Harvest Time

About 50 pounds or so-not our record but enough for us.

Even though I'm allergic to tomatoes, we raise them primarily for Stan. We give a bunch away, too, especially to our busy kids. Today we picked all the tomatoes, squash, and broccoli. We'll freeze the broccoli and can a few tomatoes. I covered up but came away with a pretty good rash on my arms where the glove and sleeve didn't meet. I suspect the squash plants. I've never been tested for squash and don't seem to have trouble eating them, but the plants have always given me fits. Stan keeps telling me to back off, he'll get those, but darn it the work needs to get done!

This kid is crazy about carrots. Can't wait to dig those up, there seems to be a huge crop!

In other news, I'm keeping a daily diary of the Diatomacious Earth and will probably post weekly about my progress or lack thereof.

My "Dirt" Is Here

The FedEx guy dropped my package off this morning. I thought they were supposed to get a signature! At any rate it's here. I put the bag in a 5 gallon bucket that Stan had, and found a cute glass jar to put some of the "dirt" in for the kitchen.

I think I'll start tonight, taking it just before bed. I'll start with a teaspoon, and work up to the recommended tablespoon. It's supposed to to a cleanout and I tend that way anyway so I'd better start a bit slow. I'll try it straight, in water first, then if that isn't palatable, I'll figure something else out. Straight water would be less of a hassle and will ensure that I take it regularly. Any kind of a fuss and it's harder to keep on a schedule.

Well, here goes!

Applesauce Cake With Toffee Sauce

I've been working for a while to perfect a cake recipe. This one turned out pretty good, and was made even tastier by using Stan's homemade applesauce.

Applesauce Cake

1 1/4 C gluten-free flour mix
(I used: 1/2 C Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour mix, 1/2 C potato starch, 1/8 C coconut flour, and 1/8 C potato flour)
1 C Sugar
3/4 Tsp soda
3/4 Tsp salt
1/8 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp cloves
1/4 Tsp allspice
1 C applesauce
1/4 C water
1/4 C oil (I use canola oil)
1 egg
Nuts and raisins, if desired or tolerated, 1/2 C each

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together dry ingredients, mix together applesauce, water, oil and egg. Stir into flour mixture. Bake in a 9" greased square pan 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce

Melt one stick (1/2 cup) butter, add 1 cup brown sugar and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 cup cream and simmer 5 minutes until slightly thick. Add 1/4 tsp vanilla. Pour over cake and ice cream.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Day in Yellowstone

We drove to Yellowstone yesterday to see if we could hear the elk bugle. Yes we did, but not until we were heading home. That was OK, we still got to see them. We ate lunch in Mammoth at the restaurant there. The waitress was very accommodating about my allergies, and I had a nice salad. After driving through Norris and Tower Falls and back to Mammoth we stopped at the snack bar for ice cream. Not for me-the kid scooping found the ingredient list and read "corn syrup." I got a cup of coffee and ate part of a "safe" candy bar I had in my purse for just such an occasion. It was fine and the trip was great, but I still felt a bit left out.

My "Snake Oil" Journey

I'm a fan of alternative medicine, and my oldest son calls it all snake oil. Of course he's wrong, even if he is my wonderful son!

A couple of months ago, an elderly friend started talking about taking her "dirt." She was thrilled with her results-joint pain going away, and digestive disorders gone. She couldn't remember what it was really called-one of her grandkids orders it for her. When she started talking about killing ants with it, I knew exactly what it was-diatomaceous earth, otherwise known as "fossil shell flour." I did the Google thing and found a reliable site to order it from and got it ordered this morning. My friend Diane and I are going to split a bag just to test it out. It's very inexpensive and you get a lot in a shipment.

The alternative circles believe that allergies are mostly caused by "leaky gut syndrome," and this stuff, if it works right, would help to get rid of that. Leaky gut syndrome is said to be caused by an overgrowth of Candida in the intestines, caused by overuse of antibiotics. Well, that is me for sure-I've been on a preventative dose of antibiotic for about twenty years now to try to avoid the chronic urinary tract infections I've been plagued with since my wonderful son was born 40 years ago. I do many things to keep the Candida down, but Candida is very stubborn and virulent. It also returns because I'm still taking the antibiotic, so that dose of Diflucan only helps for a while. My goal is to get off the antibiotic.

I'm going to try to chronicle my progress with this stuff. I'll be totally honest-if it doesn't work I'll tell you, but if it does work I'll shout it from the housetops. Western medicine has done very little to help me with my cough and allergies-even to the point of refusing to test me for food allergies at one point (not my present doctor-a fancy specialist wouldn't)-so I've left it in God's hands and I am praying that something natural will take care of it. At any rate, according to my research, it doesn't hurt anything, so it's worth a try.

I'll keep you posted.

Communion

What do you do when communion is scheduled at church? The elders offered to get rice crackers, but I had to explain that I'm allergic to rice, too.

Today was communion again. I usually just skip the bread and drink the juice, but today they threw me a curve. Last month they used juice that was sweetened with Splenda-not my favorite, but I tolerated it. (Why does grape juice have to be sweetened anyway?) This month, right after I downed the tiny glassful, I could taste the corn syrup. I immediately got welts on the roof of my mouth, my lips itched, and I coughed all afternoon.

After church I went down to the kitchen to see if I could find a label, but the juice was in a regular pitcher, so I couldn't tell. If there was a can in the trash, it was buried and I wasn't going to dig. I'll have to have a chat with the elders. I'm thinking of making a cracker of some kind that I could use for the bread-any ideas?

The worst time I had was Good Friday service. They decided it would be more meaningful to file to the front of the church, tear off a piece of bread and dip it in the juice. Of course I couldn't take ANY of that, especially after all that wheat was dipped into the juice. People kept trying to urge me to the front and couldn't understand why I was skipping communion. I think they thought I had some terrible sin to atone for or something.

I let myself have a bit of a pity party today. Communion is such a meaningful time and I can't completely participate-C'mon, Lord, it's for You-help me out here!

A Little Shopping

For quite a while I've been looking for just the right ramekins. I wanted both the 8 oz and the 4 oz, but I had kind of given up. Last night I had an hour to kill, so I decided to wander about the local Dollar-type store. This one is a locally owned store that kind of reminds me of Big Lots.

Lo and behold, I found exactly what I was looking for!

I got six of each size, so look out Chocolate Melting Cake, here I come! (Recipe to follow in the near future)