The Garden is Growing!

We planted the garden in a new spot this year after last year's spot got flooded and everything was lost. This time we have a raised bed and are trying to do it all in an organic way. This isn't so easy when you get fire ants but so far I have had some good luck using orange oil. It is a little more work but the ant hill came up right next to the plants and I really didn't want to spread ant poison inches away from the cucumbers!

So here is the garden before the seedlings were planted.

And here is the garden this morning. We have summer squash (front, left), cucumbers (front, right), sweet basil (down the middle), Cherokee Purple tomato (back left - we bought those already 10 inches tall), and San Marzano tomatoes (back right - from seeds and probably transplanted too early). In the pots on the left are blueberries that we will plant in a bed against the garage. In the pots on the right are plants that are supposed to repel mosquitos (not really effective).

The first squash blossom even opened this morning.

Here are some pictures I took last week of flowers in the front yard. They are all gone now except the weedy ones (the yellow flowers).

And here's one of three of the boys!

So if you happen to be around in about a month, drop by for dinner. We will probably be having pasta with a tomato basil sauce, sauted summer squash and a cucumber salad!

Free Shopping Tote

There were many places you could get a free shopping tote bag in the past few days. I got a great one at Whole Foods that is 80% recycled and if it wears out they will replace it for free! I also just found out (but too late) that you could have gotten one at Walmart and Home Depot too. If you still want one you can take this quiz and get one from Earthbound Farm Organic. If you pass the quiz (I did!) then they will send you one. Yah, I know, If they mail it to you then they are using fuel to send them but I'm sure there is a balance there somewhere, I hope! You only have until the end of the month. Good luck! I have been using reusable shopping bags every week when I get my groceries. So far everyone "got it" except in the little rural town I work in. I had to do a little explaining there.

My First Gluten Free Bread Success

I have recently found some new gluten free blogs that feature many recipes. I have been buying bread at a Whole Foods Market that is almost an hour away. With rising gas prices I have decided to try and make my own again. I tried my old recipe that at the time was the best one I could find. It flattened out too much to really be worth it. Now three years later I have found a fantastic bread recipe. I was looking for something that was a little healthier and had some more nutrition and fiber. I looked on the Celiac Message Board that I go to when I need some information and found some links to a few blogs. At Recipezaar and Gluten Free Mommy I found very similar recipes with rave reviews. Now to a person who can eat regular bread it might just taste like regular bread, but to someone who is gluten intolerant it TASTES LIKE REGULAR BREAD!! The texture is great and the taste is great. But there is one really big con. It is made of SEVEN different flours and there are many other ingredients. But I think it is worth it to work a system to make this one on a regular basis. My usual is to put all the dry ingredients together and make a "mix". I usually make at least three bags of pre-measured dry ingredients but for this I will probably make more. Then when I make them I will probably make at least two loaves at a time.


Here's the recipe with my substitutions and I used the one at Gluten Free Mommy:

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour

3/4 cup millet flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sweet rice flour

1/4 cup flax seed meal

1 Tablespoon xantham gum

3 eggs

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 packet active dry yeast+ 1 tsp granulated sugar for proofing yeast

1 Tablespoon honey

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1 1/4 cup of 120 degree water

DIRECTIONS:

All ingredients including eggs need to be at room temperature.

1. Grease and flour a 10 inch loaf pan. I only had a 9 inch pan so I also made three muffins with the rest of the batter.

2. Combine all dry ingredients except yeast.

3. Combine all wet ingredients except water in the bowl of a stand mixer.

4. Combine yeast and one teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl.

5. Heat the water to 120 degrees. Add 1/4 cup of the heated water to the yeast and let sit for 10 minutes. if it does not foam up after 10 minutes then start over with the yeast.

6. When the yeast is ready slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together.

7. Then add the yeast and continue to mix.

8. Then slowly add the water until it gets to a stiff cake batter consistency.

9. Beat the dough for about 10 minutes.

10. Pour batter into pan(s) and cover with wax paper and a towel. Place in a warm place to rise for at least an hour. The dough should be to the top of the pan.

11. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. The crust will be dark brown. The muffins I took out at about 20 minutes and they were a light golden color.

12. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes then on a drying rack until cool.

I think it would be possible to make other things with this recipe like hamburger buns. I cut it up and froze it so we shall see how it tastes as a sandwich tomorrow.

I still had to go to Whole Foods to get two of the flours that I did not have, but I think I will be able to order these pretty easily.

New Pictures

Here is a slide show of some new pictures we took. You can look at bigger ones or download the album at the family album link on the side.