Blueberry Power Bars...er...Muffins....

So my husband works at a local ski resort during the winter.  He drives a snowmobile and assists ski patrol in medicals, but does a lot of other tasks as well.  He's quite the go-getter - all go, no quit!  Often times he does not get to sit down and eat his lunch and he will come home having not eaten anything all day.  He used to snack on Tiger's Milk Bars, but since becoming aware of how poisonous processed foods are to the human body, he no longer eats them.

He is happy he is doing a good thing for his body, but he really misses them!

So I did a bit of research in effort to provide some type of healthy snack that he could just pull right out of his pocket and chow down on.  I've collected many recipes for 'power bars', but I chose the blueberry ones to make first because the man LOVES his blueberries!

I was rather impressed with the recipe.  I actually made three batches total - blueberry, strawberry and pineapple.  The blueberry turned out the best.  I was going to tweak the recipe to make them not so moist (they were quite 'eggy'), but first I need to ask him if he wants me to pursue it.  I don't think he was looking for muffins as his snack!

In case you're interested in trying them yourself, you can find the recipe here.

Strawberry Power Muffins

Pineapple Power Muffins

Blueberry Power Muffins

Gluten Free Pigs In A Blanket: A REVIEW

About a year ago, our family made a change.  We went gluten free.  We are not Celiac, but we found increased improvement in our overall health by giving up gluten.

My family misses 'junk food' greatly.  So when I get time, I experiment with recipes I find on the internet.  Some of them are fantastic, others - not so much.

Tonight's dinner was one such experiment.  The recipe is below (and can be found here), then my review will follow...

Ingredients

2 cups (280 g) high-quality all-purpose gluten-free flour
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon (4 g) sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (6 fl. oz.) warm water (about 100°F)
3 tablespoons (63 g) extra-virgin olive oil (plus an extra tablespoon for drizzling)
16 gluten-free cocktail weenies (about 8 ounces)

Directions 

Make the pizza dough. In a medium-size bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, place the flour, xanthan gum, yeast, sugar, and salt and whisk to combine well. To the flour mixture, add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the water in a steady stream, mix with a spoon or fork to combine, or mix with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer on low speed. Stir or mix constantly while streaming in the water and continue stirring until the mixture begins to come together. If the dough seems super sticky, add some more flour a tablespoon at a time, and stir or pulse to combine. Press the dough into a disk.

Place the dough in another medium-size bowl and drizzle it with olive oil. Turn the dough to coat it with oil. This will prevent a crust from forming on the dough while it is rising. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm, draft-free area to rise until doubled in volume (about 1 hour).

Shape the dough. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside. Once the dough has finished rising, divide it into 4 pieces of roughly equal size, and with floured hands shape each piece into a ball. Place one ball of dough at a time (covering the other two with a moist towel), on a well-floured surface, and dust the dough liberally with extra flour. Roll into a rectangle 8 inches long by 6 inches wide, and between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch thick, dusting with flour if the dough becomes sticky. With a sharp knife or pastry wheel, slice the rectangle into 4 smaller rectangles, each 2 inches wide by 6 inches long. Repeat with the remaining 3 balls of pizza dough.

Assemble the pigs in a blanket. With a sharp knife, slash each weenie on one side, along its length about halfway through the weenie. This is to allow steam to escape while the pigs bake. Take the first rectangle of dough, place a weenie on a short side right at the edge, and roll the weenie up tightly in the dough. Press the edge against the weenie to seal, and place the pig and blanket on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining rectangles and weenies, and place them about 1 inch apart from one another on the baking sheet.

Bake the pigs in a blanket. Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the dough is brown around the edges and lightly brown on top, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool briefly before serving.

. . .

So the dough went together quite easily, no problem there.  I was afraid that the dough would be a bit sticky as most gluten free dough ends up to be, but it was not.  It was actually quite crumbly.  I squished it together and slathered it with oil as the directions said to do.  We had a fire going, so I put it on the hearth to let it rise for an hour.

It did not rise.

I wasn't going to just toss the dough, so I went ahead and rolled it out on a large wooden cutting board to about a quarter inch thickness.  I had seen a different technique  for wrapping the weenies than what the recipe suggested.  I split the dough into two and rolled it out.  Then I used a pizza cutter and cut the dough into long triangles.  I wrapped the smokies and they looked so beautiful!  Just like they were supposed to!  I had to bake them about ten minutes longer than as described in the recipe and then they never really browned.  They also never puffed up.  The dough didn't taste bad, but it was harder than I'd expected.

I will try this again, but I will use my tried and true pizza dough recipe.  At the end of the recipe, I saw that it had been adapted from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap, by Nicole Hunn.  Nicole Hunn has published several books and is well known for her gluten free adaptations of lots of different popular, mainstream recipes.

My final thought is, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Savannah's been working on her plating techniques

Double Double Toilet Trouble

So we've been in our home for a little bit now, well, in March it will be a year.  We don't own it, but we have fantastic landlords!

Well, anybody would be fantastic compared to what we came from.

Couple days ago, I was showing Savannah exactly how the bathroom was to be cleaned.

Pay no attention to the detailed instructions in the clear page protector...

We were working on the toilet and she said, "Hey mom, the toilet's leaking."  I wrote it off , and told her it was just condensation that had collected and was dripping down.  She's like, "Uh, I don't think so..."

So I take a look, and sure enough, there's a pretty good drip going on.  I put my hand up on the tank and it rocked!  I have NEVER had a toilet tank do that before.  Well, when it rocked backward, a bit of water came out and ran into the toilet bowl.  AH!  It suddenly made sense why there is a hard water stain on the base near the tank.  Mind you, this stain was there when we moved in, and I had made mental note of it, wondering at the time why it was there.

So to continue, we wiped up the water and flushed the toilet.  We went into a bit of a frenzy when a trail of water began to snake across the floor!

Oh my.

So I sent a text to my landlord and he came over the following day to take a look at it.  He took the tank apart and studied the seal, which looked fine.  And at first he didn't see what the problem was, no leaking.  But finally it did leak (I AM VINDICATED!  I felt like I'd just taken my car to the mechanic and he said "What noise?").  He couldn't figure out where the leak was coming from and he said it didn't make any sense since the toilet was only a year old.  He said perhaps the tank was jarred which moved the seal.  Whatever, the bathroom is hardly used since it's the master bath, and we certainly don't use it as a mosh pit.

No, we use the living room for that!  Kidding.  We don't mosh.

So today he came back over with parts and fixed the toilet.

And our dripping shower.

Remember when I said we had fantastic landlords?  I wasn't kidding.  We are blessed.

OCD Moment:  When I was processing this photo, I started to reach out to my screen to rub the water spots out and make the chrome shine.

BOOK REVIEW: Faelorehn: Book one of the Otherworld Series by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

The book Faelorehn by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson is a magical piece which takes the reader into a land of ‘fairies’.  This land is not the one you grew up with, containing cute little pixies that sprinkle dust on you as they fly by – no, this land is far more menacing.

Meghan Elam isn’t like other girls… or boys, for that matter.  Her eyes change colors, she sees things others don’t see and the trees speak to her.  Aside from a small handful of true friends, most people think she’s crazy.  She’s learned over the years to not speak of the things she sees or hears.  But lately things are getting a little too real.

. . .

The story begins slowly, getting to know Meghan through events and through her own thoughts.  Once the author has your empathy for her, the story becomes a bit more exciting, but it takes a while to get there. 

 

Since the book is the first installment of the Otherworld Series, I find it’s much like any new series you would find on television.  The first episode hooks you just enough to be curious as to what happens next.  But is it a cliffhanger?  No.  I didn’t find myself searching out book two, but perhaps the next time I’m at the library, I might check to see if they have, or can get a copy.

The author has certainly done her research on Celtic mythology and it would seem the story has been created around it.  The concept of the book is unique, and I like that the author has taken the classic fairie world and turned it upside down.  I believe that teens will find this book to be a good read, and I would certainly recommend it.

The book is available at Amazon in paperback and right now is free to download on your Kindle. 

Readers Anonymous

If there was an anonymous group for all my hobbies, that would be great.  Scuba, Pyrography, Photography, Culinary...  Oh wait, if I went to Culinary Anonymous, my family would definitely starve, so that's out.  Okay, rabbit trail...

So am I a book addict, or do I just love words?  I think I just love words - when they're used correctly, that is.  Words are so powerful, aren't they? 

I recently joined a website called netgalley.com.  If you're an avid reader like me, you may be interested in what they offer.  Basically, you request a book that you're interested in reading; if your request is confirmed, you read the book, then you must write a 200+ word review on your blog (hence the creation of this one...).  Some publishers only accept reviews who have massive followings, but there are books that you can choose that are a "read now" option - us little people, we've got to start somewhere, yeah?  Many of the books have not yet been published - the publisher is looking for early reviews to get a feel for what's coming.  Kind of exciting to be on the front end!

Being a homeschool family, we get to find creative ways to learn critical thinking and communication.  I thought this would be a great resource to teach these skills!  The girls have enjoyed going through and requesting books in their favorite genres.

I have just finished reading my first book and am preparing to review it; I will post it in the next day or so.