30 June 2009

Some changes afoot!

You may have noticed some changes to the blog... I have been wanting to incorporate some of my photos into a header for awhile now, and G, my brother and I have all been making it happen. I can't say this new banner is going to stay up forever, but it's a nice change!

Happy Summer!!! (And Happy Canada Day to YOU!)

28 June 2009

Cake!

Of course, you try to stop eating wheat and move on to gluten-free pasta and bread, make the necessary switches to make it easier, and then what comes along but a fierce craving for pineapple upside down cake.


I have really disliked pineapple for my entire life. It's really only about in the last year that I have started liking pineapple. Imagine my shock at being in throes of a full pineapple upside down cake craving!

After a perusal of Bob's Red Mill's website and many blogs, I found a terrific use for the baking mix I bought...


Really good! I cannot for the life of me remember how I made it. I just remember that there was a considerable amount of butter and sugar used. It had that smell that gluten-free flour has. It's a sort of beany almost soury smell. I don't love the smell, but the taste doesn't seem to carry the smell over. The cake was delicious. I need to figure out how to make even smaller versions of the baked goods. I don't need tons of it, but it's nice to have a sweet treat ever so often...

Gluten-Free Pizza.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I knew I had to give it up, long before I thought about giving up wheat. It as necessary. Pizza really upsets my stomach as a general rule, and seems to have bad effects on G, as well. So we went form having lots of pizza to having no pizza. And it hurt me. Lots.

Giving up wheat made it that much more difficult. One evening while G was at a work function, I ordered a Pizza Nova gluten-free pizza. It was absolutely vile. I just ate the toppings. My fascination was peaked when I found Kinnikinnick frozen pizza bases.


The bases aren't perfect, it's true. They have a sweet aftertaste, BUT, made on the pizza stone in a super hot oven, they have a satisfying crunch, a chewy texture, and topped with an assortment of spinach, mushrooms and caramelized vidalia onions... it was terrific.

We've had these a couple of times. With wonderful Butterball Turkey Pepperoni, roasted red pepper, onion, black olives... so many combinations!

I am trying a new pizza crust this week. When I was visiting family in Oklahoma, I got to try a selection of gluten-free things from the Whole Foods Bakehouse. WOW! The biscuits were out of this world good. I wrote to our Whole Foods in Toronto to ask why they didn't carry the Bakehouse items. The store manager wrote me back and said that it is because of the whole French/English ingredients listing, etc. But then lo and behold, the next time I went in, there were a few Bakehouse items. So I bought some pizza bases, but I haven't tried them yet. I also bought the blueberry muffins. Very very good. I really enjoyed them and so I went and bought a new batch today.

It's been awhile...

I know, it's been awhile.

There are numerous reasons. Lots of little things, at a conference in Vegas, work has been crazy, home has been crazy, I have been sick. But in reality, I think I just needed a bit of a break. I started feeling really overwhelmed by everything, updates on facebook, twitter, the blog, emails, and I finally had to start de-technologicalizing myself. (Is that a word?) So it's been a bit without facebook and twitter and I have to say *breathing a sigh of relief* it's better. I feel so much better being alive and in the moment. I feel a bit in control again.

Plus, it would seem that issue with wheat is more of an intolerance. So it's going to pop up from time to time on my blog, but hopefully not in any considerable amount! The food/illness thing has been very very overwhelming and I am still trying to make it all okay with myself, so you're just going to have to roll with it with me for awhile. It will become second nature, I know that.

So in the spirit of trying to live in the moment, G and I received our first CSA meat and veg box!!! Our meat haul is a bit much for two girls: loads of steaks and hamburger patties, a whole giant chicken, and a giant chicken split in half. Yummy! Our first veg wasn't so entirely spectacular, but it's early days for the harvest. Lettuce, spinach, asparagus, spring onions, and LOADS of rhubarb. We were amazed at the size of our chickens, and with a tiny freezer, we knew we had to roast the seven pounder all at once.


That is one half of one of the chicken breasts. I couldn't eat it all! We overcooked the asparagus a bit, but it was our first of the season and it was amazing. We stirred some of the green onion (chopped very finely) into the mashed potato. Not super innovative, no, but very delicious all the same. We really enjoyed the first fruits of our lovely CSA farms labour!

(The farm we have started using is the Cooper's CSA Farm located in Uxbridge, Ontario. It's really fantastic. We sadly missed the Open House, but have greatly enjoyed the delicious food and veg that we have been getting! Finding a fantastic CSA farm to get both meat and veg has been wonderful.)

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