Muffins... again. Are you getting tired of this yet?

I tried a new mix out from King Arthur flour. It supposedly make 1 batch od 12 muffins, but I measured the mix & used half at a time.

The first half I made according to the instructions on the box. They were ok... again, not much substance. I put dried cranberries & date in them. the flavor was fine, but, again, the texyure was iffy. They were very airy. No weight or substance to them, and they didn't hold up well being frozen - but I eventually ate them all.

So the second batch I made last week. I added some quinua flakes - hoping for a heartier muffin. I uded a few frozen berries in each muffin. These looked gorgeous just out of the oven, but wel absolutely flat when they cooled. They were actually wet. I tried them a day later, and they were pretty disgusting.

So that is one mix I will not use again.

April 12th, my slow cooker fragrantly cooked 10 cups of gluten free Cream of Mushroom soup. Last evening, I added the milk & pureed it. This noon I bagged it in 1 cup portions to freeze.

Now it's ready to use in those recipes that call for '1 can of condensed cream of something soup'. Those canned ones mostly contain gluten.

Chicken broth

My crock pot stewed a chicken carcass, a bunch of veggies and water all day, and I just now de-boned it and blended the soup into a broth. Five 2 cup containers of home made chicken broth chilling in the fridge. It'll go into the freezer tomorrow. Pretty yummy stuff!

Altar bread

For some months now I have been making Altar bread for my church with varying results... Early on I had problems with the buns burning on the bottom. I bought parchment paper, but it didn't help. I finally bought new, shiny baking sheets and no more burning. Then they tended to raise too high, so I tried to flatten them more. Then they were still too high and not big enough around, so I made them smaller and flattened them more.

Today I tried again - and now I think they will be too small! Oh well... baking bread is an imperfect science. It is impossible to forecast how a given batch of yeast dough will behave until the baking is done! It depends on the flour, the yeast, the humitiy - or lack of it, the time allowed for raising, the temperature of the room, etc. But here are the ones I made today!

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.