Weekend Fun – NYC!

Tags

Amtrak, food, friends, fun, gluten free, Guide Dog, Guide Dog Foundation, happy, history, museum, music, New York, NYC, Penn Station, review, Tom, train, transportation, travel

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Last week a good friend of mine, S., who lives in TX called to chat, mentioning she’d be traveling to NYC for the week with her adult daughter.  Miracles of miracles, her trip north coincided with the one free weekend, nothing on the calendar, I had for the next couple of months.  So, Tom and I hopped the Accela this weekend for a trip to Manhattan!

It was a BLAST!  We all had so much fun!

We haven’t seen each other in person for I think bordering on 5 years now, but it didn’t matter.  We catch up on the phone frequently, and she is such a hoot.  Tom and her guide dog, Estrea, seemed to remember each other instantly, again despite not having seen each other in years, they both thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well.

So where to start, well let’s start at my roll the eyes ‘Still the same’ experiences of Penn Station.  Penn Station is a hive of a station that I have a very, very, very tenuous understanding of it’s layout.  As such I requested Red Cap assistance upon arrival to help me figure out how to get to street level.  Red Cap assistance consisted of, “You can do elevator?”  yes.  “Here” as person shoves me onto the up escalator (which by the way isn’t an elevator, you know.  2 totally different pieces of machinery).  I get to the top of the escalator.  Red Cap person has disappeared, and I am definitely not at street level.  I ask a fellow passenger, some Australians who have as little clue as I do.  Then on a stroke of “Trust the dog” I say to Tom, “Tom, find outside, outside, find outside.”  This is one of those parts of guide dog relationships that always amazes me.  I have no freaking clue where ‘outside’ is.  Tom hasn’t been in Penn Station in at least 4-5 years, and yet I ask, “Find outside” and he takes off with purpose.  Brings me to an escalator, we go up, he takes me through a crowd, weaves around a bit, before choosing another path with purpose, up another escalator then magically we are indeed outside at street level just where we need to be.  Granted, he sometimes does take liberties with this level of trust, as you’ll see later in our adventure, but for the most part he uses his skills for good.

Tom in harness sleeping at my feet on the Amtrak train into NYC

the city through the train window

After making our way to our hotel and meeting up with my friend, S. in a mass of excited wagging dogs and hugging humans, we decided to brave the on and off rain so she could show me some of the surrounds.  S. has traveled to and through NYC significantly more than I as her daughter comes up a couple of times a year for her work and S. often tags along for vacation.

We visited St Patrick’s Cathedral where there was a mass taking place.  The organ music was beautiful.  The priest’s homily made me smile, he was a character.

the organ at the church

front of the church

Tom and I standing at the massive wood ornate doors to the church

We walked around Rockefeller Center with the skating rink and fountains.

skating rink in down town NYC

Tom wet from the rain in harness in front of the skating rink

Tom sitting with Estrea another black lab x golden retriever guide dog behind him

Tom sitting in front of a fountain

Tom’s cute wet face

Tom and Estrea sitting next to the fountain

Then off to the Roosevelt House for a tour.  Which was fantastic.  I highly recommend.  The tour guide was awesome.  He clearly loved the history, was a great story teller, and incredibly knowledgeable.  A very fascinating historical place to visit.

Tom and Estrea lying at our feet while the tour guide talks

Tom sitting in front of some books in the library at the Roosevelt House

S and I standing smiling in front of the Roosevelt House

Sunday we went to The Met for a while.  Tom is not fond of museums.  He’s about as fond of them as he is shopping.  Which is to say on his list of places he’d like to go, they are pretty much lower than low.  He would prefer we either go or we stop, the museum travel of stop go stop go stop go he thinks is nonsense.

S. and I smiling at the Met

A Fountain with sculptures at the Met

Tom guiding me and Estrea guiding S. through the Met

Tom and Estrea in front of a stained glass exhibit

Some bronze bears statue at the Met

So when S. and I reached a point of disorientation and confusion, Tom saw his chance.  He knew we had no idea where we were or how to get where we wanted in the museum, so he took off with purpose.  As he’s usually rather honest, and I’ve learned if he takes off with purpose to trust him and follow his lead.  He was very tricky though so not to be found out.  Just thinking about it I’m sitting here laughing as I type.  He weaves us through crowds, turns through a few galleries, is working methodically, he’s not in any rush, he’s working like he does when he’s comfortably on task, yet the whole time unbeknownst to me at the moment, he’s trying to pull the wool over my eyes of where he really is taking us.  Again I’m laughing right now as I type.  As next thing we know, I realize “No!  He’s taken us to the exit!!”  LOL  Which is of course where he’d rather go, he wants us to leave this boring place!  I tell him as I try not to laugh, “No, we’re not leaving.  Around!”  He sighs.   Turns around, and with obvious displeasure leads me back into the main hall of the museum.  Nice try buddy, nice try.  I commend your efforts and attempt.

Lunch on Sunday, let’s just say Google Reviews did not disappoint!  S. has a very similar diet to me, and gluten free is a requirement.  She found this place Senza Gluten in the West Village through Google, and we figured we’d give it a try.  Oh. My. Gosh. it was fantastic.  Food was delicious.  I haven’t had tiramisu in years.  It was to die for.  Seriously.  So good!  S. had  GF veggie pizza with goat cheese for her main meal, again fantastic.  I had pasta with meat sauce, super good.  We each pilfered from the other, both of our plates were excellent.

Despite the rain, we decided to walk some of the way back from lunch.  Which was fun.  We had a general orientation direction of where we needed to move towards, but everything else was rather fuzz.  We decided to go for it and that’s why there is the backup of GPS and the beauty of smartphones.  As we were walking through the West Village, I suddenly felt like I was in Boston.  Then we moved through an area that felt like Quincy.  And I realized, why on Saturday I had felt so disoriented as a whole in the areas of Manhattan we had traveled in that day.  Those areas didn’t smell like a city.  How that is possible, I have no clue.  They smelt of nothing.  Surrounded by nonstop bumper to bumper traffic, noise, rain, construction, and people, the streets smelt of nothing.  It was the weirdest thing.  No smell of exhaust, no smell of welding, no smell of dirt, or humans. The smell of nothing.  Yet we get to the West Village and I instantly felt at home, it smelled like a city, like Boston.  It was the weirdest thing.  A city that had no odor.  Very disorienting.

Estrea guiding S. with her umbrella in the rain

Tom guiding me without umbrella in the rain

Sky scraper in the city with no smell.

Statue of a man on a horse at central park

More sky scrapers

Tom sitting before some steps into central park

A few hours later found Tom and I back at Penn Station to start our travels home.  Where 15 minutes before our train was due to arrive, the announcement that “Due to power outages in Penn Station, all trains are delayed.”  I had to laugh.  How is that possible?  In the major train hub in the middle of down town NYC, how can there be power outages to the point that every single train is delayed, ending in most of the local ones being canceled and Amtrak trains being delayed close to 1.5 hours?  It was comical.  The new station a couple of passengers around me were discussing sounds like it can’t be built soon enough.   Regardless we made it home safe and sound, after a fantastic trip and visit.

Tom and Estrea both in harness in the hotel room

Tom snoozing at my feet waiting for our train home in Penn Station

Lemon Ginger Cake

Tags

cooking, DIY, duck eggs, fun, gluten free, lemon ginger cake, recipe

I can’t be the only one who experiments on a whim with baking and cooking.  Today’s creation came out rather good so thought I’d pass it along.  Some of the measurements are rather loose, sorry I rarely bake or cook as an exact science.

This mash up of ingredients was not what I thought I was going to make.  I started out attempting to separate eggs.  The universe wasn’t cooperating.  Sure, I’ll blame it on the universe, not my shaking hands, the universe can take the fall for this one today ;-).  First egg separated fine, white into 1 bowl, yolk in another.  2nd egg, the yolk split and about a tsp got into the whites, ok, I fished it out.  3rd egg, white into 1 bowl and then I in one fell swoop threw the yolk into the trash not the 2nd bowl, oops.  4th egg, split and yolk all over the whites.  So I threw in the towel and changed plans.  I thought I was going to experiment with a cake type thing where I beat the whites stiff then added other stuff in, maybe using the yolks, maybe not.  Yea, that didn’t happen.

Instead this is what happened:

Lemon ginger cake right out of the oven

Lemon Ginger Gluten Free Cake

• 4 duck eggs (or x large chicken eggs)
• 1 tsp gluten free vanilla
• couple of turns on the salt grinder (I use Himalayan sea salt, the pink stuff)

Into a large bowl and beat on high with the mixer for a couple of minutes.  They were frothy and over double in size when I stopped the beaters.

then grate into that about 3/4 of the rind of one medium size lemon, think that was maybe a little over a teaspoon?   And grate in somewhere between 1-2 tablespoons of fresh ginger.  then add the juice of that lemon you grated the rind of off.  beat in until mixed.  (note the cake is rather lemony, which I like, but if you would rather a more subtle lemon flavor I would cut back the amount of lemon rind, maybe grate in the rind of only 1/2 or even 1/3 of the lemon?)

then slowly beat in 1 1/4 c sugar (if you were using a meyer lemon you could use less sugar, I know the lemons I had on had were rather sour from using them in another dish so wanted to try to hedge my bets on balancing that with the sugar).

in another small bowl mix together

• 1.5 c brown rice flour
• .5 c tapioca starch/flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• couple more turns of the salt grinder

then slowly beat that into the egg mixture

once combined, beat in 1/3c olive oil, 1/3c grape seed oil (or you can sub in your preferred fat of choice), and 1/4c agave nectar (you could probably skip the agave, again I knew how sour my lemon was and was trying to balance that out, which it worked, the cake is not too sweet and not sour).  As you beat it will be rather thick and trying to climb the beaters.

pour into a greased baking dish.  the one I used is 6″x10″ by 2″ deep.  I sprinkled a small amount of turbinado sugar on the top to help it brown and crisp.

bake for approx 40min (or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean) in a 325’F oven  (ours is a convection oven, so on a standard oven I might bake it at 350’F, or 325′ for a bit longer).

This cake came out much better than I anticipated.  I wasn’t sure if it was going to be too dense, but the beating of the eggs so much to start I think really helped this to be light and airy.  I am really enjoying it!  Hope you have as much success as I have if you try it yourself.

cake cooling on a rake with a piece cut out for me to eat!  Yum!

Duck Egg Doughnuts – Gluten Free

Tags

doughnuts, duck eggs, Ducks, gluten free, making stuff, recipe

It has been six years since my last doughnut.  That is until this past Tuesday evening.  When I found a way to make doughnuts I might possibly be able to eat.  And I could.  And they are glorious.  I forgot how wonderful a doughnut could be.

I’ve lost count the number of times people say to me, “Oh being gluten free must be so hard!”  No, actually being gluten free in this present day and age is the easiest of my medically necessary dietary restrictions.  If I just had to worry about only gluten free I could have made myself doughnuts years ago!  Or probably been able to purchase pre-made ones somewhere since now there are lots of pre-made options if you have to be gluten free.  Or at least more than there used to be.

For me, with doughnuts it was also the yeast part.  Yea and the dairy part too kind of.  And making sure no nuts or legumes (hi there soy and peanuts) parts.  A few years ago the rice and sugar parts where an impediment as well, but in recent years I’ve managed to get some grains and sugar back into my diet as long as I’m careful about not overdoing it.

Anyway, I made doughnuts on Tuesday night.  Hubby and I ate them.  (dinner of champions)  And they were glorious.  Then on Wednesday my nieces and nephews came over and the doughnuts disappeared for good.  If you too have been seeking a way to make doughnuts you can eat for the past upteen years, well maybe you can eat or modify so you can eat these.

So without further ado- Gluten, Nut, Legume, Dairy Free Duck Egg Doughnuts

(this recipe was made combining parts of some other recipes found in the Gluten Free and More May 2017 magazine issue, as well as an old fashioned traditional gluten filled recipe I had in my recipe book from my husband’s mother.)

In a medium sized bowl mix below dry ingredients and set aside:

• 1/2c brown rice flour
• 1/2c white rice flour
• 1/2c tapioca starch
• 1/2c potato starch (not potato flour)
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2tsp ground nutmeg
• 1tsp xanthan gum (ok to omit if you can’t tolerate gums or sub in ground psyllium husk)

• 

  Dry ingredients in a separate bowl

In a separate medium to large size bowl, beat with a mixer until grainy (or your mixer starts to smell like burning, hmm probably a clue it’s time for us to break down and buy a new mixer):

• 2 Tbs Earth Balance Soy Free spread (or if you can do dairy, 2 Tbs softened butter) or other non-dairy substitute
• 1/4c white sugar
• 1/4c brown sugar
• 1tsp gluten free vanilla

dry ingredients in a bowl to the side, measuring out the sugar and fats

the fat and sugar beat until grainy

Then add into the sugar/fat mix:

• 1 large duck egg plus 1 duck egg yolk (room temperature) beating until creamy  (If you don’t happen to have your own personal flock of ducks at your disposal, you can substitute in x-large chicken eggs)

Add in to that, beating until well combined:

• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (it reacts with the baking powder to help with rising)
• 4Tbs water or if you have it Apple Cider (not vinegar, just good old apple cider)

Then slowly beat your dry ingredients into the wet until well combined.  Beat about 2 minutes.  The dough will still be rather sticky.

Use a spatula to form a ball in the bowl with the dough.  Cover and put in the fridge for 1 hour.

The fully mixed dough, formed into a ball with spatula ready to cool in the fridge

Once dough is cooled, generously dust a counter top (or in gluten free baking I’ve learned to do this on top of a piece of plastic wrap or flexible cutting board to help with ease of removal) with white rice flour then roll out the dough 1/2″ thick.

Cut out doughnut shapes in the dough.  Reforming and rolling it out until all of the dough is cut out into doughnuts and doughnut holes.  If you’re like me and don’t own one of those fancy doughnut cutter outers, a can of tuna (with the tuna already eaten) and both ends removed works (and really well washed because tuna flavored doughnuts, ick), then use a small round-ish cutter for the inner doughnut hole (or carefully trace one out with a knife).  We used a small wreath shapped christmas cookie cutter for the inner doughnut hole.  It worked.  Pretty well actually.

floured cutting board with dough rolled out and round cutter ready to cut out doughnuts

the cut out doughnut shapes ready for frying

Now we get to fry the doughnuts!!

In a deep sauce pan, pour canola oil (or whatever kind of oil your body is ok with, if you can do soy or peanut go ahead, I can’t so didn’t) until a 2″ thick layer is on the bottom.

Heat the oil until it registers 325’F with a candy thermometer.  I have a digital meat thermometer that goes to 500’F so I just used that.

fying supplies set out on the counter & stove top: pan with oil, cookie sheet lined with paper towels, slotted spoon, timer, thermometer

thermometer held in the oil to register the temperature

Once the oil is hot enough, carefully drop a couple of the uncooked doughnuts into the hot oil.  They should sink, then rise a few seconds later.  Cook the doughnuts for 2 minutes then using a fork or strainer, flip the doughnuts and cook another 1.5-2minutes.

dougnuts seconds after they were dropped in the oil

doughnuts 1.4 min after dropped in the oil, ready to flip

showing 1/2 the dougnuts flipped with cooked side up and other half uncooked side still up ready to flip

fully cooked doughnuts about ready to come out of the oil

Using a strainer carefully remove the doughnuts from the oil, and place on paper towels to absorb some of the oil.  I put paper towels on a cookie sheet, then placed a cookie cooling rack over that to further aid in removing excess oil.  If you want cinnamon sugar doughnuts, in a bowl combine 1tsp cinnamon and 1/2 c sugar then when the doughnuts are cool enough to touch, dip the doughnuts into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Using a slotted spoon to lift the cooked doughnut out of the oil

Coating 2 doughnut holes in cinnamon sugar

Cooked and sugared doughnuts cooling on the paper towels

When doughnuts are cool enough to eat, enjoy!!  They store in an airtight container for a few days, not that they’d ever last that long though!

Finished tray of 8 doughnuts and 8 doughnut holes!  1/2 coated in cinnamon sugar, the others plain

 

Ducks Being Difficult

Tags

Ducks, gluten free, herding, Video, we have eggs!, Zora

The ducks were rather reluctant to return to the safety of their overnight pen this afternoon.  Zora and I had our work cut out for us.  We haven’t worked the ducks in over a month, and Zora was being pushy with no balance to speak of until the very end.  But we got it done!

(in the video at one point she is holding her ear weird and shaking her head, I think a bit of dirt or something must have flown in as she’s fine now)

On the plus side Zora and I have been working on her being willing to gather the ducks to me as she much prefers to drive them away.  And we are making progress!!

Zora on the outside curve of the ducks moving them to me!!!

Also the ducks are back to laying!  Spring must be here!  I made the most delicious gluten free lemon meringue pie the other night using the duck eggs.  Every time I use that recipe I am astounded by the interesting properties of tapioca starch.  Why did I make pie, you ask?  Just because I wanted pie.  And I feel no guilt in saying, I ate it all myself and it was absolutely decadent.  Delightful.