Catching Up

January 28, 2016

Hey, y’all. Are you staying safe and warm?

It’s supposed to get up into the 70’s for us this weekend. I’m so happy. I hate this cold weather. It’s nice for a couple of weeks but it’s time for it to go back where it came from.

So when we last met I was heading out for a TNE procedure.

Looking out the window of the office. I don’t know if y’all can see that in the bottom pic but it’s a rainbow that went from down in the trees on one side of the road to down in the trees on the other. When I saw it I thought maybe it was a sign that things were going to be ok.

Well that turned out to be a disaster. The scheduling doctor’s office didn’t make it clear that I needed the scope that goes all the way into the stomach and when I got there all they could do was the scope that only goes the to the bottom of the esophagus. I need both scoped and can’t have it done two separate times. So now I’m having trouble getting scheduled somewhere else where they can do the entire procedure. I’ve had several good long cries and I just feel like this is never going to end. 🙁

But let’s not dwell on that…and get on with the randoms. 🙂

Are any of y’all addicted to this tea? My addiction is getting out of hand so I’m trying to wean off of it.

So I bought some of this and am filling up the empty bottles. Yes, it has Splenda. No I do not care. 🙂 It has the Splenda in the bag. You just steep it and it sweetens at the same time.

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Love this so much. 🙂

So thankful for my once in a lifetimes. 🙂

If you know me in real life or followed the old blog you know I love all things UK and love love love me some britcom Coupling. There’s this episode where Sally (who is obsessed with aging) has to go to a funeral and says something about how she’s scared to be around all the elderly people there because they’ll be like the desert trying to soak up all of her moisturizer.

Had to take Papa B to the SAS shoe store…and felt so much like Sally. 😉

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So Cruz wants to sit down with Trump one on one? That ought to be riveting television.

Cruz: me.

Trump: Me.

Cruz: ME!

Trump: ME ME ME ME ME ME ME!!!!!!!!!!

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Went to London and Germany today. 😉 This grocery store I go to has what they call the Ethnic aisles. They added stuff from the UK and Germany. The can is rice custard pudding and the box is boil n bag potato dumplings. Can’t wait to try them out. This particular box of dumplings had an English list of the ingredients stuck over the German list printed on the box and they’re all celiac safe but they had some other brands that were not safe.

On the baking front…

I wish y’all could feel how soft and stretchy these are.

Gluten – free rolls to go with Mama B’s gluten – free fried chicken bits.

Used part of the dough for the rolls and the rest for these cinnamon rolls. An early Valentine’s Day treat.

I’m playing around with the gfJules flour and dough. I’ll share when I get this where I want it. 🙂

BTW…big congrats to Jules…the flour and mixes won a bunch of awards last week. 🙂

Okay that’s all for today. Stay warm and I’ll see ya soon. 🙂

Keeping with the UK theme…you’re welcome for the earworm. 😉

Hodgepodge and Raisin Bread

January 20, 2016

Hey, y’all.

So when we last met I was getting ready for the Scleroderma specialist appointment I’d waited 3 1/2 months for.

I didn’t take a bus instead I took…

That’s right this spoiled girl took the metro. It wasn’t bad. I parked at a park n ride right at the train stop and then it dropped me off literally right in front of the office.

Riding by Reliant. A lot of good things (and days of my life) happened in the building on the right (the Astrodome) not so much in the one on the left. 😉 Y’all can call it NRG. I’ll keep right on calling it Reliant.

Anyway the appointment went really well. She was one of the best doctors I’ve ever seen. The appointment was almost 2 hours long and that was 2 hours spent in the room WITH the doctor. She went over every single thing that’s happened from day one with my lupus, celiac and everything in between. She ordered some more tests which left my arm looking like this…

And tomorrow I’m going back to see an ENT in the same group of doctors for a Transnasal Esophagoscopy (a non-sedated endoscopy thru the nose). If everything comes back ok or no worse than the original blood work / scans then she said that right now she’ll classify me as having mild sclero and it’s predominately internal. The only skin issue I have is dry / disappearing lips. (They’ve shrunken up and like into my face over the last few months.)

She was a dream and I feel so much better and feel like no matter what comes back from the testing I know I’ll be in good hands. 🙂

Stopped at Fuddruckers after the appointment and this note about them being the official hamburger of the Texans is on the cups. Uhmm I’m gonna go ahead and suggest a switch to Whataburger next season. 😉

RIP Glenn Frey. 🙁 Such sad sad news. Not only was he an awesome singer / musician but he and his wife gave both a lot of time and money to the Lupus foundation.

If you love music and have never watched the docu History of the Eagles…you should. Like tonight. 🙂

If you’re a sports fan you’re probably at least a little bit familiar with the ‘mess’ that is Bill Simmons. He says it best though in this article he wrote about the docu…”In my humble opinion, it’s the finest documentary ever made about the rise and fall of a memorable rock band, as well as a superb commentary on the dangers of fame and excess.” Right on, BS. Right on. He says at the time of the article he’s watched part one five times. I know we’ve at least equaled that in the texas girl home. 🙂

Hey, Sister B. Look familiar? 🙂

Did y’all see this story going around last week? This Mom knit a doll that looks like her son so she can hug it since her son is older and doesn’t want to cuddle with her anymore. I hope she’s also setting aside some money for therapy. So creepy.

Snapped this while sitting at a red light. What do y’all think they serve at ‘Hoggs n Chicks – a fine food shack’ ?

Remember last week when I showed y’all the gfJules mixes I ordered? Well I’ve tried two more…

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The pancake mix which I made into blueberry waffles.

And…

Have y’all ever made bread with Ginger ale as the liquid? I’ve made a lot of bread in my life and had never seen this before.

I did a long overnight icebox rise.

I wish there was a way to show you how soft the inside of this bread is. There’s also no doubt that it would have risen to a full size loaf if I had the right size pan. My bread pan is smaller so I had to bake part of the dough as a round otherwise I knew it would have never baked all the way thru.

So I took the bread mix and turned it in to raisin bread by adding some sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and raisins. It. Is. Fabulous. Since it was the first time using the mix I went light on everything I added to it but next time I will definitely add more cinnamon inside the mix. It wasn’t cinnamon-y enough for me at all so I just made raisin bread cinnamon toast. I can’t wait to make plain bread with the mix. Good thing I ordered three boxes. 🙂

That’s all for today. See y’all soon. 🙂

gfJules Muffins + Catching Up

January 11, 2016

Hey, y’all. What’s up in your part of the world?

I took a little post holiday…holiday. 🙂

Sister B got me some white dishes for the blog. No way will I ever give up my beloved red plates for eating but white is so much better for blog pics. Thanks, SB. 🙂 That was our New Year’s day meal.

PMS meal on the go. 😉 Have y’all ever had those f’real milk shakes from Stripes? I needed something safe-ish on the road and tried one. I say ‘ish’ because a couple of their flavors involve cookies and I’m not clear on the cleaning situation between purchases. All I can say for sure is I got vanilla and there was no other flavor mixed in (like from the previous persons purchase) and I didn’t react to it at all. For some strange reason they include buttermilk in the vanilla version. As you can imagine it gives it an odd after taste. I’d try f’real again but I’d try a different flavor and make sure it didn’t have buttermilk because that’s just gross.

Have y’all ever seen a three kings cake that looks like this? I hadn’t. Our HEB had these for three kings day. Gluten FULL obvs so I didn’t buy it.

But speaking of…do y’all celebrate the 12 days of Christmas? The 12 days following Christmas. We do. Everything stays up til the 6th. Thanks for teaching us that, Mema. 🙂

New shades. Love ’em. Thanks so much. 🙂

Only one quick random today…

Making a Murderer. I really think the take away from it should be that we can’t trust one single word coming out of that particular police department or prosecutor’s office. Maybe Avery did kill her. Maybe he didn’t. The docu is too one-sided to judge that. But after you see and hear what they did to his at the very least cognitively challenged nephew how can you trust ONE thing coming from police and prosecution?

So look what the UPS fairy delivered. I should probably come up with something better to call UPS deliveries since the UPS delivery person is a guy. But anyway…Friday he showed up with this package. gfJules mixes I’d ordered during her holiday sales.

First up…

Muffins. I used her recipe on the box…yeah I know shockingly I actually followed a recipe. 😉 So I won’t put it here but that’s mix, eggs, banana, sour cream. I also added cinnamon and vanilla. Cinnamon and vanilla are like condiments. I can add them and still claim to have followed the recipe. 😉

Cherries.

Trying to show that these have actual tops and are not flat like most gf baked things. The ones that look smaller just have less dough…see the pic above of the raw dough before baking…plus I also didn’t smooth the tops at all before baking. I’m not a food blogger anymore so I don’t have to clean that countertop off for pics. 😉

Cherry Banana Muffins. In maroon and white paper of course. 🙂

These are without doubt the best gluten – free muffins I’ve ever made or eaten. No exaggeration. There was not one sunken muffin. Not one. And the crumb was super moist / soft.

I have zero connection to gfJules. I’ve purchased every single bit of the flour and mixes myself. This flour is legit. Go getcha some. 🙂

I’ve got that big scleroderma specialist appointment on Thursday. I’ve been waiting for 3 + months. I’m scared but also ready to know what’s going on. I may or may not be taking a bus to this appointment. Wish me luck. 🙂

See ya soon. 🙂

It’s been a while so let’s Motown Monday it today. 🙂

Homemade Hot Chocolate

December 29, 2015

Hey, Y’all how’s your Tuesday going?

Hope you had the best holiday weekend. 🙂

We did our usual Tex – Mex fiesta. That’s my sad plate. 🙁

One of my fav gifts. 🙂 Have y’all seen these coloring books for adults? Supposedly it’s supposed to help you zen out. Surprisingly it does kinda work. I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal until I wanted some different coloring pencils and Hobby Lobby told me they’d been sold out for a couple weeks. Even Amazon is backordered til late January (for the wax pencils).

My favorite gift…

Every year Papa B gives us each a fun or silly gift that he picks out without Mama B’s help. 😉 Sometimes they are super crazy but this one…is perfect. Thanks, PB. 🙂 I collect pigs. It says Barnyard Diva on the front and Raised in a barn and proud of it on the back. 🙂

So…I have this new mug and need something to put in it. 😉 What’s a girl to do? Make some homemade hot chocolate mix of course.

1 1/2 cups dry milk

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup white choc chips

1 large box chocolate pudding mix

Have y’all seen that recipe? You food processor dry milk, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, white chocolate chips and this wasn’t in the recipe but I added a large box of chocolate pudding mix til all powder-y and almost smooth. The chocolate chips don’t completely break down but they melt quickly when you make up the hot chocolate. Then when you want to make a cup of hot chocolate you mix 1/3 cup of the mix with 1 cup boiling water. This is definitely a keeper. The reason I added the pudding mix is because normally when I make hot chocolate I use more than a little heavy cream to make it thicker. I can’t have anything really heavy or rich right now but still wanted a thick hot chocolate.

The latest in my ongoing testing of gfJules gluten – free flour. Look at those bubbles. 🙂 I’m really loving this flour.

Randoms

“A perfect storm of errors” ? That’s how we’re describing the MURDER of a child now? Disgusting. That poor mother. Hell is too good for these ~~authority figures~~ a$$holes running around MURDERING kids. Way too good.

Ya know…the last time I checked you can’t just walk into a police station…tell them you want to be a cop and have them respond by handing you a gun and a badge. Y’all are supposed to be highly trained individuals. If the only way you’re able to take down a TWELVE year old child is to shoot him…well you just completely suck at your job and need to take a seat while someone more qualified gives it a try.

Newsflash media covering political candidates…unless you were in the room when something happened nothing you say is fact. I don’t care how good you think your sources are…it’s still nothing more than the information those who WERE actually in the room or wherever want you to share. Stop it. Stop acting like what you say is the be all end all. And those of you giving too much informational power to one person or group of people? Y’all need to stop that too. 😉

Am I the only person in the world who thinks Star Wars is the dumbest thing ever? Ok maybe not ever but y’all know what I mean. I don’t get it at all.

Have y’all watched this documentary…Soaked in Bleach? It’s about Kurt Cobain, a PI and Courtney Love. Apparently Courtney hired the PI to find Kurt after he checked himself out of rehab. The PI didn’t believe anything she said and after Kurt’s death he started investigating it as a murder instead of suicide. I’d always thought the ‘Courtney killed Kurt’ stuff was just distraught fans who couldn’t accept the suicide. This docu totally changed my opinion. I still can’t quite wrap my head around how someone as drugged up as she was at the time could have orchestrated a murder but the ‘evidence’ the PI presents in this docu is just way too much to ignore. I’m not saying I 100% think she did anything I’m just saying the docu makes me question everything I used to think about it.

Ok that’s all for today. See y’all soon. 🙂

Merry Christmas

December 24, 2015

Hey, y’all. 🙂

How was your Christmas Eve Eve?

Just kidding. I’m totally in the Christmas spirit. 🙂 Bottle not needed…but totally appreciated. 😉

Presents are (mostly) wrapped. 🙂

Not kidding about this one at all. We had the air on 65 earlier today.

Since we last met…

More baking

Candied Cherry Christmas cookies. I make these every year. This year I used gfJules flour and this dough was unreal. I seriously would have been happy with just a bowl of dough. 🙂

My Mema’s pots and pans out on the stove plus sugar-y butter-y prunes?

That’s right…it was Christmas Kolache making day. 🙂

That’s Papa B helping me roll the pigs. He was so proud and wanted me to take a pic. 🙂

Those were all real wheat.

I played around with some gluten – free dough for me but it didn’t turn out.

So I did this with it…

That’s right I said to myself, hey you don’t have nearly enough to do today why don’t you make some scratch puff pastry? 😉 LOOK at those layers. That’s all gfJules flour. No weird added ingredients just straight up flour, sugar, salt, milk, yeast and butter. I rolled a few hot dog wieners to test it out. Plus I filled a couple little squares with the left over prunes. I have some dough left over in the freezer that will hopefully soon become the crust for the chicken pot pie I’ve been craving. I’ll let y’all know how it turns out.

I really can’t say enough good things about gfJules so far. I’m liking it a lot. I don’t know what has changed with cup4cup or if it’s just something that changed with my taste but since having to go back to gluten – free for good something just tastes off with it. No matter what I’ve used it in…it’s made me gag. I was torn between trying a few different gluten – free flours and so far I’m really glad I decided to give this one a try.