THE BEST Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls Ever!

Believe me when I say I have spent YEARS trying to come up with something gluten free that even remotely looked like a real cinnamon roll.  All my attempts were dismal failures.  Just last month I was introduced to this recipe.  I thought I could make it into a cinnamon roll cake or something.  Imagine my SHOCK when I actually got this:

Actual dough that I could roll out and turn into a cinnamon roll!?!?  I was so excited!

It was so yummy! I'm still in shock!

I followed this recipe from Our Best Bites.  Pictured is the Orange Rolls.

Here is what I did to make them Gluten Free:

The only change I made to the actual recipe is the flour.  I substituted the flour with a gluten free rice flour mix.  Otherwise I did as I was told!  Then to roll them out I put the dough on a silpat baking mat and flattened it out with my hands.  I then placed a sheet of plastic wrap on top and used my rolling pin to roll it out to the size of the silpat mat.  Top as desired.  Gently and very carefully use the silpat to help roll the dough up starting from one of the short sides.  Your patience with this will definitely be rewarded!  Cut into 8 rolls and bake as directed.

I've made these a ton and every time I am not disappointed!  YUM!

Texas Humor

Not being a Texas native, I find it very funny how Texans react to the weather. And more in particular, how the country thinks we react to weather.  I have seen a few graphics floating through Facebook recently depicting these Texas nuances, and I have to admit I find them rather hilarious!  

Here are a few of my favorites:

And this is probably my favorite:  "HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS??"

and "IT'S 38*! SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!"

 

CTR Cake

I get asked to make cakes for people more and more.  I really like making them.  For this one I got to do whatever I wanted.  I decided I wanted to try the petal look.  It was really easy, and turned out great!  I YouTubed an instructional video and got to work.

Everyone loved it, especially the person it was for.  Yay!

Family Birthdays

This Family Birthday sign has been on my do to list for quite some time now.  We were finally able to make one a few months ago.  I love how it turned out!  

My husband cut the big board out for me.  We bought all the little circles at the hobby store and then had to drill a million little holes in them.  But I'm glad there is an easy way to add more names as the family grows.  Each family has it's own color so it's easy to tell who belongs to who.  

Just about everyone who comes over to my house asks me to make one for them.  Hmmm... maybe we should go into business or something?  :)

Brush Your Teeth!

I recently took my children to the dentist. No cavities thankfully, but I was told after all three of them went back to have their teeth cleaned, that they need to

BRUSH THEIR TEETH!

Like I don't already know this.

So... I set out to do something about this.

I made them a sign.

A cute little sign with a gentle reminder to

BRUSH YOUR TEETH!

and hung it in their bathroom.

I hope it works.

Ghost Clippies

Someone was selling some very elaborate and fancy hair bows at a craft show I went to. I am so impressed that others have the patience to make hair bows. I do not. I like to once in a while, and certain ones are much more fun to make than others, and I would make a million for my friends if they asked me too.

There was this one being sold that I fell in love with. Maybe it is my love for Halloween that I was so drawn to it, I don't know. But I knew I had to make a couple of them for my girls to wear this October!

Don't you love them?

Halloween

It's no secret around here... 

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I saw this on Pinterest a while back and thought it was time.

I absolutely can not WAIT till my kids come home from school and hear their shrieks of laughter or shrills of terror!  {I'm such a mean mom!}

This little beauty is up for sale in my Etsy shop.  

Now all of you can terrify your children too! Oh.. I mean decorate for Halloween. ;-)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I while ago (March) I found a recipe to make your own laundry detergent.  It sounded pretty neat and I'm constantly on the lookout to save some cash, so I gave it a try.  

I bought all the ingredients and mixed up a batch.  I have to say I rather like it!  It's now 5 months later and I think I still have at least half of it left.  Nice!  When it runs out I will definitely be making some more.  

Here is where I found the recipe: Being Creative to Keep My Sanity Blog

This is everything you need to make it.  I found it all at my local Walmart for just under $20.

Click on over to her blog for the full directions on how to make your own.  

I use it in my HE front loader just as I would regular powder detergent and it works great!

Some Yummy Goodness

I think I just found my new favorite treat. Pretzels, peanut butter, chocolate.... mmmmm.

I followed this recipe except I had to add more powdered sugar to make it easier to handle. It was still pretty sticky. I think the next time I make this I will use this recipe for the peanut butter filling:

1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

Stir peanut butter and butter together. Add powder sugar and mix till combined. Shape into balls using about a teaspoon of the mixture per ball.

Sandwich peanut butter ball between two pretzels.  Then dip pretzels into melted chocolate. Allow to cool on waxed paper.

So yummy!!!

Rock-a-bye!

Apparently more and more people are acquainting themselves with some of my talents.  This is a good thing!  I love to share what I can do with others.  It makes me happy!

My latest project was a cake and cupcakes for a friend's baby shower.  The theme was Rock-a-bye baby/Rock and roll.  So I made an electric guitar cake and a ton of somewhat matching cupcakes.  They were all really cute!

The cupcakes have chocolate guitars and chocolate duckies on top of them.  They were really cool, but they kept breaking.  Which was kinda frustrating.  But the ones that held up were awesome!