Tori’s Writing Hole

My computer - lifeline, lap warmer, work device - she’s back. I shall call her … well, I can’t think of a good name for a laptop right now, but I’ll work on it. After two trips to the computer hospital (aka Apple), and two separate replacements of the hard drive and motherboard, I am finally able to write again.

I missed you, my friend. Now to catch up on two weeks of work that have piled up due to your absence.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, laptop, computer

Well, out of necessity, I’ve been forced to find new ways to eat. I love to eat (evidenced by my size and the inordinate amount of time I think/talk about food). I’m a frustrated chef/baker, really, along with the million other careers I’ve considered.

So far, I’ve found Asian cuisine to be the most friendly to my GF (gluten free) diet. Many of the dishes are based on rice, and few require breading or flour to “hold” foods together. I’ve created a few dishes on my own - ones that are probably as far from authentic as you can get - and last night I tried this recipe for begedil which is an Indonesian dish using potatoes, beef, cilantro and shallots. Yum, but mine did not come out looking like the pics.

So anyway, here’s my recipe for nice, GF curry. Yummy, and I recommend it.

Technorati Tags: gluten free, curry, cooking, recipe

Ok, so I’ve had the opportunity to sample quite a few foods now that I’ve gone on this gluten-less journey. Here are my favorites and not-so-favorites:

• Bob’s Red Mill GF Chocolate Cake Mix - crumbly and dense, this cake reminded me of a regular cake that was missing some of the ingredients. The “garfava” flour (garbanzo bean and fava bean flour) left a distinctly beany aftertaste and Mom, who baked the cake, said the batter was horrid and required several different foods and drinks to get the taste out of her mouth. I can’t recommend this one.
• ‘Cause You’re Special Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins - these were great - smaller than regular muffins due to the use of potato starch and rice flour, they were yummy and consistency-wise, very similar to “normal” muffins. I will be buying these again. They can be made vegan if you use margarine and egg replacer. Biggest drawback was the price - $6 for 12 muffins.
• ‘Cause You’re Special Golden Pound Cake - at first, I loved this. Tasted just like real poundcake. However, you need to eat it within a day or so, because it went bad very quickly (dried out and got a funny taste). I’d recommend this for a family gathering (no one will know it’s GF - gluten free).
• DeBoles Rice Pasta - spirals - Ick. No flavor, bad consistency (I think under cooked, but still). Not going to purchase again - I’m trying the Tinkyada brand next.
• Chebe Pizza Crust - so yummy! Makes a great pizza, some springiness to the dough means it has a good mouthfeel. Just tapioca flour, along with seasonings, means this is great for any allergic person. You can make it with real eggs and olive oil/milk, or substitute for other allergies. The price is right too… at around $3 for the mix.

Well, that’s all I can remember so far. I will be trying to make my own bread (how I miss bread) once I get some xanthan gum. Damn, that stuff’s expensive ($13 for a package of 10 oz!).

Technorati Tags: gluten free, cooking, baking, pizza, pasta

Ok, so I really need to remember I’m living with a small, if a bit distorted, tape recorder. Julia has begun to parrot back things I don’t even remember saying… which can be good in the instance of her knowing words like “raccoon” and putting together verbs with “-ing” (kissing, hugging, etc). Not so good, however, when she lets out a disgusted “Jesus”. I guess when I was trying to get our dog Dakota to drop one of the many things he’s not supposed to have (today was a mostly eaten rubber dinosaur figure) I must have gotten disgruntled and said the lord’s name in vain.

Julia’s been saying “drop it” over and over now, punctuated by an occasional “Jesus”. Eep. Much worse than “crapping” (this is her word for clapping). Thankfully, I’ve been pretty good about hiding my inner sailor, but it’s tough. I am by no means a cultured speaker.

On another note, I made homemade caramels yesterday. Gluten free of course - but not fat free. Evil and tasty… the recipe is here, at AllRecipes.

Technorati Tags: language, toddler, dog, caramel

The last few days have been hectic, to say the least. Here in the lovely Capital Region, we’ve been hit with around 20″ of snow - causing Stephen’s work to be canceled but also requiring hours of digging. I’m not equipped for that, so Stephen was forced to dig out the car and shovel tons of the white sludge off of our sheer cliff face of a driveway. His car is still buried and he took mine - not like I’d be driving around in this.

The day before, however, was the day I ate Buddha. Seriously - he was an organic chocolate, homemade caramel and salty almond confection from Lucky Chocolates (located just outside of Woodstock, NY). And boy - was he sacrilicious. Happy smiling chubby Buddha makes for a good sweet treat, and these chocolates are pretty great. The store is teensy, barely a storefront, and it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere - but they do have a website. Prices are steep, compared to other local choco-stores, but the products here are all made with fair trade organic chocolate and other neat items like agave nectar. I think I’ll go back and try some more when the weather doesn’t suck as much.

Finally, the sourdough. As you may have read previously, I made a starter. Said starter was going well - frothy, doubled in size, sour smelling. So I made a sourdough French bread, carefully following the directions for this deceptively simple food. I let it rise, punched and kneaded, and baked off the bread as directed. And… ended up with a rock. Thick and dense, it never seemed to get the height or crust I was looking for. I was convinced this meant that the recipe (and not the baker) was faulty, so I came up with a “standard” sourdough recipe and tried that. Nope, even worse. My verdict: trek over to Panera and buy a loaf. My friend the sourdough starter found a new home - the toilet.

Technorati Tags: baking, chocolate, snow, shoveling, sourdough