the BEST gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

this recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies is amazing. they are the best ones I have ever had in my gluten-free existence! I promise. just be sure to follow the instructions really well. mine only needed 8 minutes in the oven and then I let them cool for 5 minutes and then transferred them to a rack. be sure that you let them cool for a good 5 minutes. they are g-f and WILL FALL APART. but I was very patient and these cookies hold together better than any g-f cookie I've ever had :)

here is the post as well (courtesy of rachaelray.com):

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup of softened butter
* 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 1/4 cups of gluten-free baking flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup chocolate chips
* 3/4 cup of crushed pecans ***(I only used a little less than a handful)***



Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

Grease baking sheet.

In a medium sized bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and stir until blended.

Slowly add the gluten-free flour ***(I used a mixture of Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Flour and Rice Flour that I buy in the Asian foods section-it is certified gluten-free)***, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop teaspoon sized cookies onto the prepared baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for about 8 minutes or until slightly brown and not wet.

Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before taking them off the sheet.

knitting patterns

I compiled a list of all the free knitting patterns that I've posted so far. Also, there is a new little box on the sidebar with each link.

georgia peach
lemon and lime
lulu banana
mr. pear
mrs. saucy apple/sour apple

Thanks for loving my patterns so much! I really love seeing people make my little fruits and post a link to the pattern. So please keep knitting and make sure that you use the patterns only to make and share, please do not make little fruities for profit.
Thank you so much for spreading the fruity love
♥ Alex

interiors of movies

I was inspired by this post

and decided to make a list of my own:

in no particular order:

High Fidelity- all those LPs!
Dan in Real Life
The Break-Up
The Royal Tenenbaums
Atonement
The Baxter
Gosford Park

update: I COMPLETELY forgot about 2 movies! The Dreamers, and When Harry Met Sally :)

♥ a

acid tongue

listening to jenny lewis.
again.
especially "godspeed"
I adore that song.


okay so,
want to see what I've been knitting up? well, if you've been reading this blog for more than a year, you know that I started the lush hoodie in "greetings from the knit cafe" a long time ago. I neglected it for more than a year and now it's almost finished! so happy with it! I have the whole back finished. I need to finish the right front, another sleeve, and pick up stitches for the hood. problem is, I bought not enough yarn from knitpicks for this thing. exactly one ball too short :/ hopefully by some miracle they still sell it. I need to get on that... haha




anyway, it has been FREEZING here and I'm still in soup mode. I made some easy peasy chicken soup. man, it was good. it was even better leftover too! I'm making myself hungry :)


I have been craving bread (gluten-free of course!) and carbs so crazy. I have to make this foccacia from "allergen-free cookbook." this will be the next thing I bake. I'm going to make some glorious looking green pesto too. you better believe it :)

♥ a

go me!

I am finally back to knitting! after a very very long hiatus...plus, knitting is a cold weather hobby and it's 42 today!


♥ a

while you were sleeping

if you haven't noticed, I've been messing around with the layout of this blog for a while. I thought about it for a long time (well, not too long) and I came up with this new layout. I hope you like it. I do...it is staying like this for quite a while.


anyway, second blog of the day.

I'm sitting here listening to while you were sleeping for the second time in a row.

it's very rainy today so the gizmo and I have been snuggling and being lazy.

I made some split pea with bacon soup and I had the leftovers. it was so delicious. it was the perfect thing for a day like today. I love soup on rainy days.



I'm so glad it's finally fall! I love sweaters and crunchy leaves and hot chocolate!!



I went to the dekalb library for the first time! it was so nice! doug and I decided that we are going to go once a week. it's fantastic! they had a huge section of gluten-free books too! squeee!!

I really love the illustration on the front of "City of Theives." I am liking this book a lot.

I really can't make it to the chicagoland craft collective tonight. I feel sad about missing it. it's just so far and I really don't feel that great. oh well...there's next month. so, I'm going to get together with doug and laura tonight for the project runway FINALE! woot! I'm so excited! I have my fingers crossed for leanne! she was my favorite since the very first episode this season. much like christian was last season. anyway, I found this very cool. I'll be looking for our local girl tonight on the show :)



bye for now
♥ a


ps: oh! I almost forgot to mention that doug and laura got a kitty! she's adorable! I just love her! I will take a picture soon when she is more social. she is still not used to the idea of the new living arrangments. her name is luna and she is 3 years old. they adopted her from tails. you will get to meet her soon. I promise!

♥

ac·quir·ing

two posts today! I haven't had much time to post lately, I had 2 papers and 2 exams last week (shew) so, here I am, giving you a post of things that I have acquired lately.
doug bought me the most adorable! shirt! ever! I have been been pining for it for a while and one day he just surprised me! what a sweet! it reminds me of nan, my friend from the chicagoland craft collective.


oh, and by the way, tilly and wall are awesome. if you don't know them, get thee to the music store. PLUS they tapdance! how could you not love them!?




I bought this amazing little feather headband. isn't it so kenley from project runway? (who I do not like for your information, TEAM LEANNE! since day one. just sayin!)
but it is cute nonetheless




I decided that I have too many plain clothes. so I bought this!


and I love it...♥




I went thrifting for the first time in a long long time! I go straight to the children's books and vintage patterns everytime. but I found this goofy learn french tape :)
this is from the book, "miffy rides a bike"
I was definitely inspried by the lovely veronica who always has great success thrifting! she makes me want to go hunt for vintage treasures.

off to make another post! ♥ a

með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly

Sigur Rós at the Chicago Theatre with Parachutes

________________________________________________

gluten-free? me first.

I have a load of gluten -free food to share. I made some of it and I bought some of it. okay, so let me start with fried cheese. cheese is my weakness. I could eat cheese all day long. seriously. so, what's better than frying it? (not much) so I breaded some tiny mozzerella balls that I picked up at trader joes and I fried them up really quick. they were so yummy and gooey and crispy and hot and okay, I'll stop. observe:



with the same oil and breading technique I made fried zucchini...it might have been
EVEN better than the fried cheese!


so, the other night, Doug tells me he has never had green chili, (say wha?, yea I know...) so of course, being a good girlfriend, I made him the best green chili I could. it was really yummy. we put some extra cilantro and green onions on top with some chopped avocados. I could go on about avocados all day too. I LOVE them. they're like a buttery, melty in your mouth, well, I don't know...they're just amazing and I don't know what I would do without them.


this tv dinner was an experiment. I am NOT the type to eat TV dinners for obvious reasons and I would never eat them anyway. BUT I saw this in the store and I had to try it. don't judge me. I was sold when I saw it had gluten-free foccacia :) it was also very good and I may or may not get it again?


because trader joes gf brownie mix is SO good I haven't felt the need to buy a gluten-free brownie. anyway, my mom picked this up for me when she was on vacation last week and it is good. I had one complaint, it was CRUMBLY. I mean, it got everywhere! I felt like a 3 year old eating it. I'll stick to the trader joes, thanks.


that's my gluten-free post loves, I love blogging gluten-free because I wish for people (celiacs) to see that just because you have a very restrictive diet, you can eat really well. ♥ a

you don't know me.

this song is so wonderful. it cheers me. how could it not? it's ben folds and regina spektor :)

♥ a

under the hanker-chief tree

hello dears,
I'm thinking about making my room into a gigantic blanket fort for a few weeks. or maybe just one week. it's getting a little cold out lately and it just seems so cozy to have a room made out of blankets. I need to work on figuring out how. I like the idea of hanging them from the ceiling and the walls like in the picture...(must think about it)

anyway, I sent Marissa her bag (she loved it!) and I snapped a pic before it went to live with her:

I bought a set of Francis Hodgson Burnett books a long while ago and I just rediscovered them the other day to my delight!
A Little Princess was my favorite book when I was a little girl and The Secret Garden was a close second. I would watch the movies all the time too! oh, and aren't the covers very attractive? that's why I got this set :) I'm a sucker for good packaging, great book/magazine covers, etc...so this week I'm re-reading A Little Princess and it even inspired a new princess-y type outfit (which is not me at all but the book made me do it)

I went on my weekly magazine trip to Borders and I picked up the new British Harper's Bazaar because it had Sophie Dahl on the cover! I love her! what a wonderful family she comes from! I can only dream about how wonderful her childhood must have been! well, she wrote a story, Under the Hanker-chief Tree, and it's so adorable! you must check it out if you see the issue. she looks like a princess!
I think I may read Matilda next! I'm thinking about re-reading all my favorite books from my childhood: this weekend is Renegade Chicago! I'm so excited! and Doug and I are going to a White Sox game too! it's going to be fun! I am off now to lay down for a quick nap.

♥ a

or maybe it's the weather or something like that...

hello! man, the weather has been crazy here! it was 95 yesterday and today the high is mid-70s! I wore a long sleeve shirt today because it was barely 60 when I got up and went to school.

I'm kind of sad today because I was planning on going to the free Andrew Bird at Millenium Park tonight but it's going to rain and everyone is busy :(

so, tonight is going to be a typical Wednesday which involves going to Doug and Laura's and eating dinner and then watching Project Runway and working on homework. I really got Doug and Laura into PR! haha they watch it with me. I don't think they like it as much as I do but they comment on the outfits and things the way Marissa and I do when we watch PR :)

I've been keeping myself busy! I finished a few projects but mostly I was lazy over the holiday weekend. I hope everyone had a lovely one! I will post pictures of the finished projects before I send them away to their new home. (I made a few things for Marissa....shhhh! it's a secret!) I will show you that later this week. I did however take pictures of some yummy food I made this weekend!

some cheddar biscuits!


I made some chicken florentine soup. I just kind of made it up, I am going to post the recipe later because it's so YUMMY! I almost ate it all before I could sneak a pic :)


I made some spring rolls with rice paper. rice paper is so fun to make stuff with! I am obsessed with making rolls. I'm forever trying to figure out new ways to stuff them.


♥ a

the new semester and some money well spent

today was my first day back at school! it was very good. I like my classes a lot. I have some interesting reading to do and just a tad of homework. I bought the rest of my books today and I did pretty well with the money saving for that. (I went to bn.com...shhhh!) I only had 2 classes today and they were from 10-12:50 so when I got out at 1 I met Doug at Jaipur for lunch and I ordered the best chicken makanhi and vegetable pakora (gf because they use chickpea flour and a dedicated fryer!).

I stopped by Joanns on my way home and picked up some things on sale. I went there to buy fabric for that anthropologie pillow I want to make and I wanted to stick with one main color, orange and I had the hardest time finding the right orange. but, alas! I found some quarters that went very well together!


AND as I was browsing I spotted a neon green and black leopard print fabric that screamed MARISSA! at me so I am going to make her a shoe organizer with the pattern from BUST magazine. I think she'll love it! and I might have some left over for something else, who knows??


I also got some 8x8 cardstock that was on sale and the colors are gorgeous! I see card making and note writing in my future :)


remember that I rearranged my room? well, I think it looks pretty good! I got all my crafting stuff in one corner!
I do need a bigger bookshelf though...but everything else is good!






and here is the new embroidery project I've been working on! I like the way it's turning out! I'm coming up with the different patterns as I stitch.

well, there you go loves, I'm off to Doug's to work on homework and spend time!

♥ a