My parent’s pastor’s daughter had a celebration for her first birthday on Saturday and I was asked to make a cake. Of course I agreed (when can I pass up the opportunity to make cake?!?) and since I was on pseudo crunch time thanks to lots of work for school,  I chose to do something simple.

It’s a far cry from my “Happy Birthday Jesus” cake in terms of complexity, but I still think it’s pretty.

The bow was made of fondant and the rest is raspberry butter cream frosting. I used a “Hot Pink Raspberry Cake” Recipe – I just made GF substitutions for the flour and added an extra egg. The cake itself was pretty moist and a bit spongy thanks to the gelatin in the jello powder. But it was still quite tasty!

Here’s the birthday girl and her mommy – how’s this for a mother/daughter moment?

Have you ever been asked to make a birthday cake for a non family member? How did it turn out?

P.S. It’s a good idea to not let your husband “dress you up” at children’s birthday parties or else you’ll end up looking like this:

Please learn from my mistake and don’t post embarrassing photos of yourself on your blog because of it.

Ever just really wanted to make delicious cookies? Full of chocolately, oatmealy, cranberry goodness? Well, I’ve got the recipe just for you. It’s taken from 250 Gluten-Free Favorites by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt.

The cookies are soft, chewy and all around yummy. I definitely couldn’t eat just one.

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries

1 1/2 . GF Oats
1 c. Brown rice flour (the actual recipe calls for amaranth flour, but I didn’t have any)
1/4 c. Tapioca starch
1/2 tsp. xathan gum
1/2 tsp. each of baking powder and baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 c. brown sugar (I used slightly less)
2/3 c. margarine, softened
2 tbsp. milk (we didn’t have any, so I used Riza rice milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. each of dried cranberries and white chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl, mix together oats, flours, xathan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, brown sugar, margarine, milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until just combined.
5. Stir in cranberries and chocolate chips.
6. Drop dough by the rounded spoonful onto a cookie sheet and flatten slightly.
7. Bake for 11 – 14 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and just set, depending on the size of your cookie and how crispy you want it to be.
8. Let cool on baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
9. Enjoy!

* I say Gluten Free if you use GF oats AND you’re able to eat them.

I realized after I posted last week’s face update that my camera was flattering my skin more than usual by hiding some of the blemishes. Ironically, it happens that my face partially broke out the day after the photo was taken.

Fortunately, my face had calmed down a bit to about the level it was last week. I wasn’t expecting much change as per the comments on the box, but my skin feels much  softer.

Unlike last week, I tried my best to capture what my actually looks like today. So, I took picture with both incandescent light:

As well as natural light:

Here’s hoping that my face keeps on getting better!

Have you ever tried any “get my face better and clearer” schemes? How quickly did they work?

I am so happy to be able to host February 2010’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free Challenge! What’s this month’s theme?

Humour me for a while as I take you on a trip with your imagination. (If you’re like me it’ll be a great change in scenery – no snow or cold!)

Imagine that you’re on a beach on an island in the Caribbean without a care in the world. It’s warm and sunny and a slight breeze blows through your hair. Your favourite book and people are nearby as well as a cool drink of your choosing – you’re ready for a few days of relaxing and enjoying the sun and warm weather.

As the sun begins to set, you look over and on the beach is a dinner set up just for you and your party. You walk over and sit down at the table. What are you eating?

If you couldn’t guess it, this month’s theme is “Tropical Vacation” – so basically, if you could have any meal in the Caribbean, what would it be? It can be typical resort fare, traditional food or whatever your heart desires. Of course it would be easy if you could use any ingredients, but I want to add a degree of difficulty: try to use as many local ingredients* as possible.  And don’t forget to include your favourite beach drink!

So, if you’d like to participate, please create a gluten free Caribbean inspired dish and send me a photo and a link to your blog post to bean.plant(at)hotmail(dot)com by February 27th.

For all you glutinators, you’re more than welcome to participate if you feel that you need your own tropical vacation – gluten free or not!

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

*I realize that many people (including myself) are in the midst of a winter wonderland and local producers are few and far between. Please just do your best – for example, local to me is anything from Alberta or British Columbia.

This is our toaster.

This is our toaster on a peanut butter jar lid.

See? Famous!

Do you have any appliances making cameos in other product labels?

This month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free challenge is hosted by the lovely Laura from Mouthgasmic with the theme of “Stews from Around the World”.

I wanted to make something that took a page from our upcoming trip this spring, so I made Swedish Meatball Stew. It’s not strictly Swedish, but I can’t make stew without a LOT of veggies.

Swedish Meatball Stew

For the Meatballs:

1 lb. each of pork and bison (or beef, but I don’t eat that)
2/3 c. gluten-free bread crumbs*
1 c. water
1 -2 tbsp. minced onion
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. each of pepper, nutmeg and allspice
2 egg yolks

1. Heat up oil and cook onions until softened, 1 – 2 minutes. Set aside.
2. Soak breadcrumbs in water until soft, for a couple of minutes in a mixing bowl.
3. Once breadcrumbs are soft, add the remaining ingredients to mixing bowl.
4. Mix on slow until combined.
5. Beat on medium-hight for approximately 10 minutes or until meat mixture is light coloured and fluffy. (I know, this sounds gross and it is. But it’s worth it!)
6. Heat a fair amount of oil in a large skillet. Meanwhile, shape meatballs – about 2″ in diameter. We made 19 or 20 meatballs.
7. Once oil is hot, place meatballs in skillet, turning frequently until cooked. (You can cook in batches if necessary.)
8. Once meatballs are cooked all the way through, place on a paper towel covered plate to absorb excess fat.

For the Rest of the Stew

2 – 3 c. veggie broth (or beef)
3 large potatoes, cubed
1/2 onion, sliced/diced
8 Mushrooms (or however many you want)
Garlic (as much as you want, I put 6 sliced up cloves)
4 – 5 celery stalks, chopped
4 – 5 large carrots, chopped
Frozen Peas and Beans
Corn Starch

1. Place meatballs, broth, potatoes, onion, mushrooms and garlic in slow cooker. Cook on Low for 8 ish hours.
2. Part way through (or at the beginning if you’re not around), put in the celery and carrots.
3. When you’re ready, add the peas and beans.
4. Take a liquid measuring cup and scoop out some liquid. Add some cornstarch to the liquid (how much depends on how thick you want the stew to be), stirring it until there are no more lumps.
5. Add the cornstarch mixture back to the stew, turn slow cooker to high and cook until stew is thicker and translucent.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Please check back on February 1st for February’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free hosted by yours truly!

*To make gluten free breadcrumbs, take a few pieces of your favourite bread (I had a loaf that didn’t want to be separated into proper slices) and coarsely crumble and place on a cookie sheet. Heat your oven to 200F, place the cookie sheet inside and turn off. Or, you can just leave the bread out until it is dry enough – which will happen quickly because it’s GF . Once bread it dry, put in a bag and use a rolling-pin to crush into small crumbs.

One of my plans for the new year was to clear up my face. As much as I wish that hoping that my face would clear up by itself, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Thankfully, my face is doing a lot better than it has been before, but it still needs a spot of help.

It probably doesn’t help that I fell off the not-eating-chocolate wagon over Christmas (my decent down the slippery slope started at Mr. Bean’s Christmas party – c’mon, who can say no to white chocolate mousse at breakfast?) and that I was incredibly stressed out due to reports, projects and finals.

Fortunately, I do have a plan. A lady who works in the “beauty” section of my local health food store, suggested that I try this: Nature’s Gate Organics Acne Treatment System.

It’s good for a beauty dunce like myself because it has a cleanser, toner and moisturizer, so I don’t have to wonder what I’m supposed to use or do.

It’s supposed to take 6 weeks to work its magic, so I’m hoping to keep track of my facial progress … and maybe reduce my chocolate consumption. (I can always dream. )

Have you ever had problems with acne? What did you do to get rid of it?

Since I’m still on somewhat of a baby kick (did it ever end? nope.) I need to announce that our friends had a baby just under a week ago: his name is Anderson.

He is so cute! And tiny! And sweet! And… I should probably stop before I write a 5 paragraph essay with an introduction, conclusion and 3 main arguments. Anyways, what is it about babies that makes your insides melt and make you desperately want one of your own? Erm… Maybe that’s a discussion best left for another day.

I am so happy that we got to meet him yesterday – I’m looking forward to watching him grow up! Hopefully he won’t have to battle any matrices other than ones in linear algebra or computer programming. (I’ll stop making “The Matrix” references now.)

What’s your favourite thing about newborn babies?

As I hope all of you know, the Olympics are going to be in Vancouver this February. As part of the hype building process, the olympic torch has been travelling through Canada over the last months. In the last few days, the torch has been travelling through Calgary. It was completely by fluke that I saw the torch not once, but twice today.

I had a dentist appointment downtown this morning, so I was sitting on the train reading a book and I looked up to see the torch being run on an adjacent street. Apparently Calgary Transit did all it could to bring this moment to us.

After my appointment, I headed to the uni, got off the train only to be stopped by a small cheering crowd, a whole bunch of police vehicles and others driving past  making lots of noise.

Then lo and behold! The Olympic torch!

I really didn’t have any plans to go and watch the torch, but I guess they were made for me. Now I feel really excited about the Olympics!

Are you excited about the Olympics?

One of the (many) competitions in ENGG Week is Iron Chef. The rules are similar to the actual TV show: you have a secret ingredient (maple syrup), have to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert in 90 minutes and have to have a team of 3 students and 2 professors. I was at first a bit hesitant about helping out (cooking under pressure in front of many people and not in  my own kitchen? Can you say anxiety?), but then I realized that this challenge was right up my alley and got really into it.

What was on the menu, you ask? Well, we had to make something that could  be made with materials and equipment we brought in ourselves and it (obviously) had to use maple syrup. So here’s what we made:

Appetizer: Apple Maple Rumaki

Main Dish: Pan Fried Pork Tenderloin with Maple and Mustard Sauce and Green Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

Dessert: Maple Crème Brûlée

Drink: Liberation Libation

I had an awesome and hilarious team. They were quite helpful in getting everything set up:

Martini anyone?

Or salad?

Or perhaps some crème brûlée?

Or some bacon wrapped apples? (Actual rumaki uses chicken liver, but this variation is so much better.)

How about the whole set up?

We tried to channel an urban upscale restaurant – I think we did fairly well considering that we were set up in the engineering student’s lounge.

The judges seemed to enjoy what they were eating despite it being the 4th meal they had consumed for Iron Chef. I don’t know if we won the challenge, but I like to think that we did.

Even if we didn’t win, it was a lot of fun and our food was fantastic. Ever had random people clamour to eat partly eaten food that other people ate and then rave about how great it was? Yeah, that happened – I’m just really hoping that no one was sick.

It was an interesting experience – I learned that counter top convection ovens don’t know what even heat is yet they are still incredibly useful, that adding an extra egg yolk makes crème brûlée that much better, that using a freezer that can freeze ice in 3 hours is a good idea and that said freezer is a great way to fast track cooling the crème brûlée.

Oh, yeah. I also learned that I probably shouldn’t be given a blow torch.