Holy eff. Em and I are home from our AMAZING trip to DC. Started off seeing my Beloved Buffistas and ended with a tour of the White House. It couldn't have been a better trip. Well, if Joe had been there, it would have been awesomer, but seriously I love DC. I think Joe and I are going to try to come back spring or summer 2012 at some point.

Thank you so much to the Buffistas who came out, especially Vortex who, in addition to grabbing my boob and totally making my day, chose an awesome brunch spot and herded the cats.

My web guy give me another awesome color tool today. Colour Lovers.

Nature's Miracle and Petastic have a difficult history with each other...it's very soap opera. In the end, I'm team NM.

Aimee, I'm so glad you had a great time in DC. It really is wonderful, in it's way.

I'm off to shadow another dog walker. Great day!

You know, we really do need Buffista Island. The sightseeing might not be great, but the company would be unbeatable.

Glad you and Em had a good time. Do wish Joe had been able to make it.

As a tangential note, I was in a store and saw something called "2am Miracle" - from the label, it looked like it was for cleaning up after babies.

bonny, did you get my rambly voicemail yesterday?

Oh my god, I have learned how to make little gluten-free rolls that are cheesetastic and a little chewy and slightly puffy. They are excellent with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I am SO happy.

I modified the recipe to make 2 of them larger and flatter, and I'm going to try them as a hamburger roll tomorrow. I *think* it will work, as long as I can warm the rolls up a little first (this is at a campground*, so the plan is to wrap them in aluminum foil and put them near the fire, or on the grill).

*(We are not camping; it's Tim's brother's 50th birthday, and HE is camping, with his family, and the rest of the extended family is coming out to the campground to celebrate his birthday with him. Tim and I are taking his dad, who is most definitely not camping. So we get to hike and possibly swim and eat grilled food, but then sleep in our own bed, which is how I like the outdoors -- in small controlled doses.)

which is how I like the outdoors -- in small controlled doses.)

amen.

Can you post or email me the recipe for the rolls? My SIL has recently developed/realized a gluten intolerance, so I'm on the lookout for recipes.

I have achieved Nature's Miracle. Just sprayed and now and letting soak and dry. Let's hope it works, or else I'm have to buy a new duvet.

I also achieved TJ's which was blessedly uncrowded. So I made actual purchases! Of course, all the things y'all recced flew out of my brain, but I got coffee, Thai Lime and Chili cashews, frozen butter chicken and garic naan, and wasabi mayo.

We shall see.

Vortex, here's the recipe: [link] It's apparently similar to a bread/rolls that you can make from a mix -- the mix is called Chebe, and it's gluten-free. So if you can find the mix -- I don't know if it would be in the section of "International" foods, but it seems like it should, since it's Brazilian -- that would be super-easy.

But it's really easy to make from ingredients (i.e., not a mix). I tweaked it a little by using half cheddar and half mozzarella, because the first time I made them, using all cheddar was too heavy and oily. I also didn't add dill and chives, but did add a spinkle of garlic powder and a dash of salt.

They come out really chewy, and are best hot. When they cool all the way, they are like unto hockey pucks, but they DO re-heat pretty well.

Also, I have a CRAPLOAD of other recipes. Honestly, I am a lazy cook, and the easiest thing for me is to use a GF flour mix that can be substituted in equal measure for wheat flour.

Also, if you want to make cake or brownies for a gluten-free eater, I HIGHLY recommend the Betty Crocker GF mixes. There's a brownie mix, which I have made about a billion times already -- I wouldn't call it a *dark* chocolate, but it's not sweet like milk chocolate, either. REALLY good. And then there's a chocolate cake mix, and a yellow cake mix -- the yellow cake can be bastardized into carrot cake also. Again, REALLY good.

And they're easy like regular mixes. There's also a boxed chocolate-chip cookie mix, which I haven't tried yet.

I think my mother's slow cooker never worked. We used it a few times, but instead of slow like "Roast cooked all day!" we got slow like "Slowly, the Cretaceous period ended," it must have been defective.