Feedback on Red Barron pizza mistake and Bubble Tea

Hello to my fellow Bloggers.  I hope that if you visit my site, you'll leave me some feedback or comments.  I am pretty new at blogging although I have followed other blogs a while.  Comments will help me in developing better content to serve you.  Thank you in advance.

Well people, I was correct.  I did and continue to pay for my lack of preparedness yesterday when I ate my son's Red Barron pizza.  Yech!  So today, back to trying to learn how to plan ahead.  I am going to make ahead gluten free bread mixes in quart size freezer bags so I can quickly throw things together - which seems to be my modus opperandi in the kitchen.  Since we have a winter storm coming in today, I have heard the store shelves are pretty much bare around here and I am low on provisions as I've spent the last few days indulging in illness and not replenished my larder, fridge, and freezer.  Pickings aren't too got at the moment here-except for gluten free grains, a frozen turkey, heh.

Additionally, I've not been to visit my mother in several days and need to swing by there, take her a Sonic Cheeseburger with everything on it, take her to the Walgreen's for a couple things she wants to get, then hopefully head home BEFORE the frozen nasty stuff begins as there are two big hills between that I have to drive and I'd prefer not to slip and slide.

Mom usually wants me to eat a burger with her.  My tummy is not up to that yet so I am thinking I'll just make another pineapple grapefruit slushie and sip that to be sociable.  

My Gut Reactions?  Still not too happy at my huge error in eating judgment yesterday, and man it's gonna be crazy out there today at the stores and on the road, wish I could stay home.

Also, I mentioned Bubble Tea yesterday.

My Gut Reaction?  Frankly, my attempt wasn't special nor was it bad.  I'm sure that the taste and presentation done correctly in the restaurant would be much better than my attempt, maybe.  I'll reserve judgment until I have that experience.  But I don't think that I'm gonna try it again until I see how it is done.

Bubble Tea?

Yep, I'm definitely getting over whatever bug the little darlings at work shared with me.  This one was a doozy.  I hate the croupy bronchitisy head cold thing with a passion, yet as I'm getting older I seem more susceptible to them also.  Working with toddlers and preschoolers, I tend now to catch everything they bring to our facility.  Today is Wednesday, Hump Day for the typical work week and for my cold, love the pun.  I am expecting to be well enough to return to work by Friday, which is when the ice/snow storm we are expecting  here in NW Arkansas will be in full fury, just in time to enjoy getting snow bound with sick kids at work.  Oh well, life's little events.

Now on to other things.  How many of you have ever heard of or tried "Bubble Tea?"  I was researching various uses for large pearl tapioca, when I came across many references to Bubble Tea.  Apparently, all the hot Asian restaurants are serving it.  As you may know, tapioca and tea (along with dry toast or crackers) are very good to eat when you are sick. I was intrigued enough to open the sites and begin reading.  Essentially, bubble tea is tapioca mixed into the tea, served hot or cold, sweetened, possibly colored.  Looks like fish eggs.  Can be served mixed with fruit.  I like to play.  Seems  like a perfect idea to me.  So I just prepared a cup of chai and mixed in the tapioca to see how I like it.  I'll let you know.

Yesterday I used up all the lovely gluten free bread I made a few days ago ( when I forgot to write the recipe down as I created it).  I had enjoyed several crusts of dry toast during the low point of this miserable cold thing.  Between the toast, tapioca, and pineapple-ruby grapefruit slushes, cough suppressants and Vitamin C tablets, I have not eaten in almost a week.  Therefore, I was pretty hungry all of a sudden today around lunch time ( I actually stayed awake long enough to eat).  So I pulled out from the freezer one of my son's frozen Red Baron pizza's, threw it into the oven, then proceeded to eat several slices.
My Gut Reaction?  How could I be so stupid!

Now I am going to have to pay for my not being prepared--for having no quick fix foods in the kitchen.  Thus, I am now going to have to go to a Boy Scout meeting tonight while enduring the payback from the wheat.  Now I am going to have to have ready in the future, foods that I can quickly prepare to eat, or grab and go foods to take to work, especially when I am in a time crunch or just not, for whatever reason, able to fix foods.

How many of you sometimes find yourselves in similar situations?  Sometimes I feel like I am really scatter-brained and unorganized to the max.  Please, oh please, share some of your mistakes and solutions.   Perhaps we can help each other out here.

I now have a spiral notebook and pen in the kitchen so that I can write down ingredients,  measurements and steps I take when I'm creating something on the fly and then share it with  you.  I have also borrowed a digital camera with which to attempt to take photographs of the process to share with you.  In that respect, please be patient and merciful in your critiques of my ability, remember, I'm a middle ager, not a youngster, so I'm a bit--how shall I put it--new at this, yea that's right.  I'm not remedial, just ignorant.  heh heh

I also am planning to practice making and freezing mini-pizzas and other traditional fast food meals.  I like fast food meals for their convenience and easy eating.  Tacos, burritos, burgers, subs, and pizzas are all nice when I'm in a hurry.  I do like the smoothies and I know they are healthy, but I get pretty tired of sweet tastes.  I do like V-8 (spicy) but there is a lot of sodium in that juice.  Savory, crunchy, and still healthy and quick are what I'll be looking for.  The internet will be one tool for searching out recipes and ideas.  Hopefully, you all can contribute to this project as well.

I am somewhat worried about the price we will be seeing in the grocery stores this year.  You cannot find canned pumpkin to bake with already from last fall's abysmal harvest.  With the recent dreadful freeze in Florida, the citrus, tomato, strawberry, pepper, and some vegetables from Florida are devastated.  Since I am in process of purging from my diet habits convenience foods and eating more fruits and vegetables, I know this is gonna hurt.  I've already begun stocking up on frozen juice concentrate and veggies.  What about you?

Well, I'm still not feeling my best, in fact, other people think I sound pretty lousy, however, I must look and sound worse than I feel, cause I'm up, reading, writing, and sipping a grapefruit slush (Take 1 Vita-Mix machine, add 1 ruby grapefruit - my last one, sigh--add about a cup of ice cubes, and about 3/4 a cup of soy milk, give it a whirl, and there you go, wonderful!) which makes the throat feel much better and eating toasted (dry) bread.

The quick bread I made yesterday was sursprisingly soft and squeesable, sorta makes me think of the Charmin toilet paper commercials, heh.  But really, it is soft.  Lots of GF breads are dry or crumbly.  They have not got the arieness that we are accustomed to with wheat breads (from the gluten's elasticity).  The are aften dense heavy loaves.  Additionally, they go stale rapidly.

Yesterday's loaf  was light, fluffy.  It packed and went to work, was still good many hours later.  This morning same and it toasted and tasted nicely.  Do you know how gluten free breads sometimes have a funny feel or taste on the tongue, not slimy but my tongue reactes to them the same way.  Well, this loaf did not have that feel.  It felt, well, normal.  I am definitely going to replicate it this afternoon--before the ball game--and report back tonight to you.

http://imva.info/index.php/2010/01/agricultural-apocalypse-2010/

http://imva.info/index.php/2010/01/agricultural-apocalypse-2010/

I woke this morning sick as a dog.  Yesterday, I woke with a scratchy throat and some coughing and I thought, okay, here it goes again.  I was right. heh.  So  I pulled out the Vita-Mix, dropped in ruby red grapefruit, pineapple, grapes, ice and water for a delicious fruit slush which made my sore laryngitisy throat, with deep coughing, somewhat better, at least now I am able to croak intelligibly and get myself to work this afternoon.  While sipping my slush, I threw together--literally--a quick bread, gluten free of course, and sat down to watch some Saturday morning PBS and HGTV as I love the gardening shows like PAllanSmith,Victory Garden, and Curb Appeal ( I had overslept so missed the knitting and quilting shows).  I love European style artisan breads.

My early exposure to such delights came from my father's posting to a European military base while I was an infant.  Until we returned to the USA when I was in first grade, all I  ever had to eat were the most wonderful, amazing fresh breads to be found on the face of the Earth!  In fact, when we returned to the USA, I could not eat the squishy tasteless white spongy stuff the locals called bread--unless it was darkly toasted, and even then I disliked it.  Of course, since it was the early 1960s, Dad was transferred to the deep south where I discovered corn bread and biscuits.  Yum.

After 30 minutes, the bread was done and it was wonderful!  Like old fashioned flaky biscuits.  My life long habit of cooking on the fly learned from my Mother and Mom-in-law kicked in and I just pulled out all my GF stuff and threw it together.  I don't usually use measuring cups and spoons, but I am attempting to begin a more concise, logical cooking habit. Unfortunately, I did not write the recipe down as I worked, mind was too miserable to be thinking ahead (silly pun I know).  However, it went something like this:

Some brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, amaranth flour, almond flour, hazelnut flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, xanthum gum, kosher salt, baking powder,  whey powder, 2 eggs, blob of yogurt, and water.  I will attempt to replicate this tomorrow and measure as I go, promise.

As for now, time for more liquid Vitamin C, then work. 

My Gut Reaction?  Bread is good, tummy troubles are not.  Organization is good--it helps you. 

Slow Cookers

Yesterday, I watched Sandra Lee on her show: Sandra's Money Saving Meals Episode: Slow Cooker Savings, 
Now, I've always had slow cookers in my kitchen, got my first one as a marriage gift, many years ago and I've since worn out at least four cookers.  I've made countless pot roasts, stews, soups, chowders,  and vegetables in them.  I have four slow cooker cookbooks, and some of them mention that you can bake bread in the slow cooker, but I have never personally done so, until now.  Sandra's banana bread looked interesting enough to me, that I decided to go try my own hand at baking.  However, I choose not to replicate Sandra's banana bread in my endeavor, instead, due to my wheat allergy, I needed to make a gluten free bread.  Additionally, my Mother makes the best banana bread in the world, and if I were going to make banana bread, I would make her recipe.  Sorry Sandra, but that's the way it is.


I'm getting over two rounds of antibiotics which began just a day before Christmas and ending this past Sunday.  Because I've been a bit under the weather, healthwise, and my stomach has been a war zone of chemicals of mass destruction, I'm eating very bland while trying to recover my gut's flora and fauna.  I needed plain toast yesterday and had no gluten free bread, therefore, I made a loaf and decided to see how the slow cooker would handle it.


I threw into my stainless steel bowl 1/3 of a cup of sorghum flour, 1/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/3 cup millet flour that I ground in my Vita-Mix, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 eggs, 1-1/4 cup yogurt, 1 cup strong brewed lemon tea, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt, 1 tablespoon ground flax meal, 1/4 cup sugar.
This made a batter a bit thinner than brownie batter.  Poured this into my glass baking loaf pan which I'd sprayed with olive oil spray.


I set a trivet into the cooker, poured water in to the top of the trivet, placed the loaf pan on the trivet, covered with a paper towel as Sandra recommended, set the cooker on low and left it for four hours.


When I removed the loaf from the cooker, I noticed an appearance similar to what you get from the microwave.  Not browned, but done.  The dough rose nicely to top of pan without overflowing.  It was dense yet not really heavy.


I cut and ate a slice while it was hot.  There were lots of bubble holes in it, but I only hand mixed it with a fork, quickly like biscuit dough.  Taste was good enough for me-similar texture to English muffins.


This morning, I toasted some in my oven for breakfast, it toasted nicely.

MY GUT REACTION?  I will  definitely continue to experiment with baking breads in my slow cooker.  This could be very useful for those times when the oven is tied up with other foods or when I am busy and do not want to risk using the oven and over cooking a bread.

Doldrums

This is one of those days where I have no idea what direction I will be going.  I have household  work to do, projects in various stages of completion to continue working on, some Boy Scout administrative work which I need to do, I need to exercise, decide what to prepare for supper, pick up my Mother and take her on her errands including visiting her grandson at college. . .and I am having difficulties beginning.  I hate days like this where I just do not seem to have enough energy or interest to begin.

One of our errands will be to the Ozark Natural Foods co-operative store in Fayetteville where I  hope that I will see some nice fresh vegetables to build a meal around tonight.  Last night was a nice very fast stir fry based on fresh spinach, some onion, red bell peppers, and Polish sausage.  Dessert later last night was fruit smoothies.  Pretty nice.  I have been looking for fresh kale the last few days since reading in some of the blogs I follow that they are really great roasted into fresh chips.  Maybe I'll be able to purchase some and discover for myself the truth of it.

I think I will pull a pork loin out of the freezer and begin thawing it to grill tonite out on the deck.  Perhaps some nice roasted vegetables to go with it.  Could be a nice if we do not get heavy downpours of rain today.

Hi everyone, one of the best gluten free blog sites, Elena's Pantry, is offering a free give-a-way cookbook and bag of almond flour, check her out at:

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook page (http://www.elanaspantry.com/cookbook). 
MY GUT REACTION?  I cannot wait to see this new cookbook! 

Waste Not, Want Not!

There is still hard crunchy snow outside, everywhere.  It was supposed to be 45 degrees today, but it is only 25 and overcast again.  Therefore, I must bake as using the oven warms me and my house up.  Besides, I have no bread to eat sandwiches on.

I  really would like to figure out how to make gluten free breads that my family will enjoy and help eat.  Generally, they won't touch the stuff and I cannot eat it all before it starts to go bad.  I've made croutons, and bread crumbs from some, but since I rarely fry anything, the crumbs aren't often necessary.  I'd like to hear from you, friends, how do you solve this problem?  I just hate to be wasteful, and I've found that birds on my deck don't like the gluten free bread as much as wheat.
My Gut Reaction?  I need to plan better and utilize my dehydrator and freezer more efficiently!

My Lazy Day Lazy Way Stuffed Cabbage
On another note, stuffed cabbage on the stove  smells very good!  Hot baked bread will go very nicely with it tonight and I believe I will try some slaw with it, and perhaps a flan or fruit smoothie for dessert. This recipe evolved from a love for rice stuffed meatballs, stuffed cabbage, healthier eathing, inexpensive (read frugality as in waste not want not) and convenient foods.  

I browned a pound of lean ground bison in my cast iron dutch oven with one onion chopped in the vita-mix and one cup of jasmine rice; I layered one half a cabbage sliced into narrow wedges over the meat and rice layer.  Then I poured a pint of leftover tomato soup on top ( made from 1 large can crushed tomatoes, 1 small can tomato paste, soy milk and seasonings ).  I turned the cast iron dutch oven down from medium low to low to simulate a slow cooker's low slow simmer, covered it and left. (this can also go into a real slow cooker) Oh  my gosh it smells good!  I do all my grocery shopping at my local Wal-Mart as it is close, quick, convenient, and good for the budget.  However, I do go three or four times a year to my natural foods co-operative in Fayetteville-ozarknaturalfoods.com, a short drive down I-540 when I am visiting my son at the University of Arkansas, my alma mater.  There I buy gluten free foods that I cannot purchase at Wal-Mart's limited gluten free section.

I managed to gain only 2.5 pounds during the holidays, so now that it is back to normal business, I am happy to eat healthier with far fewer empty carbs from holiday sweets.  Walking begins this afternoon!  YEA!
My Gut Reaction?  Yahoooo!  Look out scales, mirror, and wardrobe, things are changing!

Holidays Are Over - Back to Real Life and Global Warming?

Well, we managed my birthday, Christmas, New Years, and all the shopping, holiday cooking (baking, candy making, feast making, etc.) decorating, un-decorating, good and bad weather, holiday hustle and bustle in general, just fine.  I  hope you all did as well.

Now, that that is all over with for the next 10-1/2 months, and life is back to somewhat normal, except for the weirdly cold weather, I can again concentrate on my Gut Reactions.

Who said we must fight Global Warming?  Are they Crazy?
My Gut Reaction is - I could use a little warming and RIGHT NOW!  It is only 1 degree outside and is supposed to get another 10 degrees colder by tomorrow morning.  The wind chill makes it unbelievably cold.  If I wanted to experience northern tier type weather, I'd go visit my family, relatives and friends in South Dakota and Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Massachusettes, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Alaska, or New Hampshire!