Cornucopia of Thanks

The word of the week is 'cornucopia'.  Doesn't it just sound like Thanksgiving?  I think I used it 10 times before 8AM today.  I got a lot of weird looks.

A lot has been going on.  I'm training regularly.  Feeling pretty good about it too.  I put the metric measuring tools back on this week.  I lack power.  And I run slow.  But it's better than where I thought I was.  And it's leaps ahead of where I was three years ago.  That's progress.  I'm still wearing my fat jeans.  But these fat jeans were my skinny jeans 10 years ago.  That's progress.

I've been quiet because I don't want to blog about depressing things (too much).  Not that my life has been depressing, but dealing with cancer is depressing, and that seems to take up a big part of it.  I learned a lot and I'll share it.  After discovering my migraine issue I became a lot more in tune to what else was being impacted by this whole cancer thing.  The other day I got a bad news email at 10AM.  By 11AM I was completely exhausted.  After getting nine hours of sleep the night before.  By 11:30AM I was out.  I slept for over four hours straight.  And then got up made something to eat, took Springer for a walk, debated my bike workout, realized that was a dumb idea, so I tackled one small project I could knock out in an hour and went back to bed for 10 hours of sleep.  I'd discovered how emotional stress exhausts me.  Not working out was hard, but I realized that it would have been a terrible workout and I would have been frustrated (my evidence was the months of June-August).

 Walk.  Please.  Walk.  Please.  Please.  Walk.  Please???

 Just another Springer picture.  Because she's always smiling!

And a picture of a double rainbow over the dog park.  

It's (almost) an every day occurrence here.

I realized there's a difference between regular stress and emotional stress.  For the last 4-5 months I've been trying to deal with emotional stress the way I had always dealt with regular stress.  Go for a run.  Which usually resulted in a complete meltdown and pure frustration.  And exhaustion.  When I've got a lot going on, or am mad nothing is better than a run.  And usually the angry runs turn into amazing workouts.  But when I'm sad, nothing is worse than a run.  For me nothing is better than sleeping.   Realizing this is huge for me.

With all that out of the way I realized how much I LOVE Thanksgiving.  Beside the word cornucopia, there is all the good food I get to make.  I'm making a cornucopia of gluten free things.  Usually I use Thanksgiving as an excuse to eat all things wheat and gluten, but after having some tests a couple month ago, I found out my gluten intolerance is worse than it was three years ago.  So this year I'm branching out and making a lot of gluten free food for all the dinners I'm going to.  I want to eat stuffing.  Lots of stuffing.  Stuffing made from corn bread.  Stuffing with Portuguese sausage in it.  Just lots of a cornucopia of stuffing.  And I want to eat desserts.  Lots of deserts.  I made a pumpkin roll today.  It wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones my mom makes.

If that icing was in the roll it might have looked better.  I'll know next time. 

 Make extra icing so I can still eat a lot straight off the spatula.

So I ate most of it and will make a new one Wednesday.  I'm also making a gluten free version of this apple and persimmon bread.  I LOVE persimmons.  If I had a cornucopia on my table it would be full of persimmons.  Instead I have a bowl full of apples and persimmons waiting to be made into bread.  And this afternoon I saw this recipe for cranberry jalapeno pie.  Tomorrow my plan is to find gluten free pie crust.  If I can't... I will make one.  And share it all with a cornucopia of friends on Thanksgiving (had to sneak it in one last time!).

Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll recipe:

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup Bob's Gluten Free Baking Flour Mix (the package suggests adding xantham gum, I forgot, and it was fine..which is good I try not to add gums if at all possible)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar.
2. COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
3. BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
4. BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

And then watch this video that shows you how to put it all together...it takes practice... but you get to eat your practice, so it's okay.