Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

Wow!  Just wow!  These little delights are amazing, and the cream cheese frosting is absolutely irresistible!  Try it - you won't be disappointed.  :)

Ingredients:

Muffins:
3 eggs

1 C sugar (I used 1/4 C maple syrup, 1/4 C honey, and 1/4 C sugar)

2/3 C pumpkin puree

3/4 C gluten free brown rice flour

1/2 t baking power

1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t pumpkin pie spice
dash salt

Frosting:
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 C powered sugar
6 T butter, softened
2 t vanilla

 Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.
Beat eggs & sugar together. Add pumpkin, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice.
Pour into muffin cups. Bake 13 to 15 minutes. Cool.
Whip together cream cheese frosting. Spread onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with additional pumpkin pie spice if desired.

I took the muffins outside to get some better light as our kitchen is quite dark.  It was supposed to be a brilliant idea, but... 

...I was not happy when the cat took a bite out of the muffin I was trying to photograph... :)

Pots De Creme

 

(Pronounced "po duh krehm")

Jonnie calls them "cocoa cream".  :)

Mama bought me the Pioneer Woman Cookbook for my birthday earlier this year and I can't tell you how many amazing recipes we've used from it already. I would most definitely recommend that you buy it if you don't already own it. 

I made this recipe for the first time just a week ago and it was such a success that I made it again tonight.  I hope that you enjoy it just as much as we did!  :)  It's pure, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth (literally!), goodness. :)

Ingredients:

12 ounces, weight Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
4 whole Eggs, Room Temperature
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 pinch Salt
8 ounces, fluid Strong Hot Coffee

Directions:

First thing to do is to take your eggs out of the refrigerator ahead of time and let them come to room temperature before starting.

When eggs are at room temperature you can begin by placing the chocolate chips into a blender. Follow this with the eggs and the vanilla.  Add a pinch of salt. Turn on the blender.

While it is blending, remove the circular disk from the blender lid and very slowly pour in 8 ounces of strong, VERY HOT coffee. It is essential that your coffee be extremely hot in order for the final product to be the right consistency and texture.

Blend for a minute or so until mixture is smooth and fairly free of visible bits of chocolate.

Pour the mixture into your serving glasses or little demitasse cups, leaving plenty of room to add a heap of whipped cream later.

Place in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours so the mixture has a chance to set.

Garnish with whipped cream and maybe a chocolate curl or two and you have an easy, delicious and yes, elegant, dessert!



 

Cajun Style Blackened Snapper

OK, this is a seriously incredibly amazing recipe. :) Papa told me that this was the best fish he'd ever had.

I was digging through the freezer last week and came across snapper fillets. How on earth am I supposed to cook snapper!?! I went to allrecipes.com and found this delicious, though very spicy, recipe. It was specially requested again this week. I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.

One side note: 
THIS IS A WARNING 
DO NOT cook this fish in the house, unless you have a very powerful vent!!!  I tried it my first time and there was white smoke billowing up to the ceiling and out the door.  My family (who were all outside at the time) congregated outside the back door with frightened faces.  :)  I removed quickly to the stove top on our grill and had no further problems. :)

I served this meal with a big salad and homemade cream of chicken soup with rice to "cool" the heat of the fish. Enjoy!

Cajun Style Blackened Snapper

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

4 (6 ounce) fillets red snapper

1 1/2 cups butter, melted

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together paprika, cayenne pepper, white pepper, black pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, and oregano.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat for 10 minutes, or until extremely hot.
Dip fish into melted butter, and sprinkle each fillet generously with the seasoning mixture. Place the fish fillets in the hot skillet. Pour 1 tablespoon of butter over each fillet. Cook until the coating on the underside of the fillet turns black, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn the fish over. Pour another tablespoon of butter over the fish, and cook for 2 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups chicken stock, divide
1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 pinch ground allspice
1 pinch ground paprika
1 cup milk

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Place 1 tablespoon of chicken stock in a saucepan over medium-low heat, and cook and stir the onion and garlic in the broth until they are softened, about 3 minutes. Pour in the rest of the broth and 1/2 cup of milk, and whisk in the salt, black pepper, parsley, lemon pepper seasoning, allspice, and paprika. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and allow to simmer for 1 to 2 minutes.

Whisk flour into the stock mixture in the pan, alternating with milk until smooth. Keep whisking continuously to avoid lumps until the soup comes almost to a boil and thickens.
Enjoy!
I'm grateful for amazing brothers who are so kind to clean up my cooking messes. :)  Special thanks to the dish-washers!  That job doesn't get enough credit. :)

Chia Pudding

I just discovered this recipe the other day on a food blog that Mama and I have been looking at.  I knew that we had chia seeds and coconut milk, and it sounded interesting, so I tried it out today.  Oh. My. Goodness. (!!!)  This is incredible stuff! We didn't have vanilla beans, so I left them out.   I didn't really care for the plain version, so I added maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cocoa to make a delightful chocolate pudding.  We haven't eaten it yet, but I've been "snacking" out of the bowl and can barely wait for the rest of my family to taste it!  If you end up making it, please let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut or almond milk or yogurt
1-2 tablespoons chia seed
Vanilla bean and a pinch of salt (optional)

Directions:
Shake 1 cup coconut milk with chia seed in a jar with a tight lid.  Make sure you leave room in the jar for the seeds to swell.  Allow the mixture to sit for at least 30 minutes for the chia to swell completely.  Add toppings of your choice!

ENJOY!

Buckwheat Gingersnap Cookies

Brooke Noble posted this amazingly delicious recipe on her blog earlier this year. Since then, it has become a family favorite.  I made another batch of these cookies today and wanted to share the recipe with y'all.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir together the first 6 ingredients. Combine the remaining ingredients and beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating well (the dough will be pretty wet).

Form into 1-inch balls and roll in granulated sugar.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 9 to 10 minutes, until nice and “cracked” on the top. :)

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

(Brookie, I think of you every time I make these cookies! :)

Turkey Wild Rice Soup



A dear, sweet neighbor lady gave us some wild rice and turkey, so I made this delicious, creamy soup.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 C uncooked wild rice

4 C water

3/4 C butter

1/2 C finely chopped onion
1/2 C finely chopped celery (I didn't use any)
2/3 C flour
8 C turkey broth (I used chicken broth)
2/3 C shredded carrot
4 C chopped cooked turkey
1 tsp kosher salt or to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper or to taste
1/2 C chopped slivered almonds
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 C half-and-half cream


Directions:


Bring the wild rice and water to a boil in a saucepan.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer until the rice is tender but not mushy, 40-45 minutes.  Drain off any excess liquid, fluff the rice with a fork, and cook uncovered 5 minutes more.  Set the cooked rice aside.


Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat.  Cook and stir the onion and celery until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the flour and cook until it turns a pale yellowish-brown color, 3-5 minutes.  Gradually whisk in the turkey stock until no lumps of flour remain.  Stir in the carrot.  Bring the mixture to a simmer, and cook, whisking constantly, until the stock is thick and smooth and the carrot is tender, about 2 more minutes. 


Stir in the wild rice, turkey, salt, pepper, and almonds.  Return to a simmer and cook 2 more minutes to heat the ingredients.  Stir in the lemon juice and half-and-half.  Bring the soup almost to a boil, and serve hot.


ENJOY!

Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls

Every Christmas morning, we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We place them in the shape of a cross with three candles across.  Then we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and the younger boys blow out the candles. 
This is by far our favorite recipe.  We've used it for a couple of years now and it's a great hit!  It yields 24 rolls, so, to my brothers' great disappointment (they love leftovers! :), we are going to 1/2 the recipe from now on.  :)
I like to make these the day before and refrigerate them overnight.  I let them finish rising in the morning and then bake them.  This makes everything less crazy on Christmas morning.  :)


Ingredients:

Dough:

1 C milk
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 C water
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 C white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 C flour (Last time I made this recipe, I used 1/3 wheat flour and they turned out amazing!)

Filling:

3 tsp ground cinnamon
2 C dark brown sugar
1/2 C butter, softened

Topping:

2 C confectioners' sugar

1 (3 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp milk

Directions: (I've made some slight changes from the original recipe and added in my own comments.)

Warm the milk in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, until it bubbles, then remove from heat.  mix in the butter and stir until melted.  Add the water and let cool until lukewarm.

In a large bowl (I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook) combine the milk mixture, yeast, white sugar, salt, eggs, and 2 C flour.  Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 C at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (the mixer does most of this for me!).

Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece into a 12x9 inch rectangle (I usually make it larger). In a bowl, mix the cinnamon and brown sugar.  Spread each piece with half of the butter and half of the cinnamon/brown sugar mixture.  (I mix all three ingredients together and dot the dough with the mixture.)  Roll up the dough, using a little water to seal the seam. 

Cut each roll into 12 slices using dental floss or a very sharp knife (I find that a sharp serrated knife works best.).  Place rolls into two well greased 9x13 baking pans.  Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about one hour.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. 

To make frosting; mix the confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla.  Add milk gradually until frosting reaches spreading consistency.  Spread over warm (but not hot) cinnamon rolls.  Be generous!  :)

ENJOY!

I made the smile and Elijah took care of the nose!  :-) 

Sorry the color is so funny.  They looked much better in real life. 

And...the finished product.

Raspberry Cherry Pie

I made this pie at Mama's special request for her birthday yesterday.  I've never made a cherry pie before and was really nervous about how it would turn out.  Everyone really enjoyed it, though, so I thought that I'd share the recipe.

Ingredients:

Crust: (This is my favorite crust, but feel free to use your own recipe.)

3 C flour
1 C (2 sticks) butter
6-8 Tbsp very cold ice water

Filling: 

1 1/2 C sugar
3 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca
2 C fresh raspberries, or thawed frozen unsweetened raspberries
1 C fresh, frozen or canned pitted tart red cherries
1 tsp lemon juice

(Below are the measurements that I used.  I have a large, deep pie plate and this filled it just to the top.)
2 C sugar
6 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca
2 C fresh raspberries
2 15 oz cans pitted tart red cherries, drained
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

For crust:

Mix together flour and butter with pastry blender (I prefer to use my hands) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Mix in the water until the dough forms a ball.  Do not work with the dough more than needed.  Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

For the filling:

While the crust is refrigerating, in a bowl combine sugar and tapioca.  Add the raspberries, cherries and lemon juice.  Toss to coat.  Let stand for 15-20 minutes. 

Remove crust from refrigerator.  Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1/2 of the dough to fit into a 9 inch pie plate.  Trim the crust even with the edge.  Spoon the filling into the crust.  Dot with butter.  Roll out the remaining dough to fit the top of pie. Make decorative cutouts if desired.  I used cookie cutters for this pie.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.  Store in the refrigerator.

ENJOY! 

The Best Healthy Cake in the World!

Ingredients:


Cake:


1 (15 oz) can black beans (rinsed and drained)
3 eggs
1/4 C butter
1/2 C maple syrup or agave
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
a couple pinches of salt
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp instant coffee
1/2 C pecans
2 tsp baking powder


Frosting:


2 ripe avocados
1/2 C maple syrup or agave
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp instant coffee


Directions:


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Place the first eight ingredients in a food processor. Set to high and puree until smooth (about 2-3 minutes).


Add in the pecans and baking powder. Set the food processor to low. Pulse until the nuts are cut into pea sized bits and the baking powder is mixed throughout.


Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper (or grease it). Fill the pan with cake batter and place it on the middle rack of preheated oven.  Bake for 33 minutes.


While cake is cooking:


Wash your food processor. You're going to need it again!


Scoop out the flesh of the avocado and place it along with the rest of the ingredients in the food processor.


Process on high until the icing is smooth and thick (about 2-3 minutes).


Cover and refrigerate until the cake is cooled and then spread over the top.


Allow the cake to cool completely in the refrigerator for two hours or more. Otherwise you will have a very crumbly cake! :)


I find that the cake is much better and more enjoyable to eat if it is refrigerated overnight.


ENJOY!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

 1/2 cup water
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 3/4 cup white sugar
18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
6 eggs

 Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.

 2.   In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside. 

 3.   Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer. 

 4.   Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.

5.   Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan. 

 6.   Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.

  
   I made this cake for our "free day" (the day that we get to eat sweets!) It is SOOOOO rich and SOOOOO good.  We topped it with homemade whipped cream and fresh raspberries - DELICIOUS!   

   Do any of you remember the "flourless cookie" that I made and how badly it turned out?  Well, here is a flourless recipe that actually does work out...plus, it's a chocolate lover's dream...OK, that might be an overstatement but the fact is that this cake is simply THE BEST!
 
   If any of you decide to make this cake, be sure to share it with someone, (or a whole group of people!) because if you don't, well, you might be tempted to eat the whole thing all by yourself!

My "Kitchen Blunder"

  

 Today I had one of those "baking mistakes" or "kitchen blunders" in the process of making a batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.  It was the first time that I'd made that particular recipe and it was copied off of the computer (hand written, not printed).  Unfortunately, one of the key ingredients, the flour, had been left out of the handwritten copy (I won't tell you who did that!).  I thought that the batter looked kind of funny but I figured that it might be a "special" cookie recipe, a flourless cookie - just like there are flourless cakes!  I knew that I'd followed the recipe very closely (emphasis on the word VERY) and I double and triple checked. Still I could find no place that I had skipped an ingredient.  Finally, I decided to pop the cookies in the oven despite my doubts.  When I checked them a few minutes later, they were FLAT, completely and utterly FLAT!  At that time, I knew that I had done something wrong. Instead of adding 2 cups of flour like the original recipe called for, I had put in NO flour at all!  Mama came to my rescue and found the original recipe, gave me the proper measurement and I was somehow able to salvage the cookies.
    I didn't think that they were that great, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them, so, if you're a chocolate lover, you might, just might, want to try this recipe. Be sure to add the flour and you'll have a rich chocolate treat!


Ingredients


1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)



Directions


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).


In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.


Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.