A New Twist on Holiday Peppermint Cookies (You Can Make them Gluten Free!)

 I wanted to try out some new cookie recipes this year, and  after making the hermit cookies, I checked out a few more recipes in my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook.  This one for peppermint cookies interested me because it didn't use cookie cutters or have you use any additional candies to decorate with. My husband told me to press a walnut piece into each cookie to make them look more festive.  They taste really yummy!

                





 PEPPERMINT COOKIES

1.  Bowl #1  -In a medium-sized bowl put:  2 cups of gluten free flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

2.  Bowl #2:  In another bowl lightly beat 1 egg  and then beat in 1 cup of sugar. Then beat in 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract.

3.  Bowl #3:  In another small bowl put 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

4.  Then alternately add the flour and sour cream mixture to the egg mixture.  Use a wooden spoon to combine or your mixer.

5.  Cover your hands with flour and lightly roll balls of dough the size of a walnut.  Put on the pan allowing for room to expand.  Press down a bit.  I put walnuts on the top for decoration. I always like to bake 4 cookies to check them out.


Cookies:
The Ultimate Gluten Free Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies   (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Mom's Go To For Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
The Best Gluten Free Recipe for Snickerdoodles    (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Gluten Free Rocky Road Brownies    (From a church friend)
Mark's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies - Made Gluten Free!   (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Judi's Gluten Free Oatmeal Craisin & Coconut Cookies (From a church friend)
Marie's Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies (Also Great Gluten Free!)   (My friend Marie's recipe)
Bebe's Gluten Free Whoopie Pies  (From my friend Debbie)
Gluten Free Coconut Chocolate Chip Macaroons  - (Recipe on Baker's bag of coconut)
Dale's Gingersnaps Made Gluten Free  (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Chewy Gluten Free Molasses Cookies (From my daughter-in-law's Family Reunion Cookbook)
Those Famous Neiman Marcus Cookies Made Gluten Free   (From my daughter-in-law)
Janah's Oatmeal Cookies with a GF Spin  (My daughter's recipe)
Homemade Gluten Free Butter Cookies   (From My Heritage School Cookbook)
An Old Fashioned Favorite Made Gluten Free - Hermit Cookies  (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)

Taking a Look At King Solomon's Prayer in 1 Kings 8:48

From a visit at a friend's last week

    It happened just as King David planned. His son Solomon built the temple on the site that God had chosen in Jerusalem.  All King Solomon had to do was use the materials his father had gathered and follow the design that had been given to him.  In the fourth year of  Solomon's reign, the building work began.

     In chapter 6 of the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Kings I was touched with Solomon's prayer at the temple's dedication that God would listen to His people's prayers when they were in need.  Solomon even prayed for God's people if they were ever in captivity:

And if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who have carried them captive, and they pray to You, toward their land that you have given to their fathers, the city that You have chosen, and the house that I have built for Your name.  1 Kings 8:48

I would not have picked anything up about these three things that are mentioned here, but on pages 38-39 I saw that they are very significant:  

 "In the last of the seven conditions concerning God's listening to the prayers of His elect, three things are stressed (v. 48) the holy land, typifying Christ as God's allotted portion to the believers (Col. 1:12); the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ; and the holy temple, signifying God's house the church, on earth. These three things--the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple--are the three crucial things regarding God's economy....This indicates that God will listen to our prayer in the way that our prayer to God must be toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God's eternal economy" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1 & 2 Kings.  Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,  1994, Print).

    After saying that Witness Lee says we need to always remember that our prayers involve three parties--God, Satan, and us.  And when we pray for others we need to safeguard our prayers from the enemy's attack by focusing our prayers on Christ's fulfilling His purpose, on God's kingdom coming, and God's spiritual house being built up. He mentions that we see this Daniel doing this when he prayed with his windows opened toward Jerusalem for the return of God's people to build up God's house. And we know that God answered his prayer!

List of Other Posts on 1 & 2 Kings:

Taking a Look at Solomon's Prayer in 1 Kings 8:48
Elijah & the Showdown on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 17
How Does Elisha's Ministry Parallel the Lord's in the Gospels?
Israel's Roller Coaster History in 1 & 2 Kings

Other Related Posts on Prayer:

From the Life-Study of Matthew:
What is the Crucial Significance of Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13?
Have You Seen the Battle Between the Two Kingdoms in Matthew 12:26-28?

From the Life-Study of Luke:
Why is Persistent Prayer Important in Luke 18:1-8?

From the Life-Study of Acts:
How is Acts a Book on God's Move & Prayer?
Seeing God's Move & Satan's Frustration in Acts 14

From the Life-Study of Galatians:
How Do We Practically Enjoy Grace in Galatians 5:18?

From the Life-Study of Ephesians:
How Do We Apply the Armor of God in Ephesians 6?

From the Life-Study of Philippians:
Why Does Paul Put Anxiety and Prayer Together in Philippians 4:6?

From the Life-Study of Colossians:
From the Life-Study of Colossians - What Happens When We Pray?
What is Christ Doing at the RIght Hand of God in Colossians 3:2?

From the Life-Study of 1 Timothy:
What is Paul's First Exhortation in 1 Timothy 2:1?

From the Life-Study of James:
What James 5:17-18 Teaches Us About Elijah's Prayer

From the Life-Study of Revelation:
What are the Golden Bowls of Incense in Revelation 5:8?

From the Life-Study of Exodus:
Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus: The Incense Altar

From the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel:
What We Can Learn from Hannah's Prayer in 1 Samuel 1

Other Posts on Prayer:
Why Prayer Matters
Calling on the Lord Makes a Difference! 
Hearing God   (From Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 18 - Tell Him)

Why Prayer Matters

Calling on the Lord Makes a Difference! 

Hearing God   (From Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 18 - Tell Him)

An Old Fashioned Favorite Made GF - Hermit Cookies

   Cookies bring back memories.  I remember hermit cookies when I was a kid, and when I saw this recipe in my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook this morning, I thought I'd tackle it.  My grandkids are on break and baking cookies is a fun way to kick start winter break!  We had already made gingerbread cookies a few weeks ago, and so today I wanted some great cookies without frosting or candies to even out the score.   

I tweaked a few things on one of her aunt's recipes.  It also calls for 3/4 cup of  shredded coconut and peanut butter, and 1 cup of chopped dates. I think sometime I'll throw in the dates.  I'll leave the others for you to decide.

Old Fashioned GF Hermits  

1.  In a medium-sized mixing bowl put the dry ingredients and stir them together:
   (1)  1 3/4 cups of gluten free flour  (I used coconut flour, garbanzo bean, brown rice, white rice, tapioca, and sorghum flours).
  (2)  1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
  (3)  1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

2.  In a mixing bowl you will cream:
     (1)  3/4 cup of butter (I used coconut oil) and cream it with 1 1/4 cup of brown sugar (I used a combination of coconut sugar and brown sugar because I'm trying to find good alternatives to sugar)
    (2)  Add 2 eggs, 2 T of milk or water, and  1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Blend together until well combined.

3.  Put your mixer on stir and slowly add the dry ingredients until combined.

4.  Stir in 1 cup of chopped raisins and 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans. 

5.  Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. I used parchment paper so I wouldn't have to worry about them sticking.  Sit on pan for 2 minutes to finish and then cool on a rack.

Cookies:
The Ultimate Gluten Free Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies   (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Mom's Go To For Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
The Best Gluten Free Recipe for Snickerdoodles    (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Gluten Free Rocky Road Brownies    (From a church friend)
Mark's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies - Made Gluten Free!   (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Judi's Gluten Free Oatmeal Craisin & Coconut Cookies (From a church friend)
Marie's Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies (Also Great Gluten Free!)   (My friend Marie's recipe)
Bebe's Gluten Free Whoopie Pies  (From my friend Debbie)
Gluten Free Coconut Chocolate Chip Macaroons  - (Recipe on Baker's bag of coconut)
Dale's Gingersnaps Made Gluten Free  (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Chewy Gluten Free Molasses Cookies (From my daughter-in-law's Family Reunion Cookbook)
Those Famous Neiman Marcus Cookies Made Gluten Free   (From my daughter-in-law's Family Reunion cookbook)

What is God Building in 2 Samuel 7:5?

    The Bible says that David was a man according to God's heart. It wasn't just that David was a godly king, but that his heart matched God's heart.  I learned from the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel that  the main reason why he was called that was because he wanted God to have a permanent dwelling place on earth.

    Before this time God just had the tabernacle.  When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, they set the tabernacle up in Shiloh, and it was there for around 300 years. But when David became king, he was troubled that although he lived in a house of wood, God still dwelt in the tabernacle of curtains. So he talked to Nathan about it, and this conversation is recorded in the Bible giving us a window into the desire of God's heart. 

  Go and say to My servant David, Thus says Jehovah, Is it you who will build Me a house for Me to dwell in?...Moreover Jehovah declares to you that Jehovah will make you a house. 2 Samuel 7:5, 11B

    I wouldn't have understood the significance of this conversation without chapter 23 of this Life-Study; this excerpt is from page 154-155:

When a sinner turns to God and believes in Christ, he may then have the heart to do something for God. However, to such a person God would say, "Do you intend to do something for Me? You have a great need for Me to do something for you. What I want to do for you is to constitute My Son into your being to be your treasure. Unless I do this for you, you will never have the capacity to do anything for Me"....In 2 Samuel 7:12 God was actually telling David that instead of building something for God, he needed God to build His Son into him...The genuine and intrinsic gospel is that God intends to work Himself in Christ into us (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel.  Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994, Print).

    When I was in college, I read a book this author wrote called The Vision of God's Building, and in this book he traces the line of God's building throughout Scripture. But this building isn't according to our natural thought; it's not like the Sistine Chapel. Although believers do gather in a place of worship, the New Testament tells us clearly that the believers are God's actual dwelling place (Ephesians 2:22). 

    So two things stood out to me in this chapter--Today God is building Himself into our hearts for His spiritual dwelling place.  And the other is that David stopped.  He realized that only God could initiate the building of His house.  I'm sure it's a lot more challenging for God to build Himself into our souls than it is to build a temple of stone and wood!  I'm glad God's not afraid of that kind of challenge!!

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking on the books of Samuel on the  Life Study of the Bible  with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts on 1 & 2 Samuel:

What We Can Learn From Hannah in Her Prayer in 1 Samuel 1
How God Used Samuel at a Degraded Time in Israel's History
Taking a Closer Look at David in 1 & 2 Samuel

Another Way to Make a GF Pie Crust - Coconut Crust

  We were visiting our son's family over the Thanksgiving holiday, and my daughter-in-law is gluten free.  So on Wednesday we made two pumpkin pies, one for our husbands and one for us. 

She wanted to try this coconut crust with the pumpkin pie.  I don't know where she got it, but she tweaked a few things, and this is it. 

It's really simple to make and tasted great.  This coconut crust would be really good with a lemon, banana or coconut cream filling!!







1.  In a medium sized bowl put:
(1)  1 cup coconut flakes
(2)  Stir in 2 T of tapioca starch
(3)  Mix in 1/2 cup of coconut oil

2.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

3.  Add the filling and bake according to those directions. 



Crisps & Pies:
Lena's Rhubarb Crunch (A crisp with a gluten free top and bottom crust!) (My daughter-in-law's mother. She's an amazing cook, which I think most of us moms become after a few years!)
Delicious Gluten Free Apple Crisp    (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Ginger's Outrageous Apple Pie    (From a church friend)
The BEST Lemon Meringue Pie with Mrs. Lauralicious Gluten Free Pie Crust  (Internet)
My Grandmother's Favorite Banana Cream Pie  (A recipe from my grandmother)
Granny's Lemon Cheesecake Squares   (From my friend Judi's granny)
Simple & Gluten Free Chocolate Cream Pie   (From my Syre School Cookbook)
Judi's No Fail Gluten Free Pie Crust    (From my friend Judi)