organizing my gluten-free flours

My bins have arrived!

I looked long and hard to find a good way of storing my gluten-free flours. I naturally wanted Tupperware because that's what I've used all my life. But its expensive. Really expensive. So I kept researching and ended up with Cambro square containers in 4qt and 2qt.  I think these are the same ones that Alton Brown uses on "Good Eats" (my favorite cooking show - if you haven't heard of it you really need to check it out). 

Amazon has Cambro containers, but the best price I found was from a company called The Webstaurant Store. If you're going to go that route (and I highly recommend you do), you have to purchase the lids separately.  Lucky for me, the lids for 2qt and 4qt containers are the same.

The flours/items I put in my 4qt containers are brown rice flour, almond flour, quinoa flour, corn flour, rice bran, brown rice, quinoa and sugar.  I use 2qt containers for cornstarch, potato starch, sweet white rice flour and a brown rice flour mix I use for baking.

Another change?  I'm putting my flours in the freezer now - something I've never done. I just have to plan ahead and remember to take them out about an hour or so before I want to use them - they need to come to room temperature first.

I also realized that I forgot containers for my gluten-free oats and tapioca flour too. I'll get truly organized here one day. Going gluten-free is really a whole new ballgame. Especially for someone like me who isn't really that into cooking and baking. But I'm slowly getting there.

Gluten free bread success

After making gluten-free bread for a little over a month, I have made my yummiest loaf yet.

Here is the recipe,

- 3 eggs

- 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar

- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum

- 1/3 cup cornstarch

- 1/2 cup potato starch

- 1/2 cup quinoa flour

- 2 1/4 cups brown rice flour

- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

And here's how you do it.

1.  Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order listed, making sure not to let the yeast come in contact with the wet ingredients.

2. Select the sweet dough cycle. Five minutes into the cycle, scrape down the sides of the pan if needed.

3. When bread is finished, let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

4. Nom.

I used the basic white bread recipe from Allrecipes.com, but instead of white rice flour I use brown, and instead of soy flour, I use either tapioca or quinoa flour.

While my husband has yet to be converted (he is super, SUPER picky about texture), our son and I absolutely love it. And I tell you, there is nothing better than your child taking a bite and then telling you that its the best bread ever. {sigh}.  If you have any other great GF bread machine recipes, please leave a comment!  I am always looking to branch out.

Hopefully coming tomorrow will be a post on organizing the plethora of flours, starches and gums that come with gluten-free baking. It all depends if FedEx comes through with my package of organizing supplies. More to come soon!

the benefits of celiac disease & money matters

Happy February everyone!  Well it has been a full two weeks since we have had any take out for dinner. While this may not be a big feat for most, it is unfortunately, for me.

While I am good at many things, cooking isn't one of them.

But since my celiac diagnosis in November, I had to choose between learning how to cook and bake or spend twice as much at the grocery store. Because the latter wasn't an option for us, I opened up to a new world of cooking and baking.

And you know what?  I kind of like it.

My parents got us a bread maker for Christmas and I absolutely love it.  I've made about two loaves per week since we got it (my son LOVES the homemade GF bread).  And as far as dinners go, its been pretty easy - most of the stuff I made was gluten-free anyway.  But I did have to make some substitutions, which is totally okay.

But the good news is that we are keeping our grocery/eating out bills at a minimum.  After moving to our new house, we have a larger mortgage which is much harder to get used to than I thought it would be (we live in an expensive part of the country. Not California expensive, but close). So we are looking at all of our options to save money and focus on what matters most.

We cancelled cable. We use our cell phones as our home phone. We stopped any and all unnecessary spending. We cook more. We stopped eating out. We lowered the thermostat.

And you know what?  Its working out. Having a tight budget feeds my creativity.  I used to think that it would hinder it (not being able to spend money on scrapbooking supplies, or artsy stuff), but being limited to what you have on hand and making it work takes a lot of creativity. And thankfully, I have plenty of that to spread around.

So I am off to bake yet another loaf of gluten-free bread and to get some laundry done before I pick up Roman from school. I hope you all have a creative day and are able to focus on what matters most to you and your family today.

its baaaaaaaaack....

yes ladies and gentlemen, the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is back and better than ever.

For those of you that don't know, my husband Zach works at the Starbucks Corporate Office here in Seattle so we are really into anything Starbucks.

Not only does the PSL taste good, but it almost gives me permission to start doing fall crafts and to start getting excited about decorating and pumpkins and leaves changing and....well the whole shabang. This is totally my favorite time of year. I am one happy gal.

blueberry picking in washington

Last week we went Blueberry Picking with my sister in North Bend. Farms here in Washington are bursting with Blueberries, the farm we went to isn't certified organic (which our family supports every chance we get), however they don't use pesticides. And they were only $1.75 a pound! We had a blast and it was beautiful over there.Roman ate so many blueberries, we joked that they should have weighed him instead of the blueberry bucket.We had a super fun adventure and were able to bring home a ton of blueberries to freeze. Even after Roman had his fair share. So much fun.my sister Jeffie (and my neice Adele who will be hatching soon) and Roman

it seemed like a good idea at the time...

to set this photo up, I would like to state here and now that I am a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte fan. Hmm, fan doesn't seem to cover it. I love them. I adore them. You get the idea. And they don't start selling them in August (pssh) so I have to find other ways to curb my cravings.

So I looked online and found some recipes that called for using canned pumpkin. "Brilliant", I thought and at our next grocery shopping adventure I came upon Pumpkin Pie filling. Hey if canned pumpkin would work well, Pumpkin Pie filling would be better because it has all the spices in there. Clutching my canned craving curber, I headed to the checkout.

When I got home it was the moment of truth. I steamed my milk and added a few tablespoons of said canned good into the milk and stirred. What happens next is burned into my memory like a hot poker on a homemade marshmallow.


It was horrible. No, horrible isn't the word. It was shockingly horrible. I think that my problem was A. straying from the original recipe and B. expecting it to taste like a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte and instead drinking gritty sewage.

So back to the drawing board for me. I may just have to wait until they come back. But as many of you know, I loathe waiting, so there may be a few more experiments up my sleeve.

I'll keep you posted.

Busy Busy Busy

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day in Seattle, sunny skies, warmer than the norm temps, perfect for the drive out to PCC. Roman had OT at 1:00 and afterwards we picked up a hot cocoa and a latte and off we went. I kind of went crazy when I saw all the great produce they had, we got a mini-watermelon, grapes, kiwis, satsumas, avocados, apples and more. What's great is that my kiddo DEVOURS any kind of fresh fruit. And actually, very recently most vegetables. All you have to do is ask him how a T-Rex or a Brontosaurus would eat the particular vegetable and he chomps away with great enthusiasm.

After the grocery store it was home again to make dinner and rough-house a bit with the boy, then downstairs to check email and orders, and now I am off to do laundry and see what I have on the DVR. Ahhhh, life is busy, but good!