Category Archives: Sides

Pretending It’s Spring

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There’s not much more we can do, really.

Well, besides maybe whine and complain. But I think we’ve already tried that and it didn’t work.

So all that’s left is…pretending.

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We woke up this morning to eight inches of new snow. Yep.

And we’re supposed to get six to ten more inches before the day is over. It’s snowing heavily right now at 2:30 in the afternoon, so I’m going to assume the weather forecast was correct. Luckily snow is beautiful. Can you imagine if we had to endure months and months of something ugly falling out of the sky every year? See, it’s not hard to find something in this weather to be thankful for. I’ll hang on to that and keep pretending that this will all melt next week and it will warm up to at least the high 50′s so I can start working in the yard.

Today I made Tony and I a colorful lunch to help us get through the pretending of spring.

This whips up very quickly (maybe 10 minutes at the most) and serves two. We had about a cup leftover. Perfect for a bed for an egg “sunny” side up in the morning.

Warm Spring Salad

Organic Olive Oil

1 Chicken Sun Dried Tomato & Basil Sausage (I used Alfresco), sliced lengthwise then chopped

1 Small Organic Onion

About 1/2 Cup Organic Red & Orange Bell Pepper, sliced

About 1 Cup Organic Broccoli Florets, sliced

Large Handful Organic Baby Kale, chopped

Large Handful Organic Baby Spinach, chopped

1 Can Organic Black Beans, rinsed & drained

Blackberry Ginger Balsamic Vinaigrette

Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the sausage, onion, pepper, and broccoli until sausage is lightly browned and vegetables are al dente. Add the black beans, kale, spinach, and toss until kale and spinach wilt. Season with salt and pepper and a few splashes of your favorite vinaigrette.

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Staying Fueled

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This is my latest easy, go-to snack, that I’m somewhat obsessed with. It’s simple because most of it is already made for me. All I add is a drizzle of olive oil and rice wine vinegar with herbs. It’s packed full of protein and vegetables, it’s filling, and it makes for a delicious snack or lunch salad.

It amazes me that Trader Joe’s is such a tiny, little store, yet almost every time I go, I find something new! Before I found the ingredients for this salad, it was the to-die-for buffalo mozzarella. I love Trader Joe’s. And I didn’t think I would because it’s so small. Now I’ve discovered that I’m a bit spoiled because it’s only 20 minutes from my house. When we move to New Hampshire, I will have to drive 45 minutes to find the nearest Trader Joe’s. But believe me, that certainly won’t stop me!

All this lovely salad takes to make is Trader Joe’s Healthy 8 Chopped Veg Mix and their Balela  salad, a drizzle of olive oil and a drizzle of rice wine vinegar with herbs. That’s it. The chopped veggie mix is pretty much self-explanatory and the Balela salad has chickpeas, black beans, tomatoes, olive oil, and herbs. Mixed together, they create a little bowl of heaven.

Out With The Old, In With The New!

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Vegetable Pakora Lunch

Quite yummy but maybe being a bit overshadowed by those gorgeous organic strawberries…

I am quickly learning that until our house sells, I pretty much cannot commit to a whole heck of a lot. I kind of just have to wake up and greet the day and whatever happens, happens. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to make plans. You would think I would learn. Ha!

Last night I had visions of a glorious day in the kitchen baking and frosting sugar cookies and trying to see if I could come up with a savory pumpkin boule. I convinced myself, and then posted it on Facebook (pretty much jinxing myself) that I was going to get up, take the dogs on a beautiful walk and then spend the entire day in the kitchen doing basically whatever I pleased.

I managed the walk, which was nice. But never got around to the baking. This morning my husband “parted ways” with our realtor. There were a lot of valid reasons but the icing on the cake was that we had an open house two days in a row last weekend and they listed our house in the local newspaper at the wrong price. Yep. And of course the deadline was Friday so it couldn’t be changed or cancelled. So we spent the only two days my husband was home carting animals back and forth and waiting for the open houses to be over. And guess how many people showed up? Zilch. Zero. Nada. No big surprise since the price was wrong and we weren’t even catering to people in our price range. It was quite frustrating and actually made me want to just sit in a heap and cry…or strangle someone. I did neither. We sucked it up and dealt with our weekend like big people. But it wasn’t easy.

So! Out with the old and in with the new! We hired a new Realtor who started working for us immediately. The house will be back on the market on Friday.

I meet with our new Realtor tomorrow so he can take pictures of the house and I can fill out all of the necessary paperwork. Instead of sugar cookies and beautiful pumpkin bread dancing through my head, I had to don work gloves and clean the house and mow the lawn. Oh well, such is life. My expanding hips probably didn’t need sugar cookies and bread anyway…

I did manage to make myself some lunch. I don’t typically buy pre-packaged foods… but have you been down the frozen isles in Trader Joe’s?  H-O-L-Y   C-O-W…how I envy those of you who can eat whatever you please. It’s probably a good thing that I can’t eat 98% of what they sell or I would be gorging myself on perogi, lasagna, cheese tamales, baby frozen quiche, death by chocolate cake, cheese cake, and all kinds of frozen little delights I’ve never even heard of. I did happen to run across one thing I could try. Vegetable Pakoras. They are basically vegetable fritters but with an Indian kick. They are quite yummy and made for a very nice and quick lunch!

They are vegan and as far as I could tell from the ingredient list, gluten-free. However, they are processed in a plant with other gluten items. So if you are that sensitive…I would steer clear. So far I feel fine, but I will be sure to let you know in the morning if I wake up stiff and headachey.

I was also able to finally find real buffalo mozzarella at Trader Joe’s! I was so thrilled I was sad that I was shopping by myself and there was no one there to jump up and down with me. I think I actually gasped out loud when I saw it tucked in among the goat cheese containers. However, I did refrain from jumping up and down. I surprised my husband with a pepperoni pizza lunch the first day he was back in town.

The buffalo milk didn’t bother my stomach at all, tasted wonderful, and melted like regular mozzarella cheese. It was heavenly.

Well, as I sit here eating a rather dull dinner and dreaming of pizza (a plate of black re-fried beans with Daiya cheese and Tabasco) …I still have bathrooms to clean and it’s already 7:45. I wanted to check in with you all and make sure you knew I hadn’t forgotten about you.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! ~ April

Finally Time For a Home Cooked Meal

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Life has been absolutely crazy around here. Tony is traveling and changing time zones twice a week, and the house viewing traffic is picking up dramatically. That last part is a good thing, but it puts us in the position of having to be able to leave our house quickly. That makes it very hard to cook a real meal.

This is a very unhappy Chloe, stuck in a crate at my mom’s house while we wait for people to finish a walk through at our house. She’s not quite as happy as Romeo and Abigail to be at Grandma’s house.

I’ve been trying to make this dish since Thursday and finally on Sunday night, even though we were completely exhausted after having five viewings of our house over the past three days, I forced myself to make a decent dinner. Please forgive the pictures…I wasn’t going to even blog about it but Tony asked if I was taking pictures and was sweet enough to run upstairs and get my camera. The recipe will also be one of those “about this much” recipes, unfortunately. I didn’t write anything down, but you all are so smart and amazing in the kitchen, I know you won’t have any trouble making your own version.

Waiting at Grandma’s house for “kitty, kitty” the new kitten to come out and play with her. Penelope, my mother’s other cat is just around the corner growling and hissing at Chloe in the crate.

Lately we’ve been living on Jimmy John’s un-which sandwiches, black bean salad, gluten-free organic hot dogs and chili, cereal more cereal, peanut butter toast, and Red Robin’s California chicken sandwiches. Did you know they now carry gluten-free buns and will make your fries in a separate fryer from gluten items? We are addicted. Next time I eat one I’ll take a picture for you. And the tartar sauce (which is gluten-free & dairy free)…so delicious and addictive I should probably just be slathering it on my thighs because I’m sure that’s right where it goes after it leaves my mouth.

Tony stayed home an extra day today to take advantage of a motorcycle track day. The kind of track day that makes me cringe and I have to remind him that I really don’t want to know how fast he went and how many people had to be hauled off in an ambulance. He left early this morning, so this is what a lazy Sunday looks like for some of us…not me of course, I have a whole list of things to do!

Yes, we allow them to lounge on the furniture…

I’m used to cooking whole meals at least four days a week and baking something delicious at least twice a week. But lately, our new way of  living on “whatever is easy and doesn’t make the house smell weird” is getting to me. It’s leaving me feeling unsatisfied and rather unhealthy.

So last Wednesday while I was lying in bed wide awake at 2:30 in the morning because we’ve had a weird rash of car break-ins in our neighborhood, the recipe for Italian Sausage & Pesto Roll Ups was born. Maybe a little bit of fear does help with creativity? Or maybe it was the fact that I was sleeping with my gun and that enabled me to calm my mind enough to think about food. Either way, I also had to figure out when exactly I could find the time to actually make the recipe that was making my stomach growl and getting me excited for real food.

I tried Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to make this meal and it seemed like the dinner God’s were against me. And even though we had two more showings on Saturday, I managed to squeeze in a small nap and muster the energy to cook a nice meal on Saturday night, throwing caution to the wind and not caring if our house smelled like garlic and pesto on Sunday morning. I even managed to make an easy Kalamata olive & garlic loaf.

Italian Sausage & Pesto Roll-Ups

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees

About a pound of gluten-free, dairy-free Italian Sausage

Hot Pepper Flakes, I like my sausage spicy

Homemade Vegan Pesto

1 Large Block of Sheep’s Milk Cheese, I buy mine in the white and blue container at Trader Joe’s

About 2 Tablespoons Fresh Oregano

About 2 Tablespoons Fresh Basil

Freshly Ground Pepper

About 1/2 Cup Diaya Mozzarella Style Shreds

About 2 Tablespoons Dairy Free Parmesan Style Cheese

1 Jar Ready-Made Pasta Sauce, I used Newman’s Marinara, or homemade of course

1 Package Gluten Free Lasagna Noodles, cooked aldente (follow pkg instructions), rinsed, and separated immediately

Cook pasta, rinse, separate, and set aside. Fry the Italian sausage and pepper flakes (to your taste) until done, drain fat, set aside.

Drain the sheep’s cheese and place the entire block in a mixer. Add the fresh herbs, other two cheeses, and the fresh herbs. Mix on medium until it comes together and begins to look somewhat sticky. I was also going to add 1/2 cup chopped spinach to this mixture but forgot!

Oil a 9×9 inch square baking dish with olive oil. Spoon a small amount of sauce over the bottom of the dish. Set aside.

Lay out a lasagna noodle on your work surface. Spread either with a knife or the back of a spoon about 1 to 1/2 Tablespoons of the pesto along the entire noodle. Add about 2 Tablespoons (or so) of the cheese mixture to the end of the noodle nearest you, add about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the sausage, and roll up, tucking in any filling that falls out of the sides as you go. Place the roll upright in the prepared pan. Continue until you have used all of your fillings.

Once the pan is full, pour the remaining sauce over the top, spreading with a spoon. Sprinkle with a little more of the mozzarella style cheese and the parmesan style cheese. Oil a piece of aluminum foil and cover.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes covered, remove foil, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Kalamata Olive & Garlic Loaf

With this recipe, I made two small plain loaves and 1 medium olive and garlic loaf. I simply separated the dough and took out the plain loaves first, then added the ingredients for the olive and garlic loaf.

1 Box Gluten Free Pantry French Bread Mix (make using directions on back of box)

Kalamata Olives, about 15 sliced in half lengthwise

Garlic Cloves, about 8 sliced in half lengthwise

About 1 1/2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano

1 Egg for Brushing

I wasn’t in the mood to run to the basement to fetch my french bread pan, so I simply lined a baking sheet with parchment paper. It works just fine, but the loaves spread out a bit.

Depending on how you want to separate the dough, do that part first, leaving the amount of dough that you want to use for the olive and garlic loaf in the mixer. Then, add the olives, garlic, and oregano and mix until combined.

Dollop and spread it on the baking sheet or in the french bread pan, brush with whisked egg, and cover with oiled plastic. Allow to rise for about 40 minutes in a warm place

Bake for about 30 minutes (I use convection). You may need to cover lightly with foil if it begins to brown too quickly.

Fried Chicken Livers & Smashed Potatoes with Pan Gravy

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A meal like this is just where all of those bacon drippings you’ve been hoarding come in handy. You do that too, right?

This is how I keep my bacon drippings in the fridge. It lasts a very, very, long time and then you always have it handy for those special occasions when you’re making something extra delicious.

You MUST have a splatter lid when frying the chicken livers. Number one, because it makes clean up of your stove much easier, and number two and most importantly, because you do not want exploding chicken liver all over your kitchen ceiling. You need a splatter guard, which is a mesh screen, because if you cover the liver with a lid, it won’t crisp.

When you flip the livers, hold the screen in front of you and your face. Hot bacon grease and exploding chicken liver is painful.

Fried Chicken Livers

1 Container of Chicken Livers, organic if possible, rinsed

Organic Almond Milk

1 Organic Egg

Mama’s All Purpose Almond Flour

Organic Garlic Powder

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Bacon Grease/Drippings (from all natural bacon)

First, let’s remind ourselves that this is a special meal. An indulgence meal…I only make it about once a year. So we won’t be counting calories or worrying about our hips and thighs. We will simply enjoy the comfort and memories of childhood that these types of meals bring with them.

Melt a generous amount of bacon grease in a large skillet. I used about two heaping serving spoons full.

In a medium dish or dinner plate, add about 1 cup or so of the flour and generously season with the garlic powder, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Remember, it’s just a dredge so the majority of the coating stays on the plate. You want what ends up stuck to the liver to be flavorful!

Pour about 1/2 cup almond milk into a cereal sized bowl and whisk in the egg.

Once the bacon grease is heated on medium to medium high, dip each chicken liver into the milk and egg mixture and then into the flour mixture. Coat well, shake off, and lay carefully into the bacon grease.

Cover with the splatter shield. Allow to brown thoroughly before flipping. I would say about 6-7 minutes on each side or more, depending on the heat in your pan.

Smashed Potatoes with Pan Gravy

Both the smashed potatoes (basically the lazy cousin of the mashed potato) and the pan gravy are a no brainer. I’ll just give you the ingredients that I used. You can go here for pan gravy instructions if you’ve never made it. It’s SO easy!

Organic Yukon Gold Potatoes, skin on

Almond Milk

Dairy Free Butter

Kosher Salt

For the pan gravy:

Leave drippings in the pan

Mama’s All Purpose Almond Flour

Dairy Free Butter

Organic Chicken Broth

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

A Slice of Life – My Corner of The World

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Yesterday was heavenly. I decided to set aside my “to-do” list and just really focus on enjoying the day. I spent the majority of it outside. As you may have read (a thousand times) in earlier blogs, we have been waiting a very long time for summer weather. Well, it’s finally here and I want to soak up every possible minute of it. Plus, sometime soon, our life is going to get very busy, hectic, and even more stressful than it is right now. I want to enjoy our little “sanctuary” in the backyard before we move.

I sat out in the yard, sunned myself, and read for a while. This is one of the books I’m currently reading:

Have you ever read her books? They are based out of South Carolina in the “low country”. I love books about the south. They are amazingly comfortable and soothing, and make me daydream about living in a rich, flamboyant, atmosphere filled with southern tradition. I haven’t read a book of hers that I didn’t like.

While I was reading, I also sipped on this, because it was quite hot yesterday…in the low 90′s. I just simply added a scoop of the Lemon Sorbet I made a couple of days ago to a glass full of spring water and ice. Wonderfully refreshing!

After I read for a while I spent more than two hours on the phone with my husband’s sister, Alysia, catching up on life in my neck of the woods and hers. We don’t talk all that often, so when we do, it’s usually a phone marathon.

After I hung up, I thought, “I should probably do a load of laundry and run upstairs and make the bed…” But I stopped myself. Nope! Today is a NON “to-do” list day. You will go outside and enjoy the weather!  And I did.

I ran across this bible study on the internet and it arrived two days ago. I really love to learn about why we are the creatures we are and how our bodies work. It’s good to learn about yourself and feed your mind and soul. But I don’t have to tell you that, do I? I think that people who blog already have that figured out. We love to learn from others who blog, see what they are experiencing in their lives, and share a bit of our own world.

I already know quite a bit about PMS and Perimenopause after working for a Naturopath for several years. Plus, I somehow was flung into the whole perimenopause thing when I was nearing my 39th birthday. Fun, fun. I love to arm myself with knowledge. I don’t like to treat symptoms without knowing the why’s and how’s and how I might manage things naturally. I bought this study because it was the first time that I had seen someone approach such a touchy subject for so many women (92% of women suffer from severe PMS and Perimenopause symptoms) that not only dealt with the medical aspects but also with the spiritual. We are feeling, emotional, living, beings after all. It only makes sense.

As I lounged in the yard I looked over at Abigail and for the millionth time, I reminded myself how thankful I am for loving pets in our life! They ask for so little and want to give so much. Abigail is always right by my side, just patiently waiting to see what I will do next, ready to assist me in her sweet little way and follow me from task to task.

Romeo was inside, lounging in air-conditioned comfort. He had quite enough of the bees chasing him around.

So basically, that was the majority of my day. Yep, I sat in the yard and soaked up the summer pretty much all day long. 

A little visit with our son in the evening also blessed my day. He warmed my heart yesterday when he told me he wanted to “surprise” his Dad with a little something. My husband has already taken the job back east so he has been having to travel extensively. Life is stressful when you have to change time zones twice a week and are only home for about a day and a half. We have a motorcycle trailer that needs to be sold before we move, but it needs a little work. Of course my husband’s hectic schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of time to be spent on things like that. And that type of thing is way out of my realm of expertise. Brandon wants to spruce it up for him and put it up for sale as a surprise because he knows how busy his Dad is. I thought his suggestion was loving and thoughtful and frankly, it made an almost perfect day, absolutely perfect.

He’ll be over today to work on it. So I will pause for now…and add a bit more later today. I plan on making this day an extension of yesterday. A little cleaning and “to-do” list things here and there maybe, but otherwise, I’m just going to embrace the day and take it a minute at a time and see what it has to offer.

This was my breakfast this morning. A simple breakfast to go along with my easy-going day. It’s half of an Udi’s bagel with organic almond butter and my Aunt Judy’s (she’s really my husband’s aunt, but I have adopted her as my own) unbelievably delicious, homemade, strawberry jam.

I also made an organic vegetable salad to munch on for the next couple of days. The weather is hot and as much as I know I need to start whittling down that organic meat in the freezer…I just haven’t been feeling like making a big to do about dinner for me, myself, and I. A salad is just right.

Getting the trailer ready…he’s so resourceful! How do you just “know” how to wire things and what to buy and how to do it?

He has always been a fixer and loves to create things in the garage. When he was little he built a sprinkler system in his sandbox. Seriously. All the tubing and everything. All he had to do was screw a hose to it and it was a sprinkler system for his sand box army base.

He was born with computer knowledge and has been doing computer repair work on the side for years…and he just turned 20. When he was in the 5th grade, my paper shredder died. He took the entire thing apart, rewired it, put it back together and it worked like new. Since he was in middle school, he has been our computer and technology guru. He wires things for us – new lighting, cable, he was the one who set up our entire television system with all of it’s boxes and speakers and whatever it’s called, while I stood there handing him tools that he pointed to, that I didn’t even know the names of.

Two weeks ago, he completely rewired and re-plumbed my mother’s sprinkler system. He’s amazing…if I do say so myself. And believe me, he didn’t get these skills from his father and I!

Like a lot of young people, he’s a carb addict. So to thank him for his hard work on his Dad’s trailer, I baked him a delicious pan of corn bread that he could slather with honey and butter. You can find the recipe here. 

This is the cornbread I was telling you about this morning, Smidge. To. Die. For.

Sometimes we just absolutely need to set certain things aside temporarily so we can truly appreciate life. We all have our responsibilities but let’s be truthful, a lot of things that take up our time can really be saved for another day.

The little things in life are sometimes what have the most impact. Like taking the time to enjoy the weather and read in your back yard. Learning something new. Being thankful that you have a loyal pet by your side to love on. Sitting in the garage for the afternoon and watching your “grown” son work on a surprise for his Dad. Just taking life minute by minute instead of rushing, rushing, rushing… and instead, being thankful for every little thing and savoring each slice of life.

A Mish Mash of Life

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Roasting a chicken at 9:30 AM in 90 degree weather…why not?

I’ve been addicted to these three seasonings lately.

We do have central air conditioning, but with several days in a row of very hot weather, even the air conditioner let’s out a sigh of relief when I am able to shut it down and open the windows after dark. I can’t complain about the weather, other than I don’t like having the house closed up during the day. I love the sun and love the heat. The dogs have been rather lazy though and I’ve had to coax them outside to get some sun and fresh air. Seems they’ve become a little spoiled in the cool house.

The reason I’m roasting a chicken at breakfast is because upon returning home from our camping trip, I realized that we have a freezer full of organic meat. What’s wrong with that you ask? Well, if our house sells quickly (God willing!) we won’t be able to take it with us because only a minimal amount will fit in our trailer freezer as we trek across the country from Washington to New Hampshire. And as I’m sure you know, organic meat is not cheap. My poor husband is only home for two dinners a week lately if that, so if the house sells “quickly” the math doesn’t add up if I keep making myself toast for dinner while he’s gone. So I decided yesterday that I would roast a chicken so I could have roast chicken and vegetables for lunch and then use the remainder of the chicken for “other” dishes throughout the week while he’s gone. And of course, maybe a little special snack or two for the pups. Then I’ll have to force myself to make a proper dinner instead of toast or crackers and goat cheese at least a few times a week so I can whittle down our freezer meats and fish .

So as I mentioned, we are selling our house…we haven’t had any bites yet. A lot of people have looked at it on various websites, but no offers have come in and no one has been by to look at it! The Realtor assures us it’s because of the wonky weekends around the 4th of July holiday with people traveling and such. He assured us that because we priced it reasonably it will sell within 60 days. It’s only been 13 days, so maybe I’m being a little hyper… I’d like to believe him but my inner, anxiety ridden, worrier mechanism that I try to beat down and keep at a low murmur, thinks differently. We’ll see. I would really rather not move across the country in the middle of the winter.

I’m trying of course to see this entire thing as the huge blessing that it is. The move is exciting, buying a new home is exciting, seeing and experiencing new things is very exciting. But the details and keeping the house spotless at all times, and the thinking, thinking, thinking, and not knowing…that part is highly annoying! So this morning, I’m throwing caution to the wind. I sit here still in my pajamas with raccoon circles under my eyes because I was too lazy to remove my mascara last night after a Home Owner’s Association meeting from hell, my feet are up on the stool next to me while I type, and my house is not spotless. See how rebellious I am? (ha) If I have to clean at the speed of lightning and rush out of here like my hair is on fire with dogs and cat in tow so someone can look at our house, then so be it. Today, I’m doing what I want to do. Which so far hasn’t amounted to a whole heck of a lot!

I mentioned up above that we recently returned from a camping trip. It was amazingly relaxing. My husband and I both knew we needed it, but I don’t think we knew how much we really needed it. We were in bed by 10:00 every night, slept in until 7:00 every morning. I usually hop out of bed around 4:30 or 5:00 each morning, so I guess I needed those extra few hours! The sleep was blissful. The rest was blissful. The scenery was gorgeous, the bird and the water sounds were like salve to my soul. I only made it home with one mosquito bite. Life is good.

And the sun and heat. Oh. My. Goodness. We’ve endured a long, wet, winter and spring and waited a long time for the sun to finally show itself.

We were able to sit in the evenings in front of our trailer and watch Osprey hunt in the water, watch swarms of birds fly around feasting on the evening bugs, and were even able on a couple of occasions to get a good look at a Bald Eagle. On our last morning, just up from the end of our trailer a mama deer trusted us enough to allow us a look at her new fawn. It was adorable. Bouncing around and enjoying the morning. My camera had broken the day before…so no pictures of mama and baby. More about that later.

Of course for us, food is a big part of camping. I didn’t take pictures of everything and didn’t write down recipes for my food or my mother in law’s, but this will give you an idea of what we were enjoying.

These are Cecelia’s pickled onions from thekitchensgarden. I used rice vinegar, peppercorns, thyme, rosemary, and garlic cloves to season mine. And by the way, I love her blog. I look forward to it every morning and it’s the first one I look for out of about 30 that I follow. Take a look through some of her posts and read her About Me section, and you’ll soon understand why I look forward to it every day.

This is a typical macaroni salad, except mine is made with gluten-free pasta and olive oil mayo. Make sure you make extra dressing if you’re not going to serve it immediately. Then, stir in the reserved dressing right before serving.

These are organic, gluten-free and dairy free, handmade sausages from one of our local specialty stores. I was not impressed. But then again, when the butcher assured me they were gluten-free and dairy free and I asked for two of the chicken and jalapeno sausages he said, “Now those have jalapeno, is that gluten?” Yikes. I wanted to snort and roll my eyes, but I didn’t. I asked kindly if I could look at their ingredient list.

This is a cherry pie, of course. I wasn’t extremely impressed with it either. I haven’t made a pie in a very long time and it seems I’ve gotten a bit rusty. Looks like I will have to bake a nice pie once a week until I can get it right and get my mojo back. I didn’t hear anyone argue with that logic.

This is a Namaste brownie. It’s by far the best allergen free brownie mix I’ve tried. And I have tried a few! You can freeze them and they are just as delicious as when they are fresh.

This is one of my favorite summer cocktails. Meyer’s Dark Rum, Knudsen’s all natural Tangerine Spritzer, the juice of 1/2 Clementine, and the juice of 1/2 Lemon. I call it the Yummy Rummy.

This is my homemade creamy sheep’s milk cheese salad dressing. When you can’t eat dairy, a creamy salad dressing on your greens is heavenly every once in a while. It’s just sheep’s milk cheese, olive oil mayo, rice vinegar, ground pepper, and any seasoning you like. This time I used the Bragg’s seasoning I pictured above and dill.

I also made another dressing/spread that I called creamy pesto. It was just a few spoonfuls of homemade pesto, olive oil mayo, and lemon juice. It was incredible both as a salad dressing and a spread. Unfortunately I was so intent on eating it, I didn’t get a photo.

This is my mother in law’s meat spaghetti sauce on top of gluten-free noodles. Her sauce is wonderful. Rich and flavorful and making me wish I had some right now! I wasn’t lying when I said I hadn’t accomplished much today. It’s now 6:30 PM and I am just adding photos to the post. I did manage to get out of my jammies and remove the raccoon look though. I also did some laundry, and squeezed in a little nap. It was a heavenly day…

This is just one of many delicious lunches we enjoyed. A BLT with avocado, red onion, and creamy pesto spread.  The salad has a mixture of the creamy dressing and homemade thousand island dressing I made. You can Google the thousand island, it’s so easy! That’s my favorite gluten-free beer.

We took Chloe camping with us for the first time. It will be a good precursor for the trip back east. It wasn’t as weird or as difficult as I thought it was going to be.

Evidently, this particular cigar has received the highest rating ever for a cigar. I know absolutely nothing about cigars, but my husband assures me this is true information. And no, that is not my hairy arm! This is just one of many cigars my husband was able to enjoy on his much-needed vacation.

Here he is, kicked back and enjoying an evening of chatting with his parents. I can’t quite believe we will be married 21 years on the 25th of July. Time goes by so quickly! I am truly blessed and thankful that he is mine.

Every morning I woke up to this out of our bedroom door, which we left open every night so we could hear nature and see the moon and stars. Wonder what the view is like from up there?

The only bummer of our trip was that my camera broke right when we headed into Lake Chelan (about 60 miles from where we were camping in Winthrop, WA) on our third day. I’m sure you’ve noticed that some of my pictures above are not exactly up to par. Something was wrong with my shutter and as I was getting my camera ready and experimenting, I was only able to get these two shots right as we got out of the car. And then it wouldn’t work. (Enter sad violin music here…)

After this last photo, the camera completely seized up. Certainly makes you appreciate the finer things in life. The little pocket Kodak is not quite the same experience.

Lake Chelan is absolutely gorgeous. The water is deep blue and you can see right through it to the light-colored sand below. It’s a 50 mile long, glacier fed lake. Just gorgeous. I could have taken so many wonderful pictures for you! But such is life. I guess it’s a good reminder that we probably depend on these gadgets instead of memory far too much. So for now, I will have to live with our little pocket Kodak until my camera is repaired.

We toured around the town for a bit, ate lunch, and then went wine tasting at a few of the local wineries. If I couldn’t take pictures…then my next agenda was to sample a lot of wine and do some stocking up of west coast wines before we make the big move. And stock up, I did. From Tsillan Winery, Lake Chelan Winery, and one of my all time favorites, Lost River Winery. I hope I make friends quickly in our new home, my husband doesn’t drink. If not, my posts might take on a new look if I have to drink all this on my own!

Well, the day has sped by and it is now 6:41 PM. I think I’ll head out into the yard and mill around. It has dropped from 94 to 93 so it doesn’t look like we are going to get much of a reprieve from the heat until later tonight. I’m tired of the house being shut up tight, so I’ll open it up and just be thankful that summer is finally here.

I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing Independence Day!

Sunday Dinner

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Sunday is my favorite day of the week.

I’m not sure what it is about it really, but I love it. Maybe it’s because we are saying goodbye to the week behind us, which was hopefully successful and peaceful, and preparing to say hello to the week ahead. Sundays are usually a slower day for us. We try to squeeze in a little more time with each other, hang out with the dogs, mill around the house and yard, I usually make a nice dinner and bake something for dessert, and then we just soak in the last day of the weekend. This weekend seemed to go slower than usual, which was an extra bonus.

I ran across this little guy while I was watering. They are so diligent. I’m sure in a day or two the wind or my cat’s tail will come along and de-construct the web. He’ll have to move along and find a better place. Right now, he’s just soaking up the sun like the rest of us.

 Loving the Lilacs. Cut a large bouquet for the dining room table and they are filling the whole house with the smell of spring.
After milling around the yard a little I set my mind to doing some more organizing and “streamlining” things for the big move. Tony was out and about taking his last H1 level hang gliding class so I had a little time on my hands to tackle our ever-growing “to do” list. I’m not a hoarder at all, but I still seem to manage to keep a few things I don’t really need. I went through closets, under bathroom cupboards, the pantry, and was able to purge quite a bit that we certainly don’t need to drag all the way across the country with us.
I am not typically a sitter, I’m usually a do-er. Someone who needs to feel that I’ve at least accomplished a few worthwhile things throughout my day. Occasionally, if my to-do list has been tackled, I don’t mine lying around reading a book or spending my day in the kitchen baking or cooking, it’s not like I don’t like to relax! But when there are things to be done, I need to get those off my mind so I can really soak in the day ahead. Once I had done a little organizing and purging of unnecessary “stuff”, I was able to come up with our Sunday Dinner & Dessert.
Steak Kabobs
Simple Spinach Salad
Cheesy Muffins with Roasted Red Peppers
&
Rustic Berry Tart for Dessert
Steak Kabobs
*Six Servings
2 Boneless NY Loin Top Steaks, cut into medium pieces
2 Bell Peppers, cut into large pieces
1 Large Onion, cut into large pieces
15 Cremini Mushrooms, stems removed
1 Cup BBQ Sauce, I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Chipotle
1/2 Cup Rice Vinegar, I used Nakano Basil & Oregano
2 Tablespoons Country Dijon, I used Grey Poupon
6 Skewers
 Place the steak, peppers, onions, and mushrooms into a medium bowl. Add the BBQ sauce, rice vinegar, and Dijon. Stir well until all of the meat and vegetables are completely coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Place on skewers and grill to medium rare.

Simple Spinach Salad
*I didn’t measure anything for this, but it was about 3 servings.
About 2 Handfuls of Spinach Leaves
1 Tomato, diced
About  1/4 of a Red Onion, sliced
About 4-6 Slices of Bacon, diced and cooked
Olive Oil
Rice Vinegar
Freshly Ground Pepper
Warm the olive oil and vinegar in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Place all of the vegetables in a medium bowl. Drizzle dressing over the top and toss. Sprinkle with bacon. (Don’t dress the salad until you are ready to serve.)


Cheesy Muffins with Roasted Red Peppers
*Makes 9 Muffins
1 Cup Mama’s All Purpose Almond Flour
1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Roasted Red Bell Pepper, diced
2 teaspoons Fresh Parsley, chopped
1 Tablespoon Fresh Oregano, chopped
2 Tablespoons Red Onion, diced
1 Cup Daiya Cheddar Style Cheese
1 Cup “Buttermilk”, 1 cup almond milk with 1/2 lemon squeezed, sit 5 minutes
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Large Egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin cups or cut parchment into squares and line. Spray each cup lightly with non-stick spray. Set aside.
Measure the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum into a medium bowl and whisk together. Add the herbs, onion, and diced peppers.
Pour almond milk and juice of 1/2 lemon into a measuring cup and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Add the olive oil and beaten egg. Stir, pour over dry ingredients. Add the cheese.
Fold together until fully incorporated but do not over mix.
Fill each muffin cup evenly.
Bake for 22 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.


This is one of my all time favorite desserts. Incredibly simple to make, but beautiful and delicious.
Rustic Berry Tart
2 – 16 ounce Bags Frozen Mixed Berries, or fresh mixed berries
3 Tablespoons Minute Tapioca
1/2 Cup Sugar
Gluten Free Flour for rolling
1 Egg, beaten with a few drops of water for brushing
Raw Sugar for sprinkling
Dairy Free Ice Cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place berries in medium bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and tapioca. Toss well and allow to sit out on counter for about 1 1/2 hours (if you’re using frozen berries).
Cut a piece of parchment to the size of a baking sheet. Flour, and roll dough out to “fit” parchment and pinch the rough edges. I rolled mine a little over the side edges. You will fold it over anyway so you don’t need to worry about fitting it exactly to the parchment. However, gluten-free dough isn’t as elastic as gluten dough so your edges may break when you transfer it to the baking sheet. If this happens just pinch them back on.
Transfer the dough with the parchment onto the baking sheet.
After the fruit has rested and melted for a while, gently stir to evenly distribute the juices. Spoon fruit into the middle of the dough.
Fold dough over carefully, long sides first, then ends. Crimp with fork, brush with egg and water mixture, and sprinkle with raw sugar.
Bake for 45-55 minutes or until crust is lightly golden.

A few more pictures from the garden…

Happy Monday and have a lovely week!

April’s Gone Crackers

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Not really, I’m still “normal”, I haven’t lost my mind. Yet.

These crackers? These crackers have me jumping for joy. They have me thinking about all of the yummy food combinations you can eat on a cracker that I haven’t been able to eat in years.

To Die For

So yesterday on just an average grocery shopping trip I ran across these amazing little table crackers from Schar. I thought…”Hmm…table crackers. Do I dare?”

Typically gluten-free crackers are either very dense and kind of pasty chalky or very crunchy, like in the form of those round rice crackers you see. Those rice crackers kind of resemble “diet” crackers. They taste like it too. Or how about that certain brand that looks like something you should feed your horse and is likely to send you to the dentist needing a crown and at the very minimum gives you heart burn for a good five hours? We eat them anyway, because really, sometimes life just calls for crackers and how many choices do those of us with multiple food allergies really have?

So after I scanned the ingredients I took a leap and thought, “Why not?”. If they end up tasting like any other gluten-free cracker so what.

Well, let me tell you something…they are amazingly delicious. Hands down the absolute best gluten-free cracker that I have ever had that does not taste GF DF and has perfect texture.

They are kind of a half way point between the texture and taste of a Saltine cracker and those Club crackers we’ve all served at parties. Perfect texture, lovely “normal” cracker flavor. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

So delicious in fact, that I cannot stop thinking about them. I opened them immediately after loading my groceries in the car. Ate 6 of them on the way home and made tons of “I’ve died and gone to Heaven” noises that quickly irritated my son who was along for some visiting time.

Then, I ate another one while putting groceries away. Then, I ate three more at 10:00 PM before bed with that amazing Parlick Fell cheese that I’ve told you about. And this morning, it was all I could do not to eat them for breakfast with peanut butter slathered all over them. So, I settled for an almond milk yogurt for my breakfast and then counted down the hours until I could make lunch with my new-found crackers at a reasonable lunch time.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Or maybe not, because then that just leaves more for me!

Welcoming Spring

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I am happy to announce (probably not as happy as you), that you will no longer have to hear me whine about our horrible weather.

What was seemingly an infinite winter, has finally disappeared to wherever winter goes and spring has arrived. We spent the day enjoying every bit of the weather we could with a picnic at our favorite park and a nice walk with the dogs. It was so wonderful to soak up that sun and feel the warm breeze! And I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to hear that tomorrow is even supposed to be better than today!

Because we can finally see a light at the end of the winter tunnel, it won’t be a big deal if we get a little more rain here and there. The hope of sunny days ahead and the taste of today and tomorrow will tide us over, and in a couple of weeks I’ll be planting herbs on the deck and filling pots with flowers. Before we know it, we’ll be relaxing in lawn chairs, sipping cocktails in the backyard, and watching the sun set – one of our favorite weekend evening past times.

In honor of spring’s arrival today, I made us a lovely dinner full of spring colors. Did I also mention it was simple? Incredibly simple, fresh, and delicious. Perfect for the day after all of that Easter indulgence.

(*Serves 2) 

Pesto Bruschetta

6 Pieces of Left Over GF French Bread (This recipe makes 2 loaves. We always eat one fresh and then I freeze the second for bruschetta.)

6 Tablespoons of Vegan Pesto (When making this, I always try to make a double batch so there is plenty to freeze and use whenever I need it.)

About 12 Organic Cherry Tomatoes

About 2 ounces of Sheep’s Milk Cheese

Freshly Ground Pepper

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Slice the bread and place on a baking sheet. Broil until toasted. Spoon about 1 Tablespoon of pesto on each piece of bread. Slice tomatoes in half and distribute evenly. Crumble sheep’s milk cheese evenly. Grind pepper on each piece and drizzle with olive oil. Place under broiler when vegetables are placed on grill. Remove when tomatoes are softened and cheese begins to bubble and brown. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.  

Vegetable Kabob & Grilled Zucchini

2 Small Organic Zucchini

1 Organic Red Bell Pepper

1 Organic Yellow Bell Pepper

2 Small Organic Sweet Onions

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Garlic Powder

Dried Parsley

Cut peppers and onions into large chunks and place in medium bowl. Remove ends of zucchini, slice lengthwise and add to bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, garlic powder and dried parsley, toss until thoroughly coated. Add to medium-high grill about 6 minutes after the chicken has been added. Add the zucchini a few minutes after the peppers and onions have been on the grill. It cooks very quickly.

Simple Grilled Chicken

2 Organic Chicken Breasts

GF BBQ Sauce

Rice Vinegar with Herbs

Rinse and dry chicken breasts and place in a medium bowl. Drizzle with about 1/4 cup BBQ sauce and 1/4 cup rice vinegar. Stir to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes. Place on medium-high grill 6 minutes before adding the vegetables to the grill.