Rock To Wind A String Around

Call me a lemming.  Like many, many others in the blog-o-sphere, I’ll be participating in NaBloPoMo.  I warn you now–I’ll be away from home for 17 days in November, so posting could get a little interesting.  30 posts in 30 days.  Let’s call this number 1, shall we?

Black and Gold

Everything is black and gold,
Black and gold, tonight;
Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon,
Yellow candlelight;

Jet-black cat with golden eyes,
Shadows black as ink,
Firelight blinking in the dark
With a yellow blink.

Black and gold, black and gold,
Nothing in between -
When the world turns black and gold,
Then it’s Halloween!

~Nancy Byrd Turner

By now most of you know that I worship the face of Martha.   She’s shared many fabulous recipes with me over the years, most of them wheat-filled baked treats.  One of the sadder aspects of gluten free living is being on rocky ground in the baking world.  Saying goodbye to old favorite recipes has been a challenge but so has losing a deft hand when it comes to combining ingredients for maximum deliciousness.  I bought a new bag of gf rolled oats yesterday and hoped that my favorite Martha cookie would rise up to meet the challenge…the result?  These cookies are better than the original, I can honestly say.  Here is Martha’s fabulous recipe with my gluten free tweaks.  Yea baby–there’s a new sheriff in town!

Martha’s toffee oatmeal cookies (with help from me):

Makes about 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

• 1 1/2 cups gf flour:  i used 2/3 of a cup of Bob’s Red Mill gf biscuit & baking mix, and 2/3 of a cup of coconut flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light-brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups oatmeal (gluten free)
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup toffee pieces, (5 1/2 ounces)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour and baking soda, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add egg, and mix on high speed to combine. Add vanilla extract; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
2. Add the sifted flour a bit at a time on a low speed until well combined. Add oatmeal, cherries, chocolate, and toffee pieces; mix to combine.
3. Divide dough into three equal portions, and roll into logs using plastic wrap, approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. To bake, cut logs into 3/4-inch pieces. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a baking rack to cool. Or, be like me and just drop spoonfuls of dough on the tray, flatten them with the back of the spoon before baking.  Allow cookies to rest on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before transferring to baking rack.

Voila!

Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc is attempting to win the daily challenge on Facebook once more. Starting Wednesday October 28 (3pm EST) until Thursday October 29 3pm EST, the cause with the most donations will win MORE MONEY! it’s win win for EOR–we receive donations from you and an extra $1000. All of the money goes to support one of our five partner projects in Ethiopia. You, yes you, can help drill a well, build a school, equip a clinic, enrich a life.
We need your help in two ways:

Please consider making a donation through EOR’s Facebook ’causes’ page.

Please consider posting your own request on your FB page or personal blog.
Thanks for your ongoing support. Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc is enriched by each one of YOU!!!!

Paige
EOR annual fund chair,
America’s Daily Challenge cheerleader (Go EOR Go!)

Interpretive dance inspired by Astrid Meklit’s deep and abiding love of fencing.  Sweet maude, I love her so!

We woke to the rainiest day in months.  The maple leaves are falling so quickly, my deck now glows a burnished yellow.  Knowing Albert would be gone today (again this week), I planned a zoo trip to occupy our time, but instead we are home, and not too unhappy about it.

My friend Lori, and her son Alex (who is very old now–15!  we’ve known him since he was younger than Astrid Meklit) are coming to visit for the weekend.  I planned our zoo trip to keep the house clean, but instead, there are scattered remnants of a big duplo build, dress up, and lunch to tidy up.  It’s fine though, we have hours to clean.  This  weather also lends itself to cooking–I have two types of potato soup on the stove, an apple cake in the oven, and I’m working on some cookie dough, so we’ll all eat like gluten free royalty this weekend.  Elliott is happily ensconced in his fort downstairs–he built it from our treadmill box last summer with his friend Emily, and it’s been his fondest wish to sleep in it.  He tried it last night, braving potential visits from spiders to enjoy the cozy space.  Suitably unscary, he’s spent the day inside, building, drawing and doing schoolwork.

We have fun plans for the weekend, so we hope the rain ends before tomorrow.  For now, it is rainy, and we’re happy about it.

Happy cozy Friday to you!

Hey everybody!  Run on over to Cloverland to frolic in the meadow with them.  The world is a happier place today.

My man opted to jump out of bed yesterday morning at 5 am so he could stand half-dressed, on Broad Street, with 10,000 other people.  Then he chose to hang out with them all for another 3 1/2 hours while he ran his second marathon.

It’s amazing to me, the swell of pride I feel while I watch Albert set the bar higher and higher.  After the success of his first Cowtown marathon finish last fall, Albert continued to train, continued to run more and faster so that he would beat last year’s time by more than 19 minutes.  As he crested the final hill, I was prepared for his arrival (thanks Twitter updates) but not for the overwhelming love I felt as he breezed by, noticed the people who adore him the most, and kept on going.  Seriously, I think I blushed.   This weak-in-the-knees nonsense is SO 1993,  I didn’t know I had it in me.

It’s not like I don’t love the guy completely each and every day,  but we’re definitely less swoony after 18 years—the inevitable results of children, a mortgage, and weeks spent apart, I guess.  To be honest, as magnanimous as I’d like to be, I sometimes resent the long training runs conducted on Saturday mornings–we have so little time together, I hate to waste an entire morning in service to mileage.  Sunday morning races that disrupt sleep schedules aren’t number one on my hit parade either.  I was excited about the marathon, knowing the amount of effort Albert has put into training, but no one was more surprised than me to learn that I’m passionate about the whole husband, especially marathon man.

I hope that someday the things that I do, the goals that I set for myself, make Albert swoon too.  Engendering these feelings is one of the greatest gifts he’s given lately (you know, because the Le Creuset  hasn’t arrived just yet…).  I’d love to return the gift, anytime.

Thank you for running, sweet husband of mine.