Gluten-Free Rice Krispies!!!

I never thought the day would come, but it has arrived. Kellogs now has a GF variety of Rice Krispies. Of course you know what that means…GF Rice Krispy Treats! Now, there are rice “krispy” type GF cereals out there in the organic and health food section, but they are rather pricy. There are even GF rice “krispy” treats, but they are even pricier and since marshmallows and marshmallow cream are generally GF (Read the package. Some are marked GF, others you just need to read the directions), it means cheaper and more “normal” GF treats. Got marshmallows, GF rice Krispies and an unusual itch to get into the kitchen.

Here’s the link on the info and recipes at Kellogs: http://www.ricekrispies.com/#/products/gluten-free-brown-rice-krispies-cereal?utm_campaign=Gluten%20Free&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Brand&utm_term=gluten%20free%20rice%20krispies

BTW, here’s two more links to other treat recipes I love which don’t require any flour of any kind (good for anyone out there with any grain issues):

GF Peanut Butter Cookies: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-peanut-butter-cookies/detail.aspx

Black Bean Brownies: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-bean-brownies/detail.aspx

Allrecipes.com has gobs of GF recipes and an ingredient search option that allows you to include or exclude certain ingredients. Cheers.

Beholding Beauty

My feelings are a bit tender at the moment as I just saw my parents off to the airport. They’ve been visiting for a few days. They’re in their 80s and the trip out here wasn’t easy. They both hate flying.  Yet they came and I already miss them.

My son asked my mom, “Grandma, why is your skin so crumbly.” She laughed and just replied that she was getting old, but later that day she asked me if she looked any older. She doesn’t really seem to change to me, so I said no, but she said, “I look at my arm and all these wrinkles and I just can’t believe it’s mine. I don’t feel as old as I look.”

Screaming Mimi

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I’ve received came from a young mother in Finland. She and I attended church at a small building in western Finland where I served as a missionary. The layout of the church house had the sacrament room and a few classrooms on the bottom level and the Relief Society room and additional classrooms upstairs.

Without fail, every Sunday during Relief Society, her little girl could be heard calling “aiti, aiti, aiti…” (that’s “mom, mom, mom” in English) in crescendo as she made her way from the bottom floor where nursery was and toddled up the stairs and into the Relief Society room where her mother stoically sat resigned to the inevitable interruption. Her advice to me: “When your children are learning to talk, teach your children “daddy” first.”

Father

“Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.”  ~William Wordsworth

I have the unusual privilege of having the two most important fathers in my life at my home this Father’s Day--my husband and my father who is visiting us with my mother.

I love my father and my husband dearly. My father was my confidant when no one else would do and was able to communicate things to me that I needed to hear in a way I needed to hear it. I’m so grateful for a father who is worthy of that name.

I often forget that as much as women’s roles have changed over the centuries, so have men’s. It would be very easy for a man to fall into the Homer Simpson trap of our day as it was for a man to fall into the tyrant trap of yore, yet my father, my husband and lots of men I know chose to be a father in a way that lifted their children, their spouses and themselves. It’s no small accomplishment.

Funeral Pot Stickers and Green Curry Salad

I’ve eaten my share of funeral potatoes and green Jell-o salad (with and without carrots) over my lifetime. Love them both, but all overdone stereotypes aside, the LDS church has long since moved beyond the Rockies.

It’s happened in subtle ways, but the globalization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in full swing. I’ve noted it when reading the Ensign. Talks that use feet or inches now have the metric equivalent in parentheses. Elder Allan Packer in his 2009 conference address specifically mentioned “American” football.

I’ve often wondered what ward dinners would look like in Korea or Fiji. I’ve seen them in Uganda: Beans and posho (a polenta-type meal) with “g-nut” sauce (that’s ground nut or peanut butter to us). If I could pick a ward dinner to go to, it would be one in India. Indian food is divine and must be a holdover from Eden, but more importantly than food, I’m glad for the awakening that other cultures bring to the gospel.