I'm not sure how many people are still reading Justice, but since I had said that the new chapter would be published long before now and it obviously hasn't been, I thought I ought to give you some idea of when to expect it. It came back from the betas, but needed some fixing and while I was doing that I got caught in the jaws of a hellish week, followed by an equally hellish weekend, and had to put the whole thing by. I grabbed the opportunity to publish Dragon Lady on Friday because it was already written (as are chapters 3 and 4) and didn't need to be beta-read or edited much, and I knew I wouldn't have time on the weekend.
I plan to publish Justice chapter 33 sometime this weekend, along with another chapter of Dragon Lady.
I really have nothing else to report. Life is all about work nowadays. Oh wait, I just thought of something. My husband and I ordered a pizza with a gluten-free crust on Sunday and I will never do that again because it disagreed with me in a big way! Yes, it was my husband's idea. He is anti-salt and anti-gluten. His days of being allowed to choose pizza toppings and crusts are hereby over.
I've been wondering how many people are reading Justice these days too. I really do think there are a ton of people who are but just don't comment. More people like Awieatti need to discover you! I comment because your posts are always look so lonely and I want to encourage you, but it's just soooo against my lurking nature. And I almost never have anything to say other than "yay!" But your posts are always interesting, so it's usually not tooo hard to find something to say : ) Speaking of which, the more I hear about your husband, the more he sounds like a crazy health nut!
Also, I enjoyed your "currents" : D
Miki, thank you for fighting your own lurker nature and leaving such nice encouraging comments for me. I truly do appreciate it.
Well anyway, I'd love to have a husband like yours someday! Because I'm a crazy health nut too xD Mostly because of my allergies... But hey, I've never tried a gluten-free pizza! Does it really taste that bad?
Oh by the way, YOU are eating FRUIT?! Who are you and what have you done to Brit? :O
Okay, enough with the talking about food - let's get back to Justice... I agree that many people probably just don't comment. I mean, look at your pageviews - you have MANY visitors, and how many of them have ever left a comment? Well what I mean to say is don't worry, you have a huge fanbase that really appreciates your work, even if many of them are too shy to comment.
I'm looking forward to Justice and Dragon Lady and I'm sure many other readers are doing so, too! :) (And wow, Dragon Lady gets written pretty fast!!)
Yes, but in a good way! I consider myself lucky to have you as a reader and a friend.
Re the fruit, yes I know. I can't believe this is me, either. But I identified all the things I don't like about fruit and thought about how those things could be addressed.
1. Fruit is sticky and wet and I hate touching it with my hands.
2. Fruit is not sweet. I know millions out there will disagree with me, but I don't find it sweet enough. Except maybe mangoes, which brings me to the next thing...
3. Too many kinds of fruit have to be peeled. I hate peeling things.
3. Too many kinds of fruit have a tart taste that makes the inside of my mouth practically recoil.
4. Fruit is almost always cold and hurts my teeth.
So I tried canned fruit on the suggestion of a friend. I started with a little tin of mandarin orange segments. It was sweet, the pieces were small and I could eat it with a spoon. No touching or peeling and I didn't get stickiness on my hands. Then I bought a can of mixed fruit pieces. Still sweet, still no hands, so far so good.
Now don't get me wrong-- I still don't actually like fruit! I don't enjoy it when I eat it. But the torture is way less and now because of my discovery, I finally have fruit in my diet. I have it with yogurt or sweetened cooked quinoa with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. It's breakfast or a snack. The trick is to only have a few spoonfuls at a time so I don't suddenly have a 'yuck!' moment.
The gluten free pizza didn't taste so bad while I was eating it. It was maybe a touch less satisfying than usual. It was the aftermath (at around three a.m.)that made me realize the gluten free crust had been a big mistake. I should have asked what kind of flour it was made with. I just assumed it was rice flour or potato flour or something like that. But it must have been chick pea flour. All beans and lentils are banned from my diet because of the wild dance parties they throw in my innards. it's impossible to sleep when there is an unauthorized party going on inside your body. Anyway, my body called the police to deal with the partiers and a pitched battle ensued, complete with violence and tear gas. I couldn't sleep for hours! Never again. Regular pizza doesn't do that to me.
What are your allergies? I think you mentioned once before that you have a gluten free diet, right? Your mom couldn't make you a birthday cake because there was no gluten free flour in the house. But what else are you allergic to?
Edited at 2013-12-04 07:22 pm (UTC)
Have you tried dried fruit yet? You don't have to peel it, it's sweet and not very sticky. I love dried cranberries, for example. Or plums, apples, dates, bananas, mango, pineapple... Well I guess you can practically dry everything, except watermelons xD
Oh dear, what a mean pizza! Poor you, I hope you're feeling better by now. :S
Luckily, I'm fine with beans, peas etc., but there's already enough I have to ban from my diet anyway xD For me, it's wheat (more like gluten in general), pork and cow milk. Too much fat and sugar are a big no-no as well.
It doesn't sound much (because it isn't), but everytime I tell someone about it, they make big eyes and say: "What the hell CAN you eat then?!" And somehow they are right, because most of the "normal" food does indeed consist of these few things. It's kind of sad - there is so much else one can eat, but many people don't even think about alternatives.
So you could say I'm a health nut out of necessity xD
Have you ever tried chcolate quinoa cake? http://www.barefeetinthekitchen.com/2013/08/unforgettable-chocolate-quinoa-cake-recipe.html I made it and it was really awesome. Everyone loved it. I used real milk but I bet this recipe would work just fine with almond, soy, or coconut milk. I use alternative milks in my recipes all the time and it doesnt' make a difference. When I made this cake, I made it without frosting. It didn't really need it.You don't have to use butter, either. Any kind of oil will do. I frequently substitute oil for butter in recipes that call for melted butter. I'm not going to do that extra step of melting butter.
Here's another recipe. This is a super-fast English muffin. I make them in the microwave all the time: http://scdfoodie.com/grain-free-english-muffin-scdpaleogapsprimal/ I don't add the coconut flour because I don't have any. I use two tablespoons of golden ground flax meal. The dark flax meal doesn't taste as good. I've also tried this recipe with potato flour. They're really tasty!
And the English muffin as well. That sounds like a very easy, fast recipe. So just the right thing for me xD
I often use oil as a substitute for butter, too. It doesn't really make a difference in taste. Except when you use olive oil, that can sometimes taste a bit strange xD
Thanks for sharing these tasty recipes! :)
Yes, by all means start with the English muffin one. It's so easy and fast and you'll have your result- good or bad-- in five minutes or less. I bought a couple of el cheapo ramekins from the dollar store because I didn't have any the right size. I think the recipe says that if the center of your muffin is still a bit wet after the allotted microwaving time, just put it back in for another 30 seconds. That's what I do. Maybe my microwave isn't very strong.
The chocolate quinoa cake was a bit more involved. I had to mix it up in batches because my food processor is a little mini Braun one and it wasn't big enough. I strongly recommend cooking the hell out of the quinoa. I personally don't like eating mushy overcooked quinoa just as quinoa, but the mushier it is the better for this cake. I found that my cake developed a hard gritty crust on the bottom because I hadn't cooked the quinoa thoroughly. This didn't stop the cake from being a hit, though!
I don't leave comments very much for stories I'm reading but since you're worried about how many are reading. I'm still reading Justice and I can't wait for the next chapter!
As an omnivore stuck in a city like Austin, I'm starting to roll my eyes at just how much anti-gluten is out there. When my vegan coworker insisted on bringing vegan 'tres leches' cake to work (yeah, do that math), I was nauseated. So I say, revel in your pro-gluteny!
Alas, I revel in my pro-gluteny all too often. I don't think I could ever completely give it up because crusty French or Italian bread with salted butter and fresh herbs is one of my greatest pleasures. I'm only learning to make gluten-free breads and cakes because of my health-nut husband. Who is now talking about becoming vegetarian. *Sigh*
As for Justice, you know how long I've been lurking, still do just started commenting again for your sake.
We have yogurt coated almonds, but I haven't seen yogurt coated dried fruit here. I obviously need to shop in bigger stores.
Thanks for commenting for my sake! I remember you started reading a really long time ago-- at least 5 or 6 years! So it really makes me feel good to know you're still following my stories.
So yeah crystallized fruit is a big plus then, all the fruit none of the icky bits xD you can also get things like banana chips in big supermarkets and I hear crystallized ginger is good. Haven't tried that myself but crystallized pinapple is lush :P
Was just going through some of the lines over here, they even have chocolate cranberries! Didn't know that...they look good, specially the white chocolate ones
Edited at 2013-12-10 12:16 am (UTC)
White chocolate cranberries sound awesome. As long as the cranberries have been properly sweetened first. I know that any lovers of fruit in its natural state would be shocked to read this exchange. I don't even talk about fruit with my husband. He gets frustrated with me for not liking it.