Family Camp!

It's family camp time again! I'm looking forward to hanging out with the nephews, enjoying the breezy weather, and maybe even collecting a few acorns. ;) Right now we're gathering our stuff together and preparing food. Since we are only coming for the daytime stuff, we're making our own food which will be fun. The list of snack jobs currently includes an apple pie and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (both regular and gluten free). Aimee and I are starting on those right now. Super yummy!

I hope to be back next week with some cute stories, great pictures, and a lot of acorns. ;)

Soap Factory

I pulled out my glycerin soap making supplies, and soon Em and Blue got in on the fun. They are having a ton of fun melting and mixing and experimenting with colors. ; ) Fun buddies.

Like Em's turtle?

These are some of the better things I made. I recently got white glycerin soap for the first time, so some of my projects this time were experiments with it. I LOVE the way the shells turned out.

Mom encouraged me to make some sparkly green bars to represent ocean water. I think they make a nice backdrop, and once I replace the paper plate with something a little prettier it will be just perfect. ; )

Next, I hope to make some peanut butter cookies, and after that we are going to a get-together this evening (which might have something to do with why I'm crafting for the first time in forever). ; )

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Next time you want to take an undercover gluten-free dessert to an event try this recipe. And if you aren't trying to be super healthy, substitute the chocolate chips with M&M's. Oh, heavenly! Just be warned that if you want a picture of them, you'd better take it right away. They sell out quickly! ; ) (I'm a living example.)

What is one recipe that you've found that never fails to please?

Gluten-Free Shortbread

I've been experimenting with using coconut flour for gluten-free, nut-free baking. My first project (that turned out surprisingly very nicely!) was a batch of miniature cupcakes.

This success, leftover cream from someone's birthday ice cream, and an abundance of frozen strawberries led me to want to experiment more. I decided I would make us gluten-free, nut-free, coconut flour shortbread with whipped cream and strawberry sauce for toppings. (That's a mouthful to say and to eat!) I would make it for breakfast. It would be awesome. I took this recipe but made sure to read the comments and eventually decided (after a couple of tests) that it needed extra butter and an egg. But some people said two eggs and some said one. And was I supposed to sift my coconut flour? It didn't say. So...RESEARCH! It was fun. And crazy. If at first you don't succeed, Google again. I found a great article about coconut flour in general, egg ratios, and sifting. Hooray! It's already hard in the first place to find an alternative flour shortbread recipe that takes just coconut flour and no expensive-as-ground-gold almond flour. If you find one it takes honey or maple syrup. Bummer! We were all out of alternative sweeteners, so I'd have to use refined sugar. People have filled the internet up with tricks for switching from cane sugar to honey but never vice versa. Except this article. Hooray again! (I just read the tips part, so I can't recommend the whole article.) Anyway, it turned out very yummy and successful; and I'll share my version of the recipe in a minute here.

I'm pretty happy with this alternative flour thing, but a couple words of advice before you get started. 1. Follow the measurements exactly. Coconut flour is a wild animal. 2. Make sure your flour is finely ground. Each of these recipes failed when I used a coarser flour (or the wrong one). 3. Coconut four and almond flour bought in bulk can be the same texture, color, and even weight. Careful, this is an expensive mistake to make since they act totally differently so there's no salvaging your recipe. ; ) 4. When in doubt--RESEARCH!

Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies
You will need:
6 TBS coconut flour, sifted
5 TBS melted butter, cooled
1 egg
2 TBS sugar
1 1/2 tsp. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients until not lumpy. (Coconut flour can be weird!) Roll balls and arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet. Smash with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before removing from sheet. Serve with strawberry sauce and whipped cream.

And if you like videos... 

My younger sister Pearl made one of how to make it!

And whipped cream...

And strawberry sauce! (Yes, those are my clumsy hands.) ; )

Enjoy!

King Tut, Chicken Feed, and Editing

A lot of cool things have happened this year. (This year as in the last week, because that’s all there has been.) I mean, there’s been cheesecake, funny moments, new schedules, etc. What’s not awesome about that? ; )

I’m grateful for…

Cheesecake. I made my very first cheesecake ever, and it was so much fun! I got to smash graham crackers, get my hands all yummy messy pressing them into the world’s coolest pan, snitch a little occasionally, taste my cream cheese mixture to see if it was just right, and peak at the gorgeous creation (well, it didn’t turn out perfect looking, but I could see deeper) sitting in our refrigerator. And then we ate it. So yummy. So yummy. So yu---you get the point. But you still need a picture...

And also I thought it was really cool how the graham crackers in the pan looked like a bucket of chicken feed. Don’t you think so?

Our new Bible reading plan. It’s a chronological approach to reading the Bible through in a year; and it’s only five days a week, so if we get behind there are a couple days to catch up. It’s been really great how our family has been all on the same page, so to speak, so we can discuss our reading together. I haven’t read the book of Mark very well since I tend to prefer Matthew and John, but our schedule has opened my eyes to some of the treasures in there. For example, when the demon possessed man whom Jesus had healed wanted to come with Him, Jesus wouldn’t let him and said this instead, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” (Mark 5:19b) Words to me too!

School. I finished up all my textbooks last year, but I have a bit of science and history to do now that our school year has started again. It’s been really fun to study alongside my siblings especially when my brother says “scientific attitude” in the Lobster Bisque voice during our discussion group or we research extra information on King Tut (because our books are over twenty years old, and we wanted to know the current research) or the Foucault pendulum. There are some pretty fascinating things to know out there! I also love how God-honoring our science textbook is. No evolutionary fairy tales to deal with there!

Editing. Since I don’t have that much school to do and since I counted and I have five to seven works I want to publish and since I’m a flake about editing and jump to the creative writing first, I’ve been editing. I don’t really set New Year’s goals or resolutions, but if I did that would probably be one—discipline yourself, Katie, and edit. I’ve started a sort of rewards system for myself. If I edit for half an hour, I am entitled to up to one free hour of creative writing. ; ) I’ve only done this four times this week, but I’ve seen the results and love it! The creative writing doesn’t always go for very long (depends a lot on when dinner happens), but I’m happy to get some editing done. ; )

Our littlest student. She can read almost perfectly, and she’s not even the age I started learning at! When we read the Bible aloud during family devotions, she amazes us all. ; ) She’s still learning the spelling side of things, but I thought I’d share this picture of her adorable school sheet.

A short story. I was on Amazon (I do that often) looking through Rebekah Morris’ sale on her books when I saw her short story “At the Christmas Lodge”. Oh, nice, something new to read. Only a buck. Kindle. It’ll be here in two minutes. I’ll buy it. It was awesome! Very cute and Christmas-y. I highly suggest you go check it out if you’re looking for a nice, quick read. ; )

FroYo and FroCo. Yeah, I’m a nerd. Those stand for frozen yogurt and frozen coconut in case you were wondering. (I think I made the second one up, so you were most definitely wondering.) We’ve been trying to go low-carb, gluten-free, almost Paleo just because it’s better for my sister’s T1D and everyone else in the family’s possibility of getting it. We haven’t been doing the best at eating this way, but when we do her glucose numbers are awesomely regular. I’m the breakfast cook in the family, and it’s been interesting to try to switch my brain over from the sugar-y wheat bombs to something actually nutritious that still tastes pleasing. There are only so many options for breakfast food, so we’ve been trying to think creatively. (Sweet potatoes for breakfast, anyone?) Hence my frozen stuff. We have smoothies planned for this week and since we’re trying to stay away from milk and bananas (my usual staples in the smoothie world) I’ve decided to experiment with yogurt cubes and coconut milk cubes. They are just the coolest frozen! I’ll let you all know how they taste in blueberry smoothies and chocolate peanut butter smoothies. ; )

Nephews. Even though we haven’t gotten to see them in a little while, it’s been awesome to hear stories about them. The other day, for instance, Chap walks up to his mom and says, “Kungun needs chlokit.” (Kungun is how he says his name.) Isn’t that so funny?!! We love our “happy boys” as Aimee calls them. ; )

So that’s what my week has been like. How about you?

And I can’t get over that “chicken feed bucket”. ; )

Baking with Absolutely Nothing

We've had a wild weekend, so today is a catch-up day and a birthday celebration all in one. ;) I'll tell you all about it later, so for now I leave you with this adventure from a few weeks ago...

It all started when I decided I should try to bake something out of absolutely nothing. Well, not quite nothing. Just no eggs, no butter (or at least hardly any to speak of), no whipping cream, and no baking chocolate. I spent over an hour searching the internet for recipes that had the keywords “eggless”, “lemon”, and “cream cheese”. (It’s pretty rare for us to have cream cheese. The only reason we did was because I forgot we had some and didn’t use it on our bagels.) ; )

If you’re eggless you’re supposedly vegan, and they don’t use cream cheese. If you are using cream cheese, you’re probably going to make cheese cake; and you definitely need cream. And if you want to switch over from lemon to something with chocolate, you of course need baking chocolate.

For once, the internet had nothing. Nothing for my unique circumstances, that is. I did find a few recipes to save for later when we finally grocery shopped and it was the proper time between sweets again.

So I got very daring. I decided to make something up.

Cutting my precious loaf of cream cheese in half, just in case one of my experiments turned out super disgusting, I made a lemony-spready-thingy out of part of it. It didn’t turn out the bestest ever (baking gives me lapses in grammar); but what I did with the other half of the cream cheese turned out pretty amazing. Which is nothing short of a miracle, since I had nothing to go on; and I have a reputation of being a walking kitchen disaster.

Taking the other half of the cream cheese, I whipped it up in the blender with some powdered sugar, milk, and cocoa powder. (No baking chocolate!) It turned out really chocolate-y, and cream cheese-y, and lapses-in-grammar-y with just the perfect hint of sweetness. And my taste testers had very positive things to say. So far so good.

Then I got really creative. I’ve recently been drooling over a book on mini pies, so I immediately decided that this pudding stuff wouldn’t stay pudding stuff. I had been fortunate enough to find a few pie crust recipes that didn’t take oil (I was searching sour cream ones before I found out that the tub we had in the frig was two months out of code); but I also was advised by dear Mom that that wouldn’t be the right thing for the filling I had made. Think, think, think. No graham crackers. We buy those about as often as Shemitah and the blood moons line up.

We had some Nutter Butter cookies in the pantry which I decided would have to do, and I gleefully smashed them up with a rolling pin. Taking the half stick of butter left in the house (it wasn’t enough for anything else anyway), I mixed it with the cookie crumbs and a bit of powdered sugar into a gooey, icky-looking dough.

Don’t laugh, but I greased three spaces of our twelve count muffin tin (that’s all I could make!) and pressed the crust into it. After it had baked in the oven for a while, I took it out and was surprised to find that the crust had risen and completely filled up the muffin spaces. So much for filling. I really should have looked up how to do this. Doing the only thing possible, I smashed the middle of each down with a spoon while it was still hot and left them to cool until I felt I could take them out without breaking them.

They broke a little when I took them out; but that pleased the taste testers (who thought this part tasted good as well), and I was able to paste most of it back together with the filling. Carefully spooning in the filling so that the walls of cookie would not crumble, I admired my work and asked for a bit of Dad and Mom’s chocolate syrup for their coffee to drizzle on top. Now it looked like something real; not just crazy Kate’s unnamed experiment that might turn out to be a real treat or the new atom bomb.

I put it in the refrigerator until we ate it the next day. There was only three, remember? Perfect number for our family to divide up. Everyone ended up with an allotted piece, and the taste tasters were satisfied again. (There were even offers to buy the pieces that belonged to people who couldn’t eat them yet.) I was surprised, delighted, and blessed. I’ve ruined so many real recipes before (or at least almost ruined them) that who could have guessed a complete experiment would turn out so well?

I really enjoyed baking this dessert out of absolutely nothing (or almost nothing, anyway) and really enjoyed eating it. Next time, I’ll use all the cream cheese, more Nutter Butters, and possibly a mini muffin tin so the “recipe” stretches farther. And I’ll look up parbaking or whatever it’s called. ; )

Now, what do I do with that lemon frosting stuff? Hmm…

And isn’t amazing how God can orchestrate something as small as forgetting to use the cream cheese so that I had it later when I wanted to bake something?

Cupcakes or Muffins?

These delicious things are something of a cross between a cupcake and a muffin. I could truly call them muffins before one of my awesome friends ruined it all by mentioning that she liked to add chocolate chips to her muffins. And I could truly call them cupcakes if it weren't for the fact that they were so healthy besides the chocolate. Truly quite the conundrum. Add to that that I just realized I have a major addiction to adding chocolate chips to everything and almost every recipe I've posted here includes them. Sigh. ; )

Pumpkin Muffin-Cupcake-Yummy-Things

2 ¼ C honey

6 eggs
5 C whole wheat flour
1 ½ C melted coconut oil
¾ C cold water
3 C pumpkin
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. nutmeg
¾ tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. baking soda
2 ¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. cloves
2 C mini semi-sweet chocolate chips*                                                             

Mix all ingredients together beating after each addition.  Pour ¼ cup of batter into each muffin cup. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Enjoy! Makes approximately 40 muffins.

*Supposedly optional, but whoever said that must be partial to muffins.

Just for fun... what one dessert do you think would be disgusting if you added or removed chocolate?

Celebration in Chocolate

When my family and I were invited to a birthday party for someone from our new church, I was elected to make the dessert we were to bring. I was already planning on making these fantastic cookies but also wanted to try something new and celebrate the fact that we had chocolate chips again. (A whole month without them--torture!)

My brother-in-law's passing comment that he liked shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate gave me my idea.

Here's how I made them...

You will need:
1 1/4 unbleached all-purpose flour
3 TBS white sugar
8 TBS (or one stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter and knead until you have a nice dough. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick on a floured cutting board. Use a one inch cookie cutter (I just used a small jar) to cut the cookies out and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25 minutes. (Be sure to watch them!)

Set the cookies aside to cool completely and melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Line a pie plate with waxed paper. Dip the cooled cookies halfway into the chocolate and lay them on the pie plate to cool. I kept mine in the refrigerator until it was time to arrange them.

And most importantly--enjoy!


Makes approx. 34 cookies

Renewed

Before we moved to the Northwest, someone who had been here before told us, "You see more shades of green than you ever knew existed." He was right. I am so thankful that I can look out our dining room windows on a lush, awakened world. For some strange reason I always expect the scene I am looking at to be like a flat picture; but instead I am pleased to find the 3d essence of the pine trees, and somehow I feel as if it is more real than it actually is. Sounds weird, I know, but I'm thankful for it and so many other things besides.

I'm thankful for...

• The family of God. Last Sunday, we gathered together for a church picnic and the crowd of forty people was drawn together closer than ever.
• The hilarious, insightful, and memorable devotional one of the men from our church led. It involved inflating balloons. One of my best friends and I were sitting near him when he popped one. You can imagine our reactions. 'Nuf said. : )
• The fact that my mocha brownie mess-up wasn't so much of a mess-up, but instead it just became mocha cake.
• Our window air-conditioners. They have done such an amazing job that we hardly noticed when the temperature hit 100 degrees one day.
• Ripening apples! They are so red that it is delightful to look at them.
• The e-book our oldest sister gifted us with. It's Firmament: In His Image by J. Grace Pennington. It's her best book yet, and sooo interesting!
• Stories. I'm officially working on one right now, but the others are begging me to give them some more thought. (Mara, here I come!)
• Bananas and chocolate chips. (Get the recipe from my post last November called "Banana?")
• The power of prayer. What was lost has now been found!
• My brother's latest board game creation—the settling game! We read about Settlers of Catan and decided to make our own version (at least for now). : ) It truly is a lot of fun. He won with about 10,000 more people than I had.
• Our terrific thunderstorm!!!! It was probably the third one we've had in six years and the best so far! It was so close that we could hear the crackle and pop in the thunder and watch the lightning split the sky! Brings back fond memories of Southwest electrical storms. : )
• The other great thing about the storm was the rain! We've needed it so badly, and now everything is greatly renewed.
• The big picnic this Saturday! There are lots of people I am looking forward to seeing including my pen-pal whom I've only seen two times in the last year. : )
• Music! Lord willing our family will be singing a song at the picnic. So fun!
• Deviled eggs. Imagine our delight and surprise over a double-yolk deviled egg! My youngest sister was cooking with me, and she was pretty cute rolling eggs to peel them.
• The animated short Burn.E. Uh, yeah, it isn't high literature, but now every time I hear "The Ode to Joy" I hum it just like he does. : )
• A clean house for the Axis and Allies party and weekend visitors.
• Giving my littlest sister a lesson in military time. My watch battery is about five years old so it's stuck in that mode plus it's running eight minutes late. She's still managing to keep track of the time though and looking forward to the coming of our guests! : )
• Old sheet music. I was organizing all the music inside our piano bench, and it struck me how blessed we are to have 3 years worth of chorale music. : )
• Letters and emails to answer! It's been so much fun to get to know these special people.
• The way that the bright red pencil I am using matches my bright red, picnic themed stationery.
• God giving me a clear philosophy of beauty at 10 o'clock at night.
• Family music practice. : )
• The funny thing that happens if you compare my relatives to movie stars/characters. Audrey Hepburn and Captain America are the parents of Charlie Brown and Russell (from Up). My brother is Gregory Peck and my older sister is Keisha Castle-Hughes (from The Nativity Story). Wow, that's fun! Maybe I'm Dori (from Finding Nemo). : )
• God, Who has loved us just as we are; but is not content to leave us that way. Instead He is renewing us day by day and conforming us to the image of His Son.

The Cookie of the Century

The best thing about these cookies is that they taste so good--almost like a Reese's peanut butter cup. The other best thing about them is that they are versatile. Make it with chocolate chips, and you have the recipe that has become our ultimate favorite cookie. Make it without chocolate, criss-cross it with a fork, sprinkle sugar on top and you have the recipe that kept Dad company during his early years of sermon writing. And another best thing about them is that they are a crowd-pleaser.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

You will need:

Butter, softened                      ½ C                 1 C                  1 ½ C

Peanut butter                          ½ C                 1 C                  1 ½ C

Sugar                                     ½ C                 1 C                  1 ½ C

Brown sugar, packed             ½ C                 1 C                  1 ½ C

Baking soda                           ½ tsp.              1 tsp.               1 ½ tsp.

Baking powder                       ½ tsp.              1 tsp.               1 ½ tsp.

Eggs                                       1                      2                      3

Vanilla                                    ½ tsp.              1 tsp.               1 ½ tsp.

Flour, all purpose                    1 ¼ C              2 ½ C              3 ¾ C

Chocolate chips to taste

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the two sugars, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. (Skip the chocolate chips if you are making plain peanut butter cookies.)

If necessary, cover and chill dough until it is easy to handle. Shape into 1" balls. Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7-9 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Enjoy!

Banana?

Sometimes there are phenomenons. And sometimes they are food.

 

Banana Cake

1/2 C melted butter

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 C mashed bananas (approx. 3)

1/2 C milk

2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Chocolate chips to taste*

 

Beat together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Bake in a lightly greased and floured 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.

 

~From Set for Life by Merrill and Sunderland

 

*This tastes really yummy with chocolate chips, but we recently discovered another fantastic way to eat it...

 

Chocolate Peanut-Butter Frosting

16 teaspoons milk (5 TBS and 1 teaspoon)

2/3 C peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 C powdered sugar

16 teaspoons cocoa (5 TBS and 1 teaspoon)

 

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add the liquid to the powdered sugar and cocoa. Mix well until it is of a spreading consistency. (You may need to add some milk). Ice cooled cake and cut to serve.

 

~From Recipes from Home: The Eldon Shetler Family Cookbook, recipe by Janet Ewing

 

Enjoy this cake every leap year!