"For sale: Baby shoes, never used." I saw this sign somewhere, years ago maybe. I don�t exactly remember the time or place, but I remember stopping for a moment after reading it. It�s funny: you can go days or weeks and not remember anything particularly remarkable happening, but you remember the moment that stopped you.

Short story I"m working on. I'll post more when I come to it.

This was really helpful for me this morning. :

"Every morning, when it isn’t cloudy, I’ve got a pretty good view of sunrise out my windows. I don’t pull down the shades, so the light wakes me up. It all happens so slow, so effortless and it reminds me that very little that I’m worried about actually matters.

I love that God stops our progress, makes our physical bodies go into a temporary coma, then wakes us up again so we can get a little more work done. I used to have a ferret that ran around my room (and when he got out, the house) for about thirty minutes, only to suddenly collapse into sleep for an hour, and repeated this cycle all day. I always thought he was funny, but really, we humans do the same thing, we just have longer cycles.

I like that God made everybody speak different languages at the tower of Babel. It was as if He didn’t want human progress to move too fast, because human progress was bad for humans. I wonder if I worked all the time, without sleep, what stupid thing I would create, what stupid thingthat might make me feel like I could somehow be like God.

In the clarity of this morning, I’m thankful for sleep cycles that disrupt our progress, for children that stop your work and force you to keep someone you love alive, for the need to stop and eat, to stop and drink water, to stop and talk to friends. We buy billions of dollars in books that help us be more efficient, we praise the profit margin, and all the while, God is trying to slow us down, trying to remind us of what matters and what doesn’t, trying to stop our human progress, stop our creation of false Gods.

I’m grateful.

DonMillerIs.com

This seems like a waste of Guiness to me, honestly, but since St. Patrick's day is around the corner, these are appropriate recipes. If accompanied by a large pint of Guiness, of course:

Chow.com

A Dash of Guinness

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve rounded up both sweet and savory recipes that incorporate dark, velvety Irish stout. Though some people will balk at the idea of pouring a perfectly good pint into your dish rather than straight into your mouth, we think Guinness’s malty, toasty flavors cook up rather well. For more ideas, check out this St. Patrick’s Day Menu. And there are great discussions (and recipes) on Chowhound about Irish soda bread, stuffed cabbage, and St. Pat’s cookies and desserts.

1. Beef Braised in Guinness. Chunks of beef are browned with bacon and onions, then braised until tender in Guinness and beef stock.

2. Irish Cheddar and Stout Fondue. A perfect St. Patrick’s Day party dish, this fondue uses Irish cheddar and stout in place of the traditional Gruyère and white wine.

3. Warm German Potato Salad. Try using Guinness for the tangy beer sauce that’s tossed with warm potato slices, fresh herbs, bacon, and hard-boiled eggs in this hearty side dish.

4. Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes. Guinness’s chocolaty-coffee undertones make it a natural fit for chocolate desserts. Here, cupcakes get a flavor boost with the addition of stout, then are finished off with a smooth cream cheese frosting.

5. Welsh Rarebit Bites. Toasted slices of baguette are topped with a melty cheddar, Guinness, and mustard sauce for an easy hors d’oeuvre.

6. Guinness Stout Marinade. Guinness, lime juice, and fresh herbs are blended together for an all-purpose beef marinade.

7. Guinness–Milk Chocolate Ice Cream. This unusual ice cream features the hearty flavor of Guinness blended with creamy milk chocolate and a hint of vanilla.

8. Guinness Pub Burgers. Adding Guinness to these burgers keeps them juicy and enhances their beefiness.

9. Gingerbread with Stout. Stout gives this gingerbread a dark, rich flavor and keeps it from being too sweet.

10. Cheddar Beer Dip with Smoked Sausage. A bubbling cheese dip full of hearty stout and smoked sausage bits, good served with pretzels or cut-up vegetables.

Roxanne Webber is an associate editor at CHOW.

I get this question once in a while, and my answer is usually a little long. I figured I'd just post it here in case anyone was interested!

My sister has to go on a Glutten free diet. I was wondering if u had any recipes that u know are YUMMY. She is dreading this.

Hey ,

There are a few things she should just be aware of going in. Firstly, she is going to be more hungry more often, which might take her off guard. Since she is removing the foods which expand, she isn't going to feel as full as she's used to. The best thing for her to do for this is have high protein snacks around. Protein is the biggest help, I've found. I usually use nuts or rice crackers/cheese, vegetables and peanut butter (but she needs her own jar of PB...the communal jar is contaminated from sandwiches), and hot chocolate (with real milk and syrup. No skimping).

The second most important thing she's going to be battling is her habits. People like to eat what is familiar to them, and when you have to change that drastically, it sucks. She's going to both give up and re-learn eating, and for a while it's a pain in the neck. I'm used to it by now, but for the first few months you're just constantly reminded of what is forbidden, and that gets old fast. Nothing breaded, nothing fried, no doughnuts, no pizza, no regular noodles, no normal hamburgers, no corndogs, no sandwiches. She can give GF bread a shot (tapioca starch/flour makes the best texture), and there are a few brands out there that make really good GF stuff (write these down: Pamelas, Amy's and Namaste are the BEST. Betty Crocker also has GF cookie mix/cake mix/brownie mix which taste normal). But she's going to have to replace these substitutes for what she's used to. That just takes patience, and it takes about 2 or 3 weeks to really get the hang of it.

In terms of meals:

Breakfasts - almost every cereal on the aisle is out. Except for plain Kellogs flakes, and Trix, every single one has wheat. I have yet to find pancakes or waffles that are normal. Oatmeal and oats in general are tricky, because for very sensitive folk, they are highly contaminated and I avoid them. But if it's no big deal, oats "technically" don't grow gluten in them.

Yogurt, fruit, eggs, potatoes, gf muffins (which can be really good with the right brands) are all good substitutes. But, again, the hardest thing she'll be facing is breaking the habits of eating. My mom eats carbs *constantly*. She tried this once, but her habits of toast and pasta are just too hard-wired.

Lunch -

you can wrap anything in lettuce or corn tortillas. Be careful about chips or anything processed or pre-made. Wheat is in darn near everything in the US. I have perfected nachos, since tortilla chips are safe. Just make sure there's a good dose of protien (i.e., beans), otherwise she'll tucker out mid-day.

Dinner-

Rice and potatoes are a very quick and easy way to get starch/filler in dinners. There are brown rice pastas out there, and they taste horrible and turn grey and are squishy. But if you cover them with sauce, they aren't terrible. They cook a little different, so just keep an eye on them. The BEST spaghetti is corn flour spaghetti. They are a little sweet and have a similar texture to normal spaghetti, and I love them. Mexican food is the easiest route to go, because it's well balanced, easily modified to add a bunch of different ingredients in, and GF due to corn tortillas.

Also: for gravies or thickeners, use cornstarch instead of flour. This also means no gravy in restaurants.

I know these aren't "recipes," but I've found you don't really need GF recipes, per se. You just make the meals without the gluten. But have her try around with some of the Pamela's and Namaste mixes. They're the easiest to make, and she'll enjoy having some regular things to eat during this.

If anything, ice cream and chocolate are still gluten free :) (if they don't have brownies/stuff in them).

Cheers,

Tamarah