GF/CF Praline Pumpkin Dessert & Cranberry Conserve

I adapted the following Praline Pumpkin Dessert recipe to be free of gluten and casein.

• I opened a 14-ounce can of coconut milk and skimmed off two ounces of the cream. I replaced the evaporated milk with the remaining twelve ounces of coconut milk.
• I did not have the buttery sticks that might have worked, and the nearest decent health food store is 75 miles away. Instead of 3/4 cup of butter, I tried the remaining two ounces of coconut cream and four ounces of vegetable shortening.
• I found the recipe too sweet the first time I made it, so I cut back the sugar to 3/4 cup.
• I did not have any yellow cake mix handy, so I substituted it with muffin mix.

My sister Pam has cut milk from her diet, and she tried the pecan praline dessert and raved at the taste. My daughter Pamela loved it, too. I found it equal in taste to the original, but the GF/CF version does not brown as nicely. Unfortunately, I took no pictures . . . maybe next time! By the way, everyone loved the gluten and casein packed version, too, and the only modification I made to that was lowering the sugar to 3/4 cups.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you I am not a great cook. I am a terrible cook as Pamela has attested. EVERYONE loved the Cranberry Conserve, which is GF/CF without any modifications! I did make the following changes:

• I was feeding a huge crowd of seventeen (that is huge for me). I tripled the recipe.
• Instead of using 4.5 cups of sugar (3 times 1.5 cups), I cut it back to 3 cups (which would be 1 cup per batch).
• Pamela used up all of my lemon juice, so I used 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar instead of 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

This conserve tastes wonderful on turkey as well as pork chops.