Its been a while!

I've been lagging on my new found love of making recipes and tweaking them to my desire. I enjoy trying new things especially when they turn out yummy!! We got together with some of our friends who are also gluten and dairy free for Thanksgiving. It was one less stress not to have to worry about explaining why someone is contaminating my food. I had made some yummy banana cupcakes and decided to make pumpkin for thanksgiving. They turned out delicious  For the icing I made a Buttercream icing (not really butter) with Coconut Milk. My first icing was too watery because I used a different recipe so I went back to my basic recipe very close to Wiltons but tweaked with a few of my little touches.

I made gluten free stuffed mushrooms with glutino breadcrumbs instead of regular, I use fresh parsley but I think next time I will add more seasoning. This time I added some colby cheese on top but it gave it a weird taste so I will not use that next time. 

GLuten Free Minnie Birthday Party

From the time I was a little girl I loved Minnie Mouse. There is something about her laugh that lights up  a room and transform the  goofy nature of something into that which is magical  My youngest daughter turned 4 recently. She loves Minnie Mouse as well. I love crafts and baking. I love everything to do with both and wish I was more talented at certain things but each time I do better. Because I have such debilitating autoimmune conditions it took me 14 hours to make her Minnie Cake because my hands and feet cramp and hurt row by row by row. I pushed through yelling all day and night at this cake. I'm going to show you my step by step process. This is my Riley shown here. She loves Minnie Mouse! I created a board of her pictures over the years. Its so fun to see and to remind yourself how fast they really grow up! I ordered Minnie Mouse Birthday banner from etsy and printed them off at Office Max. Well worth it in my opinion.

This is the outfit that Riley wanted. I couldn't find this outfit at an affordable price so I got a black shirt and ordered the Minnie Mouse design iron on transfer from Etsy with a bow, cost around $2.50. Then I found the similar skirt shown here at party city for $10. She put some black leggings on and she was happy!

This is the sign the lady at ACmoore made for her after I told her our theme! She did an amazing job! I want a circuit so bad!!

Riley's board with pictures :) Now the board I got at the dollar store. The zebra background is wrapping paper that I found at party city. The Happy Birthday Minnie sign is from Etsy. I used pink card stock to tape my pictures to and cut the edges with a scalloped scissors.

I also had ordered and printed the water bottle labels. They were so cute and a nice touch. I got mini water bottles since most of the time people don't finish them. The napkins and table cloth is from Walmart and the pink bowl is from the dollar store. 

I was IN LOVE with this Minnie bowl. I got two of them on clearance at Target for $5!!!! 

We use them now as popcorn bowls now that the party is over. Just too cute to pass up! 

We had her party at Acmoore. They were awesome so much  fun! 

Ok, now about the dreaded cake...

We use Bob's Redmill Vanilla cake mix. Its just the best tasting vanilla cake I have found. I know Pamela's is better but Bobs is more affordable when you have three people in the same house gluten free! I believe we used two packages. I used the left overs to make mini cupcakes.

I use Wilton's round cake pans. I chose the 6in round pan for the ears and 10in pan for the Face. 

First step is to make sure the cake is completely cooled. I would use shortening or some non stick on the pan as mine did stick and I forgot to put some on the first time. I also didn't know how much  to put in the pan. So my first ear ended up being twice as tall so I had to cut the extra off of it so they would be the same size. Again, make sure they are cooled before. 

If you make your own icing I suggest using Wilton's butter cream icing recipe. 

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing

You want to lightly frost the cake first with thinned icing because the butter cream used for piping is stiffer and does not frost well. I tend to use the store bought gluten free icing for frosting my cake. Now I used vanilla because I'm allergic to chocolate, however I would suggest using the chocolate in the areas that are black and maybe vanilla where you know its tan or you could use either for the whole thing.  

 Icing is no laughing matter. It is one of the most tedious and frustrating ingredients in making a cake. I always make the cake the day before, one because it takes forever and there's a ton of other things to do and two because if its a complete disaster then you have time to do plan B! 

Getting the right color icing is something that frustrates many. Getting black icing to be black and not gray is something that I have learned to experiment with each and every time I do a cake. I end up adding, red and copper. Sounds weird but experiment with the color before hand and find out what works for you. Also note that the color will darken as time goes on. This is good news when you want a dark color but keep that in mind when going for a light color. Icing that has water in it and not milk can be kept at room temp for 2 weeks in an air tight container. 

After you have frosted the cake and let that harden slightly you can begin designing your cake. I took a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal I had on hand and used a toothpick to make my own outline. Then I outlined the cake with black icing. 

This took A LOT longer than expected. 

I used a #16 I believe. 

I added some cheek lines and now this looks like a cute mickey cake :) 

 Also make sure you go through and fill in any gaps with black icing.

I have a tongue now! This would be a good mickey but we wanted Minnie so we needed a bow! 

I was done at 2 am so I was not about to fight with some Fondant to make a bow. 

Remember i said the color darkens? Yes, this turned kinda Orange but no one cared and  everyone loved it. We made a bow from fabric. For the mini cupcakes I used a 1M tip for the pink flowers. 

They were super cute and everyone loves mini cupcakes! 

Hope this helps someone!! Have fun! 

Toodles! 

Busch Gardens And Allergies

We were blessed with tickets to Busch Gardens this week. I was so excited and researched the food options. I have two girls ages 6 and 3. We are all on a gluten free diet. This makes for a complicated day of tryin to figure out what to eat. I found out that you cant bring food into the park. (Later on after the face I found out that you can in fact bring some) Nevertheless you dont want to be carrying a lot in the park anyway. I cant walk long distances so we rented a wheelchair which is challenging in and of itself. I do have to say busch Gardens does a great job of trying to accomadate people with disabilites. I would love to go back and know what I know now. On their map a restaurant called Grograns Grill is labeled Allergen Friendly. So I thought Great! Not so much! Grogans grill has pork loin, pork, and more pork with a side of cabbage...not so much for those of us that pork doesnt agree with us, or anything for my kids. the manager was very nice and even made our plates up, but then told me their is a restaurant on the opposite side of the park with gluten free pizza! AH! Why was that not listed on the map? I was also irritated because I had called the day before to speak with someone more about the allergy free options only to get a generic answer of speak to each manager before ordering. Really?! She gave me an email to email, and no one emailed me back. I emailed corporate and received an email two days later, a little too late...

My name is Joshua Rainville. I am the Group Supervisor for Ireland Culinary and represent the allergen resource team for Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The safety of your family’s dining is very important to us. Our supervisors and managers have been educated and trained in allergen management in association with The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) to ensure your safety. Although none of them are experts, they can help. They have an ingredient book that will be very informative to you.

The supervisors and managers at each of our restaurants have been trained to answer allergen related questions concerning their individual menus and ingredients as well as the items in the snack locations nearby. In addition we have designated meal facilities where the supervision has been trained to answer questions for our entire park, in order to better assist you in planning out your day. At Busch Gardens the designated meal facility is Grogan’s Grill and at Water Country USA it is Hot Spots Café.

Most of our restaurants carry foods that are easily modified to meet many if not all of the 8 major allergens. I urge you to ask for a supervisor when you arrive at a restaurant. You should also be informed that none of our meal facilities are free from cross contact. In order to ensure your meal is safe, please discuss the preparation with a supervisor. Based on your specific concern about gluten I would recommend Grogan’s Grill or Trapper’s Smokehouse as they both offer many gluten free menu options. For children I highly recommend Das Festhaus as they offer gluten free pizza. We also urge you to visit our meal facilities during non peak times so that you can be efficiently served.

Depending on the severity of your allergies, I would also urge you to speak with our dining room supervisors to assure that your table has been properly sanitized, to avoid potential contact. Your safety is our number one concern. If you feel that you would be best served by bringing your own food, please notify guest relations of your allergen concerns on your arrival so that you may be permitted to bring outside food in. You may bring a cooler, but it must be collapsible and able to be carried.

We look forward to your visit to SeaWorld Parks. Please let me know if I can further assist you.

Regards,

Joshua Rainville



It was awesome that he emailed me back but I was disappointed that it wasn't BEFORE we went to the park!

Macaroni grill new menu

Macaroni Grill has a gluten free menu!! http://www.macaronigrill.com/docs/nutritional/allergen-menu.pdf Even includes gluten free pasta. If you sign up for their emails and you will get $5 off coupon :) http://www.macaronigrill.com/our-story I havent tried it yet but look forward to dining one day on their yummy delicious italian food!!

Cheeseburger in Paradise gone wrong

We dont get out much. With 2 kids, allergies, and one income a date comes far and few between. I saw that Cheeseburger in Paradise had advertised a gluten free bun to go with their burgers. I was super uper excited because I have been CRAVING a nice fat juicy burger! I like to eat, which is probably why I havent lost weight since going gluten free. Anyway, we were seated promptly and greeted with a smiling waitress. She seemed nice and returned shortly with our waters. We put in our orders and then the waiting...waiting...and more waiting. About 35 minutes later our burgers arrived with what I would compare to charcoal bun. My gluten free bun was so burnt it was hard and made everything else have that burnt to a crisp taste. I was so appalled that a chef would send out a bun that burnt. I was soooooo hungry I didnt say anything to the waitress for fear of having to wait any longer and have a hole in my stomach. So I sucked up paying an extra dollar for the gluten free bun took it off and ate the burger. I am very sad that no one mentioned the fact that my bun was sitting on my plate, burnt to a crisp and even the waitress when returning said nothing. We keft without incident but I will not spend my money there again.

a thing or two

I have been craving a burger! So we got ground beef, mixed together an onion, a green pepper and a mixture of seasoning. They turned out scrumptious! The Schar rolls were soft but not very flavorful and a little dry, however I was very happy to endulge and have a burger.
I would eat them again.

Something I will not be eating again is the Bob's redmill raisin bread! It was the worst gf food I have tasted thus far. It was hard, tasty horrible. Really and truley will not try that again. Udis gluten free raisin bread is awesome. It was cheaper for the Bobs redmill so I thought Id try to make it but I am very dissapointed I had to throw it away. :(

Reviews

I was in Florida, I had to make a last minute trip to see my mom who wasnt doing very well on a ventilator. To my despair I realized I needed to eat something and I realized once my stomach growled and my hands shook at the airport that I had in fact nothing to eat and the hamburgers from burger king were not going to be ok. I ended up eating salad, which also doesnt agree with me most times but usually not till the next day ;) Then when I got off the plane and visited my mother I realized I needed to go to the store. First destination was Walmart. I was feeling sad before I even went, and since Walmart really isnt my favorite place to go I hoped really really hard that they were going to offer some gluten free options. They did in fact have the one spagetti that my store at home has but not much else. The next day I realized I was starving so I decided to try Winn Dixie. I remembered they were pretty well priced the last time I was here. TO my despair they had nothing gluten free. I thought I was blind so I asked the manager and he replied, " Well we will be getting some bread next week but we dont currently have anything, sorry." Well def sorry for me!! I ended up eating a lot of potato chips. Very healthy...So at last I couldnt stand it a few days later I ventured to Publix, at last an organic and gluten free section! I found some gluten free muffins. It wasnt a real english muffin, a little hard freezer burnt but if you coat A LOT of cream cheese on it you can get it down. So thats what I did! Oh and cupped with a good cup of coffee got me well through lunch time. Where most of my lunch consisted of sitting at the hospital with a diet coke and the occasional cafeteria salad which wasnt half bad.

I recently got home and was thrilled when I went to Farm fresh and saw Schar bread and rolls!! Udis has gotten hard and holey and I havent been very impressed most recently with my almost $6 loaf bread. The Schar bread looks like regular bread and was softer, but to my surprise really has no taste. I made an egg salad sandwich with it today and I was sadly dissapointed with the taste even with adding too much salt! I am hoping the rolls will be good with a burger because I miss having a good burger!

Hives

Riley still continues to break out in hives while being on a gluten free diet. I think I may have found a link though. Corn seems to trigger them although she also gets them directly after eating chocolate. We are wondering if shes allergic to dairy or something else we dont know. Time will only tell.