food memories

I love soup!

Creamy soups, chunky soups, vegetable soups, noodle soups, I like all kinds of soups, except mushroom soup!

Soup is a comfort food for me. The best soup I have EVER eaten was in Wisconsin at Adria Canon's home. She amazed me with her abilities to spin her Angora rabbit's fur into a soft yarn to make socks and such. Her dedication to home schooling as well as her home making skills also inspired me to be a more loving and thoughtful mother.

Visiting her one wintry day, there was a most delicious aroma coming from a huge pot on her stove top. She so kindly offered me a bowl. It was a simple, savory recipe with fresh rosemary, chicken broth, chicken, onion, celery, carrots and potatoes. There may have been other ingredients, but those are the ones that remain in my memory some ten years later. She also offered me a slice of her home made bread which, together with the soup, was very satisfying.

That soup had a very calming effect on me and has left me with a lasting impression of Adria's gentle kindness and generosity. The simple act of offering me that generous bowl of soup and piece of fresh bread made me feel so welcome in her home. It gave me a feeling of renewal. It warmed me from the inside out and gave me a feeling of well being.

I have tried many times to recreate that soup and recreate that feeling of satisfaction that comes with eating something wholesome and healthy. Each time I attempt to make that soup, I think of Adria's kindness to me as a young mother and wife to a grad-student. That was a crazy time of my life in so many ways and it was a bowl of soup that brought such needed comfort from the harsh elements on that cold winter's day.

Bunny Business

When I was a kid, the EB came to our house every year. I have fond memories of coming into the living room and finding five baskets, filled with what seemed to be a one month's supply of sugary goodness, all lined up neatly in a row on the couch every year until I was possibly ten (I'm not sure exactly). I LOVED how the EB would leave my favorite Easter treats in a cute little basket with fake plastic grass. I especially loved finding little jelly beans hidden deep in the grass, but it did bug me that the Peeps marshmallow treats always had the plastic grass stuck to them. This Easter morning tradition made a lot of yummy, sticky, then sickly memories for me. I was not the type of child to savor my spoils over the next week or two. I was usually done with my entire basket of goodies by the close of the day. I think I even found a way to snitch goodies from my sibling's baskets.(Shhhh!) I was able to hide this fact until I developed an allergy to chocolate. Carob bunnies were not on my list of acceptable treats! SO when I broke out in hives after eating someone else's chocolate rabbit, my bad habit of snitching was discovered. Subsequently, Benedryl is another thing I associate with EASTER.

My husband's family didn't celebrate Easter in the same way. His mother is French and the EB didn't exist there. Easter was purely a religious holiday in their home. So, no baskets of candy and no easter egg hunts.

Fast forward to 2000 when our first child was old enough (2) to truly appreciate any holidays... we decided against giving large baskets of candy from the EB, but we did think it would be alright to do a little egg hunt. Living in Wisconsin, an outdoor egg-hunt was not logical for a two year old, so we hid eggs throughout our two bedroom apartment. It started out small and became a pretty fun activity and tradition. And it seemed to be endless because the kids would find the eggs, put them in their very small baskets until they were full, then give them to us to put in a bigger pot. Then we would re-hide the eggs for the kids to re-find. We would play our game for about 45 minutes, or until they wanted to open the eggs and see what was inside. Sometimes, it was just chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. Other times, it was jelly beans and m&ms.

Once we moved to CA, the egg hunts moved outside. That made it even more of a challenge for us to hide them while they were hunting, without them seeing us. This endless egg hunt worked really well until the kids were about six and realized we were recycling the same 30 (or so) eggs, then they helped to hide the eggs.

This year, we will have four hiders and one hunter. It makes me a little sad that the kids are getting so old and outgrowing these little traditions. Now, they just want the candies from inside the eggs. So, this year we are starting a new tradition. We are going to make some baskets for some of the elderly ladies in our church congregation. We will continue our tradition of watching the Ten Commandments on Good Friday. And maybe we will have a family Easter party with some Gluten Free goodies for all.


Looking for Gluten Free Easter candy, I found several blogs about/for celiacs that had an abundance of information that I found extremely useful. This one seemed especially good:



I am so glad to see that Dove chocolates are GF...I looooooove all of their yummy milk and dark chocolates! We will definitely buy more of those!

my search is over!

If you loved a particular food and found out that you could no longer eat it, how would you feel? I love good bread. The taste, texture and the filling qualities of bread are comforting to me. Not to mention easy and versatile! Since I learned that I have Celiac's, I have missed bread. Sure, there are lots of GF breads out there, but NONE of them resemble regular bread. They were too hard, grainy, crumbly, tasteless, etc. Well, I finally found a wonderful, soft, tasty gluten-free bread!

Udi's gluten free whole grain bread

It is so heavenly! Thanks to Udi's, I don't feel deprived anymore. I can eat a piece of bread with a meal or by itself, toasted or not, buttered or plain, and it is delicious. It also has fiber! That's right! Can you believe it? I have to say I was quite shocked myself!

I also tried Udi's GF blueberry muffins. Despite the plastic taste from being baked in a plastic tray, they were quite good. They are a big improvement from my own attempt at muffins which were made with garbanzo flour:P

resolutely resolved

I don't even know the last time I posted here...it's not a big deal...i don't think anyone actually reads this:)

But i feel like writing about my new year's resolve.

i have never really made concrete new year's resolutions. at best, i have some nice thoughts about what i'd like to accomplish throughout the year. every year, without fail, i come to the realization that i'm a wimp when it comes to accomplishing pre-set goals. it is mostly because i'm a spontaneous type of person. i have tried to make meal plans, daily routines, exercise routines, budgets, etc. but it just won't work for our family. there is too much uncertainty with our day-to-day lives to follow any specific routine. i could blame my husband's erratic work schedule; he has never been home at the same time two days in a row. but i know it is more than that. it is also due to my nature to let everything go with the flow. i don't like strict schedules and routines. i love for the kids to have ample time to play in the yard, color, or do projects as they please. i like to have whatever dinner i'm in the mood for on any given night, especially if the kids can make it. i hate feeling obligated to be places, even though i love going places. i don't like deadlines either! it all boils down to not liking stress of any sort! making new years resolutions stress me out.

since we don't have a set time for anything, i am resolutely resolved to do what i can when i can. despite my loose routine, i still feel like i accomplish a lot. (all in my own time, with as little stress as possible) of course, i would like to go running every day, play tennis and volley ball weekly, write on my blog monthly, go to the grocery store every other week, compose piano and flute music, get better at playing the violin and clarinet, get to church on time, do service projects for friends and family, sing with the kids more, bake gluten-free bread and cakes, hold daily family devotionals, do more scrap booking, learn french, keep a cleaner house, sew, read more, grow all my vegetables from seed, learn how to draw/paint, remodel the garage...the list goes on....

i am anxious to see where this year leads us. i know that we will learn many new things. i hope that i will look back on this year with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for all the opportunities i know we will have to grow and progress.

what can i say?

i've had the blog blahs for a few months now. for one, i couldn't remember the name of this blog (sure sign of not being a very serious blogger!) secondly, when i did figure out what it was called, i couldn't remember the password to access it. and lastly, once i figured out the password, i fell asleep attempting to post. can we say GOOBER? that is what i feel like today. a goober. what is a goober, you might ask? a goober is a goofy, silly, or slightly strange person. a goober is also another name for a peanut...i am a little nutty, so it fits me well.

one of these days, i will get my act together. and when i do, maybe i will tell my friends about my blog. until then, i hope no one actually visits this site because it is so lame!

makes me smile

it has been my concern for a few years now that j. has to eat the highly glutenous sacrament bread every Sunday. i always told him to try and take the smallest piece he could find so he would only get a smidgen of gluten. however, he would always complain of tummy trouble every Monday. we dismissed it every week, thinking that it was impossible to feel the effects so soon after eating the gluten. i mean, how could such a little amount of gluten cause a reaction like that so soon afterward? doesn't there have to be more than that to trigger a response. well, that is what i thought until learning that i also have celiac's. sure enough, every monday morning my tummy would hurt. i never said anything to anyone and just decided that we would just live with the pain each week in order to take the sacrament. BUT apparently, there are others in our congregation that also have wheat and gluten sensitivities. they aren't as quiet about it. now, the whole congregation is taking gluten-free bread for the sacrament. how cool is that? the last two weeks j. and i have turned to each other and smiled when the bread comes to our row. we smile because we feel loved. we smile because we won't hurt the next day. we smile because it is yummy, soft, gluten free bread!

busy

I have been so busy living life, that I had forgotten my quest for new bread and that I even had this blog. What is the quote? "The road to He[ck] is paved with good intentions". How could I let life get in the way of my quest to make the gluten-free world a better place?

I can truly sympathize with the gluten free/wheat-free community now that I have been on this diet for nearly three months {which feels like three years}! I think I have lost weight (but I am not sure since we don't own a scale), so that is a bonus in addition to feeling lots better! In fact, I feel so much healthier and happier eating a more whole foods diet, that I am starting to understand what PROVERBS 3:8 really means!

I never realized what truly poor health I was living with! AND can you believe I used to scoff at people who took eating so seriously? I used to think that THOSE people were fanatics! You know, the ones that read labels, buy organic, avoid refined sugars, exclude food with partially hydrogenated oils, and anything that is unnatural. I used to never check the ingredients in my food, "IF it looks good, smells good, tastes good...it IS good", RIGHT?

I never knew that there was a better way to eat! NOW I avoid anything unnatural...I still eat some processed foods, but at least we are avoiding artificial sweeteners, flavorings and dyes. We never ate much "junk" food, but now we eat even less. Occasionally, the kids ask for lolly pops and candy that contain unnatural ingredients {and look down right toxic}, but I try to sub similar healthy snacks in their place. Nobody complains!

What makes me the happiest, is to think that my kids are growing up healthier. I didn't eat very well as a child and would sneak candies and goodies every chance I got. my kids beg for carrots and broccoli, fresh or steamed! SCORE! We make green smoothies and eat lots of cheese. We snack on rice cakes with spun honey. We eat nuts and seeds daily. It seems so strange to be saying these things! Until last year, I never thought I would be/could be a health nut. But here I am, making daily efforts to live healthy, be healthy.