I. AM. A. BELIEVER.

Wow... Two days ago, I made our usual gluten free chocolate chip cookies, but wasn't around to bake them. So, into the fridge they went.
I baked them up yesterday afternoon. Oh my gosh... a flavour sensation!

I had read about 36 hour cookies, and now I know why they are touted.

Since these are basically the only cookies I make - yeah, I do like the same ol', same ol', I do use nicer chocolate chips and I can appreciate why expensive high cocoa percentage chocolate wafers are recommended.

Grapes???? GF Bread that really rose!

Last week I was having a tough time baking bread... same recipe, kept overproofing, and I'd only get a slice or so from the loaves.

After the 3rd failure, ( I had been modifying a few things as I went), was using Expandex and montina flour to make things work better, along with a cold oven to start (really doesn't make sense to do if your bread rises so fast). My bread was rising in 30 min. or less - I couldn't get distracted... I finally realized I had only ever made this bread as a sourdough type and had never made it with yeast.

So I gave up and went with another recipe, my other go to gluten free bread recipe that I'm pretty happy with - but since I've never had a problem with it, I thought I'd try the grapes (just squeezed out 2 green grapes and proofed the yeast with that), oh and why not whip the egg whites? so now I'm not sure if it was the egg whites or the grapes that produced this stupendous rise (common consensus is the grapes)... the original recipe said to use 2 8x4 or a bigger 10" pan, but my dough was too small so I used a 9x5 pan, but now...

This was not over-proofing - the dough actually rose that high in the oven - it went in the oven just barely at the top of the pan, and due to the aforementioned failures that week, I had preheated the oven - ok, one bubble at the top in the back, but it couldn't support the height - of course... But it was the best bread so far - just weird size of slices...

BTW, you should have heard me laughing when I saw this and HAD to take the picture, all week long things puffed up extraordinarily when I made them, even pancakes...

Moldy, stinky front load washing machine? Meet MagicEra Washing Balls!

We were so happy to replace our top loader washer and old dryer when we moved into our new house. However, we soon learned that there was a price to pay for that nice front loading washing machine - I had to keep the door open and clean the boot regularly. Then there were the stinky towels... sigh...

I was happy when a product came out that I could use in the washer that would help keep down the mold and mildew.

However, when my sister told me I should try something really different, I sort of brushed her off. Then I researched it a bit, and found I could purchase them locally.

So I did, and yesterday I returned my regular laundry detergent to the store.


I've used these washing balls (Magic Era) for a few weeks now, I still separate my laundry into colours, but I run all my loads as Normal - 45 minutes, instead of Custom (as long as I could set the washer) - 1.5 hours. I use vinegar in the softener container, throw in 1 or 2 washing balls, depending upon the size of the load, and my clothes seem to be getting clean!

I tried soaking for an hour for dirty socks, and that helps too.

Of course, in my dryer I use dryer balls...

I got my washing balls at my local Home Hardware - they had to special order them in.

I'm finding that my washing machine is not nearly as stinky, and hopefully the mold problem is a lot less.

Has anyone else tried these?