A.V. Thompson’s Weblog

Well, this has nothing to do with writing or Fructose Malabsorption Disorder…. this has to do with being a happy and proud Canadian on Canada Day, and wanting to share my sister’s awesome singing with the world!

My Gorgeous Sis, Claire:

My sister Claire is the vocalist for the jazz band Playmore Junction, and they played at the park today for the Canada Day celebrations! I have uploaded Claire singing “Georgia on my Mind” and “Fever”.

Both fantastic! You go girl!

(pardon the shaky camera work at the beginning…I was trying to balance the Coolpix on my knee! Yes! AVT - Ace photographer!

Georgia on my Mind:

Fever:

Tonight, there’ll be fireworks!

I think I’ll edit this post tomorrow to include them as well!

Happy Canada Day!!

AVT

my youtube account:

http://www.youtube.com/user/arianavthompson

Well, I made up the Kinnikinnick brand Gluten-free White Cake mix…

no photo because…well…it smelled REALLY good, and the camera was in the car. LOLOLOL!!!

I rate this highly.  Unlike the Bob’s Red Mill cake mix, which while good, did have a bit of a bean aftertaste (due to the prominence of chickpea flour), this mix had a slight cornbread scent and flavour which I liked more.

Good texture, very light.  I frosted it with chocolate pudding and topped it with a little shredded coconut.  My sweetie doesn’t have fructose malabsorption, so he doesn’t have to go wheat-free, but he loved it!

Check out the Kinnikinnick website!  They have a great selection and they have a Canadian and a US location - all the better for shipping, my dear!

I think tonight I’ll try the Celimix brand hamburger buns.  The GORGEOUS weather we’ve been having has my sweetie thinking about burgers!

Now, however is WRITING time!  An article for Constant Content, and some research on the saga of Gilgamesh!

AVT

Well, I decided to do something about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a Fructose Malabsorption website out there!

Fructose Malabsorption website

It’s very simple right now, but I look forward to photos, recipes (rather than just links!), more links to it and more links from it!  If you have something to add, even just a suggestion or a comment, let me know!

Further on the wheat-free front, the sandwich bread and pizza rounds I got from Kinnikinnick Foods are AWESOME!!  I very much recommend them!

I’m making the White Cake  Mix tonight!  Review and pics to come!

AVT

My blog now has a new page with a complete explanation of what Fructose Malabsorption is, the symptoms, the foodplan, etc!

Tried to make it both fun and informative!

AVT

My novel is severely starting to frustrate me.

I’ve tried taking solace in new projects: a couple of short stories for a website, an entry in the Gilgamesh Press contest… but I don’t like staying away from it for too long.

I tried working on it another way… losing myself in background research, hammering out my timeline…. nothing. I even tried just PRINTING the damn thing ( as it is probably a BAD thing that none of my work has been printed out. A crash would be evil!), but my printer cartridges were dried out and dead! Aargh!

My sweetie got them going again - enough to print out a readable copy of my work (and he has set my computer to print out a test page every week to keep the ink good)… so now I’m hoping that old fashioned editing with a red pen will help me regain my focus.

It’s been said by someone famous enough for me to quote (but not famous enough for me to remember his/her name) that a blank page cannot be edited. In other words, write it out and don’t worry if it’s crap at first. Crap can be fixed.

Let’s hope so.

AVT

I had a rather delightful DUH! moment today!

My sweetie and I do almost all our grocery shopping at Safeway. Most things are more expensive, but the lighting is largely incandescent, the music is quiet, the store is clean and they have an awesome selection of organic food - not just produce but soups, pasta sauce, frozen stuff - you name it.

Why, why, why then was I surprised today to find they have had gluten-free bakery stuff all this time and I didn’t realize it? The Safeway bakery department has a wall of glass cabinets displaying fancy cakes and the like. Next to it is an upright freezer with boxes of frozen creampuffs, tartlet shells..AND A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF I NEVER BOTHERED TO LOOK AT!!

hmmmm…. I wonder what those could be?

Here’s a clue: when gluten-free bread is baked, you always slice it as soon as it’s cooled and store it IN THE FREEZER! That’s right! My local Safeway has gluten-free bread, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, pizza rounds…all from an Alberta company called Kinnikinnik.

YAY!!!! I bought bread and small pizza rounds!

I also found a new gluten-free mix at the health food store called Celimix brand. That had a zillion different kinds, and they don’t seem to rely on chickpea flour as much as Bob’s Red Mill does (which makes everything taste just a little like green beans). I bought the Hamburger bun mix - I’d like to give it a test run before BBQ season! Also, it uses very few ingredients, so maybe I’ll be able to recreate it from scratch!!

My mom has been telling everyone since the 1970’s that our diets were too restricted and all that wheat, peanuts, corn and soy was a bad idea. She has always advocated organic food and avoiding additives. I never SAW a cakemix or Jello or anything like that until I was an adult! Needless to say, she has quite the collection of cookbooks! She has lent me The All Natural Allergy Cookbook - Dairy-free and Gluten-free by Jeanne Marie Martin (1991) and The Food Intolerance Diet Book by E. Workman, Dr. V. Alun Jones, and Dr. J. Hunter (1986).

They both look really promising! The Carob/Chocolate cake looks very do-able and requires milk substitute. Though I have no problem with milk, I bought Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze almond milk. I want to make it according to the recipe before messing with it.

I think I need something to WORK to boost my ego!

AT

I was quite thrilled today to discover I sold my first article for usage rights from my online portfolio!

It was completely unexpected as I only just uploaded it!  I got the editor’s approval of the article and the sold notice virtually simultaneously in my inbox!  I wasn’t actually anticipating any sales yet, as I am still building my portfolio and haven’t even been able to upload a photo to my profile (tech is working on that).

The idea that despite all this, someone wanted to buy from me anyway makes me smile!  Makes me think that perhaps my work “speaks for itself”!

AVT

Well, as I mentioned yesterday my latest wheat-free baking was inedible.  I tried a classic wacky cake recipe.  If you’ve never baked Wacky Cake (and can have wheat) google the recipe and give it a go!  I grew up on Wacky Cake and it’s great.  Traditionally it’s chocolate, and the recipe was apparently developed in the Depression during food rationing.  Wacky Cake requires no eggs, no milk, and no butter.  It’s great for vegetarians, people allergic to eggs, lactose intolerance…. great cake.  Also, there’s no dirty dishes!  You put all the ingredients directly into the cake pan and stir it with a fork, so it’s perfect for kids.

I checked out a few websites and decided to substitute sorghum flour, potato flour and tapioca starch for the flour.  I also added 1/2 a teaspoon of xanthan gum to “capture” the air from the leavening.

They came out very flat.  I think part of the problem is I was TOO CONFIDENT since I’d baked this so many times before.  Traditional wheat Wacky Cake is VERY forgiving - I’ve even made it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (because I was out of veggie oil), Hot Chocolate Mix (because I was out of cocoa) and Malt Vinegar (because I had no white vinegar)..AND..I baked it in a loaf pan.  It still tasted good!  As a result I threw in a couple of handfuls of ground hazelnuts - I think this made the texture too course and allowed the air to escape.

I think I also need more xanthan gum, to capture the air.  The chocolate chips I threw in sank right to the bottom, the texture of the cupcakes was very crumbly and the bottoms were oily.  Everything separated.  The nice thing is, Wacky Cake is very cheap to make!

I picked up the America’s Test Kitchen Annual cooking magazine - a “best of” thing and there was a great recipe for Guinness Beef Stew.  I going to christen our slow cooker with it - though I can’t get hold of one bottle of Guinness!  I have to buy a whole six-pack and neither myself nor my sweetie are beer drinkers.  Also, I don’t know if Guiness has wheat.  I picked up a single large bottle of an English Ale - St. Peter’s Organic - which is apparently wheat-free, so I’ll try that.

I should get off the computer now, as I start my new job at the hardware store in the morning!

AVT

I’ve finally replaced my blog’s generic header image (now that I have de-fracked my Photoshop!). I’m no graphic artist, but the image will do for now!

My first article on Fructose Malabsorption Disorder is finished and will be uploaded to my portfolio on Constant Content in the morning - then it will take a couple of days for the editor to approve posting it. I start my part-time job on Monday, so Tuesday I’ll start on the next article - something more in-depth.

I think my article on Self-Respect vs. Vanity will be polished soon, and I was inspired today looking at, of all things, a bottle of water. According to the “Nutrient Value” label on the side, water’s not very good for you! All the entries were of course, zero, zero, zero. Water after all, has no vitamins or minerals or carbs. It struck me that, while the Nutrient Value label on foods can tell you many things - it is not giving you the whole story. I’ll have to keep that article very focused though, goodness knows the “food nutrition” articles are a dime a dozen.

My novel is really coming along! Now that I have Photoshop back, I made myself a photo montage desktop wallpaper using images of my novel’s main characters, so each time I boot up the computer I see them. I am very visual. The actors I have mentally “cast” are David Andrews (JAG,CSI) as the male lead, Chris Mulkey as his brother (and the female lead’s former fiancee), Olivia Hussey/Seeta Indrani as the female lead, and Patrick Kilpatrick/Nick Chinlund/Zachary Quinto as the villain.

My latest wheat-free baking attempt was inedible again. ~sigh~

I will upload pics and write an entry tomorrow.

AVT

Well, today is largely off for me - I’m giving myself a day off writing and baking because my sweetie and I are celebrating our fifth anniversary today!!

We’re not actually “married”, so we celebrate the anniversary of our first date (and since we moved in together a week later, it might as well have been our wedding, LOL!!).  We decided that since all our money is going into renovations we wouldn’t buy each other gifts, but traditionally the fifth anniversary is wood, so…  I think I’ll throw some more decking material on the Visa and call it his anniversary gift!

I’m also adding another link to my blog’s sidebar…. I’ve discovered Shelfari!  The idea is you create a profile for yourself which includes all the books you’ve read.. (and I’ve read some obscure books, but they were all in their database with cover art and everything!).  When people check out your profile, they see a virtual bookshelf with the books you’ve read on it. You can friend other people who’ve read the same books and join groups on shelfari.  Groups have their “recommended” virtual bookshelves.  You don’t have to have read those books to join, but checking out their selections really gives you a good idea about where they’re coming from as a group.

If you’re a reader, check it out!

AVT