Back to the Mouse House

          I seriously think they put something addictive in the air at Disney World, the bank account is barely recovered and you start itching to return.   So we're off again this week, doing the perfect vacation for kids and engineers...full-on repeat.  Same hotel, same restaurants, same rides.  Except the dresses, this year the girls decided to be part of Tinkerbelle's fairy clan...Rosetta and Silvermist.   The dresses turned out great, all itch-free with covered seams, but they nearly killed me (bias-cut chiffon...what was I thinking!?).
           Disney has plenty of treats available, but I thought I'd make some cookies for our packed lunches.   This is my basic, never-fail, egg-free and dairy-free sugar cookie recipe.  I've tried others, and I keep coming back to this one.  I love it because it is infinitely adaptable. It works with whatever fat you have in the house..shortening, margarine, coconut oil.  I used butter-flavored Crisco today.  You can play with the flavorings, you can play with the sugars, you can play with colors, you can splurge on fun cookie cutters.  It always works.

Infinitely Adaptable Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup shortening (or margarine, or coconut oil)
2/3 cup sugar (or some brown sugar)
1/4 cup soymilk + 1T cider vinegar

2 cups flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1T. vanilla (optional)
1/8 t. lemon oil (optional)
a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

1.) In a large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening together until smooth, add in the thickened soymilk and beat until smooth again.
2.) Add the vanilla, lemon oil or whatever spices/flavorings you are using and mix well.
3.) Add soda, salt and flour. Mix until everything comes together.
4.) Wrap in plastic wrap, shape into a big disk and freeze for 1/2 hour.
5.) Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out as you like.
6.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheets at 350. 10 minutes will give you soft cookies (they may seem barely baked, but they'll firm up when cooled), 14-16 minutes will give you golden brown edges and they'll be crispy.
7.) Cool completely before icing.

Cookie Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
2 T. corn syrup
2-3T. water



Mix well, getting out all the lumps. Color as you'd like. Dip the cookies or pipe on the decorations!

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Granola bars fit for Disney

          A safe granola bar is not easy, or cheap, to come by. When we went to Disney last year, I splurged on a whole box of goodies from peanutfreeplanet.com and some NoNuttin granola bars were in the mix. The kids loved them, but at $1.50 a bar, it was a bit much for a casual treat. After a lot of trial and error, I came up with this chewy granola bar recipe that is wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free. And for my little buddy Kierra, they can be corn-free as well! This year, we'll pack these for Disney and save the money for some glass slippers instead.
          This recipe uses brown rice syrup rather than corn syrup. I'm pretty sure when it comes down to it, there really aren't any major health benefits to brown rice syrup over corn syrup. Sugar is sugar. I think it just makes me feel better using brown rice syrup, and it gets rid of one more allergen! As far as cost, around here it runs about $5 for a jar of Lundberg syrup and you can get two batches out of one jar (7 cents per bar for sweetener).
          You can mix up the flavors, we live in cherry country here in Michigan, so dried cherries are not hard to come by, but other dried fruits would be great. For chocolate, I use the dark chocolate chunks from NoNuttin, they are seriously chocolaty, not really sweet at all and perfect with the sweet cherries. The coconut is something I'm sneaking in. Coconut allergies are apparently pretty uncommon, my kids just refuse it on the basis of texture. Elective refusal of a good-fat item is simply not an option around here, so I sneak the coconut in. I use regular Baker's sweetened coconut, but I chop it down fine in the food processor.

Chewy Dark Chocolate and Sweet Cherry Granola Bars

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (you can chop it down if your kids are squirmy about the texture)
2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups quick oats
2 cups Rice Krispies (Erewhon makes a corn-free version)
3/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

1/2 jar Lundberg brown rice syrup (3/4 cup or so)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 T. avocado oil or other vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla

1/2 cup safe chocolate chips

1.) Mix the coconut, oats, rice cereal, and cherries in a big bowl.
2.) In a small saucepan, heat the brown rice syrup and salt until just boiling and everything is dissolved, allow to boil for 30 seconds or so.
3.) Remove from the heat and add the oil and vanilla.
4.) Pour the syrup over the dried mixture and stir around until everything is well-coated.
5.) Dump into a parchment or foil-lined pan. I have a 'quarter' sheet pan that works great, a 9 x 13, or half of a jelly roll pan would work as well. Spread everything out well to cool, but don't press anything down. Leave the top all lumpy bumpy.
6.) When the granola has cooled enough not to completely melt the choclolate, you can sprinkle the chips on top. Let everything cool a bit more before pressing the mixture down really well. The chips are the trickiest part. If you put them on early, they melt into a sticky mess. If you wait too long, the granola has cooled and the chips won't stick into the bars. Either way, it's chocolate. Your kid won't care too much.
7.) Let the granola block cool and then chop into bars and wrap in plastic.  I usually let slab sit overnight before cutting and wrapping so allow the bars to firm up.  Makes about 36.

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