No Bake Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

We go through a lot of cream cheese in our house.  Seriously, a lot.  If I can't get the 9 year old to eat anything else, he will at least eat a whole wheat tortilla with cream cheese or refried beans on it.  Plus I also cook with cream cheese.  So every week I pick up a brick of it.  If cream cheese is on sale, I pick up two or three.

Gluten Free Butterscotch Scones

Another recipe I found on the Tea Time website in my search for gluten free scones was one for chive and goat cheese scones.  I made them with feta and ate the whole batch by myself in a week.  Oh my goodness, they were so good!  Feta is one of my favorite cheeses.  It added such a nice saltiness to the scone.  One night for supper we even had Nana's Sausage Gravy.  While the boys had their gravy over store bought biscuits, I poured my gravy over one of those scones.  Divine!

Gluten Free Orange and Cream Cheese Scones

Two of my closest girlfriends from college are both big tea drinkers.  One of them even throws beautiful tea parties for her friends.  I was honored enough to be invited to one back in November for our other friend's birthday.  The table was set with heirloom china, crystal, and silver.  She had a savory course and a sweet course, four different blends of tea, and was even kind enough to make sure I had some apple cinnamon gluten free scones perfect for fall so I could enjoy my tea to the fullest.

Gluten Free Flour Blend and Book Review

I was not compensated for this post other than given permission to share America's Test Kitchen's copyrighted recipe.  All opinions are my own.

Several weeks ago a package showed up on my doorstep unannounced.  My dad saw a cookbook online he thought I'd like and had it sent to me.  My dad is cool like that.

The book is America's Test Kitchen's latest The How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook.  Let me tell you, I wish this book had come out a year ago.  The first chapter in the book is all about the chemistry of gluten and baking.  America's Test Kitchen talks about what needs to be replaced in a recipe if wheat gluten is removed - elasticity, fat, starch.  Another thing they talked about was weighing flour and other dry ingredients instead of measuring them by the cup.  That technique has made a great difference in my baking.

Kettle Corn

You know that sweet popcorn that smells so good when you go to a fair or street carnival?  Here our city holds a street festival in conjunction with our Christmas tree lighting, and there is always a kettle corn vendor.

S'mores Trail Mix

Here's a quick, easy one for a day time hike or an overnight car camping trip.  We like to mix up a big batch of this before all of our camping trips so we can snack on it in the car or while we're waiting for supper at the camp site.  I like it because, while it's admittedly not the healthiest snack mix out there, it's fun and versatile.

Meal Plan Camping Style

Things have been a little stressful in good ways and in not so good ways around the Now Things Are Cookin' household the last few weeks, which is why the blog has been quiet lately.  My husband and his best friend have known each other literally all their lives.  They lived across the street from each other from the time they were babies until they graduated from high school and even roomed together in college.  Two weeks ago my husband's best friend's father passed away.  Both the family and my husband have been taking it hard.

Two days after the funeral, we took our annual  four day/three night (car) camping trip with three other families. We've taken this trip ever since the 8 year old was the 3 year old,  It's always a trip we look forward to every year, even after the disaster of a trip four years ago when it was 100 degrees every day and none of our campsites had any shade!

Cherry Coconut Cream Smootie

Picture it: The day before vacation.  You're home alone with an anxious and frustrated 8 year old.  You've eaten down most of the food in your fridge.  And the 8 year decides that for his after lunch "treat" he wants a smoothie.  There is no milk or ice cream in the house and you're not about to go out to the store for some only to have it sit around untouched for a week.

Peach Cobbler

Aside from ice cream, desserts weren't very common in my house growing up.  But in the summer my mother would often make us cobbler.  Even though we often went out in our area to pick wild blackberries and raspberries, the cobbler was always peach.

Recipe Review - Fruit Pizza

Over the Christmas holiday, we had a big get-together with my husband's large family.  It's usually a covered dish affair, with one of his cousins, who is a professional chef, doing the main dish and the rest of us bringing sides.  The cousin who hosted the get together this year made a fruit pizza that was such a big hit my husband insisted she print off the recipe for me before we left.  She found the recipe on My Darling Days.

Key Lime Pie

My dad's family is from Florida.  He was one of the first generations that was not born in or near the Florida Keys.  He and I were born in Palm Beach, Florida.  The family has such a history in the Keys, there are rumors that my great-great uncle took Ernest Hemingway on his first deep sea fishing expedition.  I've never been able to prove that, but seeing as how I'm a big Hemingway fan, I like to think it's true.

Weekend Recipe Review - Spiced Pear Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

As I'm writing this, I should be sewing patches on a Cub Scout uniform in preparation of a big district wide Cub Scout camping trip tomorrow night.  You see, when the 8 year old earned his Tiger badge last year, his shirt seemed a little small.  I figured I'd wait the summer to see if he needed to go up a size before I sewed his patch on.  I never managed to get his Bobcat patch sewn on either.Well, it's fall, his shirt still fits, and the patches are still floating around in my sewing table drawer.  He's been begging me to sew the patches on.  I suppose it's time.  I am the Den Leader, after all.

Weekend Recipe Review - Astronaut Energy Bars

As soon as I saw Call Me PMc's Astronaut Energy Bars, I knew they were a go for the (now) 8 year old's birthday party.  He has made up this game with his best friend called the Power Game.  It's a role playing game (or RPG) that they say they are going to create as a video game, get rich and take over the world.  LOL

Weekend Recipe Review - Cheesecake Tarts

My husband has been on a big ice cream cone kick lately.  While shopping for ice cream cones a few weeks ago, I found this recipe on the back of a Keebler waffle cone box.