Crock Pot Pineapple Cake (Review)

I first found Gingerlemongirl.com when the Monkey was diagnosed with his multiple allergies 2 1/2 years ago, and have used several of her recipes as is and as the basis for some of my creations. Since then we have become friends as well, and I was so pleased when she started testing for her cookbook, Everything Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Cookbook. I got to take a small part in the testing, and then had to wait for the book to come out. 

Now that it has finally come out (I am not a patient person), I have the opportunity to review a recipe for you, and offer you the chance to try it out for yourself. You will so not be disappointed. Not because it is gluten free, which it is, but because it is an amazing collection of recipes for your crock pot. Period. Do you know anybody with a crock pot? Then they need this book. Onto the recipe....

Okay, I volunteered for this gig. I love helping out with cookbooks, and trying out recipes. It may well be an illness. Maybe. Carrie asked me if I wanted sweet or savory, and I told her to surprise me. She did with the perfect recipe, Right Side Up Pineapple Cake. How did she know of my insane love of pineapple cake?! :) It was perfect.

It went together beautifully. The instructions were easy to follow, and I had no problems. Well, unless you count the fact that my pineapple and cherries sank. :) It was all good though. I flipped it out onto a plate, and you can see them under the layer of cake. It was taken and devoured at the bi-annual church picnic and kick ball game. Thumbs up all around. This is the moistest cake I have had in a long time with or without gluten.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

So, a few months ago my mother gave me this recipe she had printed off for me for months before that as it sounded like something I would like. This generally means a weird combination of ingredients, and probably something nobody else in the family will eat. It was for Pumpkin Black Bean Chili in the slow cooker. I bought all the canned ingredients, and meant to make it before Christmas.

Then I got all kinds of crazy hours, and was to tired to do the dishes let alone actually make food that didn't go in the microwave or practically make itself. Yes, yes. I know this almost makes itself, but it was still beyond my tired brain.

Finally got to it a couple of weeks ago after testing out a recipe for a forthcoming crock pot cookbook. I used the broth as the base of my chili. Failed to measure though and ended up with soup. Really, really tasty soup. So tasty, I nearly didn't share with the one member of the family who actually thought this sounded half way good. Sucked it up though and shared. I am such a saint. You should really try this.

I used chicken instead of turkey

Pizza Casserole

Today while it snows, I am wishing for something warm to fill my belly come dinner time. I know that I am going to have to at least shovel a path to the car, and clean the car off for my sister. Warm food though is probably not going to happen as I am in the midst of testing a new cookie recipe for the blog, testing some crock-pot recipes for a forthcoming cookbook, and I have my shake & tuna salad chilling in the fridge. Maybe I will just make another pot of coffee, and dream of this pizza casserole.

This casserole came into our lives via an apartment complex newsletter almost 7 years ago. My sister started making it, and it has become a staple in our lives. You can find a variety of variations on it all over the web. This is the way we like it. Okay, my sister likes it with sliced mushrooms, but I don't. I like peppers, and she doesn't. So, we do it this way. Add sliced mushrooms or peppers if you so desire.

Pizza Casserole

1 pound cooked pasta (we like gemelli or wagon wheels)

1 jar pasta sauce (we usually do a six cheese)e

1 kielbasa sausage (turkey or beef)

1 small can sliced olives

Mix all this together in a big pan. Grease a 9 x 13 pan, and dump it in. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Add 1 package pre-shredded mozzarella cheese (or like us the 4 cheese pizza blend) to the top, and return to the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve with a side salad and sourdough bread.

Essential Gluten Free Baking Guide

I am so happy to say that one of the cookbooks I have been doing testing for is officially available for pre-order. In honor of that, I decided to share some of the photos from my testing. The Essential Gluten Free Baking Guide, Part 1 and Part 2, are totally going to rock your world. And if you haven't discovered their blogs, check out Real Sustenance and The Daily Dietribe.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Breakfast Cake

Cookie Bars

Zucchini Bread

Please note: I don't know what made it into the final book, but each of the things I made were very tasty so you can't go wrong. :)

It's a Keeper Thursday!

I am so excited to be co-hosting the It's a Keeper Thursday linky party. If you are new to this, I will be sharing the "rules" here in just a bit. I have been participating in It's a keeper for quite awhile now (off and on), and have gotten lots of great ideas and met lots of fabulous bloggers. It was through It's a Keeper! that I participated in a group cookbook review of The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I hope you enjoy getting to know some new people and getting some great new projects and recipes to add to your collection!

IAK Thursday is the place where we all get together and share our “keepers”! Do you have a recipe that you’ve tried, or a craft project you’ve made that was a “keeper”? Well, then we want to see it — each and every week!

Be sure to stop by, say hello and leave them a comment — tell them you saw it on It’s a Keeper Thursday! Now it’s your turn! Link up your favorite recipes and craft, decorating or home-improvement projects! But before you do, I have just a few little guidelines….

• Follow It’s a Keeper. That way I can stop over and check out your blog and say hi! There are lots of ways to follow — GFC, Facebook and Twitter. Or, you can sign up for my email feed and be notified as soon as I post something new! And, as always, if you follow me, I’ll follow you back! Just leave me a little note letting me know how you followed and I’ll return the favor!

• Your link should be a food or craft/project related item. Anything that you’ve made that’s “a keeper”. Please don’t link up to your homepage, giveaways or items you are selling. There are other link parties out there for those posts. Feel free to link as many recipes/projects as you’d like.

• Add my button to your sidebar or blog post. This helps spread the word about It’s a Keeper Thursday and encourages others to link up! The more the merrier tastier, right?!

• Be sure to check out some of the tasty recipes and gorgeous projects that others have linked up! Drop by and say “hello” and let them know that It’s a Keeper sent you!

And now for this weeks party! The linky will be open until Sunday at 11:59 PM. Let the linking begin!

Carol Monnerat Artisan Truffles

Doesn't that look amazing?! Two weeks ago, Carol Monnerat was a featured vendor at the Bozrah Farmer's Market. The day they sent out the newsletter talking about truffles I KNEW I would blow some money and calories on one. I saved my money and a few extra calories that day. Turned out that my aunt payed for it for me, and I am incredibly grateful. The chocolate was amazing, the inside was super creamy, and the flavor (pina colada, I believe) was out of this world!

I highly recommend that you either find Carol and her truffles at a local venue or contact them about a special order!

Yes, a second photo. They were THAT good! :)

Lenora Le Noire Adoption

I have been wanting to adopt a gluten free blogger for quite awhile, but was never quite sure how to go about it or just missed opportunities. I was skimming my twitter feed a bit ago when I saw a tweet from Celiacs in the House putting someone up for adoption. I jumped, and am ever so glad I did.

Adoptee--Lenora Le Noire: Fat and Glamorous in the Kitchen

Her blog name and twitter handle (fatglamkitchen) had me smiling from the first moment, and her blog matches them perfectly. I am so happy to have found Lenora, and will be visiting regularly to see what she is whipping up.

For purposes of this adoption, I chose to do her Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and Avocado Chocolate Mousse. The cookies were a huge hit around here, though we did substitute our non-dairy chocolate chips for the semi-sweet chocolate. I was a bit skeptical about the mousse, in part as I am not a fan of avocados. She's right though. It is fabulous!e

The second dish I made had a substitution as well since I couldn't find millet. I used quinoa on the approval of Lenora. :) I think I probably needed to use a third sweet potato and a smaller pan. I used a 9 x 13, and probably a 9 x 11 or an 8 x 8 would have sufficed. Regardless the flavors were nummy, and I can't wait to consume leftovers tonight.

Please go check out Lenora!

Spicy Casserole

You get this photo of the sweet potatoes, because they are pretty!

Cookies and Mousse

Pineapple Chicken

Can't believe it has been a whole week since I tried this recipe out. It has been quite a week what with both the hacking yucks and the flu yucks making their way through our family. Oh, and a lovely visit from family up from Maryland. It has been a whirlwind.

Anyway, my friend Carrie over at gingerlemongirl had posted it on Facebook, and I knew I had to make it. Of course, I didn't use actual onions as they tend to cause migraines for me, and my sister has issues with them as well. So just a shake or two of dried minced onion was sufficient for us. Otherwise, I kept the recipe just as stated.

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken from A Few Short Cuts

I decided to pair it with some white rice and frozen veggies (cooked of course!). In this case, i had a mixed bag of broccoli, carrots and water chestnuts AND a smidge left in my bag of mixed pepper strips. Microwaved both, put them on top of the rice, and then poured the chicken and pineapple over the top. It was delicious!


What is the sign of a keeper recipe? In my case, I crave it for leftovers and don't mind eating it twice heated. Yep, it's a keeper!

Cookbook Review: Maple Pecan Scones

This is the fourth and final post in my series of reviews from the cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. It is part of a mass cookbook review being hosted over at It's a Keeper, which has a due date of today. This means if you were waiting to read them all at once tomorrow would be the day to do it! :)

The recipe for these is NOT to be found on The Pioneer Woman site, but obviously is in the book on pages 68-69. Due to copyright laws, I don't feel comfortable sharing the recipe here, but you can either buy a copy of the book or see if your local library has it, which is what I did for this review. Public libraries are fantastic for these sorts of things where you want to try something out but aren't ready to commit to the purchase. I will be returning this soon, but I have already put it on my wish list for future purchase.


I tend to use my mixer for cutting in the butter whereas the photo in the book shows one of those odd looking whisk like things. So specific aren't I?! :) Small pieces works best in the mixer. I did use the King Arthur Gluten Free multipurpose flour again. Consistency don't you know! I used almond milk instead of cream, and left the coffee out of the icing. Oh, and halved it again. This one was a bit more tricky to cut in half so I used this handy, dandy tool.


My dough was a bit wetter than described in the book, and I had a difficult time transferring it from the "board" to the pan. I ended up just patting it out, and cutting it again on the cookie sheet. I, also, had to bake them about 5 minutes longer probably due to the extra moisture.
The monkey did not like the scone itself, but was caught using his spoon to scrape all of the maple icing (I used maple syrup in it) off the scone and the excess off the plate. Somebody had to eat the scones so I gave my all for the cause. Mmmm!!! I really enjoyed them, and would call them a definite keeper.

Cookbook Review: Angel Sugar Cookies

This is the second in my series of reviews from the cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. It is part of a mass cookbook review being hosted over at It's a Keeper.

The recipe for these delightful cookies can be found here on The Pioneer Woman site, and on pages 236-237 of the book. Again I kept it simple and used the King Arthur Gluten Free multipurpose flour mix, and added a 1/4 teaspoon guar gum. Oh, and yes I did do a half recipe. It made about 2 1/2 dozen cookies, which is odd since the full recipe only makes 18 cookies. Maybe mine were a bit smaller?


These were made for St. Patrick's Day and served up as a special dessert for the Monkey and Boo. The frosting is just a traditional butter cream made from the package of powdered sugar with butter and a bit of almond milk and green food coloring. They were asking for the cookies two and three times a day.


These cookies are just as described in the book, "Light, crisp, and melt-in-your-mouth." They don't really travel well, but then they are meant to be eaten at home. Definitely a keeper!

Cookbook Review: Marmalade Muffins

So a wee bit ago there was a discussion on the It's a Keeper Facebook page about doing a group cookbook review. After much discussion, it was decided to do The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond and The Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics by Ina Garten. For me personally, I decided to do recipes from the first title. Each of them has been made both gluten and (mostly) dairy free. If it is not necessary for you to do this, please feel free, to make them as written in the book.

The recipe for these muffins can be found here on The Pioneer Woman site, and on page 58-60 of the book. I made a 1/2 recipe (this one is easy to divide) in part as gluten free baked goods tend to go bad a bit faster than their wheaten counterparts. Despite making a 1/2 recipe, it still made the 2 dozen mini-muffins that the book says a full recipe will make.

For my substitutions, I decided to keep it simple and went with the gluten free multipurpose blend from King Arthur Flour. I did add guar gum (xanthan gum would work as well) in the amount of 1/2 teaspoon. For the buttermilk, I used her method of souring milk (found on page 40) with the almond milk we currently have in the house. I say currently since we sometimes have coconut or oat milk. I think it easily could just use milk or the non-dairy equivalent.



The results were just as described in the book. These are moist and bursting with flavor. And the brown sugar/juice glaze? Oh. My. Word! These are definitely a keeper!



And I have used this photo before, but the monkey really liked these little muffins.