Good things

[averygoodun42]

Because this morning's post was way cranky, a list of goodness:

1. Hot showers are wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Not only did this morning's wake me up a fair amount, it helped clear my sinuses a bit, which helped my overall feeling of well-being tick up into the positive section of life.

2. Before my shower, I managed to not only clear a path for the trash bins, but also clear enough of the driveway to be able to move the car up, should we choose to. The snow was heavy, but also nice and clumpy. With little ice on the bottom. I think it took me a total of 12 minutes to clear the 20 sq. foot area. If that.

3. Coconut flour, chai spiced muffins. Really, really yummy things, those. And they only use 1/2 cup of coconut flour! For realz! (The mashed cauliflower cottage pie I made was also pretty darn yummy.)

4. Central heating, slippers and sweaters. And not-too-strong tea. All very warming things.

5. Research that adds weight to my belief that it would be better to wait till 2014 to move, even if we both (all?) want to move now now NOW. Waiting two one and a half years would put us in a better situation overall, though. I think. And it's good to know that there are benefits to waiting, the clincher being that I don't think my New England community college credits would transfer to Colorado community colleges with ease. Hopefully they will transfer to a Colorado university with ease... Although, if necessary, I can always do online courses at SNHU. (bleh.)

Comments

[timestep.livejournal.com]

Which area of co are you looking at? North, south, east, or west?

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

We're not sure yet. Geoff and Page want to live in the Denver metro area, and I'm not at all averse to that, but we'll go wherever the best job is (along the front range). For practicality's sake, we'd prefer to live no further north than Denver/Erie, as his family lives to the south, and we'd be moving to CO as much to be closer to his parents (Pueblo) as to my sister (Denver).

[pigwidgeon37.livejournal.com]

Re. the muffins: I need to pick your brain -- any gluten-free flour requires slight altering of recipes for baking with wheat flour, right? Because gluten is what makes the stuff stick together, and if there isn't any, I suppose you have to add more egg?! I'm not a great baker, but I realized I'd have to change something when I made pancakes with gluten-free flour; it was very nearly a disaster. Any tipps re. the egg-flour ratio? Thanks ! :-))

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

More eggs are usually essential! There are lots of great websites for baking/cooking with gluten-free grain flours, although I've found that almond flour is just... easier. Yeah, the results aren't as light and fluffy as with grain flours, but AF isn't nearly so persnickety as GF grain flours, which, for best results, really need to be measured by weight (and mixed for taste).

If you're sticking with GF grain flours, a great site is: http://www.elanaspantry.com/gluten-free-recipes/ (Although I see she's veered more to nut flours now). The recipes at http://glutenfreemommy.com/ tended to be good, too. (I think I need to try her Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake. In a couple of months. Maybe for my birthday.) All my GF computer history is gone now, as it's been more than 2 years since I've been eating grains (on a regular basis).

As for ratios... One of those things I've been thinking I need to educate myself in is kitchen chemistry. However, a good (unverified) rule of thumb is to add an extra egg for every cup of GF flour.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Those muffins look scrummy - I'm going to try to get hold of some coconut flour.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

They are! They remind me a bit of (toned down) German gingerbread. I think it's the cloves...