I made bread today in my breadmaker from the recipe my sister gave me. It tastes pretty good, but like all of the GF stuff I have baked so far, a bit too sweet for my taste. I may try cutting back on the sugar (1/3c in the recipe) and see if it makes a difference. The loaf is quite small - probably would have baked in a small loaf pan - not even an 8X4.

All of the recipes have lots of eggs and liquid. Much more llike a Casserole or batter bread than a typical yeast dough. Thy also bake way longer!

Greenbush, WI (Wade House)

We're attending this event in a bit more that a week from now, so I have volunteered to be in charge of meal planning (with input) and grocery shopping for the event so I will know what I'm eating for the weekend.

Kathy is bringing a variety of summer squashes and a couple of eggplant. Kay has tomatoes & basil. She'll prep a vinagrette and I'll buy a fresh Mozzerella. I have 2 yellow tomatoes that should be ready by then too.

One dinner meal will be salmon (except for Kathy who will have Cod). We've been invited to join Barb Blair for pot roast on Saturday night, and all I need to think about is the other dinner.

We usually have a quick breakfast of oatmeal when we first get up, then have eggs and bacon later in the morning. I may take my GF pancake mix for one breakfast, and add some cornmeal to give it a little extra oomph. Lunches are usually pretty much pick up. We will have cheeses, salami, and various fruits, crackers etc.

I think I'll make a GF Brownie mix, and Kathy is looking for a GF pie crust so she can make us a pumpkin pie, and I'm getting in the habit of bringing my own bread, crackers & granola bars.

This is kind of a practice session for the two-week long trip to Cedar Creek and Westville in October. For that trip I'll need to make sure I'm covered start to finish. Plus we'll be feeding dinner to my Gluten sensitive sister while at Cedar Creek.

I keep trying to like eggplant! Last night I made eggplant stuffed with rice. The recipe called for a wild rice/white rice blend so I used a Near East pilaf mix without the seasoning packet. My eggplant recipe only used 1 cup of the rice, so I added 2/3 of the seasoning mix to the cooked rice after I'd taken out the cup I needed for my recipe & put it away for another meal. Or I can make a salad of it.

The eggplant dish had me blanch the shells after cutting out the flesh. The flesh then got cubed & sauteed in olive oil with onion, garlic, red bell pepper and oregano. Then stuffed back into the shells & baked covered for 20 minutes. Sprinkled with parmesan & broiled for 3 or 4 minutes. It was ok I guess. I ate one, Vince ate on and I provided a hunk of protien on the side for him.

Poor Vince has been a trooper while I experiment with unusual food.

Ok, here are photos of the bread from the Pamela's mix. It is quite moist and makes a heavy loaf. My breakfast of bacon eggs & toast lasted me thru until about 4:00 this afternoon before I began to get hungry, so this stuff has staying power!







Then for dinner I made Portobella Pizza from the 3 gorgeous big bellas I bought at the Farmer's Market on Sunday. Vince and I ate one each and were full, so I have one left for dinner tomorrow.

I cooked a couple of crumbled Italian sausages with onion and added a little basil, spinach & garlic. Brushed the mushrooms with olive oil and spread some pesto on,then piled on the sausage mixture, topped it with a thick slice of tomato and shredded mozzerella. 20 min at 375* Yum! A heck of a lot tastier than the frozen Udi's pizza crust I made up the other night.

Last night I baked a loaf of bread from a mix. I had asked the mgr of Woodmans in Carpentersville which GF mixes were best. His response was that he could only tell me which ones sell fastest, and Pamela's brand sell well. So I chose the GF Bread Mix as a trial. There was one other he indicated in the same line, but it contained Almonds, and this one does not.

The pkg gives recipes for its use with or without a bread machine, for the addition of seeds, herbs, or cinnamon for different flavors. It also gives directions for use as pizza crust, bagels and for pie crust.

I chose to use my stand mixer and oven bake. Simple, simple, simple! It is mixed for 3 minutes, set for 1 hour and baked for 70 minutes. Then left in the pan for 10 minutes. It smelled wonderful baking.

It contains sorghum flour, so if you don't like that flavor, I'd avoid, and the dough is a sort of beige color; but the loaf raises well while baking and it makes an 8X4 loaf.

I had two slices toasted this morning and enjoyed the flavor very much. It's a bit sweet - cane syrup & honey in the mix - but not overpowering. I'll snap a photo of the bread itself and post it later.