Cookies

I have decided to try peanuts again to see if I'm ok with them. So I made the flourless peanut butter cookies with peanut butter this time.
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C packed brown sugar
1 egg

Mix together, form 24 balls, flatten with a fork & bake at 350* for 10 - 12 minutes.


















Then I decided to add chocolate. The recipe says to use melted choc chips, but I'm out, so I melted 2 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate and used it.

Baking! Muffins again. Variations on a theme....

I tried making muffins from a Gluten Free Muffin mix from Arrowhead mills. Something new on the market. It's a plain mix - no additions included, but you can add up to 1 1/2 Cups of dry fruit, fresh berries, chocolate chips, etc.

So I measured the mix & used half of it to make 6 muffins, and added dry cranberries, some chopped dates and zested the last poor orange that's been hanging out in the refrigerator for a couple/three months. I ended up with 9 muffins....

They are pretty "Airy". Not much substance - lots of air. There's definitely white rice flour; I can feel the grit. The box only says 'rice flour', but I find that white rice flour is grittier than brown rice flour. Not sure why that's so. The flavor is ok, not too sweet. So I ate two, and Vince ate one. We'll see how well they keep.

This week has been a bit of a Trial....

On April 4th, 2004, my middle child, Karl was hit by a car when the driver made an illegal left turn. The left turn arrow had gone to red, and the green light was on when the man turned and T-boned Karl who was riding his Harley. Now Karl was no angel in life by any stretch of the imagination... He'd had his moments of anger and aggressive behavior. He drank too much, and had other faults; he sported many tattoos and wore his hair long. So anyone seeing him on his Harley, with the black leather jacket, long hair and tats, would immediately label him as "biker" - and he was.

He also was an excellent machinist who was very good at his job. He was a loving father to his son Jonathan who had just turned 10. He was a good provider for his family of 4: His fiancee, her daughter and his son. He had sole custody of his son - something not lightly given by Cook County IL courts.

He'd just finished rebuilding the bike, and had called the insurance company to get insurance on it. He gave Jonathan a call - Jonathan was at my house for the weekend. And then he took the bike out for a ride. And that night he died.

In 2004, April 4th was Palm Sunday. By the time his brother made it in from CA, and his step sister from TX and all of the arrangements were made, the Funeral was finally held on Saturday April 9th. And the next day was Easter.

So last Monday was the 7th anniversary of his death, but my memories forever link Palm Sunday with my son's death, and so this time - around Easter, is a time when I think about Karl a lot, and miss him. And then, of course, Karl's birthday is May 10th. So no matter when Palm Sunday falls - whether March or April - that time surrounding his death, Palm Sunday Easter and his birthday becomes a period of time when I find it difficult to do much of anything.

So last Monday was actually ok. Tuesday I spent the day running around. Wednesday I was away doing a friend's taxes, and yesterday I went to pick up my sewing machine. Today I baked. Do I see a pattern here???

So from 4/4 until 5/10, Karl's photo will be my profile picture. And every time I log onto Facebook, I will see him.

Tonight I am picking Jonathan up, and he'll be here for the weekend.

Muffins Take 3

Those blueberry muffins I made some time back... well, ate one tonight & threw the last one away. How disappointing. I made 6 muffins, and by the time I got to the last two, they were basically inedible, and I only made them on the 1st of April!

Ok, somebody find me a GF muffin recipe that holds it's shape, kepps a good texture and tastes like, well... like a REAL muffin!

BTW, making a loaf of quick bread is even worse!

Muffins. I keep trying!

Another batch of muffins. I used the GF Brown rice mix from Annalise Roberts book GF Baking Classics, and frozen blueberries. Half a batch this time, since these things do NOT improve over time in the freezer. The =recipe calls for nutmeg, but I replaced that with cinnamon because I prefer the flavor but I must not have added enough 'cause I can't taste it at all.

The muffins aren't bad. Just boring! They look very pretty. The blueberries sank, but I figured that would happen because they were frozen. But I chose not to use my fresh ones because, well, because I wanted to eat the fresh ones fresh.

Bread - again! 2

I think that I'd have been better off to make the bread the regular old fashioned way instead of using the bread maker, but was trying to save time. The flavor is ok - a bit sweet - and the texture, aside from being a bit holey, is moist and rather dense. It made a nice egg sandwich yesterday for lunch, and will be fine until the next time.

I want to find a bread recipe that create a loaf that is crisp and crusty on the outside and light on the inside - like a good baguette or French bread. One that can be used to swab up the olive oil & parmano cheese!

...and don't even get me started on rice pasta!!!! THAT will be the subject of another post!

Bread - again!

I tried a bread recipe forund on the back of a Bob's Red Mill GF Brown rice flour package, and made in my bread machine. Here are the pics: