upside-down

I have been reading posts from a Facebook friend today that have me thinking about rather odd things. Her son, who is gluten-free, has decided to have a gluten-eating day, kind of a trial, I think. My stomach started hurting when I read it. Sometimes you just have to try it for yourself, and he, of course, is not an infant. Brave child, braver mom. Hope it works out well for them today.

Nothing seems quite the norm this week. My granddaughter, Felicity, who has never cared much for the kitchen---go figure!---has been baking absolutely adorable cake pops. And not just once. One day it's German Chocolate, the next it's glistening dark chocolate over white cake with colorful sprinkles. I think I saw some chocolate on chocolate in there.

Last night I abandoned plans for a fancy dinner and left beautiful wild salmon filets sitting in my refrigerator and made bean salad, beet salad, and oven fries for dinner. They looked really weird on the plate, not bad, really, just weird. The beet salad was left-over from a day or so ago, probably our Summer Solstice dinner. For the bean salad, since I broke my own rule and had run out of canned green beans (I know, canned green beans=yuck, but I love them for salad), I had to clean, snap, and cook fresh green beans. It is no longer a quick and easy salad when you're standing in the kitchen cleaning and cutting one bean at a time.

I must say, the potatoes were beautiful. I simply peeled russets because that's what was in the house, sliced them into irregular chunks resembling steak fries, and tossed them onto a heavy stoneware baking sheet with good olive oil and a generous sprinkling of sea salt. They baked---roasted, I don't know---at about 450 for half an hour or so. I turned them once or twice as they baked, making sure they stayed in one layer. By the time they were tender inside, they were also golden and crisp on the outside. And they are so easy, also gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free, etc, etc. Most people seem to have no problem digesting them, and they sure taste good.

I can't eat like that often; my body simply revolts. Routinely, I plan to rid the house of potatoes and other temptations. (The gluten and dairy are long-gone, of course.) At least weekly I declare that not another gram of simple carbohydrate will pass my lips. I've started to wonder if my subconscious takes this as a challenge. On a conscious level I tend to give in a bit because they aren't made of gluten or cream or cheese, but I really know better. I don't get along much better with potatoes than I do with wheat. Oh, maybe just a little better. It's just that sometimes I really want a stupid French fry, even if I know it may not turn out so well.

And it didn't. Today, I think, why didn't I sautee the salmon? I hope it turns out lots better for Luke and his doughnuts and cheez-its.