Festive Jello Parfaits, Layer One

More proof that I am turning into my Grandmother.

Traditional Stuffing

Some of you like to make turkey for Christmas, and I'm not mad at you. I always make a Christmas ham, myself, but if you can stand 2 turkeys in a 4 week period, I will not pass judgment upon thee.

I found a wonderful pre-packaged Gluten Free traditional sage stuffing from a company called Smart Treat, a GF, Dairy Free, Vegan line of products I found in Whole Foods. When I saw that the package was seasoned with just sage and salt, I knew I had to doctor it up. But it was delicious, no one at Thanksgiving knew it was Gluten Free, and even though there were three stuffing options, the entire tray of this stuffing was GONE by the end of the meal. Please note that you should use at least triple the amount of liquid that they call for on the bag, or else the stuffing will be too dry.

Great job, Smart Treat! I'm looking forward to trying more of your products!


Traditional Stuffing

1 bag Gluten Free stuffing mix
3 stalks celery, thinly chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning (GF!)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1-2 cups veggie or chicken broth, heated
1-2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the butter or olive oil at medium high heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion and celery, sauteeing for about 15 minutes, or until the veggies are super soft. Add the dried spices and mix well. Pour the bag of stuffing mix into a large bowl. Add the softened veggies and herbs and mix well with the dried mix. Add 1-2 cups of broth to your mix, 1/2 a cup at a time, until you get the desired consistency you like in a stuffing. Use a fork to fluff the stuffing, put in a casserole pan, and heat for 25 minutes, or until nicely brown on the top.

Christmas Cookies Part 2: Mississippi Muddies

The tree is up, the stockings are up, the poinsettias are up, the cookies are baking.

Make these Mississippi Muddies NOW. Your family will love you more if you do. If you use the ingredients I tell you to use, no one will know these are Gluten Free. It's our little Christmas secret.

Mississippi Muddies

2 sticks butter, softened to room temp
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs at room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups GF Baking Flour Mix (use Bette's Featherlight Flour Blend, please)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
2/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 tablespoons milk as needed for wetness

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. In medium bowl, combine GF flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, and sift in the cocoa powder. Whisk dry ingredients until evenly blended. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, adding milk by the tablespoon if more wetness is needed. Mix in the chocolate and white chocolate chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets, or use your cookie scooper. Don't have a cookie scooper yet? What's wrong with you? Put it on your Christmas list!

Bake 9 minutes, let cool slightly before placing on wire racks to cool.

Kevin Gillespie: My Top Chef

OK, Kidlins, SPOILER ALERT BELOW, so if you haven't watched last night's Top Chef yet, then NAVIGATE AWAY FROM THIS PAGE RIGHT NOW (and then get your butt right back here once you've watched it).

Even though he didn't take home the victory last night, Kevin Gillespie is officially my favorite Top Chef contestant. Not only is he a Southerner who's mad for bacon (two fantastic qualities to have), he believes in cooking and serving only locally-grown, fresh, sustainable, organic food, and I'm not mad at him for making the extra effort. I had the opportunity to eat at Woodfire Grill, his restaurant in the ATL. I recommend you go to there.

At every turn, the staff were very accommodating of my Gluten Free requirements, which makes Woodfire and K-Gill earn the "Gluten Free Anna Effort Award." Lest you think this is some bullshit award with no clout, you stand corrected. The GF Anna Effort Award committee has very high standards, and donates one hundred billion million gluten free dollars to each recipient.

Next trip to the ATL, I'm going back to Woodfire and the Greek Market across the street, where I stocked up on Greek Crack. I'm sad that both Top Chef and my trip to the ATL had to come to an end.

Dr. Oz Celiac Show

A big, huge THANKS to Erin at Gluten Free Fun for letting us know that Dr. Oz is gonna have Ms. Hasslebeck on tomorrow 12/10/09 to discuss Celiac and eating Gluten Free.

Here's the promo video. So dramatic, Dr. Oz!

Loves me some Dr. Oz.

Christmas Cookies, Part 1: Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars

Fellow mom and kick-ass lady JoAnn Neil and I share a lot of recipes. That amazing Polenta Casserole was an adaptation of her orzo recipe. We like to discuss food. Who doesn't? JoAnn is also an amazing mensch and writer, having written for the Examiner for quite sometime now, but I'm more excited about her newest venture Daily Cup of Jo. A smart person would add it to their blogroll. I'm just sayin...

I made these Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars, and I gave a good many of them JoAnn (and her family) as a thank you for taking my child for the day. I received a call from her in hushed tones saying they were so good, she hid them from the rest of the family and ate them all by herself.

That's what I call a testimonial.

Make these and give them to friends...but save a few for yourself. As you can see above, they didn't even last long enough to take a picture of the cut cookies.

Adapted and made Gluten Free by ME from a Martha Stewart recipe. Note that the shortbread crust dough could also work for any shortbread cookie or spritz cookie recipe.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars

FOR THE CRUST

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for parchment
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose GF baking flour mix (I use Bette's Featherlight Blend)
• 3/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
  
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 3 tablespoons milk, or more to moisten crust as needed
  

FOR THE CHOCOLATE CARAMEL

• 10 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon sea salt, preferably fleur de sel

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Make the crust: Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides; butter parchment, excluding overhang. Beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add GF flour, xanthan gum and table salt, and beat until just combined. Add in milk by tablespoons as needed to moisten dough.
3. Press dough evenly into pan, and bake until lightly browned, about 25 minutes.
4. Make the chocolate caramel: Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, washing sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming, until amber, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from heat. Add butter, cream, and table salt. Bring to a boil, stirring until smooth. Pour over chocolate. Let stand for 2 minutes. Stir to combine, and let stand until cool, about 10 minutes.
5. Pour mixture over crust. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight. Run a knife around edges; lift parchment to remove whole bar from pan. Sprinkle with sea salt, and cut into bars.

Happy Birfday, Jandresia!!!!

My BF Jenny is sassy and cute. If you don't know her, you should hop on over to My Favorite And My Best and spend some quality time with her, where you'll see she's got an eye for design and tongue like a sailor. She's also a million billion other wonderful things that I'll save for words between the two of us.

I've known her since we were young things. We never had to look for trouble, cause it would always find us. We never had a bad time either. We didn't know how.

We still don't.

These days, we're wives and moms, with lives and responsibilities and fuss and hubbub. But we still share wishes and dreams that we shared years ago. We'll always be the same two girls who will find a way to make the other one laugh, no matter what. Jenny is what's known as a True Friend.

I love you, Dearest MoneyPenny, more'n my luggage. I hope this birthday is your best one yet.

Bricks and Scones on Larchmont

Thanks to the fabulous menschie maven Julie Wolfson for passing this bit of info and pic along...

Bricks and Scones on Larchmont gets the "Gluten Free Anna Effort Award" this week. What does this award mean? Well, the shout out is obvious. They are a bakery serving a GF option. Yay. But it also means that I will be stalking your establishment, Bricks and Scones, looking to eat the Gluten Free Goodies pictured above when I'm next down on Larchmont. These look yummy.

I wants to eats them.