playing catch-up

We're back from Ohio and getting ready for my mom and sister to visit on Thursday. Things have been a little crazy around here trying to get the house in shape for visitors - it seems we've been ignoring our chores in favor of enjoying the summer.

Yesterday I visited my new PCP, Dr Lieberman. He seemed to think that because I've already been diagnosed with microscopic colitis, I don't have celiac, but he had my blood drawn anyway to check. I should hear back in a few days. He was very knowledgeable about both colitis and celiac but didn't have an answer to explain why a gluten-free diet has helped me so much. If my tests come back negative for celiac, I'm still staying gluten-free, and luckily there is a pharmacutical that apparently helps to clear colitis is some patients, so I'm happy to give that a whirl. I guess we'll see in a few days!

And -- my tomato plant has 16 baby tomatoes growing on it right now. The little bush isn't more than a foot and a half tall. I can't believe it.

Mount Lemmon

If you are lucky enough to live in Tucson and you like camping, you must go up to Mount Lemmon. Less than an hour away, 8000 feet elevation, and 30 degrees cooler than town, it's heaven. Head up to fish at Rose Canyon lake or take a day hike, or pack up the car and the dogs and spend the weekend. Our favorite camping spots are off Mount Bigelow Road, around mile 20. The road is off to the right about a quarter mile past the ranger station.

Go - early and often.

Sunny approves.

(sorry the picture is weird. I couldn't get it to work.)

Trader Joe's and gluten-free

If you're eating gluten-free and you enjoy shopping at Trader Joe's, go into the store, march up to the counter, and ask them to print you a list of all of their gluten-free products. Then grab a basket, wander around, and notice all of the products marked with this:




They can't promise that the product was made in an entirely gluten-free facility, but they do promise it was made with gluten-free products. And for me, for right now, that's good enough.

cheers

Cheers to summer.

Cheers to a wonderful salad topped with farmer's market tomatoes and sweet onions.

Cheers to Wednesday night.

Cheers to farmer's market beans, with their crunchy, meaty texture and their sweet flavor.

Cheers to beef tenderloin on sale for $5.87/lb at Basha's. If you have a husband that likes to moonlight as a butcher thanks to Alton Brown's whole beef tenderloin episode, you can have 3 1 lb tenderloin roasts, 3 dinners of two filet steaks, a pound of stew meat, and more than a pound of scraps for beef broth out of a 9 lb side of beef. (Search youtube for how to clean a whole tenderloin, or set your DVR to Alton's Tender is the Loin episode.)
























Cheers to enjoying most of your filet mignon before remembering to take a picture.

If you're really lucky, you're toasting with some wonderful cabernet franc from Sunce in Sonoma County, a great winery run by a really cool Croatian winemaker named Frane. Join their wine club. It's the best deal around.

what's in your lunchbox?

Starting week 2 of being gluten-free and still feeling great. The biggest challenge has been trying to pack lunch if we don't have dinner leftovers. This morning I was late to work because I made a salad. Tonight I tried to remedy the situation by making a brown rice something-or-other with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, basil, onion, mushroom, fresh tomato... ugh.
I need to find some gluten-free non-lettuce salads to make on Sunday night for lunches for the week.
Also, I need to stop eating what I make before I can even pack it into Tupperware.
Goat cheese, yum.
PS I want to give myself a pat on the back for hitting the gym 4 days last week for classes. Now if only I could turn that into 5-6 days a week.