My Momma Said Monday's

The day after Christmas 2006 my world was rocked to it's core and changed forever. I got the call well before anyone else was awake in my house, my Momma, my best friend was gone from this earth. I think about her ALL. THE. TIME. Not a day goes by when I don't think of her at least once, remembering something we did together, talked about or shared. When I look at my hands as they type or craft, I see her's (I also see her wedding band that is remarkably similar to my own). When I sit at the sewing machine to sew, it is her machine, that still smells like her.

Lately I have been thinking about her a lot, probably not more often then before but something about these thoughts lately have made me want to get them down on paper. I am constantly remembering her advise about cooking, sewing, and just life in general and I want to remember these things forever. So I came up with the idea for My Momma Said Monday's. Each week I will share one of My Momma's tips with you my readers! She was full of amazing, yet simple advise. Not all of it will be earth shattering, some you may already know, but for me the combination of them all has helped me get through life!

I would also love for you all to share your tips from your momma, or grandma or aunts with your readers and link back here so we can all learn together!

This weeks tip:

How to keep celery from going bad!

I am terrible about buying vegetables only to let them go bad before using them, part of this is they get put in the wrong drawer or they are in the garage fridge (out of sight, out of mind). About 8 years ago my mom was up visiting us in Bremerton, WA and told me that all I had to do to keep celery crisp was to simply wrap it in tin foil before placing it in the fridge, that's it, easy peasy. I have done so ever since, of course except when I forget, or when the kids put it away. But seriously this WORKS and works well!

So what tips do you have to share? Please put my button on the bottom of your post if you chose to link up! I can't wait to read all the cool tips.

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Gluten Free Friday Kickoff!

For the past couple of months I have been getting used to the idea that my life is now gluten free. It has been a hard transition and I am still learning a lot about how to be completely gluten free. I became gluten free after reading my friend Carrie's blog, Organic and Thrifty, and more specifically a book she recommended called "Why do I Still have Thyroid Symptoms? When my Lab Tests are Normal" My hair is no longer falling out, my vision is no long blurred throughout the day and my energy level is definitely up. If I do cheat and have some gluten I can definitely tell so I try to stay on the straight and narrow. I am grateful that I do not have severe symptoms from eating gluten.

So for my first Gluten Free Friday recipe I have made over one of my families all time favorites.

Coke Roast

Ingredients

2-3 lb roast
2 boxes of Pacific Natural Foods Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 packets of Road's End Organics Gluten Free Quick Gravy mix
24 oz of Coke (full sugar not diet)
5 Carrots
5 Celery Stalks
1 Large Onion
15-20 Fingerling Potatoes (not pictured)
10-20 Button Mushrooms

Chop up all the vegetables and place in the bottom of your crock pot. Place roast, fat side up, in the crock pot on top of the vegetables. Combine soups, gravy mix and soda in a mixing bowl and pour over your roast. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours. Flipping the roast about 1/2 way through the cooking time helps it to cook evenly.

Once the cooking time is up I usually make some gravy out of the juices and sauce mix. To do this I put 2 tablespoons of butter along with 2 tablespoons of gluten free flour mix in a pan on the stove to create a roux. Once the roux looks right I add as much of the juices as I need to make enough gravy for our family. I also add beef bouillon to this mixture to taste.

Enjoy!

I now invite you to link up one of your families favorite gluten free recipes. And please remember to use my button on the bottom of your post so that others can link up as well.

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Well Hello My Friends

Wow, long time no blog. Lets just say life got busy and the ole blog got neglected. I have had tons of ideas for the blog that have been swirling around in my head and now is the time to just dive in and get started. So in the next few weeks expect to see some new happenings on my blog. I have been knitting up a storm, decluttering before our next military move and taking care of sick kiddos for the past few weeks. I have also been laid off so I now have a lot more time to do crafty stuff and keep my blog up to date.

The traveling monsters are coming to an end here soon but I hope to at least post a few pictures of the adventures of my twins in the next week so you can see where they have been and how much fun they had on their travels. I will also post about our visitors and their adventures with us.

I have recently been told I needed to go gluten free so I have started altering some recipes so that the entire family including myself can enjoy them, I hope to post at least one recipe a week that I have altered to fit my new gluten free lifestyle. I am going to call it Gluten Free Fridays and I hope those of you who are also gluten free will link up your favorite posts on the subject, so get your recipes ready!

Another thing I have been thinking about a lot lately are the tips and tricks my mom taught me before she passed. I hope to share one a week here with all of you so that you can benefit from her wisdom as well. This is so I can keep a record of them for my children as well. So be thinking of the tips and tricks your mom's, grandma's, aunts and friends have taught you.

Hope this blog post finds you all happy and healthy!