— Cathy McConnell

Well, I think I may have shared, uh, on a previous, uh, live event that I love grocery stores. And, uh, when I was recently in Italy, I went to grocery stores. And the time my sister and I went to London, I went to every grocery store because I love grocery stores. So a lot of grocery stores nowadays are selling cold bakery and cold fresh produce. So there's a rack at my local grocery store that is a metro rack, and it's about six feet tall, and it's layered with bagged fruit and vegetables that might not be ready for prime time, but certainly would be really good for me, for example, to take that bunch of apples and, um, either bake them, uh, or make applesauce or make a, uh, excuse me, make an apple crisp. And regarding it being gluten-free, I think by now most of us know that Bob's Red Mill is one of the few commercial oatmeals that is also labeled gluten-free because he has two separate processing plants. I have noticed recently, uh, on a trip to Walmart that, uh, Quaker Oats now has a special gluten-free blend, and it's labeled and very, very expensive. So I like Bob's Red Mill, as they say, do what you know. So there's an apple crisp, there's apple puree today at the farm I made a, um, pumpkin chiffon pudding, and all it was was tofu and some maple syrup and, um, tofu, pumpkin and maple syrup essentially, and then some of those spices and just threw it into the food processor. So I think it's looking at things that you know, and things that you like, uh, embracing things that you love to do. And if you have a cookbook that you really love, stick with that cookbook. Or if you're feeling extremely inventive, uh, there are lots of things that you can do. I understand cost being a factor, only buy things on sale if they're gonna be a, a use to you, you can utilize your freezer. I do freeze tofu when it's on sale. Um, there are lots and lots of things that you can do. So, um, I think I take an apple crisp to wherever you are going. And if you are going to make the, uh, crisp part without, uh, oil or a, a margarine or, or whatever, uh, I use, uh, fruit juice to help make those crumbs come together. And it works perfectly well. So have fun at your brunch and, um, let us hear back from you to, uh, see how that went for you.