Summertime here in Texas can be sweltering, to say the least. The temperature stays above 100 for weeks on end and there is little rest at night with lows remaining in the upper 80s.
Despite these soaring temperatures, there are ways to beat the heat. Ice cream and popsicles abound in our household during the summer months. Freshly squeezed lemonade and homemade sweet tea are also essential must haves during the summertime. This summer, the lemons we were getting seemed to be lacking a bit and I only made two pitches of lemonade the entire summer.
The summer heat has broken now, the winds are blowing a bit cooler and everyone is anxious for sweater weather to be here. I always secretly hold out that there will be one last heat wave before winter sets in, but it rarely happens. In my efforts to hold onto the summertime magic, I decided it was high time to make some lemon cookies.
I was disappointed in them the first day and was hoping they would come out much better than what they were, but after leaving them out overnight they were the perfect lemon cookie! Slightly crumbly and not too wet. Just one half cup of sugar in these cookies lets the lemon zest and juice shine through in a wonderfully mouth puckering desert.
Lemonade Cookies
1/4 C potato starch
1 1/2 C sweet sorghum flour
1 t xanthum gum
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 egg
1 lemon zest
3-5 t lemon juice
1/2 C olive oil
1/3 C soy milk
1/2 C evaporated cane juice
Heat oven to 350. Mix 2t of lemon juice with soy milk, stir and let stand for about five minutes. Mix flours, xanthum gum, baking soda and baking powder together in large bowl until mixed well. Remove 1/2 the flour mixture and set aside. Add oil to remaining flour and mix well. Add egg, sugar, zest, milk mixture to dry and mix well. Add remaining flour to bowl and stir well. Add lemon juice to taste.
Grease a sturdy piece of aluminium or a cookie sheet and drop by the spoonful. Bake for about ten to twelve minutes or until slightly browned on the otter edge. Use any remaining lemon juice and mix with sugar to create a glaze and top cookies with mixture as they cool on racks.
Leave out over night and store in an air tight container the following day.
Continue Reading...
So I've pulled this old laptop out of the closet that has been sitting here for who knows how long and it works! How awesome is that? The cable got repaired on it a few months ago and it would never turn on, but suddenly it works. I'm taking it as a sign that the laptop was destined to be mine.
Onto the important stuff now...
So how many of you lug your cell phones everywhere you go? They are so convenient to have to look things up on the road like what diners are near when you're on the go, what's fun to do in the area, and so much more. There are all kinds of things they can do, plus with all the home-brewed applications that users are able to make for others to use the possibilities are endless.
I stumbled across this the other day from a plurk post (you did know I plurked, right? TheGlutenFreeAssistant - look me up!). There has been an application made for the IPhone by the same people that create
d the Let's Eat Out series. The name of the new application is iEatOut Gluten & Allergen Free™ and it allows you to imput what allergens that you have and it will populate a list of safe restaurants and diners that you can eat at! This is a lifesaver for those of us with multiple allergies and concerns.
One of the things I find difficult about eating a gluten free diet is the fact that when going out to eat, I ALWAYS have to pick the restaurant. Not that I mind always getting my way, but it can become a hassle when you have no clue what is in the area or what the preferences of those with you are. I enjoy Indian and Thai restaurants as most of their cuisine is naturally gluten and casein free (some are up in the air over ghee and it's reported gluten free-ness), but knowing where those places are when you are in a new city is almost impossible.
This application lets you find allergy friendly places to eat anywhere you go in the United States, how great is that! Now you can just say, 'Let me think about it,' while you plug your info into this handy app and let it do the worrying for you.
Check out their website over at www.glutenfreepassport.com to see their new IPhone application as well as their awesome series, Let's Eat Out. Their whole goal is to help those of us with food allergies live a little easier, something that I give huge kudos to!
Their website also has a search built into it, so checking that out would be well worth it, too. I ran a search for the restaurants here in Austin and most of the ones I expected came back with the search results, but a few important ones were left off like Mr. Naturals on south Lamar that serves a gluten free menu everyday.
Are there any applications that you use to help make your life a little easier? Leave a comment and let me know!
Continue Reading...
