Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies Recipe, Tommy and Smokey

Happy last day of June, everyone! It looks like we're going to have rain and thunderstorms until sometime Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing sun again!

As requested, I'm posting the recipe for the oatmeal, coconut, and walnut cookies in the photo above, which some of you saw on Instagram. They're gluten-free and delicious.

Gluten Free Recipe, Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

This recipe makes about 3 1/2 dozen large cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream:

1 c. soft butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar  (Instead, I used about half the amount of sugar called for)

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Slowly mix in the following ingredients which have been measured and stirred in a separate bowl first:

2 c. Gluten Free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill One-to-One)

2 c. Gluten Free oatmeal (again, Bob's Red Mill)

2 c. Coconut

2 t. Baking Powder

1 t. Baking soda

1 t. Salt

Lastly, stir in 1 c. chopped walnuts.

Drop by shooter marble size balls onto greased jellyroll pans.

Bake 12-13 minutes until they are set and not wet, but don't let them get too golden.

I always smack the pan on the top of the cookstove to flatten out the cookies a little faster and I let them cool on the pan (finish baking) before removing from pan.

 Perfect for coffee and cookies on the front porch!

***

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 Tommy and Smokey, yesterday afternoon
on the porch glider
These two!

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Cave Point, Door County Wisconsin

Cave Point County Park, Door County
You can see the rain falling in the distance.
It's difficult to get perspective in this photo.
It was farther from the people to the water than it looks.

Note: Joyce's Wednesday Hodgepodge will be back next week, July 5.

We spent last weekend with our daughter and son-in-law in Green Bay and in Door County. It is the first time I've ever been to Door County, and when people are surprised by that, I tell them that we're two hours northeast of Minneapolis, two hours south of Duluth, and three hours north of Westby, so those were the directions we traveled until our daughters and their families moved back to Wisconsin. Door County is now worth the extra trek to get there, in my opinion, especially now that our daughter and son-in-law are residents of Green Bay rather than Denton, Texas and another daughter and her family live in Wausau, right on the route to Green Bay. It makes all the difference.

I took this pic of the grandkids at Monk Botanical Gardens in Wausau.

'We got to see the grandkids, spending a few hours with them before driving on to Green Bay, then the next morning got up and drove to Door County, meandering the scenic, 'New Englandesque' villages with family. It does feel very New England and yet very Wisconsin.'

 The thick red line across the state is the 4.5 hour drive from our home to Door County by way of Wausau (where one daughter lives) and Green Bay (where another daughter lives).
original map via

 Once we got to Cave Point north of Sturgeon Bay, Mr. C. zeroed in on the marker.
I know that man has read every marker in every park we've visited.
It's a joke between the kids and me. He doesn't think it's all that funny. :-)

 Ahhhh, beautiful Wisconsin

Hang on tight, Mr. C!

 I managed to talk the son-in-law back from the edge.
I didn't know that life with our daughter would be that difficult. LOL

 Stone Cairns of Door County
Cave Point

Left: Tree roots, which I was careful to avoid
Middle: DC Deli at Bailey's Harbor where we ate lunch
(followed by frozen custard at a little shop down the street)
Right: shore of Lake Michigan

 Mr. C. and our daughter,
Tall son-in-law and his short (and nice) mom
Sturgeon Bay, WI

 Left: Farmers' Market in Green Bay
Middle: Stacked Stones at Cave Point
Right: No man is an island (except for our son-in-law)

All in all, it was a great weekend. We got to see the grandkids, spending a few hours with them before driving on to Green Bay, then the next morning got up and drove to Door County, meandering the scenic, 'New Englandesque' villages with family. It does feel very New England and yet very Wisconsin. It's where I'd like to rent a holiday cottage for the entire family for the big anniversary that Mr. C. and I have coming up in a couple years. Wouldn't it be fun for the whole family to spend a weekend together there. I think so. But only in the summertime of course.

 Another red Wisconsin barn

somewhere between Green Bay and Wausau

***

And now, what you've all been waiting for:
Tommy and Smokey
(I looked back through several posts to see if I'd already posted this.
If I have, I'm sorry. You'll just have to see two cute, snuggly kitties again.)

Linked to Mosaic Monday

and Eileen's Saturday's Critters

and Tom's Barn Collective

 ***
 

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Amish in Wisconsin
England Favorites
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North Yorkshire


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Henny Penny and Her Friends

I'm posting a few more photos from last weekend out at our son's family's home in central Minnesota, where we stayed after the graduation party for our granddaughter. It was lovely, and of course I had to see the chickens.

I can tell that they are quite fond of these chickens.

The chickens, Buff Orpingtons and Silver Laced Wyandottes, have a really nice chicken hotel (some would call it a coop) and a two-part run, one part with hardware cloth over the grass so that the chickens can't destroy the roots of the grass. Isn't that smart! Yeah, I thought so. Here's our grandson feeding them bites of his sugar cookie. They were pretty happy about that. Actually, I requested it so that the hens would turn towards the camera.

Our son chose these breeds because of their cold-weather hardiness, their egg production, and their nice temperament.

I wonder if the Orpingtons are jealous of the Silver Laced Wyandotte's beautiful feathers.

 Two of the grandsons tending to Jazzie during the graduation party

Panting (left) and Thinking (right)

This was a drive-by shot that I took on the way home, and would have been so much better had that sweet little spruce not been in the way. It looks like the old windmill has been turned into an antenna tower.

Have a great weekend, everyone! It's raining like crazy here, and I'm actually wearing a jacket in the house.

 Summertime

Wintertime

I like summertime better!

and I bet those chickens do too!

Linking to Mosaic Monday

***

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Hodgepodging A Graduation Party and Summertime

We attended a graduation/birthday party for our granddaughter in Minnesota over the weekend. It was lovely. She's the beautiful and sweet ballerina whose performance we love to watch each spring. Here she's explaining something to Grandpa. I hope he's paying attention.

Join Joyce and the Gang
for

 She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog

and join in!

1. The first day of summer rolls in later this week. What are ten things you'd put on your list of  quintessential summer activities? Will you try to manage all ten this summer?

Lake Swimming

Weed Pulling

Strawberry Picking

Vacation Taking

Raspberry Picking

Porch Sitting

Picture Taking

Picnic Making

Walk Taking

Family Visiting

Most likely I will get all of them in except for the Vacation Taking. That will happen in the autumn when Mr. C. is less busy.

When I was a kid, the list was different:

Creek Swimming

Raft Floating

Blood Sucker Removing

Fly Swatting

Garden Weeding

Horseback Riding

Fort Making

Screen Door Slamming

Outdoor Sleeping

Popsicle Eating 

 Mr. C. and our oldest granddaughter

Someday soon she will probably hate that distinction. :-)

2. Do you collect seashells when you're at the beach? What do you do with them once you get them home? What's your favorite place to comb for seashells? How many of these 'best beaches for hunting seashells' have you visited? Which one would you most like to visit?

Calvert Cliffs State Park (Maryland), Jeffrey's Bay (South Africa), Sanibel Island (Florida), Shipwreck Beach (Lanai Hawaii), Ocracoke Island (North Carolina), Galveston Island (Texas) and The Bahamas

There are no seashell-bearing beaches near me, and the last time I was at a beach, I was worried that our oldest son was going to drown.

 Granddaughter and her dad (so glad he made it back to the beach)

3. At a snail's pace, shell out money, come out of your shell, go back into your shell, drop a bombshell, happy as a clam, clam up...which 'shell' phrase could most recently be applied to some event or circumstance in your life? Explain.

At a snail's pace would refer to my house cleaning.

 Graduating ballerina granddaugter and her lovely mom

4. What summer activity do you dislike? Why?

Walking barefoot on blacktop.  Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!

 Beautiful granddaughter

and old grandma who needs to do something about that halo!

5. What's something you see as quickly becoming obsolete? Does that bother you?

Paying with cash and Customer service. Both are becoming obsolete and yes it does bother me. 

 Three of the granddaughters,

singing 'Sisters,' after some coaxing from Grandma

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

So I read this book entitled, 'The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up.' It proposes the idea of looking at one's belongings and only keeping those that bring joy. So I went through the house, looked at each thing, and asked myself, 'Do you bring me joy?'  So here's what I have remaining, after keeping only the things that bring me joy:

A couple thousand books

Two sweet kitties

One item of clothing - my fuzzy robe

Many knick knacks

Mr. C.

Reminders of England (aka knick knacks)

(not in order of importance!)

So how does that 'keeping only what brings you joy' method work for you??

 ***

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Lemon Bars - Gluten Free Recipe

 Lemon Bars 

Gluten-free Recipe

I'm pretty sure that I've posted this recipe before, but since I made these again the other day and since they are SO good, I thought I would post it again for any who might have missed it last time around. Just a word of warning: These are dangerously good!

Lemon Bars - Gluten Free Recipe:

2 c. Gluten-free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill One-to-One mix)

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 c. butter

4 eggs, beaten,

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. fresh lemon juice (4-5 small lemons)

1/4 c. Gluten-free flour (see above)

1/2 t. baking powder.

Sift together flour and powdered sugar. Cut in margarine until mixture holds together. I used my food processor, pulsing it about 20 times. Works like a charm. Press into a 13 x 9 cake pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until lightly brown.

While the crust is baking*, Beat eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. Sift together the 1/4 c. flour and baking powder, then stir into egg mixture. Pour over baked crust. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with a light dusting of powdered sugar after they're slightly cool. 

*I think this is key, so that you can pour the egg mixture onto the crust immediately after the crust is done baking, so that it doesn't have a chance to cool off before it goes back into the oven. I've tasted pretty eggy-tasting lemon bars (ew!), and I suspect that they weren't done enough because they let the crust cool off as they were working on Part B, as it were.

Let cool, cut, and enjoy. There's something about this combination that is nearly irresistible to me.

 Upper left, clockwise:

Gluten-free Lemon Bars

Gluten-free Lemon Cookies

Lemon Oreos

Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Gluten-free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Recipes for all of the above (except for the Oreos and Lemon Meringue Pie) can be found

using my search tool located on the sidebar >>>>

I've also got a recipe for Lemon Pie Bars but it didn't make the collage. It can be found through the search tool, however.

***

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Lickety Split Harvest

 Harvesting the alfalfa
north of the house - June 7, I think it was

When the huge farm machinery comes to take the alfalfa off the field north of the house, it is amazing how fast they get the job done - but no wonder, because the machinery is huge. Incredibly huge.

 
 Two days later they planted a crop of soybeans.

I think next year they'll plant corn on that field (not enough time this season to get a corn crop) and the following year it will be put back into alfalfa. I look forward to when it is planted to alfalfa once again. It's so much prettier than soybeans or corn. But I'm not in charge of that decision, nor am I going to be feeding cows. Oddly enough, crops aren't raised for their aesthetic appeal. The man who rents our cropland knows how to farm it and the crop rotation that will best build up the soil.

Do you ever use the term 'lickety split" ?? I think it was used a lot when I was a kid, but I realized that I hardly ever hear it any more.  I just Googled it and discovered that that term is now also the name of an 'adult entertainment' establishment in Minneapolis. Good grief. Maybe that's why I don't hear it anymore. :-)

 Smokey, watching flies, bees, songbirds, and hummingbirds

from the [restrictive] comfort of the screen room

One of my favorite 'alfalfa field' photos

summertime, 2013

The grandsons in a brotherly embrace

(known as wrestling).

Linking to Eileen's Saturday's Critters

***

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