My husband was diagnosed with Celiac about 18 months ago. He has always been extremely active and healthy but went downhill for a couple of years until he was a wreck. Within 48 hours of his diagnosis the changes were amazing. I bake his "daily bread" using recipe's from the Gluten Free Goddess blog. We live at higher altitude- she used to live in New Mexico and many of her recipes work for us. One of our close friends is Celiac and casein free & Goddess recipes also work for her. If I can't bake for some reason I buy Canyon Bakehouse bread. I don't buy much that is prepared/processed but the Kinnickkinnick donuts are too yummy to resist. We especially like the cinnamon donuts with hot apple cider. I also like the Pamela's chocolate chunk cookie mix and Arrowhead Mills brownie mix. Martha Stewart's "Best Buttermilk Pancake" recipe works well for us with Gluten Free Pantry or Bob's Red Mill GF all purpose flour. This is the only recipe where I like using one of the flour mixes. I serve this to guests and they have no idea that it's gluten free. We rarely have pasta at home any more. I serve things over polenta, shaved zucchini, shaved carrots or spaghetti squash instead, and I make risotto more often. Martha Stewart also has a nice gluten free lasagna recipe using shaved zucchini. When I need to use GF pasta DH prefers DeBoles corn pastas. I received Elizabeth Barbone's Easy Gluten Free Baking book as a gift and have found that some of her recipes work beautifully and others fail completely. My kitchen is not completely GF but I do completely segregate my equipment and storage. Most of our meals are GF but I do make gluteny special occasion and holiday treats (I am the holiday hostess in our family these days), and the children and I still have granola and some other things. I was thrilled to see my husband's health return but there were times shortly after his diagnosis when I felt overwhelmed at learning how to bake without gluten, especially at higher altitude. if you are just starting out, don't get discouraged, you will probably have to kiss some frogs on your way to your prince charming recipes. Keep notes and keep your sense of humor! I am linking to the Gluten Free Goddess Blog's tips for success section- lots of good information there. I make her Delicious Gluten Free Bread and Gluten Free Multi Grain sandwich bread every week. I use white wine vinegar rather than apple cider vinegar. Here is a link that might be useful: Gluten Free Goddess Tips

It's been awhile since I posted/updated. We had a crazy summer and are (STILL!) working on our kitchen project. On top of slow going renovations we are also expecting baby #2 in May. I am definitely going to need help with organization and storage ideas. We are thinking of turning the sunroom/3 season room into a playroom by updating the windows, replacing the carpet, insulating the ceiling and adding electric baseboard heaters. If that doesn't pan out (We are waiting to hear back from our neighbor who is a contractor) we are going to finish half of the basement. I'm hoping the sunroom idea will work since it will be a much smaller project time and money wise. On the kitchen front all the cabinets and brick have been painted and we installed a new pergo floor. We still have to add base moldings, touch up all the paint and decide on countertops. I'm hoping to finish the kitchen in the next month or 2 but we'll see how it goes. I'll hopefully get some good pictures to share in the next week or two.

I put mine straight into the garden, but there’s always enough leftover to pile up and let breakdown. If I can plan it right, I like to pile up the leftovers where I want to make my next bed; it gets the soil charged up and ready for planting. I‘ve noticed my roses esp. love a deep layer just before summer; it helps keep the roots cool and damp. They do need a bit of extra nitrogen if you put out chips out freshly chopped. There is a bit of nitrogen tie-up while they break down. (That’s probably why the arborist said to let them sit.) I sprinkle organic fertilizer, plus blood meal for nitrogen, then a layer of cardboard to suppress weeds, then 4-6” of chips, and water it all in well. The chips will settle down to about a 2-3” thick layer. 😊

ratdogheads z5b NH I helped Carol (rosecanada) with her Augusta Louise. I notice that Augusta Louise has LARGE LEAVES, which means it likes alkaline soil, and it's Khalid's best performer in hot climate Pakistan and alkaline loamy soil, he even used wood ash at pH over 13 to fertilize Augusta Louise with excellent result. Re-post what you wrote: "I have never had much success here with hybrid teas. Interesting that in my zone 5/6 Colorado and Missouri gardens, I grew only HTs. So there is something different here. Soil? Humidity? Here HT's are crown hardy and if not really vigorous growers, they don't gain enough strength during our short summers to become good bloomers, add blackspot and the plant struggles to keep its foliage and becomes weak." My note: hybrid teas are modern roses & bred to bloom well with alkaline tap water. Here in rock-hard alkaline clay, hybrid teas are vigorous compared to my last house of acidic clay (BS-fest then died through winter). One neighbor had a VERY VIGOROUS Angel Face (grafted-on-Dr.Huey). It was 3 feet tall with at least 80 blooms in alkaline clay. But our clay is so dense that roots can't go deep for winter-survival, so her Angel Face died after 2 years. Hybrid-teas like excellent drainage, and winter-survival is better in LOAMY soil, rather than poor-drainage clay. After seeing the neighbor's tons-of-blooms Angel face died, I dig deep for drainage, like pouring a 5-gallon bucket of water down the hole to make sure it drains well. Hybrid teas can't take the heavy rain of the east coast and Chicagoland. Augusta Louis needs excellent drainage with its raised-ridges on leaves. Augusta Louis with its zillion firm petals have a higher demand for calcium, which is more available at alkaline pH. Also pH of rain on the west coast is 5.6, versus 4.5 here in Chicagoland and on the East coast. Augusta has 4 excellent votes in HMF for cold hardy and 5 NOT excellent votes (good) for heat tolerance. I don't think cold-hardiness is a problem, but low soil pH is. See pH of rain across US below: