a night to dismember

friends of ours hosted a murder-mystery party on saturday night. each of us were assigned roles and then as the night progressed we found out more about ourselves and our "involvement in the murder". it turned out to be heaps of fun.

i was assigned the role of madame garlic, a flamboyant clairvoyant and brandon was the mummy of king aldrinktodat.
(click on the photo of brandon and i--it will take to the the other photos from the night.)

sadly (or perhaps not!), all i had to buy to transform myself into a gypsy was a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a ring--apparently i am not that far from being a gypsy in my day-to-day attire. hmmm...

fun with quinoa

tonight's dinner included gluten-free lasagna and a side dish of quinoa with sun-dried tomatoes! (don't worry mom, we had broccoli too!)

the quinoa was incredible--i would even recommend it to those not living a GF lifestyle. so delish! (p.s. quinoa is pronounced: keen-wa)

here is the recipe:

1 cup quinoa
1 tsp olive oil
8 sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed), diced
8 sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed), minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
pinch of chili powder

Instructions:
1. Place quinoa in a fine-meshed sieve and rinse under warm running water for 1 min. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat.
3. Add minced tomatoes and garlic and saute for 3-5 mins.
4. Add broth and bring to a boil.
5. Stir quinoa, diced tomatoes, and chili powder, return to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for about 30 mins, or until liquid is absorbed.
6. Let sit for 5 mins, and fluff grains with a fork to separate.

seeking through the doubt

there are few things that brandon and i disagree over, but my love for sara groves music is one of the constant sore spots in our marriage. our iTunes is of course full of sara groves music and when put on shuffle, he gets the opportunity to enjoy her also. iTunes seemed to have payed off, as he admitted to me yesterday that he liked one of her songs! of course he couldn't recall the title, but said it had to do with doubting god--a constant point of agreement between the two of us. i quickly identified the song as "maybe there is a loving god". here is our favorite part:

maybe i was made this way
to think and to reason and to question and to pray
and i have never prayed a lot
but maybe there is a loving god

maybe there is...

the tea enemy: secret ingredients

yesterday i bought some tea from the local co-op. when a small [very small] amount of gluten gets in my diet, i have a bit of stomach discomfort, so i thought this would be a good natural cure.

well i came across this yogi tea that is called something like "stomach ease". sounded like the perfect cure to my occassional wheat invasion so i bought some. i came home and had two cups in the afternoon and one before bed--don't mock me, it tasted so good!

i awoke in the middle of the night due to a certain feeling of stabbing coming from within my stomach. ouch. hard to sleep. quite uncomfortable. so i laid flat until the alarm had been "snoozed" too many times to count. i was utterly confused about where this pain was coming from, as it was exactly like the pain i often had back when i was a gluten-lush. i knew i didn't eat anything with gluten in it so what was the probelm?

the problem was not in the eating, but rather in the drinking: it was that damn yogi tea! the ingredients listed all sounded so nice and soothing, until i read "malt barley". what? who puts gluten in tea?

so the irony is that i bought the tea to ease the pain that the gluten causes only to ingest the cause of the pain. grr. here's to more reading material in my life as tea is no longer "safe".

family time at gluten-R-us

not only did we get the chance to celebrate grandma this weekend, we also got to meet ross' girly friend: jordan. what a great, down-to-earth, beautiful girl! hopefully ross realizes what a great gal he has in his life and treats her right.

alex enjoyed watching the ducks beat the cougs on the big screen. he was a big help when the party was over--he always has been willing to help out.

the family joined together after grandma's party at olive garden. mom and i found little on the menu that we could eat, although i salivated while reading the description for the ravioli. why must cheese and wheat go together so perfectly in taste and so horrendously in my body? it was nice to take a breath and eat with the people that we love!

is it just me or does ross look exactly as he did at eight? :)

a real reason to celebrate

we had a wonderful weekend, celebrating a lady we love and who has impacted all of those around her. these are a few pictures i took at grandma's 90th party...unfortunately none of her! how did i miss that?

happy 90th to our favorite lady!

october 13 marks the 90th year of my grandma's wonderful life. she is an amazing woman, full of strength and love. i am always inspired by her ceaseless love for our family and the gracious way she lives.

brandon and i both love her very dearly. luckly for brandon, she also loves him dearly!

happy 90th year grandma!

wallowa lala

brandon joined his folks in NE oregon for the weekend. he is now convinced this is where we should live, forgoing graduate school to buy property there. i am game for living there...eventually. we shall see!

(i had to be on-call for work, otherwise i would have lived it up this weekend also.)(more photos on our flickr sight--you can just click on the rob & becky photo to go there.)

(mis)adventures in gluten-free baking

last night was my first (and perhaps last) attempt at gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. i wanted some from the co-op last week but they were $6 for 6 cookies--outrageous! so i figured my GF flour would function in the same way that normal flour does. wrong. outstandingly incorrect.

1) the best part of the cooking making process (eating the dough) was not as anticipated: the dough tasted like i had mixed in some sort of root vegetable. i couldn't identify the exact flavor, but it tasted the way an unwashed carrot or potato would taste: like dirt. blagh!
2) the cute little balls of dough i plopped out on the cookie sheet spread out so much they created one massive, paper-thin blob. hold your form!
3) the cookies i created out of the blob (with help from a small knife and a spatula) refused to come off of the cookie sheet without leaving behind a greater portion of their innards.
4) on a positive note, the GF cookies edges and chunks tasted much like real cookies.

here are photos from my untheraputic night of baking: