My Sad Garden

First I want to apologize to my friends and family on Facebook.  I injured my left shoulder and did a lot of whining about it on Facebook.  I very seldom let people know if I'm sick or if I've hurt myself, but this time around I had really done a number on my shoulder.  The bad part was I wouldn't stop and let it heal completely. So I paid for it in the end.  My chiropractor told me no more lifting, reaching out or up (and that included reaching for just a coffee cup) with my left arm.  Needless to say my garden suffered for it.

This morning I decided to take a walk around my garden and see how bad it really is out there.  From my office window it looks pretty depressing.  BUT! I had a few surprises.

Yes this Eggplant has seen better days, but right next to it I found this Broccoli plant.

A few of my Cabbages look like they will go straight to flowering, but I found a couple that may just form a head.  The Cauliflower out there I'm not sure yet what it's going to do. This is my first year trying Cauliflower, so we'll have to wait and see on that one.

The Peppers are done and need to be pulled out along with the Eggplant, but look at this Lettuce I found.

On the other side of the Lettuce I found that my Peas are still with me, too.  With all the weeds around them it's hard to see them in there.  Since we had a good rain yesterday I hope to pull some of these smaller weeds today.  I just need to be smart and not take on too much like those big things in the middle of my path.  The upside down barrel was for the sprinkler to sit on. Guess I can put that a way for now, too.  

At first it was depressing to see, but after finding that not all of my garden is a total loss I feel a whole lot better.

Aunt B's Skillet Fried Corn

I love corn and I thank god no one in my family has any issues with corn. I've learned over the years from some of my friends that if you are allergic to corn then you have some real problems. Did you know that corn is in paper towels? On top of that it's use in most household cleaners and these companies are not required to label the ingredients on their products. If you have a corn allergy then you have to be extra diligent in every shopping trip.  More so than any other allergy if you ask me. That's just my opinion. I know there are some bad allergies out there.  Anyway, back to the skillet corn.  I made this for the first time for my son Birthday Party/Cookout. We don't do big fancy birthday parties here, just a family get together.  LOL Okay, sometimes with my family that can be big, but for my son that is what he enjoys.  Having family around.

Yesterday at work I was telling Linda, my boss, about the skillet corn and she was saying she loves corn cooked that way. I have no idea why I haven't tried it before.  Is it because we are so use to picking up a can of corn and throwing it in a pan to cook?  I stopped buying can corn last year, because of the high salt/sodium content.  After my mother was having issues with salt I started looking at that on all of my can goods.  Holy Moly, Frozen here I come!  On top of that with frozen I decide how much I want to cook.  With can it's either a big can or a small can.  No, I don't grow corn in my garden.  I tried it once and it took up too much room.  My garden beds are raised beds done in the square foot style.  It can be done, but for me it wasn't worth the space.  Anyway, this is so easy to do and tastes so much better. No you don't need a cast iron skillet. Any skillet will work I just prefer my cast iron.

Aunt B's Skillet Fried Corn

16 oz Bag of Frozen Corn thawed
5 or 6 slices of GF Bacon chopped
1 med Onion chopped

Fry up the bacon in the skillet. I don't fry mine crispy, but if you prefer it that way go right ahead.  Once the bacon is cooked remove it to a paper towel and leave the drippings in the skillet.  Add the onion to the skillet and cooked until tender. I like mine to have a little bit of that golden brown look to it.  Add the corn and the bacon to the onion.  Cover and let it simmer for a few minutes.

A word about the frozen corn. I have added it frozen right to the skillet and I have allowed it to thaw out a little on the counter before adding it.  I think thawing it a little tastes better, but if you forget to take it out of the freezer before hand it will still taste fine. It can take 5 to 10 minutes for the corn depending on if it's frozen or thawed. Try it you might like it.

GFCF Marbled Almond Cinnamon Chip Muffins

Wet Ingredients:  
2 LG Eggs

1 cup Almond Milk
1/3 c Oil (I use Spectum Canola)

1 tsp Almond Extract

Dry Ingredients:

½ cup Brown Rice Flour 
(79 grams)

¼ cup Almond Flour 
(28 grams)

¾ cup Potato Starch 
(144 grams)

½ cup Tapioca Starch 
(60 grams)

1 tbls Baking Powder

1 ½ tsp Xanthan Gum

¾ cup Sugar

½ tsp Salt

½ tsp Baking Soda

1/3 cup of GFCF Cinnamon Chips

http://auntbskitchenandgarden.blogspot.com/2013/09/gfcf-cinnamon-chips.html

Marble Effect:

2 tbls Almond Flour

¼ cup Light Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350⁰ and grease the muffin pan.  Blend together the Marble Effect Ingredients and set them aside. Blend together all of the Dry Ingredients in a separate bowl and set that aside. BUT not the Cinnamon Chips!

Add the eggs to a large mixing bowl and beat.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the eggs with the mixer on a slow speed.  Once the wet ingredients are well blended slowly add the dry ingredients blending in with the mixer, then mix for a few minutes on a medium speed or a little higher. I don’t like to over mix with a higher speed, but everything needs to be well blended together or you’ll have lumps.  Add in the Cinnamon Chips and give it a couple turns with the blender to mix them in.  Once that is done blend in the Marble Effect with only a couple of slow turns with the mixer or do it by hand. It's not going to be a true marble look, but it was the closest I could get it and the muffins didn't work without this step.

Bake at 350⁰ for about 25 minutes depending on your over. Check with a tooth pick for doneness.  Let them cool for a few minutes in the muffin pan, because frankly they are too hot to take out right away.

I turn mine upside down on the cooling rack to cool for a little while.  I've found that the muffins are so soft when they come out of the oven that they stand up better after cooling when I do this. I do this with bread I bake, too.

GFCF Cinnamon Chips

Yesterday I went on a quest online. I needed a safe cinnamon chip for the new muffins I'm working on for my son.  Kevin cannot have dairy products and so far the ones I've found have milk in them.  On top of that it's hard to find them in your stores all year round.  Fortunately I was able to find a couple of recipes online.  All of them seemed to have the same amounts required or close to it for each ingredient, but they just changed the ingredients or sub for something equal such as sugar or coconut sugar.  Given that thought I just used what I had in my pantry instead of worrying about getting something like coconut sugar. I would think that very few people have coconut sugar in their pantry as it is.  I made a half batch of what was called for in these recipes, so feel free to double it.

GFCF Cinnamon Chips

2 tbls Granulated Sugar
1 tbls Ground Cinnamon
1 tbls   1/2 tbls Coconut Oil
1 tbls Honey

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.  Combined all of the ingredients in a small bowl.

Spread it out on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.  Don't make it too thin while spreading it out. You only need it about 1/4 inch thick.

As it bakes it will spread out and get bubbly.  Let it cool a little and then gently fold the paper over while pressing it to make thicker chips.

Let it cool all the way and cut them into strips.  I used a pizza cutter.  As I put them in my container I put a layer of parchment paper in between each layer.  This way they don't stick together in the container.  Refrigerate and when your ready to use them cut them into the size squares or chips that you want to use. 

FYI: they do melt in the muffins, so don't expect an actual cinnamon chip in whatever you are baking.  

Rubber Bands

Just a heads up. I have removed my Blueberry Cinnamon Muffins Recipe because I've been having problems with them coming out right ever since I posted it on here.  So, I'm re-working the recipe.  I think I found my mistake and I want to try it a few more times before I re-post it.  In the meantime I have a small tip.  Rubber Bands!  Most of you most likely do this or even something like it.

Have you ever had plastic wrap that just doesn't stick to anything. Today I had to cover the pizza dough made from Bob's Red Mill Mix to let it rise.  Luckily I had a rubber band that would fit around my mixing bowl.  I'm not sure if this will work on my glass bowls due to the shape of the bowls, but you can bet I will be trying it next time.  I save the rubber bands from the broccoli that I buy in the grocery store and those things come in handy let me tell you!  I keep one on my Coconut Oil as you can see and I keep one on my Relish that's in the Refrigerator.  Lets face it, as we get older our hands don't work the way they use to and I can't sit around waiting for Garrett to come home and open a jar for me.

Speaking of Garrett I'm sitting in my thinking spot watching the clock for when the boys get home.  This has been the first week of school and it's been going wonderful! I'll tell you more over on Kevin's page.

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds

After getting back from a short vacation trip to my sisters I spent this week pulling weeds out of the yard and the garden.  With all of this rain we've had the weeds have been hard to keep up with, but for the most part the garden is now weed free.  I also cleared out all the stuff that wasn't producing anything and added some fertilizer to help amend the soil.  Now it's raining again, which was part of my plan on the fertilizer being put in the other day.  This way it will give it a few days to soak into the soil real good before I add new seeds.

Angel watching me work

Hopefully this Sunday I'll have some cabbage, broccoli, beets and maybe brussel sprout seeds in the garden for this fall.  I have a list of some other seeds I want to get in, but off the top of my head that's all I can think of.  I do want to come up with a better idea on starting seeds indoors before next spring.  Best location is either the dining room or the office. I might be able to come up with a plan on the back porch. Might make for an interesting winter. LOL

As for baking, with school out I took a break from that myself.  But with school starting soon I'm back into baking again. Yesterday I made my Peanut Butter Banana Muffins, which my mother couldn't resist when she came over this morning.  That's always a good indication to me that I made something good.  She'll tell me if it's not quite right and help me to try to figure out what's missing.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

Aunt B's GFCF Apple Dump Cake

Every so often my boss Linda and I get to talking about cooking or baking and one day she was telling me about something her mother use to make when she was younger.  It's was simply called a Dump Cake.  What her mother would do is take 1 can of Pineapple (undrained) mixed with 1 can of cherry pie filling putting this in the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish, then a layer of 1 box cake mix and last a layer of butter on top.  Basically you're just dumping one thing on top of another and then she'd bake it.  I asked Linda "What does it look like when it's done?" and she found a recipe online that was as close to what her mother made for me to see.  Now, I am a fan of cobblers and this looked like a cobbler to me, so I thought lets give it try with a GF cake mix.

To make it gluten free and casein free I used Betty Crocker's GF Yellow Cake Mix, 2 sticks of Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, and today I used 2 cans of Apple Pie Filling.  I have done the Cherry & Pineapple.  I do believe that one is my favorite, but I'd just made that for the 4th of July.

Bake for 60 minutes

The only other thing I did different than what Linda does when she makes it is I dotted the Earth Balance across the top layer.  Linda melts her's and pours it over the top.  If you melt it first make sure you cut back on the baking time.  The last time I did it that way I think it took about 30 to 35 minutes. With the dots of Earth Balance shown above I baked it for 60 minutes.  Both ways seem to work out just fine.  Today I wanted to try the dots of Earth Balance only because I saw a few regular dump cakes (made with wheat base flour mix) on the internet made this way.  I just wanted to see if there was a difference when it's was all said and done.

As you can see the Earth Balance melts just the same either way

Let it bake to a golden brown on top

This is such a simple and easy thing to make when you don't have the time to fuss.  As I said earlier I threw one of these together the morning of the 4th of July with no fuss.  Oh and don't forget the scoop of ice cream on the side or in my son's case a scoop of Almond Dream Ice Cream.  Hey, it's not summer without ice cream of some kind now is it?