Alek's Controllable Christmas Decorations for Celiac Research

Do you enjoy looking at Christmas Lights?
There's a website on the Internet that uses several webcams to provide a live view of thousands of 'em.
You can also CONTROL them - yes, turn them on & off with a click of a mouse from your home PC ...
plus you can even inflate (or deflate) the giant Elmo, Frosty, Santa, SpongeBob, and Homer Simpson - D'OH!
So surf over to the Christmas Lights Webcam
to check out all the fun action at the totally free site which also raises awareness about Celiac Disease Research at the University of Maryland.

Wordless Wednesday - I am "That Girl"

The Gluten Free Diet Plate

Ever wonder how much of each food group you should be consuming? Check out this GF diet plate care of ChooseMyPlate.Gov . I'm quite happy the food pyramid is no longer. The plate and drinking cup make for easier visualization.

Alek's Controllable Halloween Decorations for Celiac Research

Alek Komarnitsky is a parent on a mission. His two boys have Celiac Disease and for the past 7 years he has been doing something spectacular to help raise awareness for the condition. He decorates his house to the extreme for Halloween. It really deserves to be on an HGTV Halloween special. It gets better too....We can control the lights! Alek's website offers us the opportunity to view the decorations on 3 live webcams. You can even inflate/deflate Homer Simpson, the Incredible Hulk as well as other awesome characters. Alek's Controllable Halloween Decorations for Celiac Disease is probably the most innovative and interactive way to raise money for Celiac Disease yet.

If you enjoy the decorations (and hard work) please consider donating to the  over $60,000 raised for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. Don't forget to  send an instant message over the webcam. You can also watch the fun and excitement on Halloween night. 

After the American Thanksgiving You can view Alek's Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

Gluten Free Batman Cake

To help celebrate my husband's birthday this year, I made him a cake. Gluten free for obvious reasons. I used a GF Golden Cake Mix (more on that later) and whipped cream cheese frosting both care of Betty Crocker . To make the Batman design and other decorations, I used Wilton Sparkle Gel. Very easy to use.

Back to the Betty Crocker cake mix. Although it tasted alright and was easy to make, I doubt I will buy it again. Unless there is a substantial price decrease that is. It is simply not worth the cost.  The mix made half the amount of cake that other GF cake mixes make for the same price or less. I really layered the icing both inside and on the cake as well. This helped the height slightly. I did find this cake to be quite crumbly. 
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An interesting discovery (although I'm not surprised) is that there is quite a bit less cake mix in the GF Betty Crocker version compared to the wheat indulged Betty Crocker counterpart. Plus the four dollar or so difference, in price. 

I opted not to make a cake for my son's 3rd birthday this year as he LOVES "Cars" and I seriously lack the skill to tackle a cake of the nature below. I purchased it at Walmart for $20.00. In all honesty, the gluten eaters did not really like it. Most people commented that it (fondant) was too sweet and opted for my GF cake instead.

Happy Birthday to my boys!