These are a Few of My Favorite Things

My Fabulous (Tall) Friend Sandra

My Favorite Mom :)  [Don't we look so much alike?]

My Ridiculously Handsome Husband who loves Turkey Legs

Our Wonderful Grimms who stick with us through everything

Just another treat for ya'll to see the good looks of my husband with another Turkey leg

Sarah's GF Spice Cake

As many of you know, I am planning to enter the Gluten Free Baking contest in the GA National Fair this year.  I am quite excited about this, but I am not sure that I will even be here to enter.  Thankfully, my great friend, Sandra, said she would make the cake for me and enter it.  I am quite excited about this cake.  I have been working on it and tweaking it a bit, and I think I've got a final recipe.  Tonight I am going to a Ladies Dessert Social, so of course this was a great opportunity to have another test run of my cake.

I am still not entirely sure I've got the icing like I would like it.  It is a cream cheese icing but I can't seem to get it thick enough and it runs down the side of the cake.  Maybe when Sandra makes it for the final cake she can tweak it to get it right.  The taste is delicious.  It is a three layer cake.  Gluten Free flours don't rise as much as wheat flour does, so I added an extra layer to make it tall enough to decorate and look pretty.  This cake is not decorated like it will be for the fair.  I made some Marshmallow Fondant Icing, which I colored into four different fall colors.  I found a leaf mold at Hobby Lobby to shape leaves with the fondant to decorate the cake.  I think it will look pretty when it is done and I am sure Sandra will do an amazing job on it.  Probably better than I could have done :)

Clearance

For all of those who have been following my husband and me in our venture to travel the world and  move overseas, we finally have medical clearance!!!  We received the phone call this morning from the doctors.  I can't believe it....I am still very much on an adrenaline/excitement high.  Working on ticketing now, but it looks like we might be leaving next week.  Thank you all for your continued support and "thoughts" for us!  We hope that you will all stay tuned for the next leg of our journey.

Mani/Pedi

Enjoyed a manicure, pedicure and Starbucks coffee with Sandra today.

                                                

Fabulous Fall

I know it has been a while since my last post.  Things have been quite busy.  Andrew and I took a short trip to Texas and New Mexico, which I should probably blog about.  Also my mom was in the hospital, she is out and doing much better now.  I have gone in for more blood work which hopefully be my last one and then we'll be able to go.

Not knowing whether we will leave soon or not, I have been getting a little into the fall spirit.  The Georgia National Fair is October 7 through 17th.  This year they are having a Georgia Goes Gluten Free Baking Contest.  If we are here, I am planning on entering.  Here are a few cakes that are giving me some inspiration from Country Living:

Autumn Spice Cake

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

Tiered Pumpkin Spice Cake

Horseback Riding

Here are just a few pictures to document Andrew's first experience riding a horse last week on vacation!

Just getting aquainted

Getting saddled up!

Ridding down the trail

Gluten Free Bread

Well, I attempted my first gluten-free bread baking from scratch.  It was quite interesting.  I did a bit of reading and looking at different recipes before I got started.  Since rice flour, sorghum flour and all the other flours that are used as substitutes to wheat are so much thicker, it creates some difficulties.  The neatest thing that I did different for baking this bread was putting a pyrex of water on the bottom self of the oven.  It helps to add moisture to the oven and therefore helps the bread to be more moist and not dry.  I also used a convection oven for the first time ever on this bread.  Between trying out gluten free baking and using a convection oven, I'm not sure which one made the biggest difference.

I also decided not to put it in a loaf pan.  It turned out interesting, but it is definitely better than the gluten-free bread that you can buy in a store.  It wasn't exactly bad, but I do think I need some more  practice baking it before I get it right :)