Celebrating

After living in our neighbourhood for 7 years, we finally did it - woke up on a July Saturday morning and took our whole family (I guess we just waited until we had 4 kids to bring along, more fun that way, you know) to the hike in honour of the Pioneer Day. We *almost* didn't make it. The hike was supposed to start at 7 a.m., and no matter how determined Mark and I were to get up no later than 6:30, it was 7:04 a.m. on my watch when Mark woke me up. We pulled kids out of bed (they were excited, for the most part), loaded them in the car, armed them with yogurt and spoons, and arrived to the starting point of the hike almost exactly an hour late. We figured if we went pretty fast we would get to the finish (First Encampment Park) not too far behind the early risers group. We ran as much as we could, Ivy on Mark's back, Elijah and Anya in the stroller, and Maya on her own two feet. And when we couldn't run, we walked fast. Maya was a trooper, running/walking most of the 5 mile hike (at about 12 mins/mile pace) with a scraped knee, only taking a short ride in the stroller when she was too tired, during which time Elijah took a turn walking. He did fine, but seemed to have misplaced his walking feet, so back in the stroller he went.




Half an hour later and half way through the hike, we finally called one of our friends who was hiking with the group (full of people who woke up early and left on time) to see where they were. Turns out, they were just a block or two away. We finally caught up with everyone, and joined the 200-ish crowd of people walking to the First Encampment Park. Free breakfast awaiting the hikers was a nice touch (and a nicer one would be scrambled eggs for those who don't eat pancakes). And as for me, I just enjoyed seeing so many people in one place, remembering and celebrating the historical event, or simply enjoying food in the company of friends and neighbours.


Speaking of food, we rewarded ourselves later, with personalized, home-baked (yes, in July), gluten-free pizza and freshly made red currant lemonade (those red currants deserve a post of their own).

Buckwheat crepes

Ever since we went on a gluten-free diet at the beginning of this year, I've been trying to figure out how recreate some of our favorite things to eat, but with gluten-free flours. Getting used to the variety of those flours and starches, and knowing what they contribute to each recipe is still a work in progress. I'm still working on finding our favorite bread recipe (something more similar to artisan style bread), but there are a couple of things that I think I've nailed down quite well, and it makes me so happy to know that I can bring some of our kids' (also known as bread addicts) all-time favorites back to the table.

This week I set on a mission to make gluten-free crepes. I was expecting at least half a dozen of semi-successful attempts before I'd come up with a satisfying recipe. Imagine my surprise when I mixed everything together, made the first crepe and all of the sudden found myself in a crepe heaven. They turned out PERFECT. Same smooth and soft texture, same crispiness around the edges, same silence at the table, which means kids are happily devouring their meal and don't want to waste a second on chatting or goofing at the table. Oh, and I finally got to use our home-ground (in VitaMix) buckwheat flour. My only mistake that night? I should've tripled that batch.

Perfect Buckwheat Crepes
makes about 12 10-inch crepes

1 cup buckwheat flour (finely ground, I don't know what store bought flour feels like, ours was very fine)
1 cup white rice flour (again, very fine. we bought ours at Asian market and it feels a lot like starch, but says 'flour' on the package)
1 T tapioca starch

2 eggs
4 T neutral flavored oil
2.5 c milk
1-2 T maple syrup

coconut oil or butter for frying
10" cast iron pan works best

Mix dry ingredients. Wisc together wet ingredients and slowly incorporate them into the flour mix (stand- or hand-mixer works best, even though I prefer to mix by hand most of the time). Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up your skillet on medium heat. Once it's hot, add about 1 tsp of oil, spread it around. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter in the pan and quickly spread it around by tilting the pan from side to side. Cook until the edges begin to look crispy (like in the photo above). Flip it over and cook for another 10-15 seconds, depending on how hot your stove is (ours is electric and I'm still not used to it). Make sure to add more butter for each new crepe. (no, real butter/coconut oil does not make you fat)

Serve warm. We love to eat crepes with sour cream, jam, honey or syrup.

Enjoy! And let me know how this recipe worked out for you :)