Photo's of Haley's birthday

Haley's party was a Mad Hatters Tea Party theme....we had a blast. The girls dressed up and we took their glamor shots. Even took Marky's!! We had cupcakes and cake balls....lemonaid and played pin the hat on the queen of hearts, clean cup, and watched Alice in Wonderland....it was a blast. Thank you Mary for helping! Daddy gave us a good help as well. Haley had fun, food, and friends and most of the decorations were material I already had, the dress-ups were borrowed, Lisa came and made cupcakes....so it was relatively cheap! A special thank you to all you came! Have a Very merry unbirthday!

Love,
ER

Tiptow through the tulips....

A conversation overheard from the window above the lawn:

Marky "So, Haley, how was show and tell, I see you brought your stuffed Pig aunt Stacie gave you!"

Haley "Yes! It was great! All the kids loved my pig!"

Marky, "That's really great! I miss show and tell."

Haley, "I wish you could have show and tell too."

Marky, "Yeah, but it's good you get to have it, at least one of us get's to have fun! Well, I get to have fun doing science stuff. But you get lots of more fun in show and tell."

Haley, "Yeah, I do get more fun. Thanks for asking!"

So polite! Who's kids are these anyway?! What happened to the teasing, and the whining that ensued all yesterday?! And what a boy to make Haley feel good! I really am astounded!

Hope you have a polite day!

ER

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread Recipe

You can make this lovely gluten-free zucchini bread with or without eggs. And it's dairy-free. Its delicate flavor comes from a secret ingredient. Coconut milk.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. (You know all about checking the oven's temperature, now, right?) Line the bottom of a 9-inch loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper. Lightly oil it.

You'll need:

1 rounded cup of fresh, grated zucchini (I partially peel my zukes, in stripes)
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch (sometimes called tapioca flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup light olive oil or coconut oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon or lime juice
2 free-range organic egg whites, beaten or egg replacer (1/4 cup liquid)
1/4 cup coconut milk

Option:

1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Press the grated zucchini with a paper towel to remove as much moisture as you can. After pressing, fluff with a fork (I learned this tip from 101 Cookbooks). Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sorghum flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, sea salt, and cinnamon. Add in the brown sugar.

Add the oil, lemon juice, egg whites or egg replacer, and the coconut milk. Beat to combine and continue to beat on medium high until the batter is smooth- about two minutes.

Add in almost all of the shredded zucchini (I save out a few shreds to decorate the top of the loaf) and stir by hand to combine. If you are adding nuts, stir them in to distribute.

Scoop and scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and using a silicone spatula, even out the top.

Add a few shedded zucchini strands to the top.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven until the top is golden and firm, yet gives a bit when lightly touched. It should feel slightly springy. This may take anywhere from 50 to 60 minutes. It took 55 minutes for my zucchini bread to bake. Test with a thin sharp knife or a wooden pick- either should emerge with no crumbs or batter.

Cook time: 1 hour

Yield: 1 9-inch loaf


Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/zucchini-bread.html#ixzz1V7Fwrvud

allergy Free Friday--Early!

Here it goes! 2 this time! And early, as I'll miss next week!

Lemon Bars

2 c. All Purpose Gluten Free flour

1 c. margarine (Nucoa)

½ c. powdered sugar

Mix with pastry blender til crumbly, then press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan lined with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until slightly brown.

4 eggs

1½ c. sugar

¼ c. All Purpose Gluten Free flour

Juice of 2 lemons (or about 6 Tbsp. lemon juice)

½ tsp. baking powder

a little lemon rind

Mix and pour over pre-baked crust. Bake 20 minutes at 350. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into bars.

And Post number 2 includes a recipe for Gluten/Dairy free Pepper Gravy! YUMMY! We had it last night over potatoes, it's like liquid hummus, or a cream gravy with pepper!

2 1/2 TBS Vegetable Broth Powder (I used liquid chicken bullion)

1/3 cup hot water

1 - 15oz- can Garbanzo beans, drained.

1/2 cup unsweetened plain soy yogurt (I used coconut milk, you can use whatever you want to thin it)

1 tsp salt, more to taste

1 tsp black pepper, more to taste

Throw it all in a blender until creamy, and add non-dairy milk until it is the desired thickness. You'll want it slightly thinner then you would normally because you'll heat it on the stove and it will thicken slightly.

Viola! Serve hot over gluten free biscuits, potatoes, or just about anything you want gravy on!

Enjoy!

ER

Zen, and the art of Gardening.

It's sunny, breezy, and the house is empty. Most likely you'll find us all outside, me up to my elbows in dirt, and the kids happily running around with a herd of neighborhood children. Don't read into it, I love being up to my elbows in the dirt. There's something very satisfying in sustaining life in a plant. This is my Zen. So today I thought I might share my garden with you, and a few things I love.

1. The more time you spend in your garden, the smaller your waist line is! It's like magic!

2. Garden Gnomes are really cute.

3. I don't have time, you say...well... My kids usually stay outside with me, so my house doesn't require as much maintenance!

4. Color, beautiful color, is enough to raise anyones happiness levels!

5. Up to my elbows in dirt I realize that good food doesn't need hours to prepare, it just needs a gentle hand to pull it and rinse it off. A sun ripened tomato right off the vine, a radish pulled up out of the earth, green beans, strawberries. Oh, sorry, I drooled.

6. The laughter of children is music to my soul, screaming isn't as loud outside as it is inside!

7. Being worn out, tired, and dirty at the end of the day, is greatly satisfying.

8. I love to be outside because if the wind blows just right my chimes sing, "Come, Come ye Saints."

9. Because I find myself talking to the Lord more on my knees in the dirt. And I find more answers pulling weeds.

Hope your day is full, and your garden bright.

ER

Allergy Free Friday/Tuesday.....

To be fair, I haven't cooked in a LONG LONG time...I have been extra busy, and way tired lately. But I won't let you down. These came from the TastyKitchen.com gluten free section! I love the recipe for Dairy Free Sweetened Condensed Milk! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Coconut Cookie Bars

For the sweet tooth in you!

• FOR THE HOMEMADE CONDENSED MILK:
• ½ cupsAlmond Milk, Or Preferred Milk Alternative
• ¼ cupsAgave Nectar
• 1-½ TablespoonChia Seeds
• _____
• FOR THE BARS:
• ½ cupsEarth Balance Butter, Room Temperature
• 2 cupsBlanched Almond Flour
• 1 cupTapioca Or Arrowroot Flour
• ½ teaspoonsSea Salt
• ½ teaspoonsBaking Soda
• 1 wholeEgg
• 1 TablespoonVanilla Extract
• ½ cupsAgave Nectar
• 1 cupChocolate Chips, Dairy Free
• 1 cupChopped Walnuts
• 2 cupsSweetened Coconut, Divided

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

2. Stir together the almond milk, agave, and chia seeds to make homemade condensed milk. Set aside to thicken.

3. Line a 7 x 11 in. glass baking dish with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking oil.

3. For the cookie batter, set out the butter to bring to room temperature.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the blanched almond flour, tapioca flour, salt, and soda.

5. Beat butter on medium-high until light and fluffy.

6. Add in the egg, vanilla, and agave. Beat until well combined.

7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir well.

8. Pour half of the cookie dough into the baking dish and even out with the back of a spoon.

9. Then spread out the chocolate chips over the cookie dough.

10. Then spread out a layer of walnuts, the remaining cookie dough, one cup of coconut, the milk mixture, then finally the remaining cup of coconut.

11. Slightly press down on the top layer of coconut.

12. Bake for 30–40 minutes or until browned and the center is no longer jiggly. Rotate halfway through baking.

Welcome!

Welcome to the world Maya! at 9lbs 13 oz and 24 hours of Labor you have already given your mama a run for her money! We can't wait to meet you! Amazing the miracles from Heaven we receive. Congratulations mom and dad! She is beautiful! I'll post a picture as soon as I get one on the e-mail!

love you all!

Gardening and Gnomes...don't mix.

I have a little Gnome...he's just over 2 feet tall! He drinks an awful lot of milk, and LOVES garbage trucks. And can't stay out of my garden.

Gardens and Gnomes don't mix.

I nurtured, loved, and protected my plants, 8 tomatoes and 7 peppers, 2 rows of peas and 2 of beets, 1 of carrots 1 of lettuce and 1 of radishes. They we're doing beautifully.

Then the Gnome arrived.

He managed to crush, or bury 6 of my tomatoes...

...step on 4 peppers.....

pull up 3 peas.....

and drown the rest in WAY too much water.

How...do you say....did this happen?

In all of 20 minutes while I tried to take a shower.

The End....

...of my garden.

Off to the gardening store....

again

next week

when I stop steaming.

The real end. Hopefully.

My Mantra

I love my 2 year old....

I love my 2 year old....

I love my 2 year old....

Who sits on time out next to me as I write this.....

Who opened 3 card games and threw them down the stairs....

Who dumped out a bowl of cereal and milk on the table this morning....

Who refuses to do his buisness in the toilet today....

Who makes it very very hard to love him....

...and yet very easy.

I love my 2 year old...

Mothers Day, unplugged.

Sunday is Mothers Day, a day to celebrate all the perfect mothers! Go ahead, ask anyone. They'll tell you how wonderful their mother is, how she always had fresh baked cookies, and fresh pressed linens... how she smelled of roses, and always wore a smile on her face. I can tell you my mother was perfect!

Now, all you mothers out there reading this. Don't roll your eyes, don't be alarmed, and for heaven sakes...keep reading!!

I was recently in a mothers day play written by a very talented mother in our ward. It was perfect. Full of mothers struggling to get the house clean, struggling to understand their children, struggling to get their scriptures read. Perfect mothers, just like you and me.

When I say perfect, I don't mean cookies, and smiles perfect. I mean mothers who are trying. Who struggle every day with decisions. Who celebrate their children's tiny steps forward and cry when their child struggles. Mothers who love their neighbors children when they can't have any of their own. Mothers who pour their hearts out to their Heavenly Father every night, pleading for help, for strength, and for the ability to be what their children need. Mothers who never find the end of the laundry pile, who never find enough time to snuggle, who never find the bottom of the kitchen sink. These mothers are the perfect ones, the ones who care, who try and who think they are constantly not making it.

Know this, mothers, you are making it. Look in your children's eyes and see that you are exactly who they need and want. Exactly who their Heavenly Father desired for them.

So while you clean yet another bum, or wipe up another spill. Smile, you are perfect, perfect for your children, exactly the mother they need.

Happy Mothers Day!

Library Adventures!

We try to hit the library at least once every 2 weeks. I try really hard to make it once a week. The kids have at least an hour of paroosing books and reading, not to mention one hour of quiet! What a place! And it’s free! Well, today was a quick day, Haley had to get to school, we only had 30 minutes. So in we went, Haley, Shawn and Max (the 9 month old I watch). We paroosed, we read, we had a great time and 15 minutes to get Haley to school. Checking out, shawn started to push buttons and run around, not a good sign. I just had to reach the door before he broke something!

We made it to the car without a major incident…then it happened. I reached into my pocket, no keys. I checked the baby seat, no keys. The bag with the books, no keys. Haley’s pocket, no keys. My back pockets incase my dairyair had hidden them from me. No keys. So, maybe they fell out in the car?! I had left the window cracked, and reached in to open the door, I barely fit. There goes the car alarm. I pushed every button, no dice. It still wailed, I put all the kids in their seats and shut the door to run back into the Library to see if they we’re sitting on the counter. No dice. By now all the other cars we’re beeping as various library patrons tried to shut off the alarm. Back out to the car. It had stopped! Maybe Haley found the keys! I opened the door, there it goes again. No, I didn’t find the keys mama. Back into the library, now I’ve enlisted the librarian to help search the joint. No dice. Finally I remember sitting next to the computers on my way to the counter to wait my turn. Yep. There they are. By now I have gathered a good looking group in the parking lot, checking to see if it’s their car. I causally slip in and drive away, unnoticed…I wish.