The start to this holiday weekend was a frustrating and worrisome one. After noticing a musty odor in our bedroom, we noticed mold in our closet and in one of our bedroom windows. Not exactly a good start to the weekend. We’ve been tackling projects around the cottage and gardens and on a time crunch before the season turns cold and my husband’s surgery, and didn’t exactly expect this wrench in the bucket. Well, we rolled up our sleeves and got down to business. My hubby put on a respirator mask, wore clothes that could be thrown away and had a plastic suit over his clothes and heavy duty rubber gloves and goggles. After cleaning a few times with bleach and hot water, and throwing things and clothes away, cleaning everything in the room and showering, we set to repainting with a mold & mildew resistant paint. We do intend on getting a mold check by a properly professional & licensed company that does this for a living and if need to, have it removed if there is any more found. I strongly advise not to tackle a job with black mold yourself or especially without all of the right equipment and materials and properly ventilating the house and cleaning up. Dispose of anything you need to.

This project set us back on our to-do’s but we are safe and took care of that situation. We are back to garden projects this week. After this week, we’ll be relaxing for awhile before the preparations for the holidays begin.

During the weekend, I did make time to bake a lovely gluten free cinnamon, nut and raisin quick bread and some homemade applesauce for breakfast. The applesauce recipe can be found in my cookbook, “Plant Based Living for the Gluten Free Cook” found on Amazon.

Hope everyone is enjoying their week and has a Wonderful weekend!! My brother and sister-in- law are in town from Ohio with their daughters visiting this weekend and can’t wait to see them! Stay tuned next week for more of the projects going on!

Cinnamon Nut Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup grass fed butter, softened

1/4 cup margarine, softened

3/4 cup almond milk with 1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar mixed in together

1/4 cup almond milk caramel creamer (in with the milk/vinegar mixture

2 eggs, room temperature

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350° F. Grease 8×4″bread pan with coconut oil spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter & margarine until light and fluffy.
3. Add milk/vinegar combo (homemade buttermilk) and eggs. Blend well.
4. In a small bowl, combine flour, nuts, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir until all ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into the greased pan.
6. Bake at 350° F for 55-60 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and use a dull knife to run along the edges to loosen from pan and cool more on a wire cooling rack out of the pan. Serve warm with grass fed butter spread on it or wait til cooled completely.

It can stay on counter for one day, but otherwise, cover well and place in refrigerator. Good for a couple of days.

Photos of some of the bedroom after being repainted: