Homemade Cereal Time!

Happy June! The weather is getting warm here, but with a few cool and rainy days still.

Yesterday my sister and I made some cereal. We don't buy it from the store, so we thought it'd be nice to make some and stock up. She made some granola and Cinnamon Squares.

That reminded me why I like to have a blog . . . I may have lost that cinnamon cereal recipe had I not put it on here. I created it over a year ago, and even though it was very good, I just . . . forgot about it for whatever reason. So, that poor recipe is now revived ;). We used all rice flour since we're out of the buckwheat.

I also made a variation of Nicole Hunn's Mini 'Nilla Wafer Cereal from her blog, Gluten Free On A Shoestring. They are just so cute :)! I did change it around a bit - first, I doubled the recipe because I just knew I should. We were out of vanilla . . . yes, vanilla, the key flavor in the little cookies. I used about 1/2 cup cream cheese for the double batch, just to help give it a little flavor. They turned out great, and were a hit (they are all gone). They were pretty soft (not a bad thing), which I'm sure is because I added cream cheese. They weren't as uniform as Nicole's . . . I need some work there :).

Here's some cute kids to brighten your day!

Hilarious little gal! Just taking a nap on mama.

Naptime on mom is the best! LOL.

Handsome boy.

Pretty doeling.

Peace,
~ Hanunyah

Laua *Party*!

Vanilla Orange layer cake with a Hibiscus flower I drew on it (I used a stencil :) )

Saturday we had a hawaiian themed party. Several of my friends and family have birthdays in the month of May, plus it was Mother's Day weekend and so we rolled it all up into one big party! It was a really great party, we all had fun. Coconut race, singing, candle dance, banana pass, dancing, etc.

"Hairy", the coconut, was not someone to mess with! If you were caught with him when the music was randomly stopped, you'd get water, ice, banana, orange juice or whipped cream in your face! :)

As usual, there was tons of desserts. Here's just a few more pictures of the cake I made. I couldn't find any of the other desserts (my sisters made cookies, cakes, bars and fudge).

I hope you all had a good mother's day! I made some Black Gold Cookies for Grandma, she always appreciates them and I hadn't made them in awhile for some reason. 

Well, sorry this wasn't a long post . . . I am pretty tuckered out. We had a late night last night also, we had 2 does kid. That was quite eventful. Let me just say we had 6 kids out and were in bed by 2am :).

~ Hanunyah

Carrot Banana Orange Cream Shake

Ah! I at least try to post on here once a month, but there is no post on here for the month of April! But, the last time I posted it was the very day March 31, so maybe that will make up for it ;). The internet has been tweaky lately (on/off), and we even lost power a couple weeks ago because of a severe storm.

Storm April 18

Things have been going pretty well. The animals have been doing alright, but we've had some problems because the weather has been soooo up and down. So we've been busy with spring cleaning (the house and barn! well, actually, both are barns - we just live in one LOL), treating animals besides the regular care, and bottling the 20 bottle babies we have. Yep, 20. It actually doesn't seem like that many - maybe it's because either they're organized into groups or we're used to it - or both.

Bottle kids enjoying the green. Yep, they are still on the bottle . . . we spoil our kids!

It's May. It's the month of M-A-Y, ok? The weather is supposed to be nice like spring, right? It was 80 degrees a couple days ago, and the next day it was like 40! One day we're sweating and the next it's freezing rain! So ya, that's what I mean by the weather has been up and down. No wonder why some of the goats have gotten pneumonia. This can't be good for us humans either :). This is Oklahoma after all.

Dogwood flowers

Even if it doesn't look like spring outside, maybe this nice fruity shake will help get you in that spring mood.

And yes, I know I'm weird. I put weird things in my shakes. At least I don't put the whole quail egg in, shell and all, like some my family does . . . I just tend not to like sand in my shake.

Presenting you with yet another of my breakfast creations . . .

Carrot Banana Cream Shake
Hanunyah Creation

3-4 quail eggs
1 frozen banana -OR- 1 banana, peeled + 3 ice cubes
1 orange, peeled
1/4-1/2 of the orange peel
1 carrot, washed or peeled, whichever you prefer
1 1/2 cups raw goat milk (or cow or non-dairy milk)

Blend up and chug! :) You may add a cup of oatmeal to this shake (before blending) if you'd like to make it more filling, but I find I do better without grains.

A few more pictures . . .

The special girls, Tiny Bit (left) and Trauma (right)

A couple of the pregnant does.

Storm April 18

Storm April 18

Storm April 18

Storm April 18. This is where we drained our pond. It appears lightning struck it. There was ash there where those dark streaks are.

Storm April 18. This is a pine tree on our property that was struck by lightning. 

Storm April 18. A Dogwood flower in the creek.

~ Hanunyah

Happy 19th Birthday to My Sweet Sister, Suriyah

Friday was my older sister, Suriyah's 19th birthday. It was a great day, ending with a party and cake :). Love you sis!

The cake: 2 layer vanilla cake with a filling of cake crumbs, cocoa powder and marshmallow fluff (homemade, recipe to come soon, Lord willing!), frosted with marshmallow fluff and dusted with cocoa powder.

~ Hanunyah

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars

A coule months ago or so I was working on making my own recipe for butterfingers. I made up an idea and tried it - melting sugar, adding peanut butter and baking soda. I tried it and it worked . . . mostly. They were too hard. I made them making slight variations. It wasn't perfect, and I sort of forgot about it. I did use the hard butterfinger-flavored candy in a cheesecake . . . that was very good, and I repeated that even thought the candy wasn't just right.

My little sister (who just turned 8) has been in the kitchen a lot lately. She makes donuts, almost completely by herself! Yesterday she wanted to make hard candy, but we couldn't make the one we usually make because we were out of corn syrup and cream of tartar (it would crystalize without one of those). But, I remembered that the butterfingers didn't need one of those. So, I added some sugar to a pot and told her to stir it. I stirred, and gathered the other ingredients. As a somewhat last-minute decision, I decided to add another 1/2 cup of peanut butter because I remembered that they were too hard last I made them. After pouring into the pan and washing the pot, I went to score them and ta-da! I think it worked! Once they were completely cooled, I realized it was a success. They were almost just right, but I think they needed to tad more crunchy. So, I think 1 1/3 cups peanut butter would be perfect, not 1 cup and not 1 1/2 cups.

A quick note . . . I've never got to dipping these every time I've made them ;).

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars
Hanunyah Creation
gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free

2 cups sugar, white or brown
1 1/3 cups peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a medium-size pot over medium to medium-high heat, add the 2 cups sugar. Stirring constantly, melt the sugar with NO water, only sugar in the pot. First it becomes clumps, then the clumps melt. Stir until there are no chunks left. Even if you use white sugar, the sugar should be a dark golden color at this point. Remove from heat immediately.

Add the peanut butter, vanilla and baking soda and quickly stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan.

After a few minutes (when it's not really hot but it's not cool) deeply score into bars - big or small depending on your preference. Cool completely, break apart and dip in melted chocolate (if they make it to that point, that is ;) ).


Sorry I don't have a picture of these to share . . . I plan on making (and dipping) them to take pictures sometime soon. Right now we're out of chocolate chips, though.

~ Hanunyah

Link Parties:
Gluten-free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free Homemaker