Since I found out I have Celiac's Disease, I've been trying to figure out this whole new gluten free lifestyle.
At first, I'd walk over to my baking cupboard. Open it up. Survey all the various types of flours for all of my cooking and baking. Get overwhelmed. And end up standing there, staring into the cupboard eating a handful of chocolate chips.
OK, two handfuls.
OK, OK, three handfuls.
Once that freaking back of chocolate chips was gone, I cleaned out the cupboard.
Open items with gluten went to various friends and coworkers, as if I was finding good homes for my beloved baking supplies.
Unopened items (such as soups, beef stock, etc) went to the food bank. Have I mentioned before how annoying it is that wheat is in EVERYTHING!
But I digress. My friends and family have been so supportive through all of this! I've received new GF cookbooks! (Thanks Sara!) I've received emails, texts and facebook messages from friends with new GF blogs, websites, products, apps and recipes to try out.
So it was only a matter of time before I forced myself to snap out of my mope and get my GF butt back into my new cleaned and GF'd kitchen.
Megan (a friend named Megan, I haven't started referring to myself in third person, don't worry), sent me a link to the latest Martha Stewart cookie recipe for the month. It's GF Oatmeal cookie with raisins and chocolate chips. And you know how I love Ms. Stewart!
After trips to two different grocery stores (sigh...yes....two. On a Friday night nonetheless. Exciting, I know.) I was ready.
This one called for making your flour by pulverizing GF oats into a fine oat flour.
Done and done. Thank you my lovely food processor.
I swapped out the raisins for dried cranberries. Used mini chocolate chips.
And.
And...
Freakin' delish
! Just the right amount of crunch and gooey cookie ratio one needs.
Friends, readers be warned. There are more GF adventures in the kitchen to come.
OK, OK, this post is a little late, but what can I say, I was busy having fun in August (when I wasn't feeling like utter crap. See previous post.)
I dare say this was pretty much the last month for the garden sadly.
The heat wave forced our lettuce to bolt faster than I could keep it trimmed back.
The heat wave was also timed with our vacation so the lack of water also pretty much ended the green beans and anything else that was struggling along (leeks, squashes).
The zucchini developed that white moldy film that all of my zucchini plants are destined to develop. But not before I got a few more out of the plant.
We did only really get one good pumpkin. There are two struggling ones still growing on the vines but I don't think they'll make it. But I'm cheering for them!
But the tomatoes! Oh, the tomatoes!
And the raspberries! Oh, the berries!
I do think the blueberries are done for the year, but we gobbled up every one of them before we even walked away from the bushes. I can't wait until next year when we'll get even more blueberries! They are growing well under the watchful eye of Clarence the Garden Gnome!
Since the summer garden is on it's way out, we're making plans for a fall garden. That's one of the many lovely things about living in Seattle, you could - and the hard cores do, garden year round. We've planted batch number two of lettuce and are planning on researching a few more items to go into the ground.
However, the biggest culprit of our garden this August was the moles! MOLES!!!! They are everywhere in my yard! And the day the bastards popped up in my raised garden beds that was it! I called the Mole Masters and got on their schedule. We've got three mole traps, one in the front and two in the back.
And yes, they've been successful. (PETA, don't even bother leaving a comment here. Those f&$^#@$ are gone!). Luckily we're on a weekly check in with the Mole Masters as more of the bastards have moved in.
But I will prevail.
Or rather the Mole Masters will prevail.
With my debit card, but still, you get the picture. (And I can post a few here too, but they aren't pretty.)
