Instead of this hat:
I guess all those people who saw me pulling weeds at the entrance station thought I took a really wrong turn on the way to work this morning. OOPS!
FabGrandma has moved! Come visit me at my new website, Fabgrandma.com
I know if I refused to participate in these Meme's that 1. people would stop tagging me, and 2. people would stop reading me. So what are you gonna do? I was tagged by Witchypoo over at Psychicgeek, who really makes me laugh, so I have to do this.
The tag is for a Meme, in which I have to list eight things I want to do before I die. Once upon a time, there was a lot of things I wanted to do, and places I wanted to go, so it would have been really easy to this several years ago. But now? It has taken me days to think about this. I have most of what I want, and have been to or have plans in the works for going to most of the places I want to go. So, yeah, this one has been hard for me.
1. I want to lose 50 pounds. And somehow, I often think that I will die much too early if I don't lose 50 pounds. I really need to do this one because I want to be around to still be FabGrandma for my gran chilluns.
2. I want to learn how to speak Spanish fluently. I want to do this because I will need to know how to do it if I get to:
3. Spend the winter in La Paz, Mexico, down at the end of the Baja. I want to loll on the beach, eat fish tacos til I pop, and take a ferry ride over to that island where the Blue Footed Boobies live.
4. I want to add Blue Footed Boobies to my lifetime list. For those of you who are not birdwatchers, a lifetime list is "just" a list of the different birds you have seen whilst birdwatching.
5. I want to publish a cookbook. Yeah, Me. I have one in the works, but have not gotten very far with it. A few years ago, all the members of my family--sister, sisters-in-love, nieces, some nephews, mother, etc., all wrote down our recipes and made up a family cookbook. All the new brides in our family get a copy of it, and let me tell you, it has probably saved a couple of marriages on that side of the family. But this new cookbook I have in mind is solely my creation, and will remain secret until I get further down the road with it.
6. I want to own a really good digital camera. Not a cheap one. I want one with multiple lenses, that will take excellent pictures of Blue Footed Boobies and Gluten Free Cherry Pie. One that will cost a month's pay, but that will let me take pictures worthy of selling and suitable for framing.
7. A short term goal I have is to have to buy new pants before this season is over in mid-October.
I ain't telling what size I wear, just suffice it to say it is way too big. And even one size smaller would be one small step for womankind, and make this old lady very happy. Oh, and this is probably almost the same as #1, but because it is so important, I have put it in here twice, and because if I accomplish this one, it will help me to accomplish #8:
8. I want to be able to hike the Grand Canyon on the Kaibab Trail, from the North Rim to the South Rim. I want to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. I want to drench myself in the Colorado River, and see for myself the waterfalls at Havasu Falls, Ribbon Falls, and Roaring Springs. Even seeing one of them would make it for me.
So, there you have it. I am not tagging anyone to do this, but if you decide on your own to list your eight things you want to do before you die, please come back here and leave a comment so I will know you have done it and I can come over and read what you want to do, OK?
Kindness
Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Today I wanted to try again to make a pie. It’s not hard to make a pie when you can eat wheat—all you have to do is go to the store, buy a frozen pie crust, put in the filling, and bake. Viola! It’s a pie. Yum.
Not so when you can’t eat gluten. You have to try recipe after recipe, have them turn out crappy, and eat them anyway because the ingredients are so expensive you can’t afford to waste them.
So, after many pieless months, I tried again today. This pie turned out pretty good. The crust was flaky and brown, but it was a little too flaky. It fell apart. It tasted good, though. Next time I will use less Crisco, maybe ¼ cup, and roll it out thicker. Also, even though the filling was very tasty, I think it needed more tapioca starch, maybe another tablespoon or so.
Here is the recipe, feel free to tweak it, maybe it will work better for you if you do:
½ cup buckwheat flour
½ cup white rice flour
½ cup corn starch
½ cup tapioca starch
3 Tbls potato flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
½ cup Crisco
¼ cup butter
Mix all the dry ingredients well in a bowl. Cut the Crisco and butter into little diced pieces. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix in the Crisco and butter until it resembles small peas. Add cold water, a little at a time, until the dough sticks together to form a ball. Divided the dough into tow pieces, one of them abut two thirds of the dough and the other one third of the dough. Shape into balls, and put in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Take the dough out of the freezer. Work the large ball into a flattened circle. Place the circle of dough onto some plastic wrap. Roll out to about ¼ inch thick, enough to fit into an 8 inch pie pan and overlap the sides. Carefully place the pie crust into the pie pan, and remove the plastic wrap. Push the dough to fit the pan, then trim off the excess from the sides. Pour in the filling.
Prepare the top crust the same way as the bottom. Place on top of the pie, trim off the excess. Use your fingers or a fork to press the two crusts edges together. Cut two or three slits in the top crust. Place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for one hour.
And, here is the filling recipe I used:
Apple Berry Pie:
5 apples, peeled and sliced
1 pear, peeled and sliced
½ cup fresh raspberries, washed
1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled, washed and cut in half
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
juice of ½ lime
¼ cup butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 Tbls tapioca starch
Place all ingredients in a large saucepan with a lid. Cook on medium heat for 25 minutes. Stir often to keep from burning or sticking to the pan.