The Gluten-Free Follies - Chapt 4? -ish? Butterscotch Dumplings

I suffered another Fial on the banket, but I'm getting closer. I do, however, now need more almonds. So I'll take another run at it this weekend.

Since I baked, and then had nothing to eat, I had to stir up something else. (not counting the Provolone and Black Pepper popovers and ham with cheese sauce we had for lunch - it was leftovers day)

I am now in the process of trying to reconstruct some of the comfort foods of my childhood for my girls, in case you were curious.

Butterscotch Dumplings

2 c water
1 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Place water, sugar, salt, and butter into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil to dissolve sugar and set aside, keeping warm. Stir in vanilla

1/3 c. vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9" square baking pan with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, cream together sugar, salt, and butter. Stir in xanthan gum and baking powder. Add the flour and milk, alternately in several additions, until a stiff but sticky dough is formed. You may need a little more or less milk.

Pour the syrup into the pan. Drop the dough into the syrup by spoonfuls (my cookie dough disher worked VERY well). Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is faintly golden. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

1/3 cup

Stuff. And some more Stuff.

After a bit of a mis-step that involved the Audi pooping out again, John stomping out to push her out of the way, and instead pushing her into the road (?!), and a kind (KIND!) stranger who stopped and gave him a jump - we went to Rori's coaching session. Note: the county has instituted a new program called "Parents as Teachers" - which is good in theory, but smells like somebody's putting lipstick on a pig. Can you say budget cuts?

All in all, it went fairly well. But in some ways, John finds it easier than I do. Why, you ask? While I know that there are "Talk to your Baby" campaigns aimed at single mothers and teen mothers (who tend to respond, "Why? It ain't like he gonna talk back?), this is not an issue for me. I tend to talk constantly when I play with the girls, delivering a running narrative and asking questions about what they're doing.

And they want me to NOT. No questions. One word labels. Model, immitate, engage, and stop yammering at the kid! .... Arrggghhhh!!!!! I get that if I'm talking constantly, she's tuning me out and we want her to "engage." But it's hard. Granted this is just for the 15-20 minutes a day of "intentional" playtime. Still, being "corrected" makes me feel quite the Bad Mommy. :-(

Aggravation number two: Apparently last year's hypersensitivity reaction from Hell might have been another of a decade or more of warning shots indicating systemic lupus. A butterfly rash, development of an ibuprofen allergy, HeLLP symdrome, and now a shifting polyarthritis that's most prominent in metacarpal-phalangeal/metatarsal-phalangeal joints... it's not all that hard to do the math. *sigh* I need this? Tell me why I need this? There is no definitive diagnostic test (which is as well), and it's not at the point yet so where the treatment wouldn't be worse than the disease. So, currently, Tylenol is my friend. *grumble*

Less profound, but also somewhat frustrating:

Getting the whole Principality thing moving is bogging down a smidge. Mostly because I'm not, by nature, a charismatic leader of any sort, and I don't know what I'm doing. Lots of people are interested, but nobody wants to make the first move. I think some face-to-face meetings might be helpful, just trying to decide how to go about it. Coffee/cocoa with Vlad and Istvan? Make time for coffee with Balian in Flint sometime soon? Who else can I try to talk round via sweet drinks and pastries?

Or, barring that, how do we move things along? The E-list is dead quiet. I have not gotten response from a lot of the folks I've e-mailed, and (short of an add in the Gauntlet) I have no idea how to FIND the folks who want to climb on board my itty-bitty bandwagon. Thoughts?

I also need to get my rump in gear as regards the Costume College and try to pin down site and dates. With or without any help from the local group.

And lets not even talk about the utter inability of anybody to get a bit together for anything.

*sigh*

Anybody got any chocolate?