Gluten-free shortbread

The purpose of this post is two-fold.
1. To share my shortbread recipe.
2. To see if I can work out how to insert photos in a post.

The shortbread recipe I used for the ABA bake sale:

Gluten-free shortbread
1/2 cup (wheat-free) cornflour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup rice flour
180g butter, cubed (room temperature)

Ingredients

In the bowl

Mix the ingredients together to form a dough.

Like this.

Wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate for an hour to make it easier to work with before rolling out and cutting.

Ready for the fridge.

Make whatever shapes you like.

Bake them at 180 degrees C for 15-20 minutes (my little flowers only take 5-10 minutes).

Ready to bake.

Aren't they cute?

"I became a follower"

Finally, my first disciple.  I bet it didn't take Jesus this long, and he didn't even have the internet.

Show off. 

Selfish altruism

I help others.  A lot.  Probably more than most.  I am about to head down to the shops to buy rice flour and corn flour so that I can bake a batch of gluten-free shortbread for a ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) bake sale that is on Sunday.  On the way home, I will play Little Red Riding Hood, and drop in a basket of goodies (namely gingerbread bunnies left over from Easter) to my grandmother's house.  She makes the best cups of tea.  After that, I need to pay some bills for my cousin who is profounding mentally and physically disabled.  I am his financial administrator.  I also need to ring his sister to try to organise to catch up with her.  She is a trainwreck at the moment.  But that is a different story for a different day.

When I get home, I need to ring the kitchen guys about finalising a timeline for our new kitchen renovation.  Hooray!  It has been a nightmare trying to sort out fitting in builders with kitchen cabinetmakers.  I will do a more detailed post about the kitchen another day.  While the kitchen is being renovated, Bear and I will go and stay at my parents' house.  My Mum had open heart surgery 4 weeks ago, and has been staying at her mother's house nearby, but is looking at heading home soon.  I think she is feeling quite anxious about the prospect because a) she will be alone for the first time since her operation, and b) she is so much further from medical assistance should she require it.  So, I am hoping that if we can time the kitchen right, Bear and I can go and stay with her for a couple of weeks while the kitchen is being done.  Win-win. 

I know it sounds like a do a lot for other people, and I do.  But it is selfish altruism.  It gives me a sense of purpose, which as a stay-at-home mother can often be lacking.  It also stops me from getting bored (which happens very easily).  When I get bored, I suffer from crippling anxiety, so keeping busy helping others is something that I do as much for me as for them. I should probably direct my energies into more selfish, profitable ventures, and then I would be rich.  And then I could have all the new kitchens in the world! 

But in the meantime, I will have to bake my gluten-free shortbread in my stupid falling-apart kitchen, and get paid in self-affirmation and cups of tea.

Motivation: Ready, Willing and Able

I am currently (re)reading Rollnick and Miller's "Motivational Interviewing".  They conceptualise motivation as needing three components: the change need to be seen as important (willing to change), you have to be confident you can change (able) and you have to make change a priority (readiness).

I need to lose weight.  I currently weigh 17kg more than I did before I got pregnant with my son in September 2009.  I need to lose weight.  For myself, for my family, and for my future.  I have lost weight before.  I lost about 20kg over 8 months in 2007.  So I know I have the ability.  And I know it is important.  What has been holding me back is the readiness.  I keep my word.  Once I commit to something, I do it.  I commit myself to things completely, and see tasks through to the end.  I hate to fail. But because of this, I am reluctant to start something which I am not 100% sure I will be able to see through until the end.  I think that is why I haven't lost any weight since Bear was born.  I know once I start, I will have to keep it up, and I don't think I have been ready to put in the effort.

But I am ready now.  And it is on.

Defining Moments

So, I have decided to start a blog.  I have thought about blogging for a long time.  But I have always felt that blog entry #1 should be something monumental, inspiring and poignant.  It should mark a turning point in my life, some significant moment when things changed, and warranted documenting.  And then I realised that is why I have not started a blog before now.  It's not that I don't have defining moments in my life.  I certainly have more than my fair share of note-worthy occurances.  But during those times, I am too busy being consumed by them to write about them.

If I had to identify a turning point for starting this blog, it would be my friend, E.  She has started a blog about being pregnant, and I have really enjoyed how much more connected I have felt to her just by being able to share in her everyday experiences (even if I do now know a bit too much about her colon).  So, I thought that maybe she would appreciate it if I did the same and started a blog too.  That, and another friend of mine, L, has recently disappeared off Facebook, and it made me realise how little actual contact we have had in ages.

I remember early on realising how odd the therapeutic relationship is.  It is one of the most abnormal and unnatural relationships a person will ever have.  Most relationships are founded reciprocal trust and understanding.  Friendships are built through mutual disclosure about oneself.  But in therapy, it is different. It is a relationship in which the client is expected to give themselves wholly to another person (the therapist), while getting nothing in return.  The challenge as a therapist, is to make that relationship seem normal.

Reading E's blog, it made me realise how comfortable I have become in that role.  I can have massive conversations with people without disclosing a single thing about myself, or if I do, I have become the master of self-censoring any disclosures I make, so that I can still come across and open and understading, but really, they are deliberate and directive.  It makes me feel manipulative and hollow.  And my relationships reflect that.  I have to consciously step outside of that role with my friends.  My real friends.  And I do.  But it takes effort - more than I would like to admit.  I hope a blog, in which I step over to the other side of the fence, as the sharer, rather than the listener, will be good for me, and good for keeping in touch with my friends.  And now, with a baby underfoot, finding the time to make those connections becomes more difficult.  Usually the time I have to myself is incremental, and at unusual hours, so a blog makes sense as a more convenient way of sharing than a phone call or a cup of tea.

So rather than waiting for a momentual occasion upon which to commence, it is here, in the mundane, that I start my blog.