Ashcroft House Bed & Breakfast

We decided to have a little weekend get-away.

There is a new Temple in BC and I wanted to go attend one of the tours they give to the public.

SO I Put "gluten free" "Bed" "Breakfast" and "BC Canada" into a search.

Only one Bed and breakfast came up; The Ashcroft House Bed & Breakfast.

One of the owners bakes gluten free from scratch. The sights looked lovely. So we called and made a reservation. We however, did not realize that they are on the island. So our weekends get-away included more time (and money) on Ferryboats then anywhere else.

And sadly, no grey whales were spotted. (it is the season for them)

It was fun, and Ashcroft House Bed & Breakfast was lovely.

The King bed was very tall.

There was a step stool so you could get up onto the bed.

The house was old with all the charm you would expect, but had all the updates.

Each room had it's own bath.

The roome was large and tastfull.

We could see that water from our room.

And breakfast was indeed Gluten free.

Cereal, Blueberry coffee cake and "scones"

We had fun, and should we ever go out to the island again, we will probably go back to Ashcroft House Bed & Breakfast.

Bib and Burb

SO I think the white set of Bib and Burbcloth is a good idea. But white is not for everyday.

And since I have a lot of terrycloth left over from when I made my friend's baby a bath set (Winni the pooh bathrobe, with Eeyore washcloth, and piglet towel {he is 6 now}) I thought Bibs and burp cloths in a rainbow of colors would be good.

It is hard to see the the photo, but the stitching around the bib is actually little purple harts.

This one is just B for Baby. With the pink and purple it's probably more Girly...

I have a lot of yellow terry cloth.

I think Duckies and Bumble bees would be cute.

Monogram Pillowcases

My cozen is getting married next month. I though it would be nice to monogram her some towels. We have a set of monogrammed hand-towels that we got as a wedding gift, and I think they are so cool. And I have been practicing with terrycloth making baby bibs, and burp cloths.
But she did not register for towels. However, she did register for sheets. Sateen Sheets.
SO I decided to monogram some pillowcases.

I was VERY worried that I would make a mistake. The set of two pillowcases cost over $40, so I really did not want to mess up.

I got some plain White (cheep) pillowcases to practice on first. The practice I monogrammed for my mom.

Good thing I practiced, 'cause as you can see, I did not get the M centered correctly. It is too close to the right side if the frame.
But I think I figured it out. I have a lot to do with centering between steps. And there is a funny button that when you press it, the machine will hover over the fabric making a box where the embroidery will go. If the box is too big, or in the wrong spot you can see and adjust before you embroider. That is handy. The button is my new best friend.

The Fabric is a reddish brown, and the embroidery is a sliver. The Monogram is only about the size of the palm of you hand.

I think It looks good.

Arrowhead Mills vanilla cake mix

While visiting my parents this weekend, my sister found strawberries at a good price, and we decided that shortcake would be good. I was away from home, so we went to the local Fred Meyers to see what we could find to make GF shortcakes.

I got a box of Arrowhead Mills vanilla cake mix.

I remembered the cake from when I had done wedding cake testing.{story for another time}

When my sister saw the box, her response was "no not cake. Shortcake! It is more flat, and crumbly"

"Don't worry" I said, "this is flat and crumbly"

And it was.

{Funny thing. The box says to oil and then flour the pan. My sister was helping make the cake. So I was mixing up the batter, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her go the the pantry and get the wheat flour, and then proceed to flour the pan that the GF cake was to go in. She looked up, and I'm smiling at her with this "think about that" grin, and then suddenly she realizes what she did. Then she was all "so what do I flour it with?! it said flour?!?" SO I told her to use cornstarch, since there was nothing else in my mother's house. But I did make her WASH the cake pan out first.}

The cake was:

Flat, very crumbly.

VERY spongy.

Light but grain-y texture.

Sweet, but not quite what i would call "cake"

It is also imposable to frost, and the golden outside peels right off, and then the cake crumbles easily when you try to spread frosting on it.
Good for putting strawberry's and whipped cream on. Not good for birthday cakes.

My sister spent several years in upstate New York, she told me the cake has the consistency of the "corn bread" she had there.

Betty Crocker Brownies

The weather was so nice that we decided to BBQ. And What goes better with BBQ then Brownies!
SO I tried the Betty Crocker Gluten free Brownie mix.

They were quite good.
My brother who has always been the one to avoid trying my "special" food, liked it.
My hubby said that they were as good as "regular" brownies.
I however was not happy about the price.
They sell for over $5 at our local grocer. The ingredients on the box are chocolate, chocolate, rice and salt.
I have a brownie recipe, I made up from a Pillsbury cookbook, that tastes just as good, and cost less.
I know chocolate is the easiest thing to make GF.
Flowerless chocolate torts have been around forever, gluten free naturally.
But brownies should be the FIRST desert a new GF person tries. It is that "hay, these taste fine!" revelation everyone of us GF cooks needs to get us going.
SO I guess this is a good introduction.
But If you know, make your own.

Cocoa Wafer cookies comparison

GlutiNO Vanilla flavored milk chocolate coated wafer cookies.

Schar Cocoa Wafers; vanilla wafer cookies with cocoa cream filling.

Same number of wafers per box. The GlutiNo wafers are smaller, but weight the same.

GlutiNo wafers were more chocolaty.

Schra wafer filling did remind me of Nutella, and upon inspection, Hazelnut did appear on the ingredients list.

The Schar wafers have a lighter texture.

The GlutiNo wafers are sweeter.

The Schar wafers, despite the filling, taste crisper.

I have to say I like the GlutiNo wafers more,but not by much.

I think it is because the remind me of KitKat Bar, As far as I remember.

Bob's Red Mill Corn bread Mix

So it was time again for another dinner with the in-laws.

I volunteered to make lasagna. A few days later I was called and "asked" if we can have a potato bar instead. {My mother in-Law made GF lasagna about a year ago. She is not as familial with GF noodle nuances as I am. She over cooked the noodles into pudding. So I think that is why the menu changed.} I was therefore assigned "Oh, um bacon, and onion, and tomato... that stuff"

SO I made a Beautiful tray with Crumbled Bacon, Diced Ham, Chives, Onion, parsley, tomato, mushroom, and salsa. And Corn bread muffins, from Bob's Red Mill Mix.

Now the box says to make the cornbread in a 8" square pan, but the last time I did that the cornbread was overcooked on the outside edges and still gooey on the inside.

SO that is why I went with muffins this time.

The batter is VERY thick. DO not attempt this without a hevyduty stand mixer.

The batter is VERY sticky. The muffin on the left of the photo is untouched, batter scraped into the foil cup.

The muffin on the right of the photo had it's top smoothed over with a wet spatula prier to baking. Notice on the left one has those overcooked jagged edges. Smoothing breads over makes them able to raise more evenly. I have also heard of smoothing them over with melted butter instead of water. But I think water does just fine.

The muffins turned out great. Moist, not too crumbly. Excellent fresh from the oven and still good the next morning.

Bob as always, is reasonable priced.

This is the GO TO cornbread muffin mix.

Denim and lace.

I thought I would make my Hubby's niece a dress.
I had the fabric, and patterns were on sale for $.99
I measured her and made the dress on the right right side of the photo.
It was huge.
She is 9 months old.
Most of her wardrobe is 18 month clothing. But that "large" was the size for a toddler.
So I made the next one, on the left side of the photo, in the "Newborn" size.
Here she is modeling it.
It looked good when she sat up, but when she reached forward, {crawling} the back was too snug, and the front pouched out so she keeled on it.
And the neck hole looked a little small for her too.
So I took it back home with me.
I think it is just not a very well made pattern, But I don't know how to adjust it.
My skill is still armature.
(My mother in-law made a disparaging comment when she first saw the dress)
And it's not like she NEEDs more clothing. The girl has a closet full of store bought outfits. {Grandma arrived that day with two new ones she picked up while at Costco.}
SO maybe some day I will have a little girl, who would not be ashamed to where a dress her mommy made.

RANT 1 Online recipes

The engine does not understand gluten free.
I think the engine is only looking for "gluten" and an ingredient, or the word Gluten in the name.
I know most people who contribute to the sights that post a recipe with the words "gluten free" in the name {as in Gluten free waffles} can be trusted. But there are hundreds of recipes that could be gluten free depending on ingredients.
Popcorn balls for example. Popped corn, marshmallows, sugar, the original recipes IS gluten free. But not specifically make for the Gluten free. So not in the filter.

SHINE by Yahoo, recipe index lets you search "gluten free", and gives you recipes that include ingredients with gluten. Like condensed soup. There are recipes for cream of soup substitutions, but that is an additional step, sometimes MANY additional steps.

AllRecipies actually had a "gluten free" filter. (549 recipes labeled as Gluten free)

RrecipieZaar has a"free of something" sifter. (962 recipes with "Gluten free" in the name)

What is a girl to do?

White accessory set

So my hubby's nephew was blessed, and the little white booties were perfect.
They went well with the little suit that my mother in law had made.

Then he got hungry, and a little dribble of milk escaped his mouth and on to his nice outfit.
And it occurred to me, that a matching white bib, would have been a good idea.

I also made this Shoulder cloth (burp rag) and bib accessory set.
The monogram on the bib is as small as the machine will go. But I figured that the bib was the most likely to get dirty, so a small monogram was the way to go.
As for the cloth, I figured the monogram end goes on the back, and the other smooth side, goes next to baby's face.
Yah?

Bread Machine 2

My friend CC told me she has to "help" her bread machine along too. She puts the ingredients in, and then stands over the first part of the mixing phase, insuring it is done properly, then she can walk away.

I tried that this time with the other half of the Gluten free Pantry Bread mix that I used last time.

The bread "fell".

I had always thought this was a product of over raising the bread, and that was what the machine was designed to avoid.

It was still eatable.

I just sliced it the other way.

The bread was more sponge then I recalled from last time.

VALUE:

I mix retails for around $6.

(Minimum wadge is $8 an hr. or $0.14 a minute.

So the price of the mix is equivalent to 43 minutes of minimum wage work...)

That is an alright Value for this quality.

On the other hand, I think Mister Loaf and I need to have another chat...

Orgran Chocolate cake mix

We had a family dinner at my mother in-laws. She is always concerned about making sure I can eat, both the main dish and a desert.
SO I usually get a whole cake, or brownie to my self.
{An entire layer of my sister in-laws wedding cake was gluten free, so I could eat it.}
This time she made me a gluten free chocolate cake, from a mix. She often makes it from scratch.
When my husband was young, his mother had a small wedding cake business on the side. So the women knows her cakes. She picked up his mix at a new Gluten free market in Everett. I have yet to visit the market, but hope to this week, possibly Thursday, on my way to another family dinner.

It was very dense, and had large pockets in it.
It was alright. Not my favorite.

You know I should probably have a some consistent rating system...
I'll work on that...

booties

I made my Nephew this pair of booties.
The bottom is embroidered with his birth date.
I think they are cute.

Took me about four hours to figure it all out, and make it.

I could probably carve a half hour off that now that I know how to do it. The hard part was that the piece of fabric needs to be big enough to fit in the machine, so you have to embroider first then cut out. And if you don't embroider in just the right spot, you can't cut it out right.
{The R on the right foot is slightly lower then the R on the left.}

To Oat or not to Oat

A decade ago when I was diagnosed Oats were OFF LIMITES.

But even back then there was debate.

Now I have Bob's red mill, Certified Gluten free oats.

And what I missed most was Granola.

My mother made it form scratch.

So I did too.

Recipe:

4 Cups Oats.

1 cup nuts

1 cup coconut

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup apple juice concentrate

1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp salt.

Combine

Bake at 350 for 18 min, stirring every 6 min.

After it's cook I add dried fruit.

However my apartment's oven it not too reliable. Even set at 325.
The pan on the left was singed in 12 minutes. Second Pan I did in intervals of 2 minutes. It was done in 8.
I think opening the oven to stir makes the temp hike.
Any other theory?

Bread Machine

My mother got a Bread Machine YEARS ago. Like were talking early 90s. She used it a few times but it never was a big hit, and took up a lot of space, so it was relocated to the attic.

I freed it, and gave it a home.

My kitchen is smaller them my mothers. The machine takes up about 1/6th of my entire kitchen. For that kind of prime real estate I expected something miraculous. And the idea of poring in the ingredients before bed and waking up to warm Cinnamon bread sounded just miraculous enough.

Except this is what happened instead.Looks like it did not get mixed properly. The top half was still dry, the bottom half was a hot pudding of some kind.

NOT eatable.

Very sad. And a waste of a Bob's red mill mix.

So I explained to MR Loaf that if he did not want to find himself at the local thrift store, or back into the attic from whence he came, he needed to do better then that.

So I got out a gluten free Pantry sandwich bread mix, divided the mix in half {mister loaf is small} and stirred half of the wet ingredients into the mix BEFORE I put it into the machine.

The box rocked a bit when I turned it on, trying to mix the dough that was already mixed, but it soon settled down, and I went about my day.

A little less them three hours later:

WA LA.

It is only about 6 slices of bread, but when it's JUST me, that is reasonable.

And the other half of the mix is on standby for another day.

Mr Loaf might just stick around for a while.

I have a Bette H bread book that I have not touched...

Snap it up

My hubby's nephew was born in March, and he is coming to town this weekend. He had a cute Easter outfit last week, and who is seen in the same outfit two weeks in a row?

SO

TA DA

{the dress is for his niece, one can't get an outfit if the other does not.}

I free had embroidered that tie and then made the little suite to go with it. {the hart on the dress is embroidered also}

I think it is uber cute.

I have seen baby undershirts with appliqued ties on them, but that is still an undershirt.
This is made out of actual dress shirt fabric, and dress pants fabric.

Snap up the back and legs for easy access.

Took about 4 hours.

Arico's PB cookies

Arico's Peanut butter Gluten free, Dairy free cookies.{Organic}
Packaging claims :
"Great Moist & chewy cookies" Moist and Chewy; Yes
There was a strange after taste, possibly the chicory extract.
Over all it was decent, but a little pricey. {$5, about a dollar an once.}
It did have the added benefit of two cookies having 15% of your daily calcium, despite being non dairy. I know the GFCF friends of mine need that.

Product lists

I just found out about this site from General mills.
They have a big product list, including soup.
http://livingglutenfreely.com/
Ten years ago Campbells sent me a packet in the mail in response to my phone call {asking about chicken rice soup} that told me essentially no soup was safe.
Looks like they have a new PDF.
http://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/faq.aspx?section=glutenfree
Nice to know there are more options out there.

However, when I was at the Kraft home page, and preformed a search for "Gluten free" the results were "products (0)" "Kraft recipes (0)" They did have an "article" with the standard dribble, and six "member recipes" containing the word "gluten". But I could not find a product list.
Disappointed.

ice cream cones

Yummy.

The cones had the texture of their non gluten free counterparts. At least as far as I could remember. A little Styrofoam, but that is what I remember.

{Its been well over 10 years.}

They held the ice cream well, and stood up packing the ice cream in. They did not get soggy before they could be eaten.

I went thru half the box in about a week. The other half of the box did not get stale even after it sat in the cupboard for a while.

{I hid them from my self so as to not over do it, and I hid them too well.}

The box was well packed, so the cones were not crushed.

{when I got the ones in the orange box about half were crushed.}

Over all I think this is the best cones I have had.

Brand new bag

My hubby got his sister an oddly shaped birthday gift. As in could not put it in a box. And for some reason all the gift bags in this house are wedding themed.
So I made her a gift bag.
There is no pockets or liner. One short handle.
I made it in about an hour.
I stuffed a shoe box inside to make it stand for the photo.
I have enough fabric left over to make two more. Its too small to be a grocery bag or diaper bag, but maybe just a nice scripture or lunch bag. I thinking the lining should be yellow. And with a pocket or two?