Repurposing and Muffins

I was missing the camaraderie and intellectual stimulation from my time at The Evergreen State College, and since I am still unemployed, I decided to start a meet-up group. I chose the theme of "repurposing". For those who don't know what that is, for me, it is about taking clothes that don't fit and "repurposing" them into clothes that do or practical things I can use. As I said, I am still unemployed, have been for awhile. My current wardrobe has been deteriorating since it has been years since I have bought anything new for myself. I need clothes I can interview in as well as things I can just wear whenever. Here is my first attempt. I took a dress, a skirt and a man's shirt (thank you Brandon) and created a skirt which I love to wear. The picture actually shows 2 dresses but I decided not to use the brown dress, it didn't work out well and I substituted a skirt I had instead.

On the finished skirt, near the top left by the waistband, you can see where I added a cuff portion from the dress shirt. I made it into a small pocket to hold my house key when I go on walks. I also used the shirt pocket (can't see it, it's on the back of the skirt) for a pocket to carry my camera. I live in a neighborhood with lovely gardens and I take pics every chance I get. Here's one from my walk today.

 

I also made a dust cover for my sewing machine, now that I leave it out all the time, gotta keep the dust off. I found the instructions here: http://candacetodd.blogspot.com/2010/04/sewing-machine-cover-tutorial.html  Thank you Candace! I added a "cutwork" section for practice. I made it out of fabric I was given so it only cost me the thread and my time. I think it turned out well.

So, we were supposed to have our second "repurposing" meeting today, but one of the girls had a job interview. A job is much more important than a meeting. So we will reschedule. No big deal. Though my boyfriend Brandon and I may have to eat the fruit muffins I made for the meeting. I made them from the recipe on the back of the Bob's Red Mill White Rice Flour bag. Thanks Bob!

They turned out pretty good, a little dry, but nothing some butter or jam wouldn't fix. That's the way it goes sometimes when you bake gluten-free. It usually turns out either too dry or too moist. I miss baking with regular flour. It always turned out right.

Well, I guess that's all for today. Till next time...tootles.

Good food

Before I was Gluten Intolerant (GI) I loved to cook. For about 10 years now I have had more of a love/hate relationship with food. The biggest change has been my feeling about potlucks and eating at other people's houses. When I first found out that I should live gluten free, I had no idea exactly how to accomplish that. The first list of foods to avoid was daunting. I wondered what there was that I could eat. At first I had to shop only at the Food Co-op or at the local health food stores. As the years passed, the availability of gluten free foods on the local grocery store shelves has exploded. I am so thankful for all those people who have worked to make "gluten-free" appear on product labeling. It saves me soooo much time shopping! We went to Wal-Mart the other day and I saw that Betty Crocker had a boxed mix for Gluten-free brownies. There must be money to be made in the GF field if Betty Crocker is on board!

The main issues I have about cooking GF are: the convenience foods are expensive compared to the similar non-GF products; it takes so much longer to cook everything from scratch (sometimes it feels like my days are spent either thinking about what to cook or cooking it or cleaning up after cooking); and finally, what's with all the refined sugar-full products?!

While learning about how full our common foods are with refined wheat and why that refining isn't necessarily good for us, along with that I realized how full our diets are with refined sugars and that is taking so many of us right into diabetes and obesity. In our local GF store I would venture a guess that at least half of the products have plenty of refined sugars in them. I have found that while trying to live GF you try to replace the foods you used to eat with GF alternatives. But it is the refined flours and sugars that got you to this health situation and we are just trying to replace those ingredients with something similar, only GF. That isn't really the point, is it? I lost 50 pounds when I first found out that I was GI. It was because there were no refined flours and sugars in my diet until I found those replacements. And when I found GF replacements. I gained those 50 pounds right back and they brought a few more friends as well.