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gluten free fall cocktail party menu

Melissa 4 Comments

This week I had a little cocktail party with some friends, two of whom are gluten free. I was immediately stumped about what to make. Just about every appetizer that came to mind had gluten in it – crabcakes, stuffed mushrooms, anything with puff pastry, crackers for the cheese plate… even the spinach and artichoke dip (which is always a hit) has flour in it.

So I scoured the internet for ideas, and then headed out to Trader Joes and Wegmans, two stores in my neighborhood that have great gluten free sections with brands like Udi’s. All the food was a big hit – even with the non-gluten free guests. Here’s my tasty gluten free menu!


First, when serving wine, you must serve cheese, right? My cheese plate had a English Stilton with apricots, an English Cheddar with carmelized onions and a third Italian soft cheese that I forget. I added figs and grapes and some rosemary almonds to the platter, along with regular crackers on one side and gluten free crackers on the other. I’ve learned from gluten free friends that you need to keep things separate, since even if gluten free food has touched food with gluten, it can cause reactions.
cheese tray for gluten freeI also served a spinach dip (check the package or make your own – many premade versions use flour as a thickening agent) with corn chips and root vegetable chips from Trader Joe’s. These are a fall favorite of mine, just because the colors look just like fall leaves!

Next up, I had Roasted Shrimp Cocktail (from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics). It was super easy and so much more yummy than regular shrimp cocktail! All you do is buy uncooked shrimp, already peeled and deveined if you want to make this dish even easier, toss it in olive oil, kosher salt and fresh pepper and throw it in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Yum.
Then, I made Mustard Ginger Sausages. These were a HUGE hit. I found this recipe on BusyGirl’s pinterest page and had to make it.
Mustard Ginger Sausages
½ cup ginger preserves (in the English food section of the grocery store)
½ cup whole grain mustard
1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce (soy sauce has gluten, so get a gluten-free version)
1 packages cocktail smoked sausages
mustard for dipping (I used a hot and sweet mustard from Trader Joe’s)
Mix preserves, whole grain mustard, olive oil and soy sauce in a bowl. Add sausages and toss to coat. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, tossing once.
roasted shrimp cocktail | mustard ginger sausages
Finally, we have dessert! I’m lucky enough to live by so many wonderful places that sell things like Flourless Chocolate Cake, but if you don’t you can make one yourself or try one of Udi’s yummy gluten-free treats! I love their cookies – you would never guess they were gluten-free! We also had a pear torte (not gluten-free, I confess!) and a great selection of wine and a fabulous fall cocktail! Its just 1 cup apple cider, a good glug of pomegranate juice and a shot rum. You could serve it warm, but it was such a warm night that I served it on ice.
fall cocktail recipe

What are your favorite treats for a fall cocktail party? I love anything with apples – or maybe a carmelized onion tart (made with Udi’s gluten free pizza crusts)! Oh! And zucchini fries, substituting Udi’s gluten bread crumbs for panko breadcrumbs… YUM!

disclosure: this post was sponsored by udi’s gluten free.

irene damage

Melissa 4 Comments

After Irene left on Sunday morning, we were extremely grateful. Our yard was a mess of leaves and branches, but our house and cars were totally okay. Our house is surrounded by giant trees, so we were concerned about how we would fare. But waking up on Sunday morning was a relief.

Not too bad. Then I was in the kitchen making lunch for the kids. I had my iPod headphones in, drowning out the sounds of my cabin fevered kids listening to music. And I heard a giant CRACK.

I ran outside and looked up. (Yes, this was exactly what you are not supposed to do.) And saw this…

A huge tree (at least twice as tall as our house) had a big branch broken off and the branch is now lodged in the giant maple tree in our backyard. Its located right over our deck and our bedroom. So this is a problem. (You can see the two different leaves? The dark leaves are the maple tree, the lighter leaves are the branch.)

I’m seeing dollar signs.

DaySpring: Our Faith at Home *GIVEAWAY*

Melissa 43 Comments

As a family, we constantly are striving to incorporate our faith around our home. A few things we do:

  • We have a shelf of kid’s Bibles and devotional books in our hallway, right outside the kids’ bedrooms, where they can easily access them on their own.
  • My girls both write their memory verses on their mirror with dry erase markers every week, so its displayed where they’ll see it.
  • We have prayer cards for missionaries on our fridge, along with their memory verses.

This month, I was so excited to receive a gorgeous piece of art for our walls with one of my favorite verses.
I put it right in the hallway above our bookcase. I love it. We see it every time we walk up the stairs – and its such a reminder of how we want to live our lives! (And I’ve already had someone ask me where we got it!)

I’m already looking at another one! I would love to get this one, with Joshua 1:9 on it for our mudroom. I would love for this to be the last thing we see before leaving the house:
There are tons of great deals on wall art like these on sale this month on DaySpring!

WIN IT!

How would you like to pick up some gorgeous (in)spired deals for your home? DaySpring is offering one lucky Girlymama reader a $35 gift certificate to DaySpring!!

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment telling me one of your favorite Bible verses!

Extra Entry #1: Leave a SEPARATE comment telling me you subscribed to Girlymama’s feed by email or in a reader.
Extra Entry #2: Leave another comment telling me you became a Girlymama Facebook fan or that you Girlymama on Twitter!
Extra Entry #3: Leave another comment telling me you’re a fan of DaySpring on Facebook or Twitter!!
Extra Entry #4: Leave another comment telling me in what way you promoted this contest (i.e., posting about it on your blog or Facebook, or  Tweeting about it.

Contest ends Monday, May 23rd at noon. Entries such as “Enter me” or “I want to win” will NOT be counted. Winners will be selected by Random.org, announced back here on this post, and notified via email with further instructions. If I don’t hear from the winner in 48 hours, I will be choosing a new winner.

disclosure: i received this dayspring product to facilitate this review. i was not compensated financially and, as always, all opinions are my own.

brunch menu

Melissa

So ever since I posted a picture of my brunch last week, I’ve been getting questions about what I served. So here’s our menu:

fruit plate (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon and mango) from the farmers market

Caramelized Pear Parfaits (caramelized pears, organic vanilla yogurt from Trader Joe’s and Jo-Lynne’s homemade granola)

Cookies (for the kids, from Wegmans) and Scones with Currants

Pistachios (from Trader Joe’s)

Hummus with Beanfield Chips


Beanfield Chips were sent to me as a sample and I was so excited. Two people at the brunch were gluten-free and I was looking for some snacks that they could eat. The Beanfield Chips were a huge hit (even with the non-gluten free guests) and were so yummy. As you know, we’ve been making some changes in our eating lately, looking for healthier foods with less additives and artificial ingredients. Beanfields Snacks are farmed and made in the USA. They are gluten-free, cholesterol-free, trans fat-free, preservative-free and free of every one of the FDA’s eight most common ingredients that trigger food allergies. Plus, Beanfield Snacks is committed to helping update food and business practices – a cause I share.

And these will definitely be making another appearance in our house. My family and I loved the Pico de Gallo!! (Although the Sea Salt & Pepper went better with the hummus – those are probably better if you’re a fan of dipping.) The biggest compliment? My husband said, “Wow! These are awesome! What are they?” Not “What health food snack did you get now?” or “These are good for health food.” or something. And that is the highest praise you can get!

disclosure: i was sent beanfield chips to facilitate a review. i was not compensated for this post and, as always, all opinions are my own.

i am not a gardener

Melissa 12 Comments

**warning. this is possibly  the longest post in the history of posts about flower beds.**

On Saturday my husband announced he was going to dig a ditch.

He wasn’t kidding.

(He has a purpose here – he’s installing a French Drain that will hopefully make the water go away from our house and stop coming into our family room.) While he did that, I decided to dig up the other flower bed, since it has never grown anything in the entire 5 years we’ve lived here. Wait – that’s not true. It grows weeds quite well. So we thought that while we were digging all day, maybe mixing topsoil in to the other bed would help. You find all sorts of interesting things when you dig up your beds.

lots of rocks, bricks and even an old bottle

We also found a half-decomposed dead mouse. But I won’t show you that picture. Then my husband found this:

Full disclosure: I did not take this picture. I refused to even get close enough to use the zoom lens, despite my husband’s trying to reassure me by saying things like “It can’t jump! I think!!” Grace or Ellie took this while I was hiding at a safe distance. When he came over HOLDING IT IN HIS HAND, I ran away saying “THIS is why I don’t like gardening!!!!”

So anyway…. a typical flower bed at our house looked like this:

Since we got rid of all of the dead and soon-to-bed plants, I had to go get more. So I went to our secret place. Out in Amish country, there is a tiny nursery that friends told us about. Basically you drive down a road, turn right just after a locksmith and drive down a winding road lined with Amish Farms, past the Amish School with little kids playing hopscotch at recess – we had an actual chicken cross the road in front of us (talk about free range!) – and into a random driveway. Spring Grove Nursery is actually in the backyard of a little house. And its amazing. The entire trunk of my van was filled with flowers and shrubs and it was like $60.

Well after hours and hours and several Advils, we have this:

Now, I JUST planted this. That's why they are all still alive.

And check out our little container garden:
For their summer project, the kids are growing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and red peppers. We’re so green 🙂

So if you’re actually still reading, share – what are your tips for keeping your plants alive?

 

DIY – desks for my girls’ room

Melissa 5 Comments

The last couple weeks, I’ve been busily reorganizing the kids rooms to clean out things that are no longer needed or don’t fit or are out-grown, selling things on consignment and adding desks to my girls’ room.

Its been busy.

But the girls’ room is finally done. Now that Ellie is in second grade, we decided that she really needed a desk in her room. Ellie gets easily distracted under the best of circumstances, so its understandably hard for her to do homework at the kitchen table. And next year, Gracie will be starting homework as well, so they both needed spaces to study quietly and comfortably.
Their room is not gigantic and was pretty full to begin with. So we started by getting rid of one of their bookcases which we put in the hallway (since many of their books are shared with Colin now). Then I moved their other bookshelf and added a desk for Ellie. I found this desk in Target and it matches their room perfectly. I added an adorable lamp (also from Target) and she was good to go! (Well, she still needs a chair, but we’re close.)

DSC_0006-1

Now Gracie was tougher. We didn’t have room for another full desk in the room. But we did have a tiny bit of space between the bunk beds and the wall. And a small table. So this is Gracie’s Nook:

DSC_0010-1

I wanted to make her desk area still special, since she’s technically getting the hand-me-down table. So for her desk, we added a cute little lamp (just $10 at IKEA), a magnet board (old, from IKEA) and those darling wall decals (picked up on clearance at Target for only $2!!) She LOVES it!

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For both of the girls, I made pencil holders out of flower pots ($3 at IKEA) and the leftover wall decals. SO cute!

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So total cost?
Ellie’s desk: $95
Ellie’s lamp: $27
Gracie’s lamp: $10
decals: $2
pots: $6

= $140 (which was paid for with old toys and clothes I sold on consignment!) Not too shabby!!! And the girls are thrilled with their new spaces.

For more great frugal DIY ideas, check out The Centsible Life!

 

 

blues or reds?

Melissa 11 Comments

We're re-doing our family room and finally getting a real couch.
*cue angels singing*
We're replacing the futon that I had in my college dormroom that has served as our family room couch for the past 10 years. Which is not too shabby for a cheapy futon from Value City that I think we bought for like $100. I'm so excited. But now I can't decide which direction to go in. The walls are staying yellow, since painting again would be a nightmare – we'd have to paint the kitchen and dining room too! So I'm just picking accent colors.

So do you like blues:
Downloads

Or multi-colored? (mostly reds and oranges)
Downloads1

What do you think??

some of my favorite new small businesses

Melissa

 

Thanks to American Express for sponsoring my writing today about small businesses. American Express is presenting Small Business Saturday, a way to honor the local merchants who are the backbone of the economy, this Saturday, November 27. They're offering statement credits to people who shop at small businesses, advertising for small-business owners, and donations to Girls Inc. for "Likes" of the Small Business Saturday page on Facebook. Join the celebration by clicking the "Like" button and then visiting the Facebook page to learn more about the program and read the terms and conditions that apply.

Are we the only family who – despite living in lots of different places – end up buying each other the same thing for Christmas? Of course, its partly because we all have such fabulous taste and gravitate to the same things 🙂 But mostly because we were all shopping at the same 5 stores.

But now with amazing sites like Etsy and so many wonderful little shops in our towns, we've been breaking out of the box and getting really unique gifts for each other.

For example, I just ordered a fabulous gift for my sister-in-law for the holidays from Grace Hester Designs. Grace is a working mom of two, who has turned her love of design into the most adorable little online shop!  These little desk calendar is darling  – and wouldn't these posters make such a unique teacher gift?
Gracehester
Another small little store I'm loving is Bonbon Charms. I think personalized gifts are just so special and unique — I just got this mother's heart charm, which I have gotten oodles of compliments on ever since I started wearing it. And I think these photo charms are so sweet. But what about this etched heart charm for a newly engaged friend?
Etchedheart250pix

Or even a cute little apron or some handmade placemats from another Etsy store Popham Lane! (And I LOVE the yoga mat bags from India at Himalayan Tapestry!)

This year during the holidays, think outside the big box store. There are thousands of little stores that are out there to give you amazing gifts that will be treasured forever.

Small Business Saturday

disclosure: I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

a craft for the completely uncrafty: magnetic weekly menu board

Melissa 11 Comments

**Giveaway is now closed! Thanks for entering and congratulations to all of our winners!**

Thanks to Scotch(R) Double Sided Tape for sponsoring my writing about crafts. Add your comment below to be entered for a chance to win free sample rolls to help with your upcoming holiday needs.

So. You say you are totally and completely uncrafty? Do I have an adorable craft for you that is super dooper easy and makes a terrific gift for the holidays!  I saw something like this recently over on one of my favorite craft blogs, Little Birdie Secrets. I decided to give it a try and was amazed how easy and cute it was!

Magnetic Weekly Menu Board

Supplies:
  DSC_0039-2
12×12 picture frame (Try to find one not too heavy. This is from Michaels)
12×12 piece of scrapbook paper
heavy duty magnets

Step One: Take the back off the picture frame. Put piece of scrapbook paper front side down in frame.
DSC_0040-1

Step Two: Put the back on the picture frame. Attack magnets to the back of the frame. (Make sure you'll still be able to get the back off again so you can change the paper when you want!)
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And…. TA DAAAAAAAAA!!! You're done!
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Hang it on your fridge and you're done! Use it as a menu board, to-do list, whatever! Write on it using a dry erase marker, use a paper towel to clean it and you're good to go 🙂
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And you can easily change the paper to match your decor, match the season… all for the whooping cost of around $1 for a new piece of scrapbook paper. Total cost for the project? $12.

Scotch is offering TEN lucky Girlymama readers a roll of Scotch tape to get your holiday crafting and gifting off to a great start!! Here's how to enter:

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment sharing a holiday craft you want to try (or have tried).
Extra Entry #1: Leave a SEPARATE comment telling me you subscribed to Girlymama's feed by email or in a reader.
Extra Entry #2:  Leave another comment telling me in what way you promoted this contest (i.e., posting about it on your blog or Facebook, or  Tweeting about it.

Contest ends Friday, November 19th. Entries such as "Enter me" or "I want to win" will NOT be counted. Winners will be selected by Random.org, announced back here on this post, and notified via email with further instructions. If I don't hear from the winner in 48 hours, I will be choosing a new winner.

Please learn more about Scotch(R) Double Sided Tape and other Scotch(R) Products, and join the conversation on the Scotch(R) Brand Facebook Page and via Twitter.

disclosure: I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.