Archibald Five

Hello Everyone! Long time no talk. I realized I haven’t blogged in like a month… I feel like a blogging failure. So hit or miss. In my defense though, we got busy after the holidays working on the house, then I just got out of habit. The kids also have missed a lot of school due to weather, or perceived ”weather”. I feel like we have yet to get back into a “normal” routine since they were out for Christmas. As we head into February though, I am optimistic things will settle back into a routine. So here I am.

I will try to post a few catch up blogs over the next few days…. but this post, it’s dedicated to CINNAMON ROLLS. Gluten Free/Casein Free Cinnamon Rolls. A few weekends ago we had lots of snow/ice. Chase is not big on being cold and had enough snow over Christmas. Frankly so did I. So I offered to stay in with Chase and cook everyone brunch instead. I get tired of making pancakes every time the boys want a homemade breakfast item. I have yet to find the perfect gfcf waffle, and a girl can only eat so many eggs. So I googled for a cinnamon roll recipe that fit my boys dietary needs, and stumbled across an A-MAZ-ING gluten free casein free cinnamon roll recipe. I kid you not, you will NOT miss your cinnamon rolls from a can. I would say they rival the rolls in the mall, but frankly its been years since I’ve had one so I may have a slanted memory of how good they are… But they are for sure reminiscent of them. AND THEY ARE NOT THAT HARD TO MAKE. Neil took a bite and was impressed. His first comment – “YOU SHOULD SELL THESE!!!” The boys grunted and just kept plowing into them….

So here is the recipe — CINNAMON ROLL OF YOUR DREAMS

I made mine with so delicious coconut milk and shortening in place of any milk products. This past weekend I used coconut keifer in place of the milk as I was out. I thinned it with a little water. It baked up great.

A few changes….

—- I proofed the yeast as the first step and let it sit while I mixed up all the wet ingredients, and mixed all the dry in another bowl. The yeast was the last wet ingredient I added before adding in my mixed up dry.

—- I used wax paper to roll out my dough in between. It works sooooo much easier than saran wrap.

—- I only used about 2/3 of the filling amount they suggested

—- The first time I made my own frosting, the second time I used some pillsbury vanilla frosting from a can. Both were good.

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No I don’t mean we MOCK qudoba… there is nothing funny about their yummy burrito goodness! I mean we started a mock qudoba night as in we make our own qudoba inspired dinner.

So this was the first time I tried to imitate their yummy goodness and boy oh boy was it good, it was a huuuuge hit with the kids and theirs were totally GFCF. It was a little work putting it all together as there are a lot of facets to the meal but it made enough to feed our family of 5 for 2 meals EASY, and then some. My boys can pack it away so that’s saying ALOT!!!!

So how did I do it? I didn’t have a recipe really so I will just tell you what I did and used.

I made cilantro lime rice, black beans, seasoned ground beef, cheese (or cheese sub), corn, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, guacamole, and sour cream (or sour cream sub). I made fresh GFCF tortillas for the boys, and also whipped up some fresh salsa.

So I started with making my salsa.

I add ingredients all to the blender and puree :

• Large Can of whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 Serrano pepper seeded and chopped
• 1 heaping tbls of garlic salt
• Cilantro – just eyeball it. I use fresh, and end up using about 1/4 to 1/3 of the leafy part in a bunch.
• 3 or 4 green onion sprigs chopped

Just add it all and blend blend blend. Wear gloves when handling the serrano pepper. TRUST ME. The capsacin (the hot oil in it) will cling to your hands and under your fingernails then you will get a nose itch or watery eye from the cilantro and garlic salt and touch your face unknowlingly and then will feel like you were maced in the face. ITS NOT PRETTY. If by chance you ignore me and end up with mind searing pain or a swelling face then place a very generous amount of dawn dish soap water and dunk you head in it over and over. The dawn will really cut the oil and help you feel better. Mostly nothing else will. If you still are irritated after the dawn, you can use a compress with milk in it to soothe the burn. TRUST ME THIS IS NOT FUN SAVE YOURSELF THE MIND SEARING HELL FIRE PAIN AND WEAR GLOVES.

So now your salsa is made and chillin in fridge if you like it that way.

Next prep all your other veggies.

Make your tortillas if you want. I use the recipe on the Living Without website to make GFCF tortillas. The recipe will make about 6.

Now your rice. I used just some minute rice, I made 3 cups, 2 would have been enough though. So 1-1 ratio of rice and water. I squeezed in 2 small limes, and added about a palm full of super diced up fresh cilantro. Stir, nuke, and that’s done.

While your rice is cooking then cook up your corn, and black beans. I added a liberal amount of garlic salt to my black beans. I had those cooking on the back burners while I browned and seasoned my ground beef with taco seasoning.

So now your rice is done. Warm your tortillas and load them up.

We layered on rice, black beans, beef, corn, cheese, veggies, sour cream, guac in that order, fold the ends in and roll over. You can add your salsa with the ingredients like I did, or layer it on top like Neil did in the photo.

For the boys I just sliced up their tortillas and handed them a bowl of the ingredients all mixed up with the tortillas added.

Simple enough dinner to make, just takes a little time due to all the ingredients. We all had a generous helping for 2 meals, and the boys still had enough for lunch another time. So I would say it feeds 10-12 people very generously.

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Monday we went to Dallas. Neil’s mom – Mindy, and sister – Amy also went with us. It was a FAST trip but it was alot of fun. We left OKC around 11:30 and met up at Grapevine Mills Mall in Dallas. We did some shopping and then ate at the Rainforest Cafe.

Rainforest Cafe was a lot of fun for us and for the boys. They were AWESOME regarding Chase’s food limitations. They didn’t have a GFCF menu but the waiter was great and was able to ask them to grill Chase a chicken breast with nothing on it, and to cook him some fries in fresh oil & pan instead of the deep fryer with all the other items. We gave the other boys enzymes and let them order “regular food”. Anyway they did great. We got the boys flashing cups and at the end we all shared a VOLCANO!!! It’s a base of ice cream with wedge of brownie stood up to form a volcano around the ice cream. Then it’s topped with whipped cream and a sparkler! Chase not liking sweets again was a big benefit in this area. He thought the volcano was cool but was content eating his french fries. Oh and a man making balloon animals came by our table and made stuff for the boys!!!

After dinner we shopped some more. I got a cardigan and lip gloss at the gap, some clear yellow jellies at Saks off 5th, and some nightgown cheap at Penny’s. We hoped to find some good deals for Aiden but didn’t see much of anything for a good price.

After the mall we went to the hotel. We used hotwire to book it, Neil’s parents treated us all. The hotel was VERY NICE. The boys were SUPER EXCITED!!! They love going out of town and staying in hotels. This is their second time so it’s just a really cool treat for them. We got all checked in and settled. Amy bathed the boys while Neil and I went and had a drink at the bar. I had my first raspberry mojito and my oh my was it GOOD. Completely killed my headache I obtained at the Rainforrest Cafe. LOL!!!

Tuesday we all got up and got ready. We headed over to Ikea for breakfast and shopping. We shopped till we dropped literally. The boys did amazing considering we were there over 4 hours. Chase actually fell asleep in a cart. We got SOOOOOO MANY cool goodies for the house. Mindy gave us some spending money too and we were able to get this AWESOME storage unit, well not just one but 2, for the boys room. Its tall and holds all these containers. ITS SO COOL!!!! Their room is UBER organized now. We got lots and lots of other stuff. A few things for the kids, a rocking toy for Graysen, tons of stuff for the bathroom and bedroom redo.

After Ikea the boys wanted to eat Burger King and they deserved it. While they played Mindy, Amy, and I went to Sam Moon and shopped. Mindy got a really cool purple purse that Amy and I both loved. I got a killer deep red purse, and patent faux alligator hard wallet. It’s tan and yummy! I pet my purse all the way home.

On the way home we drove through snow most of the way. Thankfully the roads weren’t icy just wet.

So now we are home and Neil is still off. We went to a baskeball game New Years eve. It was Alex’s first sporting event and he totally dug it. He’s now saying he will be a basketball player when he grows up.

In the midst of everything we are doing a redo to our bedroom and bathroom, and doing a little work on Chase’s room. Our bedroom we are stripping wallpaper off the back wall, texturing it to look like the other walls and then painting everything. Our bathroom we stripped all the wallpaper off, are texturing and painting the walls and cabinets. We got all new hardware, a new mirror, towel bars, even a new toilet paper holder, the WHOLE 9!!!! In Chase’s room he has some built in shelves in the middle of one of his walls. They are really shallow for like knick nacks. We closed it up, and textured it to blend with the wall, and are painting his room a very very light creamy yellow color. It’s grass green right now.

Aaaaanyway it’s a biiiiiig set of projects but it’s all coming together finally. Tim Gunkel came over and showed us how to use the texture gun and hopper. He’s awesome! It was pretty easy! Intimidating looking but when you have someone experienced it makes it easier!!! YAY!!!

Well the kids are hungry so I better run… HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL YEAR!!!!!!

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Good Morning All,

Well the dust after Christmas is settling so I thought I’d take a moment to blog a little about how our holiday went.

Christmas eve started Neil’s vacation from work. He has combined vacation days with work holidays so he has more time off. Christmas eve also started a blizzard of snow for us. We left the house about 10:45 to run by the pharmacy and pick up Chase’s shots. It looked bad out but not as bad as it was. The wind was going at like 45 mph so the visibility was very poor and the snow was drifting on top of ice. After the pharmacy we went and picked up Neil’s grandparents and then headed to his parents house for lunch. We were in the car a little over 2.5 hours to get all of that done. It should have taken 45 minutes or so. Going from the grandparents to Dan and Mindy’s should have taken about 15 minutes, and it took and hour and a half. IT WAS NUTS!!! It wouldn’t have been so bad but there were so many people out. Many of which were small cars that of course were getting stuck in drifts and ruts that were too high. Neil drove like a pro on the road though. I was impressed.

So we got to Dan and Mindy’s and warmed up and had a yummy Christmas eve dinner with Neil’s family. Mindy made turkey and a spiral ham (yum!) as well as all the yummy sides to go with. Mindy did a great job cooking dinner. Alex decided he liked black olives at dinner. He ate a BUNCH of them.

We took Zoey with us so she could play with Dan and Mindy’s schnauzer Lexi. They are pretty funny to watch. They definitely like each other. We let them outside and it was pretty funny watching them play in the snow. Zoey was all about it. Lexi got into it when Zoey did but got cold faster. Zoey kept burying her face in the snow and running through like a rabbit. It was a lot of fun to watch!!

After dessert we all loaded back up and headed out in to the snow to get home. It only took us a little over an hour to get the Grandparents home and ourselves. There were much much fewer cars on the road and the ice was covered with snow mostly. The drifts were pretty impressive though. We got home finally but couldn’t pull into our driveway because we had well over 2ft snow drifts in the drive. Neil spent another hour or so clearing enough of the driveway so that he could get the car out of the street.

So how much snow did we get total on Christmas eve? 14.1 inches!!!! That’s the most snow EVER for Oklahoma in one full storm, let alone 1 day!!! ITS NUTS!!! The boys have had a BLAST playing in it.

Christmas morning we let the boys get up and look to see what Santa brought them in their stockings. Chase’s favorite thing ended up being one of those squares with all he plastic needles in it so you can put your hand or object on the back and see a design on the front. I don’t know the real name for them. Alex & Aiden liked their Halo guys and the lego Mustangs best.

Dan, Mindy, & Amy all arrived. My breakfast casseroles took twice as long as they said they would to cook so we opened presents first. The boys got alot of cool stuff. Way too much as usual, but they were all very very pleased with everything.

Some of the things the boys got were –

Aiden : Xbox 360, lots of Xbox games, star wars guys, gi joe toys, a new REVERSIBLE DC hoodie, 2 DC shirts, a nerf gun, and more.  His favorite was obviously the Xbox — not much competes with video games when you’re 8.

Chase : Gator Golf, Various Ben 10 toys, Bakugan Balls, trampoline for his room, big exercise ball, some leapfrog toys, Ni Hao Kia Lan lego, Batman Lego for the Wii, DC shirt, GI Stuff, and more. Chase’s favorite was his ben 10 guy, or his Bakugan balls. He was excited about everything though. It was by far his best Christmas experience I think.

Alex : Trio Castle stuff (4 different sets), Star Wars guys, Gi Joe guys, wii video game, dc shirt, electronic drum set, nerf guns, Star Wars lego, color change car set, and lots more. His favorite was the Star Wars lego, Color Change Car set, or the castle stuff. The castle stuff I have to say was pretty darn cool. All 3 boys have been into it!!

As for Neil and I – Part of Neil’s gift was the Xbox 360 with Aiden. He got a charger station for his stuff that needs charged (yay now it has a place other than a heap on my counter), he got games for the 360 from my mom, and a Ipod shuffle. I got the mother of all juicers — and its AWESOME!!! I have wanted one for a long time. My mom got me 2 purses that are way cool too. One is tan leather, with cargoish pockets on the front, and a double braided handles. It nice and big and pretty!! The other is a patent charcoal gray alligator print pattern. ITS FUN!!!

So as you can see we were all very blessed in the gift department and all loved what we got.

After presents and breakfast we played for a while then we all bundled up and played in the snow!! It was a lot of fun getting out there with everyone!! Chase surprised both Neil and I by LOVING the snow!! He was all down in it. It was awesome. The dogs ran all over the park playing. The snow was too dry to make snowmen but we pushed the kids down the hill in laundry baskets. The drifts were crazy.

Overall it was a GREAT Christmas day!!! We had so much fun with family!!!

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This is another recipe I get asked for a lot. You can use this icing for basically anything. Just add or subtract liquid to make it the consistency you need it to be.

ICING RECIPE

1 c. Butter or Shortening
2 lbs. Confectioners Sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk or Milk Sub

Cream Butter or Shortening, add vanilla, add Conf. Sugar 1/3 a bag at a time.  Add Milk or Milk Sub. a tbls at a time until desired consistency is reached.

If you want pure white frosting use crisco and wilton clear vanilla.

Frosting made with shortening is much more durable and better for piping into designs. Frosting made with butter has a much richer flavor. I often use half butter half crisco, or butter flavored crisco.

You can alter this in all kinds of ways – here are a few ideas :
+You can use cream cheese instead of butter or crisco for a cream cheese icing.
++ You can use orange juice instead of milk and add some orange zest for icing with an creamy orange flavor
+++ Add cocoa and extra milk for a chocolate icing
++++ For berry flavored icing, use berry juice instead of milk. Fresh juiced will be fresher and stronger.

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I have so many friends ask me for my mother’s cut out cookies when I make them I am going to go ahead and post the recipe. These are awesome cookies that hold their shape even when using cookie cutters that are very detailed, but they stay soft days after baking. These are a favorite from my childhood. You can decorate them with sprinkles before they are baked, or paint them with a colored egg wash. You can ice them with frosting after if you like that sort of thing. :0) Maybe one of these days I will play with converting them to a GFCF recipe.

CUT-OUT COOKIES
Stephanie McComb

3 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 c. Sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 c. Softened Butter
1 Egg, slightly beaten
2 tbls. Half & Half or Heavy Whipping Cream
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add butter and cut in with a mixer or pastry blender.
Add eggs, cream, and vanilla. Blend thoroughly. You may have to finish mixing by hand to get all the dry ingredients combined. Form into 3 balls.
Chill if desired.

Roll the dough 1 ball at a time. Roll to 1/8″ thickness on a floured surface. Cut out with cookie cutter dipped in flour first.

Bake 5-8 minutes. The edges will just begin to be golden.

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So I adapted a recipe to be gfcf. It’s A-MAZ-ING!! Chase even LOVES them. That is saying something. I am posting the original along with the adaptations. Enjoy! Oh the flour blend recipe is at the bottom.

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So lets play a little catch-up for a minute.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Wednesday we celebrated with our friends in Life Group and the army of kids we all have between us. It was GREAT. I am always astonished by how well the kids all get along and play together. They are a mishmash of ages but they do great.

Thursday we had Neil’s family over. Neil’s mom had to work, so we she wasn’t able to join us. However Neil’s cousin and his wife came in from Georgia to visit. I made a huge amount of food for everyone. I was very pleased with myself for making the boys gfcf stuffing, dinner rolls, & pumpkin cornbread they all loved. Even Chase LOVED the stuffing. He ate a HUGE helping of it, and ate it for every meal for the rest of the weekend. Haha! Everything really turned out good, the broccoli was way over cooked and the gravy kind of congealed into a solid. However it still tasted really good. LOL! My favorite new side was the jello dish I made. It was soooo yummy. It was raspberry jello mixed with pineapple juice, crushed pineapple, something else, and diced apples. I used honeycrisp apples and it was SO SO YUMMY!! Anyway the food was good, and we had a GREAT time with Neil’s family just hanging out and spending the day together.

Friday we got up a little late and and went to a few stores. We took advantage of a few sales and picked up a few Christmas gifts. It was a nice morning. That evening Neil’s cousin went to a poker game with him. His wife Ally came over and hung out with me. We just hung out and talked. It was nice getting to know her a little more!

Saturday evening we hung out at Neil’s parents house and had dinner with them. We got Johnnies Charcoal Grill. So yummy. Their hamburgers and french fries are gfcf. We had a nice visit.

Not too much has been going on since then. Just normal life with some added Christmas activities. The boys are very excited about Christmas. Chase especially. He is sooooooo pumped over Christmas. He drug us to the mall last week and insisted we see Santa so he could tell him what he wanted. It’s cute. He’s excited about giving presents as much as he is about getting them. LOVE IT!!

This past weekend we made Christmas cookies and went to look at lights. We also made snowflakes and decorated the windows with them. I love the holidays, so much fun!

So today was Monday, the boys had school and then we went out and ran some errands this evening and went out to dinner. Chase asked for Pei Wei. We went and looked at paint samples for our room. Graysen decided to start peeling my wallpaper off my walls in the bedroom when she should have been napping. She ripped off too much to even think of repairing it. We were never thrilled about the wallpaper and it’s been 6 years so we are just going to texture and paint the walls of the holiday break. Neil said we could do the master bathroom at the same time as well. We have already stripped some of the wallpaper in the bathroom. I will probably work on doing more this weekend in the bathroom and in our room so when the break comes we will be ready to texture and paint immediately. Super excited about it. I love decorating. Once we have done the bathroom we will have done the whole house really. Well not the entry but it now goes with the living room so there’s no point in messing with it. Aaaanyway…. we went and got paint samples for that tonight. Super excited.

The other news we have…. AMY WILL BE HOME SATURDAY!!!! She has been in Africa for 6 months!!! We have missed her so much!!! We are excited and the boys are SUPER excited!!! We are going to be at the airport to greet her when she gets here!!! YAY!!! It’s been a long 6 months but also fast. Weird how that works.

Well the little boys are in bed. Neil and I are going to play Parcheesi with Aiden so I better sign off!! Hope everyone is having a fun holiday season. I plan to post my cookie recipe tomorrow so make sure to check back…

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We went out this weekend to try to get good photos of the boys. We borrowed Dan’s camera in hopes of getting some good shots so we didn’t have to pay someone this year. I think we succeeded. You be the judge. We went downtown with the intention of going to the Myriad Gardens but when we got there we ended up having to park near Stage Center, and decided it might be fun to take a few shots there as well. We really liked the area and ended up taking ALL the shots there and never even going to the gardens. The boys did pretty good. Chase got tired of us after a while but really he put up with a lot. So here’s some of the shots.  Enjoy!

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