Lactose Free Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe

Last Thanksgiving Husband and I caved to a craving for green bean casserole. This is about the time when I realized I had to give up milk because of my lactose intolerance.

 Homemade lactose free cream of mushroom soup

As the casserole baked in the oven, I read the first ingredient on the can of the cream of mushroom soup:

Milk.

Hickory Farms Giveaway

As a foodie, I love a good Christmas food gift.

Crazy, I know.

Usually that food gift comes in the form of a gift basket.  Fruit gift baskets, cheese gift baskets, wine gift baskets  – it doesn’t matter. If it contains food, I like getting them and I like giving them as holiday gifts.

Those little meat and cheese gift baskets have a special place in my heart because we always got at least one Hickory Farms gift basket from out of state family for the holidays when I was a kid. It just didn't seem like Christmas until we broke open a roll of summer sausage.

I carried on the Hickory Farms gift basket tradition as an adult because it is such a simple gift to find, give, and ship to out of state family. Hickory Farms is an Ohio company (shopping local. Oh yeah!) but are easy to find with over 700 holiday stores and kiosks across North America. 

Truthfully, I take the lazy way out and place my orders through Hickoryfarms.com that way I don’t have to deal paying extra to ship the gift after I get it. Hickory Farms does that for me. Especially when it comes to family in military because the Home for the Holidays Gift Box has free shipping to APO/FPO military addresses.

Gaspatcho and Carrot Curry Soups

The day Blitzkrieg passed away, his favorite uncles and the only people we trusted to watch Blitzkrieg when we were out of town because they followed his rules (our parents often broke them because they thought Husband and I were too strict not realizing those rule are what turned Blitzkrieg from the abused fear biter to the confident goofball cuddle bug he came to be) immediately came over with wine and food.

Yes they brought food. We are Midwesterners and that's what you do when there is a death in the family. You bring food.

Tim made kitchen magic with his a little of this and that gazpacho.

Andrew went straight for the heart and proudly presented Husband and I with carrot soup.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp Recipe

My husband and I had to bring a dish to share at his family reunion. Its apple season and I have been dying to sink my teeth into ooey gooey apple crisp. This potluck is the perfect excuse to make apple crisp.

 Pin this recipe to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

I added a personal challenge to make a gluten free apple crisp that wouldn't taste like cardboard plunked on apples.

I succeeded. No one at the party realized my apple crisp was gluten free until I told them. Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner! Uh, I mean gluten free apple crisp.

The in law's bought the farm - literally. They downsized their house to one on a small farm. Here I am doing my best car model impression on Father in Law's new to him retirement sports car.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp Recipe

Gluten Free Challenge Finished!

Husband and I dove into the 14 day Gluten Free Challenge the day after we received our box of gluten free goodies from Udi’s Gluten Free. Thanks to Udi’s bread, muffin, pizza crust, and granola samples, I did not have to do extra shopping for gluten free food until our regular monthly or so grocery shopping trip.

I was happily surprised too. Cooking from scratch with unprocessed ingredients (except things such as pasta) helped immensely. Although finding out gluten is in, unmarked, or added to our staple items such as plain oatmeal, lunch meats and hot dogs (fortunately, I already buy brands that are gluten, lactose, and nitrate free when the urge strikes), some spices, and health and beauty items like toothpaste. The thing that killed me because I use it for everything is discovering gluten is in distilled vinegar. Balsamic vinegar is gluten free but not an ingredient in any of our mustard collection. Bummer.