Gluten Free German Pancakes

 I love light, fluffy German pancakes!  It's been a while since I've had them seeing as I've been Gluten Free for the past... Ugh--year as of next month.  I've had a few "accidental" gluten-izations, like that time at the unit Bar-B-Q when I ate that chocolate cake... not a good memory.  So I've been looking for recipes for all the things I love. Today I found this recipe at realmomkitchen.com and went to work--this is the resulting recipe.

Jesus: The Original Super Hero!

So my 6 year old son has recently developed this concept that sense the movies and superheros aren't real, that neither is Jesus... I have been at a loss for what to tell him.  We've talked about faith, and how we know the Gospel is true.  We go to church.  I feel like I'm doing all I really can to help him.  Today during a break from school (he's home-schooled, so he was at home playing with duplos) he told me he doesn't want to do Family Home Evening because Jesus isn't fun.  My approach went something like this:

Me: What makes a superhero a superhero?
Izz:  They are cool.
Me: What else?
Izz:  They have special powers and can make stuff.
Me:  What is the difference between a superhero and a super-villain?
Izz:  One is the good guy and one is the bad guy.
Me:  But how do you know which on is the good guy?
Izz:  Because they help people.
Me:  So a hero rescues people and makes them safe--he saves them.
Izz:  Yeah, and he doesn't super cool stuff.
Me:  Did you know that Jesus is like that?  He rescues us from our sins--when we do something wrong, that's called a sin, and when we repent, He takes that sin from us and rescues us.
Izz:  But Satan is the bad guy?
Me:  That's right, because Satan always tries to make you do what's wrong. 
Izz:  So  Satan doesn't want us to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus?
Me:  No he doesn't--he's like a real super-villain.

So there you have it--Jesus is a Super Hero!

Finding Hope in Sad Days

Friday morning after dropping my husband off for a three week school, I returned to find a message on my facebook that my Grandmother had suffered a heart attack the night before and was not expected to live past the weekend.  I briefly considered flying out and seeing her, however was advised to stay home and monitor the situation by telephone. 
It has been something of a struggle for me, Grandma Mary is easily one of my favorite family members.  It is not easy to stay 2000 miles away when I could go to see her.  Eight years ago, before I had kids and a husband, she had her first stroke and I spent a week with her after she was well enough to leave the hospital.  It was the most time I ever spent with her alone--she took me all over Oakland where she lived, and exercised every day to stay fit.  She volunteered at the local thrift shop and visited boutiques and got pedicures. 

This is a picture from that visit.  She was beautiful and vibrant and full of life.  

The past few years her health has deteriorated and she has spent much time in the hospital.  She would be 90 this March.  I have tried to find ways to explain things to my sons, they didn't really know her and so they aren't really upset or interested in the details of what's happening.  Last night I called and talked to her, she doesn't talk much anymore, but I got to tell her I love her and that I'll miss her.  My youngest son, Moses talked to her for a long time, he told her all about Scooby Doo and the monsters.  We watched Royal Wedding last night, this is how I think of her, singing like an angel and dancing. 

This video from Mormon Messages has brought some comfort to me--I know Grandma will be happier and freer when this is all over.  We will miss her, but she will be where she belongs.

The Suphero Birthday Party

This is Isaac, my 6 year old superhero!

The table with all the goodies!  Everything on this table was gluten-free, peanut-free and homemade: chocolate and white cake/cupcakes, lemon buddies chex mix and muddy buddies chex mix with Nutella and a little cream instead of peanut butter, chocolate dipped GF cookies from Glutino.

My super CTR-Boy cake!

That's layers of chocolate and white cake with cherry Ganache filling! 

(I'm still recovering from the sugar high!)

And it was good!

 

Every year we have a Pinata--this year I got a pirate because it was the only "bad guy" character I could find--the boys loved it!

 

That's it--thanks for looking!

My First Fondant Cake

Tomorrow is my son Isaac's 6th birthday party--I've been planning for months what we would do and what kind of party it would be, ect.  We decided on a superhero party and so I set out to make the perfect cake: one with his superhero name on it--CTR-Boy!  A little bit of back story: I wrote him a few stories involving CTR-Boy who has the power to Choose The Right and be reverent and tell the truth, that kind of thing--he LOVES the stories and as CTR-Boys name is Isaac as well, he naturally assumed the stories are about him.  Not far off as they are for him--lol!

Anyway, back to the cake!  Everything at the the party is either dark or light--like white chocolate dipped vanilla cookies next to chocolate dipped cookies--so the cake is layers of gluten free chocolate and white cakes.

 The filling is cherry Ganache--a big thanks to Inspired-by-Michelle for posting  for posting this awesome tutorial!  Now before you go thinking I am awesome for trying a new sweet for frost my cake--I planned to use the Ganache to frost the entire thing, only the find out at the last minute that you have to let it sit over night before you can frost with it--oops!

 So I made Butter-Cream Frosting instead.  A big thanks to foodnetwork.com
for posting this recipe!  As it turns out, *that* frosting I have always loved but didn't know what it was so I couldn't make it is actually fresh butter-cream frosting.

Do you like my awesome cake turner?  I nearly toppled my cake a number of times--next time I'm going to make a Lazy Susan with a paint can or something.  

This was a very precarious way to frost!  lol!

The frosted product.

Fondant!  once again, I stole this from some awesome person on youtube--How to make Marshmellow fondant.  I loved this vid--it was super easy and quick to make.   

I printed out a big sized CTR sheild as a pattern and used an exacto knife to cut it out.

Last I added a few loving words in red Ganache.

Not bad huh?

UPDATE:

 

Upon request, this is the end product--now you can really see the layers!