Relearning to bake

Fiona mixes brown rice and potato flours

Moves on to using her hands for better mixing...

And finishes by rubbing it all over her belly! I swear she did not learn this technique from me!

one of the better loaves of gluten free bread

Since figuring out that Fiona is allergic to gluten we've had to rethink everything we eat around here. Gluten is in a lot of weird places. Some things like bread and pasta are obvious. Others not so much. Soy sauce, salad dressing, vitamins, and nutritional yeast are some of the things that we have had to learn to avoid. Beer too, though thankfully we aren't terrible parents who give their kid beer to drink! Also I'm not always prepared with a Fiona friendly alternative. I've brought her own cupcakes to a birthday but never thought I'd need something for library story time. They read the Gingerbread Baby and decorated gingerbread cookies. Although Brian can obviously eat gluten I can't since Fiona is still a little nursling. I'm about 90% gluten free. She does react if I break down and eat a few slices of "real" pizza or something so I try to be really good. Otherwise I feel like a terrible selfish mom.

For the first few months the idea of baking gluten free totally intimidated me. Recipes call for about 5 different kinds of flour. What the heck is sorghum flour and where do I get millet flour on the island? And somebody please tell me about xantham gum and guar gum. I don't even know how to pronounce the last one. Is your head spinning? Mine too. So we relied on store bought things. We bough terrible bread that tasted like sawdust, frozen pizza dough, and rice flour pasta. The good news is that these things exist (even in Kodiak). The bad news is that a lot of it tastes bad or is just super processed junk food. We are not a frozen pizza family! Why did I break down and buy frozen pizza just because it was gluten free. I hated it and didn't feel that great about feeding it to Fiona.

So I'm creeping out into the world of gluten free baking. Armed with a pantry full of 5 different kinds of gluten free flour and xantham gum I've managed to pull a few things off. The priority seemed to be cookies since that was the first thing I mastered! Then brownies. I can honestly say the brownies are so good that I'll make them even if I don't need a gluten free recipe in the future. Pizza dough needs some tweaking but turned out pretty good. Bread is a work in progress. I'm sure if I can get my hands on some millet flour I'll have it down. It feels good to be taking back our kitchen and banishing the boxed junk food once again. What I really need is a good cake recipe. Brian's birthday cupcakes were only so so. It's hard to compare these things to their gluten free counter parts. Especially cake. Seriously, how can anything come close to North Douglas Chocolate Cake? It can't. So I might just leave that one alone.

I'm hoping that Fiona will outgrow this allergy in time. We'll just have to see. For now, we'll keep on experimenting. Fiona makes a great baking partner and doesn't seem to mind the misses! She loves homemade bread with "yellow butter please Mama". Yellow butter (not to confused with peanut butter) really does make some of those funky loaves go down a bit easier. Pass the butter.

Sledding!

Merry Christmas!

Morning girls.... love the curls on that girl!

The big hit of Christmas morning is her horse!

This was all she wanted for most of the morning!

Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jim got her an easel!

Deep in concentration sewing on her new sewing apple

"oooh, animals!"

Papa and his girl with their Terrible Towels

A fun bug book!

Sledding fun!

Snow chicken... They actually hang out in the snow quite a bit.

What a wonderful day we had! Fiona wasn't ready to open gifts for a good 45 minutes or so after waking up. She watched Brian and I open a couple things and then decided, "OK Nona's box". She was delighted with each thing and wanted to play with everything a bit before moving on to the next gift. It was fun to see her reactions to the gifts.

We spent some time in the backyard sledding too. Fiona loves the snow so much. This was the first time sledding. I was amazed how brave she was going down the hill. "More" she's yell! Definitely a hit! The weather is cooperating with her new love of snow sports and we're getting more snow today. Woo Hoo!

We had some good friends over for a dinner of appetizers. It's fun to have so many different things to munch on. Fiona was such a social butterfly. We've noticed that she is more and more brave these days in these types of settings. She even talked to Mike which is a big deal! Mike is around our house quite a bit but Fiona has always been very shy around him. Last night she worked up the courage to tell him Merry Christmas! I like seeing her develop more confidence. Pretty fun!

Today we are lying low. Fiona is pretty burnt out from all of the excitement of yesterday. She seems to always need down time after exerting herself in ways that aren't her norm. So lots of hanging out at home, nursing on the couch and reading books is in order for the day.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well. Our day was perfect! :)

A Beautiful Solstice!

After tucking "the girl" into bed Brian and I stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse. Totally cool! It was a perfect night for it in Kodiak with clear skies.

The next morning we woke up to snow! All day long the snow kept coming. It really was a beautiful way to wake up on Solstice morning. McKenzie spent the morning with Fiona while I hid in the garage wrapping presents. It was fun! Then we waited for Papa to get home from work. Fiona bundled up to help Papa shovel snow. She loves the snow! It was really difficult to get her to come in. I just loved being out in the dark with my family playing. We got her in by reminding her that she had presents under the tree from the Solstice Fairy.

First was a gift for Papa from Fiona. A nerf football that she latched onto at the store and told me "for Papa." How is a Mama supposed to resist that. So we brought the football home. Papa loved it! Then Fiona opened her Solstice Fairy gifts, a new pair of pajamas and an ornament for the tree. She tried to ride her horse ornament! I'm glad the fairy picked a felt ornament this year!

Happy Solstice!

I've been neglecting the blog! Things have been busy around here. We had a wonderful visit with Emmy. I did not want to let her go back home! It made us all feel better that we'll be seeing each other in January. She was a huge help in getting ready for the bazaar. I can honestly say that I couldn't have done it without her help. She was able to really see Fiona in her element which was fun. Not the shy Fiona who most people see when we are out and about, but the feisty, loud, and intense Fiona that Brian and I get everyday! And feisty she is! She is very sure that she needs to get herself dressed and not wear diapers. Basically she wants to do it her way! I do love her independence but have to admit it can be a lesson in patience for her Mama and Papa! I hope that you enjoy the videos below. More coming.... I won't neglect the blog for this long again!

A Walk in the Woods

Fiona loves hiking. In fact anytime she's grumpy at home we say it's time to bundle up and get outside. We took a lovely walk on a favorite trail this weekend. The Spruce Cape trail is just around the corner from our house. A great place to walk dogs and toddlers alike! Fiona walks more and more and is carried less and less on these hikes. She is truly happy in the woods, just like her Mama and Papa! And after the hike... a trip to the coffee shop for a gluten free muffin and a cup of whipped cream! A perfect morning!

Fall Crafts

This one is for Grandpa Jim!

Play silks in the sun!

Jazzing up some T's

Rice bin fun

digging her toes in!

I'm preparing for the annual holiday bazaar in November. I've been dying play silks, making felt balls, and experimenting with stenciling among other things. It has been really fun and I am so glad to be back to crafting! I'm so excited that Emily will be coming up in November to do the bazaar with me! Between us, we should have a ton of cool things! I think I'm going to finally set up an etsy shop too. I'll let you all know when!

Fiona has been busy too! She's been enjoying her own crafts of painting and coloring. I've given her homemade play dough a couple of times too. She likes it for a while and then gets interested in tasting it! I plan to whip up a batch of gluten free play dough this week! It is fun to see her exploring the colors and textures. Today I filled a big storage bin with rice. She loves it! She has been pouring the rice from container to container and feeling it with her fingers and toes!

Things she's saying these days:
~Hold you, which means hold me. This melts my heart every time!
~Thank you, you're welcome. She always says it together!
~Pants OFF, shirt OFF, diaper OFF... now bath! She would love to be in that tub all day if I would let her! She'd also like to be naked all day if I would let her!
~Mmm, weally weally goob Mama! She likes to say this at meals and makes me feel so good!
~The other night we had a late dinner and I just whipped up some quesadillas. Just cheese, nothing fancy. She pulled apart her tortillas and said, "Beans, are you? Are you beans?" Nothing like your one year old calling you out on your simple dinner!