#fosterkittens

This coming Monday, we will bring home our 27th #fosterkitten since last April. This time, however, the 'kitten' will be a 9 year old blind cat that needs a home while the shelter is being remodeled. He will be here somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks. 

Feb 9 update: We found out today that our nine year old blind foster cat, Newman, is being designated as Rescue Only. 

Shelter Pets Designated “RESCUE ONLY”

Sadly, we are just not in a position to take in a rescue cat with all of the financial costs that go with his medical issues. I am truly sad that we are unable to step and help this cat that so desperately is in need of care. 🐱

**

We take in these animals because they are small, sick, or just in need of love and affection while they are waiting to be adopted. But, the truth is we get so much more love and peace and comforting, then we could ever give back. 

Rancho Cucamonga Animal Care and Adoption Center 

'Kevin' is no longer Home Alone. New foster kitten is Home for the Holidays. #fosterkitten #needslove #christmaskitten

One sick little #fosterkitten comes home after bringing in two wild and crazy #fosterkittens ready for adoption. She needs to go back twice a day for 5 days for treatments. Has been isolation for days and needs love.

The answer is two, Alex. There are two kittens climbing in the branches of the tree. #fosterkittens

Just two little kittens this time, not five. Both orphans from different mothers. Now, they will be siblings. #fosterkittens

#fosterkitten surrender day, always many tears included with this endeavor #kittenlove

Foster kitten Micheal Phelps has only a few more days before he goes up for adoption with his four brothers and sisters. We have had these kittens longer than most because they started so tiny. Will miss them.

Just enough time to dye...lunchtime hair salon. Tessa, Natalie and cats.  

Five new bottle babies. Brought home new #fosterkittens less than three weeks old. Timing seemed right so we named them #Rio #Simone #Phelps #Bolt and #DiegoDaleyMikulak or as Tessa calls him, #Gerald.

Sleeping kittens. Last few moments before they go back to be adopted. #fosterkittens #darcy #bridget #ranchocucamongaanimalshelter

Saying goodbye to foster kittens today. They started as scared hissing little beings with blotchy fur, covered in fleas, who wouldn't come near people. Now, they sit in your lap and purr, purr, purr.

Because there are always newborn kittens in need of fostering. Two new babies came home when we dropped the others off.

One of two new foster kittens.

Foster kitten check up day #catsinabox #fosterkittens #fivelittlekitties

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I met a man

This has always been one of my  favorite pieces:

On the January 23, 1940, my grandmother Helen passed away. Her death came when my own father was only 12 years old. With her being ill, he had spent much of his childhood without a mother, even  before her death. Still, the stories he told about her were spoken with love and respect and, perhaps, a bit of awe.

He told me of how his mother and father met. His father, being a bit of a rough neck, owned a Harley Davidson (very very progressive for the 20th century). He boldly rode up to Helen and asked her for a date.
She, being strong willed herself, said, “Yes, if you sell the crazy motorbike.”
Within the week, they had their first date and my grandfather, never again, owned a ‘crazy motor bike’.”

My father also talked proudly of how his mother convinced his father to donated money the Catholic Church in Osakis, to build a new Church building. When I was young, he would take me down into the church basement and show me the paintings his mother had done, still hanging on the walls.

I asked him, years later, why he never took us down to the cemetery to visit her grave.
“I talk to Mother and Mark every day,” he said, “when I come out to feed the deer. They are closer to me here, than in any cemetery.”
Mark was his older brother (twin to Jerome). He was going to be the best man in my parent’s wedding but died just less than six months before they were married.

My father kept my grandmother's funeral card in his wallet until the day he died. He borrowed it to me few years back to let me make a copy of it. I photo copied it and cleaned it up to make it look nice and pretty. I wish now that I had left it as it was, tattered and scuffed up, from years of love.

January 23rd, my father never forgot this date.   This morning, as I dropped my girls off at school, the  scent of a wood fire filled the air. No single scent can bring me closer to my father, on this day already filled with memories.

The following was Written on Thursday, November 4, 2010

January gardens and late grandparents have one thing in common, the ability to be perfect in your mind’s eye. One set of my grandparents died before I was born and the other set lived so far away as to be strangers. Their photographs, decades old, hang on my wall, covered with a light layer of dust and sadness.

“It's all right, children. Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it. I am sure that we shall never forget Tiny Tim, or this first parting that there was among us.” The Muppet’s Christmas Carol

I wonder at the fates of my world that, save my husband and children, the two people that mattered the most to me, were the first to leave. It wasn’t until after their deaths, I began to grasp what I had missed not having met or known my own grandparents. It is a relationship not to be squandered or abused.

I met a man recently, even though I have known him all of my life. He lives in a box in my closet and hangs in a frame on my wall. Sorting through mouse shredded letters and tattered news articles, I found a man’s thoughts. Joys and anguishes.

“Pleasant Memories, Sorrow and deaths of dear ones, a fine family, fishing - hunting- friends many- some dead, Mother, Jack & Mark . Boating - hiking - rakings - painting Bldg docks - trimming trees. Pleasure must be paid for by cash and Work. I've had my good share of both – “
Love from your Pal and father.

Tommy Gibbons he is/was my Grandfather. I never met him, as he passed away six months before I was born. But wow, the stories I heard of him growing up.

He fought the great Jack Dempsey, the Mansssa Mauler, the Manhattan Madness, going fifteen rounds. He fought Gene Tunney, as well. He was King Boreas of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. A Knight of St. Gregory, he built an entire church (by hand, I bet)! As the Sheriff of Ramsey County, he brought the entire mob to its knees during Prohibition! Then, for his second marriage he snared the heiress to the Leinenkugel Brewery.

He slayed lakes of fish, fields of pheasants and forests of deer! Mostly though, he was young and handsome. He has been perpetually 32 years old my entire life. He was married, of course, to the most beautiful woman ever. My grandparents are perfect in their little glass world on the wall.

I can live without perfection. What I would give to trade in a few of those fabulous stories for an afternoon on Lake Osakis with my Grandfather and a lake full of bass. Oh, to have nothing but the grebes to serenade us and the sunlight to warm us and time to get to know each other.

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Spiced Ginger Pear Muffins Gluten-Free

Spiced Ginger Pear Muffins (Gluten-Free)

I love Costco. That love, however, means that I tend to have large quantities of fruits and vegetables, all the time. Today, I have pears. I love pears! 

Apparently, I am feeling affectionate for many things today.

But, my pears are not going to last very much longer. Therefore, I decided to try and create a new recipe using up these delightful pears, before they go bad.

A few hours later, which included a trip to Target during the Christmas week rush, because I ran out of eggs, I have created a gluten-free recipe for muffins.

Don't run out of eggs on Christmas week. #holidayhappiness??

A photo posted by Mary Opatz (@meogto) on Dec 21, 2016 at 9:08am PST

Sadly, when I was at Target, I thought I was working on a cookie recipe. Now, I have to go BACK to Target and get some muffin cups to bake these up*.

Baking them up without the muffin cups has been successful. Natalie exact words were, "I can't believe I have eaten three of these, already!"

*We tried making these up as mini muffins in muffin liners, but the dough is just too sticky to remove from such a small muffin liner so we ended up using a mini loaf pan with 8 mini loafs per pan, and it worked great.

Spiced Ginger Pear Muffins (Gluten-Free)

INGREDIENTS

1 cups all purpose gluten-free flour

1⁄2 cup oat flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1⁄2 cup dairy-free butter

1 1⁄2 cups chopped pears (2 large pears gave me just a smidge over 1 1/2 cups)

1/4-1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (to keep pears from browning)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon zanthan gum

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoon ginger

Raw sugar, for topping

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Peel fresh, ripened pears and purée them in a food processor. If you do not have a food processor, grate them up with a cheese grater or chop them into ¼ inch squares. Smaller, if possible. Add lemon juice to bowl, and stir to cover all of the pears.

You can use canned pears if fresh pears are unavailable.

Drain out excess liquid just before adding to sugar mixture. I used a strainer lined with a coffee filter to drain excess liquid from my puréed pears.

Beat egg and dairy-free butter together in large bowl or stand mixer. Add raw sugar and blend until well mixed. Add puréed or chopped pears and continue blending on medium. Add vanilla.

Separately, mix all purpose gluten-free flour, baking soda and salt together. Add rolled oats to dry ingredients. 

Beat dry ingredients into pear mixture. Mix until well combined.

Fill muffin tin level with top of pan. Oil pan if not using muffin liners.

Sprinkle top of muffins with raw or decorator sugar, if desired.

Bake for 27-30 minutes. Cool in pan for a few minutes and then move to cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes about 1 dozen muffins.

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Better Brighter Bigger Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Better Brighter Bigger Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies 

Gluten-Free, of course!

I worked up a version of this recipe of couple of weeks ago, and I was okay with it. Then, my elder California daughter came home and stated, "Why can't we just have good Christmas cookies?"

That's when I realized that I was doing exactly what I had said I wasn't going to do. I was settling for good enough instead of great, fantastic tasting food. Look how quickly I learned that delicious gluten-free foods are the exception, not the norm.

So, today, while I was making up another batch of my gluten-free all purpose flour, link to recipe  I came across flours that I had kind of forgotten about. Most importantly, oat flour. I have decided to try this flour to add more structure to the Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies. Also, since the original, full gluten recipe has butter in it, I am adding 'butter' into this recipe, as well.

And, finally, I am increasing the amount of baking soda to give these cookies more airiness and a cake-like, less gritty texture. Also, more vanilla is always welcome, in my book. That is a personal preference, as always.

Natalie, getting up late, after having worked late into the night, tastes this new recipe after all of the cookies are out of the oven and cooled. One bite in, she says the cookie's peanut buttery flavor bursts into her mouth. 

A soft cookie, it holds itself together better than the average gluten-free cookie. In fact, other than being a bit grittier than typical peanut butter cookies, these are about as close to a 'normal' wheat flour cookie that we have come.

Better Brighter Bigger Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies 

Ingredients:

30 Brach’s Chocolate Stars

1 cup creamy Peanut Butter

1/3 cup dairy free butter (I use olive oil based)

1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour

1/4 cup gluten free oat flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar light or dark (I use whatever I happen to have on hand)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (adjust depending upon peanut butter and personal taste)

1 egg or two egg yolks

Additional granulated sugar for rolling

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F.

Beat peanut butter, dairy-free butter, sugars and vanilla together in a large bowl or stand mixing bowl. Add egg and beat mixture well.

Mix all purpose gluten-free flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt together in separate bowl. 

Then, add to peanut butter mixture. Beat well.

Shape dough into I ¼ inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet or onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.

Original batch of Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies 

above new recipe below

Bake 8 minutes. 

Press a chocolate star into center of each cookie. Bake for an additional 2 minutes. 

Cool a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet to wire rack. Remove to wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

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All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend

All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend

*This is our own blend, created by reading many different blogs for ideas and then using the ingredients that we had on hand. 

This is copied from an earlier post.

making flour

All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend

2 cups brown rice flour

2 cups white rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1 cup potato starch

1/3 cup oat flour**

3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 Tablespoons Ultra Gel Starch 

** So here's the big question: Are oats truly gluten-free? Read on for the answer.

The short answer is YES — non-contaminated, pure oats are gluten-free. They are safe for most people with gluten-intolerance.

The main problem with oats in gluten-free eating is contamination. Most commercial oats are processed in facilities that also process wheat, barley, and rye. 

http://www.thekitchn.com/the-oat-conundrum-are-oats-glu-137074

Most of the above flours can be purchased at the local grocery store. We were able to get both types of rice flours at Target and Ralphs. Both are available pretty much everywhere. We picked up tapioca starch at Seafood City. It was the cheapest flour ingredient we purchased at only $1.87 a package. 

The oat flour, xanthan gum and Ultra Gel we used were all from Honeyville Farms. When we went to Sprouts, we found everything we were looking for, plus so much more. We should have gone there first, instead of last. Amazon is also a good source for anything that you can't find locally.

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Gluten-Free Bread

Soft Gluten-Free Bread 

The past several days have been filled with the excitement of a brand new grandbaby! We are also dealing with finals week and, of course, the hectic rush of the Holiday season.

Still, in amongst all of the crazy, I need to have real food to eat. So, today, we are baking up some bread. Just bread. 
  
Hoping for the best.*

*As luck would have it, we had to leave home just as this bread was due to be taken out of the oven. It baked for 35 minutes, with the last 5 being covered with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. 

The internal temperature reached 175 degrees. I would have liked to see it reach at least 200 degrees, but we did not have time to wait for that due to an unexpected family issue.

The taste is amazing. The almond milk gives it a slightly sweet, nutty flavor, but still keeps it in the sandwich bread zone. The texture, though, is very reminiscent of a banana bread. Extremely moist and dense.

I believe this is partially due to the use of 4 egg yolks in place of the normal two whole eggs. Because I like the flavor of the bread so much, I think I will try making it with two whole eggs and see what that does to the density.

Gluten-Free Bread 

INGREDIENTS:

3 Cups all purpose gluten-free flour

1½ teaspoons xanthan gum

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 egg yolks 

1½ cups almond milk

¼ cup honey

1 packet dry active yeast

INSTRUCTIONS:

Makes 9" x 5" Loaf 

Using measuring cup, measure out almond milk and warm in microwave for approximately 45 seconds, less if milk is not refrigerated. Milk should be warm but not hot to the touch.Hot milk will kill yeast; cold milk will not activate it. 

Add honey to warmed almond milk and stir, then add yeast. Yeast last. Set aside and allow yeast to rise for about 10 minutes.

Mix all purpose gluten-free flour, baking powder and salt together in small bowl.

Separate egg yolks from egg whites and add yolks to bowl of stand mixer. Add lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Using the the paddle attachment, blend wet ingredients just until combined. 

Add yeast mix and blend, again.

While mixer runs on low, add flour. Once all of the flour is added, turn up to on medium-high and beat for another 3 to 5 minutes.

Prepare your bread pan while the dough mixes. Because this is gluten-free dough, it is hard to over beat this mixture.

We sprayed the 9x5 pan with olive oil spray because EASY, and then we floured the pan and dumped out the extra, obviously gluten-free, flour into the sink. 

This dough is sticky, but has that nice yeasty bread smell! Using a spatula, notice our cute Holiday design, scrape dough into the bread pan. We needed the spatula and a few fingers to convince this gooey sticky dough to go where we wanted it to go.

Now is the time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees. This allows your bread dough to rise on top of the stove while the oven heats up. We allowed 40 minutes for our bread to rise and it did not quite get to the top of the pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. 

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