Holiday Appetizer #2: Mascarpone Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Prosciutto

Dates are often thought of as a dessert item due to their natural sweetness, but paired with mascarpone and prosciutto, they make an incredible appetizer. I had a hunch that these would be good, but I was actually surprised at just how addictive they turned out. The sweetness of the dates is tempered by the creaminess of the mascarpone and the prosciutto adds a touch of saltiness to balance everything out. These are impossible to get wrong. Use pitted dates for even quicker assembly.

Mascarpone cheese is a mild, spreadable Italian cheese that is often flavoured with sweet or savoury flavours to match the dish. It's the cheese used to make tiramisu, the popular Italian dessert. Prosciutto is a type of dried ham, served in thin slices.

Appetizer #2 Mascarpone Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Prosciutto

 

Gluten Free Holiday Treats

Welcome to Celiac Baby's 1st Holiday Treat Extravaganza!

Holiday baking is a tradition that has been in my family for as long as I can remember.  Every year, my mom would choose a weekend to bake up all the Christmas cookies that we would have on hand all season for whenever people stopped by or when we were invited to a party or gathering.  Since my son has gone gluten free, I've had to rethink recipes that I had been using for years in order to make them safe for him.  As a result, I've changed my approach to holiday baking.  I still make many things from scratch using recipes that I've modified to make safe for my son, but I've added some mixes to my repertoire  when it comes to things like cupcakes.  I've also started preparing more no bake treats, which tend to be easy for my three old to help me prepare. 

Decorating sugar cookies

Beginning on December 1st (tomorrow!), I'll be sharing a recipe or a an idea for a holiday dessert on the blog each day except Sundays (when the menu plan goes up).  I am looking forward to sharing some of what my family will be enjoying this December.  I will also be sharing a few that come from family, friends, and readers, so please send me your recipes and ideas, and I'll try and feature them on the blog over the next month.

Who said gluten free food had to be boring? 

I find new and inspiring food ideas all the time that taste great and are safe for my son to eat.  The holidays are a great time to share what I know to be true about the potential for gluten free food to be delicious with those around me, and what better way than with desserts prepared with love? 

Snowball with Grated Coconut

Have a recipe you'd like to share and see featured on the blog?  Send me an email at celiacbaby@hotmail.com or a message @CeliacBaby on  Twitter and tell me what you'd like to share or a recipe you would like to see featured.

Here's to a delicious holiday season ahead!

Putting Up the Christmas Tree!

It's a tradition in my house to put up my Christmas tree the day of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.  It may be a little early for those of you in the United States, who still have Thanksgiving to celebrate, but for me in Canada, Thanksgiving was a month ago and there's only one month to go before Christmas!

I like having the date put aside each year because I make a point to not make any other plans that day, and instead we spend it at home, listening to holiday songs while we decorate the house and put up the tree, until finally relaxing on the couch while we watch the parade on t.v.

This year my son was old enough to be interested in the process, although I don't know how much actual "help" he provided!  We didn't get all the decorations done, but the stockings are hung, the lights are strung outside, and the tree is trimmed.  There are a few more candy canes that I think need to go on it, but it looks finished enough.  Just a few more indoor decorations, and I'll be ready to finish my shopping and start wrapping gifts!

December is coming soon, and we're already almost all booked up for the month!  As for the blog, I'm looking forward to posting my party planning tips, more holiday recipes and gift ideas for the newly gluten free!  Oh yeah, and my one year blog anniversary is coming up soon!

Here are a few photos of our tree!

Christmas Traditions

December has truly flown by this year, with all of the medical appointments, days home sick with my son, working on my thesis, cooking gluten free Christmas goodies, gift shopping.......oh, and remembering to give thanks that I'm healthy and blessed enough to have a life so full of people and activities that mean so much to me.  I sometimes get so caught up in my own petty issues that I forget how lucky I am.

My little bonhomme!

The night before Christmas Eve, my husband and I started talking about which family traditions we want to create for our son.  My husband and I were raised in different countries, and the traditions around Christmas are very different.  His experience was to keep vigil on the night of the 24th, with festivities culminating at midnight.  Growing up, my husband remembers fireworks being lit in the streets as a way of rejoicing in the spirit of Christmas.  This idea is foreign to me, although I am looking forward to experiencing it with his family one day.

My Christmas flowers. 

For me, the 24th was when we went to mass, ate a meal that for some reason that no one could ever explain satisfactorily to me could not contain meat, watched A Christmas Carol or some other holiday classic with my cousins, and then went to bed before midnight to wake up early on Christmas morning.  Our large celebration was held on the 25th.  Since my family lives in Canada and my husband's family doesn't, we want to make sure that some of my husband's traditions are kept even though his family is far away.  We still haven't quite decided which ones to include, particularly since keeping our toddler up to midnight just to get him back up early the next day is not exactly a recipe for success.

The place settings for the children, our Beatrix Potter plates from childhood

Last year was our son's first Christmas, so he was largely oblivious to the whole thing, and this year he was so sick leading up to Christmas that we barely had time to prepare properly before it arrived.  Next year though, he'll be old enough to start remembering how we spent the holidays as a family, and I want to make sure that it includes something special, with meaning, that we can recreate each year as our special family tradition.  Something that can grow with him, and include any potential future siblings.  Perhaps it will have to do with food, or a craft, or volunteering our time during the holiday season.  I'm open to suggestions.

I'd better get on it, there's less than a year 'till Christmas!