Gluten Free Strawberries and Cream Swiss Roll

crappy pictures of our yummy dessert

Mr M and I recently celebrated our birthdays (they're only a couple days apart) and we made some yummy desserts to celebrate. It's been a long time since I shared a recipe or talked about specific things we make, but I've got two to share- one today, one tomorrow.

One advantage to having a June birthday is the abundance of strawberries. As a teenager I picked strawberries every summer for a local farmer and we could eat as many as we liked (though we usually didn't, since we got paid by the quart and the more you ate the less you were paid). Despite that, I still love strawberries.

For my cake, I made this super yummy strawberries and cream swiss roll.  Naturally, it had to be gluten free, so I subbed a gluten free flour blend (Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour). The advantage of using this blend is that I was able to do a straight substitution, though I did decrease the amount of flour the original recipe called for, as directed by the flour package (3/4 cup flour blend for 1 cup wheat flour).

I wasn't sure how the gf flour would react to being rolled up, but I followed the directions for rolling up the cake right out of the oven, and didn't have any problems unrolling, spreading the filling, and re-rolling the cake. No cracking or falling apart, so yay me!

The recipe called for 6 oz cream cheese, but I used the the whole 8 oz in the package, because what would we do with the leftover 2 oz of cream cheese? We don't eat many bagels in our house. The extra cream cheese made the cream portion thicker and harder to spread, but it tasted good :) I used the cool whip the recipe called for, but next time I'll try it with real whipped cream since we don't usually eat fake food like cool whip. I used it this time because I didn't want to mess with the original recipe too much the first time through.

I was half expecting the taste of that chemical-filled white cream in the Little Debbie strawberry shortcake rolls (I used to love those back when I was still eating gluten), but the cream cheese gave it a thicker, richer, much more satisfying taste. While there were chemicals from the cool whip, using real whipped cream would eliminate them.

We didn't have any strawberry jam, so I just sliced up some strawberries, sprinkled them with a bit of maple sugar (so yummy!), and mashed them a little with a potato masher. I then spread the lightly mashed strawberries on the cake, though I think using sliced, non-mashed strawberries would work well also.

This isn't a super-quick dessert: you need time for the cake to cool completely before you fill it, then it needs to sit in the fridge for at least an hour before you eat it. It takes a bit of time, but it wasn't hard to make. The hardest part was flipping the cake over onto the clean towel: I had visions of it falling to pieces in the process, but it didn't.

Everyone thought it was super yummy (Sunshine was almost licking her plate) and we will be making it again. Sunshine has declared this her "favorite cake ever!" My pictures are pretty crummy, but there's a very yummy-looking photo included with the original recipe, which totally pulled me in in the first place.

Six Years of Gluten Free Life

This is something I've been thinking about off and on for awhile now.

Back when we first found out I had celiac, I remember reading that some people can heal in 6 months, but others can take 1, 2, or even more years to fully heal. At the time, I felt so much better in such a short time that I was sure it wouldn't take long at all- I would be one of those who was healed in 6 months. I'm glad I didn't know back then just how long the healing process would be for me.

Last month I hit my 6 year anniversary of being gluten free, and as I look back I can see how much my health has improved, but at the same time, I can still see room for improvement.

The last 6 years have been like driving on hilly roads- up, down, up, down, up, down. I go through periods where I'm feeling good and making progress, but I also go through periods where it seems that everything I eat gives me problems and I don't feel good. And then I swing back to feeling better again.

A lot of this has to do with how I eat. Just gluten free isn't enough. GAPS made a huge difference, but it's not something I can do long term (nor is it meant to be), though I know I would benefit from doing it again. That'll have to wait till I'm no longer pregnant. Pregnancy and GAPS food do not agree with me.

The paleo diet mostly works for me, though I have to keep the nuts and coconuts to a minimum (a lot of paleo recipes call for nuts, nut flours, coconut milk, coconut flour, etc), and I'm tolerating dairy pretty well right now, so I do eat some dairy. I've also been eating small amounts of rice and potatoes for the carbs, but corn is problematic right now.

Even with the food issues I still deal with and the subsequent unresolved health issues, I really have come so far. I've been able to get pregnant (and stay pregnant) twice, and was able to breastfeed River with much more success than I did Sunshine in my pre-gluten free days. I have the energy to do hard things, like run half marathons and build patios and treehouses. I have the energy to keep up our kiddos during the day and work on projects after they're in bed. Maybe not so much right now, but I'm also 37 weeks pregnant, so my energy levels are suffering anyway :)

I still have to rest and take breaks, but I'm functioning on a much higher level than I used to. Pre-gluten free I was lucky to make it through the day and get dinner made. By the time dinner was done (or earlier), I was done.

Mentally I'm doing a lot better as well. The fuzzy brain is mostly gone and I remember things a lot better. I still forget a lot of things, but I cope with it a lot better (I write a lot of lists). My anxiety levels are only an issue when I'm eating things that don't agree with me (which is one of the sure signs that my food is off).

Sometimes it's easier to see how far I still need to go, but that just gets discouraging, so instead I try to focus on the progress I've made. I really have come a long way...

Sunday Funny

image via

Sunshine and Mr M were playing Settlers of Catan the other day, and this conversation resulted.

Sunshine (handing her blue cards to Mr M):  The blue cards are evil- put them on the bottom of the pile.

Mr M: What if I want to use one of mine on you?

Sunshine: You can't. I'm trying to set a good example for you.

Using Our New Fire Pit

Yesterday I shared the fire pit that we built, but it was a really long post, so I didn't share any pictures of it being used. Today's a new day, and a new post, so here's some pictures of us enjoying it, after I ramble for a bit :)

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Our gas grill died late this winter in a storm. The wind was so strong that it actually blew the whole thing over on its side, which knocked loose the gas fittings which were rusted anyway, rendering it unfixable and useless. Before hauling it to the dump, we salvaged the cooking grates to use with the fire pit.

The grates just fit across the top of the fire pit, but we were worried about the grates shifting around and falling in, so we hammered metal plates in between the joints of the first two rows of blocks and rested the grate the other direction on the plates. It's much more stable that way, though we're not sure of the longevity of the plates. They're corner braces leftover from the deck and treehouse that we flattened for the purpose. If these plates don't work out, we'll look into a different option, but this works for now and didn't cost anything.

Mr M has really missed our grill and we'll get a replacement one of these days, but in the meantime this will definitely be better than nothing.

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It rained again the evening of the day I finished the fire pit, so we waited a couple days before lighting our first fire and grilling hamburgers and toasting marshmallows.

the last burger finishing up

not sure I like the aesthetics of the metal plates we used, but like I said, they do the job

we moved the grate out of the way and toasted our marshmallows

Sunshine cheesing it up

We need to come up with a better solution for our firewood so we don't have a stack of wood sitting directly on the grass, killing it and looking ugly. That'll come later though, after I've had time to think about it.

I'm also going to make a cover out of outdoor fabric to go over the top of the fire pit and keep leaves and other debris out of the fire pit. I probably won't get around to it until after the baby's born, but I will definitely get it done before fall arrives and the leaves and acorns cover everything.

So far we're enjoying the fire pit and looking forward to using it often. I love it when a project turns out so well!

Simple DIY Fire Pit

I finished up my part of the shed project (organizing and stairs), so last week while Mr M continued working on the ramp I started the fire pit. I mentioned back in my final patio post that I was still planning on building a fire pit next to the patio. After looking at what was available locally and not super expensive, I picked out some blocks and figured out how many we'd need. I consulted this blog post for ideas, but since I wanted a rectangular fire pit I couldn't do things exactly the same.

We purchased the materials in three separate batches since we were dealing with a fairly significant amount of weight. The second and third batches each weighed around 1200-1500 pounds, which is all our trailer and CRV can handle.

The first batch of materials was the paver base and several blocks so I could make sure everything fit properly.

the rough outline of where I need to start digging for the base of the fire pit

River helped push the bucket as I pulled it, and was so proud of himself for helping

paver base area dug, leveled, and back-filled

layer of sand on top of the dirt (we had the sand already and didn't need to purchase it)

pavers in place and leveled

the inner section isn't as level because the fire pit shell won't be resting on it

solid and level base to build the fire pit on

This was the hardest part, as I expected. We don't have dirt, we have clay, and it's a pain to dig up and an even bigger pain to try to level. I ended up getting it close to level then back-filling with some dirt Mr M had dug out while working on the shed ramp (all the leaves and vegetation had made the dirt a little better than the clay by the patio). Back-filling with dirt made it a lot easier to get a level surface.

Adding to the level of difficulty was the high heat and humidity. I was dripping sweat and had to keep stopping for breathers. It sucked, but I got through it in less than an afternoon.

The second batch of materials was the cinder blocks for the interior and half the blocks for the outer shell of the fire pit. We also purchased 2' lengths of rebar, a masonry drill bit, 2 tubes of landscaping adhesive, and two bags of lava rock.

I drilled holes through the center pavers, then hammered in rebar to hold the cinder blocks in place.

this is where I realized I can't count and needed two more cinder blocks.

once the cinder blocks were in place, I started stacking the blocks for the outer shell, gluing in place with landscape adhesive

I filled in the cinder block holes with lava rock, but it took one bag to fill the holes for one stack, which was more than I thought it would take

half the blocks we needed allowed us to build up four rows, which is just above the level of the patio

this is another area I mis-measured: each row has a block that had to be cut down to fit

Mr M was kind enough to stop working on the shed ramp and take over drilling pilot holes (very tedious) so we could split the blocks to fit the space. I put the leftover pieces in the cinder block holes, which meant the lava rock only needed to be in the very top portion of each hole.

Drilling the holes for the rebar was tedious and our rechargeable drill batteries didn't really appreciate all the work I was asking them to do, but they got the job done. When Mr M drilled the pilot holes to split the blocks he pulled out our heavy-duty corded drill, which did the job a lot better. The only problem was that the drill bit was definitely on the duller side by then. I was skeptical of the adhesive being effective, but it actually does work and holds the blocks in place. Stacking the blocks went pretty quickly, the long part was all the drilling. Even then we were able to finish this portion in just a couple hours.

I decided to put cinder blocks in the center for extra support and stability and to raise the interior floor. The fire pit is tall enough that it would be awkward and problematic to have the fire clear down at the bottom. Two layers of cinder blocks raises the interior floor about half way up the height of the fire pit.

The third batch of materials was two more cinder blocks for the interior (since apparently I can't count or measure) and the other half of the blocks for the fire pit shell. We also purchased three more tubes of landscape adhesive and two more bags of lava rock.

six rows of blocks in place

center cinder blocks in place, leftover block pieces in the cinder block holes under the lava rock

two bags of lava rock on top of the cinder blocks

finished fire pit

This portion of the project only took a couple hours since it only consisted of splitting four blocks, finishing off the lava rock filler, and gluing the last four rows of blocks.

We had some pretty torrential rain the night before I finished the fire pit, so while I waited for the blocks to dry out (we had to wait for the sun to clear the trees and actually hit the fire pit) I worked on splitting the four blocks I'd need for the four remaining rows. Mr M drilled all the way through each block he did, but I was too lazy, impatient, tired, sweaty, (pick your adjective...) to do that. Plus my hands are too small to comfortably hold down the power button on the heavy-duty drill, which is in an awkward position, so it was hard to keep the drill on for any length of time. I drilled in an inch or so and then took the four pound hammer to the blocks. His method was neater, but mine was quicker and less work :)

drilling holes in a straight line is harder than it looks

after drilling, I hammered along the line of holes, then along the line on the short side, then along the line on the back. this shows the back of the block

and the front of the block

three of the four blocks I split- you can see how far I didn't drill into each one

because my lines weren't super straight, I used the hammer to knock off the worst of the uneven edges

since all the blocks have rough corners and knocked-off bits, it didn't matter if I wasn't super neat with my splitting and clean-up

one of Mr M's {neater} blocks. it still needed some whacks from the hammer, though

I thought about placing thinner cap pieces that are wider than the rest of the blocks on the top row of blocks, but our local Lowe's didn't have them in the right color, so I didn't. I think it looks fine as-is, but if we find cap stones in the right color, we may add them just to make it look a bit more finished.

All told, this project was completed over the course of three days last week, working a few hours each day. After the patio and treehouse, this was positively speedy! If the weather wasn't so hot and muggy, we had all the materials gathered ahead of time, and we were both working on it, we could have finished this project in one longish day.

Materials:
We ended up using 88 Ashland Olde Manor retaining wall blocks to build the fire pit itself, 8 cinder blocks for the center support, and 12 pavers for the base. 5 tubes of landscape adhesive, 4 bags of lava rock, 8 two foot lengths of rebar, and a masonry drill bit rounded our our purchases. We also used a bag of sand as paver base.

I like the gray color of the Allegheny Olde Manor retaining wall blocks, but in person I thought they looked a little too much like roughed-up cinder blocks. Since that wasn't the look we were going for, we went with the brown tones of the Ashland Olde Manor blocks. There's still some gray tones but the major color scheme is brown, and I think the overall result looks nice and will look good with the patio once we stain it.

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The blocks aren't supposed to be stacked higher than two feet, but the fire pit ended up a little higher than that. I figured it was ok since it's in the shape of an interlocking rectangle, rather than a retaining wall that could fall over. I wanted the extra height because of little boys:

While standing on the ground, there's no way River could fall in, and even while on the patio he has to stand on tippy-toes to look in. If we stay here and don't end up selling the house we'll have another little boy running around eventually, so taller is better.

It's a pretty basic fire pit, but it suits our needs and I'm happy with how it turned out. Even better, it didn't take forever and wasn't too difficult to accomplish.

the new view from our patio: treehouse, yard, trampoline, and fire pit

The Foot Book

image via

Mr M finally got his foot looked at by a specialist. We ended up having to wait a couple weeks after he returned home because we had to wait for the paperwork that would make sure everything was paid for by the military. Our insurance would take care of it, but we'd still have co-pays and such. The paperwork ensures we don't have to pay anything.

The specialist took a bunch of x-rays (more than the last doc took), and said that the joint looks fine. No bone shards, healing fine. No surgery needed, come back in a month for a follow-up.

Wait, what?

That was not what we were expecting after his last doctor appointment where he was told he needed surgery and wasn't going to be deploying.

No surgery needed is good news, but it does raise some questions.

Is his unit going to want him to do the deployment after all? This was my main initial concern, but Mr M says that won't happen- he's completely off this one.

Since his unit won't make him do the deployment, does that mean we can finally move forward with transferring to a more local unit? We thought we'd have to wait a few more months to make the move. We've been losing money every drill period since we moved here five years ago. Plane tickets, hotel reservations, and rental car fees cost more than he makes for each drill period, even when they give him a travel stipend, which has only happened over the last year or so and doesn't come close to covering the costs. Transferring to a more local unit would save us so much money, and hopefully hassle. Dealing with issues with his unit from across the country is not super effective.

While we do have questions and have to wait to see what happens, we are very happy that he's home and will be here when the baby's born.

It also means we can move forward with the job hunt without worrying about surgery and recuperation interfering with the process, which is definitely a good thing. On the other hand, it means we don't have a lot of time to find a good job. We thought we'd have till next spring to find a job, now we have to find one right away. We never stopped looking, but have stepped things up since Mr M returned home.

Shed Projects, Part 2

Last week Mr M continued working on the shed ramp while I got working on another project (more on that tomorrow). I'd finished organizing the shed and installing the stairs, so it was time to move on before the heat got any worse.

Sunshine helped screw the ramp planks into the support boards underneath

Sunshine working on the boards while Mr M worked on the pavers

pavers in place

Mr M got the ramp to this point, then decided it needed some better drainage. After some thought, he decided to dig trenches and put hardware cloth-wrapped lava rock tubes in them. So he pulled the pavers back out and dug a trench at the end of the wood planks and along the sides. 

poly-resin hardware cloth filled with lava rock and formed into a tube with zip ties

tube along the side of the ramp waiting to be closed up

hopefully water will follow the path of the tube, redirecting from the end of the ramp, along the side of the ramp, and down the hill in front of the shed

After leveling the tube area at the end of wood ramp as best he could, he put the pavers back in place. The pavers closest to the wood ramp rest on the lava rock tube.

River coming over to inspect Mr M's work

The two large rocks beyond the ramp were dug out in the process of getting the ramp built

Lava rock tube along the side still uncovered

We need to rake out and level the dirt around the ramp and drainage tube, but I think we're calling it finished for now. We need to save up for a couple truckloads of gravel for the carport area, and when we do we'll put some of the gravel under the pavers as a better base and around the ramp, covering the lava rock tube and all the surrounding dirt/mud. The gravel should help with drainage as well as to help mitigate the mud mess.

Weekly Workout

Last week I still didn't hit the treadmill, but I worked on projects and I got a good amount of walking in on Wednesday. We  walked around DC with my sister and nephew (they were out for a National History Day contest that he was participating in). It was hot and humid all week last week, but thankfully Wednesday was slightly cooler and it even rained on us twice while we were walking around. This wasn't a bad thing since it helped us cool off a little :)

I forgot to wear my fitbit, so I don't know how far we walked, but it was at least 3-4 miles. Those miles were a mix of flat areas, hills, pushing Phil, not pushing Phil, etc.

Pushing Phil was actually easier except when we were going uphill. Phil gave me something to lean on and helped me walk a bit more normally. I've definitely had the pregnancy waddle going on the last couple weeks when I do much walking, and the stroller helped me walk better.

My nephew had a busy schedule with his National History Day stuff, but we managed to hit up the Air and Space Museum and the National History Museum while we hung out with him and my sister.

We went to our old standby Chipotle for lunch, but tried the ShopHouse for dinner. It's a small chain owned by Chipotle, with only a few restaurants, mostly in the LA and DC areas. Their food is all gluten free and influenced by Thai and Vietnamese flavors, focused on rice or rice noodle bowls that you build. Rice or noodles topped with protein and veg, then topped with a sauce and a garnish. You pick and choose your combination of the five items.

I thought it was pretty good, but a bit spicy, even though I tried to pick less-spicy items. River and Sunshine also thought the food was a bit spicy. Mr M didn't have a problem with the spiciness and I don't think my sister and nephew had a problem with it either. The price is similar to Chipotle's burrito/burrito bowl, so not super expensive. It's nice to be able to eat somewhere new without having to worry about gluten contamination and we will probably eat there again if we're in the same area.

For some reason none of us took any pictures until we were waiting for the metro. So we have a picture with crappy lighting of Sunshine, River, and my nephew. We were surprised that we got a smile out of River since it was almost 9 pm and he'd been up since 6:30 am and had only had a single 5 minute nap all day. The second we put him in his car seat he finally gave in and went to sleep.

Sunday Funny

Back in the winter I mentioned how much River hated his snow boots.

As the weather got warmer, I started looking for sandals or something similar for the summer. The only problem? River freaks out anytime I try something on him.

We have some sandals from his cousin, but when I put them on him, he refused to move and acted like his feet were nailed to the floor.

Sunshine had some generic crocs when she was his age, so I gave those a try when I saw some in the store. He was sitting in the shopping cart, so his feet never touched the floor, but he still didn't want anything to do with them. I thought because they were lightweight he wouldn't get so upset, but apparently they were too rigid or something- he started crying once they were on his feet.

wearing his Skidders

He's been wearing Robeez (and similar brands) of leather shoes and rubber soled Skidders, which are lightweight and flexible but more waterproof than the Robeez. Sunshine had a couple pair of Skidders when she was his age, so when I saw them in the store I bought a pair for him. He likes wearing them and they're great for wearing in the mud outside. I had resigned myself to keeping him in the Skidders for awhile longer, but of course now I can't find them at Target. I checked Amazon and ebay and found some, and even found some pool shoe-style Skidders. They're not sandals, but I think they'll do. I ordered a pair of canvas-shoe style Skidders (same as in link, but in blue) and a pair of the pool shoe-style Skidders.

Unfortunately, they're a bit too big for him still. The physical size differences between the available sizes is a bit too large, in my opinion: the smaller size is too small, but the bigger size is too big. Hopefully he'll grow into them soon.

In the meantime, Mr M finally convinced River to give one of his hand-me-down sandals a try. He wasn't thrilled with the idea still, but at least he let Mr M put them on his feet. We were all super encouraging (which works surprisingly well with River), so he kept them on and even tried walking in them. He still acted like he had 5 pound weights on his feet, but he gave them a try. He spent the next couple days wearing them around the house, tripping over his feet and clomping around, but he wore them.

The longer he wears them, the more he grows accustomed to them, but he still clomps around. It's funny that shoes are such an issue for him.

Shed Projects, Part 1

our shed when we first bought it, with our sad attempt at a garden in front

We finished the treehouse, so last week we moved on to our next project.

We bought our garden shed about two and a half years ago, but hadn't done much more with it besides fill it with stuff. In our effort to finish projects and make things have more curb appeal, we turned our attentions to the shed. Mr M worked on the ramp for the double doors while I worked on organizing the inside of the shed.

The Shed Ramp
There's a bit of a drop off from the shed double doors to ground level, so Mr M would put boards down in order to get the lawnmower in and out of the shed. It worked, but it wasn't a great long-term solution. When I was working on the patio I bought some 8' boards and cut them in half to build a ramp, but it turned out to be a flawed idea. We've had a lot of rain recently, and we noticed that mud was accumulating at the end of the ramp, close to the shed doors. There was still a lip between the ramp and the shed floor, so the mud wasn't going into the shed, but we knew that could change with a really hard rain.

So we tried a couple other designs to eliminate the mud problem. The first design consisted of the 4' boards sloping away from the shed and pavers sloping down to the shed. Because of the slope leading to the shed we had problems getting the angles right, and the combination of pavers and boards didn't look very professional. As I've mentioned before, looks matter in our projects since we have to keep an eye out for re-sale value.

4' boards and pavers, not very aesthetically pleasing

Because of all the digging Mr M had done to get the pavers in place, we realized we had another option for the ramp. If we extended the length of the boards, we could bring the ramp out further up the hill and we could direct mud under the ramp.

This unfortunately meant we had to go buy more boards, but at least we could re-use most of the original shorter boards under the ramp, as part of the support structure.

8' boards in place, pavers kind of in place, checking to see if we like the result

8' boards nailed to each other and the support boards that rest on pavers

This was as far as the project got last Saturday, but we've made more progress this week, so there'll be more pictures next week.

Inside the Shed
When we bought the shed, it was a blank slate: (those are extra shingles in the far right corner)

While Mr M played in the dirt, I worked in the shed. I thought I had a picture showing the chaos, but I don't. Rest assured that it was bad and it was hard to move or find anything in the shed. At one point I had moved a counter and two base cabinets from the basement to the shed for a work surface. The space between the base cabinets ended up being a collecting space for all the wood scraps that are leftover after my projects.

I actually sorted these bins of scraps last fall, which left piles of wood on the floor under and in front of the counter and on top of the counter.

A glimpse of the chaos from last fall, which isn't as bad as what it was more recently

Trying to organize leftover pieces of wood last fall for use in future projects

I cleared out the bins of wood scraps (the patio and treehouse generated a lot more scraps), put up shelves for the scraps I wanted to keep, organized the wood scraps on the shelves, and chucked some stuff that's just been taking up space and not being used for anything. I put away tools and labeled the drawers in our metal storage cabinet. Basically I worked to find a spot for everything, and make sure that we could easily find what we needed without moving things around more than necessary.

Now we can actually use all the doors (the front door has been blocked for some time), and we can even walk easily through the shed. Junk was piling up on the sides, and with the lawnmower in the shed, space was getting tight. Add in a pregnant belly, and it was not easy for me to work my way to the counter end of the shed.

Shed Stairs

That big rock was the only step we've had to the front door of the shed since we bought it. Since we were working on making the shed more user-friendly and "finished", I decided to finally build some stairs. I forgot to take a picture before I started, though, so here you can see where I had started digging for the paver bases of the stair stringers.

After digging in pavers to rest the stair stringers on, I attached the tops of the stair stringers to the shed frame. The final step was adding on stair treads. I used Trex decking leftover from the kitchen stairs and deck because it wasn't being used for anything else and I didn't want to purchase materials that weren't really necessary.

that bin of wood scraps (and the two others next to it) will be taken to the dump soon

since a lot of the scraps are treated wood we can't burn them

you can actually walk through the door now!

The hardest part of this project was dealing with the heat and humidity. The temps got into the low 90's, and the heat index was in the high 90's once you added in the humidity. Ick! The ramp area was in full sun for most of the afternoon and inside the shed was like a sauna, even with all the doors open. Double ick!

We guzzled water and gatorade and soldiered on. We're definitely at the end of our window for finishing our outdoor projects. We'll finish up what we're working on, but the rest of the projects will have to wait till it cools down in the fall.