Birthday weekend for Boo

It was Liesl's birthday this weekend, so we met the 'rents in GR for a brief lunch and picked up her presents. (And, naturally, presents for Rori, so she wouldn't feel left out. Mom will never change).

After lunch, we went into the mall because I wanted the new Williams-Sonoma mini Halloween pancake molds and a batter pen. Mom and I have played a game called "Whoever gets the money to the cashier first wins" for years. It's even more complicated that Cat Chess. And I think Mom has been reading strategy manuals. She waited until I was engrossed in hunting for them in the Halloween display and asked a clerk. Apparently, they don't have all their Halloween stuff out yet. Clerk went to fetch them from in back. Mom and I both stalked her for a while, but I got distracted by my kids and Mom intercepted them. THEN while she was asking about the batter pen, I located it with the baking widgets. This did not gain me the point. She took care of it by the simple expedient of taking it away from me.

Having lost the game, we went down to the play area - which, at this mall, has giant breakfast food. Mom had my niece, and I was watching my girls. This was amusing. Clara wouldn't go play anyway, so my conversation with Mom went like this:

Mom: Where's Rori?

Me: On the waffle.

Mom: Where's Anneliese?

Me: Under the bacon.

Mom: Where's Rori?

Me: On the fried egg.

Mom: Where's Anneliese?

Me: In the cereal bowl

Mom: Where's Rori?

Me: On the sausage.

Mom: Where's Anneliese?

Me: On the banana. Are you going to take it on faith now that I really DO have eyes in the back of my head and I actually know where my children are?

As Brain Exercise goes - my kids have Sudoku beat all to hell.

Yesterday I got ground into the dust as my co-worker (yet again) opted to leave at noon. He had a sick kid. Said kid was with him. Kid did not look that sick.

So I did his appointments, MY appointments, all three surgeries, and the 4th surgery that came in ata 4:30 PM - because I know how my boss feels about allowing my OTHER co-worker to do strange things when I'm not there. And today is my day off.

Therefore ON my day off, I trolled the local antique store. I got a 1957 cookbook entitled The Art of Fine Baking." And a 1959 sewing pattern for a little girl's dress that should be just Liesl's size. It's too darling. It's a little sleeveless dress with a petticoat, and has a short-sleeved cropped jacket that buttons up the back. I'll try to scan the cover later.

I also managed to twiddle with the HTML and get some FB stuff on my GF blog. So you can now share individual posts. Yay! The Whipped Cream cake was really good, BTW:

http://glutenfreegoesvintage.blogspot.com/2011/09/whipped-cream-cake.html

More later. :-D

Re-visiting....

Moving back to the cookbook idea.

I know they don't pay all that well. But I think I'm still going to give it a go.

What DO y'all think of a cookbook of vintage baking recipes that are converted to be gluten free? Should I add a dairy-free chapter?

How much inclusion of "Life in Holly-land" should intrude into the book? Will it seem "warmer" with sidebars and stories about the wee ones for whom I started the GF thing? Remembrances of being taught to cook?

I'm kind of thinking of also spending the time that I'm compiling recipes collecting vintage dishes and trying to take pictures of the various dishes in them.

Anybody want to test-bake for me? And review? I'll write up a "review form" so you can review both the finished product and the way the recipe is written.

What sort of "look" should I go for? I imagine paying for the rights of actual vintage images might be pricey. What sort of graphical design would say "vintage" to you?

Is it worth maybe sneaking some homey "projects" into things as well? Sewn, quilted, knitted items - one per chapter the evoke the vintage era that the recipes are coming from.

Organize by decade? Or by type of baked good?