A Busy Day of GF Cooking

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Pancakes, GF Millet & Oat Bread, AND Meatloaf!

[NOTE: This post from yesterday never got published, because in the midst of writing it I discovered a bunch of my other sites had been hacked. Spent the past 24 hours fixing that mess. Even more exhausted now than when I wrote this post about how busy yesterday had been—little did I know it had only just begun!]

Not sure what got into me today, but it’s been a busy day of cooking and blogging (with some napping and Twins Baseball thrown in for good measure 🙂

I started the day making GF pancakes (using sorghum flour, millet flour, potato starch, and almond meal).

Later I baked a loaf of GF Millet & Oatmeal Bread and wrote it up in the Bread Diary.

I also researched stand mixers (after mine broke trying to mix the Millet & Oatmeal Bread). I’m leaning toward the Kitchen Aid Artisan, but I’m open to suggestions . . . I’ll need to save my pennies for a while before I invest in one.

Finally, I’ve now got My Favorite Meatloaf in the oven . . . which is my mother’s recipe, but using GF Breadcrumbs and soymilk. Looking at it in the oven, I’m not sure the GF Breadcrumbs work quite the same way (as binder with the egg) as the traditional breadcrumbs, but we’ll see.

GF Meatloaf

Mix together:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 c. seasoned GF breadcrumbs (if your breadcrumbs are unseasoned, add 1/2 tsp Italian Herb Seasoning Mix—oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary)
1 egg
1/4 – 1/2 c. soymilk (or other “milk”)
salt & pepper
dash celery salt
1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce
finely chopped onion (trace amt up to 1/2 c.)
dash garlic powder
1/4 c. tomato sauce

Form into loaf and place in 9″x13″ pan (DO NOT use loaf pan). Combine an additional 1/4 c. tomato sauce with 1/4 c. water and pour over loaf.

Bake at 350° for 1 to 1-1/4 hour. [I usually cover it for the first 45 minutes and then uncover for the last half hour.]

NOTE: I haven’t had much luck finding corn-free tomato sauce, so I often mix a couple of Tbls tomato paste (the concentrate that comes in a tube is usually JUST tomatoes) with an equal amount of water to make the tomato sauce for this recipe. I mixed about 4 Tbls tomato paste and 4 Tbls water and put HALF of this mixture in the meatloaf and then diluted the remaining half as indicated above to pour over the loaf. Because I wasn’t certain how this loaf would respond to/absorb the moisture, I only added half the tomato/water mixture before putting it in the oven, then checked it and added the rest after 30 minutes. I think it would be okay to add it all before baking.

I served the meatloaf with baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli. Other than needing a bit more salt, it tasted great!!

Strange Bedfellows

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Okay, so the really big “Gay News” of the day was that Martina Navratilova will be appearing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars!! Mark your calendars, Live 2-hour Premiere Event on Monday, March 19, 8/7c. And no, she will not get to dance with a girl . . . that would be too much to hope for on live prime time TV.

But that’s not what I’ve been thinking about today . . . (well just a little).

Most nights I go to sleep listening to the audio podcast of the night’s The Rachel Maddow Show . . . no cable here, so that’s how I “watch”. If something catches my ear, sometimes I’ll watch the video clip the next day via the interwebs.

Last night’s show was a gem . . . in a very thought-provoking way. Two segments dealt with prominent/rich GOP supporters who also support gay rights.

The interview with Frank Rich (the second clip above) was so good that this morning I looked up his piece “Whitewashing Gay History” in New York Magazine. Turns out the article is much less about unexpected GOP support for gay marriage and gay rights (Rich sends us to this NYTimes article from May 2011 for much of that). Rather, the article details how our “liberal” supporters haven’t been consistent in their support . . . which only serves as a reminder that you/we really don’t know who might support us (even based on their past actions).

I also was reminded of the Civil Discourse Training “Talking About the MN Marriage Amendment” I attended at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church last month. One of the main points was to be brave enough to talk to people who disagree with you or who haven’t decided yet. Afterall, these are the votes we need the most if we are going to defeat the amendment! (There were many other excellent points made in the presentation, but this is the one most related to the discussion above. Listen to the podcast of the event if you get a chance. Or this excerpt at the Episcopal Story Project)

SO, all of the above is just my way of saying that I’m still thinking about the Ash Wednesday call to be “repairers of the breach” . . .

Ash Wednesday . . . May You “Be Called A Repairer of the Breach”

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Returned earlier this evening from the Ash Wednesday service at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, MN. A lovely service ending with a favorite hymn: Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling . . . (“Come Home . . . Come Home . . . Ye who are weary, come home!”)

Most people (okay, people who think about it at all), probably think of Ash Wednesday in terms of ashes and repentance and “what are you giving up for Lent this year” . . . and indeed the service contains those elements . . . from the opening “lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness” through “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” to the Litany of Penitence (more on that soon).

Yet, despite these familiar notions of Ash Wednesday and Lent, the Bible lessons for the day are cautionary tales about resisting the urge to wave our fasting in front of the world and think that God will be pleased. We are reminded, first by Isaiah, then by Matthew, of a different path through Lent.

Isaiah 58 asks

“⁶Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”

By following this path, according to Isaiah,

“¹². . . you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” [NRSV]

Similarly, Matthew 6 cautions against “performing” before God and others:

“⁴When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively.”

and recommends

⁶“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense [God’s] grace.” [The Message]

My “favorite” part of the Ash Wednesday service is the Litany of Penitence, a longer form of the “Confession”. Tonight, the youth of Saint Mary’s added pictures to each of the sections to illustrate the presence of these “sins” in all of our lives. May this list provide a sort of “TO DO” list of things to think about and try to remedy during Lent. [emphases in bold are mine]

Litany of Penitence
[from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979]

Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.
Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit. Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives, We confess to you, Lord. Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us, We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, Accept our repentance, Lord.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,
That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,
Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

May praying on the above “list” allow each of us to become, to paraphrase the words of Isaiah, repairers of the breach and restorers of streets to live in.

Thanks to St. Mary’s Rev. LeeAnn Watkins for emphasizing this verse in her sermon tonight.

On feeling trapped . . .

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

Every day I receive a “Daily Truth” email from the folks at bravegirlsclub.com

This morning it was this:

These emails are meant to be inspiring, but this one just made me sad.

I’m so tired of feeling trapped . . . by a body that no longer functions . . . in a house that has felt toxic to me from the moment I moved in and which I can no longer afford to maintain and/or leave . . . in a life that feels more miserable each day. I can no longer even imagine what the “freedom” in the above message might be, no less how to get there.

What I do know is that as my energy continues to diminish, I must find ways of cutting out some of the things that drain it. Right now that means my time on the interwebs: Facebook, email, google news, even blogging . . . . All are restorative in the right amounts, but I find myself starting the day already behind on what needs to be done because I’ve been sucked into the interweb trap.

Lent starts in a few days. It is my habit to go on “Facebook Hiatus” during Lent. This year I’m going to try something different . . . rather than just give up Facebook, I’m going to try leaving the computer off until later in the day, after I’ve spent some quality time praying and thinking about what options I have (if any).

Please pray for me (or wish me luck, or think good thoughts) . . .

xo L

P.S. As an example, I wasted 45 minutes earlier today trying unsuccessfully to share the above mentioned BGC post via Facebook . . . no matter what link I typed in, the wrong information appeared. This was much quicker.

Happy New Year!!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Highly Sensitive Girl

2012 New Year’s Resolution: To Heal Myself Through Food

Yesterday I threw out 10-15 POUNDS of flour—whole wheat, all-purpose, bread, semolina, fine-Italian, rye, corn meal and a few others I’m forgetting. One bag of whole wheat flour was unopened, dated as packaged in Fall 2010.

The wheat-flour purge made room on the shelves and in the frig for all the OTHER flours I’ve been accumulating: rice flour (brown, sweet white, superfine brown), sorghum, teff, millet, tapioca, potato (both starch & flour), almond meal, garbanzo bean flour, . . .

You see over the past year I discovered (on my own, no help or thanks to doctors) that I am “sensitive” to wheat, corn, and dairy. No, I don’t drop dead if I eat these things—though I once ate so much popcorn followed by a plate of nachos that I had shortness of breath!—but I definitely feel better (in my head, sinuses, lungs, and gut) when I don’t eat them.

SO, after almost a year of elimination/challenge diets, experimenting with taking things away and adding them back, my New Year’s Resolution for 2012 is to REALLY go gluten-free, corn-free, and dairy-free. (At least as much as humanly possible—more on the challenges of “corn-free” later.) More important than what I am “giving up,” I resolve to pursue healing through good food. This blog will record my progress.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!