Gluten Free

And The Verdict?…

So today I put the new oven thermometer in the oven and turned it on at 400 degrees. About twenty minutes later, the thermometer was showing 350 degrees. So THAT is why the things I have been trying to cook have not been turning out right.

After fooling around with the oven for an hour or so, I figured out that to get the oven to 400 degrees, I need to set it on 450 degrees. That should make things better as far as trying to make a cake or cookies.

And after all that, I made a gluten free pizza. The crust turned out pretty good. I baked it for 12 minutes at 400 degrees, then put the toppings on and baked for another 12 minutes. Perfect! Oh, and no picture of it because we ate it all!

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Oh, Excuse Me…

Karen · 9 Comments

It has been brought to my attention that I have not written in my blog for 4 days. FOUR DAYS! Where has the time gone? It’s not like I was doing anything really important, like working, or cleaning, or even reading the long awaited mail.

It’s just that I have been doing nothing. And going nowhere. You know, being a complete mush head. Lolling about on the sofa watching TV. Playing games online at POGO. Sleeping until 10:00 then taking an afternoon nap before snoozing on bed before actually going to bed.

When your life is like that there is absolutely nothing interesting about it, for you or for anyone else.

So, today, we got out of our pajamas and out of the house and went for a drive. Only I was driving so I couldn’t take any pictures to prove it. I wanted to go here, but we didn’t, so I have nothing to write about. Because I am sure you don’t want to hear about how we drove over to Blythe, California to go to K-Mart and buy an oven thermometer:

Oh, Yeah, Baby! and it even says Martha Stewart on it. Now I’m cooking! Oh, sorry.

So, there ya go, all the drama that was the drama, and all the news to make you sorry you asked.

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Gluten Free Fried Chicken

Karen · 15 Comments

If you read my post from yesterday all the way through, you may have seen that I planned on cooking fried chicken sometime this month. So what? you say. Well, let me tell you about fried chicken.

In the early days when I could still eat all things gluten, I loved me some fried chicken. I was a frequent flier at the neighborhood Church’s Fried Chicken, KFC, and Mrs. Winner’s places. We had fried chicken about twice a week—always bought somewhere already fried and ready to eat. My personal philosophy about fried chicken is that even though I know how to make it, there was no reason for me to do it myself and deprive one of those places of my business, since they did a pretty good job of cooking it and then they were the ones who had to clean up the mess. So, if I was going to cook chicken at home, it would usually be baked in the oven in a disposable pan, or in the crockpot with a crockpot liner. Delicious, then a breeze to clean up. I DO know how to cook fried chicken, I just don’t like to.

Last summer, I made some gluten free fried chicken for FabGrandpa. He was surprised because in all the years we have been married, I have never made fried chicken for him. He asked me why I had never made it and I told him “A girl has to have some secrets.” Why tell him I know how to do something if I ain’t gonna do it, right?

So, anyway, he loved the fried chicken I made last year. He loved it so much he has asked me several times to make it again. Well, today I made him some fried chicken again. And his response? “It took you 16 years to make it for me the first time, I’m surprised it only took 1 year for you to make it the second time.”

Here is how to make gluten free fried chicken:

Chicken Pieces
salt and pepper to taste
tenderizer
1 cup of your favorite gluten free all purpose flour mix
1 cup milk
1 cup Crisco or oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet with a lid. Wash the chicken pieces. Sprinkle with tenderizer, salt and pepper. Roll in the flour mix, then dip in the milk, then roll in the flour mix again. Put in the skillet. When the skillet is full, place the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes. Take the lid off, and turn all the pieces of chicken over. Replace the lid. Cook another 5 minutes. Remove the lid, turn the chicken again, and cook another minutes without the lid. It takes about 20-25 minutes to cook the chicken.

I served mine with homemade gluten free macaroni and cheese and green beans.

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Budget Report Week 10 Cash Monday

Karen · 6 Comments

We did really good this week. We decided to only take out $120 from the bank. At the end of the week, this morning I had $5 and some change in my pocket, and FabGrandpa had $6.00. We did go out to eat and use the debit card, for $27.00. So, even though we used the debit card, we are still under budget because we didn’t take out the entire $300.

Also, before we left Phoenix we went grocery shopping and spent somewhere around $300. That was 3 weeks ago, and we have only had to buy milk and bread since then. So, today, we drove over to Buckeye, Arizona, 80 miles away, to Wal-Mart to replenish the pantry.

Here is the menu for the next 3 weeks—we are going to try to make it 4 weeks this time before going back to buy groceries:

Salmon Patties/Peas/Mashed potatoes
Tuna A La King with Rice and canned fruit
Spaghetti/Salad/Garlic Toast
Mac & Cheese/Fried Chicken/Green Beans
Pork Roast/Potatoes/Carrots
Leftover Pork/Rice/Baby Lima Beans
Chicken with Salsa/Rice/Pear Salad
Meatloaf/Fried Okra/Diced Potatoes
Blackeyed Peas/Collards/Cornbread
Eggplant Parmesean/Brussells Sprouts
Chili/Cornbread
Black Bean Nachos
Beef Stew/Biscuits
Chicken with Garlic and Spinach over noodles
Bean Soup/Cornbread
Pork Chops/Green Beans/Mashed Potatoes
Tuna A La King/Rice
Goulash/Rice
Pizza/Salad
Salmon Patties/Corn/Potatoes
Roasted Chicken/Green Beans/Potatoes
Italian Mushroom Stew with Italian Sausage

We probably won’t eat all those meals in the order listed, but I listed them to show that I was able to get all the ingredients I needed to make these 22 dinner meals (plus breakfast and lunch stuff, and snacks) for under $300 for two people. And with leftovers, we should be able to stretch this out for a whole month.

I got us a couple of treats, too. Some garlic stuffed olives in Napa Valley Chardonay; some Black Olive Tapanade; some of those Mexican cookies FabGrandpa loves so much, the Surtido Rico ones. So we’re not even doing without good stuff, y’all!

Just so those of you who read this who love us and all, we are not on the brink of bankruptcy. We are just trying to eat a healthy diet without spending all our money on food. It is a challenge to do this, so it has become sort of a game to spend as little as possible and still have good food. With the prices of gluten free items out the roof, it is even more of a challenge. So, in addition to the Monday Cash thing, we are adding this monthly grocery shopping into the mix.

And as usual, I will let you know in a month how we did on this.

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The 5 and Diner, 27th St Phoenix, AZ

Karen · 12 Comments

I am in love with the 5 & Diner Cafe. We happened to find this place when we went to get my ultrasound done. The atmosphere is all 50’s, with the waitresses wearing bobby socks and ponytails and poodle skirts. And of course there is a neat counter there, why else would I love it? This day we didn’t sit there so all I could do was stare at it lovingly across the room.

One consolation of sitting in a booth, though, was the cute old time juke boxes on all the tables. Of course the didn’t work, but you COULD flip through all the old song titles and reminisce about the good old days..

The breakfast wasn’t bad either. Yeah, I order my eggs over medium, then mash them up with a fork. FabGrandpa had a patty melt, which looked and smelled divine.

The prices aren’t that bad–comparable to what we would pay at Cracker Barrel or Denny’s, plus they had a frequent diner card that let’s you get your 5th meal at half price, and your 10th one free. too bad we’re leaving town tomorrow.

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Gluten Free Baking Classics

Karen · 7 Comments

My daughter, Becca, is also gluten intolerant. She bought a new cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts. Click here for Becca’s review of the book. Even Ken, who is not gluten intolerant, loved the cupcakes she made. So, I wanted to give the recipe a try, too.

The recipe uses a brown rice, potato starch, tapioca mix, the recipe for which is given in the book. It makes a really good layer cake, that does not crumble apart, and was moist and tasty the second day, too. It actually calls for using a lemon curd in the filling between layers, but I was too lazy to make that. The Lemon Buttercream Frosting was delish, though. This recipe is posted with permission from Annalise (thank you, Annalise!)

Lemon Layer Cake

2 Cups sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups Brown rice flour mix
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 Cup Canola oil
1 Cup Milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 350 Line 2 round 9-inch cake pans with parchment or wax paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Beat sugar and eggs at medium speed for 1 minute

Add the rest of the ingredients and beat at medium speed for 1 minute

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake about 35 minutes (40 minutes for 8 inch pans, 18-20 minutes for cupcakes) or until center springs back when touched and cake pulls away from sides of pan.

Cool cake in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Use a knife to loosen cake from sides of pan. Invert cake layers on a rack, peel off paper and cool completely.

Place one of the filled layers on a plate and spread with about 1/2 cup of frosting. Place the other filled layer on top and spread sides and top with remaining frosting.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1 Cup butter
3 1/2 Cups Confectioners sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp grated lemon zest

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup of the sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon zest and beat to blend. Add remaining sugar and beat until creamy.

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A Breathing Treatment For The Truck

Karen · 9 Comments

We have a 1997 Ford F250 diesel pick up truck. It has been a great truck. In December of 2006, we got one of those superchips for it, that revs it up and gives it more power. Ever since then FabGrandpa has wanted to get a custom exhaust pipe put in. The existing exhaust pipe was flat, and did not allow the engine to “breathe” as well as it should, so it could overheat when towing a large travel trailer over the mountains.

Yesterday, we went to Chuck’s Speed and RV in Phoenix to get this done. This involved me getting up early on my day off. We got there at about 8:30 a.m. FabGrandpa had made an appointment with them last week to get this work done, so they were expecting us. They took the truck right in and started working on it.

We called Enterprise and got a rental car for the day so we wouldn’t have to just hang around waiting. They came and picked us up at Chuck’s and took us to their office to get the car. It was a Chrysler Sebring, not the smallest car out there, but after riding in a Ford F250 for years, I felt like I was riding in an enclosed skateboard. It was a nice enough, but close to the ground.

The nice people at Enterprise told us about Fast Eddie’s Diner. They have been in business for a long time, and have a lot of regular customers. Their breakfast is $3.99 all day every day. It was pretty good, and had a great counter. I just wish they weren’t so far from where we are staying so we could go there every morning. It was that good!

We went back home after breakfast. I washed my hair and FabGrandpa took a nap. I had an appointment to get the ultrasound on my arm at 2:00 p.m. The lab is only two miles away. We got there with plenty of time to spare. I forgot to take my camera with me to get a shot of the ultrasound, dang it! To see what it looked like, click here: Ultrasound of lipoma in arm That’s not my arm but it looks just like mine. The mass was sort of oval, shaped like an egg, definitely there. She did one scan of my right arm for comparison and there was no egg shaped thing in that one. I guess I am eating too many eggs, as I am growing one in my arm now.

About 4:00 p.m. the guy called from Chuck’s to let us know they were finished with our truck, so we went back over there to pick it up. Here is what the new pipe looks like:

And FabGrandpa got these two really cool gauges:

The top one measures the temperature of the air coming out of the new exhaust pipe. The second one measures “turbo boost”. He is in “guy heaven”, he is such a gauge kind of guy. They even light up at night.

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Project 365 Day 57

Karen · 7 Comments

The breakfast counter at Fast Eddie’s Diner in Glendale, Arizona. Yeah, I love those places. The breakfast was good, too. $3.99 for 2 eggs over easy, 2 stips of bacon, hashbrowns, and toast (if you eat bread). mmmmmm……

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