Homemade Pierogies

I decided to attempt to make home made pierogies. I found a good gluten free recipe online and it looked really easy. I decided to make them gluteny first, though, cause if they were gross I didn't want to waste gluten free flour. So last night I made them for Shane. I started at 6:15 and was finally finished them at 8:00. They took forever to make!! I think that next time they will be quicker, though, cause I know what to do now.

Yes, that's right...next time. Shane said they were pretty yummy so I will make them again. The only thing he said that I need to change is the size. They were about 3x the size of normal pierogies. I had no idea they would come out that big!! So anyway...here's the recipe for anyone who wants it:

Let's see if I can remember everything...

1+1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/4 tapioca flour (I think...it might be a different type of flour)
at least 2 tbsp xantham gum
2 tbsp oil
1+ 1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt

Sift the dry ingredients (but I didn't do that...hehe)
Add the oil and water, stir pretty good then let it sit in the frig for a half hour or so (I only did for 28 minutes. )
Add extra flour to the dough until it is not too runny. You just gotta add flour until you think it's good. It shouldn't be tooooo dry. The recipe said you might have to add more xantham gum if its not sticking together well enough.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. It is really important that there is enough flour on your surface cause it sticks real easy. Make it about 1/4 inch thick or so then use a cup to cut out circle shapes in it. Pull the circles up and fill them with your yummy fillings (I used mashed potatoes and cheese).

Fill a pot with water and let it come to a boil. Then put the stuffed pierogies in and keep them in until they begin to float. Then take them out and fry them in butter until they are the color you like.

Like I said...haven't tried them gluten free yet but Shane says gluteny is good (for gluten I just used 2 cups all purpose flour instead of the 3 types of flour and I used no Xantham gum.)

So go ahead and try it and let me know how it tastes. Anna Davis will reward the best tasting pierogie cooker. hehe.

Old Folks Home

Well, Shane and I are watching the old folk's home for the next two weeks. It's like an apartment but only old people live there and they have activity people who work there I think. I am not really sure. Anyway...we are living there for the next two weeks. We are excited because it is right in the center of town. We can walk to church, Shane's parents' house, the store...places like that. They are all less than a ten minute walk away.

Another person has asked me to teach them guitar. I am looking forward to the challenge cause this person is left handed. She wants to find a left handed guitar before we start lessons but I think I might want to start her on the recorder or a bit of piano first just so she can learn to read music before she starts playing the guitar. It will probably make things easier. So that will be fun to do!

Well, that's all I suppose. Bye.

Praises

On Friday a friend of mine, Esmerelda, asked me if I wanted to sing a song with her and her sister for the missions conference. I was really excited when she showed me the song and it was a Victorios Valley song. It is so nice when you move to a different country where everything is different to find something familiar. That got me thinking about other things the Lord has done...that may seem like simple little things but they are important to me...

As everyone knows I love crocheting and every Wednesday night Mrs Gordon and I crochet together while our husbands watch tv. God has given me a crochet partner. When the girlies from the dorm sent me Anne of Green Gables I thought I would have no one to watch it with but when a couple of my friends saw it on the shelf they got all excited about it and started quoting lines from it. I have someone to watch Anne of Green Gables with. God is so good in how He cares about the little things.

But my biggest praise for today is what I got in the mail yesterday. I have received my extension for my visitor's visa. This means I have permission to stay until August 19 (when I will either apply for another extension or else have my permanent resident by then). This also means that I can apply for health care. Praise the Lord!

"A Sandy Moment"

This is sorta a random post. Saturday night I was shredding cheese for some poutine and I looked down into my dish and I was like no way is this enough cheese! So Shane and I went out to the store to get cheese. Well...after grabbing ice cream, rasberries, chips and banana milk we got to the cheese section and got two things of cheese. When we got home I started to open the cheese when I saw right next to my cheese dish a buncha cheese. Turns out I got distracted while shredding my cheese and forgot about the other half of the cheese waiting to be shredded. We would have had plenty without going out. When I told Shane he shook his head and said, "I really need to start a 'Sandy Moments' book.

Happy Birthday My Tom!

I found a cool picture of a hot air balloon that looks like a birthday cake but I couldn't figure out how to get it on here...so picture it in your head. Happy Birthday my Tom!

Caleb Is Learning

This story is for my Tom. I thought of you as soon as it happened.

Caleb and Addie have been doing really well learning body parts lately. I was sitting across from Caleb practicing yesterday. I asked him 'Wheres your hair?' he quickly smiled and grabbed the hair on his head. Then he stopped smiling, sorta tilted his head, scrunched up his nose (his confused look) and grabbed the hair on my arm. Hehe. He was so confused why there was hair on my arm, too!

So that's my silly story that made me think of all the times my Tom picked on me for having hairy arms.

Guitar

Last night Angie and I had a good time with the guitar. First we had her guitar lesson which started around 7:20 or so. We were finished by 8:15 then worked on a song she had written. She had all the words written out and what note was to be played above the words. So we started putting the notes on a staff. We had to figure out what kind of note it would be (how long it would be held out) and other stuff like that. By the time we were completely done it was 5 pages of music and 9:50! We couldn't believe how fast time went by. Neither of us had ever done anything like that so we sorta learned together how to do it. Sometime this week we are going to finish it. We didn't figure out what chords should be used yet. So we are excited to see it all out on paper finished.