Below Stairs

I'm left with the feeling of not loving this book or the lady who wrote it. It was kind of a depressing story. She started service at about 15 and took the job of a kitchen maid because she didn't want to sew and all the other female servants had to sew. Her mother knew that it was a hard job but thought things had changed and it would be better. She was wrong, it was a grueling job and she was treated like the lowest of the low by the other servants. Every morning she had to clean the brass on the front door and the steps with her bum sticking up in the air, it was humiliating. Also the downstairs level, the servants level, was primitive at best and nothing was done to make their jobs easier. The employers didn't want to spend any more money then they had to. Not ever job she had was like this, but most of them were. She graduated to a cook later in her career and no longer had a cook pushing her around. Cooks were given more respect, but she had more interaction with her employer now and they could be demanding and unappreciative. She really wasn't much of a cook when she started so she was only employed by people who couldn't get anyone else. She didn't have her own kitchen maid so she still had to do the cleaning up.

 Julian Fellows who wrote Downton Abby wrote on the back of the book that this story inspired his writing of Downton Abby but I didn't see much comparison. She didn't work on a big estate in the country and her employers were usually not that wealthy. Once she got a temporary job for someone who's cook was sick and she loved it and was treated wonderfully and had a very nice bedroom but unfortunately it was only for a few months, but it did show that there were good jobs out there, she just never seem to get them. I think it was hard to tell before you started to work what your employer was going to be like and what you would have to put up with.

Her story had a very Dickens feel to it. She came from a poor family and ended up marrying a milkman and having 3 children and were also poor. I think I've had my fill of this kind of story now.

 Linda

Flax Meal Muffins and Dairy Free Tips

Chelsie's Cinnamon Cranberry Flax Muffins

The last few baking recipes haven't turned out that well, but this one did. I made a few changes. I used dried cranberries instead of fresh. I was afraid to use 3 tablespoons of cinnamon so I only used 1. 1t was good I could taste the cinnamon. I used stevia instead of the sugar-free syrup along with water as she suggested. I didn't have an orange to grate so I left that out, but it sounds like it would be a nice addition. I'm finding I like things with flax meal, it has a nice flavor. The coconut flour so far has not been a hit with me.

Flax seed meal can also be used as an egg replacer. You just mix 1 tabs. of flax meal with 3 tabs. of water and mix until it become gelatinous to replace 1 egg.

Gluten-free and grain-free are not always the same thing. All things grain-free should be gluten-free, but gluten-free is not necessarily grain-free. Grain-free baking uses almond flour, coconut flour, flax meal or soy flour. There are also other nut flours and you can make your own.

Vegan has become my new best friend since I figured out that it is dairy free. So now when I see something labeled as vegan I know it will be dairy free.

Milk replacers are almond milk, soy milk, rice milk and coconut milk. I haven't tried the cheeses except for the one I mention below. Most of them are made from soy and aren't very good. At least that is what I've heard.

I haven't found a replacement for sour cream yet.

You're suppose to be able to replace buttermilk with soy milk and lemon juice or vinegar 2 tabs. to 1 cup.

Yogurt your can buy coconut or soy versions.

I replace butter with coconut oil or a faux butter called Earth Balance.

Cashew cream is a replacement for cream and canned coconut milk or cream can be whipped. I haven't tried these but my dd has. You make cashew cream by blending cashews and water. I'm lucky both my dd and a friend of hers have experimented with a lot of this already. Here's a link for the whipped coconut cream and the cashew cream.

My dd got me a faux cream cheese at Trader Joe's that is pretty good. It's made out of coconut oil, it does have soy in it which some people are allergic to.

The About.com site has lots of information on different kinds of diets. It's a good source of information, this recipe came from the low carb diets section. If you follow it you can get to other info. There is a blog and
you can also subscribe to newsletters with recipes and info. I also get a dairy-free one and I'm sure they have gluten-free.

Linda

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Broccoli and Healthy Green Kitchen

I was looking for a different recipe for broccoli and found this. She calls it the best broccoli of your life. It's roasted broccoli and I'm sure if I'll like roasted broccoli but decided to give it a try because of all the other things she adds to the broccoli. I'm trying to get away from plain veggies. She also has a link to a recipe for roasted broccoli and shrimp which I want to try.

Here is another one for a broccoli and bacon salad. It's a low fat recipe and I don't care about that but I like the idea of broc. and bacon, also cranberry and red onion. So I think I'll try this one too.

I found an interesting site Healthy Green Kitchen. She is doing a post each week called One Simple Change
I love this kind of thing. She started it in Jan. and the link I gave you is the archive page so they are all there. I was happy to see that so far I'm doing a lot of them already, but I did see a few things that I could try. I esp. liked the sixth post Fresh Air Every Day.

Linda

Surprised By Oxford

I was sad to finish this book, Surprised By Oxford by Carolyn Weber. I didn't want to leave Oxford. It tells the spiritual journey of a woman who goes to Oxford to study literature. Oxford seems like an unlikely place to find God, but she does. She considered herself an agnostic. I enjoyed reading about her adventure of coming to faith. She meets a lovely man who answers many of her questions and challenges her to read the Bible for herself. It just reminded me that faith is a gift and needs to be nurtured. My own spiritual life has been a little dry lately so it helped me to remember how special it is to have faith and how it is a process and that it needs to continue to grow. She was challenged to read the Bible and that changed her a lot. I've been thinking I need to challenge myself to get back to reading the Bible more and looking at it with new eyes like a person that has never read it before. Sometimes reading a new version does that.

 This book was very descriptive of life in Oxford as a student and that was a lot of fun to read. I found that Carolyn has a blog here and if you are interested in literature it is a good place to hang out. She is now a professor, wife and mother.

I'm going to leave Oxford now for a little while to read Below Stairs, but plan to revisit with some C.S. Lewis reading later.

Linda

Vegetables

Link This is a recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Hollindaise. The photo and recipe are from Food Network site.

I've decided (another project) to try and eat more vegetables and I'm starting with this recipe. Hopefully tonight. I love asparagus and roasted asparagus is divine, so adding the sauce is really gilding the lily, but I wanted to kick it up a notch. I will have to replace the butter with faux butter and hope it works.

 I'm having chicken tenders with this breaded with almond flour and fried. I also want to do something with tomatoes. If I get a chance to go to the grocery store I'll get some and make herbed tomatoes or this recipe for Tomato Provencal.

Linda

Chocolate Scones Gluten and Grain Free

Here is the original recipe Chocolate Ginger Scones.

I made a few changes. I didn't want to use the ginger so I added chocolate chunks and pine nuts instead. I think walnuts would have been better. I also made some other changes because of my sensitive tummy. I use stevia as a sweetener so I used all stevia and left out the erythritol which can give you tummy troubles. I also used grape seed oil instead of coconut oil for the same reason. I just have to be very careful right now and I know what things can bother me. The other change is I use almond milk instead of heavy cream. I left off the glaze because I didn't think it needed it. These were easy and pretty good, but they did dry out after a couple of days, so best eaten the first day or two. I wanted to show you how you can substitute different sweeteners, fats and milks. You could use regular sugar and butter instead of coconut oil. The only thing you can't change is the almond flour unless you change it for another nut flour.

Linda

Projects

Well I finished another cross-stitch. The is called "The Embroiderer". So now I'm going to try and finish this large sampler that I started several years ago. I hope to actually finish it this time.

My Rotating Project List is working. I've got 4 areas that I'm working on and hope to add more. One is hobbies and specifically UFO (unfinished objects), Reading or study is the next. I'm trying to get all these books from the library read. I just got "Below Stairs" by Margaret Powell today. I'm anxious to read this one but I'm currently reading Surprised By Oxford, which I'm loving. Another area is health and specifically gluten and grain free baking. Lastly home focused on deep cleaning projects. I want to add a couple of more areas, but am waiting for inspiration to hit. I think garden might be one as we get into spring.


Linda