The Sinister Scribe

Well, I’ve taken my first foray into wheat-free baking. It has been surprisingly good! Even the kids have liked the two recipes I’ve tried so far… Honey Tapioca Cookies and Brown Rice Muffins.

The first picture is the muffins. They weren’t as crumbly as I expected and are really good with butter and jelly. A little on the dry side but I read that is to be expected with rice flour. Though I did substitute one cup of rice flour with sorghum. Oh, the batter is really wet compared to wheat based recipes. I think it was too wet in my case because I had to add a little more flour (tablespoon of each) to get them to cook all the way through. I used mini muffin pans too.

Here’s the recipe, I got it at healthyandwheatfree (a great resource):

BROWN RICE MUFFINS
2 cups brown rice flour (used 1 cup brown rice and 1 cup sorghum)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup Sucanat, maple syrup, or other natural sweetener (used honey)
1 or 2 eggs (or egg replacer for one egg)
1 cup milk (or rice/soya milk)
1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate, small bowl,
combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, and liquid sweetener if used.
Mix well and pour the batter into oiled or buttered muffin tins.
Bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes. Makes 12.

You can add raisons/dates/currants/walnuts or almonds to make it
even more fun. If you do not want to have oil in this mix you could
use 1/4 cup of applesauce or prune puree.

The cookies were like delicate tea cakes. You can feel a difference in the texture with the rice flour. Just slightly grainy but still yummy. I tried topping some with cinnamon/sugar and it seemed to make them a little flatter. Didn’t really add that much flavor wise either so I don’t think I’ll do it again. I also used almond extract instead of vanilla (couldn’t find mine). I think they’d be great with some finely chopped almonds in them. Mmmmm!

I may try a little xanthan gum next time to see if they’re a little less so. Jessie would have eaten the whole batch if I let her.

Here’s the cookie recipe (from a friend):

Tapioca Honey Cookie
1/2 cup margarine (I used butter)
1/2 cup honey
2 T brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1 1/4 cup white rice flours.
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whip margarine, honey and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and mix until creamy and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix for about 1.5 minutes. Place on baking tray about the size of 1 T, 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes

I don’t think I can really explain how much better I feel now that I’ve made these. I think I was feeling a little helpless (and therefor depressed). Now, I’m a little excited about experimenting with new ingredients.

What is something you are optimistic about?

i am optimistic about the new (Japanese,but soon to be American ) release of the new Pokemon Platinum(OMG), which has the god of death, Giratina (another OMG) as the title character(OMG)!

I’m hoping that the graphics, the placement of the legendaries, and the placement of other Pokemon from other games will be better by a billion fold. and that the wifi recepton will be better too

*Yawn* Managed to drag myself out of bed this AM to do some speed work. LOL! Makes me laugh to think about me, running and speed. Anyhoo. It goes something like this and is about 4 miles long (starting mile/speed):

• 4/4
• 3/5.5
• 2.5/4.3
• 2.25/6
• 1.75/4.3
• 1.5/6
• 1/4

Hopefully that makes sense. I’m having trouble typing this. LOL! All of this, according to the dreadmill, consumes 636 caleries. Woot!

I feel drenched pretty good. Did have some rice cereal with honey and coffee 15 minutes before I started running this morning. Pretty sure it made a difference. Biggest difference afterwards… my face doesn’t feel like it is on fire. *sigh* It is a good thing. (my current mantra)

The wheat-free trial is still going on. It is weird but I seem to think about food more. Like “what CAN I eat next.” LOL! A trip to the convenience store yesterday showed me I can’t get much to eat there. Not like I usually do, but still, the option just won’t be available.

Went to the HFS and picked up some WF supplies. Was gonna wait but I NEED to bake SOMETHING NOW! Coly How! I see a grain(less) mill in my near future. I can buy in bulk grind rice/ garbanzos/ quinoa/amaranth/ etc cheaper and grind it my own friggin self.

Say it with me now: “This is a good thing.”

Between working with Bob on the remodeling, getting ready for end of the year tests with Sam and knitting for Sock Wars III and discovering an old allergy… I just haven’t had the energy to blog. Oh, and I’m trying to knit a pair of socks for Sock Wars III AND get back to running. Being sick kinda knocked me off my groove. Sigh.

If you weed through the recent photo album, you’ll see how the dining room/kitchen is coming. It is going to look so great. Now, I just gotta keep the kids, cat and dog from leaving permanent marks on the hardwood floor!

The allergy thing is kind of a surprising turn. On a whim (and after talking with a dietician) I decided to give a wheat-free diet a try. What the heck, can’t really cook right now anyhoo. Whaddaya know… the semi permanent rash on my face cleared in about 36 hours. And all this time I was sure it was yeast that was causing it. Problem was, avoiding yeast never really cleared things up.

I’m going to continue the WF diet until Saturday. Then add wheat back in to the diet and see what happens. Should be interesting!

How do you feel when something scares you? What do you do when this happens?

usually, I feel a sudden lurch in my stomach, then, depending on the source, (wasps for example) I’d usually panic (a little), also depending on the direction of the source of fear, I’d try to get away from the source. I’m most afraid when the source is either close by, or coming at me.

but not kicking… or running for that matter.

Yep. I’m still here. Just gotten over a really hairy case of the stomach flu. Of course it was at its worst on Mother’s Day. My tummy still isn’t really happy but at least I’m not battling a 103 degree fever. Still feeling rather like an old wrung out sponge.

We’ve managed to keep up with lessons during this time. Thanks to HSTracker and our routines. Sometimes I feel like a stick-in-the-mud for making the kids (and myself) stick to our daily routines. Other times something like this comes a long and I don’t feel so bad anymore.

Had a great “Jot It Down” moment with Sam yesterday over… of all things… math. He was working on a sheet from Math Mammoth’s Geometry pack. The one where you create geometric patterns on a grid. Really enjoying himself too. Then he realized he’d made a mistake a few rows back and said:

Oh wow, mom! This is just like math. When you make a little mistake in the beginning, it effects everything after that.

LOL! I can’t tell you how many times in a multiple digit multiplication or long division problem where I’ve tried to tell him this. Yesterday he really “got it” and will more than likely remember it now.

Hey! And what a better segue into the art of MC Escher than geometric patterns. As luck would have it, I picked up a couple of books on his art at the last Library book sale. I still need to blog about that haul. Got some really incredible art books!

• we had 2 sunflowers, the largest at the time was eaten by our cat; the other started growing shortly after that
• all of the tomatoes except for the orange tomatoes grew
• the basil is doing great, our fear is that deer might come and attack the plants
• the stalk is doing fine
• the catnip and the chamomile are doing great, if they grow, then we will hopefully have some chamomile-catnip tea soon! (but 2 of the catnip did not make it.)
• one of the sages grew, but the other one did not
• the strawberry popcorn did not make it
• one of the majoram did not make it, the other grew
• only two of the deer-tongue lettuce survived, although they are pretty leggy
• the lemon balm didn’t make it
• the cucumbers did not make it either
• the cowslip: ditto
• purslane: not in the least
• only one sage grew

sadly, bout’ over 50% of the plants sewn didn’t make it

What would you do if you found a magic wand?

I would hopefully find, like, one of those Harry Potter wands; not one of the black-and-white ones.

First, I’d grant myself with the power of telekinetic flight, then I’d grant me the powers of telekinesis, transformation of a Grey Wolf and a cougar, of disappearance and the ability to pass through solid objects.

… and off the needles.

Not my best attempt but after two years I’m doing to call it a victory because they’re DONE!!!