Wood Floors!

As March comes to a close, our hall and living room are sheathed with hickory wood flooring. It has been so quick, easy and painless compared to tiling the dining, kitchen and laundry room! The hickory floor, the alder front door, the new pine windows with alder trim and the pale chocolate paint color on the walls all look good together and create a whole new feel of old! The only vestige of the former mid-century style that sticks out is the closet door next to the front door, so we may refinish that until we replace it. Dennis found a great 8 x 10 wool hooked-style rug for a great price that pulls everything together even more!

But before that room gets furnished and decorated, we'll be moving stuff from the bedrooms out there so those rooms can receive their new sheaths of wood as well! We have enough hickory for two of them, and have found some oak very close in color for the third. I plan to paint those rooms as soon as we get enough stuff moved out to make that do-able.

Since it is only 6 weeks till we fly to New York for Annie's graduation ceremony, we don't think we'll attempt replacing the bedroom windows or the other 4 remaining just yet. Two weeks after we get back from New York, Kaley, Keziah, Zion and Kacia will be here for two weeks and the bluegrass festival season will be upon us! So we'll fit in the window change outs and trim work where we can.

Between Zach coming out in January, getting to see Annie, Paul, Keith, Bethany and children in New York and having Kaley and children coming here in June, we'll thankfully have seen the whole scattered family in the first half of the year!

Blueberry Scones

Wheat free since last fall, I've developed a sweetened flour mix for pancakes, cookies, cake, muffins or scones. Since it has many ingredients, I mix up two batches at the same time to save opening all the containers! Substituting your favorite flours may work as well if you add a little xanthan gum, which the Chia Omega Flour below does. Keep mix refrigerated with your flours.

A. Sweetened flour mix (2 cups)

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup sweet sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour (starch)
1/4 cup oats ground fine in blender
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup Chia Omega Flour (blend of chia, rose tapioca, millet and chestnut flours. Includes xanthan gum which helps thicken the batter nicely without an inordinate amount of flour.)
1/2 cup almond flour (meal)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2  tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp stevia powder

1 tablespoon erythritol (or substitute any sweetener you desire for both the stevia and the erythritol to equal 1/3 cup sugar sweetness)

Blueberry Scones (Gluten free, refined sugar free, can be dairy free) Yield: 12.

B. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with coconut oil. In medium bowl, whisk:

3 eggs
1 cup Hungarian Cultured Buttermik (for dairy free, add 1 tsp apple cider vinegar to 1 cup almond or rice milk)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil (I add a little butter for additional flavor)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla

C. With large spoon, stir in:

2 cups flour mix
1 generous cup blueberries (defrost them on a plate for a few minutes if frozen)

D. Spoon 12 scones onto greased cookie sheet, bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on paper towel; prepare to see them disappear quickly!

PS: Please let me know if you know of a way to make GF cinnamon rolls-- thanks!