Nativity Scene - - - Gingerbread Style!

Christmas is right around the corner. I know we haven’t had Halloween yet! Halloween is a short few weeks away… ok, short for me because Andy works two jobs, is the youth director (when the kids show) Lizzy has playdates lined up every Saturday, we have Disney on Ice the 22^nd, Trunk or Treat the 29^th, Halloween the 31^st, Thanksgiving shortly after at my in-laws, a Christmas play to get ready for, finish Christmas shopping for Andy and Lizzy. Lizzys would have been done a while ago if she would have quit finding what I had purchased for her… Is this what the holidays have become though? One task after another? And look at the world right now. Up-rise against Christianity in our backyards and abroad.  Life is hectic at the small level and the large level.

What I want to do is to bring it down a notch. St Michaels is having a Gingerbread house contest, and I’m going to enter it.  Thanks to Jenny Crosby who loaning me her “He was one of us” by Rien Poortvliet, which has beautiful art that really depicts the nativity scene, not the commercialized one you always see. I was shocked to see that it is similar to what I have flown over on numerous occasions to get to Forward Operating Bases in Iraq.  Not much has changed over there I suppose. Yes, I know the nativity scene is in Bethlehem, but it seems the architecture hasn’t changed much. Anyway I digress… I want to use this picture to make my gingerbread house.  I will be posting my “progress” in hope to get some of your inputs. Maybe you have an idea of what the roof should be made of? How to make the donkey? Etc.

 

Garbage Pail Pumpkins

In honor of Halloween I have come up with the Garbage Pail Pumpkins.  For those of you from my generation the Garbage pail kids will ring familiar. I didn’t want the typical pretty pumpkins, I wanted texture and fun… so I came up with this little guy.  They are fun and easy to make, and best of all, egg free, dairy free, and gluten free!!! Even I can eat this guy without getting a headache. These are even fun for the kids to make. 

Once you have the whole mix together, you’ll want to stick a pretzel rod in the middle, wrap the orange ball into wax paper and stick it in the freezer or fridge for a few hours.  Once the mass is firm you’ll gently pull away the wax paper and use frosting to decorate.  I made my frosting from scratch so I could flavor it with cocoa.

Frankenpumpkin, Typical Pumpkin, Happy Pumpkin

What you will need:

4 cups of corn cereal, 1 bag of dairy / egg free marshmallows, orange food dye, 3 tbs of country crock (off brand, I use food lion because it doesn’t have dairy, country crock actually has dairy in it).

Melt the off brand of country crock, add the bag of marshmallows’ when the cc has melted, stir in the orange food dye while the marshmallows are melting, once your marshmallows are smooth you can add in the corn cereal. Mix well. Once everything is orange, move your mix to wax paper, round the mix in the wax paper into a ball then stick the pretzel stick in the middle. You’ll want to tie the wax paper around the stick so it stays in a ball form.  This mix will make 3 nice sized oranges.

Once you are ready to decorate your pumpkin, take the wax paper off carefully (you will only want to take one pumpkin out at a time), I used the edge of a knife to slowly remove the paper. 

To make your own icing, use 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ cup shortening, 1 tbs of corn syrup, 1 tbs vanilla, and two tbs cocoa and black food dye. Mix for five minutes.

Cold Days, Hot Chili and Warm Cornbread

Dear Fall, you are beautiful with all of your colors, but I'm not a big fan of yours when it comes to the temperature.

Really not happy with the fact today's high only reached 60, but it gave us a good reason to make chili and cornbread.  I missed Arkansas for the fact I would normally have deer chili but I will make do with regular.

After naps were over, I got the cornbread going (the Jiffy kind, you know the box that normally costs 40 cents). We change the recipe by using lactose milk and the egg substitute (2 ½ tbs of water, 2 ½ tbs of oil, 1 ½ tbs of baking powder, mix until it stops fizzing). Once the cornbread is mixed I toss it in the oven at 400 for 20 mins in my dad’s old baking pan. I love that pan, I use it all the time. 

While the cornbread is baking I use the chili mix that you can pick up in the grocery aisle but we use two cans of red kidney beans, a few dashes of chili powder to spice it up and one can of diced tomatoes, or if I have it thawed, stewed tomatoes with celery and green peppers – I do whatever I can to sneak veggies into my family.  The stewed tomatoes remind me of growing up in my dad’s house and the warmth of the kitchen, which is the whole reason for making chili… warmth, warming my soul and my belly.

My Lu will normally eat the cornbread if I top it off with butter, she reminds me of my sister Sherry when she was little when she’s like that. Lu will also eat the beans and the cheese I sprinkle on top. Andy and I will eat a good size bowl of it and have enough leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch, where we will need it, Fall is here and she is cold!!!

Worlds Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today Andy had to work so it was Lizzy and I until about 3pm. We started our Saturday like normal, breakfast and cartoons. I had a giant cup of coffee (but now have my awesome K-Cup coffee maker from my awesome in-laws), yogurt and a banana, Lizzy had an egg and gluten free pancake with lactose free milk (today was grocery day as well LOL). 

Later we planned to go to the Artesian fair held in Centreville after lunch and house cleaning. When we got there, fall let us know it was here and ready, Lizzy had her big coat on so she stayed warm but I saw many kids still in flip flops and without a jacket. Things like that make me wonder "where is your momma??" then I look behind the child and see the momma is dressed the same way. Anyway, we had a good time at the fair. Lizzy got a cat painted on her face, and then we painted a pumpkin, had a hay ride and Lizzy rode on a little train while I walked next to her. 

After leaving the fair all I could think of was to go home and make chili and some egg free cornbread, but then I remembered it was grocery day and I hadn’t quite made it to the store.  Instead we had BBQ chicken, green beans, and baked potatoes (something we could all eat without worrying).  Afterwards Lizzy and Andy made the world’s best chocolate chip cookies (egg, gluten, and lactose free).

The recipe is almost the standard recipe that everyone uses, but with a few tweaks.

1 cup of vegetable spread (dairy free – we use the food lion brand)
1 cup of splenda
½ cup of brown sugar
1 tsp of vanilla (or more… really, you cant have too much vanilla LOL)
Fluff vegetable spread, splenda, brown sugar, and vanilla.

2 ½ tbs of water, 2 ½ tbs of oil, 1 ½ tbs of baking powder (mix until it stops fizzing) – this is your egg substitute

2 – 2 1/8 cups of gluten free flour (we use Bob’s red mill gluten free flour – it’s much easier than trying to create from three different forms of flour)

24 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips (non-dairy). Ok, really the recipe calls for 12 ounces of chocolate chips, but you can never have too many chocolate chips in your cookie right?

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup of cinnamon applesauce

Heat oven to 375 and cook one sheet at a time for 10 – 11 minutes. 

Once these cookies have cooled you will want to put them in a tupper to keep fresh. These seem to stay fresh for a while, however because we don’t use eggs, they tend to crumble after a few days.  If you have crumbly cookies, just sprinkle over Eddy’s ice cream or Food Lion brand ice cream (which is typically egg free).
A nice end to a cold fall day; nice warm chocolate chip cookies and milk, or lactaid milk…