Blissful Gluten & Dairy Free Recipes [Low carb] [Vegan]

The long absence of Cindalou's Kitchen Blues was not merely a cosmic accident, lazy blogging on my behalf, nor an overambitious email spam blocker filter for all our subscribers, dear reader. I apologize for our long intermission from the gluten free blogging community. It looks like you all managed quite well without us :) How yummy your Cherry Clafouti looks Natalie! I am eying it alongside my coconut milk and bag of cherries in the fridge and thinking I might give your recipe a dairy-free attempt. I doubt I can touch your level of delicious with that heavy cream, but I'll try. Karina, your Strawberry Chocolate Chip Sherbet looks like the perfect candidate for our new ice cream maker! Funny, we received the same Cuisinart ice cream maker that you have, cool (no pun intended). Goddess, I love your hemp milk addiction- hemp is such a delicious (and nutritious, not that anyone cares about that :)) superfood!

Cindalou's long break from gluten and dairy free blogging is to blaim on my recent wedding to my long-time physics study partner, best friend, college (and grad school) office mate, pain-in-the-arse match made in heaven, and blog admin Jon. I remember my mother saying things like "be careful what you ask for.." and "just wait till you have children.." ... Thanks Mom, I feel like I'm already half there- heaven has divine retribution for my misdeeds by blessing me with possibly the only equally stubborn person in the world :) All joking aside, we are very very happy. A HUGE THANK YOU to our families, friends, and everyone who made our wedding perfect. Pictures aren't available yet, but we'll be sure to post some for you all later. Sorry no recipes yet from Cindalou's, we're working on it. In the interim, I'd like to share the beautiful "Recipes for a Happy Marriage" I received from friends at my fantastic surprise shower.

Ima's recipe:
50% communication
20% humor (laughter)
20% patience
10% temper control

Communication? Is that when I repeat myself 400 billion times and get stared at blankly with the claim that "you never said that"...? If so, we are on it!

Lauren's best friend prescription:
1 cup Love
1 cup Understanding
3 T. Compassion
1/2 t. of "the no look"
1/2 cup of Romance

Ha, I think I have wayyy too much of that "NO!" look going already!

Sandy's sisterly advice:
truckload o' love
bucket o' passion and romance
2 truckloads of patience and understanding
Lots o' fun
much communication
many kisses and hugs!

Does anyone else notice that my sister seems to also have a problem with exact measurements and recipe equivalents? Hmm, maybe its a Wood household thing... I'm blaming you Mom!

Momma's Good Ole' Recipe for Happiness:
Lots of Laughter
Kindness
Gentleness
Surprise
Empathy.

Mix well and often with love, friendship, openness and sharing.

Mom, strange no precise measurements of ingredients... this from the woman who actually does measure an 1/8 a teaspoon and bakes the same holiday poppyseed bread every year but MUST use her original recipe... Although she did include instructions, yey!

Marriage a la Sweethearts
Patience
Forgiveness
Space to be together
Space to be Separate
A Maid!

Ha! I love the space to be seperate- we live, work, and ride the bus to work together. We do sit in different areas of the bus, however, and do our best to pretend we hate each other in public :) Joking... and I am the joyful maid. I was trained at an early age by my Grandmother to wash dishes. We have photo proof of tiny lil Cindalou on a stool washing them (or whatever a 6 year old thinks is washing).

Untitled:
"In our society we teach unconditional love. Love is like air to women. Take away love and women can't breathe and will fight because they can't breathe. For men, take away respect and they can't breathe and they will fight and act unloving to get a breath.

So give your husband unconditional respect. Avoid saying the word "NO," they can easily experience it as disrespect. Read the book "Love and Respect" by E. Eggrich."

Ohh, respect- now that's a fantastic piece of advice! Something so important is often overlooked in the giddy, romantic beginnings of a relationship, but how crucial it is! I guess I don't have to say "NO" either since as Lauren noted I already have "the look" mixed in :)

Thank you all, and you dear reader, for sicking with Cindalous. We'll be back with some of our own dairy and gluten free delights in a short while.

xoxo, Cindalou

You can tell it is our car, huh?