bartfull

I just read on another thread that someone smelled amonia sometimes. Well that made me realize that it's been a long time since I smelled automotive exhaust fumes when there really weren't any. Some days were worse than others. I would be here at the shop and it smelled to me as if someone had parked a running car in here. I would go looking and sniffing for the source. Other folks would come in and swear they didn't smell anything.

On really bad days I would go home and smell the same thing there! Sometimes it would go on for three or four days. I smelled it constantly, so strongly that I thought I might be entering early stage Alzheimer's. (I know that phantom smells are one of the symptoms of that.) Then weeks would pass before it would happen again. Winter, summer, it didn't matter.

I had forgotten all about it because I haven't had it happen in so long now. I'm thinking it was another of those celiac symptoms that I didn't know was a symptom.

Anybody else ever have anything like that before going gluten-free?

OK, so I have decided that since I got potatoes back, maybe I can eat tomatoes now too. I want to try making a pizza using the cauliflower crust. The problem is, a lot of cans are now lined with the corn-based plastic and I don't want to take a chance on that. (I got sick from a corn-based plastic water bottle.)

So, how do I make a sauce using fresh tomatoes? I DO have a food processor now. What worries me is, Mom used to make her own sauce from scratch and it always seperated. We's wind up with an almost solid pile of tomato on top of our spaghetti, and some orange colored water at the bottom of the plate. She used Roma tomatoes, and I remember it took all day to make it.

I need something fairly easy because I'm not a good cook and my time in the kitchen is very limited.

I COULD use a jarred sauce, but so far I haven't found one that doesn't have corn syrup in it. And I know I could make a white pizza. But I'd like to try tomatoes, and since there is no chicken on sale here this week, I thought now would be a good time to try it. (I usually eat chicken most of the time, but I refuse to pay full price.)

Loves2Travel, I know you could make a FABULOUS sauce, but remember, I am just this side of useless in the kitchen. Even when I follow a recipe to the letter, my stuff usually comes out sub-par. I guess it's like a green thumb - some folks have one and some folks don't. I definitely don't have a "kitchen thumb".

Thanks.

I just went to a farmer's market type thing right down the street from my shop. There were several vendors with baked goods for sale, quite a few of which were marked gluten-free. I questioned the people and sure enough, they were all baked in the same pans in the same kitchen with gluten foods. Some were made with regular oats. Most were even baked at the same time as the gluten foods, on the same oven rack.

A tourist stopped in and said she had just been there and bought a gluten-free muffin. I told her I had questioned the people (she should have too - she was diagnosed 7 years ago and should know better) but she said she was glad I told her so she could give the muffin away.

I wonder how many people are going to get sick today because of this.

http://hosted.ap.org...-05-28-19-23-08

The only rice that works for me is Uncle Ben's instant white rice. One of our two grocery stores stopped carrying it last year. I asked them to get it again but they refuse to do ANYTHING a customer asks. For example, they carry Blue Bunny All Natural vanilla ice cream, but it sells out quickly. I asked them to order extra and put some aside with my name on it. I asked SEVERAL times. They won't do it!

So anyway, I have been getting my rice at the other store. I went in today and they no longer carry it. I HAVE TO DRIVE 60 MILES ONE WAY TO GET RICE NOW!!!!

I can't order online because I don't and never have had a credit card.

I can't get seafood here. I can't get decent veggies here - they are all usually rotted, sitting there on the shelf. I can't get white cheese here. Now I can't even get rice.

I love the scenery. I love that there is no traffic. I love my customers and my students.

But I want to leave it all behind because I can't buy food here. This has been a terrible day so far! I stubbed my toe this morning - the one I have broken so many times it looks like cauliflower. It HURTS! Then I tried to buy rice. Then I tripped over a chair and almost went down. Then I turned around with my $5,000 guitar in my hand and smashed the peghead into the metal rim on the table.

I found out this week that the basement of my house is caving in. The drought is so bad the ground is shifting. It's going to cost WAY more than I can afford to fix it, but I have to fix it.

And all the while my jaw pain is raging. I just want to lay down and sleep forever. I don't believe in suicide, but if I died tonight it would be a relief.

I know, this too shall pass, but how much can a person take in one week?

And you know what? Just knowing I can come here to rant is comforting. Thank you my friends for providing a virtual shoulder to cry on. I WISH I could cry! But right now I'm more in a throw something/kick something and use all of those words I shouldn't use mood.  If anyone comes in with a guitar they want me to repair today I'm going to tell them I can't get to it today. The way things are going, I would break it or do something else wrong that would ruin it.

Lord help my poor little cat when I get home!