Gluten Free/Dairy Free Goodness!

I ran across a great source for Gluten Free/Dairy Free (and many other allergy considerations) a while back through Facebook.  Her name is Brittany and she's written a couple of cookbooks.  Yesterday I gave my first attempt at one of her recipes....

For the last several years, I've been using a GF flour blend from Namaste Foods.  I like how it's worked on many recipes, so I've been loyal to it.  Brittany suggests finely ground almond flour as it's much healthier than the alternative grain blends.  I wasn't able to find a pure almond flour locally, so I ended up buying a blend with some almond flour.

I followed the recipe and it just wasn't coming together like she said it would.  That's when I read further into the recipe and discovered the problem....

• Coconut flour or any of the starchy grain based flours will NOT work in this recipe. Only use other Nut/Seed flours.

Oh no.... I had a problem.  It was like a bowl full of saw dust that no matter how hard I pinched it together, it would not come together at all.  Instead of throwing in the towel, I decided to add one egg to see if it would help.  We don't have egg allergy issues here, so what did I have to lose?

The dough came together beautifully!  I added half of a dark chocolate bar (dairy free) and made 8 glorious cookies!

I was so happy with the results, and I got double thumbs up for my official tasting crew.  Finally, a cookie I can enjoy!

A Valentine's Day card for you!

Today I shared a free Valentine's card that you can download and print.  You can grab one from CutCardStock.com.  Just click on the graphic below and it will take you there.

So you may notice that I changed the look of the blog a bit.... I am still working on it, but wanted to get a quick face lift in action as I work on building my own design.  There are a lot of big ideas I have for my own blog, but I am really loaded down with work lately.  I'm not complaining.... but I am going to try to dedicate a little time to my own creative blog and make it look sweet like all the other work I've been doing!  

The countdown is officially on.... just 21 days until QuiltCon!

Baby it's cold outside....

We are deep in snow here and my bones are cold!  I can't think of a better way to keep warm then lots and lots of hot tea and spending time in my craft studio.  Since Christmas is a mere memory, I've moved on to Valentine's Day.  You can check out two tutorials I have posted over at CutCardStock, hopefully I will inspire you to make something special for your sweet one!

While I'm trying to stay warm, the boys don't mind the cold a bit!  In fact, they love living in this much snow. They've adjusted so quickly and now look forward to coming home from school and sledding down our long, steep driveway.  The other day they built a snowman; he was cute while he lasted but the deer got to him and knocked off his head, chewed up his twig arms and devoured his carrot nose!

Poor Snowman!

Looking Back at 2012

Most of my blogging time in 2012 was spent over at the CutCardStock blog, but I thought I'd post a few highlights of the year and hopefully get to posting again on a more regular basis here on my own blog.