Gluten-less Success/ Protect Your Applesauce!

I know I already told you about how I'm baking for my cousin's wedding next month, and how the cupcakes have to be free of most every ingredient I normally use due to allergies and whatnots, but I wanted to tell you all about my success! I changed the recipe a lot, by adding pumpkin to the batter, because, pumpkin, you know? And it came out perfect. I also added a ton of maple syrup to the batter too. It couldn't have hurt. It just couldn't have.

I will withhold my recipe until it is totally finished, because I'm still checking with her to see if soy is in or if it's out. If it's in, well, we got ourselves a recipe. If soy's out, we'll need to hold tryouts. So if you're short-game is good, apply within.

Since it's vegan mofo, and more people than my mom are reading my blog, I thought I should post a tip on how to prevent bad things from happening to your prized possessions in your fridge. We all must be suffering from this. The health food store is too full of exciting new and huge jars of coveted vegan happiness that we buy them, and we buy many. They get opened, used once, and they sit in our fridges for a long time until we need them, many weeks later, and find sad discolored growths and crusts and all sorts of un-fun organisms on the surface of our once-prized jars of vegan love. Those jars are expensive, and it's just sad to see that happen. So I want to share a tip to show everyone how I help prevent this from happening to large jars or containers of easily-attacked condiments or products left in my fridge just a little too long.

Say you have a huge jar of organic applesauce that has no preservatives that you are going to use maybe 1/4 cup of at a time, once every other week. That jar is going to go bad if you don't do something about it. Now one could freeze it, but freezer space is precious real estate for me, and I don't really have the best track record for remembering to let things thaw ahead of time. Things also get lost and disappear in my freezer. I find them on moving day.

This method works well with things easily prone to bacteria, like organic applesauce, brown rice syrup and soy yogurt. Start by removing the lid from the jar or cup and wiping with a paper towel or clean cloth the inside of the lid, and the space above your applesauce and your lid. The bigger space, the more air and bacteria can affect your applesauce. If the space is too large, transfer the applesauce to a smaller container.

Tear a sheet of plastic wrap about 12" long. Lay it over the opening of your jar so that it's centered. Carefully push the plastic wrap to the surface of the applesauce so that the plastic wrap touches it and no air is accessible to the applesauce. Push the plastic wrap against the sides of the jar and allow the sides to overhang.

Like This! Now put the lid back on over the over hanging plastic so that the excess plastic hangs over the outside of the jar after sealed. It just keeps the air from affecting the applesauce and going bad. Air-tight! If anything gross starts growing on the inside of the jar, just remove the plastic wrap, wipe it away and replace with new wrap. Once too much space is between the lid and the sauce, transfer to a smaller container and use the same method.