Four Exciting Deliveries in One Day

I feel like I have been waiting for ever and then suddenly all my parcels turned up at once, last Friday. The first one is a series of Caladiums. These are a fancy leaf plant of which I already had a baby one with red leaves, then a sale came up and John ordered 5 more. Just love them. I had to pot them up though as the roots were coming out the bottom. 

According to the Jungle Collective ....Caladiums are a seasonal plant. They grow their striking foliage on long slender stems that emerge in spring when the ambient overnight temperatures are above 20c. The foliage dies back toward the end of autumn when the weather is cooling down.

New Caladium

The like a shady to semi shady spot so I am going to stick them under the tree off the verandah, with my fancy Bergona Rex plants also with colouful leaves. 

New Caladiums

 The next Delivery same day, and with all my new art classes happening I had to get some new paints in Watercolours paint and  Paper,  and gouache paints all turned up as well actually from two different companies. Plus 3 very expensive watercolour  paint brushes from a third.

 One thing I have learnt about painting is the paper you work on gives the best result if it is good quality, and the paints are more vibrant and lightfast if the pigments are artist quality. 

 That is not to say I will go mad on using expensive stuff first,  but will test everything on Student quality first to get ideas and structure.Probably using my good old Jo Sonya's.

 I am joining the local art group every Sat. morning, and  have visited them already. 

It has been fun finding all my old stuff and sorting out an area for me to paint, which will probably be upstairs in the spare bedroom on my mum's table in there, which I feel good about. Even found a large piece of plastic to cover the table with.

The last thing to turn up was some new Oracle cards. The have just come out and by Colette Baron Reid which I have 2 other sets of hers, and really like how accurate they are. Just a bit of fun for me, and good for journaling on the result when you pick a card a day. 

The artist is Jo Nakamura and he describes his style as a blend of folk art modern country naive style, using Tribal art and mythology. It appealed to me, so we will see how they go with usage. I have only just opened them as I write this. 

 I did do some more  Gluten Free baking this week using some gluten free flour from Coles and made  Anzacs, and found a recipe, just in case something had changed for gluten free flour, but basically was just as I always do. 

The white one are because I forgot to put the brown sugar in, taste alright though.

While I was at it, used a gluten free cake mix to make some Lemon  Poppy Seed Muffins. I just added chopped up lemon peel really fine, and substituted 2/3rds. milk for 1/3rd of milk and the other lemon juice, and added a lid full of poppy seeds.

 They were later iced with lemon icing, after I took the photo and I froze them. I kept two back to test them, one for John and one for me. When I went to get mine, several hours later, for afternoon tea, it was gone!!!! Apparently they taste like normal. 

I don't supposed anyone wants to know I picked and froze another 500grms of beans, this week. If you are sick of reading that, I am sick of doing it. lol

  Till Next Time. 

 

 

 

 

The Gluten Free Experiment.

After ordering a Gluten Free Fruit Loaf, to test, in my last online delivery this week, only to have it substituted for White Gluten Free, which is sort of  ok, but I decided to seriously work out what I actually need to do.  

I know I am intolerant to Gluten,and usually ignore it, and I have been trying different things now and then, over the years, to cut back on it.

Being a tea drinker, the no.1 thing is to have something to go with it. My Spelt bread has been successful, although is Gluten, not as harsh as wheat, but I only have a little, like at breakfast as toast and maybe occasionally as a sandwich, if I hadn't eaten any by lunch. This means I can get away with a little bit of gluten without too much trouble.

The new Wheat Belly book talks about eliminating all grains including" Frankengrains" meaning rice, oats, corn, buckwheat etc. as all have been tampered with. That would be a bit cold turkey for me though.

So I have found a homemaker blog  https://strangersandpilgrimsonearth.blogspot.com/ which had several "in a jar" gluten free recipes, and discovered that the blogger Nicole has actually written a lot of books, has a Gluten Free website, and worth checking if interested. Her son is Coeliac, and I am still researching this blog, as time allows.

https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gluten-free-recipes/

There is a wealth of information here even how to make up your own DIY Gluten free flour, is excellent. So much information on flours One of her printable recipes was an Oatmeal Muffin Mix kept in jars, so you just add the wet ingredients, and right up my canning alley.

 

The printable had a jar label for both the wet ingredients and  lid, so tested that for fit, then I made up the mixture which uses oil, eggs, and milk

 There is enough paperwork, to make 6 jars of this mix and after cooking found I could probably add more cinnamon, maybe nutmeg, or extra such as dried fruit, even powdered milk. I have the ability to actually seal these jars with my vacuum sealer, to keep everything fresh.

Ready to bake.

I must say though the muffins are delicious and no flour at all in them, also quite filling. There is also a herb muffin and a chocolate chip muffin recipe, I would like to try as well. Really anything can be added once the basic recipe is worked out and can be kept in a jar ready for wet ingredients.

I might add that Oats if they haven't been in contact with gluten, usually machines processing wheat etc,, has been declared gluten free in the USA, which is more like wheat free.

 In Australia they don't, due to the fact oats contains a distantly related prolamin called avenin, that can be harmful to some Coeliac individuals. Prolamin is a grain storage protein found in wheat, barley rye etc. More info see Coeliac site Australia.

https://www.coeliac.org.au/s/article/Oats-and-the-gluten-free-diet

I cut it into 24 big slices.

 I also have made a  Muesli Bar type slice, by another blogger, using Almonds, dried fruit, plus more and Almond paste to keep it together. Froze Well, and it was filling  and delicious, even Miss P loved it.

My daily visitor for breakfast time.

 On another note, I have been painting the dining room and think I am finally on track for Christmas. John has been changing all the doors over with new black knobs, and generally been tidying up as best I can.

Christmas presents are wrapped and now waiting  for the wall cupboards to go in so I can decorate a little bit.

Three large boxes of china and decor went to the Op shop which I am pleased about. 

 Slowly but surely I am getting there. Exactly 10 days before our eldest daughter gets here is my timeline, then have to think about pre - preparing, Christmas Lunch for the gang.

Till Next Time.