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raspberries in November!

Can you believe this?A WHOLE PINT of fresh raspberries picked from our raspberry bushes in the back yard. And what date is this?

Its November people. NOVEMBER! The 3rd is when these pictures were taken, to be exact. I'm telling you, those raspberry bushes are, hands down, the most rewarding and worthwhile thing we ever planted. We basically ignore them and they produce these lovely little gems forever!

Can you guess which container was the Little Guy's and which was Hubs'?

But luckily, it doesn't matter who picked what. All four of us had them over vanilla ice cream for dessert. The last delicious tastes of a summer that already seems far behind us. 

Only seven more months till Spring. Sigh. 

thanksgiving

Remember thanksgiving? It happened, like, half a week ago. Aaaaages ago. Do you even care anymore? Well, whether you do or whether you don't I'm gonna blog about it. Because it was kind of a milestone for me. You see, I am the daughter af a great cook. Someone who had been cooking for her entire life and has honed her craft to an art. And I live 8 minutes away from the culinary  brilliance that is my Mother. So why on EARTH would I ever cook my own Thanksgiving Dinner? Or Christmas Dinner? Or Easter Dinner for that matter? My Mom has pretty much nailed turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce. And I love it. 

But this year is the year that The Little Dude has Chicken Pox (see previous post) and so we had to miss Thanksgiving Dinner at my Mom and Dad's house. Too many other little kids to potentially infect and even if that were not a concern, he was so SICK on Thanksgiving Sunday. Just laying around, being miserable, having a fever, shaking his little six year old fist at the heavens as he said (repeatedly) "I don't want to have Chicken Pox any more!" - in no condition to go anywhere. Anyhow, my point is that I had to take Thanksgiving Dinner into my own hands. And you know, its not like I don't have any culinary skills at all. So in between painting calamine lotion onto L.D.'s spots and reading endless stories I cooked us a bird.  Just a little organic chicken. But I haven't roasted a chicken a while and it was fun to do. 

Also, we got out the fine china and the stemware.

The better to toast you with my dear. 

Isn't that a fine looking plate? And note the place cards, written with care my the Little Dude. 

Everybody had their favourite part of the meal; mine is the stuffing and the cranberry sauce. Both are my Mom's recipes and I will never deviate from them even a smidge because they are perfect the way they are. The Cranberry Sauce has orange zest in it and is so fresh and lovely. And the stuffing is so sage-y and delicious. But the Little Guy here is all about the mashed potatoes and gravy. As is the Little Dude. 

This is his thumbs up for the food, as his mouth was too full of mashed potato to say anything at the time. Also, not his general lethargy. This was about as enthusiastic as he got on that particularly unpleasant day in the Chicken Pox cycle. Poor kid. But he did like those mashed potatoes. 

Though this is what everyone was waiting for:I did NOT attempt to make the pumpkin pie myself. That was delivered to our quarantine house by my kind niece, courtesy of my Mom. That woman makes the ultimate pumpkin pie. 

And it was gobbled up as fast a forks could allow. I said before that the mashed potatoes were the boys' favourite part of the meal, but I stand corrected. They would eat stale bread with cold gravy for dinner and be happy as clams so long as there was Pumpkin Pie for dessert. 

And so, in spite of not getting to join the big party with the long table and tons of little kids and noise and fun and multiple pumpkin pies, we still had a pretty good Thanksgiving. And I felt like a grown-up, cooking one of those signifigant, symbolic meals for my own little family. It was nice in spite of the Chicken Pox. And I hope you all had good thanksgivings too, whether they were little or big, in good health or bad. It can go either way, but I hope you managed some pie and some celebration whatever the circumstances. 

 

chocolate chip cookies with raspberries

You know, sometimes its the simple things. I like to bake a fancy cake and every now and again try my hand at a pie, but sometimes all that effort is really not necessary. 

I was making a routine batch of chocolate chip cookies today. Nothing special really, except that the Decadent Chocolate Chips from President's Choice were on sale this week, and so I bought some to throw in the cookies this week. Used the recipe from Silvana's Kitchen, but I used butter instead of vegetable shortening aka: Crisco. Because we're eating dairy and wheat again these days, but I still make them gluten free because they taste just as good and even if you don't have an allergy its not a bad idea to limit the gluten in your life. 

Hubs and the Little Guy had just come in from the garden where they'd been picking raspberries. I'm telling you people, sticking three or four raspberry bushes into our garden a few years back was the single best gardening decision we ever made. They are a late bearing variety, so this is their prime, and they are just LADEN with berries. We pick a nice couple of pints every three days or so. Its amazing. When I look at how much organic or pesticide free raspberries cost in the grocery store and then I walk out to my garden and pull them fresh off the branch FOR NOTHING it blows my mind. 

But I digress. The boys came in with a couple of containers of fresh raspberries and we sat down to mid-morning snack/tea to have a hot-out-of-the-oven cookie, naturally. And then I had the best idea ever. 

Why not put these two lovely things together?

I was not the only person who thought this was a great idea. 

The Little Guy was totally on board. After all, he'd picked these raspberries himself! And chocolate chip cookies, are just about his favourite thing in the world (right up there with droppies and freezies).

So we put those fine motor skills to good use. 

And this is the result. Melty chocolate. Buttery cookie. Raspberry jam-y sweetness on top. Each bite is a mouthful of perfection. And you don't have to be a pastry chef to pull it off.

And for those of you with less free time, and no gardens, I'll bet you could get much the same effect with some Pillsbury tube cookies and a pint of berries from your local grocery store. And here's another 'cheater' version of this that I have totally done. Get yourself a bag of Two Bite Brownies, a jar of Bonne Maman Raspberry Jam, and put a little dollop of jam on top of each brownie. That is also crazy good. And if you are feeling decadent put a little whipped cream on top. Even better. I've served those at parties and they go over very well. Basically raspberries and chocolate are one of my favourite flavour combinations. And this guy agrees with me. 
 

we're jammin'

My apologies for the corny post title, but really, we could not stop singing the Bob Marley the whole time we worked. Because, you know, we were making jam. 

And I'd also like to apologize for my absence recently. We were away, you see. I should have told you where I was going and when I'd be back, but this was our first real trip together as a family and between the packing and the stress of last minute worrying I totally forgot. Anyhow, more on our trip later. The short version is that Hubs' family lives in BC and we went out there for a long overdue visit. We haven't been out there in, like, five years! Great Grandma has never even met our Little Guy, which is nuts, but you know, plane tickets don't grow on trees. 

Anyhow, while we were there we had the pleasure of spending a day with my sister-in-law's two oldest daughters, who are almost exactly the same age as our Little Dude and Little Guy. It was such a great time, as they kids really get along. Which is a good thing because the weather did NOT co-operate. It rained and drizzled and was grey all day. Eventually we could not stand being inside any more and decided to make a run for the park. Which was just as wet as everywhere else. No sliding or swinging unless you wanted very wet bums. So we wandered from the park into a nearby field for a walk. And guess what we found!
Blackberries! Just miles upon miles of wild blackberry bushes bordered every field. It was kind of amazing. After picking all we could hold in our hands, we headed home (because also, we were wet) and then sent Hubs back out with a plastic bag.

Which he proceeded to fill.

So many berries! Enough for jam, clearly, so I sent hubs out to the stores for jars and sugar and got to work with the kids. 

First we gently washed and rinsed the perfect little berries. 

And then we all lined up to get a turn at mashing. 

We didn't have aprons, so we MacGyvered up some impromptu smocks with tea towels held in place with chip clips. They have a certain sort of South-of-the-Border flair. 

Jam making is such a great activity for kids because you really can't screw it up. We make the no-cook freezer jam, for which you can find the instructions printed on a paper inside any box of Certo pectin crystals (I used the measurements from the Raspberry Jam recipe, because they did not have a Blackberry Jam recipe, and it worked out just fine). I like the Certo Light, because it calls for half the sugar. But we do go ahead and use real sugar. Though you could also use Pomona's Universal Pectin and make it with honey. That totally works too, and is a bit more natural. Just suit yourself. But basically you just wash the fruit, mash the fruit, stir in the pectin, wait half an hour, stir in the sugar, and slam it into some jars. Easy peasy, mac and cheesy as my kids say. You really can't make a mistake. Though it is very, very possible that you will make a mess. The blackberry juice will stain the counter if you are not careful. Just use a little baking soda made into a paste with water and scrub the fresh stains, and they will come right off. 

Also, it will stain your fingers. Not much you can do about that. It wears away in a day or two at the most. No biggie. 

The Little Guy soon figured it out and was mashing away with his most intense mashing face, just for good measure. 

His cousin wasn't quite so sure about the mashing to start with...

...but with a bit of encouragement she was soon mashing away like a pro!

The Little Dude, he was born to mash. 

Then, after the pectin was stirred in, it was time to wait. And what better way to spend the time, than with a little reading. We started in on "The House at Plum Creek" and got about three chapters in before we tired of it. 

And then we were off to other books and games. 

And before we knew it, it was stirring time again.

Stir, stir, stir.

Everybody got a turn. 

Luckily you can't overstir jam.

And in the end there was even a little bit of beautiful fresh blackberry juice, from the bottom of the bowl of clean berries. The weight of the layers of berries had sort of juiced some of the bottom ones. This stuff turned out to be very popular. There was only about a half a cup of the stuff, but we divided it into little tiny toy tea cups....

...and drank it with great gusto!

And here's our finished jam! I know, it doesn't look like much, but these are not really jam jars, but half quart canning jars, so if these were actually jam jars, there would be six of them. Which is a respectable batch of jam. 

But that jam, it was SO GOOD, that we decided to do it all over again, and this time strain out all the seeds and make jelly. But we needed more berries first.  So Hubs went out to brave the brambles again! (Look at those legs! Like he was attacked by a gang of feral cats!) But it was worth it. 

Fake Cake

Right, maybe I should change the title of this blog to "All About Cakes". Its very much about the baking lately around here. Though I should preface this by saying this is not the kind of cake I usually make. Normally I'm all about the butter, the fresh fruit, the baking from scratch. But this was a different occasion that usual. Our church is doing VBS this week (that's Vacation Bible School for the non-churchy or child-free among you) and I was asked to do the drama/story telling segment of it. So our props list for the first day called for "an elaborately iced cake". A prop cake, never actually to be eaten, to be used to illustrate what it is like to feel left out. So the cake was to be displayed, shown off, but never actually eaten by the kids. Just used to tantalize them. And it had to be used repeatedly over the course of the day. Several people suggested that I just put icing on a styrofoam form, but it just seems like a waste. I certainly did not have time for making something from scratch on Sunday night, so I did what I seldom do: I bought a box cake mix. And not just a box mix, but the very cheapest box mix possible. Good ole' No Name Brand in the ugly yellow box for a dollar-ninety-nine! Angle food if you must know. Because I know it bakes up high and pretty. It took me all of five minutes to slam that sucker in the oven. It was like magic I'm telling you!

And then, I iced the daylights out of it. I made up a nice batch of Seven Minute Frosting, useing the recipe from the Joy of Cooking. It is indeed, billowy and light and very, very sweet. Almost nothing but egg whites and sugar. Plus a little corn syrup and cream of tartar. What's funny is it took me longer to make the icing than to make the cake. I've made this frosting before, but what the real departure for me is food colouring. I see all sorts of beautiful cakes on Pinterest and at events that are all the colours of the rainbow. And I admire them, (and eat them at other people's houses too!) but I rarely can bring myself to bust out the food colouring when I'm baking. It just grosses me out to see a whole little bottle of the dreaded red dye #5. I know, I know, I'm being silly, but most of the time I just like to go with a cream cheese frosting, or some gorgeous whipped cream, and the food colouring just seems... unnecessary. If I want a colourful dessert, this or this is a little more my jam.

But this cake had to look FANCY! So I got out the evil little bottles and made myself some pink icing. And while I can't say that I'll be using it in every cake I bake from now on, I must admit it looked delightful! As I piped those pink rosettes and swags and ruffles edges around it, it was all I could do not to exclaim "ooooh, so priddy!" in high pitched delight. And after a generous dusting of sprinkles and some decorative oreo halves were added, it was ready to go. 

And as I suspected, my children do think that it is part of the pre-eating ritual to take pictures of your food. Because I had promised them both pieces of this cake as soon as we got home from VBS and it no longer needed to be used as a prop. So I got out the knife and the plates and just before I was about to slice into it, L.D. said "Wait Mom! I don't think you took a picture of it yet." Duly noted.This is the Little Dude telling me how much cake he wants. "See Mom? A whole wedge of cake. With one of those cookies pieces on it."

"from here to here! Okay Mom? Is that a good idea?"

I don't think he's ever had an Oreo before either. "These black cookies are pretty good Mom." he says. 

The Little Guy was very pleased about this cake too. He's all about the icing. Note the concentration and his tongue hanging out in anticipation. 

But for a real review of a cheap box cake slathered with sugar and food colouring, you must ask the expert - a six year old. And here is what the Little Dude had to say as he ate this cake. These are direct quotes, as I took notes while he talked. 

"This cake is so good. It makes me feel like I'm in candy world! You should take a picture of this cake mom, and then print it out and frame it and hang it up in my room so I can look at this cake all the time. I would say that its better than a hundred jelly beans." And as he licked his chops. "I'm a fan of this icing."

Though I should note that neither of them actually finished their cake. So either they reached full sugar saturation after scraping all the icing off, or else the cake wasn't actually that good. Either way, we did not waste that prop cake, and as the child of Dutch imigrants, that's what counts. 

Peach Cake

I am still loving that All Cakes Considered book that my sister gave me for my birthday. This week's cake is the Peach Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Look how beautifully it turned out!

I didn't make any changes to the recipe in terms of ingredients, but I did bake it differently than recommended. It says to bake it in a tube pan, but I baked it in two round pans so that I could make a layer cake instead. I had two reasons for this. 1. I hate baking in a tube pan because I have a really hard time assessing when it is done. I often find it a little underdone in the centre, even though my oven tends to run hot. I fuss and hover and give it another five minutes and then another two minutes, and then STILL I find it just a little too pudding-y in the centre. It stresses me out. But I can always tell when a cake in a flat round pan is done. There is much less margin for error. And 2. It give you more surface area for frosting. And frosting in between the layers make for more frosting in every bite. And who can argue with that. 

Look at this poor guy, waiting and waiting until Mommy finishes taking pictures of the cake, until its finally time to EAT the cake! As a side note, I wonder if my kids realize that not everyone take pictures of their food before they eat it. Its probably not in every home that each cake requires a photo shoot of its own. 

Anyhow, he couldn't wait forever. Just had to sneak in there for a little taste. 

Yum.

Another note on frosting. This was a great frosting, with the cream cheese base and all, which gives it a more savoury flavour, and allows it to be not quite so sweet, as the cake itself was pretty sweet to begin with. But I thought to myself, since I'm making it into a layer cake, I'd better double the frosting amounts. Which I did and then I still did not have enough to frost the whole thing! I could see when I'd iced the middle that I was going to be pretty light on the frosting, so I put the remainder in a piping bag and put a jumbo star tip on it and did the rosettes around the edge. Which was plenty of icing if you ask me, but if you want a fully iced cake, you should probably tripple it. 

To say it was enjoyed by all would be an understatement. 

We at the daylights outta that cake!

Though some of use took a brief break from eating to make funny faces. You know who you are. 

strawberry season

Hey you guys, the strawberries are ready! And this year I have TWO eager, capable little berry pickers. 

Its funny, how, as a parent you are watching your kid grow up, literally on a daily basis. And most of the time you don't notice it happening. Its not always measurable, and often veeeerrrrryyy slow, but then one day you suddenly realize that they've mastered something cool or stopped doing something annoying and you are surprised and delighted. And in this case, all of a sudden it seems that The Little Dude is a competent berry picker. Like, he's actually helpful. Not small child "look how I'm helping mommy!" helpful, but all the while they are making a colossal mess or requiring all your attention and keeping you from accomplishing anything yourself. Nope, this year he was legitimately really good at picking berries. 

All the berries he picked were ripe, he hardly ate any of them, and he needed no redirection or chasing down at any point. He was really helpful!

This one, not so much.

I mean, he was really interested in picking, really motivated, I'll give him that. 

But he had one goal and one goal only....

...and that was stuffing as many berries as possible into his face. I swear they should have weighed him on the way in and then weighed him on the way out and charged us for the difference. 

We had some great company too. Auntie Gwen was there to pick with us.

And our cousin Ariana was there too. So it was not only tasty, but fun. Even though I lost my keys in the field, (don't worry, we found them back) and we forgot the Little Guy's hat (the hat which he hates to wear, but cried his heart out over the loss. Seriously). But despite all that, we still had a great time. And now there is a big basket of berries on the kitchen counter, and we've had berries with every meal today. So lovely. It won't be our last trip to the berry field this season. That's for sure. 

sunshine and watermelon

It was such a gorgeous day today. Sunny and warm. Almost, almost hot even, if you sat right in the sun. We decided to have lunch on the deck, and topped it all off with watermelon for dessert.  It was a fantastically good watermelon. Sweet, and so juicy!

The kind of juicy where it runs down your arms to drip off your elbow, and gets all over your chin, and drips onto your batman t-shirt, even though you took the precaution of tying a napkin around your neck, (cause you be mobbin' like that). But whatever, you don't even care, because you are busy eating the daylights outta that sweet, sweet watermelon. 

And pretending that it is an extra big smile-y face, over your already smiling face. 

Or a frown-y face. Because you are hilarious. 

Such a gorgeous day, it felt like nothing could ruin it.  Even when we dropped a piece of watermelon, it still managed to be beautiful. So we admired the splat and cut ourselves another slice. 

Easter Trifle

I know, two dessert posts in a row; its a bit much. But I just had so much FUN making this. I have to say, I've been in a bit of a cooking/baking slump lately. I'm kind of bored with everything and it all tastes the same. So it was a real treat to make this. 

And honestly, it so SIMPLE! I didn't even use a recipe. I referred to the basic trifle recipe in The Joy of Cooking but just used it as a framework. I made a sponge cake that my mom used to make to use in a Jelly Roll. Then I cut it into in inch squares. I put it in the bottom of the bowl and drizzled it with Chambord (a raspberry liqueur). Next was a layer of blueberries and grapes. Then a layer of devon custard that I blended with vanilla pudding, followed by another layer of cake and a bit of Chambord. Then raspberries and peaches, and the whole thing topped with whipped cream. 

Isn't that gorgeous! And the trifle looks pretty good too. 

The Little Guy needed to show me what his favourite part was. Raspberries. He was dying to get his hands in there. 

We drove very carefully to GranGran and Grandpapa's house, cradling the trifle in my lap like it was a cranky baby. And then some of these people ate it. 
Even though it was post Easter Egg hunt. The found a LOT of eggs, and I let them eat as many as they wanted... for a few minutes. 

That was a fun hunt. 

Though as you can see from his face, eating Easter Eggs is even more fun than finding them. Incidentally, I didn't make a conscious decision to dress him in a shirt that would match his Easter Egg drool, but it worked out nicely anyways. 

cake

I'm not sure why, but I've been having really hard time writing this blog post. So hard in fact that its taken me almost a week to finally get around to it (and then another couple of weeks to acutally post it). I put it off and put it off and if there is one thing I know about myself, its that procrastination is a sure sign that something is bothering me. 

So let me go back a bit. About three weeks ago the Little Dude and I had a long awaited Doctor's appointment. Its been more than a year since his last allergist appointment, and we'd been referred to another allergist, closer to home, which is nice. And we wanted to get some more answers. But allergy procedures suck in general, and are pretty unpleasant when you are a little kid. So I was nervous about going, and was trying not to telegraph my discomfort to L.D., keeping the morning light with just a brief "no biggie" announcement about going to the doctor and getting re-tested. And off into the snow we went, favourite Asterix and Obelix book in hand.

And it was a nice office. Everyone was friendly. The Little Dude was excited to play with the toys in the waiting room, and we liked the nurse who did our intake. And we got to the hard part where they scratch your back and it swells up and hurts. There were some tears, but in the end it was managed and over and done with, he had a bit of cream on his back to stop the itching and some benedryl for the same, and then we read about the Gauls and the Romans and waited to talk to the Doctor. Who came to see us by and by, and told us something very surprising. 

The Little Dude is no longer allergic to Wheat and Dairy. 

What? Come again?

Yep, apparently he has "outgrown" those allergies. (no change on the nut r front. More's the pity as that is the worst of them) 

But still, I was gobsmacked. No longer allergic to wheat or dairy? I was almost in shock. A great deal of my life for the last year or so has been devoted to cooking and baking food that has neither wheat nor dairy in it. And it was a bit of an uphill journey to be honest. It changed our lives in so many ways, and I've gotten quite good at it, and it has become a part of our lives. A part of our identity even. So.... what do we do now?

Well, we start eating dairy that's what. Because frankly, it was never so much the wheat that I missed. But the cheese, oh the CHEESE! And the butter! Don't even get me started on butter, I love it so. And now, we can eat it again! I drove us home, through the last snow storm of winter, hardly knowing how to feel about it. The Little Dude, who was not really listening as the Doctor talked (as he was busy being itchy and uncomfortable) was riding in the back, and I said to him "did you hear what the doctor said about your allergies?" "What did he say?" "He said you are not allergic to wheat and diary any more." "What?! Really? Did I outgrow those allergies?" he replied incredulously. "yep, you did," I told him "so what would you like me to make you for dinner?" I asked him "Macaroni and Cheese!" he replied without missing a beat. I'll admit that as I sat there, looking at his giant grin and hearing his chuckles of delight I started to cry just a little. 

And so macaroni and cheese it was. And it was such a treat to smell the butter melting in the pan, to whisk in the flour grate in the cheese (two kinds!) add the spices and make a velvety, rich, slightly salty sauce to add the the macaroni. To cook it in the oven cool it just a bit and serve it to my little boys. That was the best part of all. Watching them eat it. I have NEVER seen them eat anything so fast. Dinner time usually involves a fair bit of cajoling ; requests to please sit down, please have another bite, please do some eating and not just fidgeting and messing around. But not this time. Every single bit was enthusiastically devoured and seconds were requested. It was a treat for everyone really.

But here's the funny bit. I feel happy of course that my son will not get congested and sick when he eats these very common foods. I feel relieved that I will no longer have to make everything from scratch and bring our own gluten free/diary free cupcakes when we go to birthday parties. I look forward to treating myself to convenience food every so often (freezer pizza) when the days are rough and I am tired. I am happy to be able to return to the tried and true comfort foods of childhood (hence the home-made macaroni and cheese). But I also feel oddly sad. And guilty. Guilt is never to far away from my poor little Calvinist-raised psyche, but I'm surprised to feel it in this instance. 

So what I think I'm feeling is some sort of "survivor guilt". It is very hard to go Gluten Free and Dairy Free when you start. You have to rethink EVERYTHING, and it can be quite a struggle. And I struggled alot. I even cried a couple of times. But I worked really hard at it and got to a point where I was actually good at it. But despite that, I am relieved to not have to do it any more. And I feel bad about that. Because there are others of you out there who are struggling with dietary restrictions, limits, allergies and all the rest. There of those of you for whom dinner is an uphill battle, where every snack is a puzzle, and a birthday cake is somewhere between a challenge and a tragedy. And so I feel bad that I can stop struggling when you have to go on making substitutions and going the extra mile. 

All that being said, I can now go back to cooking and baking how I always did. I can crack open almost any cookbook and cook almost any recipe without making substitutions. Its quite and incredible feeling. As the Little Dude would say "Its kind of blowing my mind". But this freedom brings with it a new responsibility. Because while taking wheat and dairy out of our diet was hard (and made me kind of crazy), it certainly made us all healthier. You cut out a LOT of fat when you can't just sprinkle cheese on anything. And butter, while I love it, and it is better for you than margarine, is not exactly health food. So I'm not going to add wheat and dairy back into our diet as completely as we ate it before. I'm going to try and go light on it. We have a lot of family-favourite meals in my repretoire that I'm going to keep making that don't need wheat or diary. When I made that requested Mac & Cheese for example, I used gluten free rice pasta. And it made no noticable difference. 

Hubs birthday was just around the corner, so I decided to make him one of his faovourite cakes. A cake I would not have made over the past couple of years.A cake that is mainly dairy. 

This is a family favourite my mom has been making for years. Its called an Orange Dacquoise. A Dacquoise is a cake made with alternating layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream. In this case we make the meringue with only almonds, because that is the only nut that the Little Dude is NOT allergic to. And the whipped cream is flavoured with freshly squeezed orange juice.

It is an amazing cake; oddly rich and light at the same time. 

And everybody LOVED it!

Here's the Birthday Man (birthday boy no longer seems appropriate now that we have actual little boys around) polishing off his piece. 

and the Little Dude....

...seemed to be trying to eat his whole slice in one bite!

So there it is then. We can eat some wheat and dairy now, but I'm going to try not to go crazy. Except on birthdays, in which case all bets are off. And if you are struggling with dietary restrictions, I just want to tell you that you CAN do it. Even if I am not any more. You have my support, even if I don't know who you are. And I will still be posting gluten free and dairy free recipes from time to time, and am working on a nice gluten free scone as we speak. Ok, gotta go eat a stick of butter now. Just kidding.