finger thumb

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. 

 

little kid party

So it was the 'birthday weekend' here on Saturday and Sunday. Which means it was the weekend that falls closest to the Little Guy's birthday, and so that was when we had the actual parties. Our family party with aunts, uncles and cousins was on Sunday, and the party with his little-kid friends was on Saturday. So it was a very busy weekend. Also, it was the Oscars, and I love the Oscars, so I also hosted a little dress-up/eat/watch party, so basically I had three parties this weekend. Luckily my sweet Mom hosted the family one at her house, so I only had to clean my house and make food for two parties. Thank heavens. Though I should not even complain, because I do love a party, and really, would love for there to be something social and fun at my house every weekend. 

Anyhow, every good party starts with a cake. After much stressing out over facebook (thanks for the support y'all) due to the fact that I did not grease the pan properly, it did manage to turn out ok in the end. The Little Guy is really into dogs these days, so a dog cake was in order. He was very happy with it, and naturally requested the piece with the little red gummy tongue, which was his right as birthday boy. Its a gluten free cake recipe that I alwasy use and should get around to posting here someday because it is delicious. But I cheated and made a swiss meringue buttercream for the frosting (Martha Stewart recipe) which is gluten free, but NOT dairy free. And it was aMAzing. One thing about rarely eating dairy is how much you do appreciate it when you get the chance. Because ermagersh, butter. 

I'd like to say a few words here about good old fashioned little-kid home birthday parties. There has recently been (or maybe not recently, I haven't been a parent for that long) a trend for having parties at a 'venue'. Like a place where you rent by the hour, or pay per child, or a community centre, or a country club or something like that. And I know that there are a variety of reasons for this, like people who live in apartments or don't have a lot of kid-friendly space at home. I totally get it for city dwellers and whatnot, or older kids where you want to do something out of the usual, like bowling or something. But I have to say, I love a simple home party at this age. We asked the Little Guy who he wanted to invite, and all together there were nine kids include the birthday boy and his brother. And that is PLENTY if you ask me. Nine kids feels like about two-dozen kids when you've got them all together under one roof. And you hardly even need to plan stuff for them to do, they are just so happy to have other kids around, and play with all the regular toys that are always around, but seem more exciting when there are new friends to experience them with. I guess what I'm trying to say is that next time you are looking at planning a little-kid party, take the pressure off and just have it at home. Don't feel like you have to invite the whole class. Try something like inviting as many familys as the birthday child's age. (as in, we invited three familys, because LG is three) because that really helps to keep the whole situation manageable, and also cheaper. And I know, as kids get older it gets less easy to do this. I'm sure it will be only a matter of years before I am eating my words and ponying up for some sort of cleverly named pay-by-the-hour play space for 28 of the Little Dude's nearest and dearest friends. But while I can get away with it, I will be happy to have these simple cake-and-ice-cream-at-home parties. (Please note that by saying this I do not mean to criticize anyone who has had parties in a play space. The Little Dude and I have been happy to attend lots of these parties, and have had a great time. They are totally fun and practical in many circumstances where you have no choice but to invite a lot of people. I'm just putting this out there for the parents who can't afford to do anything like this and may have felt bad. I don't want anyone to feel bad. After all, its a party! There should be no feeling bad at parties!)

And its amazing how time flies at these things. You've got cake to eat, presents to open...

(The Little Guy was very happy with some playmobil doggies and all the other lovely gifts he recieved)

And then we got down to doing a simple craft. I pre-made some masks out of craft foam and felt.

And then we decorated the heck out of them with stick-on jewels. Not the most sophiticated craft, but then again, he's three. And he loves sticking things to other things. 

I love doing crafts with kids because you see so much of their personality in the choices they make. 

And speaking of personality....

If you want to do something similar, I used the templates from this super-hero mask tutorial, but made them generic, and also used a template that a friend of mine had made up for her son's birthday. I don't have a link to that though, as it was just something she put together. But it was a really fun thing to do, and now the masks will be part of our dress-up repretoire until they fall apart. 

gluten free, dairy free gingerbread muffins

I haven't shared a recipe here in awhile, but these have been so popular around our house, that it seemed worth passing on.  These are not too sweet, but not bland either, since they have two kinds of ginger in them; both regular ground ginger and fresh grated ginger. If I was making these for adults I'd add chopped candied ginger too, but I think that'd be to intense for my little ones.

And the very best part of these muffins is the way that the kids eat 'em. Nom! And before you can blink two or three are gone. 

Nice and moist on the inside too. They have a lovely texture. And they taste like a gingerbread cookie crossed with a muffin. 

So, here's the recipe. 

Gingerbread Muffins

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of sugar free applesauce

1/2 cup of molasses

1/4 cup of canola oil

1 tbsp of grated fresh ginger

1 and 3/4 of a cup of your favourite gluten free flour blend

1 tsp of ground ginger

1 tsp of baking soda

a pinch of salt

Pre-heat over to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl mix the first six ingredients (the wet ones) together with a hand mixed, till well blended. Sift together the last four ingredients (the dry ones) in a medium sized bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and give it another little shot with the hand mixer, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated (but don't over mix it, or they get too tough). Line muffin tins with paper or re-useable silicone cupcake liners, and fill each one two thirds of the way full. You'll be able to fill about 18 cups. Put a little bit of warm water in the remaining empty cups to ensure even baking. 

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until they cupcakes risen and brown and the tops bounce back to your touch. 

Allow to cool a bit, and then eat 'em with a nice cup of tea. Also, if you are not dairy free, these would be amazing with a cream cheese frosting. 

Anyhow, enjoy! I know we do!

Japanese Milk Bread

Found this recipe for Japanese Milk Bread the other day, and had to try it. Of course I had to make a few adjustments to make Japanese Milk Bread with no milk.... but I've had so much practice at altering recipes that it turned out just lovely on my first try.  Here is is, all folded up and ready to rise.

And it rose so beautifully!

And here is is, all puffy and lovely, fresh out of the oven. It is indeed the softest gluten free bread I've ever made. Must be thanks to the Tangzhong, which is a Japanese water roux. You whisk gf flour and water together over heat until it thickens and then cool it and use it in the recipe. Its a minor miracle, I'm telling you. The kids loved it as did Hubs. I think it is really his favourite. We made garlic bread with it, to go with our spaghetti the other day, and it was fantastic (if I do say so myself). 

cookies

I just want to take a moment to thank you guys. Thanks for hanging in with me here while I've been so absent lately. This whole Gluten Free Baking business thing has been kicking my butt. Who knew that baking would be such hard work? I have yet to figure out how to make my supply meet the demand, but at least I'm starting to feel like I have a routine of sorts, so that's good. Though its only Sunday night and I already see next weekend swooping down towards me. I'm trying to do more prep earlier in the week so I don't get so overwhelmed at the last minute. Anyhow, I'm just generally tired and a little sore, but still making a go of it. Did I mention I got a second stove? The one we had in our apartment in Montreal has been kicking around it storage (for those of you not from Montreal, I should explain that very few apartments in Mtl come with appliances, so you have to buy your own and move them around with you. Therefore, when we relocated from la belle province to Ontari-ari-ari-o we now have an 'extra' one) which over the course of the week we got cleaned up and installed (or rather my mom cleaned it up, bless her, and my dad and Hubs and my uncle scratched their heads and tinkered about for a few days and finally got it working. Yay!) But of course, despite the fact that my kitchen is comfortable roomy, it is not huge, so we could not fit the stove up here. So we installed it in the basement in the laundry room. And now I'm basically doing something I call "The Home Bakery Workout". You see, a batch of cookies needs ten minutes to bake. But since you put one sheet of cookies on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf, you need to rotate them half way through the baking time so you don't have the ones on the bottom getting too crispy while the ones on the top are overdone. So since I've got two ovens going (which is awesome, because you can do twice as many cookies) I have to stagger the two batches, so that I can run up and down the stairs EVERY FIVE MINUTES. And don't get all smart and suggest I just stay downstairs, becauser remember, there is another batch of cookies in the over upstairs. See how that works. Anyhow, cookie baking day is Thursday, and I felt ok and Friday (bread baking day) because I was too busy to think about anything else and likewise was fine on Saturday because it was Market Day (busy! customers! making change! math! adrenaline!) but today! Hoo boy! Today my legs are KILLING ME! Its like I did an all day Step class. (remember step aerobics? So nineties) Anyhow, if I manage to keep this up all Summer (without dropping dead either from the stress or the exhaustion) I am going to have the ass of a 21 year old.  

Oh, and also, this week was my first market week without the never ending support of my Mom and Dad. Because usually on Market day my Dad meets me at the Market (or should I say "beats me to the Market. Early birds. Sheesh) to help me set up my booth and table because he has a truck and I do not. Also he is very good with knots and such and common sense problem solving type things. And he likes to get up early and hang out and chat with the Farmers. So really, its a win/win for him. And my Mom of course, is busy being an amazing Grandma, driving over to my house at 8:30 in the morning, getting my kids dressed, packing them a bag and snacks and such and bringing them to the market later in the morning so they can hang out with me for an hour or so, and then taking them back to her house for lunch, and an ATV ride with Grandpa and other sundry fun times, and after it is all over, dropping them back off at my place so I can put them down for nap time/quiet time so that I can have nap time too. Basically, they both have facilitated this whole Farmer's Market experience for me SO MUCH. I don't know how I would do it without them.

Which brings me to this week, when I had to do it without them. Because they've gone camping. Which is only fair, as they need a break from me and my kids. 

Anyhow, this week I did it all by myself. And by all by myself, I mean that my kind Uncle John got up at the crack of dawn to drive over to my Parent's house and load my table/tent/weights/signage onto his truck and then follow me down to the market to help me set up. So, SO kind of him. He is also good with knots. Then Hubs arranged to go to work an hour later than usual, by working overtime earlier in the week. Then he woke, fed, brushed and dressed the Littles and brought them to the Market. Where we were met by Laura, a lovely teenager from our church, who spent the morning keeping track of my boys as they played and ran around the market and ate the sweet little lunches that Hubs had packed for them. They had a fantastic time with her, and juuust as they were starting to get bored, The Little Dude's school friend Michael and his mom Patti showed up to hang out with and encourage us. L.D. was thrilled to have the impromptu play date, and the Baby is in love with Patti, so he was very happy to see them both. And Patti kept me awake during the slow last hour of the market morning, and also encouraged me to eat lunch, which I often forget to do on Market day. So really, there is no such thing as 'doing it alone'. It takes a village, right? And I am so grateful for the kindness and support all around me. Community. 

Oh, and as I mentioned before the weekend, the Little Dude has his first experience with trying to make money this weekend.
He managed to cut out and decorate thirteen whole cookies (before he got 'tired' as he put it, or rather, 'got bored' as I would put it) and we broke one of them in transit, but managed to sell eleven of them at the market (and had one left over to eat, much to his delight). I sell cookies for 75 cents each, and about one third of that is raw materials cost, so I told him he could keep 50 cents per cookie sold. So at the end of the day, he made himself a whopping five dollars and fifty cents. He was pretty pleased about that, and wanted to go right out and buy some Lego with it. But we went online to look at Lego kits for a minute, and he was reminded of the fact that the one he wanted most of all actually costs about eighty dollars, so he decided to put his money in his WienerMobile bank and save it, and sell cookies again next week and hopefully make some more money. I'm hoping (in my dull parenting type way) that this will be a good way for him to learn about money etc. More on this at a later date when I'm not so tired. 

And out of the little dough scraps at the end of his batch of cookies, we cut some teeny tiny train cookies, which were very good as a garnish for our fruit salad dessert.

And they were tasty little morsels too.

first harvest

We've been picking spinach and lettuce and herbs from the garden for awhile now, but today we picked our first actual vegetables.  The zucchini was a nice surprise, the cucumbers were delicious and we are SO looking forward to more of those sweet little tomatoes. 

We ate the cukes and the tomatoes on their own, but I put the zucchini on our pizza. Also, I'm experimenting with a new pizza crust. The one I usually do is very, very thin, almost crispy. But one of my customers at the Farmer's Market has asked for a thicker more poufy, chewy crust, because that's what her son prefers. So I'm trying it out.

It was very well recieved. The Little Dude said "I LOVE this mom!" And then later, I was very nicely thanked for making dinner. I fricken' love that. Totally worth all the effort. Oh, and here's my little secret for making pizza extra special delicious - a layer of pureed basil in olive oil. I have SO MUCH basil in the garden (but not too much. There is no such thing as TOO much basil.) so I just pick a big bowl of it everytime I have a surplus, and then blend it up in the blender with just enough oil to make it just a little thinner than a paste. Then, I freeze it in ice cube trays and I can enjoy it all winter. I melt one cube per pizza and spread it on before I put on the tomato sauce. 

Anyhow, try it next time you make a pizza. You'll be sneaking a few extra greens into your kids and also, it'll taste awesome. 

 

things I learned this week while baking.

ok. So I am baking A LOT these days. More than I have in a long time. I used a lot of baking during my graduate degree (it was calming, also I used some of it in my art practice, also I just liked eating cake) but since becoming a mom and whatnot, I had less free time for baking. But now that I'm using it as a fledgling income source, I am really, really baking. Like, for two days straight. And I mean all day long, for those two days, I am in the kitchen measuring and mixing and putting stuff into the oven and taking stuff out of the oven, over and over and over. Like, I'm standing almost all day. I had to go out and find some good shoes, because after the first week was over my feet hurt like CRAZY and I was all like "feet, what's going on?" And they were all like. "You stood and walked around the kitchen for almost twelve hours yesterday with no shoes on! How do you think that makes us feel?" So now I take care of them better. 

Anyhow, my point: lotsa baking = learned some stuff about baking. So I thought I'd share some tips.

1: " Treat yo self": To quote Donna and Tom from Parks and Rec. I went out and bought myself some new kitchen supplies. This was partially practical. Gluten Free baked goods, should not be cross-contaminated with gluten from old baking supplies. Who knows what rogue proteins lurk in the crevices of an old spatula? So I went and bought new cookies sheets, muffin tins, spatulas, etc. And I had not realized how old and crappy much of my stuff was. I've been married for, like, fifteen years you guys! And I received most of my kitchen supplies as wedding gifts. You know how well fifteen year old oven mitts work? They don't. They had holes in them at all the crucial spots (thumb end, thumb crevice, what's the point) and they were burned and threadbare. And probably had gluten aaaaallll over them. So I bought a new pair and seriously, the small pleasure of that simple new item cannot be underestimated. Also, I like not burning my thumbs. Which brings me to my second point:

2. Oven Mitts cannot be too long. Because of course, I managed to burn my forearms. Sigh. Because it is HOT in that kitchen. Hot is good for bread. Yeast likes heat in order to rise, so I keep the air conditioning to a minimum and I don't open the doors for a breeze. One ill-timed breeze could spell the end of my nice, lofty loaf crown. So I keep it hot in there. And I dress accordingly. I'm basically two steps away from baking topless. My apron does not have long sleeves ya'll. I am mostly bare armed most of the time. And my poor little bare arms.... ... are taking a beating. Please note the three-inch-long burn mark on the inner right forearm. This was worse (and more impressive, photographically) a couple of days ago. But still, that hurt like a sonofagun. Anyhow, much as I like my new oven mitts, (so thick! so grippy!) I cannot help but think they could have been longer. Like, opera length. Where are my formal length oven mitts? I think I might be onto something here. When I get a bit of free time I'm gonna sew me some looooong oven mitts. Also on the subject of new baking supplies....

3. Cookie scoop, where have you been all my life! I had heard tell of this handy little gadget before, but had never gotten around to tracking one down and buying it. Honestly, how have I not bought one of these things before? I'll tell you how: I'm cheap and I already own spoons, which are also perfectly good at scooping dough. But the cookie scoop? Oh, the consistency! The ease! The one hand only required, no fingers in the dough action! So hygienic! So fast! So little waste! So may exclamation marks! Cookie scoop, I'll never be without you again.

4. And if you are in any way serious about baking, or at least, about not screwing up when you bake, you should totally buy an oven thermometer. Cheap, easily available and they answer SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. Like: Bread, why are you so dark on the outside and yet too chewy and dense on the inside? Well, turns out my oven is off by, like, 25 degrees. At least. It takes my longer to heat up than I thought and can be pretty inconsistent. Anyhow, now that I have the oven thermometer, a quick check can tell me that, no the oven is not anywhere near 350 yet, even though the (useless) little preheat light went off. I now have way more consistent results, and less frustration. At least, when I'm paying attention. 

5. And this is not really advice or anything, but I often think, as I'm baking, about how great it would be to have x-ray vision when I'm take my bread out of the oven. I don't need universal x-ray vision even. I'm not interested in state secrets or the contents of vaults or anything. I just want to be able to see into the middle of my bread without cutting it open. Because you can't sell already-been-cut-into bread. And there is no really perfectly accurate way to check the done-ness and consistency of the bread without cutting into it. Its a real connundrum. Anyhow, I just mostly have to trust myself and go with it. Hubs says he will make me a nice core-sampler thing so I can pull out a prefect cross section of the bread while keeping the rest of it intact. But that wouldn't really solve my problem because I don't think that people will want to buy the loaf with the hole in it. Even if it is a small, perfectly round hole. 

that went well.

So I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, dragged my very, very tired butt down to the library's parking lot to meet up with my Dad and set up my booth for the Farmer's Market. 

As an aside, I should say that my Dad is awesome for how supportive and helpful and just all around resourceful he is with this whole little fledgling endeavour of mine. I should also add that it should be illegal for anyone to be that chipper so early in the morning. I'm barely holding my eyes open, all cranky with fatigue and jittery with last minute details, and he's practically doing a jig while shaking hands with anybody he meets in that parking lot. Boy do I wish his early-bird tendancies were genetic. 

Anyhow, got set up, got going, met lots of people, sold a bunch of stuff, met more people, sold more stuff, Mom brought the boys over, sold more stuff, made very quick trips to the potty with the Little Dude, sold some more stuff, and eventually looked down at my table to see this: One cupcake. One poor, lonely, single, solitary cupcake. That was all that was left. AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK! I still had two hours to go and had nearly sold all of my product! And then someone came along and bought that lonely little guy, and all I had left were empty plates.

And the cute picture of a chicken that Hubs drew for me. Yeah, I'm going to have to bake a bit more this week. I may need a bigger stove......

bakingbakingbakingbaking.....

Do you know what this is: 
This is an empty flat of eggs. A flat (in case you can't count from the picture) contains thirty eggs. THIRTY EGGS PEOPLE! That is how much baking I've done! Enough to use up thirty eggs in two days! Though to be honest, its actually 29 as I broke one. In my groggy morning haste to start baking I fumbled one on its way from the fridge to my bowl, and dropped it. It was only a few inches to the floor, but that was enough to break that egg. The Baby was standing with me and was thrilled. "Dat Egg! Broken Dere!" he shreiked with joy. His brother had to run over and see what all the commotion was about. And then, with perfect comic timing the Baby reached out his little socked foot and delicately smushed the remaining intact half an eggshell. Oh the laughter! He killed, I'm telling you; deep throated belly laughs between them both. I tried to stay straight faced, but failed miserably. His timing was just so perfect and the ensuing laughter so cute.

Anyhow, my point is that I don't think I have ever baked so much over such a short period of time in my whole life. Over the last two days I have made:

Two batches of Mexican Chocolate Brownies

Three batches of cookies (one chocolate chip, two oatmeal raisin)

Two loaves of hearty brown bread

Two large loaves of pumpernickel, and two mini loaves of pumpernickel

and three large loaves of cinnamon-raisin-cranberry bread as well as two mini loaves of the same.

Phew. And my feet are killing me! Probably should get some good supportive shoes to wear in the kitchen if I am going to keep this up.  See them all! Aren't they gorgeous? And here's a close-up on the pumpernickel. oooh, aaaaaah....

Here are the Cranberry-Raisin Cinnamon Loaves, waiting in their ghostly shrouds to go into the riser box (or rather, the microwave full of hot towels, see yesterday's post if you want to know what I'm talking about).

Just a little peek! This one is partially risen and well on its way to lovely chewy holey bready goodness. 

And I'm still not done. Much more to do before tomorrow arrives. But I'm well on the way, and my little boys need me now, so I have to take a break. But if you are in Bradford tomorrow, and want to come and taste my wares, I'll be at the Bradford Farmer's Market from 8-12 am. I'll be in the booth at the end, with the red gingham tablecloth. Wish me luck!

baking gluten free bread

So I've been really, really into baking gluten free bread lately. Not just because I'm cheap, have a gluten free kid, and like to eat bread. Though those are the core reasons for most of my baking. No, this time its because I'm going to start selling my bread. I've rented a stall at our local farmer's market and I start this weekend. So I've been baking, baking, baking and have been really nailing it if I do say so myself. Mostly because I found this new blog Gluten Free on a Shoestring, and it is blowing. my. mind. Not just good recipes, but more importantly, great tips and how-to's. Sure a good recipe is helpful, but actually having someone explain the chemistry of gluten free bread making and also, giving some great pointers on how to get it to work out has been so, so helpful. Seriously, look at this. I know, I get excited about small things, but what's awesome about this loaf of bread is those lovely holes in it. Its really hard to get that sort of aeration in a gluten free bread. And that's why GF bread is often so dense or heavy, and has that really tight crumbly crumb that is so frustrating, and causes your bread to fall apart in the toaster. 

But this bread, nice and soft, much lighter than your average GF loaf. And very, very tasty I might add. And all thanks to the post on helping your GF bread dough to rise. I'm telling you, the microwave rising box method has changed my life. (see fourth paragraph of the above article) So brilliant and no expensive equipment needed. Except the microwave and you probably have that already.

Anyhow, if you are at all interested in baking Gluten Free Bread, you should totally check out the GF on a Shoestring blog, especially the Bread Index. And if you are only interested in eating gluten free bread, come on out to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and visit me. More details tomorrow.