Coconut Flour Cookies- GF

We had some GF friends come over for dinner so I thought I would try these and they turned out really yummy! Can't even tell they are GF and they have a lovely chewy texture, not dry like you would expect.

I slightly adapted this recipe from Bob's Red Mill:

Bob’s Redmill Coconut flour Cookies

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter softened

1/3 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup rice flour

1/3 cup plus 2 T. coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat  oven to 350

Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla and milk. In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients. Add dry to wet ingredients. The batter should be moist and fluffy. Place by rounded tablespoons on a greased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes. Makes 24

Gabe the Babe turns 2

Can't believe that my precious baby is already 2! I wanted to keep things easy and low key so we celebrated Italian style since the little guy LOVES pasta with a passion and had a small dinner party. Thank you to Jenny for taking these sweet pics of the night for us!

For his gift we got him a little Vespa rocking horse and a bow tie

These two were too cute together

Gabriel makes life fun with his funny sense of humor and his mischievous tendencies. Despite his small size, he's a tough cookie and orders big brother around :). He is so full of life and energy and his budding vocabulary surprises us every day these days. We just love him so much and thank the Lord for adding Gabriel to our family!

Thankful

God is good, really good & I'm so thankful that I can still declare this publicly without fear of persecution. Our children may not have this same luxury when they grow up, but it won't change the fact that He is still good and on His throne. So while I can I want to say that there is one God & only one name under which we are saved and that's the precious name of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful that I'm saved by grace and not by any good thing I do because I could never be good enough. I'm thankful that He loved me first so that I could love Him. And I'm so thankful, as our pastor put it, that God is a saving God desiring none to be lost. And lastly I'm thankful that God is a patient God and patient with me in all my short comings.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

New England Tour- Vermont

We got into Vermont after dark so we had to wait until morning to really explore. We stayed in Burlington, a little city on Lake Champlain across which are the Adirondack mountains- so pretty.

It was a cold and windy day!

We went shopping downtown on Church Street, a fun quaint area bustling with college students and tourists

It was also fun to discover a whole new food culture in New England- featuring local fresh products from the nearby farms. Almost everything we ate we knew where it came directly from, even in the restaurants! The food was also much simpler, which I loved. I didn't have an over seasoned meal and could taste each ingredient.

In Vermont we stayed at a culinary inn with two restaurants and a bakery where everything was made fresh daily. They also had cooking classes everyday! Unfortunately they were a little too pricey :) $300 a person was too much ( u think?) So we had our own culinary adventures for the day

This is the Inn, so charming! It also had it's own veggie and herb gardens to supply the restaurants.

First we went to the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory where we had a tour and tasting and a fun lesson on how chocolates are made. The factory uses 100% natural ingredients and as many local ingredients as possible. The chocolates were amazing, very high quality and unique. It may be the best chocolate I have had. Check them out and order some for yourself! 

Then we took a short scenic drive around a cove and landed at Shelburne Farms- A 1400 acre sustainable farm and a Vanderbilt Estate serving as a private getaway. This place was fascinatingly gorgeous! I was ready to move in. When the farm was created, the family hired a scenery painter to "design" the landscape to ensure that no matter where you stand on the property you have a picture perfect view.  

This is the barn which now serves as the cheese factory, bakery and school where children are brought in for a few days at a time and are taught about sustainable farming in a hands on way. 

While touring the barn it actually started to snow! It was quite cold as we drove around in the tractor pulled cart but it was so pretty that we didn't mind. Locals come jog the trails and I was a little jealous to have this place in my neighborhood :)

Next we went inside the estate house now serving as an inn with all the original books, rugs and furniture. All the flowers were from the grounds and the building is heated from wood from the trees on the property.

As we passed through the dining room we discovered that they still had 2 spots left for that evening- of course we made reservations! Especially after finding out that all the food on the menu comes from the farm. There is a 7 acre organic veggie garden, fresh lamb ( pictured above, yikes!) and beef and fish, bread from the bakery and butter from the dairy cows we met :)

This is the estate which sits right on the lake-

Such a special place!

New England Tour- Driving thru New Hampshire

After a rainy day in Boston we were happy to wake up to sunshine for our long drive through New Hampshire to Vermont. We stopped for breakfast at a darling cafe featuring all things fig, one of my favs! Andrew had the most wonderful toast with fig jam and I had fig granola.

Not too far down the road we stopped at the most beautiful farm - Macks's Apples where you could hike through the orchards yourself and pick apples or stop by the multiple pumpkin patches or taste fresh apple cider and shop from their market. We stopped by the market first and sampled apples before we headed out on one of their scenic hiking trails. The air was so clean and crisp, the scenery was gorgeous, esp the pond, and it was so quiet that we could hear the leaves crunching under our feet :)

 

We drove to Vermont via the White Mountains in NH, and I'm sad I didn't capture the snow topped peaks we drove past, but here is the view from our car entering the white mountains off in the distance.

At a rest stop we were told to check out the Thule Gorge along the way and we were so glad we did, it was spectacular!

The Gorge was created by water carving its way through lava rock making an amazing experience to go through with cliffs close on either side of you and the rushing water below as you walked along small wood stairs. The beginning and end of the trail took you under two covered bridges which the area is known for.