Gluten-free plum tart

This Perfect Plum Tart is, as you probably know by now, one of my most serious obsessions. And it is the one I adapted into a gluten-free version last night for my mom.

I did a bit of research and a foodie acquaintance sent me a helpful link to glutenfreegirl's tips for crafting a wheat-free version of all-purpose flour. In essence, you want a 60%-40% ratio of white to whole grain flours. GF white flours include those made from potato, tapioca, and white rice, while whole grain subs include nut and brown rice flours.

I'd read previously that potato flour helped maintain a degree of crumb and flake, and glutenfreegirl reminded me that because nut flours contain much more fat than other flours, you need to compensate by decreasing the amount of other fats added.

And lo, this flour blend came to pass. For 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, I subbed: 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/4 cup hazelnut flour, 1/4 cup potato flour, 1/4 + 1/8 cup brown rice flour and 1/8 cup tapioca flour. To accommodate the hazelnut flour, I decreased the amount of vegetable oil in the recipe above by half; from 1/4 to 1/8. To replace the 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour in the filling, I used more tapioca. A definite success!

Heading back to DC. Solo.

I am totally un-thrilled to be back on antibiotics, this time for a Eustachian tube infection. It's fun times in Em's body these days.Not.

Anyway, I've just said goodbye to my parents and sweeties and am soon to board flight one back to DC. It will be so quiet and easy, and I plan to nap and do some Italian homework that is hanging over me like a menacing cloud.

About that adult trike...at the water park the other day, I happened to look at the paved path running round the park's periphery; on it pedaled a woman atop a large, yellow tricycle with no handlebars. Honestly, it was an extremely odd contraption, and unless she was in some powerful core-based training, I am flummoxed as to what this ride was for. It didn't look fun, for example. Kinda hilarious.

Last night I made brandy-flambeed shrimp; zucchini gratin with salsa verde and jarlsberg; and a yellow and red plum tart atop a gluten-free crust I made for mom. The crust was a grand success, and I will definitely share the recipe with you (a combo of oat, hazelnut, potato, tapioca and brown rice flours). If you hadn't been told it was GF, you'd never have guessed; such is not always the case with GF baked goods!

Off to board. Here's another pic of Mr Egret I snapped but didn't see yesterday.

Early morning on the bayou

In our yard, and just across the bayou, there aren't usually more than two egrets out for early morning fishing. Today, though, it was a bonanza; at one time there were six or seven. They are such beautiful birds, as graceful and purposefully, perfectly predatory as a big cat. They never rush, their concentration is intense, and then whoosh- the long s-shaped neck juts straight out to grab a fish and hurriedly swallow it down. Here are just a couple photos I snapped this morning; I'm not terribly familiar with my mom's camera so these aren't my best, but you get a sense of the action in the midst of serenity we were gazing down upon.