Personal: Sexy New Stove

I got my new stove on Tuesday, and man it’s a sexy beast… I got it on scratch and dent and saved over 60%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!  I love scratches and dents!!  THEY ROCK!

Sexy, sexy stove!

Personal: Gluten Free Kitchen Reclaimation!!!

The kitchen chaos is over!  We’re back in the proverbial gluten free business.  Here are some pics!  Now, I just got the table set back up, so there’s tons of clutter.  Don’t hold it against me, it’s been a rough week.

On an even better note, we somehow bought a new range over the weekend, too.  We had been looking for a decent range in the $400-600 price range and kept coming up short.  That is, until I went to Sears to check out the scratch and dents… here’s my new range, coming Tuesday. Clicky

I paid $619 for it. Sick, I know. So, so sick. I’m hoping to get at least 20 years out of it as opposed to the three we got out of the old tiny range, which has actually been disfunctional since it came to live in this house two and a half years ago.

See, I was making quesadillas and I left the broiler on in between quesadillas… but we’re talking about an amount of time that can be expressed in minutes, if not seconds… and the whole thing shot out smoke and twisted about five degrees. I managed to get the door to shut, but when I pulled it away from the wall during this project, I discovered that it had scorched the cabinet and the side of the range. We had to get a different range because that whole thing just scared me (plus, how well could it be holding the heat in, really?)

Personal: Kitchen Chaos!!! (da dum dum dum)

It’s been an eventful week at Ye Olde Gluten Free Blogge.  I discovered, much to my shock and horror, that the washing machine was leaking out of its back and bottom and apparently had been for some time.  Thankfully, it’s still under warranty, but it still was really upsetting.  My kitchen floor, already gasping for air, was completely ruined.  As luck would have it, we were getting ready to replace it anyway… this just moved the time table up a little.

My old floor was one of those laminate floating floors, and it was horrible!!  The water from the washer ended up collecting under it and got under the plasticy stuff that you put between the laminate and the subfloor.  The floor was soaked!!  I spent the day alternatively dousing it with bleach and running a fan across it to dry it all out.  It is mostly dry now and I imagine it will be all dry by tomorrow AM.  About a quarter of my kitchen is currently under quarrantine until it dries.

Here are some pictures, however, of the new floor as it goes in.  This is today’s work, we removed the old floor, hauled the appliances around, dried out the wet part of the floor (and bleached and treated it for mold), and I layed as many of the “whole” tiles as I could fit in the space I had.

Isn’t remodeling your house while you live in it fun?

Photos:    

Kitchen, Day 1

Kitchen, Day 1

Kitchen, Day 1

Personal: Apologies and Promises, Promises

Heya, all.  I know I’ve been away and some of you might be a little frustrated by that… I’m sorry.  This is Finals week for me and it’s been very stressful here and leading up to it.  Add that to the fact that I’m loosing weight far too rapidly (up to 1.5 lbs per day) and it’s a pressure cooker around these parts.  Today is my last final, then I have a paper to finish and I’m done for a little bit.  I promise to post at least two times weekly during my two week break.  Sorry, but I’ll be back soon.

On the upside, I’ve developed a really decent French bread recipe that I will be sharing with you soon.  I also found lots of cool flours on my last trip (yesterday) to the Asian food store.  We’ll see what we can do with them.

Personal: Peanut Butter Cookie Success!

As some of you have read me repeat over and over again on various forums, Gluten Free baking is practically rocket science.  Baby, I think I’ve finally gotten my boosters!  The peanut butter cookies were such a hit I’m out after only a day or so.  I decided not to tell anyone that they were GF and see what happened.  Most of what I heard was “You shouldn’t be eating these!  They’re not gluten free!!”  Heck yeah they are.  DH devoured them silently and then snuck a bunch for breakfast.

I am very, very pleased.  I am also now incredibly confident.  Pie crust is in my very near future, I can feel it.  I also can feel the disaster it brings with it.  You have no idea how sexy a fresh lattice topped pie can be to someone who has been waiting a year to eat one.  The apples and peaches are finally ripening on the trees (took them long enough, sheesh!) and I’ve got a great source for berries… I can’t wait!

Blog Evolution

Much like single-celled organisms floating about in Primordial ooze, Ye Olde Gluten Free Blogge is evolving.  Largely, of course, this is because I’m evolving and… this is my blog.   I’ve been spending a lot of time at a new virtual hangout, RecipeZaar and I’ve finally learned how to cook, I think.   No one has lost their dinner lately, so I think I’m on a roll.

So, on top of talking about products that I love or products that I hate, I am going to get more serious about baking and cooking.  I think it’s sort of the natural progression of things.  GF cooking in general has a pretty steep learning curve, but I think I’m finally ready to share my (sometimes) frightening cooking experiements with the world.  Hold tight world, and carry an extra lunch, just in case.

Personal: Gluten-Free and the Afterlife

So, most of you have probably noticed that I’ve been away.  Well, we had a death in the family.  My mother in law passed on last Saturday.  Why did I think this was news to you?  Well, it gave me time to reflect on what I’ve learned over the last year and to thank you for being part of it.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve eaten out more that in the last year (excuse my hyperbole).  I’ve dodged in and out of people who wanted to go out for pizza, people who wanted to eat in strange places that I didn’t have a menu for… and I’ve eaten somewhat safely in the homes of others.  I am proud to say that I’ve only been glutened once during this time, and considering the circumstances and the craziness of it all, I think that’s pretty good.  And my success means that I’m learning.  I’ve apparently learned enough to adapt and to be able to function in a world gone mad.  YAY!

So, stay tuned for more Gluten Free hijinx, because I’m pretty sure the family is done with what we have to do and someone is going to give me the day off tomorrow.  I’m going to nap so good…..