Mommin' It Up!

November 27, 2013November 27, 2013

I hate to brag. BUT I have mastered Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake!

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. (Which means 2 out of 3 of our family pre-Christmas birthdays are over! Birthmaspalooza 2013 is half done. Whee!) In the past I have gotten him a pie from our favorite local pie bakers for his birthday at his request, but since this is his first birthday since Jonah and I went gluten-free, he wanted a dessert we could all enjoy. So, I set about making a chocolate cake.

I’ve made several chocolate cakes or cupcakes from a recipe I got from Bob’s Red Mill’s website, and although they are very good, they weren’t great. Because they were just a *teensy bit* dry. Not “I need 4 gallons of milk with this” dry, but “Hmm, I might not finish this whole piece” dry. After a while, this just wasn’t good enough for me any more! I’d had some cakes and cupcakes from GF mixes that were nice and moist, but it’s much cheaper to make my own, so I decided to try and doctor my Bob’s Red Mill recipe.

A couple days ago as I was contemplating Bobby’s birthday cake, a file popped out of my brain archives (thank God SOME info in there is still accessible!) and I remembered I had once read that adding Greek yogurt in your baking makes things really moist. The recipe I use calls for 1/2 cup milk of your choice, and I simply subbed plain Greek yogurt for the milk. It turned out AMAZING!!!

As soon as Bobby took a bite, he was like, “Wow, this is awesome!” I was so pleased by that reaction, and taking a bite myself, I had to agree! It was moist, chocolately, and delicious! It tasted just as good as any “regular” chocolate cake!

Since I’m a giver, I will share the recipe with you. Remember, I adapted this from Bob’s Red Mill – not trying to claim credit! Please note: the recipe is hyperlinked above, and it’s working now, but if it goes to the recipe search page, you might have to search. There are several GF cake recipes, the one I use is called “Chocolate Cake Gluten Free”. I’m going to go ahead and type it out for you with my substitutions below for convenience. My notes and substitutions are in BOLD.

3/4 cup warm brewed coffee or hot water (I have used both and I cannot tell a difference!)
1 cup Brown Sugar (I have also made with white sugar, comes out well both ways)
1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup Butter, Margarine or Shortening
1 large Egg
1 tsp Vanilla (not imitation, must be pure vanilla extract to be GF)
1-1/2 cups GF All Purpose Baking Flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill brand)
Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 11″ X 7″ nonstick pan. Set aside. Place all ingredients, except coffee, in large bowl and blend with electric mixer. Add coffee and mix until thoroughly blended. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Serves 12.

For cupcakes: Line cupcake pan with muffin liners or spray pan well with non-stick spray. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350. Makes about 15 cupcakes.

There ya go, gluten-freeks! Go try this recipe for the holidays! I am going to try adding some peppermint extract to make a chocolate-peppermint cake for Christmas!

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

November 26, 2013

Personal shopper? Sign me up.

First of all, this post is in NO WAY sponsored or anything like that. I paid for this service with real money, I promise.

But you guys. Let me tell you about my new favorite thing. It’s called Stitch Fix and I am pretty sure it’s going to revolutionize my life.

Here’s what it is:

Stitch Fix is a personal styling service. You tell us your style, size, and budget preferences, and we send you a package of stylish goodies to try on at home. Each Fix is unique and hand-picked just for you.

So, you go to their site and fill out your style profile. You answer all sorts of questions about yourself and look at pictures and tell them if you like the style of clothes or not. You can even link to your Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter accounts so they can see more about you and what kind of things you like. Then, a personal stylist picks out some clothes and sends them to you with these clever little cards that give you ideas on how to style the pieces, like this:

You decide what you want to keep, pay for it online, and send back the rest in a postage paid already-addressed envelope they include in the box.

It is genius. Genius, I tell you!

I got my first fix a couple of weeks ago, and it was so fun to get a box of surprise clothing! The presentation was fantastic – everything was wrapped in tissue paper and really lovely. I ended up only keeping one shirt, but I can’t wait to try it again.

Have any of you tried Stitch Fix? What did you think?

November 26, 2013November 26, 2013

Organization made easy: Google Nexus 7 & Moleskine Review

I’ve always been an organizational nightmare. People, I am a “piler”, not a “filer”. But I SWEAR to you , I know where everything in IS in my piles. I know which pile a particular object is in. I promise! There is a method to my madness.

Ok that last line isn’t really true.

Recently Staples reached out to me to see if I’d like to try the Google Nexus 7 tablet and a planner from Moleskine to perhaps help me get organized. Of course I said YES! I always *do* have good intentions. So I tested the products out to see what they could do for me.

I’ll be honest. Before getting into any organizational stuff with the Nexus 7, I just plain fell in love with it.

I love the 7-inch-size. I love how lightweight it is. I can definitely carry it everywhere – a mobile planner, if you will. And I love that is it screaming FAST. I can’t believe how fast the thing runs! I don’t have to spend any time waiting for anything to load. It’s just – boom! – ready to go, no matter what app I’m using.

Another great feature is that different users can create a profile, so Bobby and I can each have our own stuff on this tablet and easily switch between users. We also have our google calendars synced to a family calendar which we can view on the Nexus which is awesome for checking schedules and making future plans.

Of course the Nexus 7 does all the “fun” stuff you want a tablet to do – games, reading apps, music, and it takes great photos and video. It’s super-functional for work AND play, and I am really, really loving it! I’m typically an iPad user, but this tiny tablet has really won me over. It’s just so convenient to take with me and have my schedule at my fingertips. I’ve got the kids’ school calendars downloaded and saved on it as well!

No more getting online every time I need to look at the kids’ school calendar? HALLELUJAH!

Now, if you’re a more traditional person as far as organizing and planning goes, you’ll love the Moleskine Professional Planner I reviewed.

This thing is a total godsend for PLANNER NERDS, and you know who you are! I know some of you just loooove a planner. You want to write things down in pen and ink. You want to take notes, jot down ideas and circle, star, highlight, underline, and color-coordinate stuff. That is not me, so while I like the Moleskine planner as much as I can like a planner, I am sticking to digital. But if YOU are a planner-lover, you’ve gotta treat yourself to this! It’s got a sturdy hard cover so it can take some abuse. AND it’s got *Detachable* to-do lists! I have to admit that feature does excite me a lot because I love the cathartic list-making-and-crossing-off experience!

It really is a beautiful book for project-planning. All the dates are blank so you can use the pages whenever you need to.

Detachable to-do lists as far as the eye can see!

To make a long story short, these are both beautiful, highly-functional products that will not only help YOU stay organized if that’s what you’re in the market for, but make great gifts as well!

You can get them both at Staples, online or in-store! Just one more way you can say “that was easy!” this season.

Are you in the market for a tablet this year for you? Or does someone you love have one on their gift list?