Bunk Bed Restoration

When I was a kid I had a hand me down bunk bed that was my dad's when he was a kid.  The bed is made of solid oak and can be configured as two  separate beds or as on bunk bed.  The bed also has a ladder that simply hangs over the edge of the bed rail. The bed has a simple light colored finish (semi-transparent).

I have had the bed in storage in my garage for the past few years and I knew I ultimately wanted to eventually restore the bed for my son.  Well, Tyler is definitely ready for a big-boy bed, so I started the process of restoring this bed two weeks ago.

Tyler's Finished Dresser

This is a Woodcraft Industries dresser that I bought unfinished.  I spent about a week and 1/2 finishing it.  The finish is a shaker maple water-based stain with semi-gloss water-based polyurethane (3 coats sanded between).  It was fun to complete... unlike the rocking chair you see beside it.

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Gluten-Free Chicken Quesadilla

Last weekend, Casey and I enjoyed one of our favorite quick lunches, chicken quesadillas. I have been meaning to take a photo or two of these in the past, but I never remember until its too late and they are gone.  Luckily this time, I remembered before they were in my belly.

These are really easy to make, I make mine on the gas grill, which really melts the cheese and gives them a nice charred look. I also took the time to make us a margaritas.

State College Celiac Support Group with Anne Roland Lee

Casey, Hailey, and I attended last night's Celiac Support Group Meeting featuring guest speaker Anne Roland Lee from Schar Foods.  It was great to see such a huge turnout for this meeting too.  Thanks to all those that helped get the word.  Anne brought lots of free Schar Foods samples for the group to try out too.

Anne Roland Lee spoke about, “The Nutritional Aspects of the Gluten Free Diet".  She spoke about some really interesting topics that Casey and I haven't thought about, such as the topic of how a celiac might not be getting the nutrition that they need.  I didn't think about it, but she mentioned how many of the gluten-free flours aren't fortified like the glutenous ones, which are regulated by the FDA to be enriched.  This might be one reason Casey is still often fatigued... maybe Casey needs additional supplements to counter the less nutritious gluten-free flours... we'll see.

Hailey's First Day of School

Time flies... as today Hailey headed off to her first day of kindergarten!  Casey took her to the bus stop in the morning.  Below are a few photos of her ready to go!

Anniversary at Cayuga Lake

Casey surprised me this year with a trip to the finger lakes in NY for our 8th anniversary. This time she found a lovely B & B located in Senaca Falls, NY.

The B & B was VanCleef Homestead owned and operated by Carol and Brent Gibbs.  The B & B was very clean, relaxing and inviting.  Carol served up an unbelievable spread of delicious breakfast foods, including several items there were gluten-free.

Before hitting the trail and sampling wines, we ate lunch at the Ginny Lee located next to Wagner Vineyards.  This is a great place to catch a bite to eat, the food is great and the price is right!  Its also a great place to pair a Wagner wine or beer with some food.

Casey wanted us to visit some different wineries on the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.  We visited the following wineries on this trip:

• Thirsty Owl Wine Company


• Lucas Winery


• Knapp Winery


• Red Newt Cellars


• Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards


• Wagners Vineyards


• Buttonwood Grove Winery


• Cobblestone Winery


• Goose Watch Winery

For dinner on our first night in the NY finger lakes region, we ate at Suzanne's.  This place is great; beautiful view of the sunset, excellent food, and great service (including staff that knows what gluten-free means).

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Virginia Beach

One benefit of my job is that I often travel to Virginia and stay within 20min of Virginia Beach, VA.  So this year, while I was on business travel, Casey and Hailey came to visit me!

This was Hailey's first trip to a ocean beach!  She had the greatest time playing in the sand, waves, and looking for sand crabs that you can dig up when the ocean waves go out.

Casey loved the fact that we go to go out and eat at one of her favorite (and gluten-free) restaurants, P.F. Chang's.  Hailey was less impressed with their food, even though their chicken nuggets for kiddos were delicious!

Below are a few photos from VA Beach.

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Baltimore Aquarium

Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to the Baltimore Aquarium in the inner harbor.  It was Hailey and Tyler's first visit to the aquarium.  Casey and I were shore that they the kiddos were going to have a great time seeing all the sea and wild life!  Well that last statement was about 65% true.

Hailey had a great time and wanted to see everything, but Tyler didn't want to walk, didn't want to be held, and didn't want anyone telling him what to do.  He was running into people, telling people to move, and generally not a happy camper.  I guess it is to be expected when you coupe up a 2 1/2 year hold for a 3 hour drive.

Anyhow, once we got away from the crowded areas, Tyler seemed to do better.  He liked seeing the fishies swimming around and around in the huge circular fish tank, and liked the turtles in the rain forest displays.  Below are a few photos from our trip.

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Hands-on House Children's Museum

Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to the Hands-on House Children's Museum in Lancaster, PA.  We had a lot of fun visiting this time, it was a weekday and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  As you can see below, Hailey enjoyed face painting.  Tyler enjoyed make believe land and the factory.

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Virginia's Spring Wine Festival

Casey attended the Virginia Spring Wine Festival with her cousin, Makenzie.  They had a great time.  Casey purchased an assortment of wine during the festival, seen below.

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Hopefully Casey will invite me along next time she goes. ;)

Pittsburgh Visit

Tyler, Hailey, Casey, and I all went to Pittsburgh early in the summer to visit our good friends Andi and Rob.  Andi was having her wedding shower, Casey and Hailey attended.

While we were in Pittsburgh, we decided to check out some of the sites.  First was the Pittsburgh Zoo, it was a very nice zoo, but it was pretty hot that day, so hot that most of the animals were just lounging around. Tyler and Hailey loved the Elephants (there were some baby ones too)!

Secondly, we visited the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.  This place was awesome!  They had a huge exhibit associated with the Mr. Roger's show.  They also had several industrial exhibits; which I think were the favorites of the kids.  We spent about  an hour at the museum before heading to Andi's shower.

We finished our trip to Pittsburgh with dinner at the P.F. Chang's, yum!

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Jules Shepard Gluten-Free Cooking Demo

Tonight I attended a Gluten-Free Cooking demo class by Jules Shepard.  It was sponsored and organized by the State College Celiac Support Group.  The turnout was pretty good; I think there were like 30 people at the event, many familiar faces as well as many new faces.  One woman made the trip in from Pittsburgh for the demo!

Jules did a great job and showed how easy it can be to make great tasting gluten free foods.  Jules brought already made items (day before) and also showed how to make each of these items live during the demo.  This was great because we could sample each item a day after it was made... as many celiacs know, most baked goods don't taste that great the day after you make them.  Her items were all very delicious that she had made he day before.

[caption id="attachment_562" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jules Shepard Demonstration"][/caption]

So you are probably asking yourself, what did she prepare / demo?  Well she demonstrated how to make bread in a bread machine, pierogies, graham (like)  crackers, and finally a two-layer birthday cake.  All of which were very good.  The graham crackers were the best gluten-free ones I had ever had, light and crisp!

It was also nice to hear her talk about how you could vary the recipes to get different results... like how to make ravioli using almost the same recipe as the pierogies(for the dough).  I also enjoyed hearing about bread machines and makes me want to bust mine out of the closet again to start making breads.

At the end of the evening, she had a raffle and the group attendees could win one of three items: cake batter, graham cracker dough, or pierogi dough.  I won the cake batter, so I will be making that tomorrow night!  I also bought one her books: Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating.  I definitely enjoyed the demonstration and encourage those of you that are near one of Jules' demonstration locations to attend!

Thanks to Natures Pantry for providing water and the space for the demonstration.  Thanks to Karen from the State College Celiac Support Group for initiating and organizing this event.

Butterflies: They are here!

Yesterday, the butterflies emerged from their transformation.  Hailey was really excited, and wanted to release them outside.  We released them in the back yard and took a few photos.

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Butterflies: They are all in chrysalis now!

Our caterpillars went into chrysalis last night.  They are all hanging from the top of the cup.  They sure did make a huge mess.  Should be interesting to see how long it takes for them to change and emerge as a butterflies?

Butterflies: Bigger and Messy

We observed our future butterflies this evening, the kids noticed that there was a lot of mess in their container... yuck Hailey said.  They seem to be eating alot of their food now and they are obviously growing, longer than an inch now.

Bigger and Messy

Mother's Day Weekend

I know, I am late posting, but that's how it goes with kiddos.  Do I think Casey had a nice mother's day weekend.  It all started off with cleaning the house for her on Saturday, which obviously the heavens above were please with my cleaning as they blessed us with a beautiful rainbow that afternoon. ;)

[caption id="attachment_526" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Happy Heavens Rainbow"][/caption]

Casey and I enjoyed a movie later that evening, Blind side.  We both enjoyed it, check it out next time you are looking for something good.

Sunday, the kids got out their mother's day card they made Casey, it was huge, like 1.5ft x 2 ft.  Funny how the kids area already realizing how different aspect of gifts get more reactions.  We then hurried and got everyone ready and went out for breakfast at the waffle shop on Atherton.  We knew there was going to be a line and we were prepared, snacks, toys, games, etc just to keep them entertained till we got to the table.  It was definitely the least pleasant trip to the waffle shop ever.  I know it was mother's day, but taking like 25mins to get our food seemed a bit ridiculous.

We then went over to my grandmother's house to visit.  We also took some flowers and a vase.  She enjoyed the flowers and got a kick out of watching Hailey and Tyler play.

Later that evening, I cooked Casey her dinner request for gluten-free Mac n Cheese with grilled rosemary balsamic vinegar chicken. And to finish off dinner I made a Cranberry Mint Martini (her new fav).

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Happy Mother's Day!

MillBrook Marsh Nature Center Visit

Today I took the kids to the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center in State College. We have never been to the place, so we decided to check it out.  It was a nice day, sunny and not too hot.  The kids loved walking on the board walk, but also enjoyed walking on the grassy paths.

We saw lots of birds, even heard a wood pecker once.  We saw fish in the streams. We also got to observe a really big ant hill.  The kids were very interested in the ant hill, since it was almost 2 feet high.  We met some nice doggies and their owners walking on the trails.

Below are a few photos we took while on our visit to Millbrook.

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Butterflies: Hailey is excited and they are growing

So Hailey asked me to show a photo of her with her gift, the butterfly garden kit.  Here she is excited about her gift and can't wait to see how they grow.

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The caterpillars at this point are about 1/2 inch long.  They are also very active, moving around and eating a lot.

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Stay tuned for more butterfly updates.

Butterflies: Package Arrived

Today my daughter's birthday present from my sister's family arrived.  It is an Insect Lore Butterfly Garden kit!

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So basically as you can see in the image you get a container with butterfly caterpillars in it and a butterfly habitat.  The caterpillars are currently a little over 1cm long.

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Hailey and I are going to try to post photos and descriptions every few days just to show how they are growing.  Should be exciting.

Gluten-Free Stromboli

I finally got some photos taken of a gluten-free stromboli that I made for dinner one evening.  I used the same recipe that I use for my gluten-free pizza.

1. Make the pizza dough following the pizza recipe instructions


2. Spread it out onto a large piece of parchment paper, just like in the my pizza recipe instructions, except make the entire thing flat, no extra dough needed around the edge for a crust.


3. Cover spread out dough with your favorite topping stuffers (veggies, meats, cheeses)


4. Pick up one edge of the parchment paper and fold it over to the other side.


5. Now push the dough together around the edges to create a sealed stromboli.


6. DON"T try to pull the parchment paper away now, wait until it is cooked


7. Place stromboli into the oven to bake (on a pizza stone works best)


8. After 5-8 minutes, its time to flip it, so very carefully flip it over onto its other side


9. After another 10 minutes, its time to take it out and enjoy

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State College Celiac Support Group with guest Lisa Lundy

Tonight I attended the State College Celiac Support Group meeting.  Lisa Lundy, author of Super Allergy Girl, presented a guide to Allergy and Gluten Free Cooking to our group.  It was really nice having Lisa come speak with our group and it was nice to finally meet her .  If you remember from one of my Allergy Free White Cake post, she suggested a recipe to try when I was making the allergy free cake for my friends daughter.

Lisa's presentation was good. I was surprised to learn just how many studies have been done and the amount of research being associated with Celiac Disease (CD) in the past few years.  It is obvious that CD is main stream and more people are becoming aware of it.   I appreciated her taking the time to come visit with our group.

Tonight's meeting had an attendance of 22 people, of which 4 faces were at the meeting, hope those individuals enjoyed the meeting.  Heidi stated that we now have 50 people on our groups yahoo list server, woohoo!  This is pretty awesome.

Product Samples at the meeting tonight included:

• Allergy Free Homebaked Goods - Thanks Lisa Lundy


• GF Betty Crocker mini iced chocolate cupcakes - Thanks Janelle


• GF Bread, Graham Crackers, and Cheese Crackers - Thanks Grainless Baker


• Living Without Magazines (April/May Issue) - Thanks Living Without and Ken for making the effort to get the free copies

It was a great meeting and thanks again goes out to those that helped make it happen.

Speaking of Celiac research and awareness... tomorrow (3/18) there are two seminars happening in Happy Valley:

1. Penn State University's Food Sciences Department will be having a seminar tomorrow afternoon @ 4:30pm; Celiac Disease: How Nutrition Can Go From Joy to Nightmare, presented by Alessio Fasano, MD, professor of pediatrics, medicine, physiology; and director, Mucosal Biology Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.


2. The Mount Nittany Medical Center is also having an educational seminar tomorrow night @ 6:30pm; How to Identify A Clinical Chameleon: A Focus on Celiac Disease,  also presented by Alessio Fasano, MD.  If you can make it, check it out, besides its FREE (for a fee you can go early 6pm and enjoy a gluten free buffet).

Visit to Curiosity Connection

Being winter time here, there isn't really a lot to do in the winter for the kids (unless it snows).  So over the weekend we took a road trip down to Harrisburg to check out the State Museum's Curiosity Connection for kids.  Curiosity Connection is a hands on play environment for kids ages 1-5 and their families.  Time slots of 1 hour throughout the day have been created to provide an equal play opportunity, so we planned on attending the 2:30-3:30pm one.

We arrived at downtown Harrisburg around 2pm and found street parking (is free on the weekends).  Walked to the museum, and got our tickets for the play session ($5/person), and didn't have to wait to long until it was our turn to go in.

Gluten-Free Stuffed Pasta Shells

Some of you may have saw my tweet the other night about Casey making gluten-free stuffed shells for me and I wanted to share a photo of them.  These are really good.

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Ingredients:

• 1 box of Tinkyada Brown Rice Grand Shells Cooked


• 4 cups ricotta cheese


• 2 cups mozzarella cheese


• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese


• 3 eggs


• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley


• 3/4 tsp oregano


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/4 tsp pepper


• 3 cups favorite pasta sauce

Cooking Temp and Time: 350F for 35 mins

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls

So over the weekend I tried a cinnamon roll recipe from another one my gluten free cook books, Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg.  Casey was especially excited to try out this recipe since I found a forum post with photos of the process and results.

As with most recipes in the Gluten Free Kitchen, the flour combinations are extremely simple using common flours available at most local grocery stores.

Anyhow, below is a photo of the finished product.  If you get a chance try this recipe out, you won't be disappointed, and be sure to follow the instructions on the forum post. The post author showed a sweet trick (thanks to Alton Brown) to rolling the dough so that you don't have to touch it by hand.

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