Sunday Sup: Bacon Mac and Cheese

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I’ve made this recipe just enough times to have messed about with it into almost perfection. Therefore I can share it with you.

The original came from Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.

Gluten Free Bacon Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese

Cut up a half pound of bacon and cook it in a nice large skillet, I used a wok.

While the bacon browns and renders all it’s yummy fat, thinly slice 2 medium onions. I cut the half moons in half again. This really about how much caramelized onion flavor you want. Use less, use more, your call.

Remove the bacon from the pan. Lower the heat to halfway between medium and low. Add the onions. Stir frequently for what will be quite a while. 20 plus minutes. When the onions are caramelly brown, they are ready for the next step.

In the mean time, start a pot of water to boil. Preheat oven to 375. Butter a casserole dish. I use a nice large one with a wide bottom, which makes for a thinner layer of mac and cheese but more crumbly topping per serving. I like the balance that way.

Add 1/4 c gluten free flour blend to the onions and stir until it thickens into a roux. 2 minutes maybe.

Add one cup whole milk. Stir constantly until the milk and onions are thick like pudding. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and combine.

Add paprika(1 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp), 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, a 12 oz bag of mixed gruyere and swiss shredded cheese. Stir until gooey. Turn off the heat.

Add the bacon back in.

Toss your favorite gluten free pasta in the boiling water. Cook about half the time specified. I like Trader Joes spiral Quinoa and Rice pasta. Drain the pasta and add to the cheese goo in your pan. Mix gently.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle gluten free bread crumbs and shredded Parmesan cheese all over the top for a crunch. Bake 25 minutes, until the goo bubbles and the parm and img_20161231_160957bread crumbs are golden brown.

 

PS. I’ve just been told this is amazing the next morning with eggs on top. LOL.

Fiendish Friday: Personal Battles

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I have this friend. Good friend. If I were being cheesy I might even say she is one of my people. Not my person, because hello, that’s my hubs. But one of my people, part of the tribe. We often end up in conversations where she says “I just don’t know what to do with him anymore.” Meaning her child. And I am always hesitant to say anything. Not because I don’t think I have suggestions but because I am aware of the one thing every human on the planet should consider before giving advice = I don’t know where she has been with him.

Let me dive into this a bit. As a mother (generally – I know dad’s stay at home too) you are with your child, day in, day out. You know them better than anyone on the planet. And if you live where I do and have a tech hubs, you’re doing it alone, 90% of the time, maybe even 95 or 100% when the hubs is trying to ship. So while I might think, she should try x. Maybe she’s already tried that. Maybe it made things worse. I don’t know. I wasn’t there for all that with her. She was alone, struggling through it on her own. Fighting with doctors and therapists to get them to give her a diagnosis so she could get help for her kid.

Yes, her child is not neuro-typical. Mine is not neuro-typical. Guess what, they are not neuro-typical in different ways. It would be like me giving all the knowledge I learned about surviving in the jungle to someone living on a tundra and expecting them to follow it. Two totally different worlds and little applies to both, except the most bland. Find a shelter. Oh really, you think I don’t know that? Seriously? A shelter? Bleep you and the horse you rode in on. Who probably broke a leg  because of the ice, since this is a tundra.

Raising a child is your own individual experience. People with multiple children will tell hittingyou each is different. Different things work on different kids. Raising a non neuro-typical child is your own private battle. The parent of a non neuro- typical child is constantly trying to improve the situation. Weighing whether coming down hard about how loud your child is singing in Costco is the right move or likely to set off a battle of epic proportions leading you to have to abandon your cart of desperately needed groceries as your child hits you, kicks you, and the people around you make comments that you really should be a better parent and teach your child some discipline. Really? Would you tell the parent of a child in a wheel chair, that they should be a better parent and teach their child to walk?
So again I say, you don’t know where that parent has been with their child. Hell, let’s just broaden that. You don’t know where that person you are judging has been. And giving advice is essentially judgment, the belief that you know better how to handle someone else’s life, than they do. We are all the sum of our experiences, positive and negative. You are judging through the filter of your experiences.

Which may be as far fromjungle-free-wallpapers-720x450 the tundra as the jungle is.

tundra_screen

 

Wednesday Writer’s Update 1/11

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

Afternoon dear friends. The first 11 days of this year have been such a bizarre mish mash of delightful contentment and total irritation. LOL. I feel like a manic teenager. But sugar detox will do that to you. I fell off the sugar wagon at Christmas. sigh. It happens every year. But I rarely get back to good so early in the New Year. Last Thursday I said enough is enough and I put myself on a 5 day detox.

I also decided to continue with my December  routine of only doing the things that have to be done when I feel like doing them. But I did decide I should put on my big girl pants and do one thing each day I don’t want to do but has to be done. So how is that working? Let’s do a check in.

Writers Goals:

1. Publish my Spy Novel in March.

Encourage beta readers to get their feedback in. – I have sent a sweetly worded please get back to me soon email to all my betas. I have 2 of 6 back to me at this point. Both want more character development but the character they wanted developed is different in both cases. Again in complete opposition. One person says Gareth is fabulously developed, the other wants more Gareth development. sigh. Why can’t people agree?

2. Marketing – something new each month

I have done nothing towards this yet.

3. Take a break from writing until when I dream I’m writing I don’t wake up in a cold sweat.

I will still blog 3-4 times a week. Never fear.

Non Writing Goals:

1. Up Yoga to 6 times per week.

Currently getting up at 645 and I haven’t missed a day of yoga in almost 2 weeks. It helps I’m having the kiddo join me now. Less meditative for me, but I still get something and it seems to be helping the kiddo with his home school work.

2. Make more time for my friends.

Interviewing a sitter in about 20 minutes. Wish me luck. LOL.

How about you? What sort of start is your year off to?

Book Review: Kill Switch

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I had Kill Switch by Jonathan Maberry on my TBR shelf for a couple of weeks waiting for a nice empty weekend. I knew from previous experience, see my review of Patient Zero, that once I pick up a Joe Ledger adventure, there is no stopping until the last bad guy gasps out his dying wail.

In the latest installment, Joe faces an EMP like weapon that works only for a short period of time, that terrorists are testing in the US. A weapon that allows people to take control of other people. Plague, betrayal, murder, suicide, attacks by friends, and over sized enormous albino penguins.

Kill Switch is delightfully long and complicated and just on the bleeding edge of science. Really nothing new for Maberry who turns out brilliant work that gives me night terrors. And makes me jealous as all hell, because he writes like I do, only much better. But I digress from the point of this review.

It’s good. No ifs, ands, or butts about it. The action is harsh, quick, and occasionally breath-taking. The psychological ramifications well drawn. The true horror of war is abundant in this one. And it’s not just that half the team dies, yet again. It’s what happens to those who are left. I don’t know if Maberry is trying to draw attention to the plight of our soldiers but he does an amazing job of it whether he is trying or not.

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. One weekend read. Always checking his name, every time I’m at the library.

Sunday Sup: Teriyaki Noodle Goodness

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I made this one up. Seriously. There was a process to it which I hope amuses you. I was in Costco and saw this package of Adele’s Pineapple and Teriyaki meatballs. I have this whole thing about pineapple in prepared meats. I love it. Obsessed. So I buy them. But then what do I do with the darn things once I get them home. hrm….

Kiddo sees them and says, I want those for breakfast, so I microwave him some. Adele’s all precooked. Thank you! They are super tasty. I suggest this should be dinner. Kiddo agrees. And so the hunt through the kitchen for what I can add to meatballs for dinner.

Start some olive oil and toasted sesame oil heating in a wok over medium high heat.

Coarsely chop the white part of your bok choy after removing the nasty end. Toss in the wok.

Julienne some carrots, add those too, stirring as you go.

Give them a few minutes to soften, now add soy sauce (or gf tamari), fish sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Put the lid on your wok.

Start your water for edamame pasta.

Stir the wok contents, if veggies are soften but still crisps, add those meatballs, stir. Add the ribboned tops of your bok chop to wilt.

Add pasta to water, boil only 3 minutes, drain. img_20161219_191441

Toss noddles into wok, add Teriyaki sauce (I like the Soyaki Pineapple one, shocker eh?). Toss it all together.

Eat. Even the kiddo liked this one.

And, yes, I am aware my food photography skills are from hell. But my food is heavenly.

Fiendish Friday: Posturing

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

When I am walking the dog I get into this meditative state where my mind just free flows and the strangest thoughts come to me. It’s not like in yoga where I actively focus on emptying and quieting the mind. This is a state where it just races and I let it, not judging or directing just observing.

So this morning I am walking the dog on the back loop and this enormous Bernese Mountain Dog comes loping up it’s driveway barking like mad at us. I pause to see if this is going to be a problem, ie does the dog have an invisible fence or do I need to get out my taser to protect us. Don’t judge, it’s a jungle out there. (See my previous posts about bears, cougars, and coyotes, oh my.)  But the dog stops at the end of his driveway and my dog happily runs over to make his acquaintance. I watch my dog wag his tail and sniff noses as the BMD shrinks. His head drops, his tail drops, his shoulders sink and he bends his elbows preparing to drop in submission. This huge dog is afraid of my 50 pound mutt, that is maybe a third his size. My mutt which looks like someone bred a basset, a beagle, and a fox hound and then through in some more breeds for fun. He’s so funny looking, he’s cute. And the BMD is afraid. I shake my head, call my dog, and we walk on.

My minds travels to this monstrously huge dog in my neighborhood as a kid. The day I met Butch, my friend and I were going door to door getting orders for Girl Scout Cookies. He was sitting on his front porch so still, we actually laughed about it – thinking he was a statue. Then as we were about to step on the porch there was this tiny low growl, so quiet we almost didn’t hear it. We started to back slowly down the walk way. He leapt and we ran. Butch chased the slower runner and took a big bite out to ensure she knew who was boss. (Rubbing my scars fondly.) Anyway, Butch didn’t need to bark and jump. He had it where it counted and he knew it.

This thought leads me to my husband. My calm, gentle giant. Who never needs to posture. He will hold my purse, he will buy me tampons at the store. He holds me when I cry. He listens to me ramble repeatedly when I am too upset to make sense. He will say he is sorry. But if he has to… If it has become necessary….he will calmly explain his logical point of view and if you cannot be persuaded to do what needs to be done, he will rip your head off, stick it on a pike, and take care of business himself. smiles. He makes me feel safe – he has it where it counts and we both know it.

Wednesday Writers Goals: 2017

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

Happy Wednesday to you. I made no resolutions this year. Instead I choose to set goals. I think enough people have talked about the difference between the two that I don’t need to drone on about it.

Writers Goals:

1. Publish my Spy Novel in March.

Encourage beta readers to get their feedback in. Finish editing. Pick a name. Work with artist on cover design. Arrange blog tour. Pre market. Publish.

2. Marketing – something new each month

Sort through notes of other people’s research to identify the marketing opportunities that will work best for my book. Try a new one each month.

3. Take a break from writing until when I dream I’m writing I don’t wake up in a cold sweat.

I will still blog 3-4 times a week. Never fear.

Non Writing Goals:

1. Up Yoga to 6 times per week.

Roll back my wake up time, 15 minutes per day, until up at 630. Impose one cup of coffee limit before getting on the mat.

2. Make more time for my friends.

Get a new sitter. Do not fill sitter hours with work related items for the last board I am serving.

 

Hrm. I am not doing much this year. And after 2016, that’s a good thing. Space and time is the goal. I need to bring the fun back, not just in my writing, but in my life on a daily basis. 2016 ground me down. I rebuild in 2017. Best wishes to you all.

 

 

 

Book Review: Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy

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I was a singleton in the 90’s when the original Bridget Jones books came out. I loved them. On one hand I could relate to the trials and tribulations of being single. And on the other hand I could be a bit snug about not being quite as old as Brig. Fast forward a small lifetime of years and I am now happily married and Brig…well she’s got my worst nightmare.

Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding was a hard book to read. Brig is still herself. Funny and charming. Totally wrapped up in the appearance of things more than the essential functionality. That was one of the best parts of the previous two books. Despite Bridget’s quirks she found a man who loved her for them and steadied her life.

I’m just gonna slap it out there, the book is several years old and you figure it out quite early on, so it’s not exactly a spoiler. Darcy is dead. They got married, had two adorable little children and then wham. Unexpected horror. My worst nightmare. And I relate because in some way I was Bridget in my 20s. I think that’s Helen Fielding’s gift. She makes you feel like the story is about you. Even in her non Bridget books which I read and loved. The story feels like it’s about me. If I was English, obviously.

℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. Charming Brig at her most chaotic. 380 pages I breezed through in three days with all the normal things I must do.

Sunday Sup: Christmas Morning

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I think I’ve talked before about how we do Christmas at my house. We don’t just tear through all the gifts and then sit around stunned. No, we play with each one as it is opened. This means Christmas morning, lasts days in our house, or it can anyway, especially the year the kiddo got 27 new Lego sets. Oy. So to counter the desire to eat everything in sight I make this casserole every year and some sort of yummy to go with it. This year it was paleo apple cider donuts.

Egg and Green Chile Casserole

The original recipe came from my friend Christine but of course I had to mess with it.

Pre heat to 375, butter a 9×13 glass dish.

In a big bowl mix 10 eggs, 1 pint cottage cheese, two 7 oz cans fire roasted chopped green chiles (feel free to sub some canned jalapenos if you like to live on the edge), 1/2 c butter melted, 1/4 c flour (gf in this house, I like to use Tapioca flour), 1 tsp baking powder, then fold in a lot of cheese. Like 16-20 oz worth. I mix it up using mainly jalapeno jack with a touch of mexican shredded cheese combo. Ok, I pour in a 12 oz bag of pre-grated jalapeno jack and then a couple of  handfuls of the mixed mexican cheese.

Pour it in the dish and bake. Check after 35 minutes but you will probably need more like 40-50. It should be brown and puffed up and when you stick a knife in the eggs should be firm.

As for the paleo donuts, I wasn’t too sure about them. I’ll tinker with recipe some more and post those when they are ready.

Fiendish Friday: Ordinary Life

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 16 Comments

I keep seeing all these articles: How not to live an ordinary life, How to make a real impact on the world, How leave a lasting impact.

They just irritate me. What the hell is wrong with an ordinary life? I don’t see any problem with simply living a good life. Working hard, raising a family, educating your children well, and being content. There is so much you can do in an ordinary life. There is nothing extraordinary about buying a sandwich in the store and handing it to the homeless man begging. It’s simple and easy and fits in your ordinary life. It teaches your child something and it makes a difference to the hungry man. It’s ordinary. Or it should be.

When I worked tech the topic would always come up at eval time. Shooting stars. Who were the shooting stars, the employees who should get raises and promotions. Myself and another manager would always argue that the shooting stars were great but someone had to keep the fucking lights on and maybe, just maybe, we should consider rewarding the guy who made it possible for the shooting star to be extraordinary. Because if the ordinary guy, who came in every day and did all the work assigned to him without attitude, never once said “That’s beneath me,” left, who the heck was gonna do all the work the extraordinary people refused to do because it was too ordinary.

Maybe we could all just be a little more ordinary. Do the work in front of us. Solve the problems presented to us on a daily basis. Not everyone can bring world peace. Not everyone can solve world hunger. Those who can, already know they are extraordinary. Let them do it. Let them have the big shooting star problems.

I embrace my ordinariness. I teach my child well, because he might just be extraordinary. I donate my time to worthwhile local charities. I donate my son’s time to worthwhile local charities. I put less presents under the tree for my kid, but let him pick out things to donate for people in need. I buy sandwiches and fruit for the hungry guy. I pick up garbage on the street. I clean up my dog’s poop when I walk him. I sit on boards and do what needs to be done.

I make the small sphere I live in, a little better each day. I don’t need to be extraordinary. I just make small, little steps part of my ordinary every day life. Someday, some shooting star will solve all the big problems. In the mean time, I’ll keep the lights on, thanks.