Snow Days and a Brownie Recipe

Hello Everyone!! I have missed everyone and I hope you are all staying warm and healthy. We have had a lot of snow in our area and no school at all this week. Luckily, we have plenty of four-wheel drive vehicles that have not limited our capability of reaching the grocery store. I’ve been baking quite a bit. I love it, it’s calming to create yummy desserts from scratch or build upon a simple mix. I would love to start creating the bakery treats for the public. I’ve been doing a little bit for close friends and family who want to eat healthier this new year. Maybe soon, I can advertise in my town. Who knows? Our family has been super busy adding on and remodeling our home. I want our house to look like it’s been here for a hundred years, the devil is in the details. I’ve been choosing historically accurate paint and moldings and my husband has been doing everything himself. Who knew he would be so good at designing and building cabinets. I think he’s found a new hobby. We’ve had to make sure all of our animals are staying healthy and warm. I have a goat due to kid this month and I’m just praying all of this snow will be gone before Heidi goes into labor. I’m looking forward to milking her but not in this cold, snowy weather. The milk would probably freeze before I got it to the house. At the encouragement of my “tweeps”, I am including a simple brownie recipe that I built upon a package mix for a quick treat.


Quick Chocolate Sunbutter Cream Cheese Brownies


1 package Bob’s Red Mill Brownie Mix
1 cup sunbutter
1 package of cream cheese
1 tbs. honey
1 egg
1 ½ sticks melted butter


Combine in mixer the brownie mix, egg, and melted butter; set aside. To a small saucepan over low heat combine cream cheese, honey, and sunbutter; melt to combine well. To a greased 9x13 pan add half of brownie mixture to make complete layer. Dot sunbutter mixture over layer and finish with adding last half of brownie mixture. Using a butter knife, make sure to marble sunbutter mixture through out brownie batter. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

A Gift from Rudi's

I was so excited when the UPS delivery man made a surprise appearance in our driveway.  He came bearing gifts!  He came bearing allergy-friendly food gifts!  Imagine my delight at the opening of a Rudi's gluten-free bakery box with presents inside.  Our family stumbled across Rudi's orginial sandwich bread once upon a time and it became a fast favorite.  Though not easy to come by in our area, we visit the natural foods stores enough to regularly keep our freezer in stock.  Within our Rudi's present came the gift of their Multi-grain bread.  We had not tried this before.  Needless to say, my daughter has a new favorite.  She likes the texture of the multi-grain bread much better than any other bread she has tried.  It's music to my ears!  Not only did we receive a free loaf in the box, but we also received a coupon for an additional loaf at no charge.  They provided literature of their spread the bread campaign as well, have you heard?  For every $1 coupon downloaded from their site; Rudi's will make a donation to the Celiac Disease Foundation.  How awesome is that?  I host a support group for our local residents whom are already big fans of Rudi's and are also excited to be supporting such a great cause while getting a reward themselves.  You can't get much better than that!  I look forward to also being able to try the cinnamon raisin bread along with the bread pudding recipe they sent.  Bread pudding has always been a past family favorite and I look forward to retrying for my allergy aware family.  It's nice to know some family traditions can still stay the same with just a little bit of tweaking.

Last Night's Fights

Well, everyone, I get the worst mom in the world award!  Thank you.  Thank you.  When I picked my daughter up from school yesterday, her head was itchy.  Of course my first fear is the dreaded "L" word.  Upon checking, I just noticed some redness; no big deal just dry skin.  She takes after me and this harsh winter has not been friendly to our skin; or so I thought.  "Get your homework finished and eat this early dinner, you've got soccer practice tonight."  And off we go an hour later to a facility 30 minutes away for some good ol' indoor soccer.  When we leave I notice her face is really red.  "Wow, you really got a workout."  Uh-Oh, silly mommy, look closer!  By the time we made the trip back home she was broke out in welts and urticaria from head to toe.  Hello, I'm a nurse and I'm still an idiot.  My husband immediately jerked off her clothes and started a warm bath because she felt she was on fire.  I, on the other hand, was running frantically to my bathroom to grab the benadryl.  Needless to say that within an hour, she was fine.  I, however, suck!  Yes, I made a good recovery with the Benadryl-and-game-of-hokey-pokey-while-I-combed-her-hair-to-prevent-her-from-scratching-her-skin-off-until-the-meds-kicked-in.  After all was said and done I wanted to drink a bottle, yes bottle, of my husbands wine and cry myself to sleep.  Pity party, I know.  So silly, but at the time, so scary.  This morning we are back on track.  I politely, yes I promise I was polite, alerted the teacher to last nights armageddon and asked that she watch out for further instances.  Maybe we'll have a good rest of week and mommy can not become a lush.  As I leave you, I ponder this.."What would Lorelai Gilmore do?"