Somehow having a fajita on a corn tortilla just doesn’t cut it. Nor does having a wrap or pinwheel on one of the store-bought GF flour tortillas that are available on the market. It is not that they are bad, but they are certainly not the same. I want a soft, bendable/rollable GF flour tortilla that tastes like a flour tortilla should taste darn it!

If you have read many of my posts, you probably already know that I am obsessed with trying to replicate certain gluten containing foods, sans the gluten of course. It has become a teeny bit compulsive but I am starting to hit a few home runs here and there, especially with the condensed soup recipe!

So, I tried out about a million different recipes and have landed on one that I think is a very close replica of wheat flour tortillas. I found the recipe on the Living Without website and it was created by none other than New Mexico’s very own Jane Butel of the Jane Butel Cooking School! I have also found a great way to roll them out with little mess and the dough does not even stick to the rolling pin! Plus, a nifty little trick to make them look factory made! All with the Pie Crust Maker and a saucepan lid!

Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas

1 cup Rice Flour (I ONLY use superfine rice flours, they have a silky, powdery feel similar to wheat flour and you will not get the typical gritty texture of regular rice flour).

1/3 cup Potato Starch

1/3 cup Tapioca Starch (I used Expandex)

1/3 cup Fava Bean Flour (I used Garfava Flour).

2 tsp. Xanthan Gum

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp.  Sugar

1 1/4 tsp. Salt (I just use 1 tsp. in mine)

2 Tbs. Vegetable Shortening (I use Crisco and I add an additional 1 1/2 tsp. for a total of 2 1/2 Tbs. shortening)

3/4 – 1 cup Warm Water (I usually end up adding 3/4 cup plus half of a quarter cup (1/8 cup), you will get a nice ball of dough and not a batter).

• Combine all of the dry ingredients, then cut in or work in the shortening using a pastry blender, 2 knives or your hand (I used my food processor).

• Add the warm water, starting with 3/4 cup and mix well. Continue to add water until a soft, cohesive dough is formed.

• Heat a griddle to medium heat.

The following steps are what I do to try and repicate to store-bought flour tortillas:

Using the Pie Crust Maker, dust the inside with some GF flour (I just used some of the Tapioca Starch that was already out.)

Add a ball of the dough (it does not have to be of any particular size because I am showing you the cheater’s way of making tortillas).

Roll out the dough to about 1/8″ thickness. Make it big enough for whatever size tortilla you want, but do not worry about making a perfect circle, this is what your lid is for!

Use a saucepan lid that is close to the size of tortilla you want, (I make mine around 8-in.) and use it as your tortilla “cookie” cutter!

Cook one at a time on a hot griddle, (I spray mine with cooking spray first) until the surface bubbles. Turn only once, the first side should have brown flecks. Cook until the second side has slightly browned (this should not take long).

Once my tortillas have cooled, I store mine in a sealed ziploc bag and they stay perfectly bendable. Personally, I think they are even better the next day and you do not need to warm them to make them pliable! Woo Hoo! Think we will be having fajitas for dinner tonight!

Had ya didn’t I? Yeah…no. I wouldn’t have fell for it either!

(For more on the real creator (Barry Parsons) of this beautiful gingerbread “manor” click here).

The cold, hard reality: we are close kin of the Griswolds!! This is an update from my first post on making your own Gluten Free Gingerbread House.

I do not remember the last time that I laughed so hard I cried! Literally! I will admit that it was quite the challenge for me to put aside my “Type A” personality and just let the boys go for it. I am glad I did though, because “perfect” is not nearly as fun or memorable. The only decorating contribution I actually made was the walkway leading to the house!

The licorice you see is gluten-free and made by Candy Tree.

For the gingerbread recipe and the templates click here.

You will want to make Royal Icing to use as the “glue” for the gingerbread forms and the decorations.

Royal Icing (Wilton’s recipe)

3 Tbs. Meringue Powder

4 cups (1-lb.) Confectioners Sugar

6 Tbs. Warm Water

Food Coloring, if desired

• Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

**When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

Gluten Free Giveaway

And the winner is Alice!

Alice will receive the “Simple Joys” prize pack which includes 2 packages of Betty Crocker Fruit-Flavored Snacks, a retro Pick `em Up Sticks game, a light-up yo-yo and a classic Frisbee.

Alice’s favorite games as a child were LIFE, Uno and Connect Four.

Congratulations Alice! If you will email me your address at heidikelly13@gmail.com, I will get your prize pack out to you!

I have been collecting a few commercial turkey gravies to sample and review. I am including 3 different gravies along with some opinions.

1. Imagine Natural Creations Roasted Turkey Flavored Gravy
2. Mayacamas Turkey Flavored Gravy Mix
3. Allergy Free Foods Chicken · Turkey Gravy Mix

First Up, Imagine Natural Creations Roasted Turkey Flavored Gravy. I found this gravy at my local Sunflower Market. Of the three gravies, we all thought this one had the best flavor and color. The downside though is that it is very thin and runny. My friend Kristen said it best, “if you like your side dishes to be infused with the gravy, then it is good.” For example, when you ladle the gravy on dressing, it “disappears” into the dressing (absorbs into the dressing). Not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on what you like. I just like my gravy to sit on top of the dressing.

Second, Mayacamas Turkey Gravy Mix. I found this mix at my local Keller’s Farm Market. Of the three gravies, this was definitely the saltiest. The smell almost reminds me of the seasoning packet in beef flavored Ramen Noodles (hmmm…might be a future recipe experiment for GF Ramen Noodles!). I was tickled by the difference in the color of the gravy that I made versus the color of the gravy on the front of the packet. I actually do regularly use the Mayacamas Beef Gravy packets for things like Salisbury Steak and we really like it but the Turkey Gravy just doesn’t taste or look like turkey gravy to me.

Third, AllergyFree Foods Chicken · Turkey Gravy Mix. I do not want to be negative but I have to say that this gravy leaves much to be desired. That being said, I LOVE AllergyFree Foods Chicken Nuggets (They are what I use in my McDonald’s Happy Meals…they are simply the best GF kid-style Chicken Nuggets that I have found, they totally remind me of Mickey D’s nuggets, but without all of the bad stuff!). They are marketed under the Stuffin Gourmet name on QVC. I also use their Expandex Modified Tapioca Starch. In fact, it is the only Tapioca Starch I use. The gravy though, (and I triple checked the directions to make sure that I followed them correctly) was the exact replica of what can go SOOOO wrong when adding a starch directly to a hot liquid. B.O.O.G.E.R. B.A.L.L.S. Not a pleasant phrase but descriptive!

When making a gravy with any starch like corn starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, etc., you MUST make a slurry first or you will get little balls of “seized up” starch that will not go away, no matter how much you stir it.

A little Alton Brown on the subject of gravy (if you have time, watch it in its entirety, it’s about 10 minutes long but extremely helpful!). Even though he ultimately uses wheat flour, he talks with a food scientist about using different starches, even Arrowroot. Alton also does a demonstration on (what I call a Booger Ball) really is…apparently this will happen with wheat flour too if not prepared correctly!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFmvw8s5Bc&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

All-in-all, if you do not like to make your own gravy there are GF options out there. I think even Trader Joe’s has a GF turkey gravy but I have not tried it yet. I am just a Schmidt girl at heart though, and I am partial to the gravy I grew up on. I remember my dad removing the turkey from the roasting pan and laying it across 2 stove top burners, cranking up the heat and adding flour straight into the (non-separated) turkey drippings. After making the roux, he would add water until it came to his desired consistency and then salt to taste. Very simple. I always got to be my dad’s gravy assistant and I took it very seriously! To this day, it is one of my fondest childhood memories with my dad.

I still make gravy this way, only I use Tom Sawyer’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, which is a cup for cup GF replacement for wheat based all purpose flour. I use it to make gravy and pizza crusts (when I need a large pizza for a crowd and Udi’s crusts only come in small). I also use it in almost all of my quick breads and cookies too. I thought I would make a quick note about having Tom Sawyer’s logo and link in my sidebar. I am not a paid representative of Tom Sawyer’s GF Flour nor do I get free flour to promote their product. I doubt they even know I exist out here on the web. I have their logo and link on my blog because I truly believe this is a GREAT GF all purpose flour, especially if you are new to the diet and do not want to invest in a lot of different flours and xanthan gum. The only thing that I didn’t care for was the sandwich bread I made once, but that could have either been the recipe or operator error! Now that I have Udi’s, I do not even mess with making bread anymore! Nowadays I do keep just about every GF flour out there in stock but that is because I like to experiment. I even have Sweet Potato Starch!

Anyway, I remember the first time I made gravy with Tom Sawyer’s back in 2006. I cried like a baby because I reclaimed something from my past that I thought was gone to me forever. It really does work just like wheat flour in gravy. I dump it straight into the hot drippings with zero booger balls and pure Thanksgiving gluten free bliss! Every glutenator that has ever sampled my gravy CANNOT tell it is gluten-free.

2UQCSRQUKYY7

Ohhhh…it simply does not get any better than this! Back in my pre-GF days, I used to LOVE it when Red Lobster would have their seasonal Pumpkin Cheesecake on the menu. When I was in college and I lived with my childhood BFF, we would spend our entire weekly grocery budget and go to Red Lobster and chow down on Crab Legs and Pumpkin Cheesecake (I know, interesting combination). Then we went to her mom’s house and “grocery shopped” in her pantry! Those were the days…

Nowadays, if I want Pumpkin Cheesecake, I have to make it myself and a cheesecake maker, I am not! This is where I am thankful for celiac disease (this is Thanksgiving after-all!). As we all know, most things gluten-free look a little…different than their gluten containing alter egos. A few years on the diet and your expectations in the presentation category are greatly reduced. LOL! But ugly cheesecake does not necessarily mean yucky cheesecake! We, in the gluten-free community, can be fairly easy to please. We can be SO easy to please that when we come across something like say bread that really tastes like bread, right out of the bag (thank you Udi’s!) we may be prone to conniptions of ecstasy. Something a non-gluten free person just doesn’t understand…”What’s the big deal, it’s just bread Heidi. And why are you dancing like that? You are making my eyes hurt!” This is where I like to have a little fun at their expense and I give the glutenator a slice of shelf-stable GF bread, straight from the bag (just for comparison purposes )! Oh, it makes me laugh just thinking about it!

Anyhoo…

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 cups Gingersnap Cookie Crumbs (I used Pamela’s Simple Bites Ginger Mini Snapz)
4 tablespoons Butter or Margarine, melted (I used Smart Balance in the tub)
3 (8-oz.) packages Cream Cheese, softened (I used lowfat Neufchatel)
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
2 tablespoons Flour (I used Tom Sawyer’s GF All-Purpose Flour)
1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 Eggs
1 (14.5-oz) can Pumpkin

• Combine gingersnap crumbs and butter or margarine in a medium mixing bowl. Place mixture in a 10-inch springform pan. Press crumbs evenly over bottom and 2-inches up the sides of pan; set aside.

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.

• Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugars, GF flour and pumpkin pie spice in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add eggs and pumpkin; mix well. Pour into crust.

• Place pan on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour (I decided to attempt my first ever water bath, see below). Turn off oven and let cheesecake remain in oven 1 hour longer. Remove from oven; cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours.

• Carefully remove sides of pan from cheesecake. Makes 12 servings. Top with GF Whipped Topping if desired.

Cheesecake lesson learned: The night before making this cheesecake, I happened to watch a Good Eats episode on making cheesecake in a water bath. Unfortunately, I did not follow his directions and use a high-sided cake pan. I used my spring-form pan lined with foil instead. Alton Brown also said to leave the cheesecake in the turned off oven for an extra hour after the cheesecake is done baking. Well, I did this but forgot about it and went out to run my errands. 5 hours later, my cheesecake crust was rather soggy. So, as you can see in the following photos, my cheesecake is sans a bottom crust! The filling was so good though, that I just scraped it off and ate it anyway! See what I mean about being easy to please?? LOL! So, learn from my mistake if you attempt a water bath for the first time: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CHEESECAKE IN THE OVEN LONGER THAN AN HOUR (and don’t use a spring-form pan)!

My ego really wanted to remake the cheesecake before posting this but I want to stress how much I am not a trained professional in the kitchen. Just a mom on a mission. So, if you do not like to cook because you do not think you are good at it, that’s okay…give it a shot and go on this adventure with me. We can share a few good laughs along the way.

I am so excited! I am a new member of the MyBlogSpark program and I just received my first free product to review AND do a giveaway on my blog!

I received the following items from Betty Crocker (General Mills) to review:

Sam was so excited when we received this package. I like to keep some of the Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks on hand to throw in Sam’s lunchbox every now and then, he loves it when he “can be like all of his friends.” These are one of the few mainstream items that he can have because they are labeled Gluten-Free!

Sam particularly likes the Fruit by the Foot (he flipped out when we found the Franken Berry and Boo Berry Fruit by the Foot back during the Halloween season). My boys also really like the Fruit Gushers. Sam and I have been playing with the Pick ‘em Up sticks and he loves it, especially when I lose! I have been reminiscing on some of my favorite games as a child: Uno, Checkers, Connect Four and a fun game called Hawaiian Punch.

The “Simple Joys” prize pack includes 2 packages of Betty Crocker Fruit-Flavored Snacks, a retro Pick `em Up Sticks game, a light-up yo-yo and a classic Frisbee.

To enter this contest, follow the instructions below:

1.  Leave a comment & tell me what your favorite game was as a child – did you like to play Pick ‘em Up Sticks?  Frisbee?

2.  Tweet about this post and include @adventuresgfmom.

3.  If you don’t have a Twitter account, blog about this post & link back.

Good luck!  This contest will end Thursday at midnight. Winner will be announced on Friday.

My mom: “Mmmm, this is closer to my mother’s cornbread dressing than anything I have ever tried to make.” (My grandmother never wrote any of her recipes down, so we have had a terrible time trying to replicate the dishes that mean so much to my mom, gluten-free or otherwise. My Aunt Sarah has given me some guidance over the years since she usually helped my grandmother do the cooking).

Me: WHAT!!! “But this is Gluten-Free…”

My mom: “Well, I am not sure what to say other than it is very good.”

Oh, Happy Day!

I have a lot of folks taste test for me. I cook all day on most days when my boys are in school. A tweak here, a tweak there…I think it has become an obsession. Only a mild obsession though! LOL! There is nothing quite like having gone without for so long, and then figuring it out and finally getting it right. I do not do well with being told “no”, I never have. Tell me “no” to something and I become a very determined woman! For example: I was never a Twinkie fan, but once I knew I could NEVER have one again, (even though I hadn’t had one since I was probably 8 or so) all of a sudden, even a telephone pole looked like a Twinkie! I just had to have one! And only because I “technically” couldn’t! So I made my own.

While most of my taste testers have said they really like my “GF replica” creations, my mom has been my toughest critic to win over. As she puts it, “I’m just set in my ways.” I actually appreciate her (at times, painful) honesty, as I always knew she would never spare my feelings and say she liked something if she in fact, did not. My mom has been my driving force on this little obsession of mine.

My mom’s seal of approval for this cornbread dressing recipe has been the single most rewarding experience of my gluten-free life.

Gluten-Free Southern Cornbread Dressing

I try to do as much as I can ahead of time for big meals like Thanksgiving so I can relax and enjoy the day too! I will make my cornbread about 4 days ahead of time and let it dry out naturally on a cookie sheet. You can also dry it out in a 250° F. oven if you prefer.

First, you need to make the cornbread. This recipe calls for self-rising cornmeal, so you will need to make some (we are gluten-free after all!).

Self-Rising Cornmeal:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour (I used Tom Sawyer’s GF All-Purpose Flour)

3 cups Cornmeal (I used Quaker’s Yellow Cornmeal)

2 Tbs. Baking Powder

2 tsp. Salt

• Mix all ingredients well.

• Store in an airtight container.

• Use in any recipe calling for self-rising cornmeal.

Cornbread: (Yes, you are reading this recipe correctly, there is ZERO sugar in this cornbread recipe! As my mom would say, “No self-respecting southerner puts sugar in their cornbread!” )

1 cup Self-Rising Cornmeal

3 Tbs. All-Purpose Flour (I used Tom Sawyer’s)

1 Egg, beaten

2/3 cup Buttermilk

1 Tbs. Water

1 Tbs. Shortening, melted (I used Crisco’s Butter Flavored Shortening) or Canola Oil

• In a bowl, add the self-rising cornmeal and flour. Stir with a whisk to combine.

• In a separate bowl, add the beaten egg, buttermilk, water and melted shortening or oil. Mix well.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

• Preheat oven to 400°F.

• Grease (I just used Pam) an 8 or 9-inch baking pan (my grandmother always used a cast iron skillet, but I have yet to replace mine since going GF).

• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cornbread Dressing:

1 batch of Cornbread (see above), crumbled and dried out.

5 slices Ener-g Light Tapioca Loaf, “toasted” in a 250° F. oven for about an hour or so, then broken into small pieces. (My grandmother always used biscuits instead of bread in her dressing, but GF biscuits have never worked out for me). The Ener-g Light Tapioca Loaf is the bread that I had settled on before Udi’s came into my life, but you would NEVER want to eat it straight out of the bag like you can Udi’s bread’s. It HAS to be microwaved or toasted.  As much of an Udi’s fan as I am, I only use this bread in my dressing recipes. Something magical happens to the texture of this bread when it has been dried out, (which it pretty much comes in that state anyway, but I still toast it up for a little added insurance) and then you add liquid to it in a dressing recipe. It does not break down into a gritty mess like a lot of GF breads (and my GF biscuits). I honestly do not know if this happens with the Udi’s bread because I have not tried it in a dressing recipe yet. I can’t seem to wrap my brain around letting go of my sandwich bread for experimentation purposes!).

1 cup Onion, diced

1 cup Celery, diced

1/2 cup Butter (I used Smart Balance)

3/4 tsp. Poultry Seasoning (more or less, depending on your taste)

4 Eggs, beaten

1 Tbs. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 quart (32-oz.) Chicken Broth or Stock (I am a HUGE fan of Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock)

• In a large sauté pan, melt butter then add onions and celery. Reduce heat and cook until translucent. Add poultry seasoning to the celery and onion mixture and cook a few minutes longer to allow the flavors to blend. Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit (so the heat does not scramble the eggs).

• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add crumbled cornbread and bread pieces. Toss to blend. Add baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.

• In a separate bowl, beat eggs with a fork or whisk. Add to the bread mixture, stir.

• Add the cooled sauteed vegetables with poultry seasoning to the bread mixture, stir.

• Add chicken broth or stock. You will want this mixture to be soupy and I do mean soupy! If you do not add enough broth or stock, the cornbread dressing will be very dry.

• I made mine in a slow-cooker, set to low for a couple of hours. You can also bake it in the oven at 350° F. for 45 minutes or until the dressing is lightly brown on top and the middle is set. My grandmother would always lay a few pecan slices on top of the dressing before she baked it to make a pretty presentation. The pecans would come out nice and toasty. The pecans do not work in a slow-cooker because they get very soft and are neither pretty or tasty!

Here is my grandmother’s recipe for Candied Yams. The oranges are a beautiful complement to the sweet potatoes, they brighten the naturally sweet taste of this highly nutritious tuber.

Sweet potatoes are naturally low in Sodium, and are very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. They also a good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin B6 and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin A, vitamin C and Manganese.

Another look at the nutritional benefits of the sweet potato:

The numbers for the nutritional sweet potato speak for themselves: almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 42 percent of the recommendation for vitamin C, four times the RDA for beta carotene, and, when eaten with the skin, sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal. All these benefits with only about 130 to 160 calories!

Now keep in mind the above information is just for the sweet potato itself and does not include any add-ins like in the recipe that follows! Normally, when I make sweet potatoes, I just bake them and eat them plain. Although I do also like them with sugar-free maple syrup, but I am trying to cut out the “artificial” foods in my diet (tips anyone on banishing diet soda for good…a diet soda rehab maybe?? LOL). I think Agave Nectar would be nice to try as it is lower on the glycemic index than pure maple syrup and it is a natural food. Maybe even add a drop of Pure Maple Extract to it for that maple flavor!

Anyhoo, this recipe makes me laugh. There has been a long standing argument between my mom and my dad over the usage of the word “yam.” My mom calls them yams, which I think is common in the southern part of the United States (she is from Alabama), but my dad is quick to remind her that they are in fact NOT yams but sweet potatoes. He is actually correct and if you are interested in the differences between the two tubers (that are not even distantly related) click here.

It was always funny to watch my dad as he would begin to twitch at the improper usage of the word yam. He reminds me of the character Arthur Spooner, played by Jerry Stiller, in the The King of Queens. Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) would be my mom.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQdWBsGE6uY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Sorry, couldn’t help myself! I hope the video clip added a giggle to your day!

Candied “Yams”

3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and sliced

2 Oranges, sliced into circles

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Orange Juice

GF Mini Marshmallows

I made mine in a slow-cooker, but you could also bake them in the oven at 350° for about 30 minutes.

• Boil (I steamed mine to keep the nutritional content) sweet potato slices until just tender, about 10 minutes. Drain.

• In the bottom of your baking dish (or slow-cooker) squeeze the juice out of one of your oranges then lay the slices on the bottom of the dish.

• Add half of your sweet potato slices, then repeat the process with the remaining orange slices and sweet potatoes.

• In a separate bowl; add the brown sugar and orange juice, mix. Drizzle the brown sugar/orange juice mixture over the sweet potatoes and orange slices.

• Cover and bake for about 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are soft.

• Remove from the oven, top with mini marshmallows and return to the oven, uncovered, for about 15 minutes more, or until the marshmallows are melted and golden brown.

If you use a slow cooker: I set mine to low for a couple of hours before adding the marshmallows, then re-covered and switched the setting to warm until the marshmallows were melted.

Here is another green bean side dish that would be a good alternative to green bean casserole for Thanksgiving, especially if you want something super fast and easy.

The recipe calls for canned green beans but I am sure fresh or frozen would be great too.

Green Beans Parmesan

2 cans Cut Green Beans

1 4-oz. can Mushrooms

1 cup fresh Onion Rings, sliced into rings

2 Tbs. Butter (I used Smart Balance)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

• Cook green beans according to pakage directions. Add mushrooms and heat through.

• Sauté onions in butter.

• Drain green beans and mushrooms; toss with onions and Parmesan cheese.

• Serve with additional cheese, if desired.

I received this email from Jenny Bosking of Tasteslikerealfood.com today and thought I would share this information before it is too late.

Dear Toro Customers:

It is with great regret that we announce the end of our distribution of Toro Gluten Free Baking Mixes in the United States. Toro recently changed their formulation of their mixes and we no longer feel the quality of the product is up to our standards. And as you as a celiac know, working with gluten-free flours can be difficult and frustrating. The new formulation has now completely changed the quality of our developed recipes that have been used to complement the different flours.

We have limited amounts of the “original” formula left and we would like to offer it to you at a deeply discounted price. All mixes on our website will now be $3.25 per bag with no limit. We encourage you to stock up on your favorites as they will no longer be available in the U.S. The flour’s expiration date is at the end of January 2010, but the mixes can be kept in the freezer to extend the shelf life and can be a great help to you during your holiday baking this year.

I thank you so much for your support of our products. I am heart-broken at the change of situation and will miss these mixes greatly. (I plan to fill a freezer myself. J) I consider so many of you my found friends during this business venture and I will miss my regular contact with you. Thanks for your business this last year and a half.

Go to www.tasteslikerealfood.com to place your order.

Sincerely,

Jenny Bosking

President, Tasteslikerealfood.com

Growing up we always drove from Ohio to Centre, Alabama to visit my mom’s side of the family for Christmas. My grandmother made some southern specialties that I grew to love over the years (it was hard letting go of my “Yankee” roots!). Besides my grandmother’s Cornbread Dressing and Candied Yams, there were her Cinnamon Candied Apples. I can still see them in my head all these years later, the bright red and candied apple slices…beautiful and yummy! I make all 3 of these side dishes for Thanksgiving.

If you want to make these but need to avoid the artificial coloring in the red hot candies, a few drops of cinnamon oil (the kind that you would find in the candy making aisle at a craft store) in a simple syrup should work, you just won’t get the vibrant red color, but that’s okay! It is my understanding that natural food colorings like beet juice, do not hold their color in the cooking process.

4 Firm Apples that are good for cooking. I used Jonathan apples.

3/4 cup Water

3/4 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Cinnamon Red Hot Candies (just make sure they are GF)

Lemon Juice

• Peel and core apples. Slice into 1/4-inch rings. Place rings in a bowl and squeeze fresh lemon juice over them to prevent browning.

• Meanwhile, in a 10-in. fry pan add water and sugar. Bring to a boil and add cinnamon red hot candies, reduce heat and simmer until the candies are melted.

• Add apple rings and cook for about 2 – 3 minutes per side. Remove from pan and place on a plate. Let cool.

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