We didn’t get snow here, but the hills and mountains around us have snow! Sunday we got a break from the rain, and it was picturesque here. We only get this kind of beauty once every few years, so I love it, which is also why I keep harping on it.

Saturday it rained all day, so I kept busy with little chores like cleaning cupboards, doing some yoga, and made my simple pizza dough. I’m getting better at pizza dough, but still can’t get it on the pizza stone, LOL. I want a bigger stone and a pizza peel, but I’m not going to invest in that just yet and keep practicing. I want to try some more advanced doughs, and try gluten free. Once I have more experience, I’ll have a better idea what I’ll need. Then I watched a movie while Wizard watched Motocross. The movie was “We Have A Ghost” which I really enjoyed. It helped that I had zero expectations, and was able to suspend disbelief. But it really did crack me up. It followed the whole typical ghost premise of a ghost stuck and someone helps free him or her, learning life lessons along the way. Still I enjoyed it.

Sunday I had a great time seeing an old friend. We have to get together more often! Hours flew by. I also managed to pick up a new pair of sunglasses for a whopping $9.99 because I have a record of abusing my sunglasses I was quite pleased with that too. But mostly, I’m just happy to see a friend. Friends are priceless, and now that life is calmer, I need and want to make more of an effort.

Then I rushed home to get some bread mixed and proofing and take Maggie for a second walk because the day it too gorgeous (although cold!) to waste. We have a few more days of rain coming in, and both Maggie and I get restless if we don’t get in enough exercise.

So that was my weekend, now I’d love to hear about yours!

TGIF!! Here we are at the end of the another week. I hope all of us in the path of the current storm stay, warm and safe! Okay, time to jump in sharing five things about our week.

1. Today is Freaky Friday. How do I know? We are supposed to have a snow day today. In Southern California. It’s totally freaky. Yesterday was cold with wind, rain and hail, so why not snow? To be fair, we have had snow before, it’s just rare enough to be an event.
2. The weather has caused me to postpone plans to get together with Bike Witch today. I’m gonna be really annoyed if it’s just turns out to be a light rain as I haven’t seen my sister in a while. When we made this plan, the storm was supposed to have already moved through, but it kept getting pushed back until Friday looked like the worst day. We’ll get together next week.
3. Yesterday I baked gluten-free bread and gluten-free cookies. I knew it was going to raining so I planned it. I also made stew to go with the fresh bread
4. This is a small problem to have, but I needed to schedule another scan, and there are only two locations in the entire county who can do this scan. The only date I could get is the one date I already had my hair appointment booked for. Otherwise I had to wait until late April and that’s just not an option for me at this point. It’s so frustrating because this is probably the third time I having to change my hair appointment for medical tests. That should be almost statistically impossible, LOL! Fortunately my hairdresser is very nice, and hopefully since I’m giving her almost two weeks notice, it won’t cause her problems. I just feel bad doing this to her. Plus it’s weird that my entire month of March is open for this test but they could only do it that one day.  It’s also possible I am really tired of labs, scans and tests Or medical people looking at me like this:
5. Sunday is forecast to be our first dry day and I have plans to go to lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in years! I’m really looking forward to that.

That’s my five now I’d love to hear yours! Have a safe and fun weekend!

What’s everyone reading or listening too?

I have a women’s fiction book (a real book) I may start when the rain hits the week. On audio, I’ve listened to:

Someone Else’s Shoes by JoJo Myers. For me, it was okay.

Nowhere Girl by Cheryl Diamond a nonfiction about a girl born into a family on the run around the world. She never had an legitimate identification or even a country. Her battle to overcome that was interesting. Her family life was incredibly sad. But I have a one unanswered question in that book that really bothers me.

And now I’m listening to The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer.

I really need to listen to more fiction!

So what are you reading or listening too?

A good weekend overall. The weather was decent, although we are supposed to get rain for a few days this week.

So a funny story. I found a gluten-free recipe for artesian bread that I was excited to try. Since we were having youngest over his birthday on Sunday, I made the bread on Saturday for that. The bread came out decent, but something was bothering me. It nagged at me all night long in a vague way I couldn’t put my finger on. It wasn’t until the next morning when I went into my pantry and it hit me — I’d used bread flour instead of gluten-free flour! I guess since I was technically making bread, I just automatically reached for my bread flour, which has MORE gluten than regular all purpose flour. Insert huge eye roll here.

But it turned out fine, I remade the bread Sunday morning with the gluten-free flour. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Everyone else seemed to like it too.

And here’s the cake I made for youngest:

It’s supposed to resemble his dog, Phoebe, who is a golden retriever

How was your weekend?

TGIF! Friday showed up again! Okay, let’s get right to sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I bought a book I was excited to read, and yet it’s sitting on my side table untouched. I rarely just sit down during the day, mostly because the tinnitus will drive me crazy, so I’ve gotten in the habit of staying in motion (that’s not a bad thing!). But at some point, I’m sure I’ll start reading and get hooked as it’s by one of my fave authors.
2. So I went to another specialist this week for my stomach. I was dreading it for a lot of reasons — one of them being that I was going to have to explain the whole backstory. But I knew I had to do it, so I gathered up copies of all the tests I’ve done so far and went. Much to my surprised this youngish doctor came in the room, and without any notes, was able to tell me the results of all my scans, labs and procedures and the conclusions the previous GI doctor had reached so far. Then he asked me a series of specific questions and listened to my answers. I was surprised and pretty impressed. As I’ve said before, the most scary things have been ruled out. I’m doing better right now, and carefully watching my diet. This appointment was to get established and do a few more tests to work out the root problem, but his will take months. The point is I’m really impressed with someone who does their job and does it well.
3. Wizard and I went out to dinner last night as a late Valentines. We haven’t been out in a long time, and we were absolutely shocked at the wait time! We thought we were going early, but still had to wait more than 30 minutes. We had a good time though. But I honestly wondered how many people eat at home anymore???
4. I made fondant yesterday. This involves marshmallows and powdered sugar and it’s a HUGE mess. I really should have taken a picture, including me covered in the white powder! But even though it’s a huge mess and is major pain with all the kneading and pulling like taffy, the homemade fondant is soooo much easier to work with. I made this just to have on hand for future projects.
5. Youngest had a birthday this week, and we’re having him and his wife over Sunday to celebrate. I’m looking forward to that! So is Maggie Hopefully he will like the cake. A gluten-free cake doesn’t have the same crumb, rise or structure as a cake that has flour containing gluten, but it’s still pretty good.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

I have a confession. I might be a killer.

So Sir Yeast E. Baker (my sad attempt at a sourdough starter) was thriving. One could even say he was growing like yeast.  More than doubling his size in 12 hours!

I’d feed him and he’d grow even more. I even feared he’d outgrow the special mason har I’d bought him for $1.99. I obviously spared no expense in housing this boy. I wanted him to thrive and live forever.

But he began to smell like, well, it reminded me of walking into my teenaged boy’s bedrooms. Let’s say ripe. I thought well maybe he was hungry? So I fed him and…nothing. Nearly twenty four hours later, I saw a couple weak bubbled on the top (probably gasping for his last breaths??) but no growth. The smell was getting more pungent. Like a teenaged boy’s laundry bag that had been closed up tight for a week.

Still I wasn’t giving up. I fed him again, desperately hoping to revive him! I carefully put him in my oven with the light on to keep the temperature perfect. And waited.

But the next day…nothing. And the smell was starting to make me queasy. Now to be fair, I have a very low threshold for smells right now so it could be me. I waited a bit longer, but I soon realized that Sir Yeast E. Baker had left the mortal realm.

And so…I might be a killer.

Or maybe not??? I’m just saying that I can’t account for all Wizard’s movement during the time when Sir Yeast E. Baker began to fail to thrive. And Wizard never really liked Sir Yeast E. Baker, and was in fact, quite suspicious of him. Could Wizard have been jealous? I was spending a lot of time with the little guy, feeding him and keeping him warm?

Hmm, maybe I’m not a killer at all. Maybe I am living with a yeast killer!

Happy Wednesday! Hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day!

P.S. I will try again once I have recovered

The weekend came and went as scheduled. We didn’t plan any kind of Superbowl event, so Wizard went racing. He just got home as I’m writing this just in time to watch the game. I told him I’d make him taquitos. That’s kind of a Superbowl game food? Plus we had roast last night and it’s an easy way to repurpose the leftover meat

Otherwise it’s been a good weekend, but not exciting. I mean unless you consider watching yeast grow exciting. My sourdough starter is growing, and will hopefully mature. Wizard is mildly freaked out by the way it can grow in a day, LOL. I assured him we are safe…unless it escapes the jar and eats us. But I’m sure we’ll be fine. Probably.

Now I have sworn up and down that I won’t buy any special equipment to make this bread. For one thing, it’s pretty labor and time intensive and I’m just trying it for fun. Who knows, I may never try again. But I have fixated on a Dutch oven. I had one years ago in my other house, but gave it away (it made sense at the time). I will resist! I don’t need it just yet, and I won’t use it a lot. Heck I haven’t even ordered a pizza peel yet, which I also want. There’s just too many other, more pressing things, we need for the house.

I also wanted to tell you guys I made Rachel Ray’s Chicken Francese last week, and Wizard and I really liked it. I had leftover, and I turned that into two lunches for me: a wrap and a salad. If lemon chicken appeals to any of you, then I can recommend this recipe.

Oh and my “test” gluten and dairy free cake isn’t bad. It’s not going to have the same crumb as a cake made with all purpose or cake flour, but it was still good and cake like. We ate it with no frosting. I will make it for youngest for his birthday. I’m pretty confident he’ll like it. I’ll put dairy free frosting on that one.

How was your weekend?