Happy Thanksgiving Pumpkin
For my first Gluten-Free Thanksgiving, I realized that there would be no pumpkin pie for me unless I take matters into my own hands.
I once read that pumpkin pie doesn't have to look good, just taste good. I am living by that philosophy...I found ingredients for a Gluten-Free crust and the Libby's can recipe for the filling is gluten-free. Making the crust was easier than I thought, except for the filling spilling on the edges and burning a little. The pie tasted just like I remember them tasting at Thanksgiving so I was pretty proud of myself. (The recipe for the dough is below...but this cannot be done last minute as it has to be put in the fridge over night-from glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com)
I made more dough for a second pie tonight. Hopefully this one looks a little better. I will be taking this pie to Lafayette, where we will be having Thanksgiving at Matt's parents. We have Thanksgiving thursday, a get-together dinner Friday with some friends, and brunch on Sunday with the besties. I plan on packing on the pounds haha... I am trying to make this feel as close to an Oklahoma Thanksgiving with the family as possible. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Nikki
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie Dough- Glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
3 tablespoons sweet rice flour (I cannot find, so I omit it :))
3 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon strong cinnamon (I use Saigon cinnamon from World Spice Merchants)
8 tablespooons (or, one stick) cold butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 ice-cold water, or enough to make the dough stick together
Mix together all the dry ingredients, including the sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into little pieces, about 1/2-inch thick and drop the pieces into the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter or fork, meld the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter has crumbled into pea-sized pieces.
Make a well in the dry ingredients. Drop the egg and apple cider vinegar in, then stir them in, gently, with a fork, stirring from the center out. Once they are incorporated into the dry ingredients, slowly drizzle the ice-cold water into the mixture, a little at a time, then stirring to see if it has become dough yet. You do not want this dough to be too wet. Add water only until it all coheres together.
At this point, drop the ball of dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. (Prepare this ahead, unless you want to wipe dough off the box of parchment paper later!) Place another piece of parchment paper, the same size, on top of the dough. Gently, smoosh the dough outward, equally in all directions, until it is a thick, round cake of dough, about the size of a pie plate.
Refrigerate the ball of dough, for as long as you can stand. Ideally, you would prepare the dough in the evening and refrigerate overnight. Take the dough out of the refrigerator at least twenty minutes before you want to work with it.
Leave the dough in the parchment-paper sandwich and roll it out. By rolling it, gently, between the pieces of parchment paper, you will not need to add more flour to the mix. Roll it out as thin as you can, then strip the top piece of parchment paper off the dough. Gently, lay your favorite pie plate on top of the dough, then flip the whole thing over. The dough should sag into the pie plate. You can crimp the edges at this point. If some of the dough falls off the sides, don't worry. Simply re-attach the pieces to the crust-to-be by pressing in with your fingers.
You can pre-bake the pie crust, if you like. With this pumpkin pie, however, I just pour the pumpkin filling directly in and bake it immediately. It works well.
Oh, and for the filling? Just the recipe off the Libby's pumpkin puree can. It works every time.
Blessed All the Way Around
When weeks like this end with me feeling awesome, I wonder if it is just the amazing weather, or the people I surround myself with. Maybe a combination of both....
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It is ALMOST obnoxiously huge which makes it the perfect thing to wear with my cute fall going-out outfits... when I don't feel like having people look at my hair haha. This little gift was left on my back door step last weekend while I was in Louisina...and Erika was in Texas. It was a nice surprise on Sunday night.
Niks
Well Hello There...
Friends...
Since our wedding we have been busy. Most of this has taken place in our very own home; cleaning and organizing before school starts (it rules my thoughts unfortunately). We were able to get away three weekends though...not for our birthdays (we stayed at home for those).
Birthday Cake...
Kristen, who is now our 3rd roomate, and I got rained out of the pool the Sunday before Matt's birthday. He was golfing so we went and bought ingredients to make the ultimate birthday cake...neither of us LOVE to cook, but we both really enjoy baking. It was a yellow butter cake with strawberries, chocolate chips and had a fudge icing (Matt loves fudge)...we were ambitious and went for two layers with a cream cheese icing in between (he loves cream cheese). We then used our decorating sense (her's from doing actual cakes at a bakery and me just being me) and put cut strawberries on top with chocolate chips around the sides. Happy Late Blog Birthday Babe! Exactly one month after our wedding, he turned 26.
Cabinet Doors...
We have missed you, but now you weird us out a little.
We recently decided that we're giving up on the staining the cabinets ourselves and are saving the money for someone to do it after putting only one coat on all the doors that need two. (Probably gonna take a while) So this year when your thinking of Christmas gifts, think cabinets! Since they prob. won't be finished until next summer, I started to put the doors back on...I was sick of the cluttered look after 2 years. Waiting for Matt's help this weekend with the tall doors...
Weekend Fun...
First is was the 4th at False River with Ashtyn and Derrick.
Next Kevin and Denise's Wedding July 24, 2010 in Lafayette. Congrats you guys...you were both beautiful! This pics of Matt and I at the wedding are on a different camera. :(
Last weekend was our last summer bash at Lake Sam Raborn in Texas. It was awesome...we will def. be going back! Me, Matt, Ashtyn, Derrick, Garrett, Leslie C, Matt M, Kristen, and Brandon rented a lake house and took Derrick's boat out for some wake boarding and tubing from Thursday to Sunday. We got a spa treatment every day as we walked through the wet, clay/mud to the boat from the house until we realized we could roll out a dock that sunk into the mud and stayed suctioned for the last 2 days.
I am almost back to wake boarding like a normal person again after falling on my face too many times last summer. (when am I ever normal anyway?...). Matt was mastering his many tricks he is trying...including his infamous back flip where he throws his body upside down in the air and hopes for a good landing.
I love my friends...Ashtyn helped me to discover that I can eat marshmallows, hershey's bars, snickers, potato chips, and tostitos on my new Gluten-free diet. Thanks for giving me reasons to eat junk...on occasion. We also managed to run out of gas, but seriously licked out that we were so close to a camp. The boys got out and pushed/pulled the boat while Kristen and I swam and hiked the rocks to the camp to ask for a gas can. A man just so happened to have a can with Gas...ooo ya! He saved the day!
The rest of the weekend details are on a need to know basis, this includes: cave woman, mud fights, beer pong, smores, etc.
"X"ing out the days
It seems like lately the calendar days have been collecting their X's very quickly. Before you know it...I will be walking down the aisle! ;) We have a little over 8 months left... and we are still progressing very nicely.
Two weeks ago we visited Austin, Texas to go to the one wedding shop out of four states of shops that had my dress. Of course when we got there, the dress was so small that it wouldn't go over my bottom. So I have pictures of me in the bottom of the dress, and pictures in the top separately. That does not stop my imagination so I went home and photoshopped them together to show my mom and sis the complete look. We all LOVED it and the seamstress sent me samples of the fabric she uses and I love them, so in Novermber I will be getting measured and ordering what I now know is my wedding dress. The thought that I have found my dress now makes me feel like it is all really happening, and I am getting more and more excited every day! That night we met Matt's cousin and his wife for dinner. She had called ahead for reservations and told them we were celebrating our engagement. When we got there, the menus said "Congratulations" and later we got a free desert haha. I loved it!
I have also started to collect decorations that I have found along the way at stores. Seeing everything makes it all come together and helps me to create more of a vision. Matt decided on gray suits and we are going to look for them in a few months. We have narrowed down our honeymoon destination to St. Lucia and Bora Bora, depending on money haha. My bridesmaids outfits are almost done, and I am deciding on my Junior Bridesmaid's dress this week. Today Matt and I toured the Hilton Garden Inn near our venue and they gave us a great rate of $69 per night so we will be setting that up for you all shortly! I have become an expert on cool blog sites for creative wedding ideas and have found that to be a constructive waste of my time. I am starting to put together ideas that will make our wedding more personal and am finishing picked music for the ceremony within the next week so that I can find someone to sing and play it all. If only Jonas would get back to me (as I look around scratching my head)...;)
Favorite websites so far...
I had my follow up appointment after my endoscopy the week before last. I was told at the endoscopy that I had an ulcer and would be getting anitbiotics for it. When I arrived, she said that I have a very inflamed and irritated stomach with an ulcer, and my valve between my esaphagus and stomach isn't working properly. On top of this new information, they don't know why this has happened...the story of my life! I have now decided that I will take no medication (that could just hurt something else), and have put myself on a regime of no sugar, white flour, and no dairy to get my body in balance (also no coffee). My hope is that within a few months my body will be balanced and I will be able to function fully aware and awake with no coffee. I am on day nine and doing well...I am very proud of myself and hope that this can aid in healing other imbalances in my life.
Matt and I celebrated our seven years of dating this past week. The day was October 10th, but Matt was at the LSU/FLORIDA game so he got back Sunday with flowers for me. Monday night he gave me a new LSU shirt, and took me to dinner and a movie. I must say, I have found such a great guy! After seven years I can still get giddy when thinking about how sweet he is which is rare I have found. Sure we have our tiffs, but in the end we conquer together as strong team mates.
Have a good weekend,
Niks
Insides and Out-n-About
In the whirlwind that had been the last two or three weeks, I am glad my head is still on straight. Matt had the opportunity to visit Russia for two weeks for business, and jumped on the chance...only to find out he would be leaving in 4 days. After spending the weekend in Lafayette, we took the night before he left to throw some clothes into a suitcase.
Whenever he leaves, I take advantage of having full control...on top of my mountain of homework. In the first week, I bought new plants, painted and organized the office, and cleaned the whole house. The second week I became very bored and started to miss him.
Luckily, the first day of Fall he came back to me. I stayed up until 4 am buying groceries, running, doing homework, cleaning, and folding laundry the night before to make sure he would come home to an organized house. I woke up at 7 am to start quite a large feat in my life...cook a roast. Anyone who knows me knows I can paint a room in a day and alter colors to the slightest variation, but cooking always seems to go wrong and stresses me out to the point of pulling hair. I throw in the carrots, potatoes, onions, and meet stuffed with garlic. I say a prayer that it turns out ok and head to school for the day.
Whenever I return, Matt has been home, but has gone to get a haircut so I throw together some ingredients for a chocolate cake that he loves and I actually cook well.
"My potatoe's are still hard...huh...I'll just turn up the heat".
He and a friend that I invited arrive and my potatoes are still hard. I let them chat while I went through the whole roast picking out the potatoes and throwing them away on the verge of tears...YES I screwed up a roast! haha I boiled some new ones and threw them in just in time for us to eat. The roast was decent, but I need to cook it again soon so that I remember what I want to change. I take my cake out of a new "no spray needed/non-stick" bunt pan and SUPRISE it stuck. It was still delicious, but we have decided that I am the hardest trying, bad cook ever! To calm my nerves, we all took a shot of some Russian Vodka Matt bought and I watched the boys play football games.
I have been very busy with school...and of course going to diagnostic tests to find out why my stomach feels like it has been shoved into my ribs for the last six months. I had blood work done, and ultrasound on Monday,and Friday an endoscopy. As I lay on the bed with an IV in my arm, they spray my throat with numbing spray that burns. Then a green mouthpiece with a whole is shoved into my mouth and the elastic piece is put around my head. I am wheeled into a room where I see the previous patients stomach on the screen and the nurse then puts oxygen in my nose...and I am thinking "where is my drugs to make fall asleep!" All of a sudden I hear one of them say night night and the next thing I know I wake up to a nurse and Matt talking about or wedding and hearing, Congratualtions! I had no clue where I was haha...but was then informed that biopsy's were taken from my stomach because they found an ulcer. I am relieved to know that my pain will soon be gone, I will find out more at my doctor's appointment in a week.
Until next time,
Niks