Tea With Stephanie

Last Summer we went on a 5000+ mile road trip from Washington to Michigan and back. It was a fantastic family trip and we got to see some of the most amazing things. It would have been blogged about months ago but unfortunately the very last day of the trip, I fell and hurt myself. Lots of things have been sliding for the last several months.

I did make a pinterest board with some of the places we went, including photos I had taken.  Our Road Trip Pinterest Board

Everyone had different parts they really enjoyed. The major highlight of the trip was to visit Devin’s Grandmother in Michigan and spend several days with her, including seeing the farm she has lived on for a long time. While we were there in Michigan we got to see some fantastic lightening storms which was a new experience for me and my children.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest you see different sorts of mountains and trees. Colorado had mountains that were very different from the here. For the most part we enjoyed all the different places we visited. We saw several National Monuments and Parks including: Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Dinosaur National Monument, and the John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon. We also saw not only the Shoshone Falls in Idaho but the Multnomah Falls in Oregon. We also saw the largest rail yard for Union Pacific called the Bailey rail yards and went to the museum and Golden Spike viewing tower and visitors center located right next to it. Continuing the Railroad theme we also saw the Union Pacific outdoor rail museum that is right outside the main museum at the old train station. I felt a bit old realizing I had actually taken a train from that station when I was younger and now it is a museum.

We camped at KOA along the way and stayed in a Cabin at our destination in Indiana which was just a few miles from Grandma’s farm in Michigan. We definitely want to continue camping at KOAs as that was a very enjoyable experience. For the most part we were not disappointed at the campgrounds and we got very good at setting up camp by the end of the trip. There was more than one reason we camped, 1 it was more reasonable pricewise and 2 it made it easier for us to eat according to our dietary restrictions. We did eat our a few times but that was usually the exception rather than the rule.

It was the farthest east I have ever been in my life, I enjoyed seeing all the rivers. I thought the toll roads were weird and not sure I thought that way of doing roads were any better than how we do in Washington. I really appreciated the hills and mountains of home when we were going through the prairies and farms in the middle of the country.

We went there over I90 for the most part and came back by going south from Illinois so we could travel through Denver, Utah and Eastern Oregon for the return home. There was a lot of planning in advance and things were not exact but it was a wonderful trip.

In the future we know we want to go to some more National Parks and Monuments and would even love to go to the Redwoods.

Today I will be 40 years old. I do not feel old and even have a couple of friends who are more than twice my age. I am not sure if my younger self ever really truly thought about what it would be like to be 40.

However in honor of this milestone in my life I decided to share 40 things that I normally either do not talk about or doubt I have actually written down before. So 40 things about me in no particular order:

1. I like to play video games, especially first person shooters. I have my own xbox360 and just noticed I have a gamer score of over 10k.
2. I married my husband of almost 17 years just 3 weeks after I met him at a Science Fiction convention.
3. I have an autoimmune disease that affects my daily quality of life. I take medication daily just so I can function. I need more sleep and am often tired as a result of this.
4. I have celiac disease and so eat no gluten at all, my life has drastically improved since finding this out just a couple of  years ago.
5. Before I found out about gluten my doctor and I figured out that dairy was a huge allergy and was making me constantly sick. The first time I realized I didn’t hurt in my gut; I realized just how much I hurt constantly for years.
6. Due to treating the above issues my hair has been more brown than red in the last 10 years. It made me sad so I started to treat my hair with henna. Now I am happy as my hair is my more familiar red.
7. I have been a member of the Episcopal church for 13 years. It wasn’t where I thought I would go but everything about the traditions and even doctrine sing to my soul. The friends we have because of it are marvelous.
8. I actually hate taking pictures of everything, I prefer to just live and enjoy the moment I am in, if I do take photos it is because I think of a specific person I would want to have been there.
9. My husband’s family is small and I value his parents more than I can say. I know they love me and not just because I married their son.
10. One of our dearest friends we met online playing a video game. 11+ years later we made sure he is nearby and he lives 3 doors down the street. He is not the only real-life friend we first met online.
11. We have a large library in our home that my husband alphabetizes by author. The genre is almost entirely science fiction and fantasy.
12. 2 years ago I quit messing around and found a violin teacher. While I will never be a professional, I am happy with my progress and growing skill. I enjoy playing familiar songs and learning more difficult ones.
13. Also 2 years ago I started attending karate regularly. Some days I am amazed I still want to do it, yet I found it enjoyable and endlessly challenging in new ways. I see this as a way to have a lifelong physical art I can work on.
14. With me joining karate my entire family now does it together. I am currently the lowest rank in my family.
15. I am actually friends with my mother and have been for most of my adult life. We enjoy spending time together. Now that she lives with us it can be a challenge but I am happy for the time we regularly have together. Trading roles is part of the progression of life. I still enjoy the fact that she lives with us.
16. I had a huge teddy bear collection when I was younger. Now that collection has been pared down to my absolute favorites which fit on a single shelf and some of the ornaments on my tree.
17. I love tea and all the things that go with it. I have beautiful teacups and teapots. I usually have a pot of tea every day.
18. My other favorite thing is cupcakes. Took me a long time to figure out why I liked them so much. It is because it is a beautiful little cake I do not ever have to share.
19. I love to match or coordinate especially with my clothes and accessories.
20. To make sure I have things to go with my outfits, I make a lot of my own jewelry and hair accessories.
21. I am a full-time homemaker. Mostly because I am better at those skills than my spouse, we carefully negotiated the chores and he has figured the monetary value to us to have me work at home.
22. Both of my children are on the autism spectrum.
23. This meant a lot of work when they were little. While still a lot of work and needy even as teenagers, I am immensely proud of how well they are doing and that most people have no idea they are autistic at all.
24. I read at least one novel a week on average over the course of the year. There are times where I can finish a book a day. Then read nothing for a few weeks so I can get caught up again.
25. Despite knowing how to be a homemaker I needed help and joined Flylady over 10 years ago.
26. In my home perfect is a dirty word. I firmly believe it is the biggest lie of the enemy and has caused more hurt than any other human concept ever. I battle this lie on a daily basis.
27. I have actually given things up for Lent. Now I usually add a positive habit or change instead.
28. I have several favorite flavors mainly Lemon, cinnamon and clove. I love citrus and spices.
29. My favorite cuisine is Mexican and Latin. I love the spiciness and some of the unusual ingredient combos.
30. Every time I have ever eaten Indian food I have gotten sick, especially if I tried anything with Tandoori spicing.
31. I tend not to discuss my weight loss but I have lost and kept off 65 pounds now. It will be more again but an injury to my ribs this last summer seriously put me back a bit.
32. Up until Summer of 2012 the farthest east I had ever been was Utah. Now I have been as far east as Ohio.
33. If my hair wasn’t auburn I would want green hair. Never wanted blonde, black or brown.
34. I love things that are not only beautiful but good quality. I will not settle long for things I find ugly.
35. I am patient enough to wait and search out bargains for things I truly want. It is not unusual for me to wear a top I paid full price for with a skirt I got for a dollar. Add in shoes bought on sale and accessories I made and that is a typical for me.
36. Cooking for a family food that is gluten free, dairy free, and meet the rest of the needs is a challenge. We also have no pineapple due to a serious allergy by my husband and son. Soy is an uncommon ingredient as I cannot have much, and seafood is not around much because again I cannot have most of it due to iodine levels. There are days I am surprised I figure out something to eat for everyone. Some days having dinner feels like a miracle.
37. I was concerned for a while that my children only seemed to have a couple of friends they spent all their time with until I realized my husband and I are the same way.
38. I like all kinds of music, everything from Pop to Country. I tend not to like a lot of rap as it all sounds the same as do some heavy metal bands. But overall I like a wide variety of music.
39. That said I tend not to like many musicals, especially if it was written by Andrew Lloyd Weber. I find him boring and by now all the songs way overplayed.
40. My favorite color is green. I like just about every shade of it and have nearly all shades of it in my wardrobe and even in my home. Luckily I live in the northwest where it is green year round.

Being dairy-free and gluten-free around the holidays can be a difficult thing. Yesterday was not only Thanksgiving but our daughter’s 14th birthday. We tend to not do a traditional Thanksgiving anyway so we decided to skip any tradition at all and do something non-traditional. Talking with my best friend she suggested Chinese or Asian cuisine for the main meal. I liked the idea and floated it by everyone else. Devin liked it as did the birthday girl Treanna.

So the menu became:

Spicy Cashew Chicken from the official Cheesecake factory recipe (which needed a bit of conversion to be gluten and dairy free

An after shot of it all done.

Some stir-fried vegetables

And plain steamed rice.

For desserts I saved us all from a very odd thing as she wanted chocolate and yellow cake with multiple layers of flavors like mint, orange, lemon etc. Instead I suggested something much simpler yet more complicated.

So we had a gluten-free dairy-free chocolate cake made from a Bob’s red mill mix with a Crisco frosting that was pink and peppermint flavored. The second batch of frosting worked yet the first was a massive failure.

Then we had some pumpkin ginger bars which were really not that great not enough flavor so I tossed the recipe. Again gluten and dairy free.

Lemon bars that needed more lemon flavor but were still good. I screwed up a couple of things but surprisingly the crust turned out fine being made with gluten free flour and butter flavored crisco instead of traditional flour and butter.

And orange petit fours. I must confess the orange petit fours turned out the absolute best. We used a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix as the start. Added some orange oil (was supposed to be orange extract but T grabbed the wrong bottle) and baked them 12 at a time in my mini cupcake pan. Then we sliced them in half and put a thin layer of orange marmalade in the middle. Then I mixed up a recipe of petit four frosting glaze and added a few drops of orange extract along with the vanilla. They turned out pretty and WOW delicious. I need to make more petit fours.

I was able to use my black pastry stands to display the desserts.  Treanna was extremely happy with how everything turned out and enjoyed her day.

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore beautiful things. I mean really really adore them. I often feel silly because I want some of the most trivial objects to be beautiful. As I am out and about I keep an eye out and have a list I keep in my head and sometimes on paper of things I wish for.

One of the things I adore thanks to Victoria magazine are Waverly fabrics and Toile print fabrics. Now toile prints can be overwhelming so I kind of want accents for a room out of the fabric not an entire room done in it top to bottom. While at a store last month with my mother I spotted a red and cream toile tablecloth by Waverly. I adored it, carried around with me while shopping, put it back and then finally called my husband to ask permission to buy it. He said to buy it if they had a good return policy. Well they did so I bought the tablecloth and 8 matching napkins (no I don’t use them together way too much pattern).

When I got them home I tried them on the table and decided it was a perfect fit for my style, my china, and my table. So I left it there over the next several days. Then my darling husband brought me home the most gorgeous arrangement. I borrowed Mom’s huge heavy lead crystal vase and this is the result.

Not sure if you can really spot the arrangement but they are gorgeous long stemmed pink roses and white mini carnations. It smelled fantastic and look very nice with the toile tablecloth.

My husband has fantastic taste and loves to spoil me. Thank you dear!

Over the years, I have found that food preparation and menu planning is consistently one of the most stressful areas of household management for me. Here’s why:

• My husband is a picky eater.
• We have two children in the teen/tween age ranges, and they are naturally picky as well.
• In the last year, my mother has come to live with us, adding yet another set of preferences.
• For the last several years, I have been completely unable to have any dairy products. Even the addition of a tiny amount of whey in a food can make me sick for days.
• My husband and son are allergic to pineapple (my husband very seriously so, like Epipen serious) and have minor allergies to other foods such as tomatoes and peanuts.
• My mother has several special dietary needs as well.

In June after a trip to the doctor with both children for a random range of issues that we needed to deal with including several odd skin rash like issues, the doctor told me that I needed to get the children gluten and dairy free. I just about cried and insisted that we get a blood test and after looking went back and ordered the same test for myself. That backfired; we now have scientific proof that I and my daughter need to be gluten-free. While we did not test positive for Celiac’s disease, we both came back with the results that show we are intolerant to gluten and it could be causing serious long-term internal damage. At that time we did not test my son but decided after summer Boy Scout camp that he would go on the same diet. So on top of the already complex food requirements we ended up throwing two radical diet changes into the mix.

I am not doing too bad at the change over all and both children and myself feel so much better. I am amazed at all of the little lingering issues that cleared up with all of us, including all of the issues for the children that we went to see the doctor with originally. However, meal selection has become an issue. At first my menus were basic and boring. Everyone very quickly got tired of tacos (with dairy-free seasoning mix) and chicken with rice du jour.

Knowing that this was an issue Devin has been doing his best to help out. He recently got the chance to review an e-book copy of Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter (O’Reilly Media). As part of his review process, he agreed to try a recipe in there and the one that stuck in his head was butterflied roast chicken. I was very interested in this and decided to go a head and try it when whole chickens went on sale last week. I bought 2 chickens and proceeded to butterfly them – and took photos for your amusement!

Our son and his friend (who was over at the time) were really impressed with the removal of the chicken guts and insisted that a picture of the insides be taken. My son and his best friend thought it was a very interesting and odd process.

Kind of disgusting but was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I did not realize my kitchen shears would ever be so useful. The sound of the spine cracking was audible and the boys thought it was neat.

After trimming off excess fat and other stuff I had to break the “keel” bone to help the chicken lay flat. This helps the chicken cook more evenly. I decided to cook these chickens on a bed of onions for added flavor.

The boys thought it was really odd when I rubbed oil onto the chickens and then put rosemary and salt and pepper. Upon following the recipe it was said to broil the chickens skin side up to get a nice crispy skin and then flip the chickens and finish roasting them at 350. I did so and forgot to get a photo of the chickens before I flipped them. They turned out great and the were able to be cut up really easily.

I served it with a brown and wild rice mixture. I’m not sure how it happened but I have finally managed to convince my family that there are other edible rice varieties than white rice!

The chicken was a hit with everyone, even though it was technically another chicken with rice dish. The chicken was tender and juicy. Even Devin ate some and liked it!

I have told Devin that I need a copy of Cooking for Geeks in printed format as the e-book is not convenient in my kitchen for casual reading. I still prefer to have a book I can carry around rather than a book on the computer.

I use a dressing table to dress in the morning and to get ready for bed at night. I use it to do my hair, put on makeup, get dressed etc. I have used one for quite a few years now and honestly would be quite lost without it. One of the side difficulties of moving our bedroom downstairs last spring was where my dressing table got moved too. It was moved into our bedroom under the window. The mirror I used to use with it would not work in the new location so after a bit of fussing I had come up with a small tri-fold mirror I put on top of my jewelry box. It was not ideal but it worked ok. Then it nearly caused a major problem. Devin lightly bumped my table one day and everything came crashing down everywhere. I was lucky nothing broke. I was informed that finding a better attached mirror solution needed to be a priority.

Here is the before photo of my very messy dressing table.

I wish I could say it was neat, organized and very pretty all the time but that would be a lie. It is a well loved and used piece of furniture.

For the last several months I have been looking at second-hand stores, Craigslist, antique stores and even furniture stores for a new dressing table or mirror. Most of them I did not like and would not fit the space I have available in the master bedroom for my dressing table. I also noticed that a lot of old dressing tables were missing mirrors. Then just this last week at our local Goodwill I found an ugly mirror with two drawers under it. I tested it out and on a table it would be just the right height for a dressing table mirror. A can of primer, white semi-gloss spray paint, and two new knobs later I had a pretty mirror for the top of my table. The best part was that I was able to screw it to the table from the back and secure it with a couple of brackets. Now a knock into my table might knock a few things over but most things will be secure.

And another of just the top…

My table it much neater and the whole space is brighter and easier to keep clean. I did lose my jewelry box so had to be creative about where to put that. I put my makeup in the two drawers just under the mirror, and my jewelry got moved into the top right hand drawer.

I am so pleased with my project and have already enjoyed the new space.