Best Egg Nog Ever!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!  If any of you like egg nog, you will love my father-in-law's recipe.  It is simple, but delicious.

Creamy Egg Nog

1 quart egg nog
3 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup lemon-lime soda

Pour egg nog into punch bowl.  Add ice cream and gently stir until ice cream separates into small lumps.  Stir in soda.  Serve.

Review of Gluten-free Mama's Cookie Mix, Fluffy Frosting, and a Sugar Cookie Recipe

(Photo Source:  amazon.com)

I am loving Gluten-free Mama's products.  I have only tried two products so far, but I am very impressed with both.  My friend, Jodi, sent me an email about this cookie mix.  She was amazed at how easy it is to make cut-out sugar cookies with this mix.  I tried it with my daughters a few days ago.  It is outstanding.  I would rate it at 9.5 out of 10.  The dough is easy to work with and we were able to actually maintain the shape of the cookies as we transferred from parchment paper to the cookie sheet. 

One warning:  don't forget to GREASE the cookie sheet.  The directions didn't state anything concerning this step, so I thought maybe there was enough butter in the recipe to keep them from sticking.  That was a mistake.  Before we put the second cookie sheet into the oven, we carefully lifted each shape and greased the area with cooking spray.  Problem solved.  :) 

I am including my recipe for Fluffy Frosting that I think you will love.  It is in my cookbook.  It works well for sugar cookies and cakes.  Also, I am including the recipe from my cookbook for sugar cookies, in case you are in the mood for sugar cookies and you don't want to go out to buy a mix.  The recipe works if you want to make cute little round cookies.  I think you will find that the flavor of these cookies is delicious--it just doesn't work as well using cookie cutters.  For those times, I will be buying Gluten-free Mama's Cookie Mix.

(I did half of this recipe and it was enough to frost a thin layer on the cookies from the mix.)

Fluffy Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup water

¾ cup shortening

½ teaspoon almond flavoring

½ teaspoon butter flavoring

½ teaspoon vanilla

Pink food coloring (opt.)

Whip ingredients with hand mixer until well mixed.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar

¾ cup butter

1 egg

1 tablespoon sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup brown rice flour

⅓ cup potato starch

⅓ cup tapioca flour

⅛ cup sorghum flour

2 tablespoons corn flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1. Cream sugar, butter, egg, sour cream, and vanilla together.
2. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Do not over mix.
3. Divide dough into 2 sections and place each section of dough onto plastic wrap. Form each section of dough into a log shape. (The log shape cannot be made too easily yet, because the dough is too soft at this point.) Place in fridge for at least one hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.
5. Remove dough from fridge and roll again into a log shape, about 1½ inches in diameter. If dough stays in the log shape and is easy to slice, begin cutting dough into ¼ inch slices. If not, return dough to fridge until firm.
6. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place sliced cookie dough on cookie sheet. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes.

Makes 48 small cookies