Schaubs Do Christmas

Wow, I can't believe that Christmas came and went.

We kicked off the holiday season with Thanksgiving at Carol's sister's house. They live in a beautiful home  and opened it up for all of the family. I had the pleasure of cooking a few of the menu items with the other family cooks, and a great time was had by all.

Then we went to the Christmas tree lighting at the Westlake Center. It is sure a fun event, and this time, it didn't rain. We secured/commandeered a spot where we could see both the hosts and all the areas that were lit up. It was a great start to the Christmas season.

Over the next few weeks we got ready for Christmas by cooking and baking lots of different sweet treats. I really enjoy it, and this time I experimented a little bit more with gluten-free recipes. For the most they worked out, and Pamela's Products remains my favorite brand. There are a few other brands emerging, but so far, every time I use PP, I get a successful product.

We went to the Kleyns and enjoyed decorating Gingerbread people and graham cracker homes. Michele's was definitely the best, but we all had fun showing off our (lack of) cake decorating talent. It was also a night of enjoying Hot Chocolates with Peppermint Schnapps and Hot Buttered Rum. In honor of the commercialized Holiday Season, we also watched "Elf."





We also went to the Swedish Cultural Center for the St. Lucia's Day celebration. St. Lucy was martyred for her faith, and she is honored in December. Afterwards, Josh and I drove around Seattle looking at Christmas lights (Candy Cane Lane in Ravenna is nice, but small) and at the lighting of the city (I can never tire of the Space Needle).

For the first time ever, we went to a national forest (with a permit) and picked out a Christmas tree. It was fun, and it was cold. There was a pleasant layer of snow on the roads and on the trees, and it put me in a very Christmasy mood. The trees were a bit sparse - of course, they were natural trees, not bred for their bushiness. So our tree turned out to be a little Charlie Brown-ish as well. I liked it, but our attempts to bulk it up mostly looked humorous rather than effective. I think we'll go snowshoeing next year and get a tree from a tree farm, but it definitely made a great memory.

We went to Colorado to celebrate with the Kings thanks to the generosity of our sister in law who gave us some standby passes on Alaska. We were only there for three nights, which were spent mostly catching up with my parents and preparing Christmas dinner. We had a great time. My mom and I even figured out how to make some gluten-free knedliky. 

I also took advantage of the time and baked some gluten-free cookies for Josh. King Arthur Flour makes a basic cookie mix into which up to 3 cups of mix-ins can be added, so Josh ended up with a wide variety of cookies and treats. 

We joined my parents for the Christmas Eve service at New Life Church and were greatly amused by the lights, music, and message. The talented performers played a rocking version of Carol of the Bells, a funny, radio drama-style version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and even had ice skaters performing on the center stage.

We didn't really get any snow, but it was fun spending some quality time with my parents.

It was very nice and very fun to be in Colorado for Christmas.

We flew home on Christmas day, which turned out well. The flights weren't as full as we'd feared, and we were able to get the first flight from Denver to Seattle. We made it home for Christmas in Seattle, too!

We hope your year has been wonderful and that next year brings even more love and laughter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cookies at the Tailgating Party

That was super fun!  The cookies went pretty fast.  I had taken nearly three dozen cookies there -- probably somewhere between two and two-and-a-half.  I took back one baggie of crumbles.  A few people had more than one cookie.  I had sneaked a few Betty Crocker cookies into the bag, and everyone agreed that mine were better.  The top photo of the Three Musketeers showed the three.  The BC cookie was much lighter colored -- I had used whole wheat flour in my regular cookies -- and it was flatter and crisper.  My cookie had a mix of white and milk chocolate chips, and I think that may have sealed the deal.  The other thing is that I used Rolled Oats rather than instant or quick cooking.  That resulted in a fuller cookie with a real oat bite.  It sure was fun!  

Here's the Christian Challenge group at CSU.  Ryan Lindsey, who shows up in our picture with the Muench's, and his wife Terra are the ministers of the Christian Challenge ministry.  Terra designed their site: http://www.challengepueblo.com/

Well, I must make breakfast -- gluten free pancakes topped with yogurt (Josh's homemade kind) and peach preserves (from Palisade).

Enjoy the pictures.

The Three Musketeers: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies are by far my favorite cookies.  Since Josh has gone gluten-free, we haven't enjoyed cookies because I haven't really figured out how to make any that weren't hard as rocks, flat as pancakes, or bland as crackers.  Enter the Gluten Free Goddess' website and a renewed encouragement in testing recipes.  Also, I have done some more experimentation with gluten-free flour substitutes, and I found a few combinations that I enjoy.  

The original recipe is Nestle's.  I attached it below, but you can check it out at their VeryBestBaking website.

Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies 
Estimated Times: Preparation - 15 min | Cooking - 10 min | Cooling Time - 1 min cooling | Yields - 48 cookies (4 dozen) 

Have a glass of milk with this favorite snack treat.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, morsels and nuts; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

I decided to make the cookies for the tailgating party that Christian Challenge was putting on at CSU for this weekend's football game. I didn't want to leave Joshua out of the cookie pleasure!  So I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix in a 1 for 1 exchange with the flour called for in the recipe.  

In order to ensure that I exactly prepared the recipes, I doubled the recipe and then split the wet ingredients before I added the flours in separate bowls. I also put bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli brand) in the gluten free mix and a mixture of white and milk chocolate chips (organic chips from Vitamin Cottage) in the regular cookies.  That was more out of necessity; I ran out of chocolate chips.  I used my trusty stand mixer to mix the ingredients, which really makes work fast.  

The gluten free cookies didn't spread as much as the regular cookies.  But the color was nicely dark but not burnt. They were also tender and moist, and they were firm enough to be dunked. I ran out of cookie dough and also baked a package of Betty Crocker oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  I photographed all of these cookies to show you the differences.  We'll see which ones the guests like more!