Wow.

Well. I just renewed my webhosting for another two years, so I’d better make it worth while this time.

2009  has been the best. 2008 was shitty. I think 2010 will be a slap in the face. Here’s to the odd numbered years.

In the past year I’ve

- learned how to cook and bake gluten free
- bought a house and all the fixin’s
- brought home the most fantastic puppy on the planet. Fantastic in terms of physical and behavioural cuteness. Fantaaastic.
- killed at school
- killed at work (figuratively, but there are days when it’s been close)
- gone to visit my folks twice
- gained a sister-in-law. i didn’t have to do much for that one, but it’s still pretty cool
- taught the boy-bot how to run and love doing it
- totally slacked at blogging
- lost any work-life balance that i may have had in the past

The office closed at lunch time today, and after going to our favourite diner for eggs benny, we took the dog for a walk to our local liquor store for a bottle of my favourite sparkling wine for New Years Eve. I bought a bottle of merlot too, I’m going to try Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon recipe, but with bison. I’m hoping. I still need to get my hands on some bison stewing meat, but I think I might have a source.

Right now I have a pan of homemade marshmallows made with agave nectar setting on the counter. Later I plan to make a pan of butter cookies with almond flour. I’m excited to crack open that bottle of wine that’s chilling in the fridge right now.

My resolution for the next year is to do less. Instead of going insane, I’m only going to take one course at school at a time, I’m going to take more pictures, bake more, decorate our house, and enjoy the puppy. He’s really easy to enjoy.

I might even blog more. Maybe.

The only difference between these two attempts was that I separated the eggs and beat the egg whites in one, and didn’t in the other. I can honestly say that it makes little difference what you do.

Recipe:

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Waffles

2 tbsp coconut oil
3 eggs
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp buckwheat flour
2.5 tbsp coconut flour

It REALLY doesn’t matter what order you put the ingredients in your bowl as long as you mix the buckwheat flour in BEFORE the coconut flour.

These are dense, and probably won’t easily fill your waffle maker. I aim for the center of mine and make adorably odd waffle shapes. You could do the same and play “Name that Country.” Convince your breakfast mates that you formed the waffles in the shape of a country, and they have to guess which one or they do the clean up! Brillliant.

I heart these with fresh strawberries and vanilla yogurt or pan roasted apples (in butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon) and vanilla yogurt. Delicious!

Picture forthcoming.

We (meaning my boyfriend) just bought a house! I’ve already sourced cheap almond flour in the neighbourhood. There are 6 grocery stores within a short walk! Two italian, two asian, and 2 big chain type deals. I’m stoked on the Italian markets! All the nuts, and syrups, and oils! Oh my! Along with our weekly grocery delivery service, I believe we will be more than set in our new digs.

OK! I have about a million things I want to blog about in the next week and a half covering my travels over the last… 4 or 5 months.

First, CAKE! Gluten free cake made out of coconut flour. I downloaded the recipe in a pdf from Picadilly books, but I can’t find it anywhere on their website or on Amazon right now. I have every intention of buying the book though, because every recipe in it has been a total taste success… something that’s hard to say after tasting some random gluten free baked goods out there. Coconut flour, in my opinion, is the way to go. I think I could make some good change opening a #gf bakery in Calgary using coconut flour. The only issue might be the amount of eggs needed. Wheat intolerance folk will be fiiiiiiiiiiiiine. True celiacs may have problems if they have egg allergies. Which would suck, obviously.

In case Picadilly puts a link up to the innards of the book, this their site. Or maybe you want to read the lonely Amazon review? You’re welcome.

The cake:

Basically, I beat the hell out of the batter in my fancy new 90th Anniversary KitchenAid, divided into two round cakepans lined with parchment paper AND THEN I stuck the two cooked cakes together with (UTTERLY FABULOUS) whipped coconut milk.

Did you know you could even do that? You take a can of coconut milk, throw in some vanilla and (I used) icing sugar and you whip it, whip it good. It doesn’t really take on a whipped creamy consistency until you chill it. I poured what was left of mine after the cake was assembled back into the can and stuck it in the frigo. Because I am brilliant.

There were some slidey issues, but before it went into the fridge things were straightened out. Is that toasted coconut on the top? Oh, why YES! it is.

This cake tastes soooo much better the next day after it has been refridgerated. I’m not sure why. The coconut flour is moist and firm (probably because this cake has oooh, 9 eggs in it). I went with a coconut theme just because I wasn’t sure how much coconut would come through the chocolate in the cake. I really had nothing to worry about.

I used a dirty plate. And put the picture on the internet. To show you the magical dollop of coconut whipped cream. It was divine. Really. Also, the flash was a necessity in the first two pictures. Which is worse than the faint natural light coming from the one window in my subterranean kitchen. But not a lot.

FIN.

Next time, maybe a Hawaii round up or a cookie revelation. Or a post only about my newly acquired love for borscht.