Cooking etc

I've been getting very fed up with the whole gluten free 'thing' lately.... sooooo much extra work and expense involved for frankly not very inspiring outcomes. Last night though I came across a great blog which has links to heaps of fab looking recipes and I actually started feeling slightly keen on cooking again... hooray!

This morning before heading out to our college wives picnic I made these orange creme cupcakes. I made a few changes as I'm not that keen on xanthan gum and I didn't have any egg replacer and some of the ingredients are American brands. So, no xanthan gum, used about 2/3 cup of orange juice in the cake part and then had to add about 1/2 cup of rice flour because the mixture was so runny. I also used 2 eggs instead of the egg replacer, and used mainly Orgran GF plain flour instead of the sorghum flour. Used Nuttelex in the icing too, instead of whatever she specified.

They were really yummy! A bit dense but fantastic flavour :) I think it helps that we're in the middle of navel orange season at the moment - delicious! Next time I think I'd make the Orgran flour SR instead of plain and see if that added enough extra lift.

Cherry blossoms etc

I'm making a pair of longies for someone who wants a cherry blossom theme... woo hoo, how fun! The longies are turning out a little larger than I had planned (how did that happen?) but I'm hoping it will work out (I do have a plan!) and I'll be able to move onto the embellishments soon (the fun part!). I'm planning to blanket stitch on blossoms made from felted merino wool and probably make crotcheted stems / sticks for them to sit on. Have to *ahem* learn to blanket stitch first - can't be that hard right? Lol I'll be back here whining about it in a day or two!

Anway I need a place to dump some links to good photos of cherry blossoms, having never met one in person, so this will have to do.

Close up with pink centre

Are we having fun yet?

Jeremy has woken up with a particularly nasty tummy bug :( Very very very not good - exams are next week, with several assignments due imminently as well. Poor guy - he's really sick. We'd appreciate prayer that he recovers quickly (and doesn't pass it on) and that he can get through the mountains of study he's supposed to be doing this week.

The world according to Miss 4

JoJo (middle name Caroline, after my sister) has been trying to figure out names lately...

JJ: I have 4 names mummy.

Me: Really? What are they?

JJ: JoJo Tea, Joanna Tea and Aunty Caroline Tea........ Oh. I only have 3 names.

Oh BLAH

I have a miserable cold. Great hey? You know what's even better .... Jeremy has it WORSE THAN ME!! Arghhhh! Guess who got to sleep in and then go back to bed while their other half dragged themself to church (no doubt to share the germy love around... everyone will appreciate that) and then have their 2 highly emotional and volatile children who have now succumbed to the lurgy entertained? Not me that's for sure.

My attempts to approach this challenge graciously are obviously not proving as successful as I might hope... *sigh*. I did get to eat dinner on the couch (my escape) for which I am extremely grateful.

Oh blah.

Rain

We have had so much rain here in the last week - apparently the dams got 1 years worth of water in about 3 days. Bizarre after being drought stricken for ages. It has been absolutely torrential (obviously) but this morning was fairly tame so I let the kids go out for a play. They had a ball of course (and left a trail of wet muddy destruction on their way back into the house!).

JoJo decided to investigate the alternative possibilities of her umbrella and rigged up a pretty nifty pulley system to that she then wanted X to ride on... I vetoed that one, knowing that I'd have one broken umbrella and 2 kids in tears. It was a pretty cool idea though!

I've re-started my career

...as a professional whinger that is. Bought some gelati from a company that shall remain nameless - it had a big "gluten free" label on the front so I thought "Great I'll just buy that one and I won't have to bother reading the label for once". When we opened it up though for some reason I checked the ingredients and it says it may contain traces of BARLEY!! What the????? Not happy. JoJo was on the verge of a major meltdown until we discovered the genuinely gluten free sorbet in the freezer - *phew*.

We'll see what happens ... if nothing else at least it's got me back in the groove of complaining to companies about their defective products. I used to quite enjoy that once upon a time :D