... celebrated Z-bug's 4 and half-birthday with butterfly wings (cardboard and glitter - so fun!) and cupcakes from Glutinus Minimus (a dedicated bakery in Belmont, MA that also sells through a local cupcake place... eh)
The half-birthday girl with her big wings at the table and a set of smaller wings to go outside and kick the soccer-ball around (and just to prove I wore mine all day too, that's my arm up in the top-left of her table photo!)
... had our first family case of the pink eye (FYI, drops are much easier with a squirmy 17 month old than that gel-like substance you're supposed to squeeze along an eye that is closed and turned way from you) ... witnessed a terrorist attack firsthand (Boston) ... cut out the morning 'nana' so baby E's down to just bedtime nursing (remarkably and a total coincidence, at 17months just like Z-baby was) ... and decided to plan a spur of the moment but much-needed getaway next week -- to DISNEY WORLD (seriously perfect timing since E-bee can pick Ariel, 'Rella and the Beast out of a line-up and I heard this during a viewing of the Little Mermaid last week: "now baby, don't worry - the scary parts aren't real, only Ariel and Prince Eric are real)!!
And in the meantime, and quite by accident, I discovered this past Sunday how to make chewy chocolate chip cookies!! I have become a pro at the crispy, buttery, no one can tell they're gluten free kind. Thing is, I love a good chewy cookie sometimes and just assumed I was out of luck. But as luck would have it, I was running low on my g-free flour blend and needed cookies (we were headed to a party where I knew there would be a full table of dessert, none of which my girl could eat). So I did the following:
Whisked together:
1 1/2 cups King Arthurs g-free flour blend
1 1/4 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (more like 2/4tsp... some sort of spilled in while I was measuring)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Creamed:
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup cane sugar
Mixed it all together and stirred in a package of Trader Joes semi-sweet chocolate chips (they're on the T-Joes no gluten added list).
Baked little balls of the cookie dough at 350 for approximately12 minutes, took them out while pretty soft and hoped for the best. They didn't crisp up just hardened enough to be cookies (with the exception of one or two that were soft and broke so we could taste them!).
I put the tasty little morsels on a pretty party tray, covered with celophane and ribbon and off we went (I know, I should have a photo - I am not by any means handy with celophane but a tip for my fellow not-particularly-talented-but-crafty types it's available at the party store, pretty forgiving and definitely looked nice enough to to bring with us to a party of not just friends). The entire platter of cookies I brought (minus the two I stashed away for Z in case of emergency) was GONE by the time the desserts were put out - someone had poked a hole in the celophane to get at one and apparently started a trend ... people devoured them, and we were the only non-gluten eating people at the party. Moist, delicious, and gluten free .... hooray!!
I also brought a big and short-lived jar full of my sweet and savory roasted nuts ... I've not quite perfected the recipe though and they all get eaten (okay, I eat them) so quickly I can't seem to keep more than one batch around at a time to compare and see what proprotions we like better. Guess I'll just have to keep trying!
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