Christmas Cookies

We managed to squeeze in some cookie making this weekend.  I searched the internet to find some recipes for wheat-, dairy-, corn- and soy-free cookies.  I decided to try this recipe from The CELIAC web site.  They turned out pretty good.  They are sweet enough to eat on their own, but would be nice with some frosting.  I want to try making some corn-free powdered sugar to make frosting. This is our first year trying to get through the holidays on restricted diets.  It is challenging, but I am so thankful for the internet, which makes finding alternative recipes easier. 

Gabriel helped me with making the dough, and was involved in cutting out most of the cookies.  Annika got to cut out a few, too.  They baked up quickly.  Once again, the only reason we did this was because Gabriel begged me over and over.  I feel like it would be so easy for me to skip a lot of these traditional activities.  Having a child who cares, and who thrives on the traditions and special activities of each season really helps keep me moving and forces me to make the extra effort.  I am glad to have cookies to snack on, and I enjoy the memories we create.  

 

Catching Up

I haven't felt much like writing here lately.  I've been writing in my journal, writing about my morning devotionals, writing about my therapy sessions, and writing to try to get a freelancing career going.  It seems I don't have much left for writing here.  Now I'm feeling kind of guilty. I haven't kept up on my 30 days of Thanksgiving at all.  It is going to be the actual holiday soon!  

Here are some photos from the past few weeks:

We went to the aquarium one day. Annika's favorite part was the octopus.
Here she is climbing on the beautiful sea otter carving:

I've done some baking.  Annika loves to help.  She gets up to her elbows in flour.

We tried a new recipe for us out of Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread book.  It uses sorghum flour as the base.  It turned out pretty good:

I taught Gabriel how to use the index in his new Usborne children's atlas, and he loves to look up places now: countries, continents, states or cities.
 I couldn't figure out how to explain looking up names in alphabetical order, but he has a lot of persistence and can usually find what he wants.

Gabriel also has been imitating experiments he has been doing in school. You can't see very well, but he is wearing his white science coat from his dress-up box. He did some sink-float experiments in various iterations. He tried toys, craft items, and spices from the cupboard.
He even cleaned up (most) of his mess without me asking him. He took a bunch of photos, and stuck with it for quite awhile. So cool!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty

I love the smell of bread baking in the oven.  We tried out a new recipe yesterday using the large squash we baked the other day.  The kids and I are intolerant of wheat, so we are trying to find alternatives to the sprouted breads we normally use.  Annika has shown an interest in "helping" me in the kitchen recently.  I remember this stage with Gabriel; trying to teach her how to measure, stir, pour, and keep from eating the flour and spreading the dough all over the counter.  I took many deep breaths to calm myself, and we got through this baking adventure fairly well.  The bread is a yeast bread from Betty Hagman's Gluten Free baking book.  I usually have to tweak the recipe in some way, and try them a few times to get them right for my oven and ingredients.  The bread smelled wonderful until it smelled like burning...I had forgotten to put tin foil on top to keep it from browning too much.  Woops!  It turned out OK, we just had to cut the crust off to eat the soft and sweet interior.  We ate almost the whole loaf that afternoon, and I made another one today.  It turned out better than the first, and we ate all but two pieces.  Gabriel even boasted that it is the only bread crust he likes.  Annika begged me to let her help bake today, but alas, it had to be done during her nap.  Oh well, I still have more squash; maybe we'll make some more bread tomorrow.