An experiment goes awry

I think its time I explained a little more about Eleanor to you, since I've mentioned her several times...we are family friends from the camp we go to in Canada every summer...our grandparents were friends, our parents are friends...you get the point. Anyways, she lives in Charlottesville and works as a nurse...and since I'm here for two weeks, I can usually count on her to be at the house on the weekends and on her days off to help cook, rally kids, etc. Her mom says we're "kindred spirits"...too much alike for our own good!

Here she is, illustrating one of her duties...my recipe reader! (Her other duty is cleaning up the dishes once "hurricane Meg" goes through!



Ok, now on to the title of this blog post:

We "tried" to make Gluten Free Girl's cinnamon rolls recipe yesterday. Key word being "tried". I don't know whether we skimped on the butter, or whether the gluten free flour mix we used wasn't sufficient enough, or whether El's right in thinking I didn't add enough water to the dough...but they were just off...

Here they are, post first rise, pre second rise....they actually look picturesque....they better too! They were very time consuming! Rolling, and mixing, and any time I use yeast, things get pretty complicated!

Here they are post-bake, with cream cheese frosting added...isn't EVERYTHING better with cream cheese frosting?



The other exciting part of our day was watching this guy for awhile this morning...meet Lincoln! He is 18 months old and he is going places! Link's Dad, Geoff, is the farm manager here and so while Geoff was feeding the horses (a chore that I was all too willing to give over to him), El and I entertained this little man.

"MEG! I would love a clementine!"

After a nice long (and brisk) walk up the hilly road in front of the house, El and I made this yummy salad for lunch...greens, walnuts, red pepper, goat cheese, and an AWESOME tofu made right here in Virginia...gotta love the local grub!

And here is a picture of my biggest food success with the girls to date! Homemade lasagna...Tinkyada lasagna noodles,Victoria tomato basil pasta sauce, 93% lean & local ground beef, and ricotta cheese (but shh! I blended it with a bit of
tofu to add more protein...they didn't know the difference!)

According to Liza, I now need to change my wedding menu to include this lasagna!