I still haven’t mastered gluten-free dumplings, but man oh man, do I have arepas and drop-biscuits down. Having my day to myself again has given me plenty of time, even while sick, to experiment, and oh… have I! A few weeks ago at Cash & Carry they had big cuts of meat on sale, so we got one for about $30… It made 12 steaks, 1 night of fajita meat, a gallon baggie full of stew meat, a round roast, and 1 long roast… which I made last night. The meat is a little tough, but still good… it just requires some careful cooking.

We already had the fajitas, and instead of using flour tortillas, Chris and I stuffed the meat and peppers into arepas and enjoyed. Since then I’ve made arepas twice again, and can’t keep out of them. Real food! Real bread! The texture is perfect. I slice them open and stuff with cheese, then cook like a grilled cheese sandwich… let me tell you, I am not missing bread anymore. They are good with just butter, or tomatoes, and avocados, yum.

The roast came out tough on one end, and it was huge… so I saved a good chunk of it, chopped it into little pieces, and simmered in the juice from the veggies all day in my little crock pot… with some fresh lemon thyme, and dried oregano, basil, and more thyme… oh, and left over garlic from last night! Then I made a gravy with sorghum flour, and added in the meat and juice…the beef was falling apart, and oh so succulent… the long cooking hours really made the gravy something else…normally we eat meat & gravy over mashed potatoes at least once a week, because it’s easy and cheap… but tonight I was craving biscuits in a bad way.

So I googled gluten-free biscuits, pulled up a recipe that reminded me of my mothers, and went to work. They are divine, simply some of the best biscuits I have ever had… fluffy, moist, soft…spooning gravy over them and mashed potatoes… oh yeah, we’re going to be doing that a lot more around here. Chris doesn’t like drop biscuits (he liked canned biscuits), and is still adjusting to the new textures of gluten-free food, and even he liked these…I am looking forward to getting up tomorrow and putting butter on one for breakfast…

And gawds, I am still sick. The coughing isn’t as hard, but a fit still lasts forever… my ribs are tender to the touch, and my shoulders ache… mix that time of the month in with it, and I hurt all over… but the sore throat isn’t so bad, I can talk, and I don’t feel like I’m walking around in a head fog. Of course, Chris has got it now, and we’re trying to keep it from getting as bad as mine… lots and lots of tea, cold medicine at night to make sure he sleeps, already have him on Mucinex since he is coughing some… and the Breathe Right strips at night… well, those are for me… so I can get some sleep! He snores so loud when he’s sick, and I broke my headphones a few weeks ago…

Although the late nights his snoring have caused for me have led to some incredible role-play in ruby’s room lately… so I can’t complain to much.