Raspberry Coconut Panna Cotta: A Chicklets in the Kitchen Blog Post

Raspberry Coconut Panna Cotta

It’s summer. It’s hot. The last thing you want to do is start the oven up. The first thing you want is something cool, smooth, slightly sweet, and refreshing. I’ve found just the thing over on www.healingfamilyeats.com/raspberry-coconut-panna-cotta/. As soon as I saw that delightfully pink, creamy-looking dessert, I just had to try it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any raspberries. I did have frozen blueberries though, so that’s what I used. This recipe is easy, and has just five ingredients, probably already in your fridge, freezer or pantry. And it makes 8 servings! Yay!

This being a paleo recipe, we’re not using the usual panna cotta ingredients or methods but that’s just fine with me. Give it a try. Click here for the full post.

 

Raspberry Coconut Panna Cotta

Hardware

Small saucepan

Blender

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

 

Ingredients

1 T unflavored gelatin                                    1 tsp vanilla

3 C coconut milk                                            1/4 C honey

1 C packed raspberries                                   1/2 C filtered water

 

Directions:

In the small saucepan, bloom the gelatin in 1/2 C water. (NOTE: I used a packet of gelatin and it was less than a tablespoon. My panna cotta came out creamy but loose. Go ahead and open a second packet of gelatin and measure it all into a tablespoon measure. You’ll be glad you did.) Once softened, heat gently over very low heat, then add the honey. Once honey is melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

In the blender, mix the berries and coconut milk. (NOTE: The next time I make this, I’m going to try almond milk. The final dessert does taste a bit like coconut. That’s fine, but I’m going to try to get rid of the coconut flavor.)

Whisk the gelatin mix into the blender of coconut and berries. (NOTE: Any berry, fresh or frozen will work. Use your favorite or whatever is in season.)

Pour into ramekins and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, or until set. (NOTE: you can dress your dessert with the fresh berries used in your dessert, whipped cream (if you don’t mind straying from your paleo lifestyle, or whipped coconut cream.)

Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Do you have a favorite dessert to serve family or guests? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Coconut-Lemon Whip: Chicklets in the Kitchen Blog Post

Finished Lemon Whip

Coconut-Lemon Whip

I apologize for the lack of posts. March and April were extremely crazy for me but I didn’t forget about you. April saw me take an actual vacation, to see my daughter in southern California. We enjoyed the beach (cold!) and Solvang, CA, (hot!), and my daughter’s and her room mate’s new house. It’s small, but the back yard has producing fruit trees. One was a Meyer lemon, the lemons ripe and ready to pick. So of course, I brought home five of them. What else could I do but make a dessert?

I’m still sticking to my Paleo life-style. Whatever your eating style, there’s nothing wrong with whole, fresh food, especially straight from the tree! Fair warning, because of the coconut oil and milk, this isn’t low fat but it is “good” fat. Enjoy in moderation. It makes four 8oz, ramekins of dessert.

Paleo Lemon Curd

Hardware

Sauce Pot

Strainer

Measuring cups and spoons

Knife

Cutting board

Zester or Micro-plane

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup juice: 5 Meyer Lemons (6 or more regular lemons depending on how juicy they are.)

1 T Lemon zest

3 eggs (whole)

1/4 C Honey

6 T Coconut Oil

 

Directions:

Over gentle heat add the zest, eggs and honey to the sauce pot and whisk until the mixture is pale yellow and thickened.

Add the juice and 2 T of the coconut oil. Whisk and adding more oil as soon as the previous additions have melted. Whisk and add until all the oil is added and the mixture is thick and bubbly. Don’t stop whisking. It will burn very fast.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large mixing bowl. Cover and put in the refrigerator several hours or overnight. I do let it chill overnight.

 

Coconut Whipped Cream

Hardware

Large Mixing Bowl

Hand Mixer with Whisk Attachment

Ingredients

14 oz Coconut Cream (TastesLovely.com recommends Trader Joes coconut cream. If you’re like me, Trader Joes is a hundred miles away, but my local grocery does carry canned Imperial Dragon Whole Fat Coconut Milk. Refrigerate that overnight, open, scoop out the coconut cream which will be hardened at the top of the can. Save the coconut water to drink or to use in a sauce. You won’t have the full 14 ounces but you can either ignore it, which I do, or use 2 cans, storing any extra coconut cream in the coconut water until you’re ready to do an Indian chicken curry or other savory dish.)

1 T honey. Optional. (I’ve never added the honey to the cream as I like the tartness of the lemon curd and the whipped cream without it.)

 

Directions:

Use a big bowl!

In a large bowl, scoop the cream. Don’t use the little bowl like I have in the picture unless you’ve planned to wash down your kitchen walls and cabinets. Which is what I had to do by using too small a bowl. Fair warning!

Using your hand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the cream and honey. It will be hard, so keep at it until you have a fluffy mix.

Whisk the lemon curd, to loosen it up and make it fluffy, then add the coconut whipped cream. Whisk until fully combined. You can cover and store the mixture or put it into ramekins as I did. To serve, top with more coconut cream or if you don’t mind going off diet, regular whipped cream.

Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Do you have a favorite dessert to serve family or guests? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

3-Ingredient Coconut Cookies: A Chicklets in the Kitchen Blog Post

I should be posting a dinner or lunch recipe this month but I’ve been on my paleo diet all month, and some of you on the Whole 30 program. Aren’t you ready for something a little decadent? These cookies are totally paleo but very tasty! A nice treat for an after dinner dessert, as I did the day I made them.

1 cookie per person, Serves 8.

Hardware

Bowl

Knife

Cutting Board

1 cup glass measuring cup

Measuring spoons

1/3 cup measure

Cookie Sheet Lined with Parchment Paper

 

Ingredients

1 large over ripe banana

2/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

4 oz dark chocolate (Optional)

1/4 cup rough chopped walnuts (optional)

1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

I have to tell you, I doubled this recipe right off the bat before I’d even tried it. I was glad I did!

Do a rough chop on the walnuts (or almonds or whatever other nut you may be using. Nuts are optional!)

Peel the banana. It should be extremely brown. Mine could have gone a couple more days but after I smushed it up with a fork, I used a whisk to get rid of most of the tiny lumps of banana.

Add the vanilla and mix.

If your coconut is shredded into longish strings, put it into a food processor to take it down to the fineness of instant oatmeal. Note: I didn’t do that, they came out great but processing the coconut may make it able to soak up more of the banana moisture. My batter came out a little on the wet side.

Add the coconut and nuts, combine thoroughly. The batter should look like coarsely mashed potatoes.

Using about 2 Tablespoons of batter per cookie, coop or roll them into balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Then, using a fork, gently mash each ball down crossways, like you would for a peanut butter cookie.

Place the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 11 minutes. Check the cookies: they should be just starting to show bits of brown around the edges, and if you gently flip one over, they should look nicely browned in spots on the bottom. Put the flipped cookie back on its bottom.

Put the oven on broil. (I have to turn bake-mode off on my stove, then select broil. I used the High setting.)

Continue to bake and watch carefully for another one to four minutes. If after two minutes, they’re not browning on the top, you may move the sheet up to a higher rack, but watch them constantly with the door slightly open, because they can burn quickly. You’re just looking for them to brown in spots.

There may be a few small too-done places but those are easy to pick off.

Let cool.

They can be kept in an airtight baggie or container, either at room temperature or in the fridge.

Note 1: I didn’t check the bottoms of my cookies at the 11-minute mark, seeing a little browning at the bottom. I should have checked. After I broiled them, the top was nicely browned and firm but the bottoms, especially while warm, were quite gooey.

Note 2: Another option. After the cookies cooled, I dipped half of them, halfway, into 70% dark chocolate. The banana and coconut make the cookies surprisingly sweet and the dark chocolate is a nice foil.

Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Do you have a favorite dessert to serve guests? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

So last month I posted about my new Paleo diet lifestyle and mentioned avocado chocolate mousse. This is a wonderful dessert that you can enjoy yourself or make for a nice dinner with friends and/or family. It’s so delicious I cannot even say. It’s rich, decadent and chocolaty, everything you want in your chocolate dessert. And no, you don’t taste the avocado at all. Even better, it’s no cook!

Serves 4.

Hardware

Blender

Knife

1 cup glass measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Rubber spatula

4 half-cup ramekins

 

Ingredients

2 large or 3 small ripe avocados

3 T cocoa

4 oz dark chocolate

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp vanilla (Pictured is a bottle of homemade vanilla my friend Dee gave me for Christmas. It’s almost gone. ☹)

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave (pictured) or in a hot water bath. If using the microwave, use just short heating times, 15 seconds, until the mixture melts by stirring.

Test by stirring at the 1st 30 seconds, then every 15 seconds after that. Let it cool while you complete the other steps.

Half the avocados, remove the pits, scoop the avocado into the blender.

Add the milk and blend. If the avocado doesn’t get creamy, add more splashes of almond milk and blend until it does. Trust me on this. If you add everything all at once, you end up with green pieces of avocado in your chocolate mousse. Tastes good but looks a little off.

Add the cocoa, the vanilla and the melted chocolate. Blend until totally mixed. I have to scrape down the sides a couple of times to get it thoroughly blended.

Scoop into the 4 ramekins evenly. Refrigerate for a more solid mousse or serve right away.

 

Note: Even though paleo doesn’t do dairy, I can’t resist a dollop of real whipped cream on top.

Enjoy.

 

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Do you have a favorite dessert to serve guests? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Poached Pears

Poached Pears with Frozen Custard and Orange Slice Garnish  Picture by Connie Cockrell

Lots has happened to me since my last post in June. July held the Payson Book Festival for which I am the director, then August is prep for the Northern Gila County Fair which is the weekend after Labor Day. Then, well, I was just tired.

But, news! In August I began eating the Paleo Diet. I love it! I lost 15 pounds in August alone. If you don’t know what the Paleo Diet is, a quick explanation is that you stop eating grains and dairy. You can Google it for a more complete explanation. I have Celiac Disease which is closely related to Hashimoto’s disease. With that, you should also stop eating sugar (well, we all should anyway), caffeine (which I gave up years ago), and raw cruciferous veg (cooked is ok). So that’s what I’ve done.

I don’t feel deprived at all, despite my strong love of anything pasta. But it was making me feel bad so, while I may make the very seldom choice to go gluten-free pasta, it’s gone! Now I eat as clean as possible (meaning organic, grass-fed meat, organic veg, organic fruit. It helps that I have my own pear, apple, and peach trees, and grow a lot of veg in my small garden.

The pears are where this blog comes in. My Bartlett pears became ripe the end of September. They’re not a soft pear. I was having my brother-in-law and his girl for supper and was thinking about dessert. At first, I thought about an avocado-chocolate mousse, (more on that next month), but then I was looking at all of my lovely ripe pears and decided poached pears would be a better choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really missing anything on my new diet, but a girl does like the occasional sweet, am I right?

Serves 4 – 6.

Hardware and Ingredients  Photo by Connie Cockrell

Hardware

Cutting board

Knife

Saucepan

 

Juicing the Oranges  Photo by Connie Cockrell

Ingredients

4 pears, peeled, cored, cut into quarters or sixths

3 navel oranges, 2 juiced (1/2 cup or more if extra juicy), 1 sliced into rounds

5 – 6 whole cloves

1 tsp vanilla (Pictured is a bottle of homemade vanilla my friend Dee gave me for Christmas. It’s almost gone. ☹)

Cutting up the pears  Photo by Connie Cockrell

Directions:

Put the pears, vanilla, orange juice, orange slices, and cloves in the saucepan. The recipe I was using didn’t call for any other liquid and I saw that the pears were not fully submerged. Thinking that if they were going to poach they needed more liquid, I added water to just cover the pears.

Everything in the pot, heating up  Photo by Connie Cockrell

Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Check to see if the pears are completely tender. If not add another 5 to 10 minutes or more until they are.

I made my pears early in the day and after the mixture cooled, refrigerated it until time for dessert. However, you can plate this warm as well.

I served it with Culver’s vanilla custard (broke my diet a little there) and the pears.

For the picture, I did decorate with an orange slice but when I served it to my guests, I left the orange off. I thought it looked a little mushy and not nice to eat. The orange gives the pears a nice floral note and the cloves a little warm spicy flavor. Yum.

Enjoy.

Notes: Culver’s vanilla custard, as of this writing, is gluten-free. I figured the 1/4 cup I ate wouldn’t break the Paleo diet too much.

 

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Do you have a favorite dessert to serve guests? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Peach Shortcake

Mid-Summer in my neck of the woods means peaches. My peach tree tends to ripen late July, depending on the weather. It held off to the 1^st week in August when all the peaches ripened just about at once. Nothing like an avalanche of peaches to make you put on your thinking cap. After giving away a LOT! I decided peach shortcake would be just the thing. Now it’s not complicated, but after all those peaches, I didn’t have too much brain power left. And it’s hot! So why not peach shortcake for supper. Or breakfast!

Hardware

Medium Bowl

Cutting Board

Knife

Individual serving bowls

 

Ingredients

Bowl full of peaches, washed

½ to 1 cup sugar (your choice)

Can of Whipped Cream

Shortcake

Cut the peaches in half, remove the pit, chop up and put in the bowl. Continue until all of the peaches are chopped up. I didn’t peel them, just chopped them into bite-sized chunks.

Pour sugar over the fruit. I know. Peaches are already sweet, especially ones ripened on the tree. But the sugar makes a syrup that you really need to have to pour over the short cake. Let stand in the refrigerator all day or all night to develop the syrup.

In an individual bowl. Place your short cake/pound cake/muffin (I used a gluten free muffin, hubby used a generous slice of Sara Lee Pound Cake).

Scoop generous portions of fruit over the cake.

Spray your whipped cream over all. I’m pretty generous as you can see from the photo. If I hadn’t been lazy that day I’d have made home-made whipped cream. It’s just better, but, you know. Summer, lazy, heat. It was delicious.

Left over fruit can be used in yogurt, cereal, crepes, the sky is the limit.

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. What do you do with your peachy abundance? Please tell us about it in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Mysteries, and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Company Cheesecake

Company Cheesecake by Connie Cockrell

In the theory that it’s better late than never, I’m presenting today’s blog post two days late. Hey, it’s a cheesecake recipe ya know! Anyway, this recipe is from my Betty Crocker cookbook, the one I bought just after I got married 40 years ago. The pages are yellowed and splattered, the tabs I used the most have torn off and I hold the cover on with duct tape but I still return to this book over and over again.

Cheesecake, yum. This is a nice fluffy style cheesecake, not dense like say, a New York style cake. But it’s a perfect dessert for company. I made this one for my bunko group. I hosted the game in April and while a lot of ideas floated through my brain since January, this is the one I picked. Make it the day ahead of your event and keep it in the fridge once completely cooled.

The Crust

Crust Ingredients by Connie Cockrell

I made the crust gluten free by using gluten free lemon shortbread cookies. I used the whole box, broke them up into a food processor and whirled them till they were crumbs. I added 3 tablespoons of melted butter and stirred until the crumbs were coated.

Crumbs and melted butter

Put in the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan, place on a cookie sheet and back at 350 degrees F until lightly brown. It could be 10 minutes, it could be 20. Mine took closer to 20. Also, add just 2 tablespoons of the melted butter to the crumbs and see if that’s enough to coat. At 3 tablespoons mine seemed kind of wet.

Crumbs in Springform Pan

After the crust is pulled out of the oven to cool, reduce temp to 300 degrees.

 

Cheese Mixture

 

Cheesecake Ingredients by Connie Cockrell

2 8oz packages of cream cheese plus another 3 oz., room temperature

1 c sugar

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/4 tsp vanilla (or substitute lemon juice or lemon flavoring)

3 eggs, room temperature

1 cup sour cream, Cherry Glaze or Strawberry Glaze

I use a stand mixer for this as I have in the past burnt out a hand mixer but both will work.

Add sugar to beaten cream cheese by Connie Cockrell

Beat the cream cheese in the stand mixer bowl on medium speed. Gradually add the sugar, beating until fluffy. Add the lemon peel and flavoring.

Add Eggs by Connie Cockrell

Mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time.

Cheesecake ready to bake by Connie Cockrell

Pour the mixture over the crust.

Baked Cheesecake by Connie Cockrell

Bake for an hour and check for doneness. The center should be firm. Turn off the oven and cool to room temperature right in the oven. Loosen edge of cheesecake with knife before removing the side of the pan. Spread with the sour cream or glaze.

 

Strawberry Glaze

1 – 1 1/2 cups cut up strawberries

1 cup sugar

3 T cornstarch (I used 1 tsp of Arrowroot. I find cornstarch makes the sauce cloudy.)

1 cup water (I used a couple of tablespoons)

Cook in a small pan over low heat to a low boil until you can mash the berries. I left some fairly large pieces but you can thoroughly mash them. Cook until the sauce is thickened. Refrigerate until ready to top the cake.

After I made the glaze and put it on the cheese cake, I sliced strawberries and used them and blueberries to decorate the top. This is optional, the glaze is certainly pretty enough on its own.

 

Cherry Glaze

1 1lb can pitted red tart cherries, reserving the liquid

1/2 c sugar

2 T corn starch

Water to add to the cherry liquid

Red Food Color

Add enough water to cherry liquid to measure 1 cup. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir in the liquid. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in cherries and 4 drops of red food color. Cool thoroughly.

 

Other Notes:

I have also cooked this cheesecake in a water bath.

Wrap the springform pan in aluminum foil, a couple of layers so no water can get in. Bake the crust per directions. Then, when you’ve filled the pan with the cheese mixture, put the springform pan in a large baking dish and fill halfway up the side of the springform pan with boiling water. It’s easiest to do this when the baking dish is sitting on the oven rack. Carefully slide the rack into the oven and cook until done. Cool according to the directions above. This helps prevent the cracks you get in the cheesecake top when it cools. It’s an extra step and takes longer to cook and cool. Your choice.

 

Thanks for stopping by Chicklets in the Kitchen. Please tell us about your garden or favorite dessert recipe in the comments box below if you feel so inclined.

My name is Connie Cockrell and I write SciFi, Fantasy, Women’s Fiction and a lot of other things and you can find links to all of my books at www.ConniesRandomThoughts.wordpress.com.

Gluten and Dairy Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finished Oatmeal Cookies with Milk by Randy Cockrell

February, for a lot of you, has been a cold, snowy misery. What better than warm from the oven cookies to make everything feel better. At my house we love oatmeal cookies. My mom sometimes eats them as breakfast. I mean, they’re oatmeal, right? Anyway, this recipe comes from the back of the oatmeal box so super easy to find. I made it both gluten and dairy free by making some substitutions. I also replaced the chocolate chips with raisins so that makes them even more like a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, am I right? Here we go.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

From

The back of the box of Great Value 100% Old Fashioned Oats

Mise-en-place for oatmeal cookies by Randy Cockrell

1 Cup All Vegetable Shortening (I use lard but if you can find a gluten free veg shortening, go ahead and use it.

1 Cup Sugar

1cup light brown sugar firmly packed

2 eggs

2 T Milk (I used cashew milk with makes this recipe dairy free for my hubby)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour (I used a 4 bean flour blend to make the cookies gluten free for me! See the recipe for it below.)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp backing soda

1 tsp cinnamon

4 Cups Old Fashioned Oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup of raisins instead)

 

Four Flour Bean Mix

From

Living Well Without Wheat The Gluten-Free Gourmet by Bette Hagaman

This exchanges cup for cup with wheat flour and has enough protein so that in many cases you can take your regular cake or cookie recipe and not have to make any additions except for some xanthan gum.

Formula                                                           For 9 cups flour

2/3 part Garfava bean flour                             2 cups Gafava bean flour

1/3 part Sorghum flour                                    1 cup Sorghum flour

1 part Cornstarch                                            3 cups Cornstarch

1 part Tapioca flour                                         3 cups Tapioca flour

In a very large bowl mix all ingredients together with a whisk. Store in a dry location.

Using Xanthan gum:

For breads: 3/4 teaspoon per cup of flour

For cakes: 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour

For cookies: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour

In a very large bowl mix all ingredients together with a whisk. Store in a dry location.

Using Xanthan gum:

For breads: 3/4 teaspoon per cup of flour

For cakes: 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour

For cookies: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour

 

Oatmeal Cookie Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Blend shortening with sugars.

Creamed sugar and shortening, eggs, milk and vanilla by Randy Cockrell

Add eggs, milk and vanilla and beat well.

Add the flour, salt, cinnamon, Xanthan gum, and baking soda, beat well again.

Flour, salt, cinnamon, Xantham Gum, and baking soda, by Randy Cockrell

Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.

Oats and raisins added by Randy Cockrell

Drop by rounded tablespoonsfuls, about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Dropping 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets by Randy Cockrell

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Place cookies on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Putting cookies on wire rack to cool by Randy Cockrell

Makes about 42 cookies.

 

Drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets by Randy Cockrell

I made two sheets (about a dozen cookies per sheet) per the directions and those cookies stuck to the cookie sheet. I ended up with crushed cookie all over the floor. After that I used parchment paper and the cookies slid right off. This makes a crispy cookie. Oh, and that glass of milk in the first picture, it’s Cashew Milk. Enjoy.

Mandelbrot–Gluten-Free Style!

Last week, Indy, my 9 year-old son, wanted to make “special” cookies. So he grabbed several of my cookie recipe books, thumbing through them until he found a recipe he thought sounded good.  I took one look and blinked.

First, I’d never heard of Mandelbrot. According to the recipe, it’s a German-Jewish almond cookie baked in a similar style to Italian biscotti. Which meant that these near-cookies (because let’s face it, they’re not as sweet as–oh say–chocolate chip cookies) needed to be baked twice!

“Are you sure? It’s a lot of work.” But he wouldn’t be swayed, so we took a look at the recipe and modified it to fit a gluten-free diet. We spent the evening in the kitchen. And it was most definitely a huge success. Aside from the Mandelbrot tasting fabulous, my son glowed with pride.

Gluten-Free Girl: Harry Potter Birthday Party

Okay, not really. Because let’s face it, HP is wicked with a wand! But I did just throw a Harry Potter themed birthday party for my eight-year old.

We went all out to make the house as magical as possible. From turning our front door into Platform 9 3/4 to sorting the children into the four Hogwarts houses, right down to food from the books. The entire family got into decorating the house. My father-in-law took charge of ensuring the entryway didn’t blow apart in the gusty Virginia winds that day! 🙂