Mental Health Break...

Yesterday was a mental health break. I started the morning early making sachets and then went shopping for essentials: like milk and cat litter. I went to WalMart- where I rarely ever go, but when I do only pre 8 am so I can stand it, and looked for rugs for my Christkindlmart display and couldn't find anything I both liked and could afford.

When I got home I just had an overwhelming desire to bake. Now I rarely bake. I love to cook, but not bake, and since going gluten free baking has gotten even farther down on my list of things to do because I have no desire to experiment with xantham gum and rice flour. But I have been collecting a shelf full of gluten free baking mixes. Many I have been given and also many I have just picked up along the way so if I do have a craving I can try and make something.

So I started with brownies. I started with the new Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie mix and added a cream cheese top. I should have used a smaller pan so the brownie was thicker, put overall, pretty good.

Next was the Bob's red mill GF Bread mix. Much better than the $10 loaf of GF bread I bought from a GF bakery a few weeks ago. Nit sure how it will be in the next few days, but warm and out of the oven was pretty yummy.

Then onto pretzel dogs. I wrapped GF hot dogs in GF pretzel mix batter and baked. I got more shrinkage than I expected, so now they look like hot dogs in some kind of thick taco shell. But they were pretty good. I liked the taste, and will have the left overs for lunch over the next few days. I was hoping I could freeze them and eat later, but they are not that good. Also learned not all hot dogs are GF. I never really looked but I bought some that wee labeled GF which lead me to read ingredients in the other dogs in our freezer- and there it was-wheat-. Bummer...the one thing I thought I could always eat- hot dig without the bun... that is shot...

And finally chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I used the Trader Joe's brownie mix and the recipe on the side to make them cookies. I used Dark chocolate chips. Very good. Better as cookies than as brownies I think.

This baking spree was all over by 1 pm, and I started to vegetate. I started looking for shows into 2010 and printed out a calendar and wrote in what I wanted to do next year. There are a bunch of new shows I want to try. But I need to take a good hard look and make sure I give myself time to do the things I need to do around here. Balance- I need to find balance..Next year's schedule will take more work, but it will be nice to try new stuff.

Then I watched SYTYCD, and went to bed. Early to bed... early to rise... and tomorrow will be a busy day in the shop now that my mental health day is over :)