My glutenous desires...

I'm baking bread again, and it smells amazing. It's been so long, too long, since I've made a loaf and I've been in withdrawls. I'm actually making two kinds today. We got a sourdough starter from Alex who got it from an island local nearby, and it's amazing! Lex has been trying for quite some time to create a sourdough starter that produced the perfect sourness, but this is the first one that's seemed truly authentic. She was nice enough to pass it along to us, so Isaac's been 'feeding' it every day and our first loaf is rising as we speak. I can't eat it, of course, but I did sneak the tiniest bite of Lex's loaf that she made because it smelled too good to resist. There's a loaf for me presently baking in the oven, a rustic seed bread, 100% gluten free and made 100% from scratch. My mouth is watering just thinking of it. Some people say their desire for bread just diminishes after a few months of no gluten, but it couldn't be more opposite for me. I keep waiting for that day, but it's been nearly a year and I still crave almost daily a thick slice of fresh, warm, homemade bread.

Speaking of homemade, or at least homegrown, our bucket garden is flourishing! Way to go, baby! The right is lettuce, the middle are radishes, and the left are carrots, growing taller and stronger every day. We tasted a little bit of the lettuce this morning and it was so good, delicate, fresh, just like a young lettuce leaf should taste. We fear a little bit for our carrots and radishes, as they started out with not enough light, which made them grow tall and skinny really quickly, so they might end up pretty long and narrow instead of short and fat. But if that's the case, we'll just try again. You can even see one of our radishes! It's fun to see it grow more every day. And it still amazes me that our food all grows from the tiniest little seed.

Our little jungle is flourishing as well. We only have one good sun-window in our house (in the kitchen), so our plants tend to end up clustered around it so they can get their vitamin D, too. We affectionally call that spot our jungle. The newest addition is a pink rose bush from my dad for Valentine's day...thanks, Dad! It adds a good brightness among all the green. This afternoon the sun was streaming in through the jungle, lighting all the plants up, looking so beautiful, and making us excited for the day when we get to build our own house with as many south-facing windows as we can stuff in there. Yes! Yes!

Mmmmm, can you smell the bread yet?

So, remember all the birthdays? Yeah, I forgot one. Chris turned 18 yesterday! He's a real person, finally. We went over to Chris' to celebrate with him and partake in a Deborah-feast, which you don't ever want to miss if you get the chance. His mom is a fantastic cook and his birthday meal was a spread of different Ethiopian foods...so good! African peanut stew, rice, lentils, chicken, so many dishes. Here's Chris, by the way, with his beautiful girlfriend. We ended up playing the same game we played when my old small group was over, and it was hilarious yet again.

I'll tell you what, it's really nice to be able to find a way to balance studying time and fun with friends time. The nights out are especially nice so I don't end up spending my entire life with my nose in the books.

Ahhh, yes, the bread has come out of the oven. It is presently steaming and soaking in some butter. I am complete once again.