Not-quite Architecturally Sound "Gingerbread" House

This morning as I was dropping the Babe off at school, her teacher asked me if one of her planned activities would be safe for the Babe.  They were making Gingerbread Houses from a kit.  Definitely not safe, especially with the Babe's high level allergy to wheat, egg, and dairy.  I think her teacher had that figured out, but wanted to make sure before excluding the Babe.  Its not that she was actually excluded, its just that the activity was saved for the afternoon when the Babe wouldn't be present. 

The Babe knew about the planned activity, probably because they spent the morning reading about the Gingerbread Man and gingerbread houses.  So, as we left she asked if we could make one.  I had planned to clean this afternoon, and really didn't feel like baking, but I didn't want to disappoint the Babe.  So instead of cleaning some toilets and doing laundry, we baked and iced cookies.  First, we made sugar cookies that we had to roll out and bake.  For the house, I cut those shapes, but we had a lot of dough to make hearts and flowers out of.  Then I made vanilla icing.  The house is definitely not structurally sound, but it is so far holding together.  Other than safe lollipops, we don't have candy, so its a very "vanilla" house without any gumdrop or other candy decoration.  It still tastes good (based on all the cookies and frosting I already ate).  Here's a photo of the house and some of the frosted cookies.

 

I have finally found, and modified, a sugar cookie recipe that results in cookies that taste decent and have normal texture.  Here's my recipe for the cookies.

 

Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Sugar Cookies



1 1/4 C White Rice Flour
1/2 C Sorghum
1/2 C Potato Starch
1/4 C Tapioca Starch
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/3 C Margarine (I prefer Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
1/4 C Soy milk
2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (unless planning to bake dough later).
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix rice flour, sorghum, potato starch, tapioca starch, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, margarine, soy milk and vanilla.  Beat together with stand mixer or an electric mixer, until creamy.
4. Add in dry ingredients to mix, and beat until dough forms. 
5. Wrap dough in wax paper and refrigerate for 15 minutes, or up to a couple of hours.
6. Take dough out of refrigerate.  Take half of the dough and place between two large pieces of wax paper.  Roll out dough, cut into shapes with cookie cutters, and put on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Continue process until fill cookie sheet (remember to leave some space between the cookies).
7. Bake cookies 10-12 minutes.  They will not get brown. 
8. Repeat process of rolling out and cutting dough and baking until you've used up the dough. 
Eat and Enjoy!

Another goodbye

Thanksgiving came and went not with a boom, but with a hiss.  It was a quiet, uneventful day, that started with the three of us watching the Macy's Day Parade and reading the large, ad-filled newspaper.  Throughout the day I worked on dinner, which included a whole turkey, gluten-free stuffing, dairy-free chocolate chip ice cream, and apple pie.  It was the first day in about two weeks that we could really be together as a family, after my husband had been gone for business and to help his mother, who lives in Florida, post-surgery.  Once he returned home he had a lot of work, so Thanksgiving really was our one day together.  I had anticipated enjoying the rest of the weekend, but that was not meant to be.

Sadly, we received an early morning call that his grandfather had passed away Friday morning.  The remainder of the day was focused on how to get to Florida for the funeral.  My husband was able to leave Saturday morning.  Unfortunately due to our location and time of year, it was virtually impossible for me to join him unless we either wanted to spend a fortune flying someone to us to watch the Babe, and then me to fly with him, or in the alternative, spend two long days driving with the Babe to Florida which would also require pulling her out of school for a week.  We plan to make this drive in a couple of weeks, and didn't think it would be best to do that with her two times so close together.

The Babe and I won't be able to join everyone as they say goodbye to her great-grandfather.  She still doesn't fully understand the concept of death, although she does bring it up every so often.  I think when we see her great-grandmother without Pop, it may have more meaning in context that he's gone.  For now, the Babe knows he died, but I'm sure questions will arise.  In the meantime, we will remember a man who served his country, on the beach at D-Day, and loved his family.   For him, family was very important.  He will not be forgotten.