On the Subject of Food

Just got back from grocery shopping. Very tired now. Blueberry is down for a nap, I'm eating a rather late lunch, and decided to take a few moments to write.

I attempted price matching at WalMart today. It went rather well. Granted, I wasn't price matching a whole bunch of stuff, but the few items that I had to match went pretty smoothly. The only minor hiccup I had was when I gave them a catalina from Price Cutter for some almond milk. The lady didn't want to accept it at first, so I was going to go and pull out the WalMart policy and all that, but she called a manger over, and the manager told her it was just fine. Yay!

The advice I read on price matching was to put all the items you're going to price match on the belt at the end, so you can make sure you catch each item as it gets rung up. I also will be putting sticky notes on the items I am price matching (easier for me to find and check and for the cashier). You technically don't have to bring the ad in any more, but I did to be on the safe side and also so I could double check the ad.

I think I will probably do this once in awhile, but not all the time. As I've said before, WalMart is not my favorite place to shop, and they don't have the good meat sales that other stores do. Now price matching will kind of help that, but honestly, the best meal sales I get are the specially reduced items, and you can't price match something like that. However, for those weeks when I need stuff from WalMart already or even for the times when all the stores are having great sales all at the same time, this will be a decent solution.

In other food news. I did make Blueberry some baby food bread. Tried two recipes. The first one I wasn't to impressed with; although, I think if I made it with regular wheat flour instead of GF flour, it would come out better. I haven't tried gluten yet with Blueberry. We were actually going to try this week, but given the nasty diaper rash she's been getting over, I decided I better wait a few more days to make sure that's all cleared up first.

Any ways....recipes. The second recipe I tried came out beautifully. If you're interested, here's the two recipes.

Baby Cereal Cookies (GF/DF/Egg White free) - Variation on the actual recipe

• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup vegetable puree (jarred baby food) with a smidgen of oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup GF flour mix
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups infant cereal
• 6 Tbsp water
  

Mix together. Form the dough (it has a spongy texture) into little patties and place on a baking sheet. Bake 375 for 9-10 mins. Remove immediately onto cooling rack

BABY CARROT BREAD - Parenthesis are my notes/adjustments

3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I used GF)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 c. sugar (I used 3 jars of pureed applesauce/pears)
1 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 c. water (no water--not needed with the extra moisture from the baby food)
4 sm. jars of pureed carrots (baby food)
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. chopped nuts (left these out)
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 eggs, beaten (used 2 egg yolks - again, didn't need as much due to the added moisture above)
1 c. vegetable oil (no oil)

Sift together flour, soda, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Combine eggs, water, vegetable oil and baby food. Add to dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Fold in nuts. Pour batter into 2 well greased loaf pans or into several smaller sized loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Again, I was really pleased with how this one in particular came out. Very moist bread that holds together pretty well. And (depending on the day), Blueberry really likes it!

OK, break over. Must go be productive now.

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 16)

#1 - We woke up this morning to discover our mailbox decapitated and spread across the lawn. Fortunately, the executioners were very nice and put a note by our door saying sorry and explaining that they slid off the road and leaving their phone number. Sigh. Add it to the list of things to do. Hope they weren't too banged up by the experience as they slid straight into our rather deep ditch.

The Mailbox Before:


Poor Thing Didn't Know What Hit It:

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#2 - For the first time in quite awhile (over a year?), I think I'm glutined. Not 100% positive on the cause; however, I'm thinking it's the rice-cereal from WalMart. We are on WIC and one of the things you can buy is cereal. Normally I shop at Dillons and had tried their GF rice cereal and did great. Last time we went to WalMart and I got theirs. Pretty sure it's making me sick. Probably just cross-contamination (which they do warn about). Going to go off of that for awhile and see if it helps. I hate this feeling; general tiredness, headaches, muscle tension, upset stomach. Plus I'm now gunked up with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Not sure if it's in addition to feeling glutened, caused by the gluten, or just my immune system got shot down by an overload of cross-contamination. Either way--yuck. Living on hot water with honey and lemon right now. And a lot of quit-deao (Thai chicken noodle soup--the best food ever when feeling sick).

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#3 - After a foot of snow and then an additional few inches of snow, it's supposed to get to 50 this weekend. I can't wait! I'm so sick of winter. Global Warming.....really?

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#4 - I have health insurance again at long last. The week of the foot of snow, I literally didn't go anywhere for a week because my insurance didn't kick in and somehow it seemed like just begging the fates to get me by driving on roads that were poorly plowed in a city that freaks out and drives like maniacs when the weather report says that their might possibly in the near future be a flake or two of snow or ice or rain.

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#5 - Tried a new recipe for gluten free crumpets the other day. Yum! Very pleased with how they came out. Not quite the same texture as the traditional British crumpet that I love so very much. But still a really, really good bread. Am going to be making this one a lot more! I love light bread, and this definitely falls in that category. Recipe from Betty Hagman's The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods.

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#6 - Baby-led feeding (BLF) decision. For those who still don't know what this BLF thing is basically it's the idea of not pureeing, spoon feeding, flying food into your kids mouth but allowing your child to feed him/herself from the beginning of starting solids. As one web-site put it: "You just hand them the food in a suitably-sized piece and if they like it they eat it and if they don’t they won’t." (see Baby Led Weaning for a further, if brief, description of what it's all about).

For the most part I really like this concept. The general warning label that comes with it is that this is a messy experience, especially at the beginning. One website talked about preparing twice as much food as you think baby will eat. Half for flinging everywhere and half for consuming. In other words, you're letting your baby experience food, real food, play with it, learn how to handle it, swallow it on her own, reject it if she doesn't want it, etc.

After doing some reading and evaluating, I think I have a plan. Because I love plans. Even if the plan doesn't quite work out as I intend. As Eisenhower explained it: "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

There are two potential downfalls that quickly came to mind when I was looking at doing this over getting into the whole puree/airplane scene.

1. Learning to eat this way could take awhile. Now, for me, not a big deal. I want Blueberry to breastfeed for a good amount of time. But I know for some people getting baby off of milk and onto food is a priority--and this wouldn't be the fastest means of doing that.

2. Given both my food issues and Chris', I do have concerns about introducing some foods too early. And I want to watch out for combining foods too quickly and not being able to check for reactions, etc.

So, given that concern, basically I'm going to follow the general idea of baby-led feeding but introduce foods a little more carefully than what others following this idea might do. In essence, introduce foods one at a time more like people traditionally do with purees, but do it in more of the BLF style. Then as I know which foods we're doing okay with, mix it up a bit more. So far we've had avocado success and a very green mess! Pictures to be soon posted on My Life in Scraps.

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#7 - It's 9:20 and I'm still in my PJ's. Off to go make myself look marginally more presentable. Not planning on going anywhere though given the way I feel. But there's just something about being dressed and looking at least half-way decent that makes you feel better, at least it does me. Happy Friday to all!

Daybook - November 6 and 7, 2010

Outside my window...the leaves are almost all gone from our lovely red tree. It's brilliant sunshine out; however, it appears warmer than it actually is. Friday, the high was in the 40's! We're supposed to warm up the next few days and then plunge back into cooler weather again. Boo hiss! On a happy note, boots are now in season again!

I am thinking...that I'm not really sure what happened to 2010. It's November already, and this fact is puzzling me. It seems like just yesterday that it was November 2009 and a hope that I had was only still a dream--and is now reality.

I am thankful for...a husband who cleaned up diapers, and ran the dishwasher for me last night while I went to bed super early with Blueberry. And then who took her this morning so I could sleep in.

From the learning rooms...[or in our case--the learning brain]...Blueberry is discovering her thumb (sometimes confused with her entire fist). She is also, apparently, beginning to teeth. This has made for a few fussy days. How long does teething last? Her little brain is working all day long, every day. The other day, when Skyping my parents, we could see her really registering their images as being peopleish. That was definitely a first and rather fun! Oh, and she is discovering the charms of the squeal. Most entertaining.

From the kitchen...comes a successful GF adventure! Growing up, one of my family's favorite meals was Navajo Tacos (sometimes called Indian Fry Bread). I've tried to make GF Fry Bread before and not been happy with the results. Edible but quite dense. I'm so proud of myself as I figured out what a good flour mix would be to make the Fry Bread better, and it worked! Really good tasting bread (confirmed by my brother and sister and sister-in-law: non GF eaters, and two individuals who also grew up eating Fry Bread on a regular basis--that's always the test is if someone who doesn't have to eat GF likes the GF goods). Experimentation success! Give self pat on the back.

I am wearing...jeans and a new nursing sweatshirt. I needed some clothes more conducive to breastfeeding on the go, so with my husband's blessing, I spent a bit of money and got three nice tops that should help that area. Very cute and functional.

I am creating...plans and dreams for the next few months. Thanksgiving (to Austin--can't wait to meet the newest little cousin and of course spend some time playing with other cousins and catching up with a wonderful Aunt and Uncle--also, first long car ride with the Blueberry, could be interesting), Christmas (to Arizona--first airplane ride with the Blueberry), and then hopefully a trip in the spring back to Arizona. Why all the trips to Arizona? My APs are currently residing in the big city of Phoenix (Sun City to be more exact) for this year, teaching at the Native American Bible College there. They live very close to Chris' grandparents, so we're hoping that the spring trip we can coordinate seeing them as well.

I am going...to shop at our new Price Cutters tomorrow. Very excited about this store. It is super close (which we have a Dillons and a WalMart that aren't horrifically far away from us, but still a good 10 minute drive). Close, as in, maybe a two or three minute drive. If it weren't for the rather large road to be crossed, it would be easy biking/walking distance. And when Blueberry and I briefly stopped in on Friday, we found it has a fantastic GF section! And, just to make me even happier, they have some international sections in which the UK section had this delightful drink that I've always loved drinking whenever in England--Ribena. Bit expensive, but a fun treat.

I am reading.. .The Little Prince (not done yet) and The Hermit of Eyton Forest (new author for me--Ellis Peters; mystery series set in medieval England--enjoyed the first one I read, now to go back and start at the beginning of the series!)

I am hoping...to continue on this (apparently) better nap pattern for Blueberry this next week. Been reading information on baby sleep patterns and I realized that I've not been catching her early enough during the day to get her to lay down for a nap before her second wind kicks in. So far it has been successful, or at least more successful. So that's been a blessing.

I am hearing...the chatter of my silly little daughter. She really is a very social girl! Must take a break to have a conversation with her. Makes Chris laugh at us.

Around the house...my piles are still in existence. This last week was not very helpful towards tackling them. In truth, it was a rough week. Not entirely sure why. Teething baby definitely had something to do with it. And, I guess we did have a lot going on. Had MOPS on Tuesday morning, then I had to go into work to get my "Blue folder" during work chapel (certificate they give to people who are leaving, marking how long they've worked at the university). Thursday was dance (I was so tired, I will admit to having to leave a bit early), and Friday we left Blueberry with a wonderful babysitter while we went to see TSO. Made for a very, very late night, and Saturday was a very sleepy day around here.

One of my favorite things...baths. I love hot baths. My talented brother is supposed to be installing a new (and much needed) hot water heater soon, and I'm looking forward to being able to take a long bath again. Our current water is ok during the summer, but as soon as it gets the tinsiest bit cold around here, our access to hot water diminishes rapidly. Most frustrating.

On a side note of baths--Blueberry apparently takes after her mother and also loves baths. Loves them so much that if you really want her to throw a good temper tantrum, take her out of the bath!

A few plans for the rest of the week: Well, as it is Sunday, I'm looking at this next week. Need to go grocery shopping. Still working out my insurance. Have to take Blueberry for a shot on Friday (boo). Don't have much in the way of plans beyond that. At least, not plans outside of the house. Around home--clean! Put away piles! Start working on Christmas presents/cards. And play with my ever-charming daughter.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...


Want to join in? Go check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

It's Been a Chocolaty Sort of Week

One of our local health-food stores had a gluten free food tasting yesterday. I always like going when they have these because even though, at this point, many of the brands are ones I've tried, there's always at least a few things that are new.

And yesterday the heavens opened, the clouds parted (if you've been around this town for the last week the significance of that statement will make more sense!), and I had the delight of sampling (and perhaps buying....) a chocolate bar.

Why is this worth blogging about? Because for the last few years, I've found one brand that carries chocolate in bars (or as chocolate chunks at all, for that matter) that does not also have soy in it. ONE! Enjoy Life is a fantastic brand. I know I've raved about them before. And they have helped make GF/soy free living bearable by offering such little things as chocolate with no soy hiding in it.

But yesterday they just found a rival. A very tasty rival. A GF/soy free rival.

Meet: Alter Eco.

I've had a piece of the dark chocolate quinoa and the dark velvet chocolate. Really hope the store will get in the dark mint and the dark twist as they both look really yummy too.

Just had to share in the continued adventures of my chocolaty week.

I think I've Died and Gone to Chocolate Heaven

So I just had a piece of chocolate, GF cheesecake that a friend of mine has decided to attempt making for a baby shower I'm having at work in a few weeks. She wanted to attempt making it once before the shower (a) to make sure it didn't inadvertently make me sick (wrong ingredient or some such) and (b) to make sure it actually came out ok.

Still checking on the "is it going to make me sick" part, but the coming out OK part....oh my goodness...Death by Chocolate would be a perfectly appropriate name for this concoction of chocolaty yumminess. And that's just the base of the cheesecake! If she made the whole thing (which we've decided would be too much), it would be a serious chocolate heart attack.

Here's a link to the recipe on the Living Without magazine website: Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake.

She's going to leave off the two layers of chocolate ganache as there is an incredible amount of chocolaty goodness just in the base and basic cheesecake part itself!

Updates in Gluten Free Foods

So I've met with a few more pre-packaged GF/SF products the last few months that I was really impressed with. Thought I'd throw them up here for thecurious.

1. Hillery introduced me to a succulent item that is melt-in-your-mouth light and delicious. Pamela's is a GF company. Now for some reason her prebaked cookies and such items make me sick--never have been able to figure out why because the ingredient list is fine (and some of them have soy in them which is obviously a problem). So I never bothered trying her baking mixes because I was concerning about getting sick from them. Then Hillery made me scones using one of Pamela's mixes. And I didn't get sick. And they are amazingly good. For the curious or likewise GF, here's a link to the website. Pamela's mixes are pretty common at most places you can buy GF mixes (including some of our Walmart's now!).

2. On a whim, I decided to try a frozen burrito I ran across at one of our health food stores. Yummmy. There are various options for these, and a few do have soy in them, but the one I had is by a company I'd never heard of before--glutenFreeda. It's their Vegetarian Bean & Cheese burrito.
In looking at some of their other products, I believe I've seen their granola around in a few stores. Maybe I'll try that one of these days--although I really do just want to find a good granola recipe that I can make for myself. Suggestions anyone? Doesn't have to be GF. I can adapt and modify.

3. This one is kind of funny, but I'll admit to it. For whatever reason, I am a sometimes-fan of fish sticks (and apparently this might be one of Blueberry's to-be loves given the times I've really wanted this the last few months). I ran across Ian's fish sticks the other day. And they are fantastic! Not cheap, but I do get at least three or four meals out of a box, so they're not radically expensive either. And if you're craving fish sticks and you can't have normal ones--these are perfect!

4. I know I mentioned it in an earlier Quick Takes post, but I made them again and they are so yummy, I thought I'd throw it in with this list. The GF cinnamon rolls recipe I found is yummy. And really easy (for a cinnamon roll). In fact (sorry Mummy dearest), my husband actually likes my GF cinnamon rolls better than he liked my old cinnamon roll recipe! One of the things I really love about this recipe is how it tastes almost like a wheat bread. The only flours used in it is corn starch and sorghum--and sorghum definitely has that wheat texture to it. She has a post that replaces half of the sorghum with half millet and I really want to try that as she said her family gave her the vote of approval (always an important vote to have), and she really likes them.

5. And in a grand finale--I think I've got another restaurant I can eat at! Going to have to try it out a few more times (when I can afford to get sick) to really be sure, but so far, so good. I've been hearing a lot of people rave about the Yum Yum Bowl here. Chinese food but they make it fresh. Seems to be a step up from your usual chinese restaurant (which, in this town, there are so many of). Because they make it fresh and are willing to work with what you can/can't eat, but it's also relatively basic options, a few people suggested that I might be able to eat there. Last Friday we tried it out and had success! Like I said, I'll want to approach it with caution a few more times, just in case they turn out to not be quite as careful as they did this last time, but so far so good.

So there you have it. A more recent list into my GF experiments.

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 12)

1. Springfield weather is once again proving it deserves the crazy reputation it has. Last Sunday was my birthday. And the weather was beautiful. Best weather we've had in months. Upper 60's, sunny, bright, light wind. Gorgeous all around. And today, as I get ready for work, the weather report comes on the radio. Cold, wet, and oh, by the way, we might have snow tonight.

Snow? Seriously?

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2. We have started the actual crazy process of doing the grand swap in two rooms of our house. Our current guest room is becoming our new study and our old study is becoming Blueberry's room. We decided, because it is a complicated process, to do it stages.

So last weekend we had four very wonderful people come over for a painting party who helped us move out all the furniture in the new study and Spackle/paint it. Nothing super exciting color-wise in that room--just an off-white very similar to what we already had. My brother will be coming soon to put in carpet into that room, and then will start the process of transferring furniture/belongings from the old study to the new study.

Next weekend, we will have second painting party and will tackle the painting (and large furniture moving) of the new nursery. Once that's been painted, my brother will come back in again and put the new carpet into that room and then, short of actually getting furniture for Blueberry, the major renovations should (hopefully!) be done.

Yay progress!

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3. I have survived (and by survived I mean caved in to) my first actual pregnancy craving. Last weekend, along with trying to paint rooms, direct furniture moving, etc, I was obsessed with cinnamon rolls. I actually have a recipe that I've been wanting to try for awhile (read about a year) for GF cinnamon rolls, so Friday night, I decided that I would just make some and get it over with.

Being a, sometimes, sensible cook, I checked my ingredients first. And discovered--to my dismay--that I was nearly out of Xantham gum. Being tired, I didn't think to actually measure the amount left, I could just tell I didn't have enough to make the recipe. Well, I woke up the next morning still craving cinnamon rolls. So I finally measured the amount of xantham gum left--perfect for half a recipe!

Craving became shortly satisfied with delicious succulence. Taste slightly like whole-wheat cinnamon rolls because they're made with sorghum flour, but still gooey and delicious in every good way.

For those of you who like GF recipes, go to Gluten Free Homemaker's blog for the recipe.

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4. Interestingly enough (well, ok, I think it's interesting, you might just think I'm a weird obsessed, pregnant woman), Blueberry seems to be a big bread fan. I'm not normally a big bread eater. Normally, I can bake one loaf of bread, slice it, freeze the slices, and it'll last me a month or more. I can do the same thing with muffins and unless my husband gets his hands on them, they last for ages. But the last few months, I've really been into bread a lot. And it's not just carbs in general but actual breads. I guess we'll find out for sure in the long-run, but that's just my observation so far.

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5. The stretch marks have begun. And worse than the stretch marks, itchy skin has settled in. I hate itchy skin with a passion. So after doing some reading, the most popular recommendation I could find for both was cocoa butter. So I picked some up the other day, and thus far it's working really well, at least in terms of making my skin stop itching. We'll see the long-term results on the stretch-marks (not holding out much hope there).

Cocoa butter is a very weird substance. First of all, it's edible (listed that way on the jar!) because at least this particular jar that I bought is literally 100% cocoa butter. No, I have not tried some. But I did find that amusing considering it's sold in the beauty section!

Second, it's very, very hard. The way to use it is to either dig some out and melt it in the microwave or immerse the whole tub in warm water for several minutes or rub it between your palms until it softens enough to spread elsewhere. Personally, I've used the microwave method with the most success thus far.

Third, it leaves you smelling like, well, chocolate!

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6. Betting on Baby Blueberry: Next week, Wednesday, 1:15ish is our first ultrasound. Assuming Blueberry cooperates, we will find out whether s/he is a she or a he. Place your bets now and no coming back to me later and saying, "Oh I thought it was a ____ (insert male/female gender of your choice here). I'm pretty good guesser on these things, you know."

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7. Just for grins and giggles

My husband:

My general attitude towards work lately:

Wonder of Wonders

So I break my long blogging silence to make an exciting announcement! I have found (ok, ok, Hillery has found) gluten free crackers that taste like, well, crackers! This shouldn't be such a huge deal; however, the reality is that the lack of good crackers has been one of my biggest gluten free diet irritants. How hard can it be to make a good gluten free cracker? One would think, not hard. But apparently, it's near impossible. Until Glutino. Dear, sweet Glutino with their nummy crackers. All is now well in the cracker kingdom.

Living Without

In my gluten free journey of the last few years, I've found (and been given--thank you to many individuals!) various resources to help me out. Obviously the major resource has been desperately needed recipes or information on food and what is GF and what is not.

Earlier this year I was given a few magazines called Living Without, and I just wanted to say that if you have food allergies/intolerances, have to live with someone who does, or just want to find out more about how you can help your friends/family dealing with this, this is a great magazine to read. (I've since got my own subscription). And it is fast becoming one of my favorite resources in my GF life.

Every issue is full of recipes (obviously) but also tips on living, well, without. If you're intolerant to dairy, what can you use to replace the dairy that is called for in recipes? How do you travel with food intolerances? As a parent, how do you handle school situations for your child with intolerances. Are you getting enough vitamins in your system if you are avoiding an entire food group? How do you fix it if you aren't. And of course there are multiple articles on the latest tests, drugs, and other health related factors.

All the recipes I have tried have been great. The latest one I tried last night was Chocolate, Banana, Zucchini Bread (need a way to shorten that title--Chocobazubi Bread? hmmm...will have to work on that). Any ways, yum. very yum.

So they're obviously a great resource for getting recipes that are pretty high on the list of "not going to flop." And as they do things seasonally, finding recipes for upcoming events/holidays is obviously made a lot easier.

So, this is my unsolicited endorsement of this magazine.

New recipes

I know, I know, I just haven't been around much lately, have I? The sun has finally come out, the rain has finally gone away for longer than one day, and add into that all the weddings, etc, and I've just not been in a bloggy sort of mode!

However, I did want to take a few minutes to share some of my new food ventures. Because they've just been fun!

First off, last weekend, I had a couple of cups of cream that were about to go bad. So I decided to make butter. I've wanted to for awhile. And it was fun! I just dumped the cream in the food processor and then let it run for about 10 minutes. First it went thick (like cream does when it's beaten), and then it thinned back out again to a liquid, and then all of the sudden out of nowhere, I had butter floating around!

After running water through the butter and squeezing all the buttermilk out of it, I flavored it with some herbs. And it tastes really, really good!

Well, that apparently was enough to kick-start me back into a new recipes cooking mode.

Hillery had actually tried out one of Betty Hagmen's bread recipes (Light Graham Bread) that turned out really, really tasty. It's made with Teff (one of my absolute favorites out of all the new flours I've been playing with). Since I liked it so much, I decided to make it. Again, it turned out tasty. However, it also split in half coming out of the pan (don't ask, I don't know), and so was a bit of a disaster because it's really hard to toast bread that's, well, shapeless. And try to make a sandwich with it? Not so much. However, in terms of taste/texture - it was great! Now to just get it to come out as a loaf.....

This weekend, to continue to new recipe trend, I decided to try making Pita Bread. I found three different recipes, tried the one that seemed most compatible with the ingredients I already had on hand, and it was DELICIOUS (and surprisingly simple)! Next time I'm going to definitely double or triple the recipe, make a whole bunch, and then freeze the rest so I'll have some for quite awhile. If you want to try, here's the recipe I made thanks to Gluten Free Gobsmacked.

If you're trying it, I did make a few substitutions. Instead of amaranth flour, I used Quinoa flour (very interchangeable flours), and as I didn't have any almond meal, I used Teff (told you I love the stuff!) instead.

And then finally, my last venture this past weekend was a bit unexpected. It was a warm day, and I wanted something light and refreshing to drink. But I didn't want juice. I looked up recipes for milkshakes (which I'll totally be trying sometime!), but was missing a few essential ingredients for those. And then I remembered. A few months ago, I had researched and tucked away for future reference several recipes to make Sweet Lassi (for those unfamiliar with Lassi, it is a yogurt-based, Indian drink; goes excellently with curries and other spicy food; very cool, light, and refreshing. A lot of people like the mango version, but I personally favor just plain, ol' sweet Lassi). Fortunately, I had everything on hand, so I whipped it up in the blender. PERFECT!

Some of the versions I found recommended lemon juice as well. I might try adding some of that next time and see how it goes.

Here's the recipe for that (I'd tell you where I got it from, but, to be honest, I don't remember!).

Sweet Lassi - Serves 2 (12 oz each) or 3 (8 oz each)
2 cups plain low fat yogurt
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
6 ice cubes

Combine the yogurt with the water, sugar, and cardamom in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add the ice cubes and blend until they are completely incorporated.

Eating out

Well, I owe both restaurants an apology. Sort of. They're not just open during the day. They just both happened to be closed on Mondays. Which means, last night, I went and had shrimp, fettucini alfredo for dinner. And I didn't have to make it. And I didn't stress about what was in it. And it was really, really good! And I ordered a pizza to take with me for lunch today, and it smells amazing at least (and I'm guessing probably tastes pretty good too, but I'll find out that later!).

If you're in Dallas, need gluten free food, the two restaurants I've found are here: Laura's Bistro (where I ate last night--seriously, even if you can have gluten, it was great food!) and the Kozy Kitchen (where I haven't eaten yet, but I'll let you know what I think when I do!).

Well, so far, it's been a quiet trip. My training is good if very intensive. One of those...."there's too much information and I think my head is going to explode keeping it all straight" sort of intensives. And it's been a bit depressing too because I've realized exactly how screwed up the system that we're using at work is! How to untangle that mess?

All right. I'm off for another day of brain exploding information. Wish me luck (or buy me a mop).

GF Cooking Forays

My life has settled into a regular pattern of experimenting with food, trying new recipes, and all in all becoming far more adventurous (and in many ways, I think, more skilled) in the kitchen than I ever used to be.

Some of my newest attempts (and some brief reviews) are below:

• Kefir is my new found love in the dairy food line. For those unfamiliar with what Kefir actually is, check out these explanations here and here. In general, it tastes like yoghurt (though is much runnier - definitely a drink). It makes fantastic smoothies (it's what I use for all of our smoothies now), and is really easy to make (once you have the starter). Of all the things I've been introduced to in the last year, this is definitely on the list of top three good ones!
• For my birthday, Hillery bought me a waffle maker. I've never had a waffle maker before. She seemed to feel this was a great deprivation I was living under, and so very kindly procured me one. As she is also on a GF quest in her life, and I like to share birthday presents when possible, last week, she and I got together and we made waffles. Three kinds of waffles: Belgian Waffles, Quinoa Waffles, and Gingerbread Waffles. The first recipe for the Belgian Waffles came from The Gluten-Free Homemaker. Sad to say, we were not impressed with this recipe. The other two recipes came from Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods. Both were excellent; although, the Gingerbread Waffles were very much more of a desert than a breakfast item--I felt. Excellent when smothered in cream cheese and strawberries!
• Shrimp Frittata was my latest attempt of last night. This one came from my faithful Susan O'Brien cookbook. It was....okay. Not bad. Not great. I won't make it again because there are enough other good recipes out there that I truly love, that it's not worth it for me to remake an "eh" sort of one.
• Another new attempt though, also from Susan's book, was Creamy Pesto Pasta. Sort of an Alfredo. Really good! Definitely a keeper for future meals.

Soups: I've been trying to expand my repertoire of soups lately. I've discovered soups to be something I find quite challenging. Logically, they shouldn't be that hard. But for some reason, finding a recipe for a truly delicious soup, has proved to be surprisingly hard. Below are some of my attempts in this category:

• Butternut Squash Soup. Not a good result. Perhaps if I liked squash more this one would have tasted better? It's like oatmeal. I want to like squash, I really do. I think they look good, smell amazing, and then I eat them and my stomach turns. It's very sad. I do like spaghetti squash and zucchini, though. So at least squash is not a total loss.
• White Bean Stew - This one I liked. Chris said he could eat it once he added chicken. Not a bean person. Which is very sad because they're cheap and good for you, but if you have to add in meat to make them palatable--you take away the whole cheap side! (Susan O'Brien strikes again)
• French Onion Soup: This was my most recent attempt. And it turned out good. Really good. Good enough that I will double the recipe the next time I make this because it was that tasty!

Fish has also been a newer area for me to explore. I've tried fish in the past, and I found one recipe that both Chris and I liked tolerably well. And then we got food poisoning, and since then, making fish has been disastrous. However, over Christmas we had some fish which we both enjoyed and didn't feel ill from (totally psychological that part!), so I decided to start attempting more fish recipes again. And I've had a couple of successes (although I can't remember the technical name of either recipe; they do both come from Susan O'Brien--sensing a theme here?).

• The first one I tried was basically a grilled fish smothered in a pesto sauce. I love pesto. I'm beginning to make a lot of things with pesto!
• The second one I've attempted is roasted salmon baked with red onions. Delectable! (although it does not mix well with Greek lettuce wraps!).

I'm going to attempt a new recipe tonight. Basically I've realized that most of my Thai curry pastes are not, at the very least, soy free and are often not gluten free. And so I'm embarking on the challenge of learning to cook Thai food entirely from scratch and not cheating with a pre-packaged paste. And since I'm all about diving headlong into these things, I'm going to attempt a potentially hard dish (in terms of Thai food): Tom Khai Gai - a creamy, coconut chicken soup. One of my favorite Thai dishes ever.

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 5)

#1 - I learned about something new this week that I thought was pretty cool! As I have delved into the world of gluten free living, I believe I've mentioned in the past that I've found a lot of the best prices on goods (particularly pastas and flours) to be on Amazon (especially if I buy in bulk). Well, as I was stocking up on some supplies this past weekend, I ran across a brand new program through Amazon that I had never heard of before, and it made me pretty happy! Perhaps you know about it, but I thought I'd share in case you'd never heard of it either. It's called: Subscribe and Save.

Basically, Amazon has certain items available under this program that, if you know you're going to order them regularly, Amazon will give you an even lower price on, always give you free shipping for, and which they will then regularly deliver to you every few months (you specify the time) without you having to do anything more. And you can cancel the subscription whenever without any fees or anything. For someone like me, this is a brilliant program because there are things that I know I'm going to be ordering semi-regularly, and this gives me an even lower cost and saves me some hassle! I love it!

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#2 - As I pulled out my bike a few days ago, I was startled by a bunny zooming by me at top speed to hide in the bushes at the edge of our yard. There is a family of bunnies that live under our neighbours shed. I've decided they are slight dare-devils as they seem to revel in playing in our backyard, always risking being caught by the dogs!

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#3 - On the subject of bunnies, it's turning into Springtime, and the ants have begun marching two by two through our house. And while they are annoying, what is even more annoying (for me) is that the spiders have begun appearing again one by one in our mail box. Now, as I've had several discussions on this topic, you no doubt know that I love getting mail. Checking my mail box every day is something I love to do.

I do NOT, however, enjoy the dreaded experience of opening up the mail box and finding a big, fat, ugly spider sitting inside or crawling frantically away from me. BLEAGH! Takes away some of my mail box pleasure. And that, my friends, is just not right. They need to go find somewhere else to live and quit pestering me.

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#4 - Our Netflix movie last week was "The Red Violin." Now, first things first, this is an "R" movie, so please do not let your kids watch this movie. It's "R" primarily for one series of scenes with some sex in it. Just had to give the warnings!

Having said that, this is a very interesting movie. This fictional story follows the life of a violin - a Red Violin (based off of the Red Mendelssohn currently being played by Elizabeth Pitcairn). It's fascinating because at the beginning of the movie, a woman has her fortune read to her, and you think that what you're seeing is how that fortune plays out for her. Except it's actually the fortune of the violin. The entire movie follows the path the violin takes for about 200 years of history. It travels to a number of countries, and, because it's supposed to be a nearly perfect instrument, the violin gets picked up by all sorts of interesting characters from monks in Austria to virtuosos in England, to Western music lovers in Communist China.

And the sound track is really beautiful (if slightly haunting sounding).

This is actually the second time I've seen this movie. The first time was about 9 years ago, and I remembered liking it but wanted to see it again (you know how your tastes change or what struck you as good initially you can watch again and despise!). Still like it, want the sound track, but please keep in mind the R rating!

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#5 - Green Smoothies: I make smoothies a lot of mornings for breakfast for both Christopher and I. Last week I tried something new. The resulting email conversation last week went something like this:

Me: So how was your smoothie?

Husband: Not as good as usual. It had a slightly odd aftertaste and there was weird green bits floating in it.

Me: Oh darn. I was hoping you wouldn't notice! I wanted to try a Green Smoothie and get some extra vegetables in and so threw in some spinach. I liked it.

Husband: Cheeky!

Well, cheeky or not, I kind of liked my Green Smoothie and fully intend to keep throwing the spinach in on my half of the smoothie at least. If you like smoothies and are trying to figure out ways to get those extra servings of vegetables into your life, try it. If you're not anti-green bits like some people are, you might really enjoy it! (I love you husband of mine).

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#6 - I am intrigued by a new concept (my husband is groaning as he reads this). This past week, I can't remember originating from where, I came across the concept of Square Foot Gardening. I'm not a good gardener. I like gardens, I really do. But green things seem to die when I'm around them. But I would like to have a garden. I wonder if this is something I could manage? I've also thought of maybe starting with something like the ideas found on the Better Homes and Gardens website for "Simple Salad Gardens".

From those who can actually garden without killing things - thoughts?

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#7 - This makes me laugh (has for years now) and is a picture that I regularly rotate in as the background for my computer. Right now, it feels like my job in a nutshell. And it goes along with the Spring theme of late. So I thought I would share.

Pancake Tuesday and a Happy New Year to all!

Are you confused? Allow me to elucidate.

It's Shrove Tuesday today and although we are not having any pancake races we are still having crepes for dinner (have I told you about my amazing gluten free crepe recipe? Because if I haven't...let me just say that it is phenomenal and if you didn't know that they were GF, you never would know! Again, thank you Susan O'Brien. But I digress...). Although Shrove Tuesday officially marks the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent - more on that tomorrow - for my personal calendar I'm labeling it New Years. At least for 2009.

You see, I'm not quite sure what happened to the first two months of this year. They've just kind of...well...vanished. I feel like I skipped from the end of 2008 to the last few days of February 2009 and just missed the entire month of January and the first two-thirds of February. So, I decided that this is officially going to be the beginning of my year...I guess you could call tonight my New Year's Eve...because, frankly, I can't catch up. So, rather than trying to kill myself in a vain attempt to catch up and thus probably getting farther and farther behind all year...I'm instead just going to start where I'm at with my own fresh New Year.

So, happy pancakes and an even happier new year to you!

More on the traditional New Years Resolutions later because, after all, what is a New Year without resolutions?!

Crockpots

So, I just wanted to throw out there the name of a blog that I ran across a few months ago: A Year of Crockpotting. Stephanie made it her mission last year to literally do one full year of crockpot recipes. And her daughter is on a gluten free diet - which makes it doubly useful for me. Seriously, if you ever want to find a recipe for the crockpot...this is site!

Susan O'Brien

is my new favorite chef/creator of cookbooks. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about the new pizza crust recipe I had found that is really good (see Pizza Success! blog here) that I had bought myself three GF books as a self Christmas present. One of these books is called Gluten-free, Sugar-free Cooking: Over 200 Delicious Recipes to Help You Live a Healthier, Allergy-Free Life.

If you are ever looking for a really good cookbook that is gluten free, sugar free, and really, really good - I would recommend this one.

Now, I will admit, she doesn't have a lot of baked goods in this cookbook. Primarily because she really does focus on healthy eating in addition to good eating. And let's face it folks, a lot of baked goods really don't fall into the healthy eating category! However, she does have some desserts and some baked goods.

If I have one complaint against her it's that she doesn't address using Stevia at all as a sugar replacement - and that's something I want to learn more about. But that aside, her recipes are fantastic. It has gotten to the point that I'm willing to try any of her recipes without hesitation just because they are all so good.

Some of my favorites?

• crepes (you seriously cannot tell that these are GF crepes)
• O'Brien Family Spaghetti Sauce (I have really struggled with finding a top-notch spaghetti sauce recipe - this one is it. Hands down, this is probably the best spaghetti sauce I've ever eaten)
• her hummus recipe is very tasty and very simple
• the Basil Chicken Curry is going to become a regular part of our dining experience
• her Mexican Rice recipe is also really good

So, if you're looking for a really good and healthy cookbook - whether or not you are with the GF crowd - this one is definitely a good pick.

(Just an afterthought: While I was researching cookbooks, I ran across so many people who get really upset if there aren't a lot of pictures in a recipe book. For me, that is not a big deal...but, if you are one of those people who want pictures - this is not the book for you. There is only one picture in the book and that is the front cover. Just had to add that for the sake of transparency!)

Pasta Carbonera

I was 16 when we went to England for the summer and an aunt and uncle of mine took us to Italy - Venice and Verona. Somewhere in the Dolomite mountains, I had this disgusting unhealthy and incredibly tasty dish called Pasta Carbonera.


I ran across the recipe for this the other day and decided I had better try and make it. And it's just as yummy as I remember it. And having a better knowledge of calories, it's even more unhealthy. But well worth every tasty bite!



1 pound of spaghetti, cooked al dente

1/2 pound bacon

1 medium onion, minced

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp fresh basil or sage leaves, chopped fine.

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste


Cook the spaghetti, draining and setting aside when done.


While the spaghetti cooks, chop bacon into 1/2 inch chunks and cook in a heavy skillet until nicely crispy. As you are waiting for the bacon to cook, mince the onion very finely, chop the sage or basil and peel the garlic. Once the basic is crispy, remove it from the pan and set aside in a small bowl.


Do not dump out the bacon drippings because that's where this recipe gets it flavor. In the pan with the bacon drippings, cook the minced onion, sage or basil, and garlic over medium heat until the onion is soft.


Add the hot pasta and toss well. Crack the two eggs into a small bowl and whisk well. Pour the eggs over the pasta, stirring the pasta quickly so that the eggs coat the pasta as evenly as possible.


Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fourless Chocolate Torte - delictable chocaltiness for chocolate lovers!

I - well, Amber, discovered for me - this recipe a few months ago. And I felt that it was high time I shared it. Very rich and very tasty! And Gluten Free (well, gluten free if you use gluten free chocolate - and in my case - soy free!).

8oz GF chocolate (semi or bitter sweet or a mix)

3 oz butter

1 1/4 c. sugar

5 eggs

Grease a 9" pan. Line with waxed paper or parchment and grease paper (and do be sure you grease it well or steel yourself to eat parchment paper!).

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Add butter and stir until melted and blended. Set it aside and let it cool to lukewarm (has to be cool so the eggs don't cook).

While it cools, put water on to boil. This will form a water bath for the pan to sit in.

Add the sugar to the chocolate and stir. Beat the eggs until foamy (the foamier the better) and then add to the chocolate. Beat until just blended.

Pour the chocolate into the papered pan. Pour boiling water into a pan large enough to hold the torte pan. Set the torte pan in the water bath.

Bake at 350F for 90 minutes.

Remove from the water bath and let cool to room temperature. Chill for two hours (or if at this point the smell is amazing and driving you crazy, freezer it for 45 minutes!).

Loosen the sides with a wet knife and invert the torte right side up onto a serving pan.

Decorate with berries, if desired, or sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar, or puree 1/2 pint of berries with 1 tbsp of sugar to make a drizzle for the top of the plate.

And melt into delectable tastiness!

Pizza Success!

Well, it's a second day of snow days...how wonderful! And since I had the time, I decided to tackle (again) making my own GF pizza. I've attempted pizza a couple of times in the past and it's come out...good. Not as amazing as I originally thought (see post here: http://ouphgirl.blogspot.com/2008/07/tastiness.html), and actually, somewhat disastrous the second time I attempted it. However, it was edible and for someone really missing "normal" food - that's what I cared about. However, as my GF cooking skills have grown, I've found I've become a bit pickier about what I'm eating and a bit more demanding in the quality of what I'm making.

Well, I've had success! Over Christmas I bought myself a present of three new GF cookbooks. One of these by Bette Hagman is called The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods. Now, please understand, if you're ever looking for healthy GF cooking, this is not it. The book is healthy in terms of not using all the processed garbage of today but not healthy in terms of calorie count or such. That's not her goal in this book; her goal is to provide recipes for all the "normal" food that so often is hard to get. It's not a weight loss recipe book or any such, it's just normal foods adapted for a GF diet.


And with that goal - she succeeds nicely. Especially with the pizza!



The end result was a slightly seasoned, thick crust (but one that cooked properly without being burnt on the outside and gooshie in the middle) pizza. And a really nice pizza sauce recipe (here) that I found on allrecipes.com. The only changes I made was to leave out the red peppers and to put the amount of honey down to 1tsp instead of 2tbsp. I was pleased with the change as the sauce definitely has a sweet taste to it and in fact, I might leave the honey out completely next time and see how that tastes.


The recipe made enough dough for two pizzas, so I'll be freezing one of them and in the future will probably not put sauce or anything on the second crust but just freeze the crust after the initial ten minutes of cooking and then put toppings on it later when I want it and see how that comes out.


All in all, I'm just glad I finally feel that I have a good pizza that I can count on making (because my frugal nature really has balked at buying the GF pizza crusts available at the health food stores - for the low, low price of $5 just for the crust).

Yoghurt Success

A few weeks ago I attempted making yoghurt. I've always been a huge yoghurt fan but with a lot of my dietary changes, I've been finding that a lot of the yoghurt I used to buy from the store I can't eat any more. Many of them contain high fructose corn syrup (which I've decided is an item I no longer want in my diet) and even more of them contain gluten or potential gluten ingredients. The one brand that I really love is an active culture yoghurt and very expensive (especially if you eat yoghurt a lot - which I do). So, I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at the art of yoghurt making.

I did lots of research, bought everything needed (not much!), and earlish one Saturday, started the attempt.

And failed. It turned our runny and gross looking and tasting and just was not a success.

Undaunted, I attempted it again. This time, I had a little more luck. It was edible but not very tart or tasty and not very creamy. Much runnier than I like my yoghurt. I ate my way through the batch, but knew that I was going to have to find some solutions because of the amount of work it took to make the yoghurt (the constant checking of temperatures, etc), it really wasn't worth it for me, despite the lower cost.

And then I found an interesting concept. There is a blog that I ran across the other day: A Year of CrockPotting. This lady made it her goal to use her crockpot every day for a year. And so she has a year's worth of crock pot recipes...some good, some bad, all reviewed by her. And one of them was how to make yoghurt in your crockpot.

Intrigued, I read the directions. Super easy! I was skeptical, but hey, if it worked and made yoghurt that came out better at all than what I had come up with previously, it might just be worth it. So I tried it. And let me tell you, it was amazing. Super easy and it came out creamy and tasty and tart and just as yoghurt should be!

I've written the recipe out on a seperate post (I found her instructions a little overwhelming), but enjoy!