Winco is coming along!

I'm very happy to say that Winco (an employee owned company serving the Northwest) is coming right along when it comes to carrying gluten free goods. They've got the Betty Crocker mixes, Bob's Red Mill is also on the shelf, Chex cereals in droves, and now they've added Udi's to the list. I was so happy to learn that I can go to the bakery freezer (where the pies are kept) and get many Udi's products; muffins, breads and pizza crust. Thank you Winco for making my grocery shopping that much easier.

Dessert...? Oh, yeah.

The last few years I've slowly had my craving for all things salty turn into something more of a sweet tooth. I don't mind of course, I enjoy cookies and chocolate, ice cream and fruit. There are many many options for a quick goodie when I need something to tickle my taste buds. Over this winter I've found some very worthy of praise recipes shared in the gluten free community so I thought I would in turn share them with you.

I'll start with What's Gaby Cooking, this is one special lady and I love the feel of her blog, its full of spunk and life. She doesn't blog gluten free exclusively however she does post a winning gluten free recipe on occasion. I've made two of her cookie recipes so far and will make them again and again.

The first reminds me of a cookie that I used to get whenever I could get my hands on it. A molasses cookie, that's right. The big one from Starbucks, I loved that cookie. Gaby's recipe filled the bill for me, however I did find that melting the butter as she calls for landed me a very spread out cookie, no mater how long I chilled the dough. So, I don't melt it, I just let it get a little less than room temp and had no problems. I will say that this cookie tasted great flat or fluffy.


I also made her salted caramel bars, wow. Those were good... messy but good (I may not have heated the caramel enough, I was at a very soft ball stage). Very rich so I would suggest if you make them, share them as you will be hard pressed to finish them off yourself. The shortbread cuts the richness of the caramel just enough to make these really shine. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of these as they went quick, however her's do them much more justice anyway just take a look here. I served them at our New Year's Eve party. Now while the recipe Gaby has posted is not stated to be gluten free all you need to do is replace her shortbread recipe with your own gluten free one and you are on your way.

Another blogger I follow regularly, Shauna aka Gluten-Free Girl has many many wonderful things posted all the time, two cookbooks (that I still haven't managed to snag yet) and a way with words that will have you enjoying the little things in life just as much as she does. I had a huge bag of lemons I bought for a New Year's Eve party we threw and afterwards many lemons left over. What should I do with them, lemon bars! I hadn't had a lemon bar since way before I stopped eating gluten, I love lemon bars, why the heck hadn't I made any since. Shauna not only has a great recipe on her blog, it incorporates ginger and wow, what can I say. Watch out ladies and gentleman, if you make these delectable treats you won't be able to stop at just one.