A Gluten-Free Baby Shower

I have a Penzey's Spice Shop magnet on my fridge that says "Love People. Cook Them Tasty Food."  And  I had the absolute fun of getting to do that by making the food for a baby shower for one of my dearest friends yesterday.  Stacey and I have been friends for about 8 years and it has been a delight to share different seasons of life together.  She is expecting her first baby later this month and I'm pretty darn excited about his arrival!

I've been planning what I want to make for over a month and to be honest, I don't totally understand why this is so much fun for me!  One of the extra challenges in this shower was that the new Mommy-To-Be eats gluten-free.  I spent a lot of years eating gluten-free myself, so I was pretty sure I could work within those constraints.  So here is what I came up with:

Mocha Icebox Cake - This was a special request from Stacey and I knew I could make the cookies gluten-free pretty easily.  I followed the recipe from my blog from a few weeks ago.  And I used the link to the Tate's Chocolate Chip cookies, but used a good gluten-free flour blend (Pamela's) in place of regular flour.  Turned out really delicious!

Gluten-Free Lemon Poppyseed Scones - I used the same Pamela's brand Gluten-Free flour for these.  I thought the baking powder taste was a little strong, but otherwise, really good!

Caprese Tomato Bites - Saw this idea on Pinterest and they were wonderful!  Just 1/2 of a cherry tomato, a snipet of fresh basil and fresh mozzarella "pearls" with a little grind of fresh pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, held together with a toothpick.

Spinach, Mushroom & Feta Crustless Quiche - This calls for 3 different kinds of cheese!  Need I say more?

Frozen-Yogurt Covered Fruit Pops - These were a little messier to make than I anticipated.  And I think my chunks of fruit were a bit too large, making them a little hard to eat while frozen.  But the concept was really good and I would make them again, but cut the fruit into smaller pieces.  I did strawberries, bananas, pineapple and raspberries.  For toppings I did chocolate chunks, toasted pecans & toasted coconut flakes.

Candied Bacon -  DELICIOUS!  As if bacon were not unhealthy enough by itself, add some sugar to the mix and you get this wonderful, smoky, salty, sweet, maple-y, peppery stick of goodness!   If you Google "Candied Bacon" there are a bunch of different ways people make it and I combined a few.  I basically brushed the bacon with maple syrup, dredged it through some brown sugar and then did a few grinds of fresh, cracked pepper over the top and baked it on a rack set over a foil-lined baking sheet for about 30 minutes @ 350 F.

And there you have it!