I'm Back

Well, I had a small hiatus due to an insane schedule and finding time to sleep or write assignments.   My schedule is starting to let up a little and I am ready to venture into projects that are a less demanding although, not every part of my schedule has been completely all work and no play. The past three weeks will bring me memories to cherish for years.  I actually have so much to share, that I will have to stretch it out over several blogs.  To summarize, I started a greenhouse project at my son’s school in hopes that it can be a larger garden for a school wide community service project. I am working on that now.  I finally put a project plan and research idea onto paper—more details on that later. There was Easter with family and two little toddlers that really grasped and tailored how they like to hunt Easter eggs.  I have had more facials than I can count thanks to Mom. Of course, we celebrated the most anticipated event for 2011 in our family— Stephanie and Rico’s wedding.  The proverbial cherry on the cake of all this family fun was Mother’s Day.  And within it all was great food and laughter.  (Wow this is getting pretty sappy)

I cannot emphasize enough about special it is to witness and experience the strengthening of bonds between others.  I love being part of a chain that is interwoven with others to make something warm and colorful like family.   Family is a coat of many colors and these colors all complement the other in some way although sometimes we may not think so.  I have taken off this coat to venture into life alone, but getting older and having a family of my own really taught me some lessons.  Families bring fruition in oneself and the capacity to share that harvest with others despite the growing conditions.  

With that, I will share a recipe that I made during all this in celebration of spring.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

For the cobbler

½ cup of sorghum flour

½ cup of brown rice flour

1/3 cup of tapioca flour/starch

¼ cup sugar or sweetener of choice (if it is liquid, add with liquid ingredients)

3 tbls of cornmeal or almond meal

Zest of 1 lemon (optional)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp of baking soda

½ tsp salt

4 tbls melted butter

1/3 to ½ cup of buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

For the filling

10-12 oz of diced rhubarb stalks

1 quart of sliced strawberries

1 tbls of cornstarch

½ cup – 1 cup of sweetener of choice ( I used ¾ cup of sugar)

Lemon juice from lemon

Mix all ingredients of fruit mixture and set aside.  Combine dry ingredients of cobbler and add milk and beaten egg and mix. Add butter and vanilla and mix again.  It should be a thick batter between the consistency of muffin batter and drop biscuit batter. Pour fruit into 8x8 inch square pan. I used a glass pyrex dish.  Disperse cobbler batter on top of fruit.  Put into a 325 degree oven and bake until fruit is boiling and top of batter is golden brown, 30 minutes more or less.