So today after church I looked at some of the doughnut recipes and was checking to see what would most convert to dairy and gluten free. While looking in my Mom’s country morning cookbook in the doughnut and fritter chapter (yes chapter!) there was a recipe for funnel cakes. I looked at that and thought ooooh super easy! Then it got even easier. The recipe calls for 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt. I realized that the pancake mix that I mix up from the Cooking for Isaiah cookbook is nearly in that combination. So I decided to really make it easy on myself and mix up a double batch quickly. First I beat the eggs and then the rice milk together (I would use coconut next time) and just added the exact same measure of the pancake mix (3 1/2 for a double batch) and boom done. I did have to add more rice milk to the batter as it got too thick to pour into the pan. So what does a funnel cake pitcher look like? Glad you asked. I took photos of the process. The finished funnel cakes were delicious, easy and fairly quick to make.

This is the pitcher my Mom brought with her just for making funnel cakes. This actually makes it easy to do.

Cooking in the small cast iron skillet so I did not have to use too much oil.

And the finished product before  Alaric scarfed it down.

The other thing I recently completed was redoing the entire kitchen. I even added a shelf to a cupboard to make it more usable.  I also was able to eliminate most of the boxes and plastic bags for things in the cupboards so things are either in a plastic jar with a screw on lid, a glass jar, or some other type of bin to make using them easier. With gluten-free cooking I use about 6 or more different flours for various things. Just to make the multi-use flour mix I use the most I use 4 separate ingredients not counting the salt.

I pulled out the bin thing so you can see how easy it is to reach all the stuff in the back now. Those were hardware type things that are just bins and are narrow and long. I bought them at a yard sale years ago for like 10cents a piece. They have made the difference in my kitchen all along. They make it easy to not lose things in the very back of the cupboard.  Already the food cupboards are much more usable. Cooking and preparation has already been smoother than it has been for some time. Most importantly I was able to remove things from the kitchen that we don’t and cannot eat any longer.

I also flung several bags of guilt. I had things that I have not used ever and were still in my kitchen. I finally decided enough was a enough and all of those things left the house. I ended up taking nearly an entire load of items to goodwill between the books, housewares, shoes, and vhs tapes that we emptied out of the house in the last few weeks.

A few of the recent floral gifts.

These are from the last few months. As you can see I tend to like more unusual roses or combos. The 1st roses on the left are some impressionist like ones and have differing color tones, I also got some more recently. I adored the unusual color of the orange roses and they remind me of a neighbor who was an emigrant from Greece who lived on the next cul-de-sac, he had huge yellow and orange rosebushes in his front yard along the walk.  The other flowers are my birthday bouquet, they are yellow roses with pink and white mini-carnations. In the last photo you can see the carnations over a week or 2 later near the end of their life.

For my birthday I also was given a beautiful jewelry set from my husband.  They are little mini hand painted enameled Faberge eggs. I have purple earrings with gold roses, and a matching pendant on a gold chain. They are just gorgeous and I think I have found every excuse possible to wear them nearly every day since I received them. These photos really do not do them justice at all, they are just gorgeous and make me happy every time I wear them.

I knew my husband was planning something else for my birthday but I did not know the details at first. I only found out all the details on Wednesday when I started getting calendar requests. He is very romantic but also practical. As a computer professional that specializes in email he uses his calendar very seriously and often I will find out the details of something from a calendar invite while he is still working. This time I had about 6 different appointment requests for a getaway. They started with a ferry ride on a small leg of the ferry system here in the Puget Sound that I had not been on yet. A small personal goal I have is to ride every single route of the ferry system here in the Puget Sound. Then it was checking in at a bed and breakfast on Whidbey Island in Coupeville. It is called the Blue Goose Inn  http://bluegooseinn.com/  followed by a dinner reservations at a restaurant nearby called  Christopher’s on Whidbey  http://www.christophersonwhidbey.com/ .   We had an appointment for the return home on the ferry the following morning.

If you wanted to read what my husband had to say about the experience himself you can read the post on his blog at http://www.thecabal.org/2011/01/getaway/  . He sums things up better than I do as he is an excellent writer. It was a very relaxing and romantic getaway with my darling and I felt appreciated and cherished. What I am most impressed with now is how easy it was for him to find places that could and would accommodate some of my rather restrictive dietary needs. I was impressed with what I was offered to eat in both places. Again I do not feel a real need to repeat all the same things that my husband, Devin, wrote up so much better than I would.

I do however have a few photos and other comments.

On the left is the bed which was probably the most comfortable bed I have slept in when not at home. The second is my husband at breakfast. The next is the photo out the breakfast room. Then my husband Devin while doing his most favorite thing ever, being on the water on our ferry ride back home.  I was very impressed with the dinner especially as I was easily directed to which things I could eat and what I could not.

The last part of my Saturday was my Christmas present from my children. A trip to the Seattle Art Museum as new members and ticket to see the Picasso exhibit. Now somehow my children thought that I was a huge Picasso fan and he was my favorite artist, which is actually not the case. I actually find most of his work not to my taste and even at times very disturbing. However his view of art and how it was supposed to affect the viewers and even his effect on the rest of the art world I greatly admire. This was a fantastic and once in a lifetime opportunity for me and my family. It was only here for another week at most and I am so glad we went. I was told this was from the Smithsonian and since the area that usually housed it was being renovated was going to be traveling around the country.  This was wonderfully curated and followed his life starting with his early work and progressing gallery by gallery to show his work a decade at a time and even talked about what was going on in his life and the world at the time. It ended with stuff from just before his death including a self-portrait that was very interesting. A lot of what I learned actually caused a greater appreciation for the artist’s unique viewpoint. As parents we often got some dirty looks from others as we talked about art with our children. This was their first experience at an art museum and so really did not understand what the point of much of it was. As we talked to them we explained that art was often to get a reaction and asked what they felt a specific piece was about or said or how it made them feel.  That said what surprised me was what pieces I admired the most outside of the Picasso exhibit. There was a large piece done in a traditional chinese calligraphy style that was a waterfall complete with some faux rocks on the floor. The replica Japanese tea room was exquisite as was the Quileute tribal displays, which is the tribes educational reaction to the prominence of their tribe in the Twilight series.  Going back to the art museum is high on my to-do list, as I need to see some of the exhibits without it being nearly so crowded. I also want to go back to the Asian Art Museum as well. I have been at least once, but with all the changing exhibits I feel the need to go more often. I did not actually take any photos at the art museum and wished I had taken a bit more time to see things, but it was crowded and dinner time so we ended up leaving. 

I did one other important thing for my birthday. I finally made 2 phone calls and within 30 minutes had my first violin lesson scheduled for the following week. I just had my 3rd lesson earlier this afternoon, and am nearly wondering why I waited so long. I am still very much a beginner and playing very simple songs and am learning only a few notes or fingerings each week. However I am pleased that I know as much music theory as I do and that I am beginning to understand how things are working. My hands, shoulders and arms are already stronger. About the only difficulty I have run into so far is from a very old injury to my hand, however that is slowly becoming easier and with the continued daily practice I know it will get even better. I am actually feeling confident that I will be able to hit my goal for the violin by my self-appointed deadline. I just want to be able to play a specific Christmas carol for my mother for Christmas. Now that I know more violin music theory it will actually take quite a bit of work and some skills and notes I will not learn for quite a while. Why start playing now that I am 38? Well I don’t want to give this up and besides if my friend can start piano lessons in her 70s why can’t I start violin now? I want to be as vivacious, energetic and mentally happy as several of my older friends are. They are that way in their 70s and sometimes I feel they have more energy than I do at half their age. Well I am tired of waiting and have decided to start doing.

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.

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!

• 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.

1. My ball makes a great substitute for a desk chair keeping me a lot more ergonomic and not hunching over.

2. My exercise ball is now in a safe and convenient place for me to use it for exercise and especially stretching.

3. People are less likely to sit in my chair and get on my computer now, not everyone likes to sit on the exercise ball.

4. I can bounce along to music or just bounce slightly on my ball while I am working on my computer.

5. I do not dread sitting at my computer to do things nearly as much.

6. I got to toss my desk chair that I despised out of my room and do not ever have to sit in it again.

7. My ball fit into the opening of my desk perfectly like it was meant to go there.

8. In just the last week my core and low back have already gotten stronger.

9. It is a lot more fun to sit on a ball than a chair. No one cares that I twitch and jiggle constantly nearly as much.

10. The chair pissed me off and the ball makes me happy.

The 1st day of September we went to the local fair at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds here in Monroe. My little brother Christopher was up as well though for some odd reason I do not have a single photo of him. Weird. Well I did find a photo of him from either before or after we went to the fair that day.

So the children’s friends came with us and here are some photos of them at the fair enjoying their treat. 

Mom thought this chainsaw sculpture was really neat so wanted a photo with it

Also in the middle of September I got a giant pile of wood chips delivered.

  This is the before photo. It took over a month to get the entire thing moved! Now nearly every single bed around my house it filled with wood chips. It is helping with the weeds though lots more need to be dug up under the several inches thick wood chips. I will plan on taking some photos when it is warmer and neater outside. The wind and the cold is not making it look pretty at all.

The kids started school and like a complete space-case I totally and completely forgot first day of school photos. Alaric is in his last year of Elementary school in 5th grade and while we were unsure at the beginning of the school year if we liked his teacher we are pleased with her now. Treanna is in 7th grade and has a couple of favorite teachers again this year but otherwise has all new teachers and it really doing well.  Here is the kids with their new to them laptops that they got from Dad just in time for school to start. They have to check them in and out and the priority is for school work but so far it has worked out great.

Near the end of the month we had a day at the Camp-O-Rama for the local boy scout council. This time both Devin and I went with Alaric for the day to the beautiful Camp Brinkley.  

We stayed through the closing campfire but I think the above were two of the best photos of the day. Alaric in the second one is doing a mountain bike race with his pack and this was his second go-around after a spectacular wipe-out the first time.

Then our boy turned 11 and here are some photos from his birthday.

His special A shaped breadstick.

Him and his cake!

I think that pretty much sums up September. I do know that in the middle of the month Alaric did the scouting for food at the local Fred Meyer’s and they all managed to collect a lot for the local food bank. Plus the kids had school photos which I will remember to scan and put up sometime. The only other significant event is that we had started attending church again and have been attending since then.

My handsome boy all dressed up and ready to go.

Just checking out the police car.

I do not have any photos from scout camp. However Devin and Alaric had a great time and Alaric is very sure he wants to continue in scouting now.

The front bed after I cleaned it out and moved the tree in the center from its previous place in the corner nearest the front door. It was growing sideways, it is much better looking now.

The very healthy oregano, with chives on its left. Unfortunately the basil and parsley really did not fair well. Some pretty petunias in the birdhouse box on the fence.

Our spiral of succulents. The top kettle was mothers and the rest were mine but empty.

Our extremely healthy and happy tomatoes. Seriously never had tomatoes ever do this well before. I think I have a combination of containers and sun in the right spots. You cannot quite see a really pretty planter box on the right hand side of the chairs.

This is my hanging basket out front, Mom helped choose things and planted them, they turned out VERY pretty.