Sunny Friday

Harry Potter camp came to a delightful finish yesterday. My daughter-in law Angie brot their kids back, & stayed to help us with the preschool group. Here they are with their big coz., climbing the tree in my daughter's front yard. Today they're back home, to the relief of their old dog, who wasn't sure what had 'happened' to his babes!

After HP Camp, my dau & I went for fabulous pedicures - ah :) I love the flowers on my big toenails! & today I receive a massage - so doubly blessed!

The camp ended with a BBQ & salads (many good n green!) yesterday, & a cake topped with 'crispy treat 'castle walls!' Friends who are in SCA brought an armload of capes, so I wore one as I 'signed' the songs.

My daughter sent of cell samples for gluten intollerance testing - & this week the results came back for her family, & all 4 of them have the gene - tho not necessarily active yet - good to know & begin making the shift! She said the test showed both her parents have the marker as well (oh-oh!)
So going gluten free! She already has to watch for egg yolks (no mayo or dressings w/ egg yoke, or pizza brushed with egg, or . . .) & peanuts. I've been trying to avoid soy.

As an adult, I've found I 'do better' & don't produce as much mucus (always had a stuffy nose as a kid) when I don't eat much wheat - rarely buy bread (usually choose sprouted), & don't prepare or eat much pasta. But I've still enjoyed the occcasional pizza, & always go for whole grains. Rice & quinoa are my grains of choice, & I've been enjoying the forays into using coconut & sorgham flour. So we'll be doing more of that! She's ordered some books, & another field trip to Bob's Red Mill will be fun.
I do better with yogurt than drinking milk - tho I love it raw, I think I'm better off not drinking it. Bring on the coconut :) I made coconut yogurt yesterday, using my 'Greek God' yogurt (delish!) as a starter, & it turned out well. I made some tapiocia to help it 'firm.'

Yesterday the Farmer's Market was in full swing, & I picked up some fruit & a few goodies my CSA share doesn't inc - artichokes from the coast, kohlrabi & fresh basil. I keep the basil at room temp., in a glass w/ a bit of water in the bottom. A couple of stems from last week's bunch grew roots, so I planted those with my tomatoes!

Our favorite edible pod pea is Grau Eaten or 'dwarf grey sugar'. With it's lovely lavender & purple blosssoms, it rivals sweet peas in the 'pretty' dept, plus produces the yummiest peas! Years ago, my friend Diana's 3 year old would casually walk around the house & start picking pea pods whenever they visited - usually joined by my two kids!

Well - time to do something with this lovely, sunshiny day! The sweet Mormon boys who came to my door this week asked if I needed help on anything - 'the garden?' Do all the weeds & overgrown grass - show?? Sigh. Love gardens, but fall down on upkeep . . .

Sourdough Raisin Rolls

I love making these rolls from the Tasahara Bread Book!
I've found that shaping them & letting them rise overnight makes for very flat, hard rolls, so I shape them in the morning, let rise ~ 20 min & then bake! They are still a bit flat, but not hard!!

I sprouted whole wheat for a couple of days, & began a new batch of starter & 'fermented raisins,' as I hadn't made any for quite awhile. They are always a hit - my daughter esp. enjoyed them!

Starter: Combine in glass or ceramic container, cover & let ferment a few days on a counter:
1 C warm water
1-2 tsp sugar
1 C flour
1 Tbsp dry yeast
"You can also begin with some sour food, 2 or 3 day old 'rice, cereal, coconut (!) fruit, veggie or milk & mix with 2 1/2 C ww flour & water to make dough spongy. Cover & let sit 3 - 4 days, un-refrigerated" (Tasahara Bread book P:73)
I buy a small amount of yeast in bulk from our Natural Foods store - this will get bubbly & begin to rise fairly quickly if your yeast is fresh! Store yeast & the finished starter in the fridge.

Fermented Raisins - combine & let sit 2-4 days, un-refrigerated:
1/2 C raisins
2 C water (can be part cider, esp if it's going a bit fizzy!)

"if you make these rolls regularly, you can keep a batch of raisins going by using all the water & a portion of the raisins each baking, then replenish both." Refrigerate if it will be a few days before your next batch!

Sourdough Raisin Rolls1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 C WW flour (I substituted 1/2 C sprouted wheat, 1/2 C coconut rice, whizzed in my mini processor with a bit of raisin water, & 1/2 C coconut flour, & 1/2 C sorgham flour for some of the ww flour)
1 cup sourdough starter (or the whole batch)
1 3/4 C raisin water
1/2 C fermented raisins
1/2 C dry raisins
ww flour as needed

Mix salt & cinnamon with the flour. Put the starter on top of flours, & stir in raisin water, a little at a time to form a soft dough.
Stir with a wooden spoon, & add in fermented & dry raisins.

Let sit 20 minutes & replenish the starter (remove 1 C sourdough mix, place in clean glass jar, cap & store in fridge for next batch. This will have raisins in it, you can keep a seperate batch for the raisin rolls, or use it in any recipe)

Mix again, add a little more flour as necessary, & 2 Tbsp Agave nectar, cover & let sit overnight.

In the morning, cut in half, add flour sufficient to roll out & cut each half into 6 pieces (12 in all) Roll each piece into a ball, & place on a greased baking sheet or in glass baking pans. (I put a pea sized nugget of coconut oil in the center of each roll before baking. You generally don't want oil in your sourdough starter.) Let rise 20 minutes while you preheat oven to 375*

Bake 20-25 min or till well browned. Serve warm with coconut oil.

You can use the starter for sourdough pancakes & other recipes, but I find these rolls such a simple way to 'do' sourdough bread, & was quite pleased at the addition of the coconut flour!

I've found several desert recipes using the C Flour, but the usual suggestion is to use lots of eggs - & my daughter's just discovered she's allergic to egg YOLKS, so that doesn't work if I want to share them! I found a fun blog with lots of coconut flour recipes here - of course it is a desert blog!

I want to try her recipe for "Coconut Meat Balls with Coconut Rum Dipping Sauce!" I'd use Coconut oil to saute the meatballs & in the sauce - she doesn't seem to have discovered the oil!! But has some lovely ideas for using the flour, & the ice creams sound divine.
These remind me of my mother-in law's 'Russian Goop' - meatballs with lots of nutmeg, in a bed of sour cream & onions!!

The Coconut & Sorgham flours came from Bob's Red Mill our field trip a few weeks ago. The sorgham is related to millet, & similar to corn in taste & texture - not GM (none of their products are!)