Grace and Thanks

This painting hangs in my grandparents' house ("Grace" by Enstrom).  My grandmother has told me that she loves it because the man has only a bowl of soup, a loaf of bread and his Bible, but he's grateful for it all.  After seeing it on her wall for 37 years, I love it too. 

We have so much more than soup and bread this Thanksgiving.  We are grateful for the beautiful meal we will enjoy, the family we have, and for the season of Advent that is upon us.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Little Break

Time to take a break from the Internet! Be back in about two weeks, around Advent--if not a smidge before!

We are an Art Form, Part II

"...it is an amazing thought that we are the art form God can use in this area of environment to involve others who come into our presence.  Our conversations, attitudes, behaviour, response or lack of response, hardness or compassion, our love or selfishness, joy or dullness, our demonstrated trust and faith or our continual despondency, our concern for others or our self pity--all these things make a difference to the people who have to live in our 'environment'. Enthusiasm and excitement infect other people: expectancy that God can intervene and do something in this moment of history and doing something practical to show that expectancy in prayer, affects the attitudes other people are going to have to their troubles."

             --Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Waffles

We've got a gluten-free, dairy-free boy roaming these lands, and he is a Huge Eater.  He ate two waffles this morning.....

1 3/4 cup rice flour 

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar (I use sucanat) 

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Create a hole in the middle and add in: 

1 1/2 cups rice milk with 1 tsp. white vinegar swirled into the milk {if you are not dairy-free, use real buttermilk--from a local creamery, if you can get your hands on it! or half regular milk, half thick Greek yogurt}

2 eggs

1/4 cup oil

Mix and mix until well-combined with few lumps.  Then cook in your waffle iron.  They freeze very well...easy to pull out for those fast mornings when you have to be out the door quickly, and much, much cheaper than the store-bought waffles. 

My son tops his with nut butter...and sometimes a tiny sprinkling of chocolate chips. Yum. 

A Painted Table

Last month I painted a little table that sits in our main room and holds the water cooler--as well as the binoculars (for watching birds, checking up on cattle, and spying on turkeys) and some other essentials. 

It was brown with a black-faux-leathery-plasticy-top thing (I am not sure what the black material was).  I didn't dislike it, really; I just wanted a change! I remembered to take a "before" photo after I'd already started painting it!

I used a quart of "attitude grey" I found in our garage.  

Channeling a Scandanavian vibe--we're ready for winter now!

Tips for a Sick Week

We've been bludgeoned with illness here at our house this week.  Both parents have had colds, one child has escaped unscathed so far whereas the other child has battled a fever followed by a cold, neck pain (not meningitis-style, no worries), an ear infection (it resolved itself), pink eye and an additional infection! In 48 hours he had three doctor's visits...this from a child who never seems to catch anything.

Here are the things that helped:

*wearing my flannel pajamas and thick socks at night--because there was  lot of getting up!

*fresh pillowcase for the sick child each day--especially after he developed conjunctivitis (yuck!)

*good old-fashioned shower-steaming in the middle of the night

*Vicks VapoRub on the soles of the coughing person's feet--covered by snug socks

*warm blankets, fresh from the dryer, coupled with a hot water bottle--so cozy

*lots of hand sanitizer and hand-washing (I typically never use hand sanitizer, but when there's a contagious illness in the house I pull it out of hibernation in the linen closet)--and plenty of nice, unrefined shea butter to combat my dry knuckles

*washing the laundry in order of current importance: hankies and towels and washcloths first, sheets and pillowcases second, comfy sleeping clothes and underwear next, and street clothes last

*having my Sick Book handy to record all the nuances and details of the illnesses as they unfolded

*picking up a designer Kleenex box at Kroger that matches my son's room decor--if you have to use disposable tissues, you might as well have a cool box that matches your room (this one is Isaac Mizrahi--black and white)

*drinking lots of lemon water (me--for my milder, but still annoying, cold)

*purchasing discount grocery store blooms so that the sick boy can have a vase of flowers near his bed--a little spot of cheer

*a neighbor who brought over potatoes, salad, spicy sauteed vegetables and pot roast last night!

*a husband who stayed home from work two days in a row to provide support and nap-swapping services

*keeping up with the basics of cleaning (and that's it): the laundry, the kitchen, and a bit of tidying at the end of the day

*Yummi Bear vitamins, chewable vitamin C, elderberry-with-echinacea-and-zinc, Emergen-C, a bit of lavender oil for the outside of the ears, chewable probiotics.....

*and finally, eye drops and antibiotics (the very last infection he contracted was bacterial and really made him ill)--only the second time in his life that this child has been on antibiotics.  But boy, do they work!  And boy, am I grateful!  The child in my house tonight is a far cry from the child who was in my house yesterday.

We are hoping that this was our 'fall illness week' and that we're off the hook until after the New Year...knock on wood!

Dairy-Free Fish Pie

Here's my version of British fish pie--I used a Jamie Oliver recipe for inspiration and then morphed it to suit our needs.  It's great comfort food for these brisk autumn days!

*Peel and dice 1-2 regular potatoes and 1-2 sweet potatoes (I use a total of three potatoes) and place them in a pot set to boil. Boil them! 

While they are boiling, grate a carrot and place it in the bottom of a greased 8x8"-ish casserole dish.  Then stack a good layer of spinach on top. 

Use whatever fish you want as the next layer--I like to use one tilapia fillet per person, plus some salmon.  Cut the fish into small pieces and layer it on top of the spinach, then juice one lemon and pour juice on top of the diced fish. 

I create a bechamel sauce for some richness because we can't do cheese here.  To do that I melt 5 tablespoons of dairy-free butter and then whisk in 5 tablespoons of rice flour, then slowly whisk in 1-2 cups of rice milk.  I stir and cook until it is thick and smooth, and I always add some 'crazy salt' (a salt-pepper-spices combo that my family always has on hand). 

Pour the bechamel over the fish layer. 

Drain the potatoes, then mash them well, and spread them over the bechamel layer.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.  We like to serve with steamed broccoli or roasted brussels sprouts--some kind of green wintry cruciferous vegetable!

It sounds like a lot of work, but it's really pretty easy, and worth it because both of my children polish off second-servings with gusto!  See also: omega-3s......