DIY Maple Syrup - Nature Study

Making Maple Syrup

Nature Study and being outdoors is a huge part of our homeschool life so I was thrilled when my husband decided to try tapping a couple of the maple trees in our backyard and make our own maple syrup.  My hubs ordered the taps off amazon and set them up and then we just had to wait for the right weather as the temperature has to have certain fluctuations overnight to get the sap flowing.  We finally had the needed fluctuation and got 3-4 liters of maple tree sap.

Can you see the 2 trees that are tapped with the 2 liter bottles? That's the maple sap collection set up

We measured it out with the kids and then put it in our largest pot to simmer all day.

 Finally the maple sap had reduced enough and we got about 3 ounces.  Just enough for our Sunday gluten free pancake breakfast!

We poured the final product into a recyled maple syrup glass container.  The maple syrup was just like...maple syrup.  The only difference I noticed with our maple syrup vs the kind we buy was ours had a slight vanilla taste to it.

Here's to learning how stuff's made....in real life!

Have access to any maple trees?  Here's how

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Easy Gluten Free Breakfast

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Eating Gluten Free and Dairy Free can be a big chore most of the time, it involves a lot of baking and cooking from scratch so it's nice to be able to have short cuts once in a while!  That's why I love the GF DF pancakes at Trader Joes!  They are inexpensive and you just pop them in the toaster and you've got pancakes!  I do have a great pancake recipe that I make often as well that is great but for those mornings I don't feel like making pancakes all morning or before bed and I need a little sweet snack...this is a good fix!

The frozen Trader Joes gluten free pancakes come in packages of 3 so what I like to do is just pop all 3 in the toaster and when they pop up, I spread the first one with peanut butter and sprinkle on some mini chocolate chips, add the 2nd pancake and add another layer of peanut butter and chocolate chips and then add the 3rd pancake with a little more peanut butter and real maple syrup.  It is soooooo yummy!

The mini chocolate chips melt between the pancake layers and mix with the peanut butter and syrup in the best possible way!

Yes.....I have an obsession with chocolate and peanut butter.......

Thanksgiving Recap

Hello out there....if anyone is still there!  We are alive over here, however we had family come visit, then went and visited family...pretty much the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving just happened at warp speed.  But we are back and Scrappy Saturdays will be back on this weekend too.
After not posting in so long it's almost hard to know where to start so I thought I'd start with a recap of our Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving day started with these

Gluten-Free Sticky Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes with Maple Frosting

 by Silvana Nardone

 For her other great thanksgiving breakfast menu recipes including this one, visit Silvana's Kitchen!


And our Day Ended with this

Toasted Marshmallow topped Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie with Ginger Snap Cookie Crust from 

 from Silvana's Book Cooking for Isaiah 

(I LOVE LOVE LOVE this gluten free dairy free cookbook!)

Both were super yummy and delicious, along with everything else we had in-between.  My husband cooked the actual meal and did a great job on everything.  I sure am Thankful for such an awesome hubby!!!  And I'm thankful for all the great resources, including Silvana's recipes that make eating gluten and dairy free easy and delicious!  We had company over for Thanksgiving and they said they would have never guessed everything was gluten and dairy free.

I did make ONE thing for the actual meal from a recipe my sister gave me. I made this the night before and I  want to make this everyday, just to make my house smell like this.  Now I'm desperate to find the perfect candle that smells like this...cranberries, apples, vanilla, cinnamon and clove! *I left out the raisins.

homemade cranberry relish

2 cups fresh apple juice

1/2 cup sugar

24 ounces cranberries

2 slightly sweet apples, peeled and diced

1/2 vanilla bean, slit open

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 -2 cloves depending on preference

1/4 cup golden raisins

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, on medium-high heat until the cranberries have popped and everything has begun to gel. Spoon into a casserole dish. Let cool.

This is beautiful and super Yummy!!

Gluten Free Corn Bread Stuffing (also got this recipe from my sister)

Use your favorite GF cornbread mix - (Bobs Red Mill is awesome) or substitute gluten free all purpose baking mix for the flour in any basic corn bread recipe. Mix dough then stir in 1/2 Tbs of dried thyme. Bake according to recipe directions.

Once the cornbread has cooled, cut into cubes and arrange on a baking sheet. Let this sit overnight to dry out and create cornbread crumbs.

Stuffing ingredients:

2 Tbs Olive oil

1/2 onion - chopped

4 cloves garlic - finely chopped or pressed

1-2 stalks celery - chopped

1 apple - peeled and chopped

.75 oz of fresh Rosemary, Thyme and Sage

Vegetable or Chicken stock as needed

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute onion, garlic and celery. Add apple, salt and pepper and herbs, cook stirring frequently over medium heat for 3-4 mins. Lower to med/low heat and add cornbread crumbs, toss to coat with herb mixture. Add vegetable stock to moisten cornbread to desired consistency/texture. Serve warm.