Photo Phriday: The Moment

Almost as exciting as the sky-dive proposal is the fact that I was wearing a one-piece purple jumpsuit.

CAKE!

In an attempt to get my appetite back I'm going to write about cake. Glorious, sweet, moist, gluten-free cake. None of which was made by me, but all of which was delicious.

My awesome family threw the A-man and I an engagement party over Memorial Day weekend. It was a beautiful, wonderful day filled with really tasty gluten-free food and time with dear friends and family. On the menu were marinated steak kebobs, chicken kebobs and lamb kebobs, pasta salad (Mom, I need that recipe, seriously it's the best pasta salad EVER), Greek-style green beans, an amazing quinoa salad my sister made (Kate, please post the recipe to share this deliciousness with the world!), and so many other foods that I just can't remember at this moment, but that I enjoyed immensley. My family worked so hard to put this together and I can't thank them enough. My dear Dad, who was sick with the illness that I am getting over right now even managed to do manual labor the day of the event and be the charming host to guests while maintaining a 101 temperature. Dear family -- I love you and you are amazing. The fiance is a lucky guy to be gaining in-laws like you.

On to the cake! My mom ordered two cakes from a specialty gluten-free cake-maker in the Boston area called, Celia Cakes. We have ordered her cakes once before for Thanksgiving and really enjoyed them, so I was psyched to hear we were getting them for the engagement party. In the above photo, they are the first and last cakes in the photo. Seriously, they rival any gluten-filled cake that I have eaten. Judging solely on their aesthetics, they could sit in the cake case of any high-end bakery. You can really tell that Vita (the baker and owner) must be a perfectionist with the percision of the frosting application. And the taste? Sugary, but not too sweet, just the right texture and absolutely hit the spot. I couldn't get enough of this cake. In fact, we will certainly be contacting Celia Cakes for our wedding cake. Bravo to Vita! Thank goodness for businesses like yours.

Now on to the cake above, which is from the bakery called The World's Best Carrot Cake. And it's name is right on. Seriously folks, this stuff is dangerous. You will be talking about it for days. You will be craving it minutes after you finish a slice. You, if you have zero self-control like me... will even have a slice for breakfast. I might even compare it's addictive qualities to crack. Okay, maybe I'm a bit obsessed. Or, maybe I think it's okay to talk about carrot cake like this because, well, it has carrots in it. It has to have some nutrition! Either way, this cake rocks. The store is located in Asheville, North Carolina and they can send their cakes to anywhere in the U.S. The A-man and I found them when I did a search for "gluten-free Asheville, NC" when we were visiting there recently on vacation. We visited the store, spoke to a super-friendly and helpful person at the counter and bought a gluten-free carrot cake -- just for the two of us. When we decided to have a little party to celebrate our engagement I knew I had to order one of those cakes, but this time we went with chocolate. Did you hear that? Chocolate, gluten-free carrot cake! Oh. My. God. I really can't compare the two: normal carrot cake versus chocolate because they're both just amazing.

I could go on, but I think you all get the idea. *World's Best Carrot Cake = gluten-free crack.

And that's me and the A-man digging in. Notice the grin on my face -- that's the grin of a Good Eatah.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

*I didn't inquire to see if they made dairy-free, gluten-free carrot cake, but since I have been able to handle small amounts of dairy recently I enjoyed it with all of it's cream-cheese goodness.

Where I've Been & Double Chocolate Cookies

My apologies for the lack of posts this past week, but I have good reason -- I swear! I spent the last ten days in North Carolina soaking up some quality vacation time with my love, the A-man. We went sky-diving, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, played some tennis.... oh yeah, and WE GOT ENGAGED! I don't like to brag, but his proposal was pretty darn amazing. He organized a "surprise" sky-diving trip (he jumped solo, I jumped tandem) and right before he exited the plane he yelled "Lizzie!", peeled off some tape he had on his helmet to reveal the words "Will you marry me?" and jumped 5,500 feet (which is really low and an entirely different story) to the ground. I was in total shock, so I didn't answer right away, but once we both landed he got on one knee, presented a gorgeous ring and asked me again. I managed to mutter a yes and gave him a really long, teary-eyed hug. All of this was apparently caught on camera; I can't wait to see it.

The hat I'm wearing in the photo above actually says "bride" on it in sparkly, gold lettering and was given to me by my sister (as a joke) when she found it in the dollar bin in target. Showing off the ring isn't really my style, but it really is quite gorgeous. Since we have never discussed rings before, I have no idea how the A-man chose the perfect ring for me (actually, I think my sister helped quite a bit) but I know he put a lot of research and effort into it, so in addition to me wearing it the rest of my life, I thought it deserves a feature photo (with some gluten-free, dairy-free double chocolate cookies) in my blog.


What's really cool about the ring is that it's a conflict-free diamond from Canada and it's in an "active" setting, which means I won't clumsily snag it on things. So, the past week or so has been amazing and life-changing. It's a pretty wonderful thing to talk about the future with the man you love for a week straight and bask in the afterglow of being asked for your hand in marriage. The real frosting on the gluten-free cake? Knowing this is only the beginning.

Oh, and a recipe! My family is so extremely supportive of our relationship, they love him just as much as I do, so in order to celebrate when I got home, my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece picked me up at the airport with flowers and gifts and had a wonderful gluten-free, dairy-free dinner that ended with what will now be called "Double Chocolate Engagement Cookies" created by my sister. It's pretty difficult to describe how good these cookies are, so I'll use the Boston phrase for awesome: they're wicked pissah.

Double Chocolate Cookies (aka Engagement Cookies) gluten-free, dairy-free

*adapted from Annalise Roberts chocolate chip cookie recipe

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (make sure it's gluten-free)
1 1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons of gluten free flour mix (she uses a superfine brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch mix)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 ozs. vegan, gluten-free good quality chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat shortening and sugars at medium speed in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, xantham gum and salt and mix at medium until well blended. Mix in chocolate chunks by hand.

Drop heaping teaspoons of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake in the center of the oven 8-10 minutes.