Lion Costume

So yeah, I have a couple of crazy weeks coming up, and one of them is Cole is in a preschool circus. He is a lion. So me being through this a few times before, I know I have a lion costume on hand. Well WRONG as I went to go and look for it today, and we have come to realize we cut off the tail to use as a monkey tail last year for Tucker. And who knows what we did with the costume after that. We tore the house apart, but there is no lion costume in this house/shed/under the house.

So what is a mom to do? Well let's just whip one up? After a minute on google I had an idea. I went tearing through the house, no one's clothes were safe. I need a costume and I need it by Tuesday, yeah two days from now, Tuesday.

Found this shirt in the to toss box, really I don't toss clothes I put them in my sewing pile. So I turned it inside out, to get the furry going.

The pants were another issue, after tearing through the house I didn't find any pants I could tear up. So the tail is pinned to the shorts. See I can compromise.

So I dug out my felt and picked out four good colors, I then cut the felt into strips, and put the shirt on the sewing machine, as I'm sewing, I'm adding the felt, by loping it and sewing as I went. Honestly it took less then an hour to get this done.

And now I think he will be the Coolest Lion at the circus.

That blur is a dog.

Gluten Free Circle Croutons

Not just any Croutons...But Awesome, looking round croutons. The fancy kind one might buy in a store if they could eat gluten. So you know that Awesome new machine I got, to make cake balls. Yep, that is the one, I sliced up my first batch of cake balls, covered them in olive oil, I used Mrs. Dash as the seasoning and I put them in the dehydrator. Making Croutons is that easy. In fact hubby did some tonight, and he was like I can't believe it was that easy. Yep.

So I now have this Awesome new jar...Thanks Shari...And there was only one thing to do with it. Hold my fancy new circle croutons. The jar will soon be filled. I have another batch going.

OH and just as a bonus I made these tonight. My boys have a tea party tomorrow and of course we HAD to use the new cake ball machine. And thought, let's just cover them with enjoy life chocolate. My boys were drooling.

Allergy Free Sprinkles

Well I had a dilemma, nearly every sprinkle out on the market has either food coloring/dyes, corn, or soy. And then the one that is on the market that is safe has really dull colors. So I went digging on line and finally came up with a recipe, a very easy recipe and something I can do easily. I like easy.

Now in my life before kids, I was a cake decorator. So you need a bag to hold icing and a number 2 tip. I used a number 2 and a number 4. I will say I like the number 2 tip the best. If you have no clue what I'm talking about go to Michael's or Joann's and in the cake section they have cake icing bags and tips. Tips are numbered, I used a number 2.

I squeezed it out in somewhat straight lines. Now you can leave it out to dry for about 24 hours or do what I did, I used my dehydrator and they were done in hours. You then take a knife and cut them up into little pieces.

Allergy Free Sprinkles
By Marcie Dingerson

1 cup corn free powdered sugar
1 teaspoon egg replacer (I may leave out next time)
Beet Powder, I used about 2 teaspoons

Slowly, very slowly add in water and mix, once it's to icing point, you fill the icing bag and go for it. On the water front, very slowly, I added in a few drops at a time.

Bread Ideas

So in the midst of Joann's yesterday I had a brain storm. This pan would be PERFECT to make bread in. Then the boys can have round sandwiches. Sometimes I amaze myself. So I bought two cake pans, (well I bought more then two, but don't tell hubby!) I bought a circle one, which I will now go back and buy at least 3 more, after using it today. These pans are from Wilton and you can probably buy them at any Joann's or Michaels.

I also bought a star pan for mini star sandwiches.

Don't they look good coming out?

Another view of them...

My oldest did a mayo, lettuce, chicken and cheese sandwich.

My middle child, God Love him, did a butter, sunbutter and cheese sandwich.

I used my bread recipe here http://threeboysandglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/06/breadreally-good-bread.html   I think I baked for 13-15 minutes, the stars only about ten minutes. Just keep your eyes on them. Now go and get creative, baking gluten free bread shapes.

COTM: Gluten Free Cake Balls

So on Monday May 23rd is my birthday, now I really don't like birthdays because it reminds me I'm getting older and really I don't feel this old.

So I went out on Saturday and bought myself a gift.

See this all started on Thursday, my boys were at a tea party and there were cake balls there, and they were like Mom you can make those. Yep, in all my spare time I have. But then I got to thinking, I still need to do Cupcake of the Month. So I did some digging and found out JCPenny should have the machine. So the boys and I went up and sure enough, I got the last one on the shelf, but they had a whole line of machines. I will tell ya it was very hard leaving with just one machine.

So here is my new toy. I will say after the first use I was hooked. I adore this machine.

So we came home from a birthday party on Saturday and whipped up Cake Balls. Now the recipe that came with the machine, I was not happy with, one cake mix, eggs, oil, water. I'm sorry but it's not a recipe. After some digging I found one from Gluten Free Mama. Now if you don't have her books, then what are you waiting for? Her books are Awesome. Well she had a donut recipe. So I whipped it right up and gave them to the boys to try. Ethan and Tucker ate about 5-6 each. Cole took one bite and said NO mom this won't do. He then explained to me how to fix my recipe.

So I drag myself out of bed on Sunday and Cole and I go into the kitchen to "fix" the recipe.

Here is the Little Naked Chef helping me.

Adding in the flour.

OK Cake Pops going in.

Cake Pops coming out.

Cake Pops dipped in Chocolate. My chocolate was just melted Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips.

Sprinkle with Sprinkles....

WAIT!!!!! Hold the phone, what do you mean Sprinkles? There are no safe sprinkles on the market what do we do?

Do what I did. I made my own...Look for the upcoming post. Yes, I really made my own sprinkles. And it was so beyond easy.

Gluten Free Cake Pops (Donuts)

Recipe from Gluten Free Mama...Rachel Carlyle

Adapted by Marcie Dingerson (And Coleson)

Wet Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut oil melted

1 egg replacer mixed with sparkling water

1 cup buttermilk (I used rice milk and vinegar) let sit for a few minutes.

Add in Dry Ingredients

2 cups all purpose mix (Rachel uses her blend either Almond or Coconut)

1/2 cup sugar (Cole's fix)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all together and drop dough into the machine. I cooked for 5 1/2 minutes.

For donuts warm up some oil and drop dough into oil and cook for a few minutes. Roll in powdered sugar or sugar and cinnamon.



Updated Garden Photos

Been out working hard in the Garden. Crazy times around here as things need to be planted, and get into the ground and the weather is working against us this year again. So we just had a patch of sunny weather and I planted and weeded like crazy. So time to share some updated photos.

First here is Bridget, she was making sure my camera was working.

Front yard apple tree, it's gone crazy this year.

This is our newest addition to the garden. Another apple tree, this one will be red apples.

So one of our strawberry patches. Sadly these still need a good weeding.

One of my tomato beds. These beds are over 30 feet long just to let ya know. I'm planting again over 100 tomato plants.

This bed is green beans and carrots.

Our newest bed, this will be Raspberries, we currently have Raspberries but they are not in a good spot and not doing really well, so now that the bed is in, they will be moved.

Yeah, lovely right? My last set of beds to weed out and get ready to go. We let this go to grass last year as we just ran out of time last summer. So after I clean these out and add more dirt these will also be tomato beds.

I just got done working in this area, the first bed is a herb bed with 9 different herbs. The middle bed is a mix bed. It's onions, leeks, chard, celery, cucumbers, and carrots around the edges.

This is my herb bed again. I have herb markers being made. Very exciting to have a big ole herb bed this year.

So the last bed is another tomato bed, with more carrots around the edges. Carrots are a big hit here so the more the better.

I would say about 50-60% of what needs to be planted is planted. I still have a ways to go. But the green house is slowly being cleaned out. I can't wait to have it all planted and be able to just watch it all grow. We have a summer project of building more beds to be ready for next year. I'm hoping to add over ten new beds, shhh don't tell hubby it's that many. Oh and we are hoping to add two peach trees, we have two pears and two cherries. But we could use a peach. I will try to update as I go.