New Recipe

New recipe now posted on my other GF recipe blog.  Follow me to the new blog at http://recreatinghappiness.blogspot.com/2013/02/strawberry-muffins.html to get the new Strawberry Muffin recipe, yum!

So Here's The Deal & a Beautiful Rainbow Cake

I'm moving.  In real life and in virtual life.  My first GF blog was http://recreatinghappiness.blogspot.com/ and while it was kind of a jumbled mess I miss it.  So my plan is to totally reconstruct it and make it much easier to navigate.  I'll also copy all the recipes here to there.  So future recipes will not be posted on this site. 

All that being said, I'm moving in real life too.  We're making the move from New Mexico to Florida over the next several weeks/months.  I also homeschool my kids and I'm in the midst of preparing the year's lessons.  So until all that is settled and we're settled in our new home I won't have a chance to really attack the blog.

I am however always creating new things and I'll have some at the ready once all this other stuff falls into place! 

I'll update here once again when the new/old site is updated and ready to go and I hope you follow me over there. 

Now about this rainbow cake that the title promises you.  It's a bit of a teaser because I'm not posting the recipe right now but I just wanted to put it up here to encourage anyone who's GF, or especially those new to being gluten free, that "life" doesn't end.  You don't have to forget all the good food you had before.  You don't have to look in only GF cook books or buy only GF packaged treats.  Most things are much more easily recreated than you can imagine. 

I made this cake for my daughter's birthday last week and while it took a lot of work, it didn't really take any more work than the regular gluten version would have taken.  I changed up the recipe from Martha Stewart and used just a standard buttercream icing between layers and my mom's fluffy marshmallow icing on the top and sides per request of my daughter.

I'll post exactly how I did it once we're settled!  Until then, don't forget about me, I shall return!

Where Do I Go From Here?

Well at the moment I'm going on a beach vacation for the next 2.5 weeks so you won't  hear from me for a bit. 

I do however want to keep making and posting my new recipes.  So I'll be back!

I'd love to combine this blog with my old blog Recreating Happiness - I like the name a lot better than this one.  Anyone know how to do that?  I'm open to ideas. 

Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July - I'll be back in mid-July with some new recipes, including a whole grain pizza crust recipe I created just tonight.

Gluten Free Chocolate Studded Cherry Cobbler Recipe

Day 100!!  This is my 100th recipe because it's the best dang thing I've ever made so I had to save the best for last.  It's extremely rich and decadent.

Here it is fresh out of the oven:

And here you can see the rivers of chocolate running throughout.  Yes I said rivers of chocolate.  Makes me think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I was going to make just ordinary cobbler.  But I can't do ordinary.  Not in cooking and not in any other area of my life either.  I'm what they call "weird."  I was rummaging around my cabinets when inspiration hit.  Actually a bag of Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Cocoa Chips fell out and hit me.  Hence a star of a recipe was born:  GF chocolate cherry cobbler. 

I knew before I'd even put it together that it was going to be good.  Very very good and I was oh-so-right.  I only let it cool about 10 minutes before I had to dig in.  At first, when I tasted the chocolate chip biscuit topping I thought it was going to be the star of the show.  The filling would be an after-thought and I'd be left wishing I had more biscuit when it was gone.  Then I dug into the filling which had rivers of melted chocolate throughout and I fell in love.  Both the biscuit and the filling are stars of the show.  And they don't fight for first place and get us all confused like one of those big movies with 10 million known celebrities "starring" in it.  No, they work together in perfect harmony.  The crusty sweetness of the biscuit, the juicy slightly tart filling...it all comes together into the best relationship you've witnessed in ages.

Gluten Free Peach Blueberry Pie Recipe

Day 99:  Whoops, I almost ate the last piece of pie before taking a picture of it!  That's how good it is though - it makes me forget things, lol. 

I actually originally intended this to be just a peach pie.  I got all excited when I saw "the peach guy" selling peaches on the side of the road like he does every year.  It's like my unofficial start to summer and the kids and I look forward to the ginormous amount of peaches we buy every summer.  So we saw the peach guy, bought a big basket of them, and started to make our wish list of things to make.  First up was peach pie. 

I got to work making the crust then went on to make the peach pie filling only to discover after about my 2nd or 3rd peach that most of them weren't quite ripe yet.  Hmmm....now what?  Thankfully blueberries were on sale this week ($1.50 for a big container!) and I'd practically bought out the store.  So I dumped in a bunch of blueberries.  Honestly it came out so well that I think I might always make my peach pie a peach-blueberry pie instead. 

Gluten Free Salsa Chicken Cornbread Casserole Recipe

Day 98:  Sometimes it's hard to find a good gluten free casserole but I've brought you a solution.  I know you can make your own "cream of" soups but I'd rather just avoid those recipes all together.  Once you take all those casseroles off your list you're left with mostly noodle casseroles.  The GF noodles do ok but let's face it, they're never all that good just a day or two later.  So I came up with the perfect solution that also happens to be relatively healthy and certainly much healthier (and tastier) than any "cream of" casserole.

I put some of my most favorite things together and threw it into the oven.  This dish is totally suitable for potlucks and the like.  No one will miss the gluten because really the only thing that is converted to GF is the cornbread topping and cornbread is easy to make "secretly" GF. 

There's a very light sweetness in this dish from the creamed corn plus a nice little zing from the salsa and chili powder.  In retrospect next time the only thing I'll change is adding some roasted green chiles because I'm in New Mexico and that's just what one does.  I just totally forgot my mind for a moment while I was preparing this and forgot to add them! 

Gluten Free Spiced Peach Pancakes Recipe

Day 97:  It's officially summer and that means it's also officially peach season!  yay!  So I decided to start the summer solstice off right with a peachy breakfast.  This is an adaptation of my GF pancake recipe and while I know I'm biased I think they turned out fabulous.  We've been nibbling on the leftovers all day.

The "secret" ingredient here is the fresh ginger.  It really makes a difference in this dish so definitely put the extra effort in to get fresh ginger.  It's super easy to use:  just peel with a vegetable peeler and then grate it into the pancake mix.  Use leftover ginger in other dishes to add some zing; I particularly like it in my evening tea.