Sea World

Every year since Justin's in the military we get into Sea World once a year for free. We've gone in the summer and at at Christmas time, so this year we decided to go for Hallowscreams last Saturday.

We saw a couple Shamu shows.

It was so much better when the trainers were allowed to be in the water with the killer whales.

Can you find my picture on the big screen?

Justin texted my picture to the number during the show, and there I was after the show!

To my surprise, Sea World offers some gluten free options! I've never seen these the last two years. They had a prepackaged bag of various goodies, like GF cookies and bars.

I looked on their website for more specifics, and they offer this allergen page that suggests speaking with someone when you arrive. But the nice thing is they do offer prepackaged items that are for sure safe to consume.

We went through 3 different haunted adventures from mazes to a forest.

Here we are at the end of the night, watching Shamu's haunted show.

Happy Halloween

Ready for trick-or-treaters.

London broil roast with mashed potatoes and corn - a hearty meal for a perfect fall night.

Ghostly Pines red wine with fall colored peanut butter M & Ms.

Backup bags ready.

Full bowl of full sized candy bars for the neighbor kids. (Some gluten free and some gluten-full candy.)

 Uncle Sam reporting for duty.

Lady Liberty a.k.a according to one small girl...Barbie.

And Minnie Mouse!

The Way Fall Should Be

During September and October, we spent four weekends out of town. Four out of eight weekends we weren't home; 50% of the time we were gone if you didn't get the math the first time. While I loved going to Dallas twice and Michigan two times, it felt good to be home this weekend and to know the next couple of weekends we would be here as well.

While I'm happy to be home, last weekend was fun and memorable! We were able to spend time with friends and family.

Wedding fun.

Me and the Hubby

Tailgating at MSU

Gorgeous fall! Trees actually changing color...I miss fall so much living in the south.

Justin and Jett looking at planes.

 The banks of the red cedar

My whole family was at tailgate

Sparty and an MSU win over Wisconsin.

We picked up an exhausted, clean dog from the pet resort complete with a Halloween bandana who was excited to see her ma and pop.

Looking at my pictures, I can't believe I didn't take any GF food ones! There were so many great food memories too. A GF wedding meal and my sister, Kristen stopped by to generously bring me snacks, GF beer, and an Udi's bagel. Tailgating was filled with GF goodies and late night GF pizza from Cottage Inn. And on Sunday, a GF brunch at my sister, Jill's house. Thank you to everyone who provided me with treats to eat on the weekend out of town; it is most definitely appreciated and made the trip that much easier. So my recap of the weekend focuses on what mattered the most, seeing my wonderful family and friends.

15 days since my last post?!?

So I said I would post about these amazing pumpkin cookies:

And I seem to be a broken record the last couple months:

I'm busy, busy, busy!

Justin used this recipe, but he substituted the the regular wheat flour for Cup 4 Cup flour from Williams-Sonoma.

He didn't make the frosting either and chose Pillsbury Cream Cheese frosting.

I thought the frosting was the perfect compliment, especially since it's GF!

They were soft, puffy cookies! I L-O-V-E soft cookie...I was so proud of my hubby for baking these for me. They had a good consistency and the Cup 4 Cup flour was a good substitute in this recipe.

I wouldn't share them with anyone either! (I'm usually not that greedy.)

Now I'm inspired to try more recipes with the Cup 4 Cup flour! And try more recipes with pumpkin.

Pumpkin-mania

We tried pumpkin Woodchuck Hard Cider at the Gluten Free Expo in Dallas. This past weekend we saw some of the limited production available at Central Market and couldn't resist!

It's the perfect fall drink. It tasted like original Woodchuck but with strong hints of rich pumpkin flavorings.

I know this is blurry, but you can see the turkey and duck pictures...it supposedly pairs perfectly with the two birds. I may have to buy us some more to eat with Thanksgiving (which seems far away, but will be here before we know it.)

My husband surprised me tonight while I was at class, and he baked me some pumpkin cookies! I never knew my husband could bake, let alone bake GF. I'll post the recipe later this week. But for now, I leave your mouth watering...because they were soft, moist, and delicious.

Belly Flop, I Think Not

I'm ready to admit I have a problem, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to fix it.

I am a candyholic.

(As seen here, here, here, and here.)

I couldn't pass these up when we recently saw them at Big Lots:

Belly Flop Jelly Bellys

The Irregular Jelly Beans

With weird shapes and colors - all the "rejected" beans

But still the same great flavor of Jelly Bellys

Without the hefty price tag!

This 1 pound bag was only 3 dollars.

And Gluten Free

Yum

P.S. When I eat Jelly Bellys if I don't like a flavor, I won't eat it...I put it back in the bag. Eventually I'm left with a bag of Buttered Popcorn and Black Licorice Jelly Beans.

Rest of Weekend Trip

Last Saturday night we went out to dinner at Kenichi in Dallas to celebrate my birthday.

Justin tried some different Sakes.

I, on the other hand, had a sake mixed drink which was similar to a mojito.

We started with an appetizer: fried rice with pork belly - that we ate with chopsticks only! We were chopstick champs. It may have took us a while, but slowed down our eating for sure.

We participated in a Sake bomb world record!

We shared two sushi rolls. The Mean Green - which had some spicy sauces I couldn't eat, but Justin could enjoy.

Miami Roll - wrapped in cucumber in a vinaigrette, that was so delicious. I could fully enjoy this one with out skipping out a part of it.

Birthday gelato!

Happy Birthday to me!

After dinner we went to the bar area to watch the Tigers's game. We happened to run into Don Nelson, former NBA player and coach.

We enjoyed a few beverages with him

The next day we had tickets to the Lions versus Cowboys game. We had amazing seats.

And were able to see an amazing game, where the Lions came from behind. I love seeing Dallas fans in silence!

So...even the cheerleaders came pretty close to us.

Go Lions!

Cowboy Stadium view as we walked to our car after the game.