Summer Means Pie

I was going to make a blueberry pie, but some of the younger members of this household have been eating the blueberries. So today's endeavor is blueberry peach pie, which isn't a bad substitution.  Also, all the peaches from the farm seemed to turn ripe overnight, so blueberry peach pie just fits the bill all around.

I used the same method for making my gluten free pie crust that I did here, with one change. I didn't have plain tapioca flour (either that, or it is hiding in the back of my freezer and I wasn't in the mood to shovel everything out of the way to look for it). I did, however, have some Jules brand flour mix, which is mostly modified tapioca. So I used that, and then just a teensy bit less xanthan gum because the Jules brand is already all xanthaned up.

MMMMMMM, peaches and blueberries. A marriage made in heaven.

 One change I made from my blueberry pie recipe, other than the peach substitution, was the addition of some fresh vanilla bean. Oh, how I love those tiny black granules of goodness!  I cut a 2 inch section from a bean that I had and split it down the middle. Then I used my knife to scrape out all that vanilla deliciousness, and I rubbed it with my fingers into the sugar for the pie so it would spread evenly.

 Don't let that scraped out vanilla pod go to waste. I have a special container for vanilla sugar, which is filled with leftover pods and sugar. That way, if I run out of vanilla beans and I would like some delicious vanilla flavor in my baked goods, I just use the vanilla sugar. My grandma used to do that, and each time I reach for the jar of vanilla sugar I think about her.

Easy-peasy roll out method -- roll out the dough onto parchment paper. Try to roll it out a couple inches larger than your pie plate.

Flip the parchment paper over onto the pie dish, then peel off the dough.

 Pretty up the edges! Okay, it's not Martha Stewart pretty, but it is somewhat ripply.

 Pour in all that delicious filling!  Can you see the extra dough on the side? I cut out heart shapes. Those go on top because this pie is made with LOVE, baby.

Ready to go into the oven.

Abra cadabra, ready to eat.  YUM!  The boys in the household all like to smother their pie with whipped cream, but I'm a purist. Just give me a big piece of pie, and make it hot.  That's the taste of summer.

Hog Heaven

We've just returned from a trip to western North Carolina, with a college visit in Virginia along the way. When I researched our trip, I didn't get too many good "hits" for celiac-friendly places in the general vicinity, so we packed up the car with GF pasta, flour, bread, pizza dough, cookies -- enough to last a hungry teenager for a week. Right before we left I found the Glutino brand oreo type cookies which, according to Daniel, are pretty good for a GF cookie. Still, I knew there would be a number of times that we would have to eat in restaurants, so I was concerned.

We stayed overnight near Blacksburg, VA so that we could do a tour of Virginia Tech. I asked the hotel clerk for food recommendations, and she reeled off a list of fast food names that were not good for gluten-free eating. Then she said, "Oh, and there's a barbecue place a couple of miles down the road. You can't miss the sign with the big pink pig." We decided to check out the menu. It was either that, or a baked potato at Wendy's, which would have been okay, but not great.

I went into the restaurant first to ask about gluten free choices. I don't know -- I may have been the first person ever to ask, because I had to explain gluten. However -- the people at Due South BBQ were wonderful. They went over all their ingredients, and we determined that it would be okay for Daniel to eat there. It turned out to be okay for all of us. The meat was falling-off-the-bone delicious, there were numerous sauces to choose from, and we even were lucky enough to visit on a night with live music.

Our tour guide at Virginia Tech had a soy allergy, so she was a good person to ask about dining with special needs. She pointed out a dining hall where we could eat lunch. It was okay. Based on what I saw, I'm not sure it's that easy to stay on a GF diet there. But wow, what a lovely school.

As we headed south, barbecue became our go-to choice for safe celiac eating. Granted, we had to ask that no hush puppies or fries or rolls touch the plate, and Daniel couldn't satisfy his sweet tooth afterward (unless they had vanilla ice cream). But he could eat his fill of barbecue (ribs, pulled pork, chicken), beans, and cole slaw with no problem. By the end of the week we had all had enough of barbecue. Even my husband. I've never seen that happen before!

I did find a listing for a totally gluten-free restaurant in Asheville, But there was major construction on that particular road, and we just couldn't find it. We ended up eating at Moe 's Southwest Grill (a fast food chain) for lunch that day, and the lady behind the counter there went out of her way to make sure Daniel's nachos were gluten free. The cheesy sauce that is poured on top of nachos is often NOT gluten free, but she sprinkled regular shredded cheese on his nachos and heated them up in the clamshell cooker. It took an extra 5 minutes, but we appreciated the attention to detail.

On one of our trips, we ended up in the small town of Brevard, NC. We found a lovely place there: Rocky's Soda Shop, which is set up like an old fashioned soda shop restaurant with a lovely lunch counter, great milkshakes, and fun, touristy stuff for sale. (I bought a Transylvania County t-shirt that has the saying "Transylvania County / Just Bite Me"). We were hoping to get a bunless burger there, but they only sold hot dogs. Hot dogs often have gluten, so that was a no-no. But they also made chili, and the cook told us what was in it. He even made it into a chili/salad combo so that Daniel could have a side dish. They were great. The milkshakes were made with Edy's ice cream, which we know is okay.

So the celiac thing went okay. But with all that fat, the blood sugar numbers were running high! We had a little scare when Daniel changed his site one day, and when he was trying to prime his pump, it gave the message "no delivery." He tried and retried a few times, and finally it worked. We didn't know what happened, but were happy that the pump was pumping, When we got home, this happened again, so we called minimed's technical assistance number. Daniel kept trying to get it to work while he was waiting on hold, and after about 10 minutes, it started to work again. When the technician came on the phone, she told us that it probably was not the pump (whew!). It is usually the case that there is a problem with the set, something that happens at the factory. Perhaps the lubricant didn't get all the way into the set, or the needle is bent. They have a set of steps to go through to find out exactly what the problem is. But they were nice, they sent us a couple of replacement sets, and if the problem happens again Daniel will go through the steps with the technician to find out what is wrong. I'm just glad it's not the pump!

Western North Carolina is beautiful. We visited plenty of waterfalls, saw wild elk, wild turkeys, hundreds of butterflies, and we hiked a lot of trails. And climbed a few. Nothing like a steep incline to get those leg muscles working! The scenery on the Blue Ridge parkway is gorgeous! My daughter and I had lots of fun checking out the arts & crafts as well! My friend Jeanne taught us a great family game (pegs and jokers), which was our fun activity every evening.

We even got to feed some burros, which lived near our cabin. They like carrots! All in all, it was a great trip.

cooooookie

Last year's gluten-free roll-out sugar cookies were, well... okay. Not fabulous. I found a recipe that made me happy because it rolled out so easily, yay! But the taste wasn't great. They were made with oil rather than butter, and I blame the oil.

I looked around on the internet for gf roll out cookie recipes, and found a few that looked good. I always look to Gluten Free Gobsmacked, Gluten Free Girl, Living Without Magazine, and a few others. GF Girl and Living Without had a similar recipe, so I gave one or the other of them a try. I can't remember which is which now. The dough is sitting in the fridge right now. It seems a bit too loose to roll out, though. *sigh*

The gluten-filled cookie baking has also started. The pistachio biscotti are cooling on the rack right now, and the dough for the gluten roll out cookies is also cooling. It is quite firm, and will roll out very well. I'll also be making almond biscotti, date balls (we call them Christmas crack, they are so addictive!), and perhaps some gingerbread, if there is time. I also found out that the Italian pignoli cookies, which are soooo yummy, are gluten free! Almond paste, sugar, confectioner's sugar, egg whites, pine nuts. I'd like to make those, too. Like most GF cookies, I think the shelf life is pretty short for these. I wonder if they freeze well...

The roads were clear enough today to get out of the house, and the snow plow cleared our road last night, so I was able to get out to the store. I stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up pistachios and pine nuts, flour and other goodies. They were cooking a baked bread pudding made out of their panettone bread. They added milk, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla... oh, it was yummy! They were also walking around handing out samples of their fruit filled chocolate truffles. I tried the pomegranite. MMMM.

Then, of course, I had to go to the "regular" grocery store to pick up supplies that were not available at Trader Joes -- gushers, which are Daniel's sugar of choice when his blood sugar goes low, cream cheese, and some spices. And in a few minutes I will go to YET ANOTHER grocery store -- the organic place -- where I can get more xanthan gum and some GF supplies. Wow, it would be so nice to have one store that sold all that stuff!

Okay, time to get the boots back on...

In a few minutes I have to go to the

Shopping, stuffing, Thanksgiving, gluten free!

I'm almost done shopping for this year's version of gluten-free thanksgiving. On the menu: turkey, cranberry sauce with oranges & red wine, wild rice & apricot stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, pumpkin pie, and chocolate cream pie. My mom is bringing the sweet potatoes.

I've only really made two major changes to the thanksgiving menu since making it gluten free. I don't do a bread stuffing anymore, and I had to de-gluten the pie crust recipe. I *could* do a bread stuffing with gluten-free bread. I really love the corn bread recipe in the Nearly Normal cookbook, and would happily make that into stuffing for the bird. Perhaps I will next year. But last year I tried out the recipe for the wild rice & apricot stuffing, and liked it so much that I want to repeat it. Here's how it goes:

In a large heavy saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add and cook for 3 - 5 minutes: 2 finely chopped onions, 2 stalks finely chopped celery, 5 cloves of minced garlic. When those ingredients have stirred around and gotten to know each other, add 16 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms and some chestnuts. How many chestnuts? I guess that depends on how much you like them. For years I got fresh chestnuts, roasted them, and wrestled the darned things out of their shells, cutting up my fingers in the process. Last year I bought a jar of peeled chestnuts. It was pricey, but it was my present to myself. I just did the same today, and my fingertips are already thanking me.

Anyway... stir all this stuff around for a few minutes, then add 2 1/2 cups chicken stock, and 2/3 cup orange juice. Bring to a boil. Stir in 2 cups long grain brown rice, 3/4 cup wild rice, and a teaspoon each of sage and thyme. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 35 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of chopped dried apricots and 1/4 cup craisins. Simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes more or until rice is tender. Add 3/4 cup pine nuts, slivered, toasted almonds, or pecan pieces, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, and a teaspoon of salt (to taste) and pepper (to taste).

You have to let this mixture cool completely before stuffing your turkey. When you baste the turkey while it is cooking, the juices flow through the wild rice stuffing, harmonizing all the flavors into happy eating for your family.

I make a carmelized onion gravy base for the turkey, and the great thing is that it can be made ahead of time. I'm off to do that now, along with other obligations, and have to stop typing. I will try to write about that later this weekend!

Soup's On!

The weather is getting cool, the leaves are falling... it's soup time! We've started enjoying this comfort food with come gluten free cornbread or a salad on the side. Make's a great meal! I just made a sausage lentil soup, but this soup can easily be made without meat for my vegetarian friends.

Sausage Lentil Soup

1 pound mild sausage (I used mild Italian, but any will do)
1 cup brown lentils, picked over & rinsed
1 cup red lentils, picked over & rinsed
8 cups chicken stock
2 large carrots, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 couple of ribs of celery, diced
2 T olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 T cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup red wine
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T lemon juice
2 T brown sugar

In a large pot or dutch oven, crumble the sausage and saute until brown in 1 T of the olive oil. Remove from pot and set aside. Add another tbsp. of oil, and saute the onion, carrots, celery, and salt until the onion is transparent. Add the lentils, chicken stock, pepper, cumin, garlic, and the cooked sausage, and bring to a boil. Simmer, cover, and cook for 1/2 hour. Add the diced tomatoes, wine, vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar. Simmer for another 15 minutes, or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

When I serve this, I will often put a dollop of sour cream or tsasiki or plain yogurt on top. YUM!

Gluten Free Bagels

I saw a recipe for Gluten Free Bagels in the Living Without magazine. Have I said before that I think that's an awful name for a magazine? How about Gluten Free and Fantastic!!! "Living Without" is such a downer. Anyway, I'm home with a sick child today and found myself with some free time, so I gave the bagel recipe a try. They turned out pretty good, and were actually relatively quick and easy to make.

It called for a multi-grain flour blend that was mixed with salt, flax meal, egg replacer, yeast, and xanthan gum. The dry ingredients were mixed with warm water, oil, cider vinegar, and honey.

The mixture, when it came together, was like an extremely sticky dough. But it wasn't too difficult to handle. You let it rise, then boil it (that's what makes it a bagel!) and then bake it.

I also recently found a new cream cheese flavor in the grocery store -- spinach & artichoke -- which was a very happy discovery! Daniel slathered some of that on his bagel... and then on his 2nd bagel... and was a happy teenager.

I don't want to get in trouble with Living Without by reprinting their stuff without permission. If anyone wants the exact recipe, drop me a comment and I'd be happy to send it to you.

GF Apple Muffins, GF Brownie bites!

I want to pass along a couple of recipes that I've made in the past week. The first one is for apple muffins. I had an excess of apples last weekend, and children asking for muffins, so we got out the grater and got to work.

When you are doing gluten free baking, you have to mix different flours together to create something that works like wheat flour. There are lots of recipes out there that call for a mixture of rice, tapioca, and potato flour, or something of the sort, plus some xanthan gum to hold everything together once it is baked. Any gluten free cookbook will give you a couple of different flour mixes, and you can pull some together for a recipe, or mix a big batch and keep it fresh in the freezer for when you need it. OR... you can go to the local health food store and pick up a bag of GF flour. Yes it is expensive. SO much more expensive than regular flour. But I always keep a bag or two handy, just in case I run out of the other stuff. Or if I have to travel. I use Pamela's flour mix, which I buy from Amazon.com. It's much cheaper there. I like it, but I find it can make my baked goods a bit heavy.

I also have a bag of Jules brand "Nearly Normal" flour mix. I also like that, but I find that it can make my baked goods kind of dry. My favorite thing to do, when I'm in a hurry, is to mix the two together. Probably 10 different kinds of flour in there, but what the heck, it tastes good!

So, back to the muffins. Here's what I did:

1 1/4 cup Pamela's flour mix
1/4 cup Jules Nearly Normal flour mix
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large apple, grated. I used Jonagold one time and Fuji the other.

Preheat oven to 350. Stir together the flours, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the mixed dry ingredients, alternating with the milk. Stir in the vanilla and the grated apple. Scoop into greased muffin tins, and bake for 18-20 minutes. Take them out and eat them up! They are approx. 20 carbs each.

I found a new recipe for GF brownies in a book by Robert Landolphi, called "Gluten Free Every Day." I found the book while cruising around Amazon, and it had some fun recipes listed that I wanted to try, like Parmesan Popover Bites, Sesame Encrusted Salmon with Tropical Mint Salsa, and more. But... we were out of GF desserts, so brownies came first.

The recipe called for an 8 x 11 pan. I don't have an 8 x 11 pan. I have an 8 x 8, and a 9 x 13, neither of which would work very well. So I had the bright idea to use my mini muffin pan instead, and make "brownie bites," and just keep an eye on the cooking time. HA. Well, they really looked great. But the darned things stuck. Yes, I did grease the pans! But 95% of them stuck to the bottom of the muffin tin, so I ended up taking the tops off, taking a knife around the edge of the rest of the brownie, and then gently reuniting top & bottom with a prayer that they'd stay together. It's a damned good thing they were delicious, after all of that. Next time I try to do brownie bites I'll either put the little papers in, or put less brownie in the tins so they don't pop up like muffin tops.

The cookbook calls for "Authentic Foods Multiblend Gluten Free Flour." I've never seen that particular brand around my stores. So I did my Pamela's/Jules mix again. Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8 x 11 inch pan.

3/4 cups butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Pamela's flour mix
1/2 cup Jules flour mix

This is so easy -- it's all done in one bowl. Put the chocolate and butter in a large microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon, then microwave for 1 minute more. Wait... that's what the book says. My butter was frozen, and I did 2 minutes the 1st time, stirred, then only 40 seconds the 2nd time because everything was almost melted. That's all I needed.

Stir until chocolate is melted & smooth. Stir in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour until blended. His recipe calls for optional walnuts which you can add at this point (1 cup), but I'm allergic to walnuts so I left them out.

Pour into prepared pan (or try your luck with mini muffin tins!!!). Bake for 40 to 45 minutes (I only did 18 minutes with the muffin tins) or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan. Cut into bars.

The brownies in the muffin tins ended up being 14 carbs each. That's another reason I like doing the muffin tins -- easy to count carbs that way.

Today has been pretty busy... lots of house chores and lots of cooking. What else is new? I'm going to finish my wine and prepare for tomorrow morning. More apple muffins are on the agenda.

Quinoa Salad

It all started when I came back from vacation and looked at my garden. The weeds were trying to take over, especially the terrible morning glory-ish vines that try to strangle everything. Rising triumphantly over the weeds, however, were my basil and parsley plants, which flourished in my absence. Maybe I should go away some more? In addition, Matt had gone to the farmer's market and picked up some luscious, weighty, ripe tomatoes. As lunchtime approached, I thought about quinoa salad.

Quinoa is a fabulous grain, and great for people with celiac because it is gluten free and for diabetics because the protein in the grain keeps it from spiking your blood sugar. Quinoa is a complete protein with lots of fiber. It is okay on its own, but I like to dress it up a little. Here's what I did:

1 cup red quinoa (I found this at my local health food store).
1 1/4 cup water
1 large, weighty, luscious, ripe tomato, diced
1/2 raw zucchini, diced
1/4 cup craisins
1 loose cup parsley
1/2 loose cup basil
juice of 1/2 juicy lemon
3 T balsamic vinegar
3 T olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup crumbed feta cheese

Boil the water in a medium sized pot. Pour in the quinoa and cover; simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, wait 5 minutes, then fluff & cool quinoa.

Put diced tomatoes, zucchini, and the craisins in a bowl. Finely chop the basil & parsley and put it into the tomato mizture. Toss in the cooled quinoa, and then toss in the lemon juice, vinegar, oil, and salt. Top with the feta cheese and serve.

This is a delicious power lunch, perfect for hot days!

A Break

I'm on spring break this week, and even though it doesn't match my kids' spring break schedules, it came at the right time. Teaching is a great job, but it drains you and those little breaks, the one day holidays or snow days really help get me through. But the nice long spring break is just what I needed to recharge the old batteries.

Of course, I still have to wake up early each day to get the kids off to school. And Nora was home sick with me the first two days of my break. And I've jammed doctor/dentist appointments into this time. But still.

Today is the first day that I'm on my own, no appointments, no sick kids (spit through fingers to ward off the evil eye). When Nora was home I cleaned out the closet in the boys' room and rearranged things somewhat. Filled up a huge bag of clothes that don't fit to pass along to friends. Nora has pleaded with me not to go through her room, that she'll do it herself. Little does she know that we have a date Saturday morning with the trash bag and the vacuum! Today I cleaned out and organized the entry closet, rearranged furniture, and am planning the cubby system for the kids' school things. The Container Store is calling me. I'm also going to cook.

One of my goals for this break was to make a couple of gluten-free foods that I think are waaaay overpriced in the stores that carry these items. Of course, GF flour is ridiculously expensive. There's one mix I buy, the Nearly Normal brand, that I like a lot, but the 4 pound bag costs $21. I wish GF foods fell under the prescription medicine umbrella! I think I read somewhere that it is possible to take the cost of these foods off your taxes as a medical expense (don't quote me on it) but you have to do some serious receipt saving and record keeping, which I haven't done. But sometimes when I'm balancing the checkbook and I see what I've spent at the grocery store, I get stressed.

Anyway, back to the GF foods. The two that I'm going to make this week are GF ravioli, and vegetarian & meat stuffed grape leaves. I don't have a pasta maker, but I do have one of those grid-looking things that is a ravioli press, so we'll see if that works for the GF dough. If not, I'll just hand-shape it. A tiny bag of gf ravioli is 8 dollars in the store, and the recipe I'm looking at makes 30 ravioli for much less than that.

The stuffed grape leaves look pretty easy to make, just a bit time consuming, and time is a precious resource. But they are an easy-to-pack food, which makes them great for school lunches.

The other day I made chicken tikka masala. I found a spice pack by Arora Creations with the recipe on the back (note the GLUTEN FREE, DIABETIC SAFE), so I gave it a try. It was totally delicious, but a little too spicey for the kids' liking. Next time I will use my own spices and turn down the heat a bit.

First you heat up some olive oil in a pan, and saute 1 minced medium onion, 1/2 cup minced ginger (thank goodness for those easy to use jars of minced ginger!), 4 cloved garlic (I always use more garlic) until light brown.





Here it is, cooking nicely and smelling DELICIOUS.









Then you add the spice pack, which has ground
sunflower seeds, coriander, pepper, cumin, chiles, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, salt, lemon oil, turmeric. I think that when I do it myself, I'll use the same spices, some fresh lemon (added at the end), and perhaps grind up some flax seeds for the fiber & omega 3.

You stir that all around for a couple of minutes until it gets really fragrant.







Next you add an 8oz can of tomato sauce and let
that simmer for a couple of minutes. Then you add the chicken and cook, stirring, for 8 - 10 minutes.










Finally, you add 3/4 cup water, stir once, then
cover and cook for 8 - 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro. Serve over hot rice.


I was going to take a picture of it all pretty on the plate with the cilantro and rice, but it smelled so good and we were so hungry...







On another note, Daniel has been complaining of a low grade stomach ache this past week, sort of since he was glutened by the Milky Way candies. I also bought a bag of mini snickers (which he had at Halloween and he was fine) and mini Reeses peanut butter cups, which have been fine in the past. He wants to give it another week before I call the doctor and start with rounds of invasive tests. I also told him to write down absolutely everything he eats & drinks to see if we can find out what is going on.

Okay. Off to make pasta dough.

Busy Week!!

Wow. It's been such a busy week. A couple of my co-workers were out this week, which makes it stressful in the office. Too much to do, too few people to do it, you know the drill. Kind of tough to get out of bed in the mornings!



Wednesday Dominic tested for and earned his green belt in karate. YAY!! At some point I'll upload a little video. Then I had yoga class, and we did some serious abs work. Lie on your back, legs up at 90 degrees, then lower to 45 degrees, breathe... breathe... lower slowly to the ground. SLOWLY! Over and over. I'm happy I didn't clunk to the ground, but I'm not holding it at 45 degrees as well as I used to. There's homework for me.

Thursday Daniel had his endo appointment in the morning. The pope was in DC and maybe that's the reason traffic was so awful! I'm glad we left early to go to the appointment; even though we were in the suburbs it seemed like everyone and their twelve cousins were on the road. AGH! Then, when we got to the office, it was just jammed with people. I was pleasantly surprised when we were called in only 8 minutes after appointment time.

Daniel's A1c was up a little to 7.3, but I expected as much with the highs he's been having lately. He has been getting consistently high around dinner/bed time. Today was a perfect example. His numbers were great today -- 72 breakfast, 104 after breakfast, 75 lunch, 110 after lunch, then 330 dinner. AGH! We decided to switch his lantus to a morning shot to see if that helps. So tonight is a round-the-clock testing/novolog night for us as we switch over the a morning shot.

Thursday afternoon I had my casting call for the new Emeril Lagasse show that will air on Planet Green (called Emeril Green). I met a totally cool woman named Hadley who read a prepared statement about the show, then turned on a camera and asked me a few questions about my cooking challenge (type 1 diabetes & celiac), about me, about a funny food story... she even got me to sing on camera so I probably totally screwed up any chance of them picking me (PICK ME!!! PICK ME!!!) but it was a lot of fun, in any case. If I do get picked, they would need me for 3 days. First they come to your house (GASP!) to do a little interview about your food issue. The next day you are filmed going shopping at Whole Foods to buy the ingredients for your food challenge. The next day you go to the Whole Foods demonstration kitchen & make the food. Or I guess Emeril makes it for you and you get to taste.

Hadley asked what would be the one food I'd like him to create, and I chose to-go foods. That is one of our most difficult things, and I tend to get in a rut about it. School lunches, packing to go on car trips, going to friends houses & needing gluten free food... Yeah, I can do it, but I think it all ends up the same. I'd like to introduce some variety.

So we'll see! They are sending out all the videotapes of the people interviewed to the production company for review next week, and I'll find out the week afterwards if I have been chosen.

PICK ME!

Thursday night was International Night at Nora's school. She chose to do a display on Saudi Arabia (with daddy's help). We brought along a bunch of stuff from our time there -- coffee pot, chicken basket, books, flag, head gear, and sheets on the alphabet. Matt was there to write people's names in Arabic, if they so desired. We brought dates to represent the food, although they were California dates. Not quite the same. Nora got to dress in a Kenyan outfit for the fashion show. Of course I forgot my camera. DUH! Dominic came with me and discovered that at the Israel display they were giving away Israeli chocolate treats. (Hummus and pita, too, but he turned his nose up at that.) I almost needed to hog-tie him to get him away from there!

Today at work the school nurse was out, along with quite a few other people in the office. We were a skeleton crew. I had to cover for the nurse today. Within the space of an hour I had one child crying over swollen glands (allergy attack), one with a nosebleed, one sporting a jammed thumb, and one with an itchy rash. After all that, monitoring the insulin shot for our one diabetic child was easy!!

Just after lunch Nora calls to say, "Can I go to the no-referral party after school today?" That's a party for kids who haven't gotten in trouble over the last grading period. "Sure," I reply.

"Okay. Then you need to bring a picnic blanket, a frisbee, and a snack when school is out."

WHAT? So much for getting my grocery shopping done before the kids get home.

Tonight I planned to make gluten free almond macaroons for Passover dinner at my mom's house tomorrow. I found a recipe that called for almond paste, egg whites, sugar, & almond extract. Pretty easy & all done in the cuisinart. I made the first batch and was well into the second batch when I went to count up the carbs from all the ingredients. That's when I saw on the almond paste box that it had wheat starch in it. I almost started to cry.

But I finished up the 2nd batch of cookies, went on line and found another recipe that called just for almond flour, confectioner's sugar, egg whites, vanilla (thanks, Martha Stewart) and made those. They turned out pretty good, and are 9.5 carbs each.

They're cooled off now, and it's time to put them away.

And tomorrow is another day.