Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Randomness on a Tuesday

1. It has been raining since the middle of Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, I felt cranky about it, because The Boy™ and I were going to take a picnic and travel out to a winery in VT to celebrate our anniversary which was on Saturday. Our original plans involved a weekend away in Burlington, but that wasn't going to work, so we modified. Mother nature had other plans and so we will push it off, and maybe a winery in the fall will be nicer. As a result of all this rain, I had the day off today. It was too wet to pick berries and so I crossed a dozen things off my should've-done-this-already list, did far too much screwing off, and worked on a new crochet project that I started this weekend.

2. School starts exactly two weeks from tomorrow.  One week from today I will work my last day up at the blueberry farm. Two weeks ago from yesterday we will converge upon a local farm and meet for our start of the year workshop day and catch up and laugh and share and go over new policies and procedures that make us want to poke our eyes out and at the end of the day we will be exhausted, yet happy to be back. I'm So. Not. Ready. I'm not done with summer yet. I haven't been to the lake. In fact, I haven't been swimming once. My yard is a mess. My gardens are weedy. There are "fluffy summer reading" books to be read and lounging in the yard to be done. Can we have one more month.. please?

3. Band camp is this week. As a result of this, last night was our first Band Booster meeting. If  you don't have children in HS, or band, in a nut shell.. Band Boosters is PTO for the band. We spent an hour and 45 minutes meeting and only covered September. September is going to be busy and crazy and I knew it was coming, and again.. So. Not. Ready. Is it October yet? Please? Oh wait, October is looking pretty full as well. I seem to remember that we get a break in January, even though that's when rehearsals for the spring musical start up. Maybe it was .. no.. May is crazy too. Right, July. But that is when I go back to work, and Mr. Man is probably going to be off at M.I.T. again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. (photo is from Shriner's a few weekend's ago)

4. Tonight, while dinner was cooking, I whipped up my first batch of anything that included gluten free flours. I cheated, and bought a gluten free flour mix from King Arthur. I have used K.A. flours for years and I love them, so when I saw they made a G.F. flour mix I was thrilled. More importantly, it's soy and nut free, which I can't say about a lot of the other gluten free flours that one would use to create any kind of mix on their own following the millions of "my mix is the best" formula's on the web. I made a Gluten Free Blondie recipe that was based on the Toll House cookie recipe. You read that right.. it was like a thick, chewy, cookie in brownie form. I was a little nervous when I measured out my first cup of flour and felt how heavy it was... but people. These were delicious, and there was no xanthan gum which pleases me as well. Now I'm not one of those people who's going to go out and buy all sorts of mixes and products and stuff just because they are gluten free. I didn't eat a lot of deserts before and I rarely if ever eat boxed or processed foods (although I do miss those delicious crispy wheat crackers and honey graham sticks that Back to Nature makes), so I'm not going to start now. I just want a handful of really GOOD gluten free deserts that I can make if we are having company for dinner, or have to go somewhere (my next challenge is to find a good biscuit recipe for shortcake). I want a few good recipes for bread, or pancakes or banana muffins. Something a little different for breakfast, or if I am really craving toast or a sandwich. I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe.. I can make this work.

2 comments:

Deb said...

I agree with you about not being ready to go back to school! Where has the time gone??? I go back Wed. The kids come back Monday. I had to move my room this year, and I've spent a lot of my time going in to unpack and try to find places for things ---- more difficult because I have NO storage in my new room.

mycouponbasket said...

Tell you, pictures are very beautiful. Keep posting.