Monday, May 17, 2010

In The Kitchen 3: *Gluten FREE* Gingersnap Cookies & Potato Chips



Gingersnaps:
These are gluten/wheat free gingersnaps. My sister, Mom and me have figured out how to take a recipe that is suppose to be made with regular flour, and make it gluten free. It's actually pretty simple. We usually use brown or white rice flour (and recently tried sorghum and bean flour), and about 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour. We sometimes use a mix of the flours listed too. Here is the gluten free, modified version of the recipe. You could half the recipe, because this is double of the original recipe. Thanks to - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmas-Gingersnap-Cookies/Detail.aspx for the original recipe.















4 c brown rice flour (you could also use white rice or some other acceptable flour)
2 t xantham gum
2 T ginger powder
4 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups lard (or shortening or butter)
2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c molasses
cinnamon sugar to roll the cookie balls in

Mix first 6 ingredients together. Mix the rest (minus the cinnamon sugar) and then add to dry mix. Roll into balls, roll in cinnamon sugar and flatten with your hand a little bit. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Should be brown with cracks on the tops.















Some burnt because I used a tray that didn't cook them very well. They weren't cracking very well so I left them in the oven, then they burnt.













Cookie dough bunnies













































Baked Potato Chips:
I used Russet patatos. The first time I made them I cut them with a peeler (see the picture below the this first picture) & cheese grater on the slicing side, And the second time I ran them through the food processor. After that, bake them for about 30 - 40 minutes in a 300 degree oven. Salt with Kosher salt and/or your favorite seasoning.


















































































Friday, May 14, 2010

Llama Shearing

One of the llamas needed to be sheared, so my sister (Suriyah) did a scissor job while mom was trying to hold the llama (Salty), Salty wasn't very happy. Well, after all was done, Salty has a neck with stair-step type scissor cuts.







Ace

Honeybun


Our new alpine buck, Dancer

The katadins

Maddy following me, walking through the flowers


Hanunyah  

Bat

We saw a bat flying by a light outside, where a bunch of bugs were.




Hanunyah

Sunset






Hanunyah

Ropin' Calves









Hanunyah

Canuck & Arrow

                                             Arrow                       Canuck


Hanunyah

Thursday, May 13, 2010

In The Kitchen 2


Hard Peppermint candy:
Instead of puting a cookie cutter in the candy, I just cut it with a knife. I think molds would be easier. Beware that it hardens FAST if you're going to put it into pans, and cut with a knife. Click here for the recipe.















Hard Ginger Candy:
I put them in muffin pans, but I didn't work fast enough, it foamed up and hardened before I got all of it in the pans. I made it again, and didn't rub it against the side of the pan (as the recipe says), I just put it in the pans right away. This recipe made about 24 mediem muffin pan size candies. Click here for the recipe (it's the first recipe listed on this page).















Soft Peppermint Creme Wafers:
When the recipe says to cook it to the soft ball stage, the tempature should be 234, not 334. Don't drop it on the wax paper unless you have stirred it until creamy, otherwise it will be hard to get off the wax paper. But if it is hard to get off, put it in the freezer and forget about it for a few days (overnight would probably work). The dark ones are chocolate peppermint. To make the chocolate peppermint, I just added cocoa pwd. to the scraps, and melted a little on low on the stove.  Click here for the recipe.