Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Gluten-free Brownies for the Win!

I have a very good friend who, over the years, has developed an intolerance or sensitivity to a number of foods. Among her many restrictions are gluten, soy, yeast and most dairy, which unfortunately includes butter.

Ladies, as you all know, we must have our chocolate, and since she has issues with most chocolate, but can eat cocoa, I decided to find a brownie recipe that would not further upset the already delicate balance of her diet.

Having found a recipe that was close enough to what I needed, I gathered my ingredients and ventured into the culinary unknown, mixing and baking and pondering what the outcome would be. 

Ding! The moment of truth. As soon as they had cooled enough to get one out of the pan, I tried it. It was good! This recipe makes a moist, fudgy brownie, just the way we like them. 

I took one to my hubby for a taste test and after getting a thumbs up, I told him they were gluten-free. 😋 Win!

I messaged my friend the recipe and said I had a pan of them on the counter. Her response? "I can't wait."

Did she like them? Oh yeah! I failed to take a picture, so I borrowed a similar one from Pixabay.

If you, or someone you know, loves brownies but can't have dairy, soy or gluten, give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Gluten-Free Brownies
½ cup coconut oil, melted
1⁄2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla
1⁄2 cup gluten-free flour
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8×2 pan.

Place the cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Melt coconut oil in a sauce pan or microwave in a glass container. Remove from heat and add to cocoa and mix until blended, then add sugar and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla, flour and salt. Mix until blended, but do not over mix. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool and serve, or even better, eat 'em while they're warm!

I used the King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten-free flour, and baked for the full 30 minutes in an 8×8 glass baking dish. You can find the original recipe here.



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Monday, February 19, 2018

President's Day

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.– Ronald Reagan

Image source: Wikipedia
Today is President's Day, so I thought it was appropriate to pick a presidential quote, and I read through tons of quotes by decades of American leaders. I came across a top ten list, and Ronald Reagan came in at number 2. It was, however, not the one featured above. After each quote, was a little blurb about the president and that's where I found this gem. 

I will leave you to ponder his statement for yourselves. Meanwhile, the quote that earned him the number 2 spot in this list was "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall."




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Monday, January 29, 2018

Just Be

Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm 
and you won't see the dust on the floor. Irish Proverb


Sitting before the warmth of a fire is more of a time for peaceful reflection than the perusal of literature. Don't think about work or to-do lists, take the time to just be. That is something none of us do frequently enough these days. And if you should fall asleep, may your dreams be pleasant until you wake as the flickering flames turn to glowing embers.


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Friday, January 26, 2018

Until Next Time...

This is the last day of the 2018 edition of the 20 Days of Chill writing challenge hosted by P. J. at A ‘lil HooHaaPlease join us this month on our writing journey. Today's prompt is Finale.


As the sun sets on another 20 Days of Chill, we pause to reflect on all that was written and read, and look forward to what lies ahead. Congratulations to my fellow bloggers who participated in this year's challenge. Until next time...


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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Catching The Big One

This is Day 19 of the 2018 edition of the 20 Days of Chill writing challenge hosted by P. J. at A ‘lil HooHaaPlease join us this month on our writing journey. Today's prompt is Pounder.

This is the next to the last day of the challenge and I just didn't know quite what to do with today's prompt, so I went with the obvious usage of the word. 

When we catch the granddaddy of all fish, it is usually just a fish tale, but now and again someone legitimately catches a big one. 

Robert Strickland was certainly not floundering around last fall when he pulled a 38-pounder out of Salem Lake during the the city's annual Pier Catfish Tournament.

You can check out the article to see the actual fish caught by the tournament winner, and hear Strickland talk about catching the big ones. He has fished all around the area, but keeps coming back to Salem Lake.


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