A Gluten Free or Food Fridays Day??

 Hello Friends,

    How is your weather? Here at the lake the snow did miss us, but not the very cold, wind, and ice. Not allot of ice but enough to make it not safe for us to walk up the stairs and on that hill up to the mail box or to my car. We have a 50 pound bag of tile  mortar that we need to split into two bags and then bring it down into the basement-for the bathroom there. uhhh Not today.

   I got to thinking, years ago before Facebook (ugh on Facebook) allot of my friends back then loved to write food posts. We had Chicken Tuesdays and we had Food Fridays. Back then I had hosted Herb Thursdays which I really enjoyed too.

  Would any of you be interested in Food Fridays? I know many of you participate in Friday Smiles so would a Wednesday or a Thursday be better?? I would not set up a link up for it but one could share their post in comments if they wished to. I was thinking of sharing mostly gluten free recipes if any of you would be interested in reading a post like that??

  Actually what inspired me was a James Townsend and Sons video on  making a rice bread-very simple recipe and it looked good. I may need to try this one out. I could see it toasted in a cast iron skillet. I thought this book sounded familiar-checking I have this one in my library

Happy Sunday-hope you are safe from bad weather and warm

Pie Anyone?

   I have been in the kitchen most of the day today. Started out making dinner rolls from a Bob's Red Mill gluten free bread mix I found in the freezer. I baked them in cast iron-and they were really good-tasted like "real " bread.  They are a bit browner because I was going by the time it would take to bake a loaf of bread, and these only took half the time-I caught them just in time.

I made the chunky fresh cranberry sauce. This time I added softened dried cherries and dried blueberries to the fresh cranberries.

and I was very pleased with the sweet potato pies. I made one with a walnut crust and the other with a pecan crust. I had the exact amount of sweet potato mashed up for two pies so I just made two.  We like pie for breakfast with our coffees, and in case someone should stop by I will have pie to share. (not expecting anyone but one never knows haha)

This is the recipe I used for a reference from Taste of Home  I used half splenda and half coconut sugar for the white sugar, and I changed the milk to half and half. After reading allot of recipes online I cut the nutmeg to 1/4 teaspoon as many suggested less nutmeg and more cinnamon.  The nut crusts are gluten and carb free.

Have you been working in the kitchen today?

Fun Mail Has Arrived & Reubens

   For lunch today I made us up reuben sandwiches with the left over corn beef.
     I did decide to bake up two rye breads from my Austrian rye sourdough starter. I decided to do an experiment for me and see if I could eat my rye bread without getting sick. I never mess with anything gluten any more-over 30 years  now.
    Rye is not gluten free but it is very low in gluten compared to wheat, and I had read an article a few years back that the author had celiac and as long as she baked with her own sourdough starter she had less problems-kinda skeptical about that but since I haven't had gluten in soooo long I thought I would give it a go. I would not suggest this if you haven't been gluten free for many years.
   My bread turned out edible-most gf baked breads are horrible-I did add in one beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of psyllium ground which is usually added in gf breads and instead of bread wheat flour I used gluten free flour blend. I also used a red dot thermometer with probe to test the bread-it needs to be 108 degrees f inside temperature to be baked. That is a big problem with baking breads with gluten free flours-getting it done.

    I was very happy with my bread-I will finish slicing it and freeze for later so I don't get myself in trouble with the gluten. I didn't get a photo of Larry's reuben with his sourdough bread which baked up much larger in the pan.

Now for the fun mail-my paints have arrived and I am very happy that these were made in France not China.
    This set is very reasonably priced on Amazon This 48 piece set was a better price I thought and would give me an idea of what colors I like and then will find out how to mix those. My painters color wheel did not arrive yet.

and I was intrigued with this set up and was cheaper to buy this kit.
    I did notice how fast acrylics dry-and I read that this kit-a tray-then a dampened sponge-and then acrylic papers on top-to use as a pallet for your paints-then when finished with the painting-place the lid on top and it will keep your paints fresh for many days some said weeks.
    While waiting for this to arrive I had a small sour cream container-so I put the paint in the lid and then when finished added the bottom container to the lid-which kept the paints moist til the next day-but I think I will enjoy this kit-the reviews were all positive and I asked if there was a mold issue with this-and I got 6 answers saying no  I don't use that many containers of plastics any more either.

  Do any of you use this system?

          Stay safe everyone Happy Weekend

Better Success with Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

Wow we have been blessed.
    I am so thankful that we finally after about 6 weeks plus we got a real break in the weather.
    No humidity to speak of for two days, yesterday mid 80s today we woke up to high 50s although it is at least 90 f right now. Ends tonight though.

    I had things I wanted to do over the weekend-bake outdoors in the dutch ovens, gather plant materials for eco dyeing and I just had to hand water everything since we did not get any of the promised rain. It took me 2 hours tonight.

   I am down to 4 nice looking indigo plants-last time I grew these-two years ago I couldn't tell when they were ready to harvest-so I need to get online and research that out again.

   I did pick up my roaster pan from Wal mart early yesterday morning-I am so thrilled as this is what I had in mind that I wanted, and it was $18.00-perfect. It will fit a 12" square tile so there is lots of room here for a couple smaller tiles or things wrapped around copper pipes etc-I need to ask Hubs if he has some scraps of that around.

  I also now have dried mimosa leaves (for natural yellow dyeing) and they are off the stems-I am letting it air dry more since we have been so humid here.

     So I ran out of time this weekend to gather plant materials for eco dye-if nothing comes up hopefully tomorrow morning early I will take a walk and collect leaves and such

   I helped Hubs this morning with a project we have been working on and in the meantime I had worked with another sourdough bread gluten free-so was getting coals ready at the same time
    I posted a couple photos on my Facebook page so brought over what I had written already.

     Better success today with gluten free sourdough bread.

I had started a gluten free starter with brown rice flour. My last attempt was so so-good but not real good-still too doughy inside even at the recommended internal baking temperature of 206 f to be baked. I think I am going to increase that to 210 f next time and see what happens.

I took out my sourdough and fed it twice for several days, then took half of it and put back in the frig. for later. I fed what was left for several more days twice to build up to 3 cups of sourdough.

I combined the technique of MaryJane Farms new book Wild Bread with another recipe I found online

. I am looking more into baking now with almond flour since it is more nutritious with less carbs then all of these gluten free flour ingredients-which I am learning are loaded with carbs and not much nutrition either.
     So instead of adding in more brown rice flour for my batter I added a cup of golden flax seed meal and two cups of almond flour, and a pinch of salt.
    Going back to MaryJane's baking technique for a very hot 500 f degrees oven-baked in dutch ovens in small loaves-I instead baked outdoors in two dutch ovens with the temp 500 to 525 f
   Next time I will know I need lots of coals to start with to get to this temperature it took me forever-over an hour or more.
However this is the best gluten free loaf yet-the sourdough flavor is so perfect, still a bit too dense for my liking but after toasting in the toaster twice-it was perfect. And not toasted it is much better than my last attempt-not gummy so it's pretty good if I do say so myself  smiles
    I decided to slice it all and wrap single slices and freeze-otherwise this bread just will not keep 

So I am pleased after all of my efforts and I love love the sourdough flavor
Miss Calico likes to hang out with me when i am working outdoors-with the sun out pretty hot-even though we were in the 80s this morning instead of the 90s by noon So she crawled under my fire pit where it is cozy and cooler lol

I have one more thing to do tonight-and that's to refill the hummingbird feeders. So I am off to do that

   Have an awesome new week ahead everyone

T Stands For Tuesday & Baking Over the Weekend

T Stands for Tuesday is where we share a drink related post about anything with our T Party friends. 
     You are most welcome to join us. The link to our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth is in my right hand column.

   It has turned extremely hot and humid again here in my area of the Ozarks in Missouri. We are now into the mid-90's f actual temperatures. 
    This year I am just not doing well at all in this heat. The pollen and mold count are still high here too. When I go outdoors just to do a few chores I come back in the house just soaking wet. I still am not feeling up to my usual self so that could be part of it and I couldn't get into my doctor til the end of this month-ugh  
    Oh well it is what it is I always say.

  The two sourdough starters I have set up for my husband needed to be fed. So I fed the regular wheat starter and then I fed the Austrian Rye Starter and baked with it. I made us a corn beef dinner today with baby potatoes and large fresh brussell sprouts (instead of cabbage) and I wanted to make this bread for Hubs. When it was rising and then came out of the oven-oh my the aromas were amazing I was very tempted to take one small bite.  He said it was perfect. He likes his sourdough breads really sour like they used to be made years ago-so when I fed the first proof I did it for 24 hours instead of the 12.

   I love King Arthur-and last year I bought two of these crocks for Hub's two sourdoughs. I like the crocks because I think the sourdough can breath better than in a tight fitted lid on a canning jar.

Ready to go in the oven-it has an egg wash brushed all over the top for pretty browning

     I decided to get my brown rice sourdough starter out too-I fed it while it was sitting out 3 times a day over the weekend. It's so warm here that even with the a/c running the sourdoughs are rising faster than usual, so I am feeding it an extra time mid day.  
   This morning after saving back some starter I mixed it up into bread  I decided to add in almond flour and the brown rice flour, also added a teaspoon of xanthan gum, a teaspoon of psyllium seed powder, and just a tiny bit of salt-it needed a bit last time  These were to replace the rice starch for structure-I am still just experimenting and taking notes.  I did get a bit too much flour mixed in as the loaves were cracking instead of staying smooth when I formed them.

I love her baking technique. you form the loaves and cover with a cotton towel while heating the oven up to 500 degrees f  with dutch ovens and lid are also heating up.

Once heated to the 500 degrees f take the dutch ovens out spread some flour on the bottom-which I found interesting-and place the loaves inside cover.
   Then bake 20 minutes, take out of oven and remove lids, and then brush loaves with baking soda and water to help with browning the brown rice flour bread-this was a new technique for me too from MaryJane's book Wild Bread

This bread just cooled enough for me to slice it and try it out-take a photo. Just a tad doughy-I can't deal with doughy breads-but it was a bit warm still. Tastes wonderful!  Nice sourdough flavor. I toasted a slice and spread with ghee-yumm I think I can finally make edible gluten free bread-happy dancing.

Hubs and friend Mr L went to a birthday party down by the river near us over the weekend. The brownies are always a big hit-so I made a package of gluten free brownies added dried rannier cherries and baked them up in my cast iron square pan.  I wasn't up to going in the heat.
    I asked how the brownies went-"well they were all gone in less than 5 minutes" ha ha

With this high heat and humidity I have been buying fresh fruits for us-watermelons, blueberries, mangos, honeydew melon, pears, pineapple, apricots and grapes-are stocked in the frig.

I also made up a fresh lemon-key lime beverage

I had mentioned that I purchased the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I have read a couple chapters and I wanted to share I found this to be a very good read.  The author is Native American so there is the history and input about her ancestors and growing up,  her love of plants and earth-and her higher education journey to learn the science of plants. She ended up coming back to her Native American roots to really understand the plants the way she wanted to--her writing style is very beautiful like prose. I have learned allot about the thinking and customs of Native Americans already too-like where the name Indian Giver cam from. I recommend this book

I am anxiously awaiting the rest of my supplies from Grummer paper making so I can make the hemp- cotton rag papers soon.

For my drink share:
   Over the weekend I made us a watermelon-mango margarita-delicious. Finishing up the last glass while I type my post.

At our small Aldi store I found these really nice refreshing drinks. Just sparkling water and real fruit juices no added anything else-very refreshing

and just a note-if you missed my last post-I decided to add back the monitoring of your comments. with the problems of no email notification of comments-it was difficult to find your comments from a few posts back-so I put that back in place.
    I will continue to comment here under your comments since I have no comment to reply back to now-those of you that are set for email communication-which I really like so much better for communicating.

Happy T Day everyone!!

a few wildlife visitors

I just took these next two-this raccoon seems to stop by about this time now

T Stands for Tuesday & Lots to Share & Lots of Photos

Wow Another Tuesday is upon us, and I can't believe May is gone-where did it go?? 

    I know I have been in a "fog" since Memorial Day weekend and we have had brutal hot weather for most all of May-absolutely no Spring here--so mostly trapped indoors but time is just passing me by way too fast.  
    I remember when I was working full time the days just dragged-went so slow, and I had to commute a long distance too for many years-very stressful as I am not someone that enjoys driving. We also had a full time home business as well-I get tired sometimes just thinking about all those 16-18 hour days we put in for years.
    I really love that I am retired now and can just stay home-I really love and enjoy that very much.  I have no idea why all this just got typed lol--I said my mind was still in a fog though (smiles)
   I also know many of you are getting this same weather too, so I will stop commenting -for now that is-(smiling)

T Stands for Tuesday is where we gather together and share a drink related post over at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. Find the link in my right hand column-you are most welcome to join us.

I have lots to share so will try not to get even more wordy-I probably should have split this into a couple posts but decided to just do a big catch up.

   My gluten free sourdough experiment baked up beautifully-but tasted horrible-I mean horrible. This organic quinoa flour I bought must never had the grain rinsed well first before it was then dried and ground into flour-this was soooo bitter and soooo sour.  I did love the technique of how it was baked-it actually looks like bread, not as doughy as some I have tried in the past. I am not discouraged though as I see promise and am working on my sourdough starter by adding only brown rice flour in hopes to get rid of the quinoa-if I can't I will just start from scratch and follow her directions for capturing wild yeast. 
    Again the book is by MaryJane Butters Wild Bread. She also has a forum which I just joined as well.  A nice way to get feedback and learn as well.
   If you would like to try sourdough with regular wheat-I highly recommend this book and her forum-(gluten free too-but trust me your wheat sourdough should not have the problems that I have with gluten free)  just read the whole book first including the back which was loaded with more information that I should have read first. 
    The wildlife got the bread-and it was all gone the next morning

(Note: since this is a heavy photos post-I am keeping some of the photos smaller-just click to fully enlarge them)

I got a good rise with the starter

I think one of her secrets for getting the gluten free bread to bake right is to also make small loaves. Normally if this was wheat you would make one loaf this one she had us making two small loaves-I think that is a good idea.

Many gluten free baked goods recipes always gives an internal temperature to know that it is baked. I have never done that before but decided to this time. the temperature was to be 200 degrees f to 205 degrees f  the first loaf at 200 was a bit under baked the second one baked up perfect

Sad these did not taste as good as they looked sigh

The last two mornings Mother Nature has given us a beautiful cool down-instead of mid 70's f early morning it has been 58 degrees f and instead of high humidity full sun and mid 90's f we are in the low 80's f  wonderful!!!  Although today the air was pretty thick again for me-still too much pollen, mold in the air again for me-but at least I could work at catching up.

Of course the weeds in my butterfly garden areas was a nightmare.  I had that really cleared of weeds, so I am almost thinking the less expensive big bags of garden soil I have been getting for this area must have weed seeds in it-and it comes with two types of thistle weeds-those are so hard to get out as the roots run deep.

I can't even find my milkweed plants in all this and did mark them with those wooden popsicle type sticks.  I did preserver-and got most of the really bad thistle out-although I wasn't able to dig out the roots do to all the zinnias popping up.  I spread the seeds thick in hopes they will crowd out the weeds. 
  The last two seasons I saved the flower heads as they began to dry and just put it all out this year.

These photos are mostly after I tried to get allot of the larger weeds out of the zinnias

Below blank spots were weeds

all this green is mostly flowers-zinnias-the butterflies will love it

I found this rope in an out building-a big tangled mess and I had straightened out enough for my project. Hubs said he got this at a garage sale when we first moved down for about $5.00 and already used some of it too-I am happy with the way this turned out.-I wanted to give a little definition and hopefully discourage the deer-we'll see haha

This is my madder dye plant that I planted from seed 3 years ago-hoping there are enough roots to harvest this late summer into fall. I planted this in a raised bed up near the house, and will plant more seeds this year to get another batch going
   Have any of you dyed with madder root from scratch?? this is new for me

This is a sunflower type perennial that I planted last year and the deer ate all of the flowers-they love love sunflowers.This is to get up to 12 foot tall with lots of sunflower off shoots-I Hope they make it to full flower this year as I put a little fence around the bottom and tied some plastic bags in hopes to deter them-we will see.

Another view-and another arch-this one supports the big orange trumpet vines-the hummingbirds will love these-and they should bloom nicely this year as this is their third year. My friend from Wisconsin brought them down for me 

  You can see the rain forest type weather we have had is making everything grow and grow and grow ha ha

My indigo plants I grew from seed-am hoping these will grow well so I can play with indigo dye later

I have all this old straw down to help keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in the soil when we end up with weeks with no rain.

A little peak of our new vehicle-Hubs has always wanted a suburban. When he got his oil changed at the dealers for his truck he thought he would take a look at the used lot and see if perhaps there was a suburban-and wow there were two-we thought this was the better choice-very low mileage, just a year old, fully loaded-a treat for us, and loved the color. and the price was marked to sell-to us-lol  Sometimes you get lucky and find just what you want-like it was meant to be.  
  This will be better for his fishing with friends-lots of room and seats. He loved his truck (we have always had a truck living rural), but could only have one other person with him.

   Today I received my silk eco printed scarf that I won from an artist in England--It is sooooo lovely and beautiful and I agree with those of you that said this was the nicer scarf of the two-it truely is.  I held this up with one arm and snapped a few photos.

Please click to enlarge for better viewing-this is so special-I love her art She used a variety of plant leaves.

She also included this eco printed paper-She does not have a blog but posts on this facebook page, so if you are on fb I wanted to share her page. 
    I stay on facebook for artists and groups like her-she is so gifted.  I asked her about the paper as it feels like cloth almost-she made the paper and said she will tell me how she made it-I will ask if I can share the information with you. I have been wanting to eco print paper and had collected some different papers and weights a couple of years ago-this will inspire me for sure.

Again please click to enlarge these photos for better viewing-this handmade eco printed paper is amazing.

Sorry for such a long post-I just wanted to share with you all.

We had our first watermelon One deer came up and ate all the rind except for one-animals love the rind. (I didn't get a good photo of the deer)

I found fresh mangos on sale last week so I made one of our favorites-mango margaritas-so delicious and perfect for hot summer days. In the vita mix or heavy duty blender- Place chunks of a whole peeled mango, add to taste-tequilla, lime juice, orange liqueur, lime liqueur, agave, add a little water-blend til smooth-add loads of crushed ice and blend again-enjoy.

I am realizing I am falling in love with pretty water bottles. This one is by the Pioneer Woman-I love her flowers-in dishes, linens and more.  I filled it up with coconut water when I was out pulling weeds

Whew--I hope you all made it through to the end without getting to bored--

  Happy T Day everyone.