All the way back to....1978.  "Cookie Expert" at two years of age; not surprising then that I might make such an exciting gluten-free discovery at the age of 40, right?!?

These grahams are crunchy, tasty with a hint of coconut, and best of all I can make them for my friends who don't eat dairy or gluten and I enjoy them too. No cardboard and sawdust here!

​Anyway, I won't make you wait any longer for the recipe...Enjoy!

​Gluten and Dairy Free Graham Crackers

Ingredients
        1/4 cup coconut flour
        1/2 cup oat flour
        1/2 cup oat bran
        1/8 cup millet flour
        1/8 cup tapioca flour
        1/3 cup granulated sugar
        1/4 teaspoon baking powder
        1/4 teaspoon baking soda
        7 tablespoons cold Earth Balance Soy Free/Dairy Free Buttery Spread
        1 tablespoon honey
        1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Combine flours, bran, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl of your food processor and process until combined. Add the cold pieces of butter substitute and pulse until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add the honey and vanilla extract and pulse until the batter clumps together.

Scoop the dough out onto a piece of saran wrap, form dough into a flat rectangle, cover and refrigerate for about an hour to firm up.

**GF doughs are softer than wheat based doughs, so this refrigeration step is necessary unless you choose to try a spritz cookie press. I think it would work great and no refrigeration required. I'll try it and make a note when I get a chance.**

Once dough is firm, open up the saran wrap, leaving the dough in the center. Sprinkle with a small amount of millet or coconut flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking to it, and gently roll it out to a 1/4" thick rectangle on the saran wrap. Cut into 2" squares, but the dough will probably be soft again, so don't try lifting it from the saran wrap. Instead, lift the whole thing onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for another 15-20 minutes to firm up again. Remove from fridge and move the cookies one at a time to a cookie sheet, spaced at least 1/2" apart (they don't spread much.) Poke holes in each cookie with a toothpick or fork if you want--no biggie if you don't.

Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Gently transfer to a cooling rack--remember this dough is delicate. Once these cookies cool they are deliciously crunchy.

Makes approx. 24-30 two-inch square cookies.

p.s. I don't often write recipes down, so if you have questions ask me, I'm sure I can make up an answer. ;)

If you want to make Grahams with all the "bad stuff" here's the recipe:
All the Gluten Graham Crackers

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat and oat flour combined
1/2 cup all purpose flour and oat bran combined
1/4 cup  wheat bran
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1 tablespoon mild flavored honey
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

You use a total of 1 1/2 cups various flours for this recipe. Doesn't really matter the proportions, as long as you have a little wheat flour--and a higher proportion of oat flour and bran to the wheat yields a sweeter tastier cookie.
Follow the basic instructions above in the GF recipe, though you won't have to refrigerate the cut-out dough before transferring to a cookie sheet to bake. 

​It's been several years since I made this necklace, but due to ever-changing technology I was locked out of several years' worth of files. After getting some tech help I can finally tell you about it. (I've saved up several blogs to share and now that I have images, I'll be posting more often.)

​I was commissioned to make a suite of jewelry based on the feathers of a beloved pet. Sparky is a beautiful Pionus parrot who "sparked" (pardon the pun) a whole new set of ideas for me.

Of course, when I made the Sparky necklace, I thought how amazing an entire collar of feathers would look, so decided to figure out the engineering of such a piece and jumped in. With so much weight in the front, I added a counterweight to the back, which is removable and adjustable. The necklace may be worn all together, or for daily wear the counterweight may be removed and worn on its own as a pendant. With matching earrings, of course. 

My color inspiration came from the feathers of a red and green macaw:

I commissioned Karen Healy, a local box maker, to create a Shaker-style bentwood box for it: 

As featured on the cover of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads catalogue: