Living with Two Butters

My life living with two butters!

My brother and father have celiac disease and me, my sister and mom can eat gluten. We sometimes will eat gluten but since my brother and father cannot we try not to. My sister loves toast (I don't know why) and you cannot have toast without butter so that explains why "I live with two butters!"

I have made a list of 10 of the necessary Gluten Free ingredients and mixes that you should always have on hand. (The ones you will really need and the ones just for fun!)

1. Pamela's - I live on this awesome baking mix. Almost every dessert, cake, and batch of pancakes are made with this mix. It's good for almost anything, from cakes to crusts to even waffles and pancakes. It is usually found in health food stores but trust me its worth the drive!

2. Nutella - A great late night snack that's awesome on strawberries! Nutella can be found in many supermarkets now and should always be kept in large quantitys!

3. Kosher Salt - This is the only salt we use in cooking, it just makes everything tast better. I dont know why but it does!

4. Pepper Grinder - I love having a sandwich with ham and turkey with mayo and freshly ground pepper. It's so much stronger than the stuff you buy pre-ground. I got my grinder at William-Sonoma but you Do Not need to spend $50 on a pepper grinder, so suport you neighborhood cooking store and buy one from them.

5. Salsa - You just cannot go wrong with some chips and salsa!

6. Fresh Veggies - They are the best thing to have. They just taste so much better. I get veggies from an awesome farm that is totally into not using chemicals (check out my post about Roxbury Farm)

7. Brownie, Cake and Apple crisp topping mixes - It's a late night and you have nothing for dessert but since you have celiac desease you cannot go to your nearest bakery, so you just bake up a batch of brownies. Yum I'm hungry just thinking about it!

8. Spices and Herbs - My family has a garden that we are growing many kinds of herbs and a few veggies! Even if you don't have a garden you can still get almost fresh herbs from your supermarket. I love cinnamon and other spices in my apple and pumpkin pies so I always try to keep a nice bunch of them around.

9. Chocolate - In any form will do (chocolate chips, chunks and pieces!) I even keep a bag of peanutbutter chocolate chips around for those special mornings with peanutbutter chocolate chip pancakes.

10. Pasta - Any Gluten free pasta that you like. We use Tinkyada If a dish goes wrong you have a back up!

Creamy Ricotta and Fresh Fruit

I think this is an awesome recipe. It's just sweet enough to satisfy that sweet tooth and healthy with all the fresh fruit. It's based upon a cannoli recipe from both Jamie Oliver and Martha Stewart. It's a great Italian classic with a twist!

serves app. 5 depending on serving size

32 oz Ricotta (drain any liquid off the top)
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1/4 cup Sugar
app. 1 cup chocolate chips, as many as you want :)
Any kind of fruit you would like. I used strawberries, cherries, blueberries and blackberries. They all should be washed and sliced. You may want to add a little sugar to the strawberries so they let out their juices.
5 cookies, some sweet bread, or something crunchy to put on the fruit and ricotta.




Fresh blueberries, cherries and strawberries with a little sugar.

Put your ricotta, sugar and vanilla into a food processor and blend it for about 1 minute. After the ricotta gets a smooth creamy texture, take it out and put it into a bowl with the chocolate chips! Mix till the chocolate chips are evenly distributed.

Creamy Ricotta and chocolate chips.

Place ricotta and chocolate chips into ice cream cups or anything you like. Start by layering the fruit onto the ricotta. Then crumble your cookie or sweet bread on top!

Ricotta, fruit and cookie!

Serve cool and enjoy!

My Graduation

For my 8th grade graduation I was asked to make the desserts. I was thrilled and could hardly wait to begin. I started planning and drawing out ideas. For the next few days I don't think I did any school work! After figuring out what kind of cakes I was going to make, I started to get a list of things I would need. After shopping for stuff, I started baking and making the frostings. And then baking some more and making some more frosting. Repeating until completed. Then the big day came. I finished just in time without cutting any corners. I arrived at my school (where the graduation was to be held) and started setting the cakes up. Now I am still amazed I pulled this whole thing off with only some help from my parents who totally kept me going. I got so many compliments that I could of drowned! I only wish I could have made them Gluten Free. Here are some pictures of the awesome cakes and desserts I made! (even if I do say so myself)



White chocolate coconut cake with butter cream frosting

Chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and fondant circles

A piece of each of the cakes that I made. (Even though you were only meant to have one slice.) Well I had to make sure that it all tasted good! :)


French genoise cake with chocolate ganache frosting with strawberries and white chocolate

I also made some cupcakes and a Gluten Free chocolate cake for my dad and brother, so they could enjoy and celebrate with us.