Food Wednesdays

 Hello everyone, and Welcome to Food Wednesdays.

        First though I want to share that March 1st is Yellowstone National Park's 150th birthday.    "News Release: March 1, 2022, marks the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park. Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, America's first national park was set aside to preserve and protect the scenery, cultural heritage, wildlife, geologic and ecological systems and processes in their natural condition for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Anniversary efforts include highlighting engagement with Tribal Nations, activities hosted by Yellowstone and multiple park partners, a virtual video series, and groundbreakings on multiple park infrastructure and historic preservation projects. Learn more: go.nps.gov/22011." I also found this slideshow-150 years in photos

  Back to Food

  

    I created this link up so friends (and new friends) can share Food with each other. No rules to link up just post about Food-recipes, cookbooks, photos, a favorite restaurant-it's up to you what you would like to share about Food. 

  This week I want to share a new flour blend I put together that is low carb, gluten free and keto.  One of the things about gluten free flours for baking is that they are based mostly on rices and starches, so are heavy in carbs. These gluten free flour blends have more carbs than unbleached white wheat flour for baking.  As a result I don't bake as often as I would like to, I used to always have some cookies in the cookie jar or something fresh baked every week.

  Searching online for ideas I settled on this recipe I found the oat fiber on amazon. The link explains the ingredients well.

   To try this out I decided to bake up the pumpkin bread recipe that we really liked. One can of pumpkin makes two loaves so I get two bowls out to make the two loaves. One side I used Bob's Red Mill 1-1 gf flour, and for the other bowl I used one cup of the keto blend flour and 1/2 cup of Bob's gf.   I have had so many failures with keto flours that I decided to add a little bit of the gf flour. 

   I have baked several keto recipes with just almond flour and we don't like them at all, and that can be allot of nuts per serving as well.  Note: I am not on a keto diet, but do have to be gluten free-so I am always looking to try out new ways to bake with less carbs and sugars-for our health concerns.

  I was pleased with the results. The one with the keto flour blend was baked through well but it was a bit more moist than I like-so I made notes to bake a bit longer. and a reminder when baking breads like this, even with just the gluten free flours one needs to take an internal temperature reading to assure it is baked. The range is 195-205 degrees f  You will have better success with baking.

note: all photos will enlarge just click on them

I was pleased with the rise-the one on the right is all gf flour-and the top split where as the other one did not.

This one is the keto/gf flour blend-a bit more moist-I am storing this in the frig, and slices well and a bit more firm-and delicious I added jumbo raisins that I soaked first before adding to the batter.

and this one is the all gluten free flour--the white spots is coconut oil, our home has been quite chilly with the low temps we had. I melted the coconut oil first but by the time I added in everything to blend-allot of it firmed up on me again. usually if that happens the coconut oil will bake right in but it didn't this time Still very good though

Last week I also made a pot of potato soup. I do start with a mix we like, it's high in salt so this is a salt meal for us. I add a little more liquid than it says (I use unsalted chicken stock instead of water) and I add in more cooked diced potatoes. Along with dried onions, chives, green peppers, dried soup ingredients, a little garlic powder and onion powder.

dried green bell peppers and onions from the Amish store

dried soup ingredients

I start with the dried veggies, herbs, and small diced potatoes. once the potatoes are cooked through I add the mix. sometimes I add in a small can of clams

Now it's your turn to share-Please link up with your actual Food Wednesday's post and not your blog url thank you Enjoy and Be Kind

T Stands for Tuesday

 Good morning everyone, Those of you in the States how was your Labor Day weekend? and it's Tuesday (which feels like a Monday here for me) which brings us to T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. You are most welcome to join us, just share a photo with drink reference.

  The main thing I did this past week was to walk almost every day-but I over did it with over 9000 steps one day and another 8000 steps the next couple of days and needed to stop for a few days. I also got hit with allergies which I hadn't thought of as that has started here already with everything dried up and gone to seed a bit earlier than normal.  I do enjoy the walks and the time goes so fast while conversing with my walking friend Nancy (I keep thinking her name is Karen which I posted by mistake last Tuesday)  I also discovered she is over 20 years younger than I am, so I heard her wrong that she was also in her 70's so thinking she has more stamina than me haha.

   I am still in the quilting mode so I dug out my bag of Yellowstone inspired flannel fabrics that I bought after my Yellowstone trip in 2017. I decided to cut 12 inch blocks to really highlight the prints and will be making a 4 patch to match. This will be a large queen size and I have wool batting in my stash and also have the backing. I needed to purchase online a couple more prints and hoping they arrive this week.

I almost forgot about these cool applique animals I picked up at a yarn-fabric shop in West Yellowstone-they are ready to iron on to the fabric I will put this on the large blocks-I have one with the pine cones and one with trees.

   I did churn up more of the keto vanilla ice cream

and for Labor Day weekend I made foods for the two of us. Shrimp on Sunday

Biscuits and gravy over the weekend

homemade biscuits for Larry

and I found these really good tasting whole grain gluten free buns that I now keep in the freezer for me-I pretty much gave up trying to bake gluten free breads that are good tasting-and we rarely eat bread any more-just for a treat

Monday for the Labor Day holiday I made us bbq baby back ribs with a large salad-forgot to take a photo of those.

  For my drink reference this week-tried something new that someone brought over-I didn't care for these-but they are gluten free It's a seltzer with gluten free beer and flavors. I don't think I liked the taste of the seltzer.

  I am hoping the lake on the weekends will calm down now. It was totally bonkers Saturday and Sunday with very rude boaters. I am ready for fall and winter on the lake for sure. "Our" eagle is back up in that tree sometimes the pair of them. They make me happy to see them and listen to their song

Happy T and Tuesday everyone. and a lake view from this morning

T Stands for Tuesday Projects at the Lake House, Gold finches, Yellowstone

Still raining here in Missouri-but we no longer have the severe flooding as Arkansas has-prayers for all affected.

Tuesdays we gather together at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth and share a drink related post with friends. You are most welcome to join us find link in my right hand column

We are still working at the lake house-the move is going slower than we had hoped, but we have had soooo much rain here still which continues, and our projects are getting finished-but not going as fast as we had hoped.
  Hubs has many health concerns and right now it is his heart. He had a couple tests in April, and we just had the follow up visit on May 30th. I don't understand why when his heart health is in question right now that the doctor gives us the results a month later. They gave us results over the phone but nothing of the seriousness was even mentioned; that he has a heart valve that needs repaired-he goes in for another eco something test where if the repair is simple they can fix it at that time or he will need surgery. That will happen on the 20th of this month.
  Hubs has been very tired and is too pale for sure. but of course he is doing work he shouldn't be-He is someone that always pushes forward to get the job done no matter what. I think most of our men are like this.

  Any ways I didn't help matters by banging my foot into a solid oak table a few days ago-I am sure I broke a toe or two-I took a photo but it was so awful no need to share haha
    Pretty black and blue for the whole top half of my foot and most of the toes, and very swollen. One toe bright red and crooked. It's been a week now and still hurts pretty bad-I have managed to get the kitchen tiles regrouted which has been a real chore. The grout does not want to "stick" well in many places. It looks pretty but not sure how it will hold up. I don't think the previous owners used tile grout so that's the problem. and sitting on the floor working there are many tiles broken which we had not seen-fine cracks. No way do we want to add more work for ourselves right now by re doing this floor. They used cement to stick the tiles down instead of the right product for tiling-I think that's why some have cracked.
  Most of the tiles had the grout too low and some to the top of the tile-so this job has taken me several days. Today I sealed the grout so will see if it needs another coat tomorrow. Then we can move my Grandma's Hoosier cabinet on that wall by the door-and to the left I am hoping my new rack for the cast iron pieces will fit. On that wall there is sliding glass door to another room.

   Over the weekend, Hubs called out that the goose family was swimming by-I grabbed my camera and got outdoors just in time to see most of them-the youngsters really grew since the last photo.

We found someone to cut our grass which I am happy about, they cut today.

Over the weekend I turned on the a/c as it was very humid and approaching 90 f degrees. Good thing the guys were working in the basement-as no sooner did I turn it on then they were yelling to turn it off-freon and other stuff was pouring out-ugh  We have called two a/c companies so far and no one has returned our calls-so that is something that has to get fixed and soon. We knew the unit looked old but wasn't expecting it to "blow up" when turned on. oh well rather it happen now than in the middle of summer.

Our friend surprised us with a fire ring-this was originally used for water for cattle There is no bottom-so we filled the bottom with rock and sand and need more of those triangle rocks to go around a couple times-I love it Nice and deep and safe for a fire-we will love this during autumn.

We are really enjoying sitting at that patio table for our lunch or little breaks with watermelon or other fresh fruits. I am making food for us now instead of eating out.  Really fun watching all the different boats go by. Things have calmed down sooooo much since Memorial Day weekend Allot less bugs here at the lake too-so far no ticks or chiggers like in the woods-Loving that.

Lots of these little boats-I don't know what they are called but they go fast and the younger people like to ride over the bigger boats waves-so fun to watch them.

Back in the woods-lots of goldfinches at the niger seed feeders-especially the males that are in full color now. I took this photo just as it was getting dark

For my beverage reference I made a drink similar to the recipe that Divers and Sundry shared last week.  Instead of the soda I used pink grapefruit sparkling water by Perier and a squirt of agave for a bit of sweetner.

I also wanted to share a surprise package from Yellowstone Forever-the non profit for Yellowstone Park.  For my charity giving I like to donate to conservation efforts and I love Yellowstone so much that I give to them a couple times a year. For their last fund raising event they were giving out 200 gifts-and I got one. So this was a great surprise. I loveeee the bag especially-a large canvas bag-and I love bags for my craft projects.

They also included a hat, a candle, coffee, and a bottle of fragrance that captured the essence at Yellowstone in different locations of the park-I looked it up and wow this one is selling for over $40.00 a bottle 
  This was very awesome fun mail for me

Happy T everyone!!

T Stands for Tuesday

Hi everyone,
   It's time to share a drink related post with friends at our T Party. Hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. You are most welcome to join us-find link in my right hand column.

  I have just a short post this week. I have received a few lovely handmade Christmas cards but have not gotten them photographed. I will share next week. Thank you to all of you.

  Tuesday we will be gone a better part of the day at the lake house, so I will be visiting many of you later in the day.

  I did spend a day working on my veggie garden for my fabric journal-I will share a photo once May is completed.

  I did receive in the mail my box of Yellowstone Park goodies. They have a really big sale this time of year so I take advantage of it and the profits helps the park.

  This year I looked for things I could really use-my one splurge was the lovely coffee mug.
   I needed a new mouse pad, I love their calendar too. I also purchased quilt blocks-there are four of them of vintage photos, a pack of crayons, and a pack of no wood pencils-was not familiar with those at all-have any of you used them??

  I was looking around in my pantry for brandy for the fruitcakes but couldn't find any-but I did find a bottle of my favorite eggnog that has been hidden for a couple years now.  
   My beverage share for this week

Happy T everyone

My Saturday

  It was cool this morning, so I got myself outdoors early to start the task of pulling weeds-and are there ever so many out there.
   I started with the area that I had weed sprayed a couple weeks ago which is around the carport and to the right and back of my outdoor firepit-dutch oven cooking area.
Miss Calico always cracks me up-she was sound asleep in the middle of the dead weeds so I just pulled weeds around her-she ended up moving to here-had to grab the camera cause she looks so cute and comfy.  She has been sound asleep in that same spot for at least 4 hours now.

  Yesterday a couple friends picked me up and took us to meet an elderly lady who has lived in the same spot for 40 years and has gardens of flowers everywhere-a very magical place. Sorry no photos, I did remember to take my camera and then left it in the car-and didn't get back to get it. Hopefully we will visit her again soon.

   Yesterday I grilled out supper-hamburgers, leeks-sweet peppers-elephant garlic, and french fries.  I keep the french fries in the freezer and then just pull some out place on foil and place over the coals-love the smoky taste they get.

I may just bake a pie or cobbler in the dutch oven tomorrow morning.

I learned about Shutterfly this past week and decided to make up a hard cover photo book with photos from my Yellowstone trip-my book turned out soooo nice-much better than I had expected. It arrived in the mail today. I happened to catch them when they were having a big sale too-which made a big difference. I ended up adding 10 extra pages. It was difficult to decide on which photos but I think I captured my favorite moments. Here is a photo of the front and back covers. all the pages were very thick paper like a heavy cardstock-loving it

Happy 4th of July for all of you from the States.

The Few Things I Brought Home With Me from Yellowstone-photos

    Since this trip was my first vacation trip since leaving home after high school graduation in '67 of course I planned to look for some unique and memorable items to take home with me.

   I also looked for things that were made in the USA and not China or other countries I was successful in that, everything I bought was made here in the US except my gift (for becoming a member) from the Yellowstone Forever store I chose the bison stuffed animal and it was made in China-which surprised me since most everything they sell in their stores and online is made here in the US. This is a nonprofit organization-education center for Yellowstone Park. What was funny, Hubs knew I wanted to see lots of bison and their babies and says to me when I got home "what you didn't bring home a baby bison?" -smiling I said actually I did lol

    I picked up a couple things at the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center too. This is an educational center as well. They have grizzly bears and a couple wolf packs to view during their feeding times. Sometimes if you catch it just right you can watch the bears test different products or I just missed an event-how Not to set up your camp site in bear country. If you are on facebook they posted lots of photos on what the bears did to that camp site. educational indeed if you plan to camp in bear country.

note: photos will enlarge for better viewing just click on them

I picked up this handmade pottery piece from a local artisan love it. 

I was happy to find this unique coffee cup and it is so comfortable in the hand-it is my go to cup now. Found this at the Yellowstone Forever store.

These next photos are from the quilt shop shown from the bag in last photo. The first photo is hand dyed roving to spin. I fell in love with it as it picked up colors I viewed in Yellowstone and the Badlands.

The second photo my friend found in her shop that she picked up for her Mom who quilts. I bought a package too for my Yellowstone inspired quilt. These are laser cut appliques from batik fabrics of animals found in the park they are already to press down and then stitch. I had bought several pieces of cotton flannel from this shop last year, and she also sells bison roving too. So I was pleased to meet her.

In her shop she also sold handmade jewelry, stones and rocks, and a few gift items. I picked up the porcelain shot glass of Old Faithful since it was very pretty.

I love cookbooks so picked this one up which is a conglomeration of several popular Montana cookbooks

Of course I wanted a T shirt, found this one at the Old Faithful gift shop along with two matching shot glasses.

Near the Badlands I picked up a small jar of huckleberry jam-wow very delicious all fruit. I found the same company with lots of other choices at one of the grocery stores where we stayed in West Yellowstone. I picked up their huckleberry syrup for margarita making but forgot to grab a larger jar of the jam. I did find them online Huckleberry Haven-they use hand picked wild huckleberries from Montana in their products. So I know I can get more.

I also did get a bag full of surprises from my favorite author-Peggy Henderson, which included three of her books, a stainless hot commuter cup and a water bottle with her logo. Very thoughtful.  

I am Enjoying and Loving having many of these finds around me and to inspire.