First off, I wanted to thank Kathy for emailing me this link for celiac information in Utah: www.gfutah.org They have great info on area celiac support groups and events, as well as restaurant reviews and shopping tips.

I am amazed and happy that most of my cooking endeavors this week have been successful. I must take after my mom

First off, it was buffalo week at grocery store in the valley. It's so nice to be able to buy fresh, not frozen, buffalo meat. It was a bit expensive for my current financial state, but I still bought some to cook through the week and a couple roasts to freeze for later. So, here is everything I've cooked over the last week or two:

Buffalo Pot Roast (browned in sweet rice flour and amaranth flour, salt & pepper, then roasted with onions and carrots in a cast iron skillet)...it was yummy, sweet and fork-tender.

Buffalo Chili browned stew meat in the same mixture with the addition of chili powder, added onions and spices, then added this to a pot of pinto beans and simmered for a good long while, then added tomatoes and more spices...also a success.

Buffalo Meat Loaf...oops, forgot to add salt or tomatoes to this, but it still worked ok. Used sweet rice flour, eggs and puffed amaranth as the binders, nori seaweed as the secret ingredient (that idea was in Cook Right I think...very good.)

Brine Roasted Whole Organic free-range Chicken...I swear free-range chickens are a whole different species from conventional chickens. The meat is darker, less rubbery, and just plain interesting in comparison. Soaking it in lemon/salt/herb brine overnight is a nice touch, and this was honestly my first roasted chicken I've been proud of. I mean, how can you compete with the additive-ridden birds at the deli? This goes above and beyond those.

Nonnie-Stuffed Shells see mother's day blog for these indulgences.

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Corn-Free Additive-Free Bread Now how many people do you know who can make something like this that a 2 year old will eat half a loaf of?

I think that about covers it! I just had to brag a bit as I'm quite proud of my cooking accomplishments. I'm still trying to compensate for an insult to my cooking...hopefully this will make that person in my life a bit jealous that he lost his dinner invitation. I'd still invite them over for dinner, but now I'm afraid I'd get too stressed about impressing them, so I'll hold off for a while.

Oh, my macadamia milk ice cream didn't really work out. I'll put most of the blame on my ice cream maker, a layer of ice forms on the bottom where it should be stirring it, and the rest doesn't freeze. Also, I tried a recipe adding sugar to egg yolks to make a custard, but I substituted Agave nectar for the sugar and it curdled the yolks, so I left the yolks out. Oh well, it didn't really freeze anyway, so that doesn't matter. Maybe I'll melt it and use it for rice pudding sometime. The good news was that my soymilk maker did a fine job on the macadamia nuts, and the milk is somewhat reminiscent of coconut milk.