10-Cup Cookies (aka "Kitchen Sink Cookies")

A good subtitle for these cookies would be "cookies your husband will hate" because my husband doesn't like coconut, pecans, or raisins in his cookies.  He does like all the other ingredients.  The picture with this recipe looked very yummy and I do like all these things, so I decided to make them and bring most of them to Women's Bible Study last night.  This recipe only has 1 cup of regular flour, and usually cookie recipes with only a small amount of flour are easily turned into GF recipes...so because of the oatmeal and peanut butter in this recipe, I knew that they would be yummy GF.  That has not been the case with every recipe I've tried to adapt, but I've learned.  And these turned out very yummy.

They call these "10-Cup Cookies" because there are 10 cups' worth of ingredients...but I've seen other recipes that call similar cookies "Kitchen Sink Cookies" because you put everything in there but the kitchen sink.  When I took them last night, I labeled them as "Kitchen Sink" because that seemed more self-explanatory than "10-Cup."  This recipe is from the America's Best Recipes: Comfort Food cookbook.

10-Cup or Kitchen Sink Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup flour (regular or GF)
1 cup quick oats
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars (either in stand mixer or with hand mixer...or I suppose by hand if you are rugged).  Add eggs, one at a time.  Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl and then add to creamed mixture.  Stir in pecans, coconut, raisins, and chocolate chips.

Drop dough by level spoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets (or stones).

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden.  Remove to wire racks to cool.

Look how yummy:

So, these cookies do have shortening in them.  I left it that way, because dairy is another enemy of mine.  But if you have no problem with dairy, you could try these with butter instead, although I think the dough might have to be refrigerated a bit to keep the cookies from spreading.  And I think you might have to turn the oven up to 375 so the butter gets yummy and browned in the dough.  Or, just try it at 350 and see.  I also had leftover coconut and pecans from other recipes, so I didn't have to buy them for this.  But it could easily become an expensive recipe if you tried to buy all the things for this.  I'm sure you could just throw in other ingredients that you already have to keep from buying too much. 

Even my nut-hating children loved these.  I think there are so many flavors going on that taste so good together, they couldn't pick out the one thing they didn't like.  My husband ate one, too.  He didn't say much.  He would never choose these for cookies, but hey, it is a cookie.  Most of the ones I brought to Bible study did get eaten, and AUNDRA said that she ate one and it was good.  High praise from a gluten lover ;)

Chicken Cutlets with Pecan Sauce

If there's one thing I love, it's pecans.  I like them in desserts, in salads, or, in this case, toasted in butter and on top of chicken.  Plus, I am always looking for recipes that are yummy and easily adapted to be GF.  For this one, I will give you the whole recipe (for gluten lovers ha), but for my GF adaptation...I just left out the flour and the step that said "dredge in flour."  And it was still super yummy.  This one is from the cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas, America's Best Recipes: Comfort Food.  In the picture, they serve this with one of those vegetable blends that have zucchini in them...but that is not comfort food to me and mine.  That could actually incite a rebellion.  So we had these with good old green beans from a can.  There's something about them that we just love.  And we had rice, too, with some of the sauce drizzled on top.  Yumm-o.

The picture doesn't look as yummy as it was.  But it was good.

Chicken Cutlets with Pecan Sauce
½ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup butter, divided
4 chicken cutlets (about 1 1/4 lbs)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp olive oil
½ cup chicken broth
1 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp dried thyme

Heat pecans and 2 tbsp butter in large nonstick skillet over med heat, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until nuts are toasted and fragrant.  Remove from skillet.

Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper.  Dredge in flour.

Cook chicken in hot oil in skillet over medium heat 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown and cooked through.  Transfer to a serving platter and top with pecans; keep warm.

Add chicken broth to skillet and cook 2 minutes, stirring to loosen brown bits.  Add brown sugar and thyme, and cook 3-4 minutes or until sugar is melted and sauce is slightly thickened.  Add in remaining 2 tbsp butter and heat until melted and combined.  Serve sauce over chicken.

While not everyone enjoyed the pecans, and flicked them off to the side, everyone did like the chicken.  Which I figured would happen, because I have one kid that likes pecans as much as I do, and then everyone else that lives here could take them or leave them or flick them.  But this was still a successful recipe, and we'll have it again, I'm sure.  The only thing that would have made this meal more "comforting," at least to our family, is to have it with mashed potatoes instead of rice...next time.....

Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup

I made this the same day I made the 24-layer cake and the St Patrick's day punch.  I wanted a crock pot recipe for that day, because I knew the afternoon was going to be a flurry of activity.  So I threw this together in the morning, and we ate it while we were getting things ready to host home fellowship at our house.  I do not love having it here.  But sometimes I have to.  And it's better to see our friends and have me be uncomfortable for a few hours than it is to cancel and not see them at all (this is what I repeat to myself in the days and hours leading up to the event hahahahaha).  Seriously though when I grow up I want to be one of those people that loves having a house full of people.  That is just not me.  I like having people over, but one family at a time.  I prefer controlled chaos rather than outright crazy screaming chaos.  But that's just me.  Anyway it went MUCH better than our Christmas party did, where I wanted to hide in the bathroom.  So that's progress....

A few months ago my dear friend (who said she WANTS to be named in my blog) AUNDRA gave me a recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup, but made on the stovetop.  We did like that one and it was very good.  So when I saw this recipe in Simple & Delicious I knew we would like it.  Plus, crock pot.  When I've made stuffed peppers in the past, people don't really want the peppers, I've found...they just eat the filling.  And that is a lot of work to just have to throw them away.  So this recipe is a great way to get the experience of a stuffed pepper without the heartache.

One mistake I made here is that this recipe calls for one of those pouches of Uncle Ben's ready to serve rice.  But I buy big bags of rice from Sam's Club, so why do I want to buy 2 extra cups of rice for this recipe?  I didn't.  So I made the rice while I was browning the hamburger, then put it in the crockpot.  It kept right on soaking up water, even though it was already cooked.  So the result was more like a stew than a soup.  But it still tasted good.  Looks funny though.  You'll see.

Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 med onion, chopped
2 med green peppers, chopped
1 pkg (8.8 oz) ready-to-serve brown rice
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 carton (32 oz) beef broth

In a large skillet, cook and crumble beef with the onion over medium heat until no longer pink, 5-7 minutes.  Drain.  Transfer to crock pot.  Stir in remaining ingredients.

Cook covered, on low, until flavors are blended, 5-6 hours.

Freeze cooled soup in freezer containers.  To use, partially thaw in fridge overnight.  Heat through in saucepan, adding a little broth or water if necessary.

Haha see what I mean?  It tasted really good though.  And my friend who was over even took a picture of the recipe so she could make it herself.  I warned her about the rice.

This was a great recipe, and I owe it all to Aundra.  Oh, and it's naturally gluten free and dairy free too (just double check the label on the broth you buy...Swanson is GF). Everybody loves that.  Even Aundra.

St Patrick's Day Punch

I should have posted this sooner.  But I've been busy.  Nobody's going to make this until next year (if at all) but I'm going to post it anyway.  We had home fellowship at our house on Friday, which was actual St Paddy's day...because making a 24-layer cake wasn't enough work for ourselves.  But I saw this in Simple & Delicious and figured "now or never."  Once I make a decision I am pretty stubborn about changing it.  So even though they didn't have just green sherbet at Hannaford and I had to buy 3-colored sherbet, that's what I did.  Also because it was so busy, I didn't take a picture of the punch, just these cute cups that people could drink it out of, designed by my friend's daughter.

St Patrick's Day Punch
1 qt lime sherbet, softened
1/2 cup limeade concentrate, thawed
2 tbsp sugar (I left this out, because come on now...why do we need more sugar in this??)
24 oz chilled Sprite
1-2 cups ice, crushed

Combine all ingredients and serve. 

I made this in the blender, because I threw ice cubes in the blender first, then threw everything else in.  It had a lovely light green color.  One of the cute kiddos asked me to make more.  So that's a good sign, but I didn't make more, even though I had enough ingredients to.  Because that's too much sugar, you crazy kids.

Chocolate Little Layer Cake

Back in January, one of my dear besties tagged me in a Food Network video of a 24-layer cake, and asked if I would make it for her birthday.  I knew she was kidding, because she is easy to please with just a one layer cake.  Two years ago I did a 3-layer lemon raspberry cake for her birthday and it came out great and she was very glad.  So she didn't mean that it had to be 24 layers.  But it seemed a little bit like a dare to me.  And I am very competitive. So...it didn't look THAT hard in the video.  And when watching it, you can see they have been a bit deceptive, because it's 12 layers of cake and 12 layers of frosting, for a total of 24 layers.  So I definitely thought I could do that.  However, they did not attach a recipe to the video (probably too afraid of the competition hahaha) so I had to go searching for one on the Interwebs.  I found this one from the New York Times website.  They make you sign up for their newsletter to click on a recipe more than twice (which I had to) so that was annoying, but it used basic ingredients and techniques that I felt pretty confident about, so this is the one I went with.  And now that I'm done I can unsubscribe.

This turns out to not be a one person job.  At least, not this one person.  Even though it was her birthday cake, Barbie actually had to do a lot of this with me (happy birthday dear Barbie, make your own birthday cake....).  She had to make the frosting while I was furiously trying to keep up with the layers. 

I also had 3 guest photographers for this recipe because it was so challenging I couldn't keep up with my photodocumentation and do all these steps at once...and when you get to the part of the recipe where I add in the dry ingredients for the cake mix, you can see my (soon to be) patented Gluten Defense System...I don't want to be breathing that stuff in....

If I had to do this over again, I would do some things differently.  Live and learn.  Here we go...

Chocolate Little Layer Cake
For the cake:
2 sticks butter, more to grease pans (I just greased my pans with shortening shhhhh)

2 ½ cups sugar
⅓ cup shortening
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups cake flour (yup I bought this...I wanted it to be just right)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk

For the icing:
5 cups of sugar
⅓ cup cocoa
1 stick butter, cut into pieces
1 15-ounce can evaporated milk
½ cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease three 9-inch cake pans and line with rounds of parchment or waxed paper.

In a mixer, cream together butter, sugar and shortening until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time and continue to mix on medium until eggs are well incorporated. Stir in vanilla.

Sift flour (I never do that...it was fine), then add salt, baking soda and baking powder. Sift a second time (or don't). With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture and milk in about 4 additions,

then increase speed to medium. Beat until smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl.

Spread 3/4 cup batter in each pan.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes, or until cake springs lightly when pressed with a finger. Flip cake out of pan onto paper towels or cake rack while still very warm.

Repeat with second set of layers.


When first layers go into oven, start to make icing. Put sugar and cocoa in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan and mix well. Turn heat to medium-high and add butter and milks, bringing to a boil. Boil for about 4 minutes, stirring continually, careful to watch that it does not boil over. Lower heat to simmer, add vanilla and stir occasionally for another 7 to 10 minutes. If using a candy thermometer, cook to the point just before soft ball stage or about 230 degrees (this seemed to take forever and need almost constant attention.  Thus, Barbie being recruited to make her own birthday cake).

Begin icing first layers, still warm, when second batch is in the oven. Flip layers over so that top side faces up. Use about 4 tablespoons of icing per layer.

Icing will be thin but will firm up as it cools. Stack layers, then continue icing and stacking as layers are baked.

When all layers are iced and stacked, glaze top and sides of cake. Contours of layers will be visible through icing. If icing hardens too much while frosting cake, set back on low heat and stir until it is spreadable.

That's the end of the recipe.  But I didn't like how it looked like a stack of pancakes with chocolate syrup.  Anticipating this from the picture with the recipe, which did look a bit wonky, I bought a jar of Duncan Hines Whipped chocolate frosting so I could finish it off to look like a regular birthday cake.  The frosting between the layers seemed to keep seeping out, so we put the whole thing in the fridge to halt it's descent.

One thing I would do differently in the unlikely event that I would ever make this again would be to make the frosting first...that took so long!  And then I was turning layers and layers of cake out of the oven, running out of places to put them, but couldn't stack and frost them because the frosting wasn't done and I was beginning to feel claustrophobic

A cool thing that happened...one of our layers looked like Saturn.  I totally did not plan that but thought it was awesome

A friend present at home fellowship (where this cake was served) took these action shots of the cake, including the moment when I lit it on fire in frustration. HA!  Just kidding.  It was when we were singing Happy Birthday.  I include it to lend an air of authenticity to the blog post.

Don't you need a nap just from reading that??  Barbie's daughter asked if I would make this for her birthday...I said when is that...she said May.  I said no, I need longer to recover from this one......but I love her so if she really wants that I will.  But I'm hoping to talk her into a cheesecake or something instead.

I am not sorry that I made this...it turned out very nice looking.  And, from what I heard, nice tasting...not much was left on people's paper plates.  This kind of stuff is fun to do once in a while.  A great while.  And friends like Barbie don't come around every day so..........it was worth it.

Triple-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are something I've only recently begun to tolerate.  As a child I would never ever ever eat them.  As an adult, I am trying to be better about eating things I know are good for me.  I mean, within limits.  I'm not out eating asparagus or anything that green.  Let's not go crazy.  But I feel like a sweet potato is something I should like.  I love potatoes, and I love Thanksgiving food and leftovers.  This recipe is meant to use up Thanksgiving leftovers.  But, if you are like me and make a turkey whenever you feel like it, you'll have to buy the other ingredients too because you won't have them filling up every corner of your fridge after the Big Meal.  This recipe is totally worth it all though.  We've had it twice now (the first time during my long hiatus last year), and the first time we were all kind of skeptical.  This time we gobbled them up and there were no leftovers.  Next time I'm going to need to start with more sweet potatoes so that everyone can have seconds if they want them.  This recipe is from Simple & Delicious.

Triple-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
4 med sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 lbs)
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup whole berry cranberry sauce
3 cups cooked cubed turkey
½ cup mini marshmallows
½ cup chopped pecans, (Optional)
½ cup flaked coconut, (Optional)

Preheat oven to 425.  Scrub and pierce potatoes with fork; place on microwave-safe plate.

 
Microwave uncovered on high for 12-14 minutes or until tender, turning once (mine took quite a bit longer than this, probably because my potatoes were on the larger side). 

When cooled enough to handle, cut each potato lengthwise in half. 

Scoop out pulp, leaving 1/4-inch thick shells. 

Put shells on cookie sheet.

In a bowl, mash pulp with butter, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.  Stir in cranberry sauce.  Fold in turkey, marshmallows, and pecans (if using them)(I didn't). 

Spoon filling into shells.  Top with coconut if using (I wasn't...the hubs is not a coconut fan). 

Bake 8-10 minutes or until heated through.

Did you see the black thing in the picture above that I used to scoop out the potatoes?  It's a Pampered Chef thing that they market as a way to scoop out the ribs of green peppers.  But I found it very handy for this, too.  But last time I made this, I didn't have that scoop yet, and I just used a spoon.  It worked fine. 

Also, a happy accident this time: I forgot to add the marshmallows to the filling and didn't realize until they were in the oven.  So I added them on top once they were baked, and put them back in the oven for 1-2 minutes.  The tops got lightly toasted, just like a perfect smores marshmallow, and they tasted SO GOOD that way.  So that's the way I'm doing it from now on.

The other thing I loved about this recipe is that it's naturally GF and DF (except the butter) so I didn't have to think too hard about modifications the way I do with other favorite recipes. 

One last thing:  I should have had a side dish.  These were scrumptious, but they looked pretty lonely on the plates.  A side salad or green beans would have been a good addition.  So next time I'll do that, too. 

Chocolate Cream Cupcakes (GF)

This is one of the best, tastiest things I have made since being GF.  Yes, it took me several hours, and perhaps mine did not look as lovely as the ones in the cookbook (I'll tell you where I went wrong when I get to that part).  But they turned out so scrumptious.  I made them for home fellowship on Friday.  This recipe only makes 12, which is definitely not enough for our small group, so we cut them in half.  But, I ate a whole one.  A worker is worth her wages and all that.  They got very good reviews.  The recipe is from the How Can It Be Gluten Free vol 2 cookbook.

Chocolate Cream Cupcakes (GF)
Cupcakes:
½ cup vegetable oil
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup cocoa powder
¾ cup ATK AP GF flour blend
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp salt
3 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
Filling:
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
3 tbsp water
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1 ¼ cups marshmallow fluff
Glaze:
3 tbsp butter
½ cup chocolate chips

For the cupcakes:
Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350.  Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.

Microwave oil, chocolate, and cocoa together in bowl at 50% power for 2 minutes, stirring often, until chocolate is melted.  Whisk smooth at let cool slightly.  In separate bowl, whisk together flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla.  Whisk in sugar until well combined.  Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture and milk until combined.  Whisk in flour blend mixture until batter is thoroughly combined and smooth.

Portion batter evenly into prepared muffin tin.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 16-18 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking.  Let cupcakes cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. 

For the filling and glaze:
Sprinkle gelatin over water in large bowl and let sit until gelatin is softened, about 5 minutes.  Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds.  Whisk in softened butter, vanilla, and salt until combined.  Let mixture cool until just warm to the touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow fluff until smooth.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Transfer about 1/3 cup mixture to a small ziploc bag or pastry bag to reserve for garnishing finished cupcakes.

Microwave chocolate and butter in bowl at 50% power, stirring often, until melted, about 1 minute.  Let glaze cool to room temperature (about 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, Cut cone-shaped piece from the center of each cupcake and fill with 1 tbsp filling.  Cut off tip of cone and replace on cupcake, pressing lightly to adhere.  Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Frost each cupcake with 2 tsp cooled glaze and let sit for 10 minutes.  Pipe curlicues across top of cupcakes with reserved filling in pastry bag.  Serve.

Phew that was exhausting to type all that and I relived the experience as I did so.  But it was so worth it!  My finished product was supposed to look like the Hostess cupcakes you can buy in the store.  That's what was in the picture.  And I almost could've nailed it, but I cut the hole too big in my ziploc bag.  I knew from the first plop that it wasn't going to be anything like cute curlicues.  Here's how mine looked hahahahaha

 Steve said to "be. cool." and say that they are Cyrillic letters (like the Russian alphabet) and that I meant to do that.  Sorry if you are Russian and that is offensive.  Next time I will cut just a teeny hole and attempt the curlicue thing.  But.  When they are cut/broken open, look how good they came out!

So, I will make these again for sure.  The cake itself was so good.  And, you couldn't even tell they were GF.  Maybe you think I say that too much.  But seriously.  So delicious.