Take time to read this and save your own life!

 Gluten free recipe #1 without nuts.  Looks very good, but pretty crumbly.  Moist.  Very choclatey.  A definite to make again.

Gluten free recipe #2 with nuts.  Very good flavor.  Holds together well.  Freezes and travels well.
  This is the clear winner.





Doing the gluten free thing is always a challenge.  When I do find something I really like I make a mental note and then I forget all about it.  When I want to make it again, I can not remember what book it was in or what the name of it was, or why I even liked it.  So I am beginning to wise up.  I now have a notebook for all the little recipes that I like as well as ones I do not use and why. 
Seems like gluten free is now becoming rampant.  Ever wonder why?  I have my own theory.  Years ago on the farm we raised our own food.  Grain was grown with the seed from last years crop.  Beef was raised from the momma cow and the neighbor's bull.  Vegetable seeds were kept from year to year and if your seed was lost, you borrowed seeds from your neighbor.  We ate cream so thick you could put it on toast with a fork and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, it was to die for.  People were skinny cause the worked hard and ate natural.  My ancestors lived to be 90+ and many hit 100 years of age.  When mom died at 80 years old, they all said, "Oh!  She was so young!  Her whole life ahead of her!"  But that was then, when we grew our own food.  This is now. 
Now we have people like Monsanto helping us.  We plant thier seeds and we grow very big crops.  Used to be dad would check the wheat and pick a head and rub it in the palm of his hand.  He would do this several times in a week.  One day it would "shatter" and it was pronounced "ready to harvest."  What I am telling you is that the wheat we grew then and the wheat we grow now are not the same.  It all becomes "ready" according to when the harvest is wanted to happen, which is incumbent on when the machine that harvests the grain will be there to harvest it.  And what all that means to you and I is that the gluten is not the same and we can not digest it.  Couple that with the fact that farmers are now growing corn that will cause a worm to hemorrage inside and die, and we are in some big trouble.
It is amazing that countries over seas will not allow this stuff to be grown in thier countries and will not allow it to be imported.  We call these countries "third world" and backward.  Get on your Internet and check out cancer rates here and abroad.  Check out obesity here and abroad.  Do not take my word for any of this.  Do your own research.  Remember when cancer was something that happened to some one else?  Autism was a rarity?  Casearean births were not an everyday occurence?  Is the world really changing that fast or are we allowing it to be changed by big corporations and thier need for more money and power?
The good old days were naturally organic.  Now we have to make an effort to find organic and we pay a lot more for it then the crap they are smiling and handing to us with a glass of grape koolaid.  All I am asking is that you take an interest in what your government is doing to you in the name of Corporate Greed.  Sure they are pushing national health care.  We are sure as hell going to need it!

Where did summer go?

Good Lord Almighty, we were in the middle of a heat wave and now I am freezing to death.  I can not decide if I should turn on the cooler or the heater.  I have to make saurkraut and freeze peppers, but I haven't even got my fill of fresh corn on the cob, which is well past its peak.  Doesn't matter though.

That is what it looked like last year and I am pretty sure that will happen again this year.  Makes me cold just to look at that.  I have a step daughter who just loves the snow and cold temperatures.  I have often thought of slapping her silly, but I think someone already has!  Give me the good old summertime any day.  See, I have my own theory on this stuff.  I can shuck out of my clothes very quickly and I can shovel a lot of sweat in the time it akes to shovel the sidewalk! 
Oh, and that one about "We need the moisture." always makes me want to scream,  "Rain is moisture and I don't have to shovel it!"  And I don't slide around in the rain.
Well, I guess it does not make any difference.  I might as well bite the bullet and go to the market.  Since there is only me to contend with now days, I guess 25 pounds of kraut will hold me and one bushel of Pueblo Chiles.  Already have the okra pickled, chopped and some breaded ready to fry.  Did not do corn because that is just more than I have time and room for.  Did make a bunch of tamales. 
I have soap made ahead for my winter sales.  I do need to make all the lotions and body and face butter.  I feel like a little ant trying to get things put up and done so I can stay home this winter and not have to go out in the elements.  I realize that every time I step out the door I am getting one trip closer to a broken hip.  (Seems that is all us old people have to look forward to.)  So the plan for this winter is to stay close to the house and list a lot on eBay.  Course I have to mail packages, but that is just a 3 mile run to the post office in the drug store.  I will do that and work on my next book.
So, with winter just around the corner I bid you adieu from Colorful Colorado where the temperature is right now at 45 degrees and shooting for 87 degrees.  Gonna be here quicker than you think!
 

 

In the meantime, those of you who are confused by the title of my book "Chapter One...Loose Ends" are missing a good read.  When I started writing this book, I had no title in mind, so I called it simply "Chapter One"  meaning the beginning.  As I wrote the book took on a life of it's own and chose it's own title with the help  of my editor, Jeanne Gardner.  So do not be confused and think this is only one chapter.  It is the whole enchilada and is divided into Installments. 

 

So hit the little buy button there and I will ship you your very own copy.  And send me a note telling me how you want the inscription to read and I will autograph it for you!

 

Lou Mercer

From the back cover

Chapter One...Loose Ends
Lou Mercer

Meg Parker led a simple life.  She was a widow of three years and lived on a chicken farm at the foot of the mighty Rockie Mountains.  Life was good and her little store on eBay made her extra spending money.  But snow and wildlife were not the only things lurking in the forest above her house.  Nor did it stay in the forest for long.

Marshall Purcell came home a wounded veteran from vietnam.  He still had his dreams, but they were of an incestuous past that threatened to consume him.

When Meg and Marshall met it seemed an inconsequential meeting, but it changed both their lives forever.  And change is not always a good thing.

This is adult fiction at its best without all the sex.  Well, maybe just a little bit. 

About the author.  Lou Mercer was born in Nickerson, Kansas. She came to Pueblo, Colorado in 1977 and is now a product of the majestic Rockie Mountains