gluten free cookies :-)

Ok I been messing around with some Phase Three cookies for Christmas

This is a very delicate cookie so be gentle :-) it's a modification of my families polish cookies.
Makes about 15 cookies.

Filling 1: Pit about 4 dates and pull in half.
Filling 2:
4 dried apricots (ok I cheated and used sulphured one cause they are prettier for the photo we were out I had to use the old ones )
1 tablespoon of hot water
1 table spoon of honey.
Soak Apricots in hot water till softened.
Blend in a blender with honey, till you get a filling like consistency.   Crystallized honey works best! so this years crop of drought honey was perfect. 

Cookie Dough:
2 tablespoons of Cream cheese
3/4 stick of butter
1 cup tapioca flour (also know as powder)
Parchment paper is almost a necessity!

Using a pastry blender mix the cream cheese butter and tapioca flour till it its crumbly and looks like pie crust. Then using your hands press it together.  It is a very soft dough.  Then follow the photos below.
Normally you would role the dough out into powdered sugar (a NO NO), so we will skip that step. I found it was firm enough to shape it by hand.

Using about a scant tablespoon shape them into squares 

make the square by gently forming it  

Now its ready  for a filling  

Add a scant half teaspoon full of filling  

Add then press opposite edges of dough together. 

You can do the same thing with dates.  

use half a date a whole one is to much  

The dough is very delicate but easily pushed back into shape   

This is how many cookies I got.  They do not brown up.  

 After 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F.  I decide to pull them out.  I cooled them outside.  Cool before you try to remove them from the paper.  They get very hot! and will fall apart.
You could try a higher temperature for a shorter cooking time.  They ended up being a flaky and soft cookie.

Even tho these cookies have no sugar in them Sweet Potato declared them to be sweet! I found them very yummy.  Please note they are very very delicate, crumble and melt in your mouth calorie bombs. So let the SBP target eat most of them!

Water Buffalo Update

Well my last post was about Little Miss Sunshine's' project of getting a water buffalo for Christmas.  Its a beta testing program For GFA's Web Team. I can say it was successful! We found a few bugs, and  got feedback and A water buffalo has been secured for a family in India. Woo hoo!!! Everyone Wants a Water Buffalo

On another note the kiddos are being themselves, were doing home school lite... Which means I'm checking work as I prep meals for the ministry and bake cookies.  All but my Christmas cards are done.  Woo hoo! Only a few presents to wrap and its all finished.

Just in time too, as Sweet Potato has been cheating with her meds. *SIGH* Now she is sick and running a fever.   Ugh I'd hate to be in her shoes. Medication night and day, Doctors are mystified as to the cause, thus no answers just medication, and The Vest, to ease the symptoms.  I hate it when she decided shes right and I'm wrong because what I said didn't happen immediately.  No you cannot chew your medication! It will hurt your body... So she chews her medication. "My body isn't in pain, so you must be wrong Mom." Sigh... Picture me banging my head against the wall. She doesn't even believe the nurse on the phone.  I had to switch it back to the neti pot which does the same thing as the medication just in a much more gross way.  

Then I see posts on Neti pots that use tap water, giving people brain eating amoebae. *LOVELY!* Now I always use the reverse osmosis water because the amount of  "dead" mold spores in the local water makes my allergy's worse. I know occasionally Sweet Potato doesn't, instead she pushes the easy button and uses tap water.   So now I have one more thing to be paranoid about. NO MORE TAP WATER!! even tho we don't live in Louisiana. 

I had a talk with her today about when you don't take your nose medication your nose itches. (then you rub it, and never wash your hands, and the family is all ewww gross!!!)  When you  fake taking your inhaler; your lungs hurt. Taking medication isn't fun; but not taking it, is worse.  The Orthodontics nurse had to talk with me on the condition of her teeth, as in she isn't brushing well enough either.

And I know why this is all manifesting itself  because it's Christmas!!!  Oh the JOYS of the Christmas Season.   This being all gross and unlovable is so true to form.  time to Repost #1   and   Repost #2

Last night I started singing like my youngest.  A repetitive annoying song which Little Miss Sunshine had been doing all day! Muhahaha... She was reading The Silver Chair a bit above her reading level There I was next to her belting out a silly made up Christmas song. Priceless!!!  She at least figured out what I was Doing.. "MOM stop pretending to be me!"  ROFL!

We have decided that Christmas is NOT the most wonderful time of the year, as people act even stranger than normal. The added pressure to Be Happy  just makes everyday worse.  Mom is even more busy than normal and cannot be disturbed. Bah Humbug!

That is why this weekend instead of doing cards I sat with my kids and painted Christmas bulbs. We all had a blast got paint on our clothing and Sweet Potato ruined one of y best brushes. Ahh well it's only a brush right???

Christmas will come and go, I for one will be so happy to see the back side of it, and a return to "normalcy" if anything in this world can be called normal.

All I want for Christmas is a Water Buffalo

First a commercial :-)
A blogger I read has found THE Coolest race track called Blu Track and is giving one away! Head over there for a chance to win. you totally have to watch the video on how it works.  I so want one but if I do win it will go to my young nephews :-)  I love how this mom let her boy make the right decision too.. Coolio Momsie!

http://inashoe.com/2011/12/giveaway-blu-track-racetrack/

Now since this is all a big link up blog post I do want to share what Little Miss Sunshine wants for Christmas. A Water Buffalo... NO not for our back yard, but for an impoverished family in India.   Daddy has been hard at work getting a project called Activate My Faith started over at GFA's web site  So here is your chance to give my daughter what she wants for Christmas (Oh bless her heart!) and do some beta testing as well.
This is your sneek peek at the future of GFA on the web :-)

She has her project here  https://www.mygfa.org/waterbuffalo/  she saved up $96 herself from her stinky allowance of $3.25 a week (if she did all her chores) and by doing extra jobs at .25 and .50 cents apiece is no small feat!.  Yes its a stinky allowance but we are missionaries and kids having money is not a big line item in our debt free budget.

Don't forget 100% of your donation will go to buy this water buffalo.

When I sat down with her yesterday and asked if it was ok that Grandma and Grandpa give her less/less expensive presents and donate more to her water buffalo she happy danced and said yes oh yes!

Oh what a blessing it is to have a child who feel this way, that giving is what Christmas is about, not the getting. It really keeps my "greedy heart" in check.  Thank you Lord for this child of mine who sees the world with your eyes.  Ok she not all that pure and holy but she can be really sweet :-) And she really really really wants a Water buffalo So a donation of 1$ is greeted with the same joy as $20 or $50.

Go you know you want to... and please remember it is beta let us know if anything is not working!!!
KNOWN ISSUES: pictures missing in video.