Gluten Free, Diary Free Cinnamon Rolls

So, I had my first foray into gluten free, dairy free baking. That is right, I over came my fears--I'm no longer a gluten free baking virgin.

I found this recipe on how to make dairy free gluten free cinnamon rolls. It was modified from this cinnamon roll recipe. However, the caveat is the recipe is designed to make something like 80 rolls. I only really needed 4 rolls--and we only ate 1 for Christmas breakfast. So I used part of the dough to make crescent rolls for this recipe (yes, it is apple wrapped in crescent rolls, baked in a ton of butter and sugar---delicious!) The rest I was able to freeze to make future cinnamon rolls, crescent rolls, dinner rolls, or pizza dough. How awesome? One go many uses. It also required no kneading, few dishes, and so little effort--but does require planning and having at least 3 hours to make (2 hours worth of waiting). Even if you make the original version of the recipe, it is awesome to have dough in my freezer for future use.

I used a mixture of Bob's Red Mill gluten free baking mix and bean flour and I added my own 1 tsp of xantham gum per cup of flour (it comes out to 9 tsp). I also used soy free, dairy free butter stuffs called Earth Balance, which can be procured at Walmart.

It also says in the picture direction to bake at 400 degrees; however, the recipe says 375 degrees. I did 375 degrees and it took about 30 minutes to bake all the way through. I did not use her maple frosting from the recipe, but I used this frosting recipe from the clone of a cinnabon on allrecipes.com.

They turned out so well. I was worried and I didn't trust Evan for an accurate review. But my sister's brother-in-law's girlfriend (did you follow that, I almost didn't) had one this morning for her Christmas breakfast, and I heard second-hand rave reviews. So give it a try. It was awesome.

Decking the Halls

We put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Aiden went to bed before we were done because he was tired, ornery, and into everything. I tried to get a good picture of him, but that blurry one of his face is the best that I could do. He does not ham it up for the camera like Kyle used to at that age, I need a super expensive fast camera to get good pictures of that quick one.

We had a good time though. The boys have really enjoyed the tree and it was so fun to finally decorate with Kyle and to pull out our ornaments from years passed that belong to him. We put the good ornaments up top and there was one branch on the bottom with ten bells---that was all Kyle's doing. We were able to find a good space in the corner by our front window and blocked it in with our two love seats. It served us well as an awesome setup. I'm sad it is going to need to come down this week.

Thanksgiving Eve Bowling

First Glimpses of Winter

We had a small amount of snow in the early part of November before all the leaves had even fallen off the trees. Kyle was so excited to go out, and he wanted to make a snowman so badly. However, we did not have that much snow, and there was a ton of leaves below the few inches of snow. But we did go out so that I could shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Aiden did not like it at all, eventually, he was on ground that I had shoveled and I took his gloves off, so he tolerated it. Aiden's displeasure at being outside eventually drove us back inside---where Kyle's displeasure was extreme. I hope we'll get more before Christmas, so that it starts to feel like Christmas :)

October was When?

Way back in October, before Halloween, we went to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty limited and small. The corn maze did not even have any options for alternative paths :) However, it was great for the kids. We went with Evan's brother, Nolan, his wife Zaida, and their son, Ignacio. The picture of them on the haystacks is as close as we could get them. But it was a gorgeous day and Kyle and Aiden both loved the tractors.

We had a monkey of a Halloween! Evan worked so I took the boys trick-or-treating. Not my favorite job and in the future, I'll look forward to Evan doing that. Unfortunately our friends fell thru on going with us, so we headed out as a trio. Kyle had me go up to every door with him so he wasn't alone. We went down three blocks of one street and circled back up the next. He decided when he was done and we did not hit every house. Aiden stayed in his stroller the whole time and at house number 4, he got a dum dum and that kept him busy until we were back home. It was successful, but I'll be so glad when I don't have to do holidays alone while Evan works.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie....

 

So we have a mouse in our kitchen. Well, at least that is where it has been spotted. On Friday, right before Evan went to work, Evan was standing by the refrigerator and sink. I was standing on the opposite side of the bar. As we were talking, I saw a dark something dash out from behind the fridge and run toward the sink along the baseboard under the cupboards and then go back. I asked Evan what he thought it was, I had no idea. I thought I was crazy. He helped me move the fridge and sure enough staring back at us were little beady eyes of a brown mouse. I screamed, dashed around the bar, and climbed up onto a bar stool.

I know, not the type of thing you would expect or me either. But I did. It is just kind of disconcerting and instinctual. Well, the mouse darted down the baseboard again into the opening that runs into the whole corner of our cupboards. (Probably why we have a mouse, there are several such weird holes in our house--not our house, our rented house. Really, don't ask.)

I called my nieghbor. She said to get traps. I didn't have access to a car, so I just fished the glue traps out of the garage that were in the kitchen when we moved in (bad sign, I know). So far nothing has been caught, so yesterday, I added a huge dallop of peanut butter.

So when this happened, Kyle told me, "Mommy, don't be scared. It is just a mouse. Not a monster." Yup, seriously good advice from a three year old. Then Kyle asked me if he could pet the mouse. Not good advice from a three year old.

Tonight, as I was sorting clothes in the living room, I thought that Aiden was in the kitchen eating rice from his dinner off the floor. I had forgotten that I left the gate open. Minutes later, Aiden comes waddling into the living room, with his hand stuck in the glue trap and eating peanut butter directly off the trap with his mouth. I screamed like a little girl. I was seriously freaked that he was ingesting whatever that could be bad for him.

I had to hard core rip his little hand off the glue trap and then use olive oil to get the stickiness of the glue gone. Then clean his face of peanut butter. He did not ingest any of the trap and is fine. I still don't think that this is a funny store, but Evan said it made his day as did my neighbor, who I called in a panic. So I hope it makes your day.

Home Again, Home Again

I am sitting here at my window waiting for home health, apparently they came 20 minutes ago and because we were downstairs did not hear them.

While I was gone my tree in the front yard emptied its leaves. I hope the neighbor boy comes to rake soon.

It took six hours to discharge today. Five of those hours were trying to get the different teams to do their parts and a lot of "that's not my job" by various parties. There was also a hiccup with the fact that our insurance did not want us to get a home pump.

Kyle did fabulous, except that he doesn't mind causing himself more pain by laying on his button and sliding along. Pain does not deter him. Also neither does morphine. He was well behaved and charmed everyone who came into his room. I got so many compliments on how they know of no other three year olds that swallow their pills. It may not be a wonderful skill like counting or reading--but we know how to do our medicine and deal with doctors (which is what Kyle called the doctors and techs). Our techs were so good and did not wake him in the middle of the night. And surprisingly, the recliner was not the worst to sleep in.

Best part was how wonderful the vanilla dryers ice cream was in the cafeteria. Seriously. And how Kyle convinced a child life specialist that Aiden also needed a car (even though Aiden was at home) so he could get two cars instead of one.

Even though I've been mostly sitting on my butt at the hospital. I am surprisingly defeated And although I took my laptop, I never used it at the hospital. I feel over come by the prep needed for Thanksgiving and all the laundry that needs to get done. But Evan reminds me I can always do that tomorrow.

I have pictures of the hospital and my perfect patient, but they will have to wait. Thank you all for the support.