oceantheorem: (Default)
 Ooookay... time for another Catching Up post.

I saw a GI specialist at the beginning of September. He explained my blood test results to me and declared he was absolutely certain I don't have Celiac and should have no trouble at all eating gluten.  He prescribed fiber to help solve my issues.  Yeah. Fiber. That's it.

I started taking fiber and stopped avoiding gluten. After about two weeks I started a food diary.  I kept track of what I was eating and how I felt. Pretty much the only trend I could see is that I felt like crap all the time. So I stopped taking fiber (and I started forgetting to write in the diary) and I actually feel better again. I'm so confused. I don't know what is up with my body. I don't know how to make it better.  Jim is still convinced it's linked to stress.  It could be. I don't know.  If it is, I don't know how to solve that.

Work has gotten busier. Managing the lab has been going really well, and I feel pretty on top of things now, but I've gotten the "you're not doing any science" and the "you seem to spend a lot of time not doing anything" talks... so now I'm doing lots of science, and have very very little downtime. Which is good, and awesome, and I want that - but it's wearing me out.  I feel like I'm moving into the "old" category. I'm not 19 anymore. My body just doesn't seem to have those great reserves of energy it used to have.  Especially considering I feel like crap most of the time.

Knitting has been going well. I made a pair of fingerless mittens, so I can knit or use my phone at the bus stop in the mornings. It's gotten awfully cold over the last week or two.

They sparkle! They're alpaca!  They only took me two days to make!

My knitting goals for October are to finish Emily's freakin' hat, seam up the hat I made for my Dad in January, finish something for Mom, and try not to buy very much at Rhinebeck.

Rhinebeck is in two weeks. For those of you who don't know, it's a huge sheep and wool festival in New  York state, held every year in October, and I've never been. I have been meaning to go since 2007, and finally committed to attending this year's after being severely sad about missing last year's.  So I'll be driving to Connecticut and meeting up with some Yale friends, then driving up to New York for the festival.  There will be a TON of people there from my Harry Potter knitting group, so it'll be awesome to see and hang out with them. I anticipate this will be the best five days of 2010.

Of course, I've been saving (little tiny amounts of) money for several months now so I'd be able to spend without worrying and buy lots of fun things without guilt.  And then Jim's job fell through for a full week (if there isn't work to be done, he doesn't get called in), and thus he didn't make any money that week, and suddenly we're in financial trouble and all that money I saved up is needed to cover our bills.  I'm still going on the trip, but I don't think I'll be able to buy very much at all.  The main point of the trip is to see friends and hang out, but the secondary point was to cut loose a little at the festival and get some nice stuff, and I'm kind of upset that now I won't really be able to get anything.  And I will be stressing about money the whole trip instead of relaxing.
Sigh. I hate this stupid economy. I hate being poor.

...I was actually trying to write an upbeat post. I swear.  I blame the gray clouds and the rain.

Oh wait!  Did you see the yarn shelf Jim built for me?







I'm still working on getting everything into it and organized the way I want.  Actually, that sounds like the perfect thing for me to go finish doing right now. :-)

Desserts!

Aug. 22nd, 2010 05:16 pm
oceantheorem: (emperor's new groove turned into a cow)
 I've done a bad job of taking pictures of desserts. I take pictures of the batter and then I forget to take pictures of the finished product before Jim eats them all.

Cookies!
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Beat together, form into cookie sized balls, press down gently, cook at 350 for about ten minutes.




They were yummy. I will have to make more to get finished product pictures.

"Butterscotch" "Brownies"
I have no idea why the recipe is called that. They are neither butterscotchy nor brownies.

Here is the recipe!


Haha. In English, that would be:

Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 2 cups brown sugar (we used 2 cups white sugar and some honey, because our brown sugar had bread in it to keep it from clumping - ::headdesk::).  Add in 1 tsp vanilla and 3 eggs.  Beat mixture. Mix together 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp xanthan gum, 1 cup rice flour, and 1/2 soy flour (we used tapioca flour).  Blend the dry mixture in with the wet mixture.
Somewhere in there you were supposed to add in 2 tsp baking powder. Looking at the white board now, I think I forgot to do that...
Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped nuts or whatever you want.  We didn't add anything.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.



The white board also shows an icing recipe.  I varied it a little since we kinda ran out of powdered sugar, but it's pretty similar to the icing I usually make.
This recipe says to boil 1/4 c butter with 1/4 c cocoa. Then add in 1/3 cup buttermilk, 1 tsp vanilla (hahaha, I'd at least triple that), 1/4 tsp salt, and 3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar.  Beat until smooth.

What I usually do for icing is melt some butter, pour some soy milk on top of it, add a good tablespoon of vanilla, and stir in powdered sugar until it's the consistency I want.  If I wanted chocolate, I'd add cocoa powder until it was chocolately enough.  Icing is pretty easy.

Again, I don't have finished pictures of the "brownies", since we nommed them pretty quickly.  They were very good, if a little chewy and dense (the baking powder might have helped...).  I could probably have also beat some egg whites or something to help fluff them up.  I dunno. Jim said he liked the texture the way it was, and he cares way more about that than I do.

Last but not least, I made some coconut chocolate chip cookie bar things based on a recipe I found on someone else's blog.  I changed a lot.

Beat together 3 eggs, 1/2 melted butter, and a tablespoon of vanilla. Add in 1 cup of brown sugar (by this point we'd bought new brown sugar, but I'm sure the white sugar/honey thing would have worked here too).  Beat in 2 cups of some kind of gluten-free flour mix. I used the Gluten Free Pantry stuff (which is available at Whole Foods and at Kroger), but rice flour with some xanthan gum added in would have worked too. Stir in 1.5 cups coconut and 1 cup chocolate chips. 

Bake at 350 in a buttered casserole dish for about 21 minutes. Or, y'know, set the timer, walk away, and have your boyfriend turn the timer off and NOT TAKE THE BARS OUT OR TELL YOU HE TURNED OFF THE TIMER. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Jim.

They turned out okay.  I found them to be fantastic and they're my favorite of the group so far. Jim does not agree.


Next up I think will be flourless chocolate cake.  But it might be a week or so. We're both a little sugared out at this point.

Sushi!

Aug. 11th, 2010 09:36 pm
oceantheorem: (sushi tempura sashimi)
 Sushi is a gluten-free food! (If you don't know why I care about that, either sign into LJ and read my last few posts, or send me an email.)

The latest episode of Adventures in Cooking with Jim and Kara took us on a thrilling escapade through fish-infested waters.


We found an Asian market somewhat near our house and raided it for tasty-looking fish and veggies.  We ended up with a pretty wide assortment.
Click here for more pictures! )

Profile

oceantheorem: (Default)
oceantheorem

April 2017

S M T W T F S
      1
234 5678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 29th, 2025 04:27 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios