Mmrrhghmm for Hodgson Mills Pancake mix! (@HodgsonMillInc)

Yesterday I was craving pancakes-a dangerous proposition if you even consider eating gluten free!  While I don’t have celiac, the joint pain, lethargy and other problems I get when I eat gluten are motivation to avoid it if I can. I have found pastas that are ‘believable’ enough that I can substitute and my husband doesn’t complain (too much). I have also found some store bought breads that are reasonable facsimiles-but for a carb craving, gotta have my bread kind of person I am still looking for GF nirvana in this area.  Which brings me to pancakes.  Big, white, fluffy pancakes are a thing of the past-until I sniff out the right mix. I would venture to create my own mix but I would have to take out a small loan to be able to buy all the GF ingredients.

Side rant-it’s not my fault gluten and I have a love/hate relationship-if it were up to me we would all just get along. BUT-it is so freaking expensive that I feel like I am being punished for something I can’t control. Ditto on Soy products at coffeeshops-everyone else gets their milk gratis but noooo…(insert snarky self talk voice here) “Awww, you can’t have milk? So sorry-cha ching!!”  No milk for me means .50, .60 and up to.80 cents more. OK, rant over.

Anyway, big, fluffy, white anything has become synonymous with Sasquatch, the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster.  I know it is out there but it’s just so darn elusive! Thankfully I do have a granola side (GF of course) that enjoys that whole grain feeling from time to time.  I have tried a number of mixes over time only to pitch them after the first go.  I am not a fan of rubber for breakfast-or sand cakes for that matter. I have thrown more than my fair share of partially used product away (have I mentioned this stuff is expensive!), I won’t even compost some of it because I am convinced that plants have purposefully moved away from where I have buried it. So, back to yesterday.  I was determined to have pancakes and grabbed a fresh new victim, I mean box, to be critiqued- Hodgson Mill GF Pancake and Waffle Mix with Milled Flax Seed.

I mixed, following the directions with only a little tweak-a touch of tofu sour cream a splash of homemade Madagascar vanilla. Looks pretty normal…

Next into the frying pan to see if it fluffs up or sits there like a lump of dough-literally.

This is looking promising!  A little thick but I can adjust that next time…(sinister voice) if there iiiiiis a next time.

Oh, this is looking very promising…

Check it out!! These look pretty darn good-they look like pancakes, they are springy (you’ll have to take my word for it), they smell good and…drum roll…..

They taste pretty darn good!  They are definitely whole grainy-ish-which would make them perfect for a fresh fruit topping-I am imagining fresh strawberry, mmmmmm.  A touch heavy but that is something that can be remedied pretty easily.  The ultimate test is sharing them with the hubs-who happens to be coming in from working in the garden and is a bit peckish for something (plus he got all excited when he saw the stack on the counter). Will they pass the test?

I got the ‘mmrrhghmm’ with the head nod and eyebrow lift which, when translated, is the equivalent of a thumbs up! So, between the ‘mmmrrhgmm’ and my own experience I would have to say that Hodgson Mill did a pretty good job!  I will be buying this one again!  Which makes me wonder if some of their other mixes might be worth a lookie-see too!

There are some of you that have way more experience in the field of GF-I am a relative newcomer-only about two years.  The frustration I feel at trying to find great tasting, affordable and  believable  GF products has been discouraging but I love me some carbs and so the search continues. I have had some moderate success but I am still looking for cakes that don’t taste like fancied up cornbread, baguette that doesn’t taste like bags and pastries that aren’t pastey, mealy, chewy and, well, let’s just say gross.

Thanks to Hodson Mills for making my breakfast face a happy one!  This mix gets a ‘mmmrrhghmm’ from the hubs and a ‘so worth it’ from little ole me!

 

 

(consider yourself disclaimed-I do this because I want to find the best product out there I can, not because anyone pays me to!)

More love for #VeganCookingforCarnivores!

OK, more cookbook love here.  I have been ruminating and marinating about all the possibilities that could arise from my obsession with Vegan Cooking for Carnivores!  I got to thinking about the Tzatziki sauce recipe (pg. 60) an just how long it had been since I had a Gyro (insert magic wand music….) and was inspired to make Pita!  Gluten Free Pita no less!  I have never made it before but I am talking totally motivated here so I gave it a try.  See this pic? Proof.  I did it, ooh and they are soooo good.

Next came the sauce.  I had originally planned on making this all for dinner but 2:00 is a good time to eat dinner, right?  The amazingly fresh fragrance of this Tzatziki sauce made it impossible to wait!!  I only made one little change and that was to add some Tofutti sour cream.  I am not a huge fan of soy yogurt and this helped to bump it up a bit.  Either way-this stuff is so cool and delicious that it is HOT!

Pita? Check.  Sauce? Double check. Tofeta?  Yes, I said Tofeta (pg. 89).  Oh baby, back that truck up-this is good.

I used Gardine Burger patties and seasoned them will with my secret, homemade Greek seasoning mix; added some home grown greens from a good friend and a little tomato and, voila,  the gods would be proud to eat this on Olympus!  So, Gluten Free, Vegan Gyro is a possibility and see that Gyro up there? Is it gone? Why yes, yes it is.

I’m telling you-you gotta get this cookbook!!!!

And jsyk-I love to share really great stuff and am not employed or otherwise in cahoots with anyone associated with this book.

Beast in the Pantry…blame @_ChefRoberto

OH. MY. GANACHE.  Many of you who follow my blog know that I have food sensitivities and am always on the hunt for good, healthy recipes that I don’t have to worry about eating.  Let me just say that I have found a cookbook that I could have a love affair with. Seriously.  NO-I am not kidding!  I take this book to bed with me.  Why you ask?

Does that answer your question?? NO??  How about this…

Even with these grainy cell phone pics it is pretty clear that this is some serious chocolate action! All vegan, all gluten free(my version) and all gone.  I kid you not.

If you haven’t checked it out yet you need to add Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin to your to do list.  This is hands down one of the best cookbooks I have come across in a long, looooooong time.  Martin demystifies the ‘vegan’ side of cooking-and I love his philosophy and his approach when it comes to making good food vegan-not making ‘vegan’ food.  I am married to a dyed in the wool, card toting, tooth picking carnivore and when you say vegan within hearing distance he gets the shivers.  This cookbook is helping to bridge the gap between his beefy proclivities and my vegan leaning sensitivities and I couldn’t be happier.

From dressings to desserts the recipes are doable.  The ingredients are accessible, pronounceable and real.  Proof positive that there is beauty in simplicity!

As for the recipe above, La Bete Noire (The Black Beast), page 197 is your holy grail-look it up-you will NOT be disappointed. Think mousse meets cheesecake meets 28 oz. of good chocolate and you get an OMG moment with every bite!

(FYI-I am not paid by, not affiliated with and not afraid to shout the praises of VCforC. Just like to share good things when I find them)

Fear isn’t Practicality

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.” -Tom Krause

This quote came across my screen this morning and pretty much sums up where I am at right now-and I couldn’t be happier!  I have a policy of being open to new opportunities but that doesn’t mean I jump on board.  I have a more than healthy dose of fear that keeps me from doing many things I would love to do.  In the past I hid this fear behind the guise of  practicality and, if I am honest with myself, I didn’t realize this until recently.

Being ‘practical’ is highly valued in the family structure I am a part of-this could also be labeled conservative, as it relates to taking risks. While this might be safe, it has always chafed at me and left me frustrated. So many opportunities have been avoided in the best interest of being practical. I should mention that practical usually involves a great paycheck, benefits, safety, no change, no challenge and, of course, conformity. I have been inwardly rebelling for years but, as I am learning, I have also been acquiescing and developing a less than healthy relationship with fear.

This can be a difficult thing to understand-especially when you believe in supporting the family balance. It is infinitely easier to be afraid to change, seek comfort above challenge, do just enough to get by so you don’t have to exert yourself too much and, in general, doing a half assed job of living.  Kind of like making a meal and using every stinking pan in the kitchen and then piling it all in the sink when you are finished and calling it good enough.  All that does is leave the mess for someone else to clean up-but I may be drifting off into another arguement here….

What this boils down to is that I have been presented with a great opportunity and am busy having this inward arguement between opportunity and practicality(fear?).  Does taking a job for no pay beyond the possibility you see in it make sense? Probably not.  Does it sound like a great challenge that could result in something really cool? Um, yes. Could if fail? Um, yes. Does that scare me? Yes. Do I really , really, really want to do it? Yes. Am I going to do it? Yes. Yay.

I am still going to be teaching-which I adore and hope I never have to stop.  This will be the icing on the cake.  For those of you who know me, I am an artist and I love to work with other artists creating new ideas, new work and new opportunities. So, here’s the gig-I am working with a small gallery in the heart of Grand Rapids to see what we can make happen-you can check it out here-and build support-you can find that info at Start Garden.

I am excited about the possibilities! And yes, I have butterflies but they aren’t going to stop me yet

Here’s to being a little scared and let’s see what happens!

 

Vegan, Gluten Free Creamy Pumpkin Stuffed Shells…mmmmm

As I keep trying new recipes and converting old to fit my dietary issues once in a while I find a good one!  Dinner tonight was especially yummy and I received a few requests for the recipe so here you go!  This is a converted recipe but one that came out pretty well-everyone in the family (non vegans too!) loved them.

Enjoy!

 

1 pkg Jumbo GF shells- I use Tinkyada brand Pasta Joy brown rice pasta shells-they are stable and not starchy

Cook pasta shells according to package directions, drain and rinse with cool water.

 

Filling:

1.5 cups cooked pumpkin-I cook my own but you can use canned.  You may need to add a teaspoon or two of liquid because canned pumpkin is much thicker than fresh

1 16 oz. container Tofutti brand Better than Ricotta Cheese

1/4 c. Tofutti brand Better than Cream Cheese

1/2 c. shredded vegan mozarella cheese

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 c. Fresh Basil, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste (I used a rosemary salt that added a nice touch of flavor)

Blend ingredients and set aside to stuff shells when ready.

 

Sauce:

Either one large can of premade spagetti sauce or the following:

2 small cans tomato sauce

1 T. Fresh Basil, chopped

1 t. oregano

1 t. honey

1 T. EVOO

Garlic or other Salt and Pepper to taste.

 

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish to avoid sticking.  There are two ways to do the dish-one way is to spread the sauce in the bottom of the dish first and then place filled shells on top or to spoon sauce on top of filled shells-it is a matter of personal preference.  I like to spoon the sauce on top and then fill in the cracks.  I think this helps to keep the shells from drying out too much during baking.  Whichever you choose, fill each cooked shell with the pumpkin filling and place in prepared dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

 

This is pretty basic and you can embellish in whatever way works for you.  My husband added chicken- but that kind of defeated the purpose (in my opinion) but it kept the vegan and non-vegans happy!

 

 

 

Duty Free

This being Wednesday I should (hate that word) be doing any number of things-instead I am declarin a ‘duty free’ day.  This is officially a day where my list of duties ceases to exist, if only for a short time.  I am using this new holiday for a little breathing space and asking myself what I want to do as opposed to what I have to do. This shift in perspective is more profound than I anticipated!  Oddly enough, I now anticipate some of those things that-just yesterday-were another item on the endless list of the must get dones.

On my list?? Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the kitchen and (horrors) doing a load or two of laundry!  Nothin’ new here but somehow I am looking forward to these mundane tasks!  Why? Well, I am no expert here so, this is merely conjecture-but I think it has everything to do with perspective/attitude.  I am choosing to see these items as different than I have seen them in the past.  Instead of chores, drudgery, monotonous and endlessly repetitive and unrewarding tasks (sense my true feelings yet?) I am looking at the potential.  My living room has the potential to be restful and fresh if I get it vacuumed and dusted!  My kitchen may actually stay clean for a couple of hours! Yay (husbands office has officially moved out so no more mounds of dirty dishes and grease splatters on the stove). As for the laundry-I don’t think I will every like doing that so I will focus on the great lavender smell I can now get in my laundry products!

What is the point of this??  How does this matter?  Changing perspective can be refreshing and recentering and offers the opportunity to shed some old and stale ideas. I could stand to apply this in more than just my day to day ‘duties’!

I am off to see what happens when I change a little perspective…

Springing ahead…

OK, so terminal neglect is becoming a common theme on my blog these days!  Not something I am proud of but at the same time I feel pretty good about being busy doing something I love so much!  I am getting back into the studio, teaching and beginning to feel some old ideas coming back to life and looking for a future.  I am grateful for inspiration making a return after having it go underground for so long!  I don’t know what the future holds but for now hope is settling in and we’ll see what happens.

I am not going to spill the beans just yet but I am working on something that has been floating around looking for a place to land.  I am taking baby steps to incubate it to a state that might be viable.  Since it is spring I will equate it to the seeds I am germinating on my counter-the little sprout is starting to peek out and now we wait to see if it takes root.  I’ll keep you up to date if anything starts to happen but here’s a teaser: using art to do good.

Happy spring ahead everyone-make the most of the extra hour of sun!

Simple things

I am sitting in my temporary office (ie. the dining room) because my husbands business has temporarily taken over my office space.  I am cool with that. I am sure if I keep telling myself that it will be true.  My filing system is contained on one dining room chair while his filing system is contained all over the house. I can deal with it. Really, I can. Twitch.  In my book, horizontal surfaces should contain neatly arranged items and a lot of empty space.  In his book, every horizontal surface (and I mean every) is fair game for any thing, any paper, any object…  This kind of messes with my comfort level. I can deal with this, after all it’s only temporary. Twitch.

All this to say, from my ‘office’ I have a great view of the lake and this morning I was rewarded-simply and beautifully.    Today is gray, rainy and a bit on the dreary side-a perfect day to accomplish mundane tasks.  Settling in to work on a long list of these I was rewarded by sighting our neighborhood bald eagles.  We haven’t seen them much this January because there isn’t any measurable ice on the water.  This time of year we are usually able to see them perching in trees, ice fishing and passing on hunting wisdom from one generation to the next.  The lack of ice allowed me to see a full on eagle, open water, fish grab-a first for me! And breathtaking.

It seems that the drear of the mundane and ordinary can overwhelm my ability to appreciate what is around me. When the gray of the day, the dry of the task and the dull of the work combine to chip away at that sense of joy and wonder it is so easy to forget simple things-like looking out the window.  I am so grateful that my change of office gave me a change in scenery-literally! I was really trying to come up with a solution but was distracted by the quantity of water foul hanging out on the lake.  It looked like a Madcap Coffee  for Mallards out there and I was wondering what they could possibly be meeting about.  OK, so there is no other way to say this-next thing I knew (sounds hokey I know) out of nowhere (equally cliche) this slow moving avian version of a C-5 spreads his talons, swoops in and snatches a sizable catch from the great Black Lake. I confess, I held my breath.  In that moment I knew that people live their entire lives and never see something as simply beautiful as this.

This is a stressful season of life right now and it is easy to become myopic, not seeing what is around and knowing only the stress, the sense of loss, the anxiety or whatever it is at that moment. What a gift to be reminded of the world around me-to have looked out the window at that moment, to forget everything else…to have my breath taken away.  I imagine there are gifts like this scattered all around but I fail to recognize them because I am so focused on the gray, the dry and the dull. I love how God captures me again and again through something simple-something that may be right outside my window more times than I know-all I have to do is look.

Here’s to finding the simple thing today that takes your breath away-if only for a second. Or, makes you smile-forgetting that long list of dry and dull that keeps you busy.

New Website Underway

I bit the bullet and started a new website-same old address but, hopefully, a better and cleaner site.  Stop by for a gander and share your feedback with me on how to make it better  Click on the image below and see you there!

Knowing something is coming is not the same as knowing it is here.  There is a small group of you who follow my blog and if you will think back a bit you will remember me writing about my son’s impending deployment.  Actually quite a bit back.  Between changes in training, changes in leadership and other aggravating change,s we have been anticipating his leaving for well over a year now-in fact I believe it is going on two!  You would think that after such a long time it would be a relief just to get it over with; but, there is a big difference between knowing it is coming and knowing it is here.

I can remember the breathless feeling I had when I heard the words “I’ve been deployed”.  I remember taking a big inhale and calmly saying something about an adventure or that it will be great to put your training to good use-all drivel and nothing more than a thin veil.  What was really going on was a sudden onslaught of memories clashing with treacherous possibilities that could, ultimately, cost me my child.  Obviously, I am not going to dance around the reality.  Well, here we are a long way down the road and I am back to where I was when I first heard those words.

Somewhere along the way I quit telling folks my son was being deployed-mostly because of the responses I got in return. “I hear they are pulling troops out”.  Yup, but what you don’t hear is that they are still sending them but thank you for pointing that out.  ”He’ll be just fine”.  Thank you, but you can’t guarantee that so don’t placate me with this reassurance. “I am so sorry”.  At least this is honest-but still not helpful.  These are a few of the reason’s I have quit talking, blogging and sharing about the situation. Yes, I am being harsh but it is kind of where I am at and it helps me cope.

As you may have discerned, I am back to talking about it mostly since I have crossed over into a reality I had hoped would never really come.  In fact, I had a dream within the last week that the deployment had been cancelled-that is how hard I am rebelling against this in my heart.  As reality, and the Army, would have it we have now crossed over into the knowing and I sure wish I could say it was easier because we had a long time to prepare for it.

I have seen different sides of this-I have been the wife left  behind and am now a mother letting go of a child.  I would have to say that this is the harder road.  I will not diminish the experience of any spouse-my son is leaving behind an amazing young woman and it is painful for her-and for those around her who see her pain.  I can remember some of that and I will do my best to support her through this process.  As a mom, to protect a child is basic instinct and to take that ability away makes for a difficult go of it.

A couple of things I can always count on are A) my ability to self protect through sarcasm and B) that God is going to get my attention and remind me that he’s got this one.  I of ten forget the B category-I mean, A comes so naturally to me.  Once again he has tapped me on the shoulder and told me to unpack my big-girl panties because I am going to need them.  He reminded me that I have a right to my feelings-they are, after all, something He has given me-but that He has this one for me. So, when I can’t seem to carry this one-like now-He can.  I am so grateful.

OK, so, before the screen gets too blurry, I am going to share  a prayer with you.  It comes from the book of Common Prayer, A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.  It ends each days morning meditation and it is a prayer I have shared with my son:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you:

Where ever he may send you:

May HE guide you through the wilderness:

Protect you through the storm;

May he bring you home rejoicing:

At the wonders he has shown you;

May he bring you home rejoicing:

Once again to our doors.

Peace-in both the abstract and concrete form-to each of you, especially for all the other families who come into the knowing along with us.