gluten free this and that

 Every family has a treat that whenever you get together, it's there.  Ours is cherry cookies.  They start with a cherry chip or strawberry cake mix.  With my sister recently eating gluten free, I knew there had to be an alternative.  An alternative for her.  I still plan to eat the gluten kind!   I picked up a plain white gluten free cake mix, there were no cherry ones available. 

I was a little worried about messing up a whole box if the cookies didn't work out so I split it and tried two recipes.  First I made pumpkin muffins that I know she liked back when gluten was cool.   They are all over Pinterest.  It's just a cake mix with a can of pumpkin.  Here's what I worked out for the muffins.

Pumpkin muffins

1 c gluten free cake mix (half the box)

3/4 c canned pumpkin

Mix ingredients.  Spoon into muffin cups.  This made 16 mini muffins.  I baked them at 350 degrees for 14 minutes.  I should have sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon on top prior to baking, but didn't think to do that.  I am not a pumpkin fan so I didn't even taste them.   I made the regular version once and didn't care for those either.  Hubby ate one but said it wasn't really worth it to get up for a second one.   I'm taking them at Thanksgiving, so we'll see if anyone else enjoys them.    Here they are sitting next to the gluten free peanut butter cookies going to Thanksgiving as well.

That left me 1 cup of cake mix to try out what I really wanted to make. 

cherry cookies

1 cup gluten free cake mix

1 T + 1 t vegetable oil

1 T + 1 t cherry juice (from jar of cherries)

few drops cherry flavoring (super concentrated stuff from kitchen specialty store)

1 egg

few whole cherries (from jar)

Mix first 5 ingredients.  Plop onto cookie sheet.  Place a halved cherry on top.  This made 9 larger cookies.  I baked them on a stone at 350 degrees about 12 minutes.  Let cool on sheet for several minutes, then cool on wire rack.  These were good.  These were worth eating!  They weren't the same at the gluten loving ones we usually enjoy, but these will be a fine substitute.  For her.  Not me.  I love gluten.

Here's the regular recipe: 

Cherry Cookies

1 strawberry or cherry chip cake mix (I prefer strawberry)

2 eggs

1/4 C oil  (my aunt uses 1/2 c oil and no cherry juice- to each their own)

1/4 C cherry juice (from jar of cherries)

cherries (from jar)

mix all except cherries.  Plop onto sheet.  Add halved cherry on top.  

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. 

My sister isn't wanting us to make a big deal out her eating gluten free, but I'm finding it a fun foodie challenge.  I think it's interesting and I'm all about a special project.  Between gluten free and a vegetarian eater at Thanksgiving this year, I bet my grandma is having fun.  She's a foodie too.

rainy day

We received the most fun package the other day.  Ok, it's actually been longer ago than was responsible of me to write about since I had happily agreed to write about it.  Regardless, we recieved a fun box from Craftprojectideas.com.  They feature fun craft ideas all made with easy to find supplies from Wal-Mart.  

They call this the 'rainy day survival kit' because it has easy, open ended supplies and idea sheets.  There were beads, stringing cord, melty beads and melty bead holders. 

Bee got started with the melty beads right away.  Lou doesn't have the patience or finger dexterity or fine motor skills to work well with these for very long. He tends to knock his around as he's working and so do I.  

My fingers are a little big to get in the tiny spacey.  Bee loves it and had the right sized fingers.  She should be a surgeon.  I should get a second job to pay for med school.  Lou made a log cabin out of the popsicle sticks (which aren't called that anymore).  Then Bee and Lou both worked with the pipe cleaners (which aren't called that anymore either), pom poms and googly eyes.  I don't seem to have a picture of these sculptures, but Bee made an owl sculpture and Lou made a snow leopard.  Always a snow leopard. 

I was excited to see magnets and finger paint.  I had some finger paint paper being stored away we were just lacking the paint.  We can always use magnets. 

I think the kids liked the finger paints the best.  I did a lot of reminding  about not mixing the colors, but Lou seems to have learned that well at school this year and didn't need all my reminding... until the end... then it was a free for all.

Bee made a scene.  Lou started that way, and then needed to go abstract.  He gets frustrated when his picture doesn't look very recognizable as what he wants.

We really enjoyed the box of supplies.  I'm all about a craft that is open ended and child directed. While the occasional 'this is supposed to look like this in the end' craft is cute, I try to remember it's all about the process, not the product.  These supplies are all 'kid's crafts' brand and are available in the craft/school supply section of Walmart.  There really are a lot of cute ideas available at their website, Craftprojectideas.com.  

I first became familiar with them when I shared the crazy glove with 6 fingers,

 

and they directed me to this cute mouse glove activity.  (Their photo)

disclaimer:  these supplies were sent to me courtesy of Craft Project Ideas but I was not paid for a review.  These statements and thoughts are my own. 

testing testing.

'cause I'm trying to learn new things. 

You want one too, right?  Go here- It's easy peasy:

Ff flamingos- preschool style

I had Ff family day recently.  The other teachers were going more towards being thankful for our family,   but I couldn't find a book I love and I knew my teaching partner was going that direction they next day.  I was ill-inspired.  Then I started thinking flamingos.  

I lucked into this great book at the library.  It's called Flamingo Sunset and is about a family of flamingos.  It talks about how the mom lays the egg in a mud and then both the mom and dad take care of the egg and then how the whole flock helps take care of the baby until it's strong enough to fly.  It's by Jonathan London.  The pictures are really nice too.

 

Then, I had prepared for each child  a flamingo and a set of 10 feathers. The feathers are programmed with letters A-F. There was a lot of cutting for me this week.  We've been working on ordering 1-10, so I thought we'd try it with letters.  You could take this a bunch of directions; spelling short words, working out number sentences, ordering numbers, etc.

Instead of working through this together, I wanted to see if some could do it on their own.  I had some larger feathers that I laid out in order for the kids to look off if they needed.  Several of the kids struggled, but the same number breezed through it.  Most were able to get the first A B C and D and then looked at the example and fill in a missing or confusing letter.  It's a little chaotic doing it this way, but I hate making the kids who find this a breeze sit and be bored, plus it lets us identify and work one on one with those who are still stuck on A.  Yeah, we had one or two stuck on A.

pie- preschool style

 Preschool Lesson Plans is featuring one of the little activities I made up for preschool.  It's the counting pie activity. from apple day.  I now have a printable version available back on that apple day post.

Preschool Lesson Plans is one of the places I like to go for ideas, so it's cool that they've got one of my things there.  

If you have preschool people to gather ideas for, head on over, they have lots of cute fall and thanksgiving themed activities right now. 

peanute butter and sugar cookies

My sister is eating gluten free under suggestion from her new doctor and is feeling better than she has felt in years.  She's even been able to stop taking a maintenance type medicine that she has been taking for stomach pain for 5 years!  Awesome. 

A good friend of mine is also 100% gluten free and I've been asking lots of questions since she's already done all the research and hard work to find replacements and substitutions.   I've been trying to find some good easy recipes for my sister, especially with the holidays approaching.  These gluten free cookies are from Real Simple magazine this month and were really just a lucky find.  

Flourless Peanut butter Cookies

2 c creamy peanut butter

1 c packed light brown sugar

1 c sugar

2 large eggs

2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

 Mix all the ingredients together.  It will make a slightly sticky batter.  The recipe says to use a parchment paper lined baking tray, but I used a baking stone with great luck.  They bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.  I think mine needed an extra two minutes at least.  They come out deliciously crunchy and chewy in the middle at the same time.  Do your regular cookie routine, rotate trays if your oven likes that.  Cool for a few minutes on the baking tray then transfer to a cooling rack.  

Yum.  Even if you like gluten.

haste does make waste

I guess it's true, haste does make waste.  I have been collecting wishbones from our chickens all year.  Seriously, last November, I got an idea to make our Thanksgiving place cards using wishbones.  I only had one, so I knew I'd try to collect them all year and have enough next Thanksgiving.   So all year, I've been saving them in a baggie in my craft room.

This evening, I went down to sew and found these scattered remains on the floor.  There were at least 12, this is what is left.

The baggie was torn open. Looks like raccoons.... again. 

In haste, Friday I made a last minute fix on Bee's steamer trunk for her book character costume.  I left the drawer where the glue gun goes open.  Also being stored in that drawer were the wish bones.  I knew the cat liked them and would go for them whenever the drawer was open, but I didn't think about it Friday, in haste.  By Saturday, only three sort of undamaged one remained as well as a handful of scraps. Waste. There are still missing parts, hopefully not in the kitty's tummy.  She couldn't even leave the baggie alone long enough for me to take it's picture. 

Guess we'll try again next year, unless you want to cook a whole turkey or chicken this week and send me your wish bones. 

it's 1912

I've been MIA for a few evenings. It was for a costume.  Bee had an assignment to present a talking book report in character.  It was to be 1-2 minutes, first person, with no script to read.  Her school does not do Halloween, but shortly after, they do a big costume book character celebration.  They do a costume parade and everyone is in character.

At first I thought, seriously... this is first grade...  no script?  But, she did it.  They all did it.  Every 1st through 4th grader in the school did.  Apparently I did not have my expectation set high enough.  She chose Finding the Titanic, which is about the first ship to find and explore the wreckage of the Titanic.  The middle of the story is about Ruth Becker, a 12 year old girl traveling on the ship with her mom and younger siblings.  Bee chose it, I was steering her towards Ramona Quimby or something less consuming of an elaborate costume.  No luck.

 I thought she'd wear her Christmas dress from last year, it sort of had a 1900's look to it, but she said no way.  She decided this Tuesday before the Friday costume day.  On to plan B. After the kids were in bed, I went through my box of patterns.  I found the perfect 1986 pattern that could be adapted for this project. I think it was in the boxes from my great aunt.  They continue to be a treasure of goodies.  Hoarded goodies.

 Wednesday morning, I let Bee pick from my fabric stash.  I had several pieces of several yards of outdated florals that I got at a yard sale once.  The white 'lace' is the edge from bed skirt fabric from my neighbor.  I've used it to make curtains and Bee's Easter dress.  I used the pattern pieces, but found the directions to be so foreign, I tossed them aside and figure it out on my own.  There were markings on this pattern and verbiage that was super confusing!  I know it's not exactly right, but I did learn a few new techniques.

I got most of the work done on Wednesday and finished it up on Thursday.  We worked up the felt wraps for her ankles to make her black church shoes look like boots and printed off a boarding pass we found in google images.  She had the cute mini steamer trunk in her room to hold doll clothes and we thought it added a nice touch.  She changed her mind at the last minute and didn't carry it in the parade.

Lou and I went and watched the parade.  There were lots of really cute outfits. Most seemed homemade rather than store bought.  There were several Abraham Lincolns,  princesses, and a number of Clara Bartons.  There was a cute Molly Pitcher, several cowboys, a neat Davey Crockett, and a few Soul Surfers. Lou said his favorite costume was a shark and Ruth Becker.