General Mills is really stepping up to the plate with Gluten Free products.   They’ve introduced four new Betty Crocker GF baking mixes and reformulated several Chex cereals as well.  Recently, I received another box of General Mills, Betty Crocker goodies to try out and share… FRUIT SNACKS.

We don’t usually purchase/consume fruit snacks because they are essentially candy… but for the occasional treat, it’s awesome to know we can get them gluten free and know they are made in a dedicated facility so the risk of cross contamination is gone.

I’ve been given the opportunity to offer one of these sample packs to a lucky reader.  The prize package includes two boxes of fruit snacks, a light up yo-yo, pick up stick game and a frisbee.  One winner will be chosen at random on November 20, 2009 at 9am PST.  Contest is open to residents of the United States.  To enter, simply leave a comment here.

I’m giving away an autographed copy of The Familiar Stranger by Christina Berry… come check out my new site and enter to win!

I’ve finally moved off wordpress… update your RSS and Google Reader… my new site is www.LooksGoodInPolkaDots.com.

We are very excited!  Come check out our new look.

In case you missed it, Kaylee just turned 9.  It has been an exciting time in our lives… right now, my darling 9 year old is only 9 inches shorter than her Mama.  There is no doubt that in a few short years time, she will pass me up.

Kaylee and I took a trip to Minnesota for her Birthday, where we had the honor of being houseguests of my good friend, Meg and her family.  We visited the Mall of America and enjoyed shopping at American Girl and lunch in the AG Bistro.  Kaylee brought home a new friend, Kit Kittredge to join Mia St. Clair.

Once we were back home with the rest of our family, we hosted a small slumber party so that Kaylee could share her birthday with some close friends.  Kyler and I made some cinnamon buns for the kids’ breakfast and they were a huge hit.

Here’s our recipes:

Regular (cheater style) Cinnamon Buns- Otherwise known as Princess Leia Danish Dos (we had a princess themed party) from the Star Wars Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes Cookbook.

1 Tbs. real butter (we used about 2 Tbs per roll)

1 10oz package refrigerated pizza dough (we used the pillsbury croissant sheets, they don’t have the precut shapes… found at Fred Meyer)

2 Tbs. Granulated sugar (we doubled this) Mix together with cinnamon in a bowl or empty shaker

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (we just shook it into the sugar until it looked right)

1 Tbs whole milk

1/3 cup powder sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

The only thing I changed for gluten free version was to replace the dough with a gf one and sub Earth Balance for the butter… here’ s how:

(Notice the holiday china… I collect mix and match at Goodwill to use at the girls’ parties… no throw aways!)

1 cup The Cravings Place All Purpose Pancake & Waffle Mix

3 Tbs. Earth Balance Soy Free Spread

1/2 cup filtered water

Cut the butter into the pancake mix.  Add water and mix well.  At this point, I sprinkled a little more dry mix in to give it a dough consistency vs. a batter.  Roll out between two sheets of natural parchment paper into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick.  Finish like you would for the regular buns. Be sure to keep the dough on a layer of parchment, then use the parchment to help roll the dough up, this keeps it together much nicer.

So… now that you have dough-

Roll it out on a lightly floured surface (unless GF, then use parchment as described above). Spread with melted butter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar combo. Roll from one end to the other into a log.  Seal ends and seem.  Cut into 6 – 8 equal size pieces.  Place in prepared baking pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes at 325 F. (Until golden brown).  We made 8 packages of regular buns and one batch of GF buns.  Use smaller baking pans for best results, we found out that our large (9×13) pan left the center buns not all the way cooked.

Combine milk, powder sugar and vanilla to make a glaze… whisk until smooth and glossy.  Pour over the buns.  Enjoy!

“Can you help me, can you help me?  I look like an orphan child.” – 4 yo Kelsey while trying to get her fancy dress on.

Little Kelsey Anne

Kenzie Ballet Recital (California- Disneyland Dance)

Kaylee Girl- Ballet Recital (Oregon- Rainbow Ballerina Dance)

Kyler- Look, I lost a tooth!

Some of my favorite photographs from 2008…

News and photos from the trip Kaylee and I took to MN and the Mall of America/ American Girl coming soon!

Look Who’s 9!!!!!!!!!

I’ve sent the girls in to clean their bedroom… AGAIN.  How they manage to destroy a bedroom so quickly is beyond the realm of my understanding.

To motivate them a bit, I assign each girl one task at a time… K2 pick up and put away all the clothing, clean and dirty.  K3 collect and organize all the Barbie’s, gear and their house. Little Critter collect all the garbage (where, oh where does all that garbage come from?). Once those tasks are done I assign new ones.  I also sat down on the floor and started tossing Barbies into their storage box (literally a box, that formerly held oranges… I think we got it on a Costco trip, its just the right size to slide under the bed).  During this time, I picked up K2’s black binder of writing samples from school this year.  I flipped it open and found a story K2 had written on her own last month.  Here it is…notice the writing format, its the one she’s been using all year to form stories with a cohesive thought, and a beginning, middle and an end.  I’m quite impressed with her spelling as well… she only misspelled Cheryl, first and funeral.

Kaylee 6-13-09

The Best Grandma in the whole world would be my Grandma Cherl for a lot of reasons.  Frist, she died.  She died when she was 51 almost 52.  She died from ALS.  ALS is very bad because she could not talk or walk.  Second, she loved us and we loved her a lot. My Mom thought that my little sister was being a devil every time we came to visit but, my Grandma said she was her Angel. Third, we did not get to see her that much. Every time we would visit I gave her a hug and said goodbye.  I tried to give her as much love as I could.  Last, how much I miss her.  I miss her a lot because I cried when I knew she died, one night and at the funrl.  Now you know why my Grandma Cherl is the best in the whole world.

Yesterday was ONE OF THOSE DAYS.  Any Mama knows what I speak of…

We started the day to the lovely sounds of 3 girly voices bickering before they were even out of bed.  Then we moved on to what I refer to as quiet defiance from the boy child (K-Man), snottiness from the oldest girl child (K2), rudeness from K3 and outright rottenness from Little Critter.  Toss in a couple of two year olds, one with Princess Syndrome and the other who has decided, “NO” is his favorite word.  Top with a GIANT St. Bernard puppy weighing in around 160lbs, a slighty cantankerous “Queen” cat and a new, frisky kitten.  Now you’ve got the makings for ONE OF THOSE DAYS.

Seriously… we fed the entire neighborhood popsicles at least three times.  I picked up more sticky wrappers than I care to count (this is the LAST time I buy those otter pops just because they are cheap… I can’t wait for Costco to get the Prepara Volocano Pop mold-16 set back in, they were $24.99 but I missed them!  Amazon sells a 4 set for $10.)

What possessed me to let my kids play outside while the little ones napped?  Did I really believe their promises to stay outside (none of the usual in and out, in and out) and be quiet so the little ones didn’t get woken up?  I know better… K2 came in 8 (EIGHT) times in 2 hours.  I have no clue how many times total our front door (after I reminded them to go in and out via the garage if there was an emergency which required them to come inside) slammed shut or how many times a loud voice bellowed out as they walked ran in the door.  From now on, nap time is NAP TIME FOR ALL.

Later in the afternoon we had a gum issue… the kids don’t get gum very often, but the older two were each given a pack from Teengirl because she didn’t care for a flavor I purchased her.  Well, as luck would have it, one of the kids decided to chew some of the gum and then spit it on the ground in our driveway.  A bit later that same wad of gum ended up stuck to one of the neighbor boys bike helmet and a crises ensued.  Then K2 took it upon her self to run in and tattle saying that Little Critter was responsible for the gum being on the helmet.  L.C. had no evidence of gum on her body to indicate she’d touched a sticky wad and pressed it onto a helmet.  A few minutes later, L.C. is in the house screaching because K2 had decided that removing the gum from the helmet and pressing it onto her sisters chest was a good idea.  Mayhem ensued while I threated life and limb and used cooking oil to remove gum residue from a child’s body and a bike helmet.  This is about when Oregon Dad got home… and by this point I was livid.  It had been a BAD day and I was so feed up with the kids placing blame on L.C. for everything.  Turns out it was K-Man who had the gum and spit it into the driveway… how it got on the helmet is still unclear but my guess is the kids dropped their helmets like they always do and it landed right on the sticky icky mess.

So far today has been better… perhaps because I grounded the entire crew from their bikes (because all the big kids kept riding the toddler bike and mucking up the training wheels, after repeatedly being told NOT to ride any bike but their own) and I also banned neighbor kids from play.  Today the kids get to play together… imagine that.  Oh, and they are all currently taking a nap.  Yay me.

The PolkaDot Household is sampling new creations made with Betty Crocker’s Gluten Free Baking Mixes.  Today we made banana cupcakes with browned butter frosting (recipe from the BC GF website).  Yummy!

These baking mixes look and taste just like their glutenoid counterparts.  Prices are about $4.00-$5.00 at our local Fred Meyer store.

Click on over to my review post at Eat.Drink.Better and leave a comment to win a prize pack containing FOUR baking mixes, 2 “Free” coupons for the mix of your choice, a shopping tote, a magnetic grocery list and a pen.

I’m also reading The G Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Living Without Magazine just sent me an email to announce Prometheus Labs new home Celiac gene test, MyCeliacId.  At $329, its remarkably cheaper than the same labs, Celiac Plus testing our GI recommended.  Plus, no test results are sent to your Doc or insurance company so there aren’t the worries about carrying a diagnosis around.  For those of us with “probable celiac”, this gene marker could be a definitive, if we don’t have the genes… we don’t have the disease… if we have the genes then we might have it or probably will develop it at some point.