Category: gluten free

Eating Gluten Free
click here for gluten free posts
GF blogs, resources and products

When I found out I had to eat gluten-free I didn’t know how I would cope or even what I could eat.

 

 

As I started searching gluten-free on the internet I found so many people willing to share their stories along with recipes. I want to share them with you too.
Resources:
Gluten-free Girl by Shauna James Ahern –read this you’ll feel much better. You’ll soon find out you’ve been given a choice to moan and groan or to enjoy the adventure of learning  a new way to eat. And yes the food is good. Her book is more about living gluten-free than recipes, though there are some in here. She’s writing a cookbook that should be out soon. I’ll be getting it since the recipes on her blog are delicious.

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook by Elana Amsterdam-everything is yummy in this book.

Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli Bronksi and Peter Bronski 

Real food, good food and easy to make. They use their own flour blend which they tell you how to make. 
Communities:
Glutenfreefaces.com 

A good community to find answers about where and what to eat , recipes 
 Products I like:
Against the Grain baguettes and bagels oh my are they good!

Rudi’s Bread

Udi’s bread, pizza crusts and muffins

Kettle Cuisine Soups

Terri’s Gulten Free

King Arthur mixes

Cookbooks:
Cooking for Isaiah 

Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking 

The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread

Gluten-Free on a Shoestring

Gluten-Free Baking

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

 Gluten-Free Cupcakes

*The Pioneer Women Cookbook: Recipes from an accidental Country girl  (not gluten-free but many recipes can be adapted.)
Blogs:
Gluten-free girl and the chef

Gluten-free Betsy

Gluten-free Gidget

cannelle et vanille

Everyday Gluten-Free

No Gluten, No Problem

Lynn’s Recipe Adventures

Gluten-Free Goddess Recipes with a side of life

Gluten-Free on a shoestring

The Gluten-Free Homemaker
Lillian’s Test Kitchen (she makes a recipe on video for the first time)

Silvana’s Kitchen

Coupons:
Gluten Freely Frugal

what is Christian fiction about?

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

What is Christian Fiction Anyway?

Christian Fiction stars heroes and heroines who are experiencing a time in their lives when their faith isn’t strong. They must overcome obstacles like the characters in books published by the ABA (American Bookseller Association). In the CBA (The Association for Christian Retail) the faith–not the religion–is part of the character’s journey.

Christians do write for both CBA and ABA and some make a choice to write for only the CBA. That’s what I’ve chosen. It feels write for me and where my voice comes out the strongest. I cannot and do not wish to separate myself from my faith. Some can write amazing stories that I love, like Dean Koontz. Is he a Christian? I don’t know and don’t care, but his books are good vs. evil and good always wins.

Just like the ABA publishing houses the CBA also has requirements about what they will publish. Some houses like Barbour request the characters not engage in dancing, gambling, drinking and have a personal commitment to Jesus.

Other houses, like Revell are a bit more lenient guidelines. A few of my favorite authors that write edgier Christian fiction are Julie Lessman and Lynette Eason.

Wondering what edgier means? Those authors are able to tackle the problems that are present in our culture. People make mistakes, big ones and yet they are able to recover because of their faith.

Are you thinking that Christian fiction is nothing but a big Sunday morning sermon? Not even close. Christian fiction writers take on solving murder, fighting demons, dealing with rape, and sometimes  written for light entertainment. That’s where I fit in my writing journey.

Bio:
Christian author, Diana Lesire Brandmeyer, writes historical and contemporary romances. She’s also written We’re Not Blended-We’re Pureed, A Survivor’s Guide to Blended Families. Once widowed and now remarried she writes with humor and experience on the difficulty of joining two families. Her first historical A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennessee releases May 2012. For now please look for Diana Lesire Brandmeyer’s book Hearts on the Road snuggled in the middle of Wyoming Weddings.

blog: 26 letters into words
website: DianaBrandmeyer.com

Guest Liv Court!

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

Thanks so much, Diana, for letting me appear on your blog. You have a lovely place here, and I always enjoy your posts.

Liv! I’m glad you’re here. We’re taking a class together with Kristen Lamb and it was suggested we try having guest posters. Liv is my first guest. Liv, tell me about this speculative fiction you write.

I call myself a writer of speculative fiction, because it sounds kind of cool and classy. And also maybe a little pretentious, depending on your point of view. It’s more tasteful sounding, anyway, than saying I write paranormal romance. Which I do, but I also write paranormal family drama and paranormal mystery, and, well, I’ll bet you can pick up the consistent theme. Most of my work has a supernatural angle that allows me to deal with harsher truths than I otherwise could. The fantasy aspect makes it clear that all the crap I throw at my characters couldn’t be happening in real life. Another theme that runs through my work is faith. I deal with faith in God, in all its variations, and the belief that good will have out over evil. None of my stories could be labeled Christian Fiction, but many of my characters are religious. Their faith is worked into their character sketches and woven through the plot. It’s just that it’s not central to the plot or to the climax of the work.

My paranormal family drama, Only The Lonely, tells the story of Molly, a single mom who’s battling with her ex-husband and with the demon who gave her the mother-of-all hickeys. She has an unexpected ally in Cass, a pixie who gets assigned to help her through her trials. Molly is a good Catholic girl. Her kids go to a Catholic high school, she fights with them about going to church, and she agonizes over getting divorced because of what it means from a religious perspective. Her faith is as integral a part of her character as her love for her children, but it doesn’t drive the plot.

I have written stories where religion doesn’t play a part, except as it colors my own understanding of good and evil. It’s more satisfying, though, when it’s there. I feel a little subversive, like, “ha-ha, I’m making you think about God in this story about _____” (and you can fill in the blank with your favorite paranormal creature). There are some great writers, like Ann Rice and Neil Gaimon, who address issues of faith in their speculative fiction. They’re my inspiration, and my role models.

Peace, Liv

Thanks again Liv for telling us how you add faith to your writing. Here’s a little more about Liv. Bio: Liv Rancourt is a writer of speculative fiction and romance. She lives in Seattle with her husband, two teenagers, two cats and one wayward puppy. Writing stories that have happy endings is a nice balance for her work in the neonatal intensive care unit, and Liv can be found on-line at her website , her blog , on Facebook , or on Twitter .

Watch out for Nails

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

D is for DANGER!

I am an HGTV junkie. I admit it. Those those decorating and remodeling shows give me an adrenalin rush. But more importantly I love doing the things most people hire out or just think about doing.

When House Hunters comes on I find it hard not to yell, “Come on! Painting is easy! So what if the walls are black and purple? They make paint with primer for that!

Sarah’s House and Dear Genvieve captivate me.

So when I managed to save up enough cash I convinced Mr. Do Everything to go with me to the flooring store. (side note: did you know if they take cash you can get a discount!) The 24 boxes of red oak sat in our house acclimating itself to our living conditions for three days. It seems the flooring acclimated just fine to being being covered in dust and books so this week we started the project.

My job was to take up the staples left behind from carpeting and rip out the small entry way wood floor. See those nails? I did not want a tetanus shot so my goal was to keep from stepping on one or falling and puncturing my hand.

Now this is not an unwarranted concern. The last house we remodeled I stepped off a floor joist and my leg went through the ceiling of the dining room below me. No, I did not let Mr. Do Everything take a photo of my leg dangling. My sons were very disappointed.

The final report? I did step on a nail or rather stumbled into one but it only went into the side of my sketcher. It now has a flat. Thankfully, it didn’t break the skin. No shot for me!

The crowbar is another story. That is one strong piece of steel that has no give when it comes to smacking yourself in the chest.

a2z: Take 2. Patty Wysong Helping bloggers blog.

Working the iPad like your desktop

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer
Splashtop APP for iPad

Do you have an iPad?
A friend of mine told me about Splashtop. He is a pilot and often wants to access a program from his home computer.

Splashtop Remote Access isn’t a free app, right now it’s $4.99. I downloaded it. Now where ever I go I can pull up my desktop from home–AS LONG AS MY HOME COMPUTER IS ON! I found it works well, there is a small lag time but it’s not noticeable when typing. I’ve been able to edit my photos, write blog posts and get to that important bookmark on firefox with ease.

It works with PCs and Macs. Be warned though if your going to use it on a Mac you must have Snow Leopard installed.

Blog Mashup

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

Blogs I want to share with you.

Me and Milli Vanilli. See, we really couldn’t sing….  

Huh? What did you Say?Find out what Victorians really hid under their hats.
 
A Real Page turner—video you don’t want to miss 

In a Flash Everything Chages

Kristen Lamb writes about free ebooks may not be a good thing. What’s the problem with free?

Carriage from the Past

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

C is for Carriage.
This summer we stopped at an antique store and this was out in the yard.  It intriques me, where did come from? Who owned it? Where did they take it too church? Parties? I like the fringe top and I wonder if the owner had to pay extra for it?

How did women keep their skirts from brushing the dirty wheel when they disembarked?

So many questions….
So many stories shushed…
So many ideas racing through my mind today…

UPDATE! I have learned that this is a Jenny Lind used from 1850 to the 1900s and only one horse was needed to pull it. How did I learn this? I found out by purchasing a dvd called 19th Century Carriages & Wagons A Resource for Writers by Lynn Coleman. You can get it here.

a2z: Take 2. Patty Wysong Helping bloggers blog.

Are you an email hoarder?

Posted on by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

My hand is fluttering in the air. I am an email hoarder. In the past I have found blogs or shopping sites that interest me and I subscribed.

This last month I’ve been unsubscribing. I realized I was spending not just minutes deleting email. Some times it was five minutes or more.

I still have many lists to to release from my inbox. It’s hard. Sometimes I want to know what I can cook gluten free for dinner or what exciting crafting offer Michaels is offering. And what if I want to live social in another city?

I should delete them right away. But I can’t. I put a star and color code it as to do or important and then I forget about them. It feels better to me to have them in my inbox just in case I get a chance to fly to Florida tomorrow and shop at Kohls with my secret % off code. 

So I ask, are you an email hoarder too? Should we start a club or a twelve-step program?