thin layer to contain any crumbs, then spread on the rest.